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

[Anonymous]

We live 20 minutes from NWDC.

We spend 200/month on takeout/eating out and 1100/month on groceries including personal care items sold in the grocery store.

2 teenage athlete boys.

Mom doesn’t eat much. Probably 90% of that goes to the guys in the household.

[Anonymous]

I shop at Giant, Harris Teeter, and Trader Joe’s.

[Anonymous]

Two high school teens. Usually spend about $300 a week. It includes lunches for all but ds who eats school lunch bc he likes it. We sat out about once a month. Usually do Trader Joe’s and Amazon Fresh occasionally.

[Anonymous]

$1100/month groceries; $100-150/month eating out. Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, H Mart (on rotation). We eat out 1-2x month, but usually at fast casual or lower-cost ethnic restaurants. Elementary school kids; cost will probably go up as they get older.

[Anonymous]

PP: I'd add about $100-150/mo on basic household supplies at Target (toilet paper, detergent, shampoo, etc.)

[Anonymous]

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.

Very true.

[Anonymous]

I posted the same question 20 mins after you and got blasted for a $19 dinner at McDonald's. My son is a very active teen. He has a 20 piece, medium fry and medium smoothie and it was $19. We spend $4k a month for 2 adults, 2 teens. This includes school lunch, work lunch, groceries, and restaurants. I don't know how some people are spending $300 a week. I just bought ribs to cook for my family and they were $27. I am trying to meal prep and cut way back on eating out, but sometimes we are running from point a to point b so there is no choice.

[Anonymous]

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.

Very true.

Are people expected to only eat processed meat? Where are you finding a block of cheese for $3.50?

[Anonymous]

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.

Very true.

Are people expected to only eat processed meat? Where are you finding a block of cheese for $3.50?

At Aldi

[Anonymous]

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.

Yea, us too. I refuse to drive further or a cheaper store, but we are eating more beans and rice. Not buying snack foods and most importantly eating the stuff the will spoil first so that I am not throwing away food.

We are trying to eat out less. Agree we spend $800 a month eating out! Must stop. Ha!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live 20 minutes from NWDC.

We spend 200/month on takeout/eating out and 1100/month on groceries including personal care items sold in the grocery store.

2 teenage athlete boys.

Mom doesn’t eat much. Probably 90% of that goes to the guys in the household.

Why does mom only get 10% of the food?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted the same question 20 mins after you and got blasted for a $19 dinner at McDonald's. My son is a very active teen. He has a 20 piece, medium fry and medium smoothie and it was $19. We spend $4k a month for 2 adults, 2 teens. This includes school lunch, work lunch, groceries, and restaurants. I don't know how some people are spending $300 a week. I just bought ribs to cook for my family and they were $27. I am trying to meal prep and cut way back on eating out, but sometimes we are running from point a to point b so there is no choice.

Ribs are a rare treat for my family. Chicken thighs and drum sticks at Costco are about $1 per pound, so a lot less than $27 to feed the family.

[Anonymous]

This is not the cooking forum, but this is a great website for easy, tasty recipes for a family on a budget: https://www.budgetbytes.com/.

[Anonymous]

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.