Another Grocery Thread -- What do you buy/eat in a week and how much does it cost?

[junipermuse]

If you have a reasonable grocery budget (ours currently is 200 a week, but it's just too high) what does your weekly shopping list look like? What kind of meals do you serve? I'd like to get a good idea of what people are feeding their families on a more frugal food budget. I'm especially interested in hearing from people who are ominivorious (we love meat around here) and who don't buy their meat direct from a farmer (I'd love to do this, but I just can't convince dh to get us a freezer).

[sosurreal09]

there are other options with farmers. there is a farm 40 mins from me that you have to go to once a week. you get meat, dairy, eggs, and produce. its $1000 a year for a full share...very reasonable at only $80 a month! check out localharvest.org and see if they have anything around you...

we grocery shop right now (plan on buying a share when its available in Dec) and spend $300 a month for a family of 3...im picky with food though. it has to be from the US and organic period. i dont care if i dont have any spending money or have to do without something else food is not something i want to skimp on quality or health.

[Alyantavid]

I spend $300-$400 a month, but I only shop at the most every 2 weeks.

We raise our own beef and pork and get chicken through dh's work. Fish is normally trout since it's so easy to get in this area. So it may cost us $300 for a steer to be cut and wrapped but it lasts us quite awhile. I also have a big garden and lots of friends who garden and have access to some free produce that I preserve to last us through the winter.

This is what we ate this week:
Monday-hodge podge, I had 2 sick kids and dh was out
Tuesday-I really can't remember
Wednesday-kids had hamburgers and baked fries, dh and I went out
Thursday-sloppy joes, baked fries
Friday-pizza
Saturday-grilled trout, veggie, rice
Sunday-eggs, toast, fruit

next week I have planned:
Monday-out to a potluck with friends, we're taking steak
Tuesday-we'll probably eat out because we'll be home late
Wednesday-dinner at my mom's
Thursday-kabobs, veggies, potatoes
Friday-pizza
Saturday-grilled hamsteak, veggie, potatoes
Sunday-french toast

A freezer would be beneficial even if you don't buy meat in bulk. You can stock up on all kinds of things when they go on sale to lower your grocery bill. We're very meat and potatoes here, luckily those are cheapest for us.

I mostly buy what's on sale when I do shop. And I stock up. I have one kid with a dairy intolerance so I buy special milk and cream cheese for him. We do buy some boxed snack items, but most everything else I make from scratch.

[freestylemama]

Ours varies, but averages to about $100/week for two adults and a preschooler. We buy our milk and meat directly from farmers. We also have chickens so we don't buy eggs. Last month we bought 1/4 of a cow, so we spent a lot. This month we've spent very little, so it evens out, I suppose.

Each month, I spend about $130 from our food co-op and buy (all organic):
-white and ww flour
-white and brown rice
-lentils
-beans
-oil
-sugar
-raisins
-nuts
-frozen fruit and veg
-coffee
-cheese

We also go to the regular grocery store and an Asian market.

In a week, we usually consume:

1 or 2 boxes of healthy-ish cold cereal
2 gallons of raw organic milk
1-2 loaves of good bread
1 batch of muffins
1 bag of tortilla chips
1-2 lbs of dried fruit
3lbs of grapes
12 apples
12 bananas
2 bags of frozen fruit like berries or mangos
1 huge bag of lettuce or spinach
1 big bunch of kale
1/2 lb carrots
3 bags of frozen veg like peas, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans
1 or 2 lbs tofu
4 cups of dried brown or white rice
1 can of coconut milk
1 or 2 lbs of meat
12 eggs
1/2lb of coffee
1/2 lb butter
3 or 4 onions
7 servings of yogurt
1 lb of cheese
6 tortillas

I tend to cook for two nights because we don't mind leftovers. Breakfast is
during the week is eggs, cereal (hot or cold) or a bar. Lunches are simple things like sandwiches or leftovers. We eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and nuts for snacks. Dinners are usually things like:

Beef curry over rice
quieche
honey baked lentils with quinoa
chili and corn bread
various seasonal soups with bread
stir fry w/ meat or tofu
pasta w/ meat and veg
meatloaf w/ veggies

We eat really well and the way I do things doesn't take much time or effort. I love simple, seasonal foods. It's really fun for me to cook and shop for food. I think I'm also lucky that my kid and husband aren't picky and are happy to eat just about anything served to them.

[sunnysandiegan]

We spend an average of $335 a month on food. We feed our cat a raw food diet with that, and our CSA is included as well (paid quarterly, picked up every other week year-round). We buy a mix of organic and non-organic from a variety of stores and farmer's markets. We live in a big city, so this is easy to do without driving all over the place. We combine errands and drive small cars. We also grow some of our food and herbs, even in our teeny tiny backyard.

Our recent dinners:
Tonight - mahi mahi, wild and brown rice, veggies
Thursday - quiche (I made two at once; one for dinner and lunch now, then one for the freezer for later....they contain homemade crust, fresh dark leafy greens, shredded carrot, frozen corn, fresh broccoli, cheese, eggs, milk, cream, bacon, onions, and garlic)
Wednesday - spinach & cheese ravioli with red sauce and ground beef (DH was planning whole wheat penne, but DD convinced him to do the ravioli instead...we usually go meatless with this ravioli)
Tuesday - chicken, Yukon gold potatoes, and steamed dark leafy greens
Monday - polsa kielbasa, rice, steamed broccoli
Sunday - pot roast tamale pie (DH & DD had this as a sample at Trader Joe's and DH decided to make it himself with slow-cooked stew meat and his own salsa creation)
Saturday - We were at our community (family-friendly) Octoberfest and had bratswurst with potato salad. No veggies in sight.
Friday - homemade stew (beef, potatoes, carrots)
Thursday - taco night (ground beef, homemade black beans to resemble refried beans, tomatoes, green leaf lettuce, cheese, avocado, corn shells)
Wednesday - ahi, basmati rice, veggies
Tuesday - red beans and rice (I loosely followed a recipe...lots of veggies in this dish)

That's as far back as I can recall.

ETA: The $335 does not cover our dining out nor our household items. We have $60 a month in cash that we can do whatever we want with and I simply don't track it. The above dinner out, if you can call it that (we consider it entertainment), was paid with leftover cash from September. We have a dining category set at $130 a month, but our rolling average over the last year or so is lower than that by quite a bit. We will actually be raising our food category to $350 and lowering our dining category to $100 for 2011.

[redvlagrl]

my grocery budget is $600 a month and it is never enough. I shop weekly. We are feeding 2 adults and a 2 year old (baby not on solids yet).

We eat meat most nights (I am the carnivorous spawn of vegetarians) and DD has eggs for breakfast every day. So do I unless I have a protein smoothie. DH makes our bread.

We spend a lot becuase we buy our meat from a local market (free range/grass fed/hormone) - prices are not as much as organic but more than cheapo conventional. Most of our produce is local and/or organic. Our milk is un-homo organic. We don't eat out at all including snacks for the most part so it really is all our food.

I visit the supermarket, HFS, and 2 farmer's markets every week .

I think we will have to up it to at least $175 a week/$700 a month.

ETA: no processed foods except yoghurt and crackers so this makes it more expensive too.

[happysmileylady]

What I buy in a week really just depends on the deals. This week it was 6 boxes of pasta (which were $0.33 each-whole grain,) 2 dozen eggs, 15 cans of soup ($0.50 each, not my best deal, but we were totally out) rasperries, strawberries, cucumbers, green peppers, 2 bags of frozen mixed veggies, 15lbs of pork (a roast, some chops and some ribs, at $0.98 a lb) 10 tubes of cresent rolls (they exire in January) 2 gallons of milk, 5 pkgs of cream cheese 5lbs of flour and 5lbs of sugar. I also got a few other odds and ends that I can't remember. I spent $75 on all that

But, dinners this week have been:
Sunday: DH grilled some of the ribs from the pork combo pack
Monday: ordered pizza because we were watching Monday night football.
Tuesday: Baked Chicken (already had the chicken and sauce I baked it in), broccoli (already had) and homemeade bread
Wednesday: Chicken Stir fry-already had everything again
Thursday: everyone just scrounged around for themselves, I made a grilled cheese for the 2 year old and had cereal myself
Tonight: my mom is taking us out to dinner
Tomorrow will be pork chops from the pork I bought this week, with potatos I already had and some corn that I also already had.

Oh, and I made bagels this week too. Breakfasts are usually eggs or cereal, depending on what kind of sleep the baby gives me, I will sometimes make pancakes or waffles from scratch.


Next week, I will be buying a turkey, 10 more lbs of flour, grapes, more eggs, more milk, probably some more boxes of whole grain pasta (at only $0.20 a box this time,) some more soup (at a better deal) more cukes, peppers and some mushrooms and tomatos too. But the turkey will go in the freezer for Thanksgiving. It's on sale now and I am getting the flour for $0.68 for a five lb package, for buying the turkey.

[redvlagrl]

Oh, I forgot to post what kind of meals we eat:

Typical breakfasts:
Eggs (1 for DD, 2 for me), Toast
Oatmeal (either rolled oats or steel cut) with cream and maple syrup

Snacks: Fruit, cheese, Homemade dips - hummus and veggie based hummus-like dips

Lunches: Sandwiches with cheese, homemade mayo, veg
Soups - usually lentil or bean
Friend rice/quinoa

Dinners:
Pretty heavy on the meat becuase I am trying to eat more protein. I would give us a leg/thigh quarter each. If it is yummy, DD will eat that too (!).
Lots of veg - usually 2 or 3 kinds, roasted, steamed with some sort of dressing (also trying to up consumption of fats)
Small amount of carbs if any - quinoa, potato, sweet potato

Or a stew with meat and lots of veg served over mashed sweet potato or rutabaga

Or a pasta bake kind of thing either tomato based with meat and lots of veg or a mac and cheese thing with ground beef and veggies in it too.

For dinners i like to cook something that will last us a few days. I try and do ground meat for one of these dishes a week. I will use a pound of ground beef for a 9 x 13 dish and this will last us 3 dinners if I serve it with salad or extra veg.

[freestylemama]

Originally Posted by redvlagrl

my grocery budget is $600 a month and it is never enough. I shop weekly. We are feeding 2 adults and a 2 year old (baby not on solids yet).

We eat meat most nights (I am the carnivorous spawn of vegetarians) and DD has eggs for breakfast every day. So do I unless I have a protein smoothie. DH makes our bread.

We spend a lot becuase we buy our meat from a local market (free range/grass fed/hormone) - prices are not as much as organic but more than cheapo conventional. Most of our produce is local and/or organic. Our milk is un-homo organic. We don't eat out at all including snacks for the most part so it really is all our food.

I visit the supermarket, HFS, and 2 farmer's markets every week .

I think we will have to up it to at least $175 a week/$700 a month.

ETA: no processed foods except yoghurt and crackers so this makes it more expensive too.

Could you find a local farmer with ethical practices and buy a large amount of meat directly from him or her? We do this and have cut our meat costs in half. DH figured that the savings pays for a freezer in about 2 years.

[BetsyS]

We spend $75/week on groceries. Sometimes a little extra (maybe $5-10, and it comes out of my spending money). I shop at 1 of 3 international markets, then usually one of 3 regular grocery stories most weeks. Whichever one has the best deals, depending on what I need. Like the Indian store has great deals on produce and yogurt and spices, but they don't sell meat or coffee, like my other stores. I use some coupons, but not for everything (though I usually save $10/week with that). My stores double, plus there are a couple of blogs that do all the work of matching coupons and sales for me, so it's fairly easy.

Still, with all that, I wish I had more money to spend.

This last week, we had:
Sat-crab cakes (frozen; on sale + a coupon), baked potatoes, salad
Sun-eggs, bacon, grits, toast (we always have breakfast for supper on Sundays)
Mon-curried red beans, rice, roasted cauliflower, raita
Tues-no water in the neighborhood; we got a take out special of 2 piece fried chicken for $0.99. We got 4 of the specials, and I added green beans and salad
Wed-chicken pot pie
Thurs-spaghetti (end of the week--no sides at all, but the sauce had lots of veggies in it; 3/4 lb ground beef for us)
Fri-honey baked turkey (last of a gift card from last Christmas), mac and cheese, broccoli salad, rolls

For lunches, we eat leftovers, kids eat pb&honey (probably 5 days a week--they love this), plus usually a fruit (bananas or apples this week), and carrot sticks. My dh takes a can drink/coke every day.

For breakfasts, we had oatmeal, rice pudding, eggs and toast, and egg tacos. My dh eats cereal every day, but he's the only one.

edited to add: we drink water, seltzer (we have a seltzer machine, so costs are minimal), coffee in the AM, and milk (kids only) almost exclusively. My dh takes a coke for lunch, I have one 1-2 times a week, and my kids think juice is a special "Friday night drink". That helps with costs, too.

[Madalyn]

I go every 7-10 days and spend 80-90ish each time. I'm a military wife so we shop at the commissary on base. This week was a little off because Monday night we actually go into a fender bender and I was way too stressed to cook but here were ours:

Monday: Ordered Pizza
Tuesday: Roasted Chicken, Zucchini, Beans
Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti, homemade soft pretzels
Thursday: White Bean Chicken Chili (with leftover chicken from Monday)
Friday: Tortellini
Saturday: Southwestern Stuffed Peppers, pears
Tomorrow: Oven baked porkchops over baked beans & grocery shopping

I used to shop for every 2 weeks but I felt like I had too much produce go bad and by the time I got to my plans for the second week I wasn't in the mood for those meals anymore.

[jess_paez]

hmm, we spend 100 dollars a week on everything: food, drinks, toiletries (shampoo when needed, toilet paper, formula (couldn't bf), soap, dish soap, cleaning supplies, ect), today we even got some extras like new socks and it's still under the 100 dollars a week. i'd say for food in general it's about 70 dollars a week-maybe 80. we shop sales, try and not go towards the middle of the store, ect. we stick to the outer area where the produce, meats, dairy is really. we are a family of 2 adults and a 5 mos old.
our dinner rotations are:
breakfast i make a cappucino for myself, dh is not for bf and neither am i-although we love bf foods.
lunch: i can choose from cold cereal, grilled cheese/soup, yogurt, crackers, banana. that's usually what we buy in terms of lunch food.
dinner:
fish dinner: tilapia, yellow potatoes and a sauce of kalamata olives/juices, white wine, heavy cream
pork chop bake: pork chops, yellow potatoes, and a sauce of onion soup mix, cream of mushr. soup and a couple tblsp water (great one i read about on mdc)
tacos: corn or white tortilla, chicken, cilantro, beans, salsa
bbq chicken: cheesy rice, chicken drumsticks or thighs, beans, or corn on side
pancakes and friedeggs: jemima pancake mix (have to get the good stuff, the store brands do not compare!) and eggs of course
pasta: rigatoni or farfalle with sausage, sauce, and mozz cheese
mexican hotdogs: good angus beef hotdgs with mayo, mustard, ketchup and jalapeno slices usually with mac and cheese
chicken or turkey pot pie
we have lots of other dinners, but these are our most shopped for because we like them a lot
we shop every sat

[becoming]

We are trying to stretch our grocery money as far as it will go, and we're making a lot of soups & casseroles, which are really filling AND make a ton of food, so they seem to go much farther than any other kind of meal. Plus you can do super cheap soups & casseroles with and without meat. Also, breakfast for supper is really cheap & easy... that's a go-to for us at least one night a week.

I shop on Sunday & try to keep it at or around $100 each time. We're a family of five, but two of our little ones (5 & 3) don't each much at all.

[redvlagrl]

Originally Posted by freestylemama

Could you find a local farmer with ethical practices and buy a large amount of meat directly from him or her? We do this and have cut our meat costs in half. DH figured that the savings pays for a freezer in about 2 years.

Yes, we have thought about this and do have a source for beef at least. However right now we have decided that we will wait for a while (6-12mths) until we do this. We don't have freezer and want to buy an upright when we do get one.

[Attila the Honey]

I spent about $200 for 5 people for 2 weeks. Here is our menu:

Breakfasts - oatmeal, pancakes, smoothies, toast and honey, fruit
Lunches - leftovers, pb, cheese sandwiches, loaded salad

Dinners:
Fri: homemade pizza, salad
Sa: drunken noodles with veggies and seitan
sun: pasta and clam sauce, broccoli
Mon: squash soup and biscuits
Tues: minestrone with homemade bread
Wed: Garden rice and beans
Thurs: Spaghetti, garlic bread, steamed broccoli
Fri: leftovers, girls going out for sushi with friends
Sat: Tofurkey wraps and chips, salad
Sun: Pierogies with sausages, sauerkraut, green beans
Mon: Mexican pizza with corn
tues: Falafel
Wed: Thai Tofu Wraps and rice
thurs: Pizza and snow pea berry salad
Fri: Cold Udon w/ peanut sauce and seitan

[Chicky2]

I have tried and tried to figure out how much we really do spend, but it is so hard, lol. I need to track for an entire year and average it. I'd say it's around $150/wk, though. We are a family of 3 adults, and 3 kids, 2 of which eat like adults or more, and one little one. That does include toiletries. Some months for several months in a row it may seem like I'm spending tons, but the rest of the year I spend very little.

We come across our foods differently, though. It has evolved over the years, but really changed in the last 3. We raise domestic rabbits (all white meat and better than chicken breast!), chickens for meat and eggs, guineas for meat and eggs, quail for eggs, goats for milk and meat, but mostly milk (starting this coming Spring, that is!), bees for honey, and now ducks for meat. We also take part in large quantity butchering of wild pigs and every other year or so can fill our freezer and give several friends opportunities to have a new experience in exchange for their own meat. For this entire year my neighbor has been *giving* us 1-2 gallons of fresh goat milk every 3 days. We pick plums, pecans, grapes, peaches, persimmons, pears, and berries at the appropriate time of year and preserve them. We often give of our excess and when others have extra, we receive it (like 12 gallons of peaches this year, 50 keiffer pears, 40 sweet potatoes, and a bunch of blue gill and bass).

I have to add in the cost of feed/hay and water to our grocery bill, and that's where I came up w/my best guess, lol.

Meals this week have been:

-African rabbit stew w/a bunch of added swiss chard from our garden and 2 kinds of sweet potatoes, ginger sauteed pears.

-rabbit soft tacos w/home made tortillas, cinnamon sauteed pears, flan w/goat milk and our chicken eggs.

-Chinese take out plus home made lo mein w/clean out the refrigerator veggies.

-Crustless quiche w/swiss chard, onion, bell pepper, swiss cheese. Fresh pear pie w/fresh ginger and orange zest.

-Pan fried whole fish w/spoonbread and sweet potato fries.

-Chana dal patties w/lots of chopped veggies and bits of leftover meat in them. Side of mashed cauliflower/potatoes.

Breakfasts are usually oatmeal, muffins, yogurt and home made granola, keifer smoothies, home made granola bars and bananas, eggs and toast, grilled cheese (these are all things the kids can make and they feed their littlest sister, too).

Snacks are frozen burritos, fruit, tortilla chips and salsa, peanut butter and jam (home made), carrots and celery, or their current fave...cheese 'chips'--grated cheese fried in it's own fat til it bubbles and slightly toasts. When cooled it's really crunchy and yummy! Swiss cheese makes great ones!

Oh, and lunches aren't really set around here. We graze, but I do make a nice lunch for my dh each night w/leftovers.

[mommariffic]

We spend about $100-$150 per week

Breakfasts consist of
Oatmeal, cold cereals, baked goods [we do muffins, or breads 1x per week], yogurts, and once a week a big breakfast casserole prepared the night before. Oh and sometimes french toast, or pancakes!

Lunch consist of:
Sandwiches [DD loves them] grilled cheese with sliced apples, sometimes turkey cheese and lettuce, peanut butter and honey, etc.

Snacks consist of:
Chunks of cheese [cheddar and swiss] fresh fruit, veggies with dip...we love cheeses here, and crackers, and I sometimes splurge on those

Dinners vary, this week we are having lamb stew with bread & homemade butter...chicken spinach casserole, a Halloween party so lots of finger foods : ) Which I splurged on Pumpkin apple soup (love soup in the fall!) Butternut squash pasta with a veggie..and I'm not sure what else

I love food

[Norasmomma]

We are full omnivores and enjoy meat(2 adults who like food and 2 littles who also like food) we like to eat and eat well. Our budget weekly is probably around 50-75 a week. Really though I usually do one HUGE shop alone w/out kids and spend $150 or so.

Currently I work 2 nights a week, so I don't make dinner those nights, usually Dh and the kids have either leftovers or something like mac n cheese.

Now I'd love to buy half a cow or something, I live in a very locavore area, but I never can quite have the funds available to shell out $800-1000 in one pop on meat. We live in the country and have debated on raising our own meat, but we'll see what the future holds. We do get eggs from my BIL or from a friend.

I have to say that we have a very stocked house, we live a bit too far from town to be running there for items. I have 2 freezers and 2 pantries, so we have a lot in house.

The last week we've had:

Lasagna with salad
Black bean Turkey soup with fry-bread
Frittata with ham, jack cheese and veggies from the garden, Caesar salad
Creamy tomato pasta with chicken, salad, bread

In the AM we eat toast, cereal, eggs. On the weekends we eat a big breakfast, eggs, potatoes, bacon or sausage, pancakes.

Snacks are crackers, cheese, graham crackers.

Much of our produce and food is local, our local store has excellent meat and prices. I stock up when I shop, today I bought 6 boxes of WW pasta for .50, I had to make pasta because my 1 year old then ate the box end when we got home. I have 20+ boxes in my pantry, I bought them with coupons and sales. I read the flyers, I buy what is on sale. Now I know many say they NEVER can find coupons for what they eat, but we eat a pretty healthful diet and I find my couponing goes in waves. All summer there was nothing, but now it is fall and it's been pasta, pasta sauce, tomatoes, baking supplies, stock-the things my family uses and
I can stockpile on.

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by Norasmomma

We live in the country and have debated on raising our own meat, but we'll see what the future holds. We do get eggs from my BIL or from a friend.

Have you ever had domestic rabbit? I ask because ALOT of people don't know how wonderful (and easy to raise and butcher) it is. It is lower in fat and calories and higher in protein than chicken breast. If you have the right type of rabbit, there is little waste and a high meat:bone. They are easy to raise on a small scale, and should it not suit you, they are easy to get rid of too. Plus you can make some $ off them for county shows (4-H/FFA) to help offset the cost of feed.

Sorry, I know it's sorta OT.

[Norasmomma]

Originally Posted by Chicky2

Have you ever had domestic rabbit? I ask because ALOT of people don't know how wonderful (and easy to raise and butcher) it is. It is lower in fat and calories and higher in protein than chicken breast. If you have the right type of rabbit, there is little waste and a high meat:bone. They are easy to raise on a small scale, and should it not suit you, they are easy to get rid of too. Plus you can make some $ off them for county shows (4-H/FFA) to help offset the cost of feed.

Sorry, I know it's sorta OT.

I had a rabbit as a kid and people give away rabbit cages often around here. Right now it wouldn't be a great idea because I have a dog who would attempt to kill them(and chickens). She's old though, so only a few more years of her living and it could be something to consider, plus then DD would be old enough to show stuff at the fair.