August Grocery Challenge!

[JenTwo]

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!

[Kerri]

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

[JenTwo]

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.

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

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

Running Total: $265

[my2girlz]

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

[stephanielynn]

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

[tmrhopkins]

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

[scrapadoozer]

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.

[Suzie]

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.

[~*~Seeking*Simplicity~*~]

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

[3Gs4Me]

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.

[heythereheather]

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 )

[maryalene]

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!

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

[annemarie5]

My budget is 600 a month for food, I always go over though, if we eat out much it can go WAY over 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 And I made them eat at school because they had lunches free. Times change...more money, more out.
Anne

[Sunflower_Momma]

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

[Chels~]

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.