Weekly spend at the grocery store - Family of 4? And a vent...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I set price limits for myself. For example, I don't spend more than $2 for a box of crackers. So, if it's not on sale or I don't have a coupon that will knock down the price than I don't buy it. I do this for almost everything.

I do this for things we buy regularly. I dont buy 2L sodas for moer than a dollar, granola bars for more than 2, etc. I don't have the memory/patience to store too many prices in my head though!


OP - we were spending a lot on supplemenatary trips too. I cut them out. If we don't have it, write it on the list & i'll get it next time i go to the store is our new rule. You do not need it now.

Only exceptions are bread and milk, and I now try to stock up on that during my weekly trip because even with the best intention, it's hard to walk out of the store with a single loaf of bread

[Anonymous]

I am in the same boat OP, a family of four and the prices at the grocery keep going up. I try not to think about it too much b/c we have to eat. I know some people meal plan around sales, cut coupons, go to multiple different stores to get the best prices, etc.... but I don't have time for that, so I just accept that I pay more.

[Anonymous]

OP I just went through this. These may be no-brainers for some people, but here is what I changed:

1. Getting the stores ads and seeing what is on sale, then planning meals around that. Especially meat/chicken/fish. There is always something on special.

2. Vegetarian dishes every other day, or at least 2x/week. Omelettes with biscuits, bean/rice, quesadillas, whatever.

3. Writing the meals on the refrigerator and what day we would have them, mainly so my husband wouldn't eat the entire stick of pepperoni that I needed for pizza Friday as a snack late Weds night and incidents like that

4. No sides trips unless you use your own money (for kids)

[Anonymous]

Prices have definitely gone up at Giant, while portion sizes have gone down for the same price. We spend about $300 week, adults 2 teenagers. Now way that I would let the nanny stock up on things. Snacks are expensive, and a $20 disappears after a trip to Starbucks or the mall for food.

[Anonymous]

Wow maybe I'm doing better than I thought! Family of 3 (4 but he is a baby). I spend around $100-$120 a week plus one Target trip of about $100/ month.

Since the baby was born I've been doing Harris Teeter Express Lane (like Peapod but you pick it up at a drive thru) and I'm spending WAY less. I'm not getting anything that isn't on my list (ooooh that looks good! Oooh cookies!). We are also eating a lot healthier. Might give that a try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks everyone. This confirms that our spending is out of control -- we're in the $350-$400 range a week with all of the trips (that does include some beer and/or wine). I do clip coupons. I don't understand how people get things for free, but I try. I'm going to try the list approach and stick with it.

What grocery stores are close to you? I find that harris teeter has great sales that can be combined with coupons to get items free or very close to it. They have the online shopping thing so you can check out the prices of any item before going into the store. Look for online coupons from places like coupons.com, redplum.com Also if there is a certain product/brand you typically buy, go to their website/facebook page and see if any coupons are offered there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get ye to the nearest Aldi. I spend about $100 / week for a family of 4. My 2 kids are in day FT and get lunch / snacks / milk during the day there. When I go to Aldi, my bill is ~100 / week, anyplace else and it shots up to $150.

yup.

I agree with Aldi. They are much cheaper than grocery stores. I buy my meat in this little mexican grocery store. I have seen their meats getting delivered by a truck coming from a butcher shop in Maryland. So I know the meat is good and less expensive than the grocery store as well. When it goes on sale, they have ground beef for 99c /lb otherwise it is $1.99/lb, still cheaper than other grocery stores. I can buy a rack of ribs for $9-10 and it feeds 5 of us for dinner and then usually enough for lunch the next day. I also do breakfast for dinner one night a week and lots of casserole dishes to stretch the budget. You have to these days because food IS getting so expensive!!

[Anonymous]

OP I feel for you. I spend about $1000 a month on food for a family of 3. I find produce and milk, cheeses to be SO EXPENSIVE. I shop at Whole Foods mostly. I spend like $50 just on produce and about another $30 on milk and organic juice in one shopping spree! I find that the processed, packaged foods are cheaper.

I actually find cooking from scratch to be MORE expensive b/c usually it does not all get eaten and I throw a lot away, I have to buy ingredients I may not use again, and produce is so expensive. But I cook from scratch anyway even though it breaks the budget. It's cheaper to buy a container of mac and cheese, microwave it and serve for dinner than it is to make potato soup with all kinds of ingredients, or a casserole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get ye to the nearest Aldi. I spend about $100 / week for a family of 4. My 2 kids are in day FT and get lunch / snacks / milk during the day there. When I go to Aldi, my bill is ~100 / week, anyplace else and it shots up to $150.

yup.

I agree with Aldi. They are much cheaper than grocery stores. I buy my meat in this little mexican grocery store. I have seen their meats getting delivered by a truck coming from a butcher shop in Maryland. So I know the meat is good and less expensive than the grocery store as well. When it goes on sale, they have ground beef for 99c /lb otherwise it is $1.99/lb, still cheaper than other grocery stores. I can buy a rack of ribs for $9-10 and it feeds 5 of us for dinner and then usually enough for lunch the next day. I also do breakfast for dinner one night a week and lots of casserole dishes to stretch the budget. You have to these days because food IS getting so expensive!!

Wow, where is this Mexican grocery store? Do you mind sharing the info? Thx.

[Anonymous]

We're probably spending $1000 a month if I'm honest about all those extra trips you mention. It does add up. I agree with the poster who said you need to retrain your family and nanny. You're right, kids will survive without goldfish if you have tons of wheat thins or pretzels on hand.

Poster is also right that some companies have downsized the product instead of raising prices. I am too busy to spend as much time as is necessary to try to shave some off that $1000 per month. But it's good to hear about the Aldi meats though. Other than alcohol, that's our biggest expenditure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get ye to the nearest Aldi. I spend about $100 / week for a family of 4. My 2 kids are in day FT and get lunch / snacks / milk during the day there. When I go to Aldi, my bill is ~100 / week, anyplace else and it shots up to $150.

yup.

I agree with Aldi. They are much cheaper than grocery stores. I buy my meat in this little mexican grocery store. I have seen their meats getting delivered by a truck coming from a butcher shop in Maryland. So I know the meat is good and less expensive than the grocery store as well. When it goes on sale, they have ground beef for 99c /lb otherwise it is $1.99/lb, still cheaper than other grocery stores. I can buy a rack of ribs for $9-10 and it feeds 5 of us for dinner and then usually enough for lunch the next day. I also do breakfast for dinner one night a week and lots of casserole dishes to stretch the budget. You have to these days because food IS getting so expensive!!

Wow, where is this Mexican grocery store? Do you mind sharing the info? Thx.

Not at all. It is Bestway, which has a location on Telegraph Road just outside Old Town (cross intersection N Kings Hwy). There is another location on Rte 1, where Smittys lumber used to be. That one is not too far past the Walmart down Rte 1, on the left side. I havent been inside that one yet. I think it is a little bigger and i am sure they have same prices.

As for the one I go to, I stay on the outside perimeter. It is NOT a place to buy your canned/boxed goods on a reg basis because i find their prices high on that stuff (will buy in a pinch because it is closer to me than Safeway). BUT the fruits and veggies I find are lower priced and very good. I will buy dairy from there as well because the prices are about the same, but the main thing I go for it the meat. I will say, may not be everyones cup of tea, because i have a few friends who wont go in there. A few have said they dont like the smells in the store. I have been shopping there for a while now, well over a year I believe, and have never had an issue.

[Anonymous]

How much do you guys spend on fruit? While I have all the frustrations of high grocery prices (we cook at home, pack lunches, no pre-packaged etc), we eat a lot of fresh fruit. Damn those fruit prices. We buy them at costco during this time of the year but still fruit amounts to a third and more of our grocery bills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:200/week at Whole Foods (mostly - H-Mart and Trader Joe's for specialty foods).

Family of 4 (7 and 2 year olds).

The biggest money-saver is severely limiting packaged foods and individual portions- you are right that snack foods, crackers, etc are very expensive for their weight!
Cooking from scratch and hardly ever eating out is difficult for 2 working parents, yet this is the most economical strategy.
I buy grain in bulk at Whole Foods. Organic milk and other dairy. Bread instead of crackers, blocks of cheese instead of grated, big pots of yogurt instead of little containers, no individual servings or ready-to-eat already prepared foods. DS goes to school with a home-cooked meal, such as pasta with cheese, broccoli and grapes.
We are very careful about not wasting a single thing in the fridge.

We do the same things - no prepackaged stuff, few ready-made 'snacks' (I'd rather pop some popcorn than buy Pirate Booty, for example). I plan meals and make sure to use the ingredients. Before my weekly shopping trip, the fridge is almost bare. That said, we are a family of 4 (2 boys), kids get lunch/snacks provided at daycare but they wouldn't starve if I had to feed them at home - it wouldn't up our bill. We eat most dinners in and DH and I work from home so that includes my lunches too (sometimes DH's, but mostly he eats out). Aside from DH's bad eating out habit (refuses to eat leftovers), we spend between $90 and $130/week in groceries (food only - I don't buy TP, paper towels, etc. at the grocery store). We maybe eat out once a week (fast food or pizza - so $20 or so).

About a year ago we cut down on meat consumption and now lean towards meals like quiche or pasta carbonara that have protein, but don't require a giant hunk of animal flesh. We also have breakfast for dinner, stuff like that. I'll make a big pile of homemade mac n cheese on Sunday and the kids will eat it for dinner or as a side 2-3 times later that week. It really, really cuts into bills to do things that way!

[Anonymous]

For those like the PP who shops at Whole Foods -- our purchases are organic/free-range/gluten-free, few packaged foods except snacks for my kids, never soda (I have health issues that require as clean a diet as possible.) We try to buy as much as possible at Trader Joe's, with other stuff from MOM's, Whole Foods, or the organic section at Wegman's. Where do you do most of your shopping, and how much do you spend? I am trying to figure out a way to reduce our grocery bills without really changing what we purchase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get ye to the nearest Aldi. I spend about $100 / week for a family of 4. My 2 kids are in day FT and get lunch / snacks / milk during the day there. When I go to Aldi, my bill is ~100 / week, anyplace else and it shots up to $150.

yup.

I agree with Aldi. They are much cheaper than grocery stores. I buy my meat in this little mexican grocery store. I have seen their meats getting delivered by a truck coming from a butcher shop in Maryland. So I know the meat is good and less expensive than the grocery store as well. When it goes on sale, they have ground beef for 99c /lb otherwise it is $1.99/lb, still cheaper than other grocery stores. I can buy a rack of ribs for $9-10 and it feeds 5 of us for dinner and then usually enough for lunch the next day. I also do breakfast for dinner one night a week and lots of casserole dishes to stretch the budget. You have to these days because food IS getting so expensive!!

Wow, where is this Mexican grocery store? Do you mind sharing the info? Thx.

Not at all. It is Bestway, which has a location on Telegraph Road just outside Old Town (cross intersection N Kings Hwy). There is another location on Rte 1, where Smittys lumber used to be. That one is not too far past the Walmart down Rte 1, on the left side. I havent been inside that one yet. I think it is a little bigger and i am sure they have same prices.

As for the one I go to, I stay on the outside perimeter. It is NOT a place to buy your canned/boxed goods on a reg basis because i find their prices high on that stuff (will buy in a pinch because it is closer to me than Safeway). BUT the fruits and veggies I find are lower priced and very good. I will buy dairy from there as well because the prices are about the same, but the main thing I go for it the meat. I will say, may not be everyones cup of tea, because i have a few friends who wont go in there. A few have said they dont like the smells in the store. I have been shopping there for a while now, well over a year I believe, and have never had an issue.

Thank you so much! I don't mind things like smells either. I am going to try it!