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Anonymous wrote:This will likely sound ridiculous, but our family of 3 (2 adults + 1 teen) spends $150 per MONTH on groceries and our HHI is 700K. Caveats: teen’s weekday lunches are enfolded into private school tuition, 1 adult has lunch and/or dinner provided through work 2 or 3 days per week, and we’re kind of insane super shoppers.
That’s amazing! Please post your grocery list & things you make! I’m curious. I couldn’t do this bc I like variety and occasional meat, organic eggs and milk BUT I do admire the thriftiness.
Staples, including eggs and milk, from Costco. Fresh produce from ethnic markets. Whatever meat is on sale that week at the traditional grocery stores (we’ll freeze extra so we have variety and aren’t just eating one type of protein all week). We take full advantage of freebies and almost freebies - for example, we just picked up 3 bottles of organic Kefir cultured milk for free and 3 cans of Pringles for $1 - as well as deals like “get $40 off your pickup order of $75.” We don’t deprive ourselves and would have no problem spending more if necessary, but actually find bargain hunting super fun.
Post a couple days of your menu.
And your teen must not eat much or do any sports—my teens probably eat more than $150/month each of food on top of the 3 meals a day-
Sure! Here’s this weekend’s menu:
Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only)
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies
Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only)
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi
Teen, who actually does play sports, supplements with snacks like nuts, cheese and crackers, fruit, chips, etc., but definitely should be eating more.
But…how do you buy those ingredients on $150/mo?
I think she’s talking about 150/week, not per month. We are family of five - 3 adults and 2 kids. We eat mostly at home due to WFH. We spend 150 per week for grocery, including everything. Spend about 300 per month on dining out. HHI 400k. We are very very frugal people.
No, I really do mean per month. I completely understand everyone’s skepticism, but it’s the truth. As I stated previously, teen and 1 adult have a number of meals provided by school and work, respectively, and we make a game out of extreme couponing. As another PP pointed out, our portion sizes are likely smaller than many people’s - none of us have huge appetites, even the teen who we wish did! We dine out perhaps once a week, and that number is not included in the $150/month because OP asked only for grocery spend.
Ok you win the contest. Does coupon really save money? I feel like a lot of them are just scam. PP you should share your coupon skills - where do you shop, where to get the best coupon, and what are the tricks one need to have in order to save banks? TIa!
Yay! Thanks for no longer calling me a troll. Our family’s version of extreme couponing may be different than what you might see on tv shows (I don’t know because I haven’t watched them). For example, this week’s groceries will be purchased at Ralph’s by stacking 2 offers: 1) $25 off $50 (offer courtesy of Amex) and 2) $15 off $75 (offer courtesy of Ralph’s). We will therefore spend $35 but procure $75 worth of groceries. Many of the items we select will already be on sale that week, so we can get even more bang for our buck.
Thanks for the advice. Could you please provide more tips for how you do this coupon game? I might not have time to do it all, but I'm interested in incorporating some ideas to reduce our grocery bills. We don't have Ralph's near us. Do you do this at other grocery stores?
I believe pp. She was up front that many meals are free from other sources and that they don't eat a lot. Even if you triple her monthly budget to account for more meals, larger appetites, and maybe a little more fruit and vegetables, that's only $450/month. I'd like to learn more about this couponing because grocery store prices have gone up so much lately.
I am from the area and we spend about $150/week. It used to be $100/week before COVID.
Ideas:
- Harris teeter will mail out coupons to use in store (or $25 off $75). Typically, 4 coupons come with each mailing, with a week to use them before they expire (on different dates)
- I almost exclusively buy discounted meat, set to expire that day. Ground beef is $.99/lb this way; a whole chicken is maybe $3-$3.50.
- I make almost everything from scratch. I cook a lot on Sundays, which provides lunches and snacks for my teens.
- I make soup with bones. We have a new soup in the house weekly. Tons of veggies this way. I also repurpose leftovers into something new. Roast chicken one night may become chicken salad or added to burritos another night. This works well if you get low on the protein (how much meat fits in a taco if you have lots of other healthy add in options?
- I buy almost all my produce at Aldi. Anything that goes bad, is taken back. IF I have a receipt, they refund the money and give you a replacement item for free. I also buy my produce at Asian markets. Many have a discounted area where each bag of items is $1. This allows us to try many new things we otherwise wouldn’t try AND have lots of variety. I often make a stir fry with the ingredients (and also often need to google how to prepare them). A recent $1 bag had mini eggplant, chayote, mustard greens, several varieties of mushrooms and Bok choy. This $1 of produce turned into many meals after I added a $1.54 package of ground beef. You could add rice or noodles if you prefer.
- I shop seasonal produce. If apples and plums are on sale, we get those. If they aren’t on sale the next week, we don’t.
- I hate when people say they won’t live on rice and beans to eat food that costs little - like this. You can definitely cut costs down and still eat healthy. However…what’s wrong with beans? My kids love bowls like you’d get at California tortilla: beans, rice, cheese, tomatoes, avacado, cilantro, etc. we don’t live on Bean’s but they are a great, healthy add in.
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