Tell me about your grocery / food budget - family of 4 edition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simplify recipes, reduce waste, and maintain high quality standards.

Buying low quality, ultra processed foods to save money is really unwise. Don’t cut corners on quality to save money.

I’d rather buy high quality rice and beans and eat that every night with a roasted vegetable from a local farm than shop around for what prepackaged brands are cheaper and how to buy the cheaper store brand. Pinto beans made with high quality ingredients is incredibly good and can be made for like 50 cents a serving.

If you can’t afford high quality ingredients for one type of recipe make the recipe where you can buy the high quality ingredients.

More studies are absolutely needed but the connection between all sorts of health indicators and what we eat is becoming really apparent. Ultra processed foods, additives, and unnecessary levels of oils/fats, sugar, and salt found in packaged goods, foods made so that they’re over consumed and digested quickly… let alone eating out at basically anywhere, has the potential for being massively negative.

Spend less by simplifying recipes, using fewer high cost ingredients, but the money you do spend use on quality ingredients that are as fresh and local as you can find. If you shop the seasons for a few meals a week you will get a great variety and then for the rest of the meals simply fix asparagus, carrots, broccoli roasted or boiled with butter and salt as routine sides with a rotating protein - roasted whole chickens can be very cost effective. Make soups with high quality, but less desirable cuts of meat.

For meats, high quality meats can be pricey but typically taste delicious when prepared with routine pantry items (salt, pepper, butter, mustard, herbs, et ). No need to buy a ton of ingredients you don’t use all of.

And, if you make simple recipes the desire to eat out goes down because it’s not so draining to cook. I can roast a veggie and cook a pork chop with a nice pan sauce without any preplanning or special ingredients in about 30 minutes with minimal clean up needed. Rub a chicken down with salt and butter, and stick it in the oven.. place a veggie in a separate pan and roast in the same oven, 1 hour and you don’t even need to be tending it the whole time. These meals are less than 10 dollars each and they’re the most expensive you’d make. Soups, relying on legumes, etc can lower the price if you are in a financial pinch.

But there’s a certain cost to producing high quality food - if you see chicken for 1.99 per pound, there’s a reason it’s so cheap.

This mindset won’t save you money. I am NOT saying the mindset should be “eat crappy items because the savings is worth it.” I’m saying you can buy cheaper items and still eat healthy. I do not believe that cheaper items equate to poor quality. If you believe this, then your groceries will always be higher than people who don’t believe this.

I’m not sure what made you think from what I wrote that my goal was to win a competition for “cheapest” grocery bill.

Absolutely nothing in your post said that. I pointed it out though since you posted it in a thread looking for budgeting tips. Did you think OP was asking for tips on how to spend a lot on groceries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About once a year I go through the "I'm spending too much on groceries" and try to shop around and check out different supermarkets, including Lidl and Aldis.

Here's the reality: switching to Lidl or whatever from Whole Foods for the *same basket of goods* will not save you very much money. You will save something, but I doubt it's going to be more than 10-15% altogether. Maybe it's worth it to you, but maybe not. For me it wasn't because I also don't really need to save the differential.

What I discovered is that you save money by changing what you eat completely. Don't get the nicer cheeses at $10-12 a block but the cheap ones at $3.50 a block. Get cheap coffee, not imported ones. Eat lots of casseroles made with rice/beans/pasta, and eat the leftovers the next night. Don't buy steaks but have sausages. That's where the savings add up, not going to Lidl to pay $1 less on a specific item. In short, it's more about being smart with what you cook and eat, not being smart in where you shop.

Completely disagree. Take milk, its usually at least $2 less a gallon at Aldi or Lidl than at most stores. We got through 2 gallons a week. In a year, that’s $104+ savings in a year. Multiply that onward: pasta, produce, cheese, eggs, etc. produce is significantly cheaper at aldi and lidl.

It does seem like people are adverse to those stores (or aren’t). If you are - fine but you’re kidding yourself if you think you’re not saving quite a bit at those stores.

I have poured over the prices at Aldis/Lidls versus WF. The former are unquestionably cheaper. But if you are spending $200 at WF, you may save $40 by going to Aldi/Lidl. And the quality won't be the same either. Aldi's yoghurt may be 69 cents versus 1.50 at Whole Foods but the latter is definitely better tasting. It's up to you to decide whether $40 is worth the tradeoffs. If you're consuming a lot of produce, Aldi's produce isn't necessarily much cheaper than WF.

But you can also save more money by changing what you cook and eat to what you can find regularly at Aldis/Lidl. And this is why there's so much disparity with people's experiences shopping for groceries because it really comes down to what they are buying and eating rather than the store in question.

Now I want to do an actual week to week comparison of the same items (and I do buy the higher end Aldi options like grass fed beef and organic milk), but I think the savings are closer to 40% than 20% for what my family is buying and eating. If Whole Foods was what it was in 2009 (marginally more expensive for MUCH better quality) I’d be fine going there but the prices are bonkers, and it’s not like the items are that much better IMO.

I go to Lidl first before going to WF as part of a typical Saturday shopping. I pay close attention to the prices. Here's the reality:

Produce: Lidl's produce is barely cheaper - if at all - compared to Whole Foods. This may be the surprising part for most people. Lidl had organic carrots for 1.29 a pound. Exact same price at WF. Lidl had a big box of spinach for $3.99. At WF it's $4.99 - BUT the Lidl's boxes were already going a bit wet and manky at the bottom while WF's fresh and crisp. Lidl's berries are comparable to WF, if maybe ever so slightly cheaper by a few pennies, but Lidl's berries were also bruised and leaking juice. Apples by the bag were comparably priced but Lidl's were paler, less ripe and more bruised.

Fruit juice, particular orange: Lidl's is about $1.25 cheaper compared to WF's brand orange juice, BUT it is also not as fresh. It's fine and reminds me of the hotel orange juices I've had in Germany (now I know where they get them!) but WF's OJ really is that much better tasting.

Dairy: we eat a lot of yoghurt. Lidl has cheap yoghurt, 60 cents a pot compared to the average of 1.50 I spend at WF, but Lidl's yoghurt is also filled with filler and fructose corn syrup (read the ingredients) whereas the ones at WF aren't.

Lidl does have some good value for cheeses. I like their imported English cheddar. At $4 a block it's great value so we load up. Comparable cheese at WF is around $6 for the block (pay attention to the cost per ounce). Lidl also has good value imported reggiano parmigiano.

I do stock up bags of cookies for the house and other pantry staples that may be in stock and. Some of their frozen items are cheaper than similar/identical at WF, saving perhaps 1-1.50 per item compared to Whole Foods, so I'll get a bag or two of frozen sweet potato waffle fries. I also get their ravioli, which is good value.

I rarely buy meat at Lidl but I have bought their German sausages, which are fine, but they're barely cheaper than similar at WF. Maybe a dollar a package, if that.

The jarred pasta sauces are cheap and like all jarred pasta sauces they're laded with sugar. Fine occasionally, but WF's range is better quality even if you do pay for it.

I don't mind stopping at Lidl and I have saved a bit of money, but I also notice that few people do full shops there, it's mostly people like me doing a sweep and seeing what's available. Trying to buy everything at Lidl will result in a lower bill but you are definitely, unquestionably, getting tradeoffs like lower quality. Cheap eggs are cheap for a reason.

I don't find WF particularly expensive. Produce is excellent, frankly, fantastic value at WF for the quality you get. They have phenomenal supply chains. The 365 store label is perfectly good and affordable. Their meat is really quite fairly priced and even affordable for what you're getting. If you go crazy with artisanal olive oil and fancy cheeses and gourmet ravioli, your bill will definitely explode. But for basic everyday shopping, WF is not unreasonably expensive and their produce blows every other supermarket out of the water, and dare I say it, is better than much of what you get at the farmers' markets too.

[Anonymous]

^^ that’s because you dont shop the weekly sale. The bag of kale I got last week from Lidl was 1.99. The bag of (lemonade) apples were $1.09/pound. I buy berries on sale at Lidl or or Aldi only if they are on sale - otherwise, we live with: plums, peaches, grapes (various colors), mangoes, oranges, bananas, etc - whatever is on sale. If you shop this way, you save a ton of money. (Last week the regular price for bananas was $.32/lb (versus .69/lb at WF) and a pineapple was $1.49 (versus the $3.49 Prime member sale price at WF). If you’re not seeing a massive savings, you’re doing something wrong. Oh, and from your description of the produce at Lidl, you will never be happy there. That’s fine, too.

Some of This week’s prices at Aldi: cara cara oranges, 3 lbs $2.99, pineapples $1.49, pink lady apples $2.89 for 3 lbs, $1.29 for a package of baby portabello mushrooms
So my family can happily have 3 lbs of orange, 3 lbs of apples, and 2 pineapples for less than $10.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]^^ that’s because you dont shop the weekly sale. The bag of kale I got last week from Lidl was 1.99. The bag of (lemonade) apples were $1.09/pound. I buy berries on sale at Lidl or or Aldi only if they are on sale - otherwise, we live with: plums, peaches, grapes (various colors), mangoes, oranges, bananas, etc - whatever is on sale. If you shop this way, you save a ton of money. (Last week the regular price for bananas was $.32/lb (versus .69/lb at WF) and a pineapple was $1.49 (versus the $3.49 Prime member sale price at WF). If you’re not seeing a massive savings, you’re doing something wrong. Oh, and from your description of the produce at Lidl, you will never be happy there. That’s fine, too.

Some of This week’s prices at Aldi: cara cara oranges, 3 lbs $2.99, pineapples $1.49, pink lady apples $2.89 for 3 lbs, $1.29 for a package of baby portabello mushrooms
So my family can happily have 3 lbs of orange, 3 lbs of apples, and 2 pineapples for less than $10.


[/quote]

I can tell you're not interested in food. You just want the cheapest possible deals. And look at your deals. You're saving pennies but it reminds me of the old saying penny wise pound foolish. You're happy with $10 at Lidl because the same basket is $15 at WF, but you get much better quality at WF (and WF has extremely cheap bananas and mangos too). I do care about freshness and quality and not ending up with bags of bruised apples with no flavor and fruit going moldy after a day or two. Which has been my experience shopping at Lidl.

Lidl is cheap for a reason. It is not quality at cheap prices. They get cheap prices by getting the cheapest and/or surplus. There are a few exceptions and some good buys in there that makes it worthwhile stopping in there. But as long as you are realistic about what you are getting and only care about saving money, Lidl will be fine for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simplify recipes, reduce waste, and maintain high quality standards.

Buying low quality, ultra processed foods to save money is really unwise. Don’t cut corners on quality to save money.

I’d rather buy high quality rice and beans and eat that every night with a roasted vegetable from a local farm than shop around for what prepackaged brands are cheaper and how to buy the cheaper store brand. Pinto beans made with high quality ingredients is incredibly good and can be made for like 50 cents a serving.

If you can’t afford high quality ingredients for one type of recipe make the recipe where you can buy the high quality ingredients.

More studies are absolutely needed but the connection between all sorts of health indicators and what we eat is becoming really apparent. Ultra processed foods, additives, and unnecessary levels of oils/fats, sugar, and salt found in packaged goods, foods made so that they’re over consumed and digested quickly… let alone eating out at basically anywhere, has the potential for being massively negative.

Spend less by simplifying recipes, using fewer high cost ingredients, but the money you do spend use on quality ingredients that are as fresh and local as you can find. If you shop the seasons for a few meals a week you will get a great variety and then for the rest of the meals simply fix asparagus, carrots, broccoli roasted or boiled with butter and salt as routine sides with a rotating protein - roasted whole chickens can be very cost effective. Make soups with high quality, but less desirable cuts of meat.

For meats, high quality meats can be pricey but typically taste delicious when prepared with routine pantry items (salt, pepper, butter, mustard, herbs, et ). No need to buy a ton of ingredients you don’t use all of.

And, if you make simple recipes the desire to eat out goes down because it’s not so draining to cook. I can roast a veggie and cook a pork chop with a nice pan sauce without any preplanning or special ingredients in about 30 minutes with minimal clean up needed. Rub a chicken down with salt and butter, and stick it in the oven.. place a veggie in a separate pan and roast in the same oven, 1 hour and you don’t even need to be tending it the whole time. These meals are less than 10 dollars each and they’re the most expensive you’d make. Soups, relying on legumes, etc can lower the price if you are in a financial pinch.

But there’s a certain cost to producing high quality food - if you see chicken for 1.99 per pound, there’s a reason it’s so cheap.

This mindset won’t save you money. I am NOT saying the mindset should be “eat crappy items because the savings is worth it.” I’m saying you can buy cheaper items and still eat healthy. I do not believe that cheaper items equate to poor quality. If you believe this, then your groceries will always be higher than people who don’t believe this.

I’m not sure what made you think from what I wrote that my goal was to win a competition for “cheapest” grocery bill.

Absolutely nothing in your post said that. I pointed it out though since you posted it in a thread looking for budgeting tips. Did you think OP was asking for tips on how to spend a lot on groceries?

You seem a bit dumb. My post wasn’t about how to spend as little as possible on groceries. It was how to spend less but still have high quality food.

If you want to spend as little as possible just eat cereal and Aldi brand milk for 3 meals a day. Have ramen once in a while. There, all done.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]^^ that’s because you dont shop the weekly sale. The bag of kale I got last week from Lidl was 1.99. The bag of (lemonade) apples were $1.09/pound. I buy berries on sale at Lidl or or Aldi only if they are on sale - otherwise, we live with: plums, peaches, grapes (various colors), mangoes, oranges, bananas, etc - whatever is on sale. If you shop this way, you save a ton of money. (Last week the regular price for bananas was $.32/lb (versus .69/lb at WF) and a pineapple was $1.49 (versus the $3.49 Prime member sale price at WF). If you’re not seeing a massive savings, you’re doing something wrong. Oh, and from your description of the produce at Lidl, you will never be happy there. That’s fine, too.

Some of This week’s prices at Aldi: cara cara oranges, 3 lbs $2.99, pineapples $1.49, pink lady apples $2.89 for 3 lbs, $1.29 for a package of baby portabello mushrooms
So my family can happily have 3 lbs of orange, 3 lbs of apples, and 2 pineapples for less than $10.


[/quote]

I went into an Aldi once because I needed garlic and was in a pinch. That place looked like a well stocked Soviet commissary. Bleak.

[Anonymous]

It’s clear that those who stick their nose up at Lidl and Aldi will always do so, no matter what. Whole Foods shoppers will not be happy there. It is not because there is a difference in quality (and in any event both stores have a double your money back guarantee), it is bc they believe there is a difference. That is exactly how WF gets repeat customers.

I urge those who want to save money to try those 2 stores with an open mind. (Let me guess…WF posters are about to say they did so- no, you didn’t).

[Anonymous]

Also clear that WF people think Aldi people eat horribly OR live on rice, beans and cereal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s clear that those who stick their nose up at Lidl and Aldi will always do so, no matter what. Whole Foods shoppers will not be happy there. It is not because there is a difference in quality (and in any event both stores have a double your money back guarantee), it is bc they believe there is a difference. That is exactly how WF gets repeat customers.

I urge those who want to save money to try those 2 stores with an open mind. (Let me guess…WF posters are about to say they did so- no, you didn’t).

You are accusing others of doing what you are doing yourself, failing to be open minded.

I shop at Lidl and Whole Foods every week. I go into both stores all the time. I know the pros and cons of both stores. You are flat out wrong *wrong* in claiming there is no difference in quality, which probably wins for the most foolish comment for the week. It doesn't mean Lidl is bad, it doesn't sell rotten food, the bakery is pretty decent, and there is some overlap that makes Lidl the better value for some items. But Lidl is also cheap for a reason.

If Lidl/Aldis were really that amazing while being cheap, they'd drive out every other supermarket out of business. But they aren't.

I encourage you to be open minded and try out Whole Foods. You might be surprised. But I suspect you are someone who doesn't care about the taste, flavor and freshness of food. You just care about how cheap it is and that you saved $40 out of the weekly shop. Which is fine if that is your priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s clear that those who stick their nose up at Lidl and Aldi will always do so, no matter what. Whole Foods shoppers will not be happy there. It is not because there is a difference in quality (and in any event both stores have a double your money back guarantee), it is bc they believe there is a difference. That is exactly how WF gets repeat customers.

I urge those who want to save money to try those 2 stores with an open mind. (Let me guess…WF posters are about to say they did so- no, you didn’t).

You are accusing others of doing what you are doing yourself, failing to be open minded.

I shop at Lidl and Whole Foods every week. I go into both stores all the time. I know the pros and cons of both stores. You are flat out wrong *wrong* in claiming there is no difference in quality, which probably wins for the most foolish comment for the week. It doesn't mean Lidl is bad, it doesn't sell rotten food, the bakery is pretty decent, and there is some overlap that makes Lidl the better value for some items. But Lidl is also cheap for a reason.

If Lidl/Aldis were really that amazing while being cheap, they'd drive out every other supermarket out of business. But they aren't.

I encourage you to be open minded and try out Whole Foods. You might be surprised. But I suspect you are someone who doesn't care about the taste, flavor and freshness of food. You just care about how cheap it is and that you saved $40 out of the weekly shop. Which is fine if that is your priority.

You assume, too. I have tried Whole Foods. I’ve also tried: Costco, Harris Teeter, Amazon grocery, Giant, Safeway, etc. many, many times. I now only go into WF for Amazon returns except for maybe 4x a year for produce bc it is close by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a budget for food. We don't get fast food at all really - my kids just had In-n-Out for the first time last summer. Food is one area where I will pay to get higher quality ingredients = no shit butter for us; Kerrygold all the way. Costco sells it.

I'd rather spend less on streaming services if we had to tighten the belt.

It’s stupid to buy Kerrygold for sautéing or baking. Like using finishing salt to salt pasta water. Learn to cook and you can save money.

Not PP. Why would you say something like this? You know this is stupid how? Are you Emril or Gordon Ramsey? You have an opinion. No right to insult people. Your opinion also happens to be wrong. You learn to cook.

DP. I think it’s more stupid to have different butters for different cooking tasks. I don’t have infinite room in my fridge for BS like that, so when I need butter I use “the butter”, which in our house is Kerrygold.

Also, WTH is “finishing salt”??

[Anonymous]

Internet consensus is that Lidl is more upscale the Aldi.

Aldi produce is the lowest quality of any chain, but it's still cheaper after you filter out the bad stuff.

Saying Whole Foods prices are comparable is laughable. Maybe you can close if you get lucky on carrots one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a budget for food. We don't get fast food at all really - my kids just had In-n-Out for the first time last summer. Food is one area where I will pay to get higher quality ingredients = no shit butter for us; Kerrygold all the way. Costco sells it.

I'd rather spend less on streaming services if we had to tighten the belt.

It’s stupid to buy Kerrygold for sautéing or baking. Like using finishing salt to salt pasta water. Learn to cook and you can save money.

Not PP. Why would you say something like this? You know this is stupid how? Are you Emril or Gordon Ramsey? You have an opinion. No right to insult people. Your opinion also happens to be wrong. You learn to cook.

DP. I think it’s more stupid to have different butters for different cooking tasks. I don’t have infinite room in my fridge for BS like that, so when I need butter I use “the butter”, which in our house is Kerrygold.

Also, WTH is “finishing salt”??

It's OK to cook simply, but mocking people who cook well makes you loo stupid.

[Anonymous]

Family of 4 with two teenage boys, both athletes.

We spend $1500-1800 per month on groceries. This includes a mix of "budget groceries" - shopping sales, dried beans, bulk rice from H Mart, etc - but also eating seafood once a week, lots of fruit and berries (Costco has great berries!), ordering milk from South Mountain Creamery (1.5-2 gallons per week, which includes using to to make our own yogurt).

We also spend about $1000/month on delivery and eating out, which is where I'm really trying to cut back this year. Even casual restaurants now run $150-200 for the family. It's almost half our food budget, but only accounts for 1-2 meals per week. We all take lunch to work/school, but have a bad habit up picking up lunch or dinner while we're out on weekends, running between sports events or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Internet consensus is that Lidl is more upscale the Aldi.

Aldi produce is the lowest quality of any chain, but it's still cheaper after you filter out the bad stuff.

Saying Whole Foods prices are comparable is laughable. Maybe you can close if you get lucky on carrots one day.

Voice of reason.