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Weekly grocery bill? Mine is INSANE
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Anonymous
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I have finally started doing a budget and see that my weekly grocery budget is $500-plus !!!! What???
We have 2 small kids (under 4) We live in NW DC. We dont eat out much (maybe a few times a month) and hardly ever order in.... We eat a ton of fruit and veggies I have started cutting out Whole Foods, limiting some unnecessary organic purchases (organic crackers, etc). I am using the Safeway Club Card like a psycho and am choosing by price > brand. But still I havent made much of a dent. Though part of this is that I stocked up on supplies this week AND made about 20 lbs of spaghetti sauce to freeze.... What do you spend? Any suggestions for how to save? |
Anonymous
| We also live in NW DC. My first instinct was shock that you could spend so much. However, we spend about $250/week on groceries (plus about $400-500/month at Target on things like TP and cleaning supplies), and eat out most lunches and weekend, so ours would probably be as high as yours if we ate at home all the time and bought household items/toiletries at the grocery instead of Target. Also, I've found that shopping at Safeway vs. Whole Foods really doesn't save us much. Some things, like a lot of the produce and most things organic, are cheaper at WF. If you can stay away from "extras" like the cheeses and wine, shopping at WF isn't necessarily more expensive. Also, when I go to Safeway, I tend to buy junk like snacks and soft drinks that we don't really need and I wouldn't be tempted by at WF. |
Anonymous
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OP here.
You are so right, PP. Though, when I do safeway I ONLY get the stuff on sale. WF doesnt have much in the way of sales... We dont go to Target for the household stuff--we get it all at Safeway. And I am a SAHM so eat lunch at home everyday. Maybe that is part of it...If i ate out 5x week I would have to add $75 right there... |
Anonymous
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We are a family of 4, two small children. Our grocery is about 170.00 per week and that freaks me out. I pack my lunch for work from that, DD is home with nanny and I pack DS's school lunch from that. We eat out one dinner per week, maybe. We shop at Giant, using the Club Card thingy...I periodically stock up on protein at Costco, but I hate that store adn dont have much storage, so it's not often. We buy the same things each week and I am now working on eating EVERYTHING we have before buying more...empty the freezer, etc.
$500.00 per week sounds HUGE, but you didn't share what you buy??? We buy, weekly Produce / salad canned and bagged tuna crushed tomatoes one mac and cheese crackers or pretzels one juice milk coffee cream coffee sliced cheese one sliced meat bread yogurt greek yogurt eggs frozen veggies oatmeal cereal protein, only if on sale pasta cous cous, sometimes cat litter cat food baking soda diapers - sometimes olive oil / condiments / etc as necessary really - nothing too exciting.. |
Anonymous
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I don't know what I spend. Never added it up. But I have made a conscious effort this year to spend much, much less. I decided only to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables, so I bought frozen fruit and veggies at Trader Joes, and occasionally at Whole Foods when the selection at TJ's was thin. I only buy organic, which costs more, but it's generally cheaper at Trader Joe's than at Whole Foods.
I also shop with a list, and never deviate from it unless I've forgotten something. I don't buy drinks (we drink water) and never any processed foods. I'm a SAHM, and I spend a lot of time cooking. We go out only about once a month. I buy meat and eggs from a CSA (not cheaper, but better quality) and I buy produce from the farmer's market when it's open. Organic produce at WF in the winter is flown in from California, Florida, and other places, so it's expensive. Almost everything you buy at WF is $1 or $1.50 more expensive than at TJ's. Those dollars don't seem like much when you pick an item up off the shelf, but they add up. My bill is always larger than I expect when I check out at WF, and smaller than I expect when I check out at TJ's. I buy TP and other household supplies at Target, WalMart, Costco or supermarkets only when they are on sale, and I buy a six-month supply -- scour the ads. You can usually find whatever you need on sale somewhere. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
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OP again:
We also get: diet coke/sprite cans lots of salad greens (in those boxes) tons of fruit meat/fish/chicken every night But the diff is that I really dont clear out the house each week. We have a lot of stuff in the pantry--like 6 boxes cereal (unopened ....I hate to run out) and back-up boxes of tea, sugar, crackers, butter, etc. And a lot of stuff in freezer. Maybe i should go thru the freezer... |
Anonymous
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Trader Joes rules. So much cheaper.
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Anonymous
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Second TJ's. Their produce has gotten so much better and it is WAY cheaper than Whole Foods. I buy most of our fruit and veggies there, and we eat mostly vegetarian. Our weekly grocery bill for family of 4 who eats a lot of organic is around $200-250, but we do eat out about 2x per week and that isn't included in this amount.
As soon as summer comes I buy almost everything from farmer's market, but it is not cheaper. Maybe more actually. $500 sounds crazy high. |
Anonymous
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With one young child, and rarely eating out, we spend about $200 a week. Lots of fruits and veggies could be what is running your bill up (sad isn't it?). Have you looked at the price of a red pepper in January. You can pay $5 for one.
I've learned to stick with mostly seasonal, and use frozen and canned to supplement. I would so much rather eat fresh, but I found that Trader Joes has really good frozen veggies. The have green beans that taste fresh when stir-fried. It usutally takes a week or two in the fall for my son to get used to thawed frozen fruit, but overall he seems OK with it (and fresh apples usually stay within a reasonable price)We also try to buy non-convenience fresh (not precut) - unless the it is on sale of course. Also, do you eat all the produce that you buy? We used to throw so much out. Now I try very hard to limit to what we need (I plan out meals a week in advance to help. Those green produce bags also help to keep veggies fresher longer. I also try to plan to use leftovers - not hard to do when I pack my lunch, but it takes awhile to get use to (I admit, prekid, I just threw them out). |
Anonymous
| Family of 5. We spend $115 per week on average - some weeks $20 if all I need is fresh produce and others $250 if I am stocking the freezer. This does not include diapers or most paper products. I estimate that these add no more than $50 per month. Cleaning supplies and laundry probably add another $10 per month. Our grocery budget includes lunch as we brown bag it. The key for me is menu planning six plus weeks in advance and sticking to it and knowing where you can buy the things you need for the best prices. |
Anonymous
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Related question about Trader Joes:
I got some TJ frozen fish and was so excited by the price. But it just didnt taste great. Rubbery! Am I not defrosting it well? How do YOU prepare defrosted meat/fish in a way that it doesnt taste like rubber? I am so used to fresh from Whole FOods, but sooo pricey (except tilapia!) |
Anonymous
| Our budget is $500/month for all food/household supplies for a family of 3. So we spend about $100/week, mostly at Trader Joes but I've recently been using Shopper's more...and while I don't like it as much as TJ, bills have dropped to about $75/week. I also use coupons, buy whatever yogurt,etc. that is on sale, and stick to a list. We eat out a few times on the weekend and that is not included in the budget. Once per month or so I go to Target for all the cleaning/bathroom stuff, and spend about $75-100. When DS was smaller we did more organic, plus diapers and formula..this added maybe hundred extra each month. |
Anonymous
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To me, Target always seems expensive for toilet paper, paper towels, detergents, etc. It seems way cheaper to buy them when they are on sale at the grocery store. Is it just me?
I love Target, and go there for many other things, but paper products and detergents are not on the list. |
Anonymous
OP do check out some of the former threads on this topic -- there were some great ideas. As for $500/week -- are you sure it averages that much? Sometimes I overspend the first week of the month, but buy some stuff that lasts all month -- so the rest of the weeks I don't spend the same amount. Anyhow, with just a little bit of thinking and planning you should EASILY be able to spend $300 a week. Don't just write down how much you are spending on food, write down exactly what you are spending it on. Post it here and people will be able to tell you how to cut back. 
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