Groceries?

[boigrrrlwonder]

How much are you spending for groceries? How many people are in your family? Any special dietary restrictions?

[Staceyy]

There are two people in the household, we spend approximately $250 per month. No dietary restrictions. We eat meat and do not eat organic. We get regular deliveries from Omaha Steaks, Kansas City Steaks, and Chesapeake Bay Gourmet Seafood which is included in this total. This also includes all stockpiled items,toiletries, paper products and cleaning supplies, as well as pharmacy items such as toothpaste and deodorant. We buy mostly name brand items.

I cook and bake from scratch, as I'm culinary school trained. I make some of my own cleaning products, I stretch products, use coupons, stock up on specials , do the drugstore rebates, send for internet freebies, shop different stores, and eat a variety of foods both low priced and gourmet. I should add that dh is a long distance truck driver and is on the road about 3 weeks out of the month, and he gets perdiem which covers the costs of all of his meals. Still, when he is home, he is a very big eater. He eats 4 big meals a day plus numerous snacks.

[Nursingnaturalmom]

we are a family of 6. Myself, my DH and 4 girls. One of them is only 11 months and doesn't eat much.

We homeschool and my DH is self employed. That means we eat most every meal and snack at home. We spend about 400-500 a month roughly.

I shop sales at our health food store, shop at Aldi and stock up on sales at the regular grocery sale. I also do drugstore rebate programs. And I run a frontier coop.

Chandi

[vanilla]

We have 3 adults, 3 children who eat quite a bit, and one that eats a little bit. I think I'm feeding the equivalent of 5 adults. I spend around $300 a month. Cooking from scratch, make my own bread, little meat, etc, etc. No dietary restrictions.

[sabrinat]

We are a family of 6, 2 adults, 1 teen boy, 3 toddlers. I aim for $600/month ($150/week) but will often spend closer to $700/month. No dietary restrictions. We eat meet. I'm home during the week and generally cook 3 meals here, + we have snacks here. We don't do organics but I do buy in bulk and try to cook most things from scratch. We do purchase some convience foods (kids love mac/cheese which I get from aldi's). We go to the farmer's market about once a week, shop at BJ's. I try and make my cleaners, but buy laundry and dishwasher detergent. I'm sure that still seems like a huge bill, but I've cut it about 40% in the last year and am really proud of that. Oh...I don't do coupons.

[pixiewytch]

Thanks for posting this thread. DH and I always argue about the grocery bill. We spend between $300-400 a month for a family of four and we buy mostly organic. We don't buy many extras and we only eat meat a few times a week which is organic. I try to make things from scratch like um, spaghetti? But all in all, I'm not the most culinary person. We eat a combo of some prepackaged stuff and some cook from scratch stuff. DH rarely eats at home because he works so many hours so that must be considered as well.

Oh, and I'm not counting alcohol or cigarettes. DH smokes and both of us drink our fair share of fancy wine and beer on a regular basis.

[Sharlla]

Family of 4, no restrictions. $200 month, i buy produce at Aldi's and stick to a menu and a shopping list.

[sonrisaa29]

We spend about $300-400 a month with no restrictions. We eat organic meat, but where we shop they put it on clearance two days before the sell by date, so i'll stock up and then put it in the freezer.

Trader's Joes helped me cut my grocery bill in half, especially their seafood is very reasonable priced.

[MaddieMay]

$400/month for two adults. I can't have corn syrup. This amount includes some organic and all of our toiletries. It also includes an every other month delivery from Omaha Steaks.

[Benji'sMom]

2 adults & 2 little kids, $400 per month. I did the math and figured out that each family member is alloted $1.10 per meal with this budget, so I think it's frugal enough.

(No dietary restrictions. Mostly non-organic. This is food only, no toilet paper or anything like that.)

[Leta]

$250 per month for DH, me, DD (16 mos) and DSS (9), when he's here. DSS is as big as my mom, and eats more than I do, so even tho' he's only here part time, that's significant. $250 includes the very few toiletries and other non-food household items that we buy at our grocery stores (most of this stuff we get from Amazon or other websites).

We grow some of our own veggies, which we use to make salsa, pickles, marinara sauce, etc. We live in berry heaven, so we pick wild raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, thimbleberries, and (my favorite ) huckleberries to freeze and make jam. We are berrying our a$$es off right now, so we should have enough frozen berries/jam to last us until next year. We used my project fresh coupons to get 30# of u-pick strawberries (we haven't found a good spot for wild strawberries-YET), so we're all set on those for the year.

We are given a ton of food from my ILs. MIL gives us homegrown (frozen) sweet corn and venison. FIL's boss has organically raised Texas longhorns, and the ILs usually barter with him for an entire steer, much of which comes to us. DD and I are on the Rasta diet- the only meat we eat is fish- so this is way too much meat for us. DH usually trades a lot with people he works with, usually for whitefish that they've caught and frozen. SIL lives in AK, and for Xmas she usually overnights us a frozen gift package of sockeye salmon, king crab, and halibut.

DH bakes. I mean EVERYTHING. Not just bread, but English muffins, crackers, hot dog/hamburger buns, you name it. We usually have one big baking day per month (I am but a dish slave) and freeze it all.

DH moonlights, anywhere from once a week to once a month, for the organic restaurant where he used to work. Rather than being paid in money, he is usually paid in product- i.e., a four hour shift = 50# of organic golden wheat flour. We usually get all of our flours, eggs, and coffee this way.

The only convience food we buy on a regular basis are tater tots and those Morningstar Farms sausage patties. Everything else, we make from scratch- condiments, yogurt, meals, stuff that I feed the freezer with, applesauce, and on and on.

We also are big into local seasonal produce, even if we are shopping at the supermarket. For example, DH came across $0.99 per pound fresh green beans at SuperOne, bought a pound, we ate them and determined that they were very good, so DH went back and bought 10 more pounds, we snapped them, blanched them, ran them thru the Suck and Seal, and froze enough green beans for a year.

We live in an area with a low COL, so groceries are pretty cheap. We also get WIC, and the big dairy up here is all hormone-free, so I feel good getting their stuff.

I know this was superlong, but we eat almost all organic on $250 per month or less, and no one can figure out how we do it, so I thought I would share some strategies that helped us get our food, etc. budget so low.

[pixiewytch]

Leta, you are my idol.

I spend most of my days beating myself up because I fail miserably at doing half of the things you all do from scratch.

[ibahippiemama]

Leta, this is what we want to start striving for in the future.

Right now we are on WIC and Food Stamps. We are a family of 11. 2 adults and 9 kids aged 21 mos to 15 yrs. Right now I'm working and saving a bit of money for a trip to a u-pick farm. I think that we are spending too much money on food while the kids are home for the summer. But in reallity, we are not. I think they eat way more during the school year because I'm baking more and giving more snacks after school.

Oh, we are spending about 800 per month on groceries.

love and blessings
angie

[Leta]

Gee, thanks, ladies. :

pixiewytch, don't beat yourself up. I have A LOT of help. I don't do all, or even most of it on my own. Also, it has taken four years of both of us really trying to get to this point.

It's also important to note that we got a bunch of equipment as gifts. In particular, we got a chest freezer and a hot water bath canner from my ILs. These have proven to be the most important items for us in terms of food storage. The Suck and Seal we bought ourselves, and we buy mason jars at Vinnie's for $1 for 4. So our investment in equipment has been minimal.

[sunanthem]

We spend about $300 a month, for 2 adults and 2 little kids. We buy some organic, we get our veggies and fruits at farm stands, we've joined a united food co-op, we buy grass fed meats at local farms. We get other stuff at discount grocey stores. Next year I hope to start a garden so we can grow some of our own. We have no food restrictions. We hardly ever eat out.

[Marcee]

7 people here. My DH and 3 oldest sons eat A TON. Dh is 6 foot 8 and the boys are well on their way to being huge as well. We set our budget between 300-600 depending on what we need to restock. I usually spend about 450 a month (give or take). This includes meat for dinner 6 nights a week. Plus fresh veggies and fruit daily. I cook from scratch and try to buy as little processed junk as possible.

[*Lindsey*]

2 adults and 2 kids here right now. I'm pregnant with twins and currently have an appetite that's out of this world , so our food budget is up a little bit lately.

We usually spend $200-$250 on groceries. We eat meat (4-5 nights a week) and don't buy organics unless their really on sale. We do have a huge garden and eat fresh out of there all summer and also stock the freezer to last us most of the winter. I don't buy pre-packaged stuff and cook/bake from scratch.

[my2girlz]

I spend $500-$600 for our house of 6. My 22 year old brother is living with our family of 5 right now so I've had to increase my amount. Unfortunately, with the increasing costs of groceries it isn't getting us much more food.

My dh is on the candida diet plus can't have citric acid and onion, 2 kids can't have milk and citric acid. We make most everything from scratch and aren't a "snacky" family (except my brother).

[Sihaya]

2 adults right now. We just bumped our food budget from $150/mo to $400/mo after DH got a hefty raise last week. We have no eating restrictions as far as health goes, but try to eat Traditional Foods. We get as much organic as we can and lots of meat, milk, eggs, cheese, and other expensive things. After bills, food is our first priority, so I don't worry as much about being frugal as about being healthy and getting stuff we enjoy. I'd rather cut our spending in other areas (not eating out, no disposable products like paper towels, no cable tv or internet, etc.)

[MissMommyNiceNice]

I'm spoiled and will spend money on food before a lot of other things! Leta, I am jealous! Wish my hubby would bake, but he made a bag cookie mix last night and used *yikes* wax paper instead of parchment! Could've burned the whole darn house down!

We are two plus a tiny babe. $150 a week. I cook everything (well 95%) from scratch with fresh. We're ovo-lacto vegetarians, buy either local organic (first choice), local (second choice) or store organic (last choice). I do can & have started a serious freezing habit this year. It's always more in the summer because of my "putting up" but I figure it's cheaper to buy it now when it's plentiful instead of paying $5 for jelly in the winter. Oh, and we use the preserves as gifts at Christmas/b-days/etc. Saves some serious cash then. My DH is a wisconsin Cheese Head and we spend probably $100 mo on cheese alone.

I wish we could do better, and hope to join our local CSA this year or next, when money loosens up. I try to grow things to eat (previously had a huge well-producing garden) but my city lot eats my veggies alive! I do find placing advanced orders with my farmers keeps price down a little.

Man, I just love food too much!