Budget of a family of 5

[mom-from-missouri]

Originally Posted by Nikki Sixx

How do you people do it? We are a family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers. We eat healthy we all are very active with sports and the gym...so we watch what we eat. On average we spend at least 1100 per month at the grocery store and I consider that doing good.

Ouch. $1100? Thats more than our mortgage! Really, its easy.

Do you buy junk food?? We buy no soda, chips...... (We do like to make our own potato chips though, by slicing and frying potatoes). We eat a lot of popcorn (bulk purchased) and popped in an old fashioned popper, not microwaved.

We cook from scratch. To me, cooking from scratch means boiling & mashing my own potatoes--not using a box of instant potatoes. We do not buy parepared foods. Oatmeal in our house is in a big round can, not individual microwave bags.

We do not normally buy name brand.

We bake our own bread--sometimes from scratch, sometimes the Always Save frozen loaves of dough (5 for $2.98). Just one loaf of bread at our grocery store is over $3. That saves us a HUGE amount each month.

I do not buy cleaners and paper products at the grocery store. You pay higher prices and why put them on your food bill when they are not food?

[mom-from-missouri]

Why don't some of you who are having trouble getting your grocery bill down post your last grocery store purchase on here?? Then some of us can "pick" through it.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Here's an example list for me

Green Peppers .81 lb @ .98./lb = .79
Maille Mustard $3.39
Red Peppers 1.42 lb @ 1.98/lb = 2.81
Yellow Onions 1.47 lb @ .59/lb = .87
Strawberries Qt = $3.98
Broccoli 1.54 lb @ 1.49/lb = 2.29
Carrots 1.75 lb @ 0.49/lb = .86
tangerine .37 lb @ 1.49/lb = .55
Lemon 2 @ $1/2 = $1
Dried Kiwi $2.94
Butternut squash 1.34 lb @ 1.99/lb = $2.57
celery hearts $2.49
Baby Bok Choy 2.25 lbs @ .99/lb = $2.25
Scallions 1 @ .90/2 = .45
Curry Blocks 3 @ 2.19 = $6.57
Panko (bread crumbs) 2 @ 2.29 = $4.48
Coconut Milk 2 @ .79 = 1.58
Coconut Milk 1 @ .89 = .89
Szechuan Peppers 2 @ .89 = 1.78
1 gallon milk $4.39
1 qt Heavy Cream $4.29
Flour Tortillas $2.29
Ginger .11 lb @ 1.99/lb = .22
turnip 1 lb @ .69/lb = .69
white potatoes 1.59 @ .79/lb = 1.26

I even put price per pound if it helps and I shop sales and no organic to see if I can get it cheaper because we have 3 adults eating now.

[leggzz66]

staying away from junk food isles and growing some of ur own faves, will save loads. I hope to even get a lemon tree in this next growing season. I have 2 apple trees and a cherry plum, but the apples, oy! i need a new treatment for those, they stay crabapple like and its one red and one golden. We do grow watermelon, and that saves a ton! an organic one at a street vender, half the size of a regular melon, was 5 dollars. my next growing ventures is diff colored bells. I grow yellow and green onions too. Youd be suprised how much it saves, start small with indoor containers and do it year round even. Takes patience, but ends up worth the wait, you know u grew it and what it grew in as well.

[shelbylovesmelby]

The key for us is to buy the majority of our groceries @ Aldi's or similar & we only go to a regular grocery store for meat, big sales, & things Aldi's doesn't carry.

I think we average $40-60 a week for the 5 of us however... my oldest dc is 5 so once they get older I'm sure that'll make a differance + growth spurts.

The only time my bill is huge (pushing 100) is holidays or I'm stocking up on meat that week.