S/O Budgeting: Groceries

[mummytothree]

I only buy fresh fruit but I do use frozen veggies, but they are from my father's garden. He gives me carrots, green beans, lima beans and corn fresh and then I blanch it and freeze it myself. We also incorporate canned veggies that he has done.....normally only green beans. If I run out of something or I need a different veggie for a recipe I buy frozen from the store!!!

[ColleenSwerb]

I def agree with the meat processing stuff. Jordan's parents buy a corn fed cow every year and we split it with them. It's MORE than enough meat for a whole year, and Jordan LOVES his beef, lol. We've eaten it even more often this year since his brother has lived with us and the old majority rules comes into play with dinner, lol.

[Stacey42]

We had to wiggle around with ours for a bit. I set an amount, tried to stick with it & realized an unreasonable amount of my time was being spent looking for deals and going to various stores & still I wasn't getting under it & I was unhappy with the food choices. So I set it higher & took some from the entertainment budget. Turns out we don't spend that much on entertainment anyway

It's about $400 a month now for 2 adults & 2 kids. That's average over the course of a year. Some months it will be under $300 and others it will be over $500 if we do a bulk meat purchase chickens, pig or cow, with some friends. I keep an eye on sales at various stores. I do a 12 meal plan every 2 weeks & arrange shopping for ingredients by where they are cheapest. I'm hopeless with coupons so I just keep track of sales fliers.

[Emmy]

I am wow'd by some of the budgets on here - you guys are amazing! I don't get anywhere near those numbers and we don't buy any junk or prepared stuff. I am just - wow.

[jessica31876]

OMGosh yes outlet bread stores are AWESOME!!! We have one like 10 miles from here and can get name brand bread 3 loaves for like 2 dollars (1.79 I think) it is fresh too...not day old or almost expiring. They sell snakc cakes which I dont buy alot but do occasionally as treats and they are 3 boxes for 4 dollars. Normally that is how much youd pay for one box!! We dont go there a whole lot but if we are going past and havent bought our groceries that week we will go in to get some.

Ohhh also farmers markets are sooo much better for fresh fruits/vegies. I buy alot of watermelon. We all absolutely love it. I pay two dollars for one at the farmers market and 5 at the grocery store. We buy at least one a week.

Originally Posted by lovely1m

I buy all my groceries and Wal-Marty stuff together, but I spend about $150-$200 every other week for 2 adults and a toddler. Also check out a local meat market, the meat is often much fresher and a lot cheaper. Outlet bread stores are also much cheaper and I freeze some bread.

[lauren grier]

Originally Posted by MelissaL88

There have been a lot of great tips here!

One question for you ladies...do you buy fresh veggies or do you buy frozen or canned? That's where I spend most of my grocery $$$. We buy meat in bulk at Costco, but dh & I really love fresh veggies and that can get really expensive.

I buy both fresh & frozen organic. depends on the sale etc etc. I'm like suuuuper ridiculously anal about counting the portions of food and stuff ^_^ so I make everything last. Frozen org veggies are expensive so I have to be careful- I also stock up when they're on sale..

[neenee]

We had been spending about $100 per week for a family of 4. That includes all toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.

Now that DD #1 is an adult tho and out of school....she doesn't eat at home as much so our bill is more like $80 per week the last 3 weeks.

I do use a grocery savings program online though for the last 3 years. When we first started it, it cut our bill down from $700 per month for a family of 5 to $450. It tells you what's on sale at your local store and combines coupons with that sale so you get your dollar to stretch further.

[Ainwena]

I am totally amazed too about all of your budgets! I do meal plan and shop according to the list, but we primarily eat seafood and fresh fruits and veggies, so I think that is why our bill is always higher. I have tried to move away from that, but then we end up eating out because nothing sounds good at home, so we actually save more money this way (and it is SOOO much more healthy).

I do recommend shopping online if you can. Safeway is great, and their system stores previous lists, so sometimes, I can get my shopping done in 20 minutes online-and I usually end up saving some money, because that frees up some time to buy the dry good stuff at Target or Walmart.

It is 2 adults and a toddler here, and we range from $120-160 a week (that includes everything-and pullups and sometimes a Starbucks coffee).

[lovely1m]

I buy fresh veggies and fruit, some frozen. I can't stand canned, it tastes mushy and its full of sodium. It might be cheap, but its not worth it. I do buy a lot of generic stuff. I have great luck for the most part with Wal-Mart's brand.

[scrap2day]

Don't know if this will help but my sister and I talk about this very subject A LOT!

We both like shopping at Target. She says that she saves a lot on the exact same products (maybe some of the packages are bigger). She used to have to wait for sales at the grocery for their waffles/chicken nuggets/etc. and Target has them for much less every day. She is thrilled they can have waffles whenever they want instead of waiting for months for a sale.

They also like lunch meat sandwiches but had cut them out of their budget because the meats were just too expensive at any of the groceries. (and her husband takes his lunch to work so I'm sure he would like to have a lunch meat sandwich). Well, just this week she told me that she found that going to a local deli that the meat was something like 75% cheaper. Seems unbelievable to me but again if you can find it...

Our house is a little different. Target for some items, grocery for others. I'm also trying to make more items from scratch but that has as much to do with being able to control the ingredients as saving $$$. (Here maybe I will use a mix but if we want waffles we make them with the waffle maker. But I totally understand that some people don't have the time to do this -- and we really don't have waffles that often).

[4noisyboys]

Originally Posted by mturnidge

I think realistically $300/month including diapers ($40/month) is a good number for us, but hubby thinks it should be lower. I have enough rice, flour, sugar, instant potatoes to last me several months, but I think we spend about $40/month on meat alone (from Costco because it's way cheaper). I really do need to cut back on the crap I buy though because I always buy too many snacks. I KNOW I need to plan menus ahead of time but my problem is I can't seem to think of 2 weeks of meals to make. I hate cooking. lol I think I'm going to go digging through the forum for all those recipes that have popped up here.

Before I read any further, I just want to tell you that it isn't cheaper at Costco. You may get a better cut of meat, but I can find meat for half the price of Costco at Winco, or if I check the meat that is on sale at our other local grocery stores. I shop the ads for the meats I'm going to buy for the week. Seriously...I love Costco meats, but they are WAY expensive!!

[4noisyboys]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

I'll have to try - I know there are lots further west from here, I'm just not sure around here, but I'll look into it!

Just to let you know Darcy, that Gail is a real budget shopper, and she tells me about the deals she gets on meat. I'm so jealous...it cost three times the amount for beef here than it does for you guys. I guess you have more cattle there in Texas!!

[4noisyboys]

Originally Posted by Emmy

I am wow'd by some of the budgets on here - you guys are amazing! I don't get anywhere near those numbers and we don't buy any junk or prepared stuff. I am just - wow.

Me too!! I won't tell you how much I spend...but it is a LOT more than what I'm seeing here. I am trying to be better though. We are trying to put more money into savings each month (although my van broke again and cost me $400 today....that will cut into what I'll put in savings). We are trying to cut down on carbs at night time though, so our dinners are mostly meat and veggies, which is the expensive stuff. Fresh veggies are pretty cheap and definitely fresh and delicious here though!!

[Shawna]

Originally Posted by mlewis

I shop the ads and use coupons and go to multiple grocery stores - something that was not possible before I was a SAHM. I also make up a 2-week menu plan and only shop twice a month.

This is what I do as well, we try to shop 2-3x a month and then just do small trips in between to get milk & bread as needed and take advantage of any good deals I see in the ads. For our family of five (2 adults 3 kids) we try to stay under $350/mo for groceries, household items and diapers/pullups for the 2yo. I shop Dillon's (Kroger), Walmart, Target, Walgreens & Sam's Club and then we also have Aldi but it's not close to our house so I don't get there too often.

I have a bunch of frugal/money saving/couponing type blogs in my blog reader and watch for posts about good deals in my area and then stock up as much as I can on those. Another great site is Hot Coupon World which has similar info to the Grocery Game but free. With coupons I can get all our toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, feminine products, razors, etc. for free or darn close to it. Having a nice stockpile of those items has really helped cut our budget down so we can spend a bit more on other stuff. I also never pay full price for diapers/pullups/wipes, there are tons of coupons available for the name brands and most of the stores I shop at regularly do great diaper deals. Not too long ago I got 4pks of pullups for under $12!

[Nettio]

Wow, I'm really impressed by some of your budgets! We have two adults and we spend around $300/month on average. Which based on some of the comments here, I can't tell if that's good or not! haha We buy as much fresh as we possibly can though - I can't remember the last time I bought canned or frozen fruit or vegetables, plus my DH loves meat so we by a lot of that too, and a lot of that is fresh too. That amount does include all paper goods, cleaning supplies, ziploc/trash, etc. We try to buy as much as we can at the commissary on the military base because it does same us quite a bit of money.

[jannylynn]

I won't tell you my budget (family of 5) but I promise that it's gone up over the years after years and years of having to scrimp along! I still have to be careful and we have a budget but it is better than when we first decided to start paying down debt.

The best way for you to figure out what you spend on the things you need every month is to simply track your spending for a month. Note the things that aren't purchased monthly. So be reasonable when you are purchasing because stuff comes up that you need to buy but you aren't purchasing month. Like cleaning supplies and batteries, etc. (ok, weird example, but batteries are expensive!). Anyway, the second month try to stay within that spending amount or even attempt to reduce it by 10%. But put the 10% in savings. Don't spend it because you might find you need it. Budgets have too many variables.

And the 3rd month review how the 2nd month went. Was it too tight? Can you reduce it another 10%? What did you forget about that came up? Add that in.

And do the same on the 4th month but you should be closer to a reasonable budget.

We still do this. Only DH and I review about every 3-4 months. We talk about what's not working for our budget and then try to make changes accordingly. I found that when we first started and said, "This is all we can spend on groceries." It didn't work. You have to eat! Although you don't have to eat steak every night. And I was being reasonable about what I was purchasing and did a lot of meal planning. It just wasn't enough when I included diapers and other essentials. But we also found other places that we could cut back. I often took out of entertainment and eating out to help my grocery budget. We turned off the cable. I shopped at garage sales for kids clothes. Stuff like that.

I hope I'm making sense here. The idea being that you set a budget that you can live with so you don't go overboard from being too strict. And keep reviewing to make sure you aren't being too lax as well.

[jannylynn]

Originally Posted by mturnidge

I think realistically $300/month including diapers ($40/month) is a good number for us, but hubby thinks it should be lower. I have enough rice, flour, sugar, instant potatoes to last me several months, but I think we spend about $40/month on meat alone (from Costco because it's way cheaper). I really do need to cut back on the crap I buy though because I always buy too many snacks. I KNOW I need to plan menus ahead of time but my problem is I can't seem to think of 2 weeks of meals to make. I hate cooking. lol I think I'm going to go digging through the forum for all those recipes that have popped up here.

I don't want to sound like I was being disrespectful to my DH but we did have this problem at one point in our budgeting journey. I asked him to do the shopping for a couple weeks. His opinion on this changed immediately once he saw how much stuff costs in the store and had to stay within that number he wanted. He wasn't willing to shop around town for the best prices either. So from then on he didn't really complain about how much I was spending for groceries!

He went with me a couple weeks ago and was shocked at how much stuff has gone up. But I told him I'm doing ok with the amount I have.

[Megan Turnidge]

Originally Posted by 4noisyboys

Before I read any further, I just want to tell you that it isn't cheaper at Costco. You may get a better cut of meat, but I can find meat for half the price of Costco at Winco, or if I check the meat that is on sale at our other local grocery stores. I shop the ads for the meats I'm going to buy for the week. Seriously...I love Costco meats, but they are WAY expensive!!

Well, I don't really buy the fresh meat... I buy the frozen chicken tenderloin and the frozen ground beef.

[glumirk]

Originally Posted by scrap2day

Don't know if this will help but my sister and I talk about this very subject A LOT!

We both like shopping at Target. She says that she saves a lot on the exact same products (maybe some of the packages are bigger). She used to have to wait for sales at the grocery for their waffles/chicken nuggets/etc. and Target has them for much less every day. She is thrilled they can have waffles whenever they want instead of waiting for months for a sale.

They also like lunch meat sandwiches but had cut them out of their budget because the meats were just too expensive at any of the groceries. (and her husband takes his lunch to work so I'm sure he would like to have a lunch meat sandwich). Well, just this week she told me that she found that going to a local deli that the meat was something like 75% cheaper. Seems unbelievable to me but again if you can find it...

I definitely agree! One of my pregnancy cravings has been Kraft Mac & Cheese, and here it's like $1.25 at the grocery store, but going to Wal-mart it's only $0.50...regularly! I'll have to do more shopping and comparing...Target is way closer to our house than any grocery stores, and the prices here (we just moved) are a lot more expensive than I'm used to.

[clearskies]

We used to spend $240 a month for 2 adults and a toddler, but now I'm happy if it's under $500 (at the commissary no less)...Alaska is crazy expensive!!!

[opeysmama]

Megan, have you guys actually done a budget before? I have been doing a detailed budget for YEARS. I have a spreadsheet that is tweaked and nearly perfect. What you do is put in your budged amount, then each week you take EVERY SINGLE receipt and plug it in to its category, and you get a running total of every dime you spend that month. You will then know where every singe dollar you spend goes, and it will reveal to you some amazing spending habits, good or bad. I would be willing to send it to you if you want, it would save you a lot of time creating a budget. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. This is an awesome tool my hubby put togehter, he was certified through a church program (can't remember the name of it sorry) but its not for church purposes, it was a program designed to help families realise how important budgeting is and to help them reach ZERO debt!! (We have zero debt, except for our house, everything else is monthly utilities, living expenses). Its a long story and I don't want to ramble, but this tool is amazing and really helpful in so many ways...let me know if you want details, PM or email me...

[opeysmama]

Oh, sorry to post again, the "average" amount for groceries is 14% of income for a family of 4 (I think I remember that right). It's a starting place, and can be adjusted for things like small kids, no kids...etc. I did a google search and found several people recommending that figure, but each family has their on restrictions on that...