What is your family's weekly grocery bill?

[Anonymous]

DH thinks our weekly bill is too high. We are a family of five, three kids ages 6, 4, 3. DH is 6'4" tall 220 pounds with a hearty appetite. I buy some organic items, but not everything. And I buy nitrate free deli meats for lunches, which admittedly is costly. We also use rice, almond or hemp milk, so that adds a significant amount. I cook dinner about four times a week and use all leftovers. So our bill averages approximately $230/week. Am I way off base here?

[Anonymous]

Similar thread here: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/84017.page

[Anonymous]

We're a family of 4. Husband also 6'4", big eater.

On average, I would say we spend about $120/week. Usually around $80 at the grocery store, maybe $30-$40 at the farmer's market.

We also go to Costco about once every 3 months. I tend to stock up on mostly meat there, so that's probably another $100-150/quarter.

We buy some organic. Probably not as much as you. I buy lots of veggies, fish, seafood, and tons of cereal. We try not to buy too much processed stuff, been making an effort to get much less of it than in the past.

[Anonymous]

We are also a family of five and our weekly bill ranges from $120 (rarely) to usually about $180 to occasionally about $220. I would like to try to reduce it but it is really hard to keep it low.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thanks for the link. 21:04 I may be doing something wrong. I don't get to Costco as much as I should. But I'm going to make more of an effort now. Like you, I have been avoiding processed foods and sticking to simple ingredients when I do buy processed. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

OP, that sounds about right to me. DD used to be allergic to dairy and soy and those alterna milks really add up. Sometimes kids eat almost as much as adults, you have a big family. Does he think you waste food or buy extravagences or is it just the total that throws him? I find that Trader Joes can save a bit on things like rice milk and Applegate Farms cold cuts, they don't have the range of products that Whole Foods does however. Can you add in some nut butter sandwiches or sunbutter if they are in no peanut schools? That saved us a bit. We also do a lot of apples and popcorn as snacks, also things like hummus and crackers. We've tried to cut back on meat a bit but it is hard and they are growing kids.

[Anonymous]

21:35... it's just the total that throws him off. Well, that and the fact that I go to three different stores. But each is good for something different. But I do try super hard to purchase only what I intended without any impulse buys. I haven't checked out milk prices at Trader Joe's, but I will do that. I do sunbutter already, but that is expensive, too compared to peanut butter. But cheaper than the cold cuts, true. The kids love hummus and sometimes I throw in beans and franks to mix it up a bit. I do apples and raisins for snacks, but not a lot of popcorn. So I'm going to add that in, thanks. But buying foods with a simple, easy to pronounce list of ingredients is expensive no matter how you slice it. I'd love to buy everything fresh, but I'm just not there yet

[Anonymous]

I go to the grocery store every other day and spend $100 each time. We are a family of six, eat breakfast at home and have to send some off with lunches. I try to get veggies/meat every other day from Whole Foods so nothing goes to waste.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on what we are eating that week. We have pantry staples and no-shop meal stuff that we keep in the house but I basically go to the grocery store every three or four days. We also have produce delivered and hit farmer's markets on weekends. My husband doesn't like vegetables and I am not a huge meat-eater (though not vegetarian) so we are often making more different foods each night than I imagine most families do. Honestly -- I think we probably spend at least 400 a week. Also, we do not buy junk food and snack on whole foods (the type of food, not the food store) only.

[Anonymous]

In my fantasy land, our bill is $600/month- family of 3- I too am an organic, nitrate-free person (but I don't regularly buy lunchmeat).

Menu planning helps- so does Mint.com- it helped me realize our bill has never been $600 once!

I buy my organic stuff at Roots now (prob not near anyone on DCUM unless you're close to Olney) and organic veggies are a lot cheaper there.

Menu planning helps a lot. Now that I am adding organic / humanely raised meat, it might get worse...

I try to do one egg and one bean dish / week. That helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I do apples and raisins for snacks, but not a lot of popcorn. So I'm going to add that in, thanks.

Microwave has some nasty toxic ingredient - don't know off hand, but would recommend air popped.

I admittedly have not yet started taking my own advice yet!

[Anonymous]

My friends who have smaller grocery bills than our family eat out a lot and we don't, so it's a "food bill" you shoul look at, not just your store costs.

It's my husband, 2.5yr olds and me. So I count us as 2.5 people eating an organic heavy diet. 3 meals a day, 7 days a week= 21 meals per person each week. Times 2.5 eaters is more than 50 meals a week. $200 a week on groceries means an avg of $4 a meal, less because I haven't
accounted for snacks. If we had lunch at panera or dinner at someplace cheap like noodles and co even once a week we would spend way more than $4 a meal per person.

Do the math for your family. Your dh may be surprised.

[Anonymous]

OP- I think I must be doing something wrong too because our weekly bill for a family of 4 is usually around $200-300 (300 if I add some bottles of wine to my cart at Whole Foods). We usually eat out 2-3 lunches and 1 dinner/week. We don't buy much processed or prepared food, but try to buy a lot of produce and meats. We also have to buy milk and the soy milk alternatives due to an allergy. I buy mostly organic and will spend more on something that is organic/pure vs. junk food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I do apples and raisins for snacks, but not a lot of popcorn. So I'm going to add that in, thanks.

Microwave has some nasty toxic ingredient - don't know off hand, but would recommend air popped.

I admittedly have not yet started taking my own advice yet!

As an aside, we purchased a microwave air popper last year and it works great! It's easy to use, and none of the crap that's in those microwave popcorn bags (although I do still buy those sometimes).

Just add the kernels, oil, salt and it comes out great.

http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Microwaver-Popcorn-Popper/dp/B00004W4UP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1275655160&sr=8-1

[Anonymous]

Thank you!- think I will get this.