:monkeydan Post what you normally spend per month (or week, etc.) or what you've been spending recently and what your goal is. Edit as you spend and keep a running tally!

Tonight Dave got paid and I spent about $100 on groceries to stock us up for the first half of August. (He is paid the 15th and 31st of the month.) We should be okay with what we have on hand and only have to get perishables like produce and milk until then, which is usually only about $20. My goal is to not spend more than $150 per paycheque on food, so around $300 a month. We haven't spent much lately because we couldn't and so this is about average that we spend under $100 a week.

Kerri

My goal is $240 for the month. We've been overshooting that lately by... a lot. LOL We also have special needs/supplements to take care of.

ETA: I've printed out all of the Hillybilly Housewife $45 and $70 menu lists and revised them for my family's needs. I am going to see if I can adapt this to my family without costing a fortune. It should work out well since we generally eat many items similar and there are some meals on there that seem far too large to me.

8/3 Spent just under $31.
8/8 Spent under $17

Both trips so far have included non-necessary items from the clearance section. DH's fav organic maple syrup was clearanced out so we picked up a few, this time there were canned tomatoes and canned black beans in the clearance section so we picked up eight cans of those. The first trip also included cranberry juice and a pound of free-range meat.


8/10 Went in for chix, came out w/$48 in groceries.
While I am slightly bummed out about it I am still waaaay under my budget. I stopped by the clearance section and they had powdered milk ($13of the $48), canned tomatoes and beans, condiments (I purchased these for when we move, to restock the new fridge) and a couple of organic/healthy snack ideas for our move so that we don't have to stop at fast food places. I'm trying to make our adjustment as cheap and healthy as possible, so we don't have excuses to run out for Subway or to the yummy Mexican food restaurant down the street. :smirk:

8/16 $62
More stocking up in the clearance section. :o Also included meat.

Late month: $107 $50+ in cranberry juice and bottled water for a very, very nasty kidney stone. :eek: A week after passing and I can still feel where it was "stuck" youch.

Running Total: $265

I'm in! My goal is $400 this month. I take out $100 every Friday in cash. Lately I've been running out of cash and using my check card at the store. So I need to do this. I'm down 1 child this week so that cuts it back.

8/3 Spent $37
8/8 Spent $49
8/9 Spent $30.32
8/10 Spent $50

my goal is always $60/week or $240 for the month. i usually stick pretty close to it.

My goal was/is $350 for the month. We are a family of four. I just did a big shopping trip to Sam's and Wal-mart ( I know, some consider them evil- but it's all we have here). I spent $270. I should only have to stock up on fresh items the rest of the month and I do that once a week.

Tawnya

I was up over $100 a week a few months ago. (Probably averaging $120 per week). Over the last month I've kept it around $75 a week (sometimes less) I don't know if I can knock anymore off that as my husband eats a metric ton of food everyday and dd is no slouch herself. ;) I think I will try to keep it at $75 a week this month and look for ways to lower it if I can find them.

I've been averaging $175/week. I'd like to get it lower than that. I need to sit down and really menu plan. But $175 is b/l/d x 4 x 7days. So, I don't feel so bad. Plus, my kids snack and usually have friends over that snack.

For this month I am trying not to spend more than $150/check - $300/month
on food/toiletries. I went crazy spending $ while PG & now we are paying for it... This month that means giving up organic & relying on coupons & buying lots of cereals/convenience foods since I am a mess after giving birth (too lightheaded to stand/cook, pelvis out of whack so I cant even walk to the kitchen!) & need to rely on dh (who is clueless).

I dont think we'll have a problem sticking to budget - our money is all spent for the immediate future, we have no choice! LOL Sadly, my kids love it when we eat like this..... dh too! they will only miss eating out.

edited to add - we are a family of 7, but youngest is a newborn. :)

edited again to add - we probably spend over $1,000.00/month usually. I wasn't up to cooking or much of anything else this pg. :(

spent $150. We are good to go - dh gets paid again friday :) planning to spend quite a bit at the farmers market with that grocery $ since we stocked up on other stuff this check :)

I usually very easily spend over $600 and probably closer to $700 a month for our family of 5. I am hoping to bring that down to $500. I need to start tracking our food spending more but it is difficult because we buy from two stores, 2 farms and a co-op (I always forget to budget for the co-op).

In that $500 I want to include all toiletries and dog food as well.

My goal this month is somewhere between $500-600. It sounds so crazy compared to what everyone is writing here ;) But I'm in a very expensive area, we are gluten-free/egg-free, and I will not sacrifice fresh fruit and vegetables. I've been shopping already this month, but I don't remember my total, so I'll have to update later (when I feel like getting up ;) )

Well, my grocery budget is $150 a month (we buy a quarter cow at least once a year so I buy very little meat on a monthly basis - my aunts who babysit are also always bringing us food so that helps keep the budget low as well) but I already blew it for the month and it's only the 4th! I had some extra money from some odd jobs I did and took an extra shopping trip on Wed. Normally, I figure out how much everything will cost in advance so I stay in budget. However, our grocery store was having a BOGO sale and didn't have prices listed, and I really underestimated some items. I also have a couple recipes I wanted to try, and some of the ingredients ended up being pretty expensive. So I spent $107 which is a whole lot for me in one shopping trip. At least the money came from the extra cash I had, but still, I had other plans for that money!:shake:

Edited to add a monthly tally:

8/2/2006: $107 big shopping trip
8/3/2006: around $20 at Farmer's Market
8/7/2006: $1.67 for Romaine because someone turned down the temp in the fridge and froze what I bought at the Farmer's Market. :(
8/8/2006: $5.61 cheese
8/11/2006: $99 - bi-weekly shopping trip - about $77 for groceries, the rest were school supplies
8/16/2006: $5 and some change for kielbasa for dinner
8/18/2006: $9.81 for more cheese (yes, we eat a lot of cheese)
8/19/2006: probably $10 for bread, eggs, milk

My budget is 600 a month for food, I always go over though, if we eat out much it can go WAY over :drop: School starts back the 17th of this month and my teens school lunches run $80 a month ($2 per kid per day!) I pack lunches for the two little ones. I'm shooting for $700 including their lunches and any going out/take out. I'm trying to get motivated and menu plan. I would like to redirect the money we've spent eating out to buying even more fresh fruit etc. . I do keep a stocked pantry/freezer, we don't eat up all the food each week. So though I spend a lot, I buy sale items and stock up...we could eat out of the reserves for several weeks if needed.

Everytime I read one of these threads I remember when it was just dh and I, with my two teens who were 4 and 6 then,and we only spent $70 a week and ate really well :p And I made them eat at school because they had lunches free. Times change...more money, more out.
Anne

Well, I guess that I need this because things have gotten out of hand financially speaking.

Normally, I probably spend between $600-$800/month

My goal for August is no more than $300.

Dh isn't going to like it but he's the reason why I have to cut it back so too bad for him.

8/6 - spent $100 yesterday, but that was to do 11 make-ahead meals for a cooking group. So, I will get at least 11 meals this month with that which comes out to about $9.00 per meal. Pretty good for me.

8/12 - spent $100 at Costco on bulk stuff

8/15 - spent $22 on produce

My goal is $500 for the month including all tolietries, cleaning and office supplies. I will try and squeeze in some fabric for clothing as well.

My goal is just to watch what we spend. Posting it here will help me stay accountable. I think we spend about $5-700 right now, including toiletries/dog food/convenience store items/eating out. I just want to get it lower; I have to save for wood and winter tires and pay down our small credit card debt.

I'm waiting for my checking page to come up and will edit with what we've spent so far this month.

8/1 $53 on food
8/3 $16 breakfast out while traveling
8/4 $80 on two meals out with dh, not going to count this toward our budget since we so rarely do this, but want to record it

I made my first trip to the store a couple days ago and spent $54. I am hoping to come back and add to this thread each time I go to the store to help me keep track of my monthly tally.

In the past, we used to spend close to $800-900 per month on food/toiletries/etc. I've been couponing like a crazy woman and cutting back on things, so I'm hoping to keep out grocery budget down to $500 per month (that's for 4 adults--my parents eat dinner with us each night and 3 children with large appetites.....plus snacks for two daycare kids that I keep).

So far this month:
8/4: $80
8/4 $34
8/5 $18 (found out we're having company for dinner tomorrow and needed a few things to round out the meal!)
8/6 $7 (had to pick up milk and some veggies on our way home from church)
8/7 $50 (monthly BJ's trip for milk, coffee, and a few other items---this also includes $11 that I spent on a duck Halloween costume for my youngest dd).
8/8 $12...ran out of lime juice and spices that we needed for dinner....plus I wanted to pick up a few things that were on sale (BOGO) before the sales change on Wed.
8/11 $70 this included paper products and some food for two birthday parties this weekend, as well as some needed staples for the pantry(ds's 5th birthday and dh's 30th). I think these two parties are going to blow our budget for the month (despite the fact that we're trying to be frugal about having the parties!)
8/17 $130 groceries, diapers, etc.


Yes, I realize I've gone to grocery every day this week.....very unusual for us....but we have been eating every meal at home, so we're going thru more than usual! Plus, I have been stopping at the grocery when we're already in town for other things (like the bank, gas, library, etc.), so we're not making an extra trip!

I try to spend under $60 a week. After the baby was born we've been working more on eating what's in the house not to mention I don't want a full freezer through the worst of hurricane season. During Rita we lost power for 6 days and the heat was over 100 a lot of that time.

Today I went grocery shopping and spent $42. Actual groceries cost $6 though(water and salt) LOL I also bought diapers(I use one disposable diaper at night so this $20 worth will last until he's out of size 3) and the kids each got something for their bike plus a toy for the baby too.

I went on a shoe shopping spree so I need to pay for that instead...skechers.com has half off sandals and free shipping right now so how could I say no? The kids and I have sandals for next year now...I also have to buy my husband another pair of duty boots. Those will cost the same as the 8 pair I bought from skechers. :eek:

This week I'll pay for angel food which will be $61.

Just a bump to keep this in sight and make it easier to remember to update throughout the month!

Okay, I spent $30 last week on extra stuff like fruit, milk, and diapers. So I'm now at about $130 for the month. Still on track, I think.

Kerri

8/6 $42
8/9 $52 Sams + $8 to eat there
8/10 $61 angel food
8/10 $8 Taco Bell
$171 so far...way over budget but doing a small trip this week and next so hopefully will get back in budget for the month.
8/21-$208
8/28 spent $60 at Walmart, $10 at Kroger and $8 eating out...total of $286
$46 over budget...

How is everyone doing? :monkeydan

Doing good here. Only spent $17 this week and won't be going to the store again until Monday=) So $188 of a $240 budget.:rainbow:

Editing to update...
Went grocery shopping for the week today(8-21) and spent $17 again. So $205 and only one more grocery trip to go. My daughter and I also ran by Taco Bell and that was under $3. So $208.

I did another big shop tonight. $111 and we're probably all stocked up 'til the end of the month. So that's what? Under $250. Cool.

Kerri

I've been avoiding this thread because we seem to spend a lot on groceries and I don't really want to address the issue. I think we spend $600-$700/per month, typically. Thats for a family of 6 (no teenagers yet, though, oldest child is 10).

I don't count going out to eat as part of our food budget. I count it as entertainment.

I might be able to get grocery spending down to $100/week.

Yeah, that can be my goal.

I haven't been budgeting lately. Maybe this will help me get back into the swing of it.

Oh man! I spend another $40 today on food. But, it was all screaming good deals on staples that we use and can stock up on. Like whole chickens for 69 cents a pound! Butter for $1.98 a pound! Eggs for 79 cents a dozen, etc. So, we're still on budget and have a stuffed fridge and freezer. LOL.

Kerri

Please please do this again in Oct. Our budgeting for food is through the roof right now becuase we have been buying peaches, and cherries, and other stuff to can. lol... so our budget is very NOT normal. Just last week I dropped $38 on beans and then $54 on peaches. lol... they will save us SO much in the end, but Aug and Sept are like the WORST time for me to be involved in a grocery challange. ;)

Val

Please please do this again in Oct. but Aug and Sept are like the WORST time for me to be involved in a grocery challange. ;)

Val


For us, August and September are the worst for grocery/entertainment budgets b/c we have so many birthdays in our family during those months. Last week, we had three days IN A ROW--my ds, my dh, and my mom. In September, we have my neice, my oldest dd, one of my grandma's and my great-aunt.

well, I'm about $100 over. i figured wrong & we had more money than i thought . I've been battling bad anemia since my dd's birth a month ago so dh bought some supplements, veggie sushi & greens for me. then dd went to drivers ed in a bad part of town so rather than have her wander around for lunch hour or left in the room alone, dh brought her to lunch those days. Then we went to the farmers market this week. i only wish i had bought more lol. I'm soooo desperate for more chard!!!! if only i had time to plant some!!!

so,ummm....I'll be spending more this week at the market.... theres always next month right? lol

edited to add: we actually did way better than usual, which is great! And I think I'm actually going to up my grocery spending limit next month by $100- we'll see. ;)

I spent another $25 on fresh produce but I got a ton! Like 25 pounds peaches, 50 pounds potatoes, plus bananas, tomatoes, nectarines, 3 cantaloupe!

So in the end I think we spent about $310 for the month of August. We did it and only went 10 over! Plus the last little bit (that put us over) is food that I preserved or will store and be used over the next couple of months.

Kerri