Saving on Groceries- what do you spend?

[mom-from-missouri]

I am shocked to read everyone's post, and still wondering why we cannot reduce our grocery cost.

We are three adults (me, DH, Au Pair), 2 kids (9 year old, 5 year old), and three babies (all 14 month and eating solid.) I figure that with 5 kids, it is equivalent to about 3 adults' worth of grocery, so I should say we need grocery to feed about 6 adults.

I cook everything from scratch except my husband's lunch, but we still buy chips, juices, and sometimes cookies. Still, I can never lower my grocery bills lower than $1200 per month. I live in the SF bay area, though. Is the grocery more expensive here than other parts of the U.S.? I primarily shop at Trader Joe. Is Trader Joe's expensive?

Each week, we consume about 6 to 7 gallons of milk, about 4 gallons of orange juices, 3 dozens of eggs, at least 1 lb of cheese, 4 to 5 kinds of proteins (chicken, fish, pork, beef, etc, about 1.5 lb each, so the total is about 6lb to 7lb per week) etc, etc,,,. My meals are very simple. Still, I can never go down less than $1200 per month. I really want to reduce it to $1000 per month to start. By the way, my grocery bills do not include paper and cleaning items. It is sorely for foods.

I am wondering if one meatless day per week may help, but I have kids who are growing so I do not want to cut back their nutritions.

I really want to cook better, but I just do not seem enough time to prepare everything. If I pack my DH's lunch, I would save $35 per week, and I know it is big, but still I run out of time every morning.

What kind of ideas helped you cut back grocery fees?

Are you only buying name brand? If so, store brands and some generics taste just as good and are much cheaper.

You don't need meat at every meal. Remember other foods are proteins also and count as meats--such as eggs, peanut butter, beans...

Rice and potatoes are filling and less expensive.

Dont buy junk food, prepared foods...or bottled water.

[osadg]

I spend between $60-$70 a week for 2 adults. (Our budget also includes the misc. things-toilet paper, deodorant, etc.) I cook mostly everything from scratch, and we eat well, but we eat a lot of fresh foods. I actually shop at a local farmers market where I buy all our fruits, veggies, jams, honey, meats, and so much more. I love buying local and we spend only a fraction of the cost that we would at the store, and my weekly trip to the actual store only takes me about a half an hour for a few items we can't purchase at the market.

[whitestripe]

i've read that you put yourself at a greater risk of developing colon cancers if you eat more than 3-4 meat meals per week - i don't think i've EVER eaten meat EVER DAY, in my meat eating days. i always had atleast two meat free days. eating meat every day - that would just make me feel gross.

i grew up as a vegetarian , didn't eat meat til i was about 5 or 6 - and i got all the essential nutrients without taking any vitamin supplements. you just have to have a think about what you're eating. honestly i don't think you have a problem with 'taking essential nutrients' from your children if they have one or two meat free days - unless you are just feeding them white bread. there are nutrients, vitamins, fibre etc in all vegetables, rice, pasta etc.if you're that worried, make something with kidney beans or lentils. it's much much cheaper as well.

as of june this year, i no longer eat meat, but my boyfriend does.
i spend approx $50 a week on groceries - includes toilet paper, laundry liquid, vinegar, bicarb, toothpaste, personal items etc. sometimes it can be a bit more, up to $70 a week, but that's very rare. we eat mostly organic produce, and we both eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. we might have one dine-out meal a week.

probably the cheapest meal that i made this week was pumpkin soup. it had a pumpkin, sweet potato, onion & garlic, i added herbs and spices (nutmeg, cumin, turmeric, sage and marjoram plus salt and pepper). you just boil it all in a pot of water and then blend it when it's cooked.

[Aleta]

About the colon cancer, I think they were advising against eating beef more than 2 or 3 times a week. They didn't mention Chicken, fish, or any other meat.

[whitestripe]

About the colon cancer, I think they were advising against eating beef more than 2 or 3 times a week. They didn't mention Chicken, fish, or any other meat.

i thought i would share this

The people who ate the most red meat in both time periods were 30%-40% more likely to develop cancer in the lower part of the colon, compared to people who ate the least. People who ate the most processed meats were 50% more likely to develop colon cancer and 20% more likely to develop rectal cancer compared to those who ate the least.

So how much meat are we talking about?

For red meat (beef, lamb, pork), the researchers defined "high" consumption as 3 or more ounces per day for men -- or about the amount of meat in a large fast-food hamburger. For women the "high" amount was 2 or more ounces per day. For processed meat (bacon, sausage, hot dogs, ham, cold cuts) "high" consumption was 1 ounce eaten 5 or 6 days per week for men, and 2 or 3 days per week for women. A slice of bologna weighs about 1 ounce; 2 slices of cooked bacon weigh a little more than half an ounce.

A person who eats red meat a couple of times a week would have been in the lowest consumption group in the study, Thun said.

Eating poultry and fish did not raise the risk of colon cancer. In fact, people who ate more poultry and fish than red meat were less likely to develop the disease.

[Judi Dial]

About a year ago, I added up for fun our grocery receipts and restaurant receipts for a month...it was around $700! (Ouch!)

So, I looked at the receipts and figured out what we could reasonably save money on. The first thing was restaurants, so we rarely go out now. Then, I kept saving my receipts and read them and figured out we spent a LOT of money on books & magazines at the store, so we (mostly) stopped that too. That left us with just food, paper goods, etc. and we were spending about $400 a month.

After reading Barbara Salsbury's Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half and a few other things, I decided that with careful stockpiling (Ms. Salsbury calls it the "Pantry Principal") I could probably cut this down some more, and I have. On payday weeks, I spend $100, non payday weeks, I spend $50.

We get our veggies when we can from a farm stand, our bread from a small bakery, not only is the quality better, but frequently it's cheaper than the supermarket. That leaves us (spring, summer, & early fall) with canned goods, meat, paper, etc. to get from the grocery.

This all takes planning and some time, but I figure I'm feeding two adults now on half (or less) of what we were spending previously, so it's really easy to justify the time I spend. Without it, we were spending $500 a month more or $6000 a year! It's not a great salary, but it's certainly worth doing!

Rather than give you a dollar figure, I'd recommend you do what I did. Track your food expenses for one month, then look and see what you can eliminate easily, adjust to that, then do it again.

Also, I'd recommend the Cheap, Fast, Good cookbook if you don't know it.

jkd

[snafu]

grocery $$$

Hi shibafu: Try shopping the perimeter of your grocery store where they keep the 'real' food and avoid the center sections. You can stretch your $$ for meat by making casseroles so that meat is only one of the ingredients. There are tons of recipes Cooks.com - Recipe Search and More
Can you experiement with one meatless day ea. week? Soup & grilled cheese sandwich supported with salad for example. Using powdered milk for cooking & baking cuts costs and is undetectable. I mix powdered milk with 2% milk and no one can tell the difference. Of course they don't see me do it because I know that would cause a fuss.

This fall I've been experimenting with tofu which is healthier than meat. I had mixed results since tofu takes on the flavor of anything it encounters. If I make strong tasting sauces and cut tofu into bite sized chunks it's fine. I've called it 'fish' ...like the fake crab and as long as I give the dish a fanciful name...everyone seems to enjoy it.

[Johansen8]

now I'm getting good real life ideas

[minnie1928]

Shibafu:

I don't shop at TJs, so I can't really speak to their prices. However, here are some things that I think what would help you:
1. Stockpile things when they are on sale. If that means buying a freezer, in your case, it would probably be worth it.
2. Water down the juice. It's a lot of sugar that the kids don't need anyway.
3. If you are using whole milk, why not look at the lower fat varieties? They are usually cheaper. For my family I buy both 2% and Fat Free which are consistently cheaper than whole (better for my waistline too ).
4. If you go somewhere other than TJs, start couponing or buying generic brands. If you start couponing and need additional coupons try The Coupon Master to get more coupons cheaply. I recently ordered 30 coupons for free toilet paper for .12 each. Now that's cheap toilet paper!
5. Supplement the meat meals with beans, pasta, potatoes, etc. If you are already doing that, then decrease the meat size and increase the other portions.
6. I've for the most part eliminated beef from our diet (due to my cholesterol ). I've been buying more ground turkey and ground chicken breast instead and it's usually much cheaper than beef.
7. I think you said that your grocery budget is for only food so this is slightly off topic, but if you have a CVS or Walgreens nearby you can get many of your toiletries there for next to nothing. Go to Hot Coupon World to get more detailed information on how to do this. I couldn't tell you the last time I paid more than 25 cents for toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, bodywash, etc.. In fact most of the time I get these things for free or occasionally they pay me!

[jamiefic]

Last month I spent $200 total on everything! I was thrilled. That was for me, my husband and our 1 1/2 year old daughter. We didn't eat out at all and pack lunches or eat lunches at home. Plus, it included toiletries and diapers for our daughter! That was what made the $200 even better. This month it went up a bit due to having some friends in town and stuff, but I'm shooting for $200 a month for everything since we are on a tight budget with my husband going to grad school and stuff (and buying diapers since we just switched from cloth). I offer some free info on my blog (sign up on the right side) that might be helpful as far as meal planning goes. I love meal planning!

[MaskedMarvel]

I spend something like close to 250$ a month. Here's a list on how to save at the groceries from my money sharp blog.

# Don't do the grocery when you're hungry: You'll end up buying things you don't need.
# Check the flier for sales before going.
# Look for coupons: On the yogurt we buy there's often a discount on the next purchase.
# More doesn't always mean cheaper: I've seen bigger items that was the same price and same quantity as 2 smaller items. If you don't need the bigger one there's no advantage to buy it.
# Always use a list: With a list you can concentrate more on what you really need and save money buy not buying things you don't need.
# Avoid pre-made meals: They contain a lot of salt and fat. Would be cheaper if you do it yourself and better for you.
# Buy in bulks: Sometimes you'll see items in bulk. When we buy spaghetti sauce, sometimes they come in a pack of 3
# 2 for $5 trick: You don't need to buy 2, you can buy 1 at the price of $2.50.
# Store brand: Try some store bands, they're cheaper but watch out for quality.
# Check receipt: Sometimes the system is not updated or the cashier made a mistake.

[Judi Dial]

Another thing...

Sorry, I do this, but didnt' think of it when I wrote the previous post! Try using mygrocerydeals dot com. Find your local markets that are reasonable for you to get to, select those as your markets, then don't browse the ads by market, browse by CATEGORY. If you do this, you can see that market A has ground round for $2.50 a lb, market B has it 10 lbs for $20, and market C has it for $2.89 a lb. The site will build you a shopping list that includes all the markets, sorted by market, so you go to market A and get their loss leaders/specials , market B and do the same thing. ONE shopping list, multiple markets. It also gives you a total for your whole list.

I find it really useful, but it does have its problems. The two biggest are:

I think their people must be real dumb about produce or something. Things happen like this: photo supplied to illustrate Jerusalem Artichokes are globe artichokes. As I do know produce and I'm almost always in a hurry, I have more than once selected a special based on the image and the price, only to get to the market and find that the special is not what I wanted.

Otherwise, the worst problem I have with the site is that items that are say 10/$10 are put on your list that way. It adds $10 to your total,and I usually only buy 1-3 of an item!

IHTH!

JD

[PetMom]

I think where you shop has a definite effect on price - down here we have Whole Foods and I loved it when we blissfully purchased our groceries there last year- even then it was $200.00 (counting some toiletries). I love the organic/pure stuff - but this did not last very long at all. That much for a couple is ridiculous. No kitchen paper products other than a yearly purchase of paper napkins (for company only - we use our sleeves).

Now we are at Wal Mart and I have been teeth gritting determined to get out weekly total below $100.00 and it has just become almost impossible.
We shop Sams every month also for about $30.00 per visit and an every other month 20.00 visit at a Health Food store for Dr. Bronner's soap that I use for cleaning and dishwashing. I make my homemade cleaning products.

You really have to go through almost every food (and nonfood) expense.

I need to get into shopping the loss leaders more, maybe couponing.

I have been using garden herbs such as basil for 'lettuce' in my sandwich, chives for onions (onions have really gone up in price). I am even perusing the dandeloin weeds in my front yard - I picked one but did not eat it - I gotta make sure it really is a dandelion.

We have started having more pasta from Sam's meals. I am getting my husband to cut back on meat - and his sometimes expensive grilling hobby.
I eat meat maybe once a week. I have cut way back on my frozen fake meats.

We used to host a lot of outdoor grilling get togethers last year - we cut that out and saved easily $400.00 this past spring and summer.

I do know food costs have gone up.

Thank you to the above poster who listed a free grocery deals website!

[Fern]

I live alone, most times bring my lunch to work, rarely buy meat and include toiletries and cat food in my food expenses. I probably average about $200 a month for 1 person.

[Goldy1]

I am kind of a "foodie" so I tend to keep the fidge stocked but most of my stuff is bought on sale. I also am a coupon freak. Shot me if I have to eat bad cheap food.