Family of 3 spends $1000 on groceries per month

[Anonymous]

We spend that as a family of 3 with one gluten free teen. We cut back meats and buy what we can at Sam’s Club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have several meals that are dirt cheap but still nutritious that we can sprinkle through the month that really bring costs down. With only three people we can make them last for two nights:

Vegetarian baked ziti with spinach and olives. The ingredients usually come to about $15 (pasta, canned crushed tomatoes, one bag spinach, mozzarella and Parmesan, garlic). Might be a little more now with inflation. I split the recipe between two casserole dishes and freeze one, and one dish will last two nights, especially if combined with some fresh bread (homemade so just a couple dollars worth of flour and yeast).

That’s 12 dinners (3 people x 4 nights) for under $20. So less than $2 per meal per person.

We also do vegetarian rice bowls (mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, green onions with soy sauce, sesame sauce) for a similar amount (but can’t freeze so it’s just a two nigh meal) and red beans and rice (canned beans, peppers and onions, andouille sausage). If we do one meal like this every week (over two nights) it counterbalances nights with takeout or when we do more elaborate, expensive meals and really keeps costs down. Sometimes we’ll just eat like this all month in order to save money so that we can see splurge on an upcoming vacation or holiday without busting our budget. It’s not a hardship— these meals are delicious and easy to make.

We also make pizza at home (with homemade dough that we freeze ahead) instead of ordering pizza. It’s super easy (defrost dough, make simple sauce with crushed tomatoes and garlic, assemble with toppings) and is better than 90% of pizza we’d get delivered — there are some proper Neapolitan places that do it better but they also charge $25 a pie and we’d rather eat there in person. Our at home versions feed us for days and cost, at most, $6-7 a pie.

.

Would you post your pizza recipe?

[Anonymous]

Make soup, for lunches. Here is my recipe, takes 3 minutes prep time. Add prep time if you are adding fresh veggies that need chopping.

Chicken or Beef bone broth. Provides 8 gram protein per cup and no fat. 6 pack of 32 oz at costco or sams club is about $16. They only have chicken, no beef bone broth.

Canned beans or pressure cook a batch of dry beans before hand. I like chickpeas and black beans. Rinse first.

Frozen veggies, such as frozen mushrooms from Whole Foods, green beans, peas, carrots.

Prepare a batch of bean based pasta or whatever pasta or carb you prefer to add to the soup. I do this as general meal prep separately. If you are low carb, skip this step and just eat the vegetables.

Add canned diced tomato. The fire roasted with garlic canned tomato is by far the tastiest version. Buy 12 pack and keep in pantry

Add salt, pepper, and your choice of seasonings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make soup, for lunches. Here is my recipe, takes 3 minutes prep time. Add prep time if you are adding fresh veggies that need chopping.

Chicken or Beef bone broth. Provides 8 gram protein per cup and no fat. 6 pack of 32 oz at costco or sams club is about $16. They only have chicken, no beef bone broth.

Canned beans or pressure cook a batch of dry beans before hand. I like chickpeas and black beans. Rinse first.

Frozen veggies, such as frozen mushrooms from Whole Foods, green beans, peas, carrots.

Prepare a batch of bean based pasta or whatever pasta or carb you prefer to add to the soup. I do this as general meal prep separately. If you are low carb, skip this step and just eat the vegetables.

Add canned diced tomato. The fire roasted with garlic canned tomato is by far the tastiest version. Buy 12 pack and keep in pantry

Add salt, pepper, and your choice of seasonings.

I agree soup is a great money saver. You can make your own vegetable stock with leftover ends and pieces from your veggies. Just freeze and when you get a full bag make your own.

You can also make your own bone broth for pennies instead of buying it. Save your bones like you do with vegetables and make when you have enough. You can also buy soup bones. Rotisserie chicken is great for this too, instead of throwing carcass away just cover with water and simmer. Tada chicken bone broth. Can freeze the broth and use for soup, rice, casserole, anything really.

[Anonymous]

Family of 4, kids aged 5 to 7. Spend about 350 at whole foods a month, 400 at costco, 300 at other grocery store. Half of our vegetables or fruits are organic. We only buy pasture raised eggs and milk. We don’t buy much beef, about 5 pounds a month.

[Anonymous]

I agree soup is a great way to save money. Carrots, garlic, ginger (fresh), chicken stock, few peeled potatoes to thicken, and onions - simmer til soft and blend smooth. Or very small amount of stew meat, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, beef stock - beef stew. Various mushrooms, beef stock, onions, garlic - mushroom soup.

Very easy, nutritious and really tasty. Adding it to a meal or having it as a meal cuts down your food cost significantly.

[Anonymous]

Yes, normal with Biden inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree soup is a great way to save money. Carrots, garlic, ginger (fresh), chicken stock, few peeled potatoes to thicken, and onions - simmer til soft and blend smooth. Or very small amount of stew meat, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, beef stock - beef stew. Various mushrooms, beef stock, onions, garlic - mushroom soup.

Very easy, nutritious and really tasty. Adding it to a meal or having it as a meal cuts down your food cost significantly.

But how many calories are in this soup?
You're basically serving vegetables and water!!

I have teenage athletes. They need 5000 calories per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you include takeout in there, I probably spend over $1000 per month just for one person.

Fiji water, kombucha and ProBars (natural meal replacement bars) are killers for me. Also, I’m lazy and don’t like to cook.

Reverse osmosis filter under your sink costs about $50 a year for replacement filters (family of 4), supplies all our water. You can also get reverse osmosis water from the machines at grocery store. Buy a water tester and compare various waters with your fiji water. My filtered water is 15 ppm. My tap water is 175 ppm. I was at costco today and saw so many people buying 48 pack single use waters (kirkland). Like 2 or 4 packs in their cart. I hope they recycle those hundreds of bottles a month.

NP
I've been thinking about getting a reverse osmosis machine under our kitchen sink, but have no idea where/ how to compare different brands.
Can you post what you're using (or any other recs)??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree soup is a great way to save money. Carrots, garlic, ginger (fresh), chicken stock, few peeled potatoes to thicken, and onions - simmer til soft and blend smooth. Or very small amount of stew meat, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, beef stock - beef stew. Various mushrooms, beef stock, onions, garlic - mushroom soup.

Very easy, nutritious and really tasty. Adding it to a meal or having it as a meal cuts down your food cost significantly.

But how many calories are in this soup?
You're basically serving vegetables and water!!

I have teenage athletes. They need 5000 calories per day.

Agreed...my teen runners would not make a meal from this unless it were thick with meat and stew like...and accompanied by a loaf of bread and a 1/2 gallon of ice cream.

[Anonymous]

We probably spend $1k/month and we're just a couple of DINKs.

But just to add to the affordable meals here - I've started making veggie pot pies from scratch.

I use different pie crust recipes - last time (yesterday!) I did this one:

https://food52.com/recipes/78548-stand-mixer-pie-dough

For the innards, I just saute whatever veggies we've got in a big pan - yesterday I used some carrots, frozen peas, a sweet potato, a punnet of good mushrooms - add some broth, whole milk, a bit of cheese, a lot of salt and pepper, and some cornstarch to thicken it up. Pour the innards in the crust. Bake at 400 for 40 minutes.

It lasts us 2-3 days - and thanks to all that butter in the crust would probably at least partially satisfy hungry teens.

The biggest expenses are the butter (we use expensive butter) and the mushrooms.

I usually do a double crust but you could save $ and calories by doing just a single crust.

[Anonymous]

About the same here, family of three with an elementary schooler.

We also spend a lot on takeout / convenience food - which I am always trying to cut back on.

We don't even buy that many extras, and we cook relatively affordable meals, but we don't comparison shop / hunt for bargains.

[Anonymous]

Eat more beans, ideally dried beans you cook for yourself. Using beans as a base protein for several meals a week will save you money.

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 6 and spend about 2,500 on groceries and eating out. It’s insane but despite a year of tracking it, the number hasn’t budged much.

[Anonymous]

NP here. Family of 5 (three teen boys), some with specific dietary needs - and we cook a lot, eat out a lot and entertain a lot too.

Our grocery bill (minus alcohol, entertaining or eating out) is around $2,000. We spend a lot on organic dairy, meats, eggs, fish, berries, veggies and fruits, coffee and tea. But we also save a bunch @ Costco and find substantial savings @ the Indian and Asian stores. The places that are expensive and where we go for very specific staples are - WF, Amish market, Halal meat shop. Wegmans and Giant are for day-to-day grocery runs. I think we can get some economy of scale because we are feeding three teens.

I am mainly paying for good ingredients. I tend to do my cooking from scratch and so I will not spring for things like a platter of cut fruits, semi prepped foods or store-bought juice. We buy very little junk (cookies, chips, soda) and our snacks are geared towards some frozen foods that my teens can warm up and eat. I would think that your grocery cost is pretty average, especially if you are paying for quality ingredients.