How thrifty are you at the grocery store?

[Red]

Ok, I was reading the thrifty and organic thread and I checked the USDA website.

Guess what? I come in under thrifty!!! Some weeks, well under. (not organic, though!) How about you? I shamelessly stole this chart from that thread. http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/FoodPlans/U.../foodmay06.pdf

Want to see how low we can go for ONE month? We can start sept 1st, and see what we spend. I'll be making soups, using garden produce and meat from my freezer. But most of what I use, I need to replace for the winter.

[tessamami]

No where near

Thrifty? ME?! Nope, don't think so. I really do a lot of comparison shopping, but I've got 2 problems: I live in New York City, and I can't possible carry a lot out of the cheaper stores, so I end up sometimes buying from my neighborhood $$$. On the weeks that DH shops with me, we do better $$$ but I always spend at least $150 dollars a week.

$150 dollars includes trash bags when needed, vinegar and baking soda, soap, tp, etc.

But I think we will start shopping near my mother's house, more - that should save us some $$$. But I still don't see bringing our budget to less than $150 dollars a week. I am making every effort though, to go through our pantry items, and the fridge.

[robin4kids]

Well I guess I am thrifty too.

We are a family of 8. I have five kids and one 17 year old exchange student. I hate going to buy food. Just yesterday I needed milk and I spent $50. I needed all the food, as last week I only spent $75 for the whole week, but non the less, it physically makes me sick. We are very low on $ right now and every time I buy food, I wonder, could we live without this? I would love to see how little I could spend in Sept.
Here is my question, (And maybe i will have to start my own post to get an answer.) What are you cooking that is relatively healthy? (I am not a super crunchy person, but we do eat wheat bread and many vegies!) Share some good cheap recipes.

[blueridgewoman]

Apparently, I am more than thrifty, because when I did the math, I spent $122 on groceries for two of us this month. But we did have another $75 of eating out.

[Petersmamma]

Does this include food ONLY or also things like toiletries, garbage bags, plastic wrap, etc??

I think either way we JUST barely are "thrifty" but if that only includes food, then we definitely are!

[nikirj]

We fall under thrifty and I include my food-based cleaning items (baking soda, vinegar) in that amount, but not my paper goods (those only run us around $8/month anyway).

And come to think of it, we fall under thrifty for a family of four and are a family of five.

We eat a lot of chicken! Teri chicken, baked herb chicken, rotisserrie chicken (yes we have the rotisserrie), chicken curry, chicken soup...I'd say about 1/2 of our meals contain some sort of chicken. We buy it when it goes on sale for $.49/lb and freeze it. We also buy pork when it goes on sale for $.98/lb and freeze that.

For any item that I buy on any kind of regular basis, I have a max price that I will pay, no higher. For example, for a tray of chicken thighs I will pay no more than $.79/lb; if it is more than that, I'll go find something that IS in the acceptable range.

Our budget is firm so I don't really have the luxury of buying things just because I feel like them. So if, like last week, we go ahead and buy a bunch of treats for our camping trip, we'll pay for it the following week by eating really cheaply (chili over rice, baked chicken, beans n rice, etc).

[Village Mama]

We are somewhere between thrifty and low cost... we eat a lot of organic though and tons of produce. We would be very thrifty if we didnt eat organic I supppose! Groceries are the only thing that we buy really, so I don't feel I need to be as frugal. We never eat out and only buy second hand or the nessesities.

[Mama Dragon]

More then thrifty here, it gave 679, and we spend about $600 a month. BUT, food is cheap here. I can go to winco and get 2 carts full of food for $200-250.

[rainbowfairymomma]

WOW Dh and I complain all the time the amount of $$ we spend on food. We buy about 80% Organic which includes ALL our paper products, bathroom stuff etc... and cat food and we are STILL under Thrifty!!!

I'll have to go tell him

[UUMom]

Wow. That chart is amazingly generous! I buy almost all organic for a family of 6 and I am in the thrifty range. I'm shocked. Shocked. That can't be right.

[Red]

I'm wondering if the chart is right too!

Checking.......

[moms3kids]

That seems high to me, my monthly food spending isn't over 300 a month, that is for a family of 5, and 2 dogs... cleaning stuff, and soaps ect... i keep my price books and go to 5 differant stores... we also eat in at my in laws about 1-2 times a week (she HATES to cook but also hates to go out to eat every night, so we made arrangments long time ago that if she woudl buy the food i would gladly go into her home and cook it for all of us, then we both do the clean up)...

[BookGoddess]

We not thrifty according to that chart. We're between Low Cost and Moderate but I'm not surprised. Food costs here in Hawaii are so much higher than the rest of the country. A cereal box can cost over $6 here! Still, I'm pleased with our grocery bill. We do what we can with the way things are priced in our state.

[annethcz]

I'm the one who posted the link on the other thread. And I think those figures are really whacked. The 'thrifty' figure for our family of 6 is $606.48. This figure would easily cover a quite generous organic diet, PLUS going out to eat several times per month.

Some other interesting figures:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p60-231.pdf
2005 median household income (US): $46,326
That breaks down to $3860/month
May 2006 USDA cost of food (4 person household) Thrifty: $516.20
May 2006 USDA cost of food (4 person household) Liberal: $997.00

So, the average household is expected to spend 13-26% of their income on food.

[oneKnight]

I looked up what it should cost to feed my hubby for a month on that chart, and I can feed us both for a month at that price!

I think I've said it before, but If it's supposed to cost THAT much to feed us.....why don't we qualify for food stamps?? :

[oldcrunchymom]

Yes, the chart is high. If we spent as much as the "thrifty" level on that chart, we'd have no money to pay bills. I think basically people don't realize how much (little) they can live on if they need to.