How much do your groceries cost? and more questions...

[lupineperriwink]

I have decided that we really need to trim our grocery bill. I know that we buy far too many prepared foods (my husband does I should say) and each week our bill just goes up and up. We don't buy everything organic but quite a few items. So, what is the norm? It's only 3 of us now and the new baby won't have much of an impact.
Also, and this may have been posted before, but what types of meals do you typically cook? Enough for one night or for leftovers too? I am home during the day with Maya and my husband gets a free lunch every day (as well as a cold breakfast) at work so I need to feed Maya and I 3 meals a day.
I know this may sound funny, but we always shop together for groceries (yup, almost 10 years worth) but I am hoping that I can start shopping on my own, do some meal planning and cut the costs.

[mamarina]

Not sure if it is available to you, but I started shopping online, and it saves me a ton. I go through albertsons.com and they always send me coupons, and with that discount the delivery is usually free.

I am able to do side by side comparisons of products, prices, and sales. I get only what I need, not what I want when I am there.

Generally I plan meals, and then write down the ingredients I need, and go from there. I just got 10 days worth of groceries, including breakfast, lunch and snacks for $100, and we have the same family set up as you (except Paul needs lunches and I make enough dinner so he can take leftovers).

[Momof6]

Our grocery bill is a lot higher now that we went vegetarian and organic (when possible). I mean a lot higher. *lol* The middle of Wyoming is not a area where vegies/fruits and organic anything is cheaply or readily available.....so we pay for it.

We are a family of eight. I hardly ever use convenience foods and cook daily. When I make a soup that I know we like, I will double the batch for leftovers (school lunches) or put it in the freezer.

We do have soup night once a week since that is a cheap meal.

We also have pizza night on Fridays. (I make them)

Tonight we are having portobello mushroom sandwiches which is a treat since those things are $5 a pound here. (for non-organic ones)


We spend about $1200 a month on groceries.

We hardly ever eat out. Only when we are traveling to see medical doctors...and not always for every meal. (I will often pack a cooler to cut down on costs)

The only "convenience" food that I'd even call that would be the times I use canned beans instead of dried beans. Sometimes I just don't have time to rinse, soak, and cook the dried beans and canned are so much easier.

I plan our menue a week at a time.

Michelle

[boyfactory]

We spend about $250 per month on groceries and we eat well. I buy organic about 1/3 of the time. I only buy things on sale and only in season.

I have limits on how much I will spend on things.

Bone-in chicken breasts $.99/lb
Boneless chicken breasts $1.99/lb
Boneless pork loin $1.99/lb
Shrimp 41-60 ct $4.99/lb
Salmon $3.99/lb @ Costco
T-bones $4.99/lb
Ground chuck $1.49/lb
Whole chicken $.49/lb (for soup, dumplings, noodles, etc.)
And, don't forget to stock up when it is on sale!

Veggies I won't pay more than $.99/lb. I buy whatever is in season or cheap. The last two weeks it has been asparagas, zucchini, and broccoli. We eat rice or pasta with just about every meal.

I love food and we cook here at home almost every night. I think we go out to dinner once a month or so. We eat bagels, hot or cold cereal for breakfast. Cold cereals, I won't pay more than $1.99/box (unless it is my big box of shredded oat squares at Trader Joes).

There are five of us to feed. I pack lunch every day for the boys and myself. Dh & I usually take whatever leftovers are in the fridge or sometimes we will buy some deli meat.

I forgot to say, I love coupons!!!

[byumommy]

I spend about $150 a month on the 3 of us (6 yr old, 5 yr old & myself ---- granted my exH eats alot of my food while he watches the boys). This includes ALL meals with the exception of the 2-4 fast food trips per month.

$25 of the $150 is for 2 hot hot lunches per week & milk everyday for my 6 yr old at school

I cook from scratch ... here are some examples ...

sauce from tomato paste, garlic, EVO & spices
very little meat (i.e. 2 split breasts for chicken soup, beans in the crockpot with a little sausage for taste ... both last for MANY meals via freezing)
homemade mac & cheese made with whole wheat pasta
eggs & bacon for dinner
french toast for dinner
cold cereal bought on sale for breakfast
organic oatmeal in bulk (85 cents/lb) for breakfast or sometimes dinner for me
bagels bought from the Pepperidge Farm outlet for breakfast (frozen in bags of 2)
whole grain bread also from the Pepperidge Farm outlet (b1g1f - freeze 1 or 2 loaves)

My biggest saving trick is going through all the week's grocery circulars then making a list of their loss leader from the front page. Stopping in with my list when I am near the store during the week as to not waste gas & ONLY buy whats on the list!

I get milk from the convenience store, its actually cheaper there! $2.29 a gallon

HTH!

[xheathers]

We have 5 here and I spend about $300-$400 a month on groceries. I rarely buy convienence foods. I make nearly everything from scratch including spagetti sauces, pasta sacues, etc.

Organic is hard to find around here. Costco carries some, but really, its hard to find unless I go to the next town over and its kind of a pain, so I rarely do that. I buy what I can organic.

[hadalamb]

1 adult and 5 children here. I spend about $400 per month on groceries. I could spend less if I tried.

[lupineperriwink]

You are all so inspiring to me. I really need to sit down and talk my husband into this. I started to enjoy cooking fairly recently so hopefully I can take some of your pointers. Woohoo!

[Erica]

I spend about $150-$175 each week for a family of four!
It's looking like I need to make more stuff from scratch!

[LatteLover]

Wow! that is really great ladies. I spend about $80 a week for the three of us but would love to get that down. Sigh.

[MommytoTommy]

Too much here. About $700 a month for 5 of us.

[benNpeanutsmom]

I budget out $600 a month for groceries. That's two $250 big shopping days (every other Sunday) and the leftover amount is to get milk or veggies if we run out. I use coupons. We average about a 33-35% savings with them. I don't buy a lot of organic anymore. (I did when I was making my baby food from scratch.) I will get meat that is reduced for quick sale (with a coupon on it at Price Chopper). That feeds us, a family of 5, very well. My dh takes his lunch to work every day, too.

Steph

[momof2boys1girl]

WOW I am impressed with some of the amounts.
I wish I could get mine lower.My dh must eat meat he tells me and I do make the majority of side dishes from scratch. I spend about $75-100 per week but that includes soap, t.p, paper towels, cat food, dog food, house hold items.

We do not have any stores close that do double coupons, non that do really good meat sales. In the summer our bills go up a bit more because all the kids are home.

[~Denise~]

Yikes...

Organic milk is $4.99 a gallon here. Or $3 to 3.50 for a 1/2 gallon.

I would love to spend less, but it's hard....

Oh, and organic chicken is $6.99 pound for breast meat, but conventional is not much cheaper! (I see Foster Farms conventional breasts for no less than $5.50 a pound here...ugh)

[Megmama]

hmm..I must be doing something wrong, too..I spend about 130 a week for 4 adults and 1 child (the baby eats from me)..my ILs are here for 6 months of the year but I only feed them dinner out of my pocket..they buy their own special diet foods for other meals. I know we could do better...my big problem is snacks..and buying everything at the grocerty store (shampoo, tp, etc). I should go to sam's more often I guess.

I have to figure this out..thanks for this thread..