Grocery Shopping questions...

[vermontgirl]

Hi everyone, My husband and I are in the middle of working on a serious budget and sticking to it. So, we were talking about food-which is something very important to us. We love good food. So we have two adults and two young children. We are thinking that we will spend a total of 250 dollars. 150 is for our CSA share which goes from October through February. It does groceries and a ton of other things per week. Then about 90-100 dollars on things like flour, sugar, coffee, milk and fruit. We eat mostly bulk/whole food items and lots of produce. This does not count the meat we buy every year. We buy about 1/4 cow for 250 dollars, 20 whole chickens totaling about 250 dollars and some pork. We save up for those things and buy a years supply. We also raise our own turkeys and store a bunch of things from our garden.

So, what do you spend per month on groceries? What foods do you consider luxuries? What do you spend the most money on? Are you being as frugal as you could possibly be? How many are you feeding? I am very interested in seeing all of the replies I get on here.

-Hannah

[mommariffic]

I too need to budget groceries, and right now we are spending way too much. Ideally I'd like to spend 1-150$ per week. I'm also going to stop doing organic except for what's on the list : ) I just made some veggie wash so that will suffice until I win the lottery!

Things I like to splurge on: Cheese. YUM! I love good cheese and I can pair that with homemade bread so that is something I can't give up. We also splurge on meats because I like to buy local if I can and hormone free/organic blah blah blah which can be pricey. I also sometimes like to visit our gourmet store and just pick up yummy snacks and have an "appetizer" night with some wine.

I think the biggest thing for me right now is meal planning and ordering my groceries. This way I am buying exactly what I need for my meals for the week, and I don't have the visual temptation.

Again, I'm nowhere near being frugal with food but I'd like to be. I just love food so much that NOT getting little luxuries is hard for me

[vermontgirl]

Originally Posted by vermontgirl

Hi everyone, My husband and I are in the middle of working on a serious budget and sticking to it. So, we were talking about food-which is something very important to us. We love good food. So we have two adults and two young children. We are thinking that we will spend a total of 250 dollars. 150 is for our CSA share which goes from October through February. It does groceries and a ton of other things per week. Then about 90-100 dollars on things like flour, sugar, coffee, milk and fruit. We eat mostly bulk/whole food items and lots of produce. This does not count the meat we buy every year. We buy about 1/4 cow for 250 dollars, 20 whole chickens totaling about 250 dollars and some pork. We save up for those things and buy a years supply. We also raise our own turkeys and store a bunch of things from our garden.

So, what do you spend per month on groceries? What foods do you consider luxuries? What do you spend the most money on? Are you being as frugal as you could possibly be? How many are you feeding? I am very interested in seeing all of the replies I get on here.

-Hannah

When I said 250 dollars I meant per month!

[GardenStream]

$175 is what we average per month on groceries.

We splurge on meat. We buy half a grass fed cow, a pig, and about 10 chickens per year. They're all local and natural.

We're definitely not being as frugal as we could be. I'm frugal by nature, but I don't try to save money when grocery shopping. I always shop with a list and I don't buy things that aren't on the list. It's not a shopping plan, I'm just a really bad shopper

I'm feeding 2 adults and 2 young children.

[swd12422]

I don't have a budget, but I shop as frugally as I can within the quality parameters I've set for us. That means, yeah, I can get ground beef for $2/pound on sale, but instead I buy local grass-fed beef at the farmers' market for 4 times the price. I just buy less of it. (And when I get my act together and make room in the freezer, we'll start buying shares of beef that will be more like $3/pound.)

We do a CSA twice a month for $35/month. I get my bread through them every other month or so, and that's another $10 when i do it. Then I buy organic milk and "regular" groceries for DH's lunches and DS's snacks and that's around $120 (?)/month. Then I go to Costco for things like dinner rolls and huge blocks of cheese, some breakfast stuff, and some frozen veggies to supplement the CSA. If I'm estimating right, that probably averages another $100/month. (I go every month, but some months I only buy dog food and others I spend $200 or a little more. But each time I go, I end up buying clothes for DS too, so maybe that's not all food.)

I really don't think this can be right. It seems like I spend more than this on food, but that's really all I can think of.

[UberMama]

We used to spend around $450/mo on food for us (two adults, three children). But we're scaling back, not buying organics for now, etc. So, I am curious to see how much we've spent at the end of this month.

[nolansmummy]

I'm very jealous of you only spending 250 a month on groceries!
We spend about 5-600$, about 150$ per week.
I feed 2 adults and 2 kids, and we buy almost no meat (i'm veg and just don't cook it at home)

[AZgirl2207]

It's hard to compare $$ amounts because cost of living is so varied! Don't feel discouraged if you are spending more or less than someone else.

We spend $300 per month for 2 adults and 2 kids. That does not include the 1/2 beef in my freezer (about $3/lb) or eating out once a week. I buy some organic veg, all organic dairy.

Our luxury foods are fancy cheese and wine. Both of which have been practically nonexistent since I got PG. I also find myself sucked into wanting special food at the holidays--where I end up buying fancy spices, puff pastry dough, smoked salmon--real budget killers!

[Ianthe]

We spend about $365-400/m on food for a family of 4.. My luxury item is gluten free pasta, it's expensive (~$5/lb!! ) But I miss pasta so much!

[sunnysandiegan]

We live in a high col area and we spend $335 per month on average for a family of three (DH, DD age 9, and me). This includes our year-round CSA, which we pay for by the quarter.

We do not include household purchases or eating out in the food budget. I split receipts in Quicken when necessary in order to keep accurate records.

[jimblejamble]

Anywhere from $100-175, sometimes $200, depending on if we're stocking up or just getting produce, for 2 adults and a very active 1-year-old bottomless pit.

[vermontgirl]

It sounds like most people have great food budgets! I know people that spend 200 dollars a WEEK on food. It is mostly packaged things. I think that I am able to spend so little because we eat lots of bulk items. We have jars of rice, barley, beans of all kinds, oats, flours...etc. We eat lots of fresh produce and healthier kinds of meat...it just really helps when you don't buy prepackaged/non-whole foods.

We also like to keep our fridge inventory pretty low. I don't like to be overwhelmed by tons of fruits, dairy and other things. I like to have a few things in there so I can really know what is there and make sure to use things up before buying new groceries. It helps a lot! We used to buy tons of groceries and dairy/fruit items would go bad. Now we just make what we have stretch as thin as possible before going to get more.

[mamaheids]

[QUOTE=vermontgirl;15924740]It sounds like most people have great food budgets! I know people that spend 200 dollars a WEEK on food. It is mostly packaged things. QUOTE]

Um that would be us. We are currently gluten-free, dairy-free and mostly soy-free. I also just found out I am allergic to eggs. Which is kind of a bummer, because they are such a good, cheap (for us, mostly free!)protein source. (My sister-in-law has chickens.) Anyway, the past year our grocery spending was so so so high because I just didn't have the energy to do our crazy diet inexpensively. (We had a heck of a time with elimination diets and trying to figure out DD2's intolerances.) Or to shop around. And on top of that I splurged on really good chocolate and gf treats to make myself feel better about being so restricted. Whole Foods got many of our Whole Paychecks! Our coop is opening another location on our side of town, so that will help, their prices and sales are always great on many of the same products I buy at Whole Foods.
I need to cut our spending literally in half. We go out way too much too. Even Noodles and Co ends up being $25 for our family. Meal planning really is the way to go. We also purchased a freezer so we can stock up on meat. I had some good resolve last November and December in that area and I think that we actually cut $365 a month from our food spending. So I know it can be done. I just really really need to sit down, plan it out, and stick to it.
Has anyone else been able to cut way back on food spending for an allergy-friendly diet?

[Belia]

Our grocery budget is $400 a month. We have a separate food / eating out budget, which is way too high.

I started hard core couponing at the beginning of the year, and that's made a huge dent in our budget. We were able to cut $100 / month off our budget without even feeling it. And we have a very-fully stocked pantry and freezer, so if I were more diligent about meal-planning then we could probably shave a little more off our budget.

We are not picky eaters. I have been known to make Hamburger Helper and not even feel bad about it! At the same time, we spend a lot on produce each week, and only buy organic milk and cage free eggs, and only buy 93% lean / grass fed beef, etc etc etc.

My advice to you would be to:

1. Meal plan around what is (probably) already in your freezer and pantry.
2. Shop sales / coupons to build a stockpile that you can meal-plan around in the future.

If you search online, you can find a local coupon blog for your area that will help you get started with the coupon / stockpiling aspect of things if you're interested in that. I use www.jillcataldo.com. She's local to Chicago, but her general principles will work everywhere and by reading her posts you will get a general idea of the deals that are out there.

[redvlagrl]

We budget $600 per month but we rarely eat out so this is all of our food. We eat meat daily and it's grass fed/pastured. Our veg are also local. I researched CSAs and it is more expensive for us to do this route - $30 per week. We spend about that every week but it also includes eggs.

We do the envelope system.

[mbtmom2000]

We average between $500-$600/month for 2 adults/2 children (10, 7) and a dog. We all take lunches/snacks to work and school. Most of the budget is spent on whole/healthful foods with a few convenience items thrown in.

Dawn

[Ygle]

Yeah, we're one of those families spending 200/wk... actually it's even more than that!... I have a hard time honestly believing anyone really can spend less than that on a whole month... I mean I know people say they do here so I guess they must but I just can't even conceive how that is possible? We don't eat out, don't buy beverages (just drink water filtered from the tap), don't buy snack foods, always pack lunches and even have a cooler that plugs into the car for longer trips, buy everything in bulk on sale (including spices), & don't eat any animal products. Yesterday we had oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast, homemade hummus with rice for lunch (I buy the bulk dry beans in large quantities when on sale), a mixed green salad, steamed broccoli & brussel sprouts and potatoes with salsa for dinner. There are six of us. Today it was oatmeal with raisins and pecans for breakfast, veggie soup (brussel sprouts, onions, garlic, kale, & kidney beans) for lunch (I make veggie broth from scraps).... dinner will probably be a stir fry with rice. The kids usually have a fruit snack... again I just buy whatever is on sale, this week it's been apples.

[SugarAndSun]

We spend a lot more than everyone here, but we rarely buy packaged foods. We eat almost all fruits, veggies, some green yogurt, rice, oats, bulk beans, etc. Our area is super expensive. For example, the CSA for the season is $800.

[Dillpicklechip]

We spend about $125 on food per week. This is buying virtually nothing ever that is not on sale--I stock up on essentials when there is a good sale so I never have to buy full price. We don't eat a lot of meat either, and I make almost everything from scratch. There are 5 of us. I can't imagine spending any less than this without eating complete crap like instant noodles for dinner. People who can spend $200 per month must have wonderfully cheap food in their area. I am in Canada though, and I think food here (like everything else) is more expensive than in the States, and we don't have many coupons either.

[raelize]

we spend somewhere between 150-200/week on food. we are a GF house, so stuff that should be inexpensive is ridiculous (pasta- 3.50 for 8 oz, bread even made from scratch is 6-8 dollars/loaf depending on how i make it) when i was the only celiac in the house we could easily get by on 150/week. i didn't need pasta or bread often, i could maek do with other substitutes, but dd was only diagnosed this summer and she has lived long enough with bread and other things that she wants them. and i don't feel right restricting her diet that way since she already has to deal with dietary restrictions.

i would LOVE to spend less, but we live in a high COL area. ridiculously high.
and, there isn't one store where i can do all my shopping. the places that have lots of GF stuff don't have meat, or good meat, the places that have great meat don't have GF stuff or they are really expensive (i could shop at WF and get all my shopping there, but it would easily be over 200 dollars, plus the 40 minute drive there and back eats up a lot of gas.

if i could get everything done at one place i think i could spend less.

do the online ordering places really help budgeting?

i am feeding two kids (almost 5 and 2) and two adults, one of whom LOVES meat (dh).