Thread: how often do you grocery shop? and how much do you spend?

Having everyone post how much they spend doesn't do much because depending on where you live you could be eating well or just barely eating. It may sound like $500 is a lot to some people but others that's covering bare minimums.

We do the pantry stocking idea. I keep a price book (not religiously I could be better) and write down the sale prices we normally get every few weeks. I check out all the ads and see what's on sale and if it's really a good deal then I buy bulk. That's how I've been stocking up. It takes a while to do this method but when you do it for a few months it's nice to see you always have something to eat. When we want a meal I just look into the pantry and make something from there or plan menus from the pantry food.

We try to cook a lot from scratch so buying bulk flour, sugar etc. works for us. Summer roadside fruit and vegetable stands have some good deals. Farmer's Markets are a good place to find organic things. Around here we have a Canned Grocery Outlet where I find good deals too. Just got Vitasoy for 99 cents, cheapest I've seen.

We've been doing this for a few months now and I like it

Currently we shop in 3 places: our local Acme or SuperFresh for most things, our Fresh Fields for specialty/veggie things, and our produce market for all produce. I hit Acme/SF about once every 7-10 days, FF once every 10 days, and the produce market about 2x per week. We spend about $80 at Acme/SF, about $40 at FF, and about $15/wk at the produce market. We don't eat out at all. So, our monthly food bill is around $420. This includes toiletries, cat food/litter for our 3 felines, laundry detergents, plastic trash and food storage bags, etc. We have 3 people in our family and we don't eat any meat.

I am working on menu planning (huge weakness for me). I'm also trying to stop buying prepared foods like breads, crackers, cereal bars, etc. -- that alone could cut out about $15 per week I'm sure...it seems like we go through 3 loaves of bread per week, 2 boxes of cereal bars per week, etc.

My bill went up a bit since I stopped shopping at any of the X-mart stores. I used to buy things like trash bags, cat litter, cat food, laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc. there...but now am buying it at my grocery store. It's much more expensive there, even when I buy generics, or on sale w/ coupon.

I'd like to get down to about $350 per month and use the savings for a date night once or twice a month.

Tara

Originally posted by hippiemama
i spend $125 a week plus extra trips for more milk, produce and stuff. this doesn't include gas $ or dh's cigarettes or stops at circle K for coffee and a donut. this is a SAVINGS for us to be down to $500 a month. So i need more tips.

Barb, we just moved from Phoenix a year or two ago and I know of a great deal there! We used it and it was incredible. Go to http://www.smfb.org/programs.htm and look at the FoodCare and Cash and Carry programs. It's not a welfare thing--not even based on income. You just show up at St. Mary's distribution building at the listed times, go in and pay, and get TONS of food! I mean TONS! I believe it's $10 for a meat box and $15 for a regular box (all kinds of foods, drinks, and fresh produce). You can get as many boxes of each as you want--no limits. They even gave bags of candy or other treats out to the kids for free sometimes.

Give them a call to double check the times and location (I remember it was on the west side but not way out). Hope this helps you some! Oh, while you're paying, you can see what they're giving that week so you can decide how many you want then.

Hope this helps!

**Editing to let you know that the above thing is once or twice a week, not a monthly thing.

**Also editing cuz I might as well answer the original poster's question. LOL

I shop once a week and spend $80-100 a week for the 5 of us (and we're all PIGS! LOL), including toiletries, dog food, books, clothes, sewing supplies, you name it! LOL Some weeks, I'm only able to get the food and no extras and, other weeks, I squeeze in the miscellaneous stuff. Before I got pregnant this time, I was spending $30-50 a week (but not near as much of the miscellaneous stuff). Now, I'm just a lazy bum, it's hot, humid, and miserable, so I end up buying a lot more convenience foods.

diane

I shop once a month and spend about $250-$300 a month. I do not buy milk, we have our own milking goat. I shop for bread at the bread thrift shop. Buy enough bread for two months w/ $20. Also some treats as well. We are feeding 7 plus a bun in the oven, LOL.

We're at about $400 a month for all out of pocket expenses, including gas, toiletries, herbs, etc. Probably $300 of that is food. We buy mostly organic. I'd like to get down to $200-250 but don't see getting below that. We're feeding four. Jake is 2 but eats more than our 4 yo.

We are feeding a family of 5 on about 350 a month. (us dollars).
I shop once a month for main groceries and then every other week for fresh fruits and veggies if there is a special. I buy powdered milk, so I can buy it in bulk and I freeze the 9 grain bread I get from the bakery outlet for .50 a loaf.
I just got 5 qts of blueberries for 3.50 because we picked them ourselves! Entertainment and groceries all in one!LOL
We don't do menus, I just keep certain things on hand that I need to make most of my recipes with and fill in with whatever I find that is really cheap. We don't do most beverages other than tea and water, not a lot of snacks or prepared foods, and I cook a lot of meals that I can freeze. Our big downfall is dining out. We are bad with that one because we like to go out driving and get hungry. I am going to start packing lunches to eat when we get hungry!
It helps that we get paid once a month instead of each week, more money to spend on buying in bulk.
Christina

Originally posted by bluedaisy

I also have a pressure cooker, so I use dried beans.

Can you tell me how to do this? Thanks to you ladies, I have just figured out how to slow cook beans. I have always thought that I couldn't afford "health food store" food. But I went today, & bought out of the bulk bins and the stuff costs nothing. Instead of $.25 a tea bag; the bulk tea is like $.01/ cup. And I got some TVP or TPV (?) can anyone tell me what I need to do to this prior to using it. Can I do whatever I need to do & then freeze it to use quickly later?

Back to the topic at hand, we spend @$800/ mo for 2 adults, 2 kids & 1 toddler. But now that dh is at home, he cooks every night so I am hoping that will minimize our spending. He has made a meal plan for the week & is making the weekly shopping spree. This week he spent $135. Which is a start in the right direction. I would like to get down to $100/wk. I can't imagine $100/mo. But I think Cami is right it depends on where you live.

Anyhoo....

I agree, it totally depends on where you live, and how you eat. I mean you can get white bread here for like .99 a loaf, but whole wheat is $2.50 or more for the WHOLE wheat, the real wheat. And buying generic canned soup or making your own healthier one.....or generic hot dogs versus veggie dogs.....HUGE price diff. Kwim? )0: Makes me sad that we can buy the cheapo, unhealthy stuff for cheaper. )o:

We live in Texas (super low cost of living here) and we spend just about $300 a month for groceries including toiletries, disposible diapers and wipes and detergent, etc. It doesn't include the $$ we spend eating out, which we admittedly do alot.

That has us eating quite well, and I don't do sale flyers or coupons (though I would if I could just get the hang of it).

I'd actually like to see us spending a bit more on groceries...actually just taking the other $100-150 a month that we spend in restaurants and delis and putting it into groceries.

yeah i think it does depend where you live. because i went through and bought bare minimums to make it through the week with our menu.. no extras... and i still spent $70. And i buy the store brand if its available. but again, i live in las vegas, LOL the town where they try to make it cheaper to just go to a casino to eat

tiff

Originally posted by girlwomangoddess
yeah i think it does depend where you live. because i went through and bought bare minimums to make it through the week with our menu.. no extras... and i still spent $70. And i buy the store brand if its available. but again, i live in las vegas, LOL the town where they try to make it cheaper to just go to a casino to eat

tiff

I was thinking about this, but I guess it's not always the case. Maybe more what we eat. I think our bill is so low since we eat a lot of foods that are regional. Latin foods are the cheapest here and they are the ones we buy. Miami has one of the highest costs of living in the country, but we still get buy very cheaply on food.

I spend $120 per month on groceries and that doesn't include toiletries, cleaning stuff or non-food items. I live in a fairly expensive area- the Washington DC metro area, but there are good sales and an excellent no-frills supermarket.

Originally posted by Surfer Girl

If you want to ask me how I can break it down and include all my logic on tightwad grocery shopping I can but it may be a really long post!

I also do the meal plans , but for the whole month, including b'fast, lunches, snacks, toiletries.

Id love to hear some of your tips and what your meal plan is like when you have time Erin!

We live in Texas, and the cost of living *is* cheaper here, but we still spend around $500.00/mo on groceries. We go once a week to the grocery store and we go to Wholefoods market quite often for organic produce and other organic items, that adds up fast! I buy store brands at the grocery store mostly. I don't clip coupons, I guess I should start doing that. I would love to lower our grocery bill, but don't want to feel "deprived". Food is our one luxury!

I spend about $100 a week for our family of 6. This includes paper products and cleaning supplies.