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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
13:04 again. I believe one major reason why we're able to buy all that for our budget is that we manage leftovers excellently. There is very little waste in our household. If we could cook from scratch more, we'd spend even less and it would be healthier.

I agree you should figure out how much you're wasting first. Try hard to not to throw away food or let dairy products and other food expire. I'll devote a week to eating foods made from what's in my freezer. It's a good lesson for the kids to learn too.

[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.

You need to use the app. Fries are $1.19 in there and they have free 6 piece with any purchase.

[Anonymous]

ages 14/17/46/48
gender M/M/F/M
grocery stores Wegmans/Harris Teeter/Costco
All lunches are packed at home, no school lunch.

We no longer eat fast casual or mediocre restaurants. We get reservations for fine dining/upscale 2xs a month. Since covid everything has gone to shit.

Grocery spending approx $1,200/mo
Dining out approx 800-1000/mo

[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.

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.

Using just your example, that’s $2,080/year. (The produce is good at Aldi and Lidl and you could get most things there, if you can get over turning your nose up at it.) In 18 years, you’d have enough for a year of college paid or 2 if it’s a school like VA Tech. But you do you.

[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.

Also agree. For instance, I used to buy specialty bread to go along with dinner - no more. I strategically buy bread that can be used for both dinner sandwiches and as an extra, if needed. Frozen vegetables are healthy and cheaper and just fine in many cases. I feel like I'm back in my early 20's trying to strategically plan meals but here we are...Also we don't have money for empty calories - everything needs to matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Using just your example, that’s $2,080/year. (The produce is good at Aldi and Lidl and you could get most things there, if you can get over turning your nose up at it.) In 18 years, you’d have enough for a year of college paid or 2 if it’s a school like VA Tech. But you do you.

I eat food from Lidls. It's not to the quality of WF. I know because I shop at both. So you do accept a tradeoff for the sake of saving 2k a year. Up to you to decide if it's worth it.

[Anonymous]

Buy real food , healthy food. When you are near a Safeway, shop at Safeway. When you are near a Giant/Harris Teeter/Lidl do the same. Buy the sale items. When you drop your Amazon stuff at Whole Foods, stock up on fruits and veggies, they are on sale for in season produce. If you have kids in activities, do your food out after games/practices. Go out once or twice a month to a nice restaurant.

Do this, and don't worry about budgeting.

Look at your belly, if it's big, put down the fork earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Mom doesn’t require nearly as many calories as the guys in the house. Mom is also vegetarian.

[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.

Also agree. For instance, I used to buy specialty bread to go along with dinner - no more. I strategically buy bread that can be used for both dinner sandwiches and as an extra, if needed. Frozen vegetables are healthy and cheaper and just fine in many cases. I feel like I'm back in my early 20's trying to strategically plan meals but here we are...Also we don't have money for empty calories - everything needs to matter.

Agree. And buy decent quality store brand items. You won’t miss the name brand stuff and the quality is just as good at least 80% of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a budget for food. We don't get fast food at all really - my kids just had In-n-Out for the first time last summer. Food is one area where I will pay to get higher quality ingredients = no shit butter for us; Kerrygold all the way. Costco sells it.

I'd rather spend less on streaming services if we had to tighten the belt.

It’s stupid to buy Kerrygold for sautéing or baking. Like using finishing salt to salt pasta water. Learn to cook and you can save money.

Not PP. Why would you say something like this? You know this is stupid how? Are you Emril or Gordon Ramsey? You have an opinion. No right to insult people. Your opinion also happens to be wrong. You learn to cook.

[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.

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.

Now I want to do an actual week to week comparison of the same items (and I do buy the higher end Aldi options like grass fed beef and organic milk), but I think the savings are closer to 40% than 20% for what my family is buying and eating. If Whole Foods was what it was in 2009 (marginally more expensive for MUCH better quality) I’d be fine going there but the prices are bonkers, and it’s not like the items are that much better IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a budget for food. We don't get fast food at all really - my kids just had In-n-Out for the first time last summer. Food is one area where I will pay to get higher quality ingredients = no shit butter for us; Kerrygold all the way. Costco sells it.

I'd rather spend less on streaming services if we had to tighten the belt.

It’s stupid to buy Kerrygold for sautéing or baking. Like using finishing salt to salt pasta water. Learn to cook and you can save money.

Ugh exactly. My wife buys too much kerrygold so I end up sautéing with it. There’s no difference. And personally, if I’m going to eat it on bread or something, I’d prefer an even better product than kerrygold.

[Anonymous]

Simplify recipes, reduce waste, and maintain high quality standards.

Buying low quality, ultra processed foods to save money is really unwise. Don’t cut corners on quality to save money.

I’d rather buy high quality rice and beans and eat that every night with a roasted vegetable from a local farm than shop around for what prepackaged brands are cheaper and how to buy the cheaper store brand. Pinto beans made with high quality ingredients is incredibly good and can be made for like 50 cents a serving.

If you can’t afford high quality ingredients for one type of recipe make the recipe where you can buy the high quality ingredients.

More studies are absolutely needed but the connection between all sorts of health indicators and what we eat is becoming really apparent. Ultra processed foods, additives, and unnecessary levels of oils/fats, sugar, and salt found in packaged goods, foods made so that they’re over consumed and digested quickly… let alone eating out at basically anywhere, has the potential for being massively negative.

Spend less by simplifying recipes, using fewer high cost ingredients, but the money you do spend use on quality ingredients that are as fresh and local as you can find. If you shop the seasons for a few meals a week you will get a great variety and then for the rest of the meals simply fix asparagus, carrots, broccoli roasted or boiled with butter and salt as routine sides with a rotating protein - roasted whole chickens can be very cost effective. Make soups with high quality, but less desirable cuts of meat.

For meats, high quality meats can be pricey but typically taste delicious when prepared with routine pantry items (salt, pepper, butter, mustard, herbs, et ). No need to buy a ton of ingredients you don’t use all of.

And, if you make simple recipes the desire to eat out goes down because it’s not so draining to cook. I can roast a veggie and cook a pork chop with a nice pan sauce without any preplanning or special ingredients in about 30 minutes with minimal clean up needed. Rub a chicken down with salt and butter, and stick it in the oven.. place a veggie in a separate pan and roast in the same oven, 1 hour and you don’t even need to be tending it the whole time. These meals are less than 10 dollars each and they’re the most expensive you’d make. Soups, relying on legumes, etc can lower the price if you are in a financial pinch.

But there’s a certain cost to producing high quality food - if you see chicken for 1.99 per pound, there’s a reason it’s so cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Simplify recipes, reduce waste, and maintain high quality standards.

Buying low quality, ultra processed foods to save money is really unwise. Don’t cut corners on quality to save money.

I’d rather buy high quality rice and beans and eat that every night with a roasted vegetable from a local farm than shop around for what prepackaged brands are cheaper and how to buy the cheaper store brand. Pinto beans made with high quality ingredients is incredibly good and can be made for like 50 cents a serving.

If you can’t afford high quality ingredients for one type of recipe make the recipe where you can buy the high quality ingredients.

More studies are absolutely needed but the connection between all sorts of health indicators and what we eat is becoming really apparent. Ultra processed foods, additives, and unnecessary levels of oils/fats, sugar, and salt found in packaged goods, foods made so that they’re over consumed and digested quickly… let alone eating out at basically anywhere, has the potential for being massively negative.

Spend less by simplifying recipes, using fewer high cost ingredients, but the money you do spend use on quality ingredients that are as fresh and local as you can find. If you shop the seasons for a few meals a week you will get a great variety and then for the rest of the meals simply fix asparagus, carrots, broccoli roasted or boiled with butter and salt as routine sides with a rotating protein - roasted whole chickens can be very cost effective. Make soups with high quality, but less desirable cuts of meat.

For meats, high quality meats can be pricey but typically taste delicious when prepared with routine pantry items (salt, pepper, butter, mustard, herbs, et ). No need to buy a ton of ingredients you don’t use all of.

And, if you make simple recipes the desire to eat out goes down because it’s not so draining to cook. I can roast a veggie and cook a pork chop with a nice pan sauce without any preplanning or special ingredients in about 30 minutes with minimal clean up needed. Rub a chicken down with salt and butter, and stick it in the oven.. place a veggie in a separate pan and roast in the same oven, 1 hour and you don’t even need to be tending it the whole time. These meals are less than 10 dollars each and they’re the most expensive you’d make. Soups, relying on legumes, etc can lower the price if you are in a financial pinch.

But there’s a certain cost to producing high quality food - if you see chicken for 1.99 per pound, there’s a reason it’s so cheap.

This mindset won’t save you money. I am NOT saying the mindset should be “eat crappy items because the savings is worth it.” I’m saying you can buy cheaper items and still eat healthy. I do not believe that cheaper items equate to poor quality. If you believe this, then your groceries will always be higher than people who don’t believe this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simplify recipes, reduce waste, and maintain high quality standards.

Buying low quality, ultra processed foods to save money is really unwise. Don’t cut corners on quality to save money.

I’d rather buy high quality rice and beans and eat that every night with a roasted vegetable from a local farm than shop around for what prepackaged brands are cheaper and how to buy the cheaper store brand. Pinto beans made with high quality ingredients is incredibly good and can be made for like 50 cents a serving.

If you can’t afford high quality ingredients for one type of recipe make the recipe where you can buy the high quality ingredients.

More studies are absolutely needed but the connection between all sorts of health indicators and what we eat is becoming really apparent. Ultra processed foods, additives, and unnecessary levels of oils/fats, sugar, and salt found in packaged goods, foods made so that they’re over consumed and digested quickly… let alone eating out at basically anywhere, has the potential for being massively negative.

Spend less by simplifying recipes, using fewer high cost ingredients, but the money you do spend use on quality ingredients that are as fresh and local as you can find. If you shop the seasons for a few meals a week you will get a great variety and then for the rest of the meals simply fix asparagus, carrots, broccoli roasted or boiled with butter and salt as routine sides with a rotating protein - roasted whole chickens can be very cost effective. Make soups with high quality, but less desirable cuts of meat.

For meats, high quality meats can be pricey but typically taste delicious when prepared with routine pantry items (salt, pepper, butter, mustard, herbs, et ). No need to buy a ton of ingredients you don’t use all of.

And, if you make simple recipes the desire to eat out goes down because it’s not so draining to cook. I can roast a veggie and cook a pork chop with a nice pan sauce without any preplanning or special ingredients in about 30 minutes with minimal clean up needed. Rub a chicken down with salt and butter, and stick it in the oven.. place a veggie in a separate pan and roast in the same oven, 1 hour and you don’t even need to be tending it the whole time. These meals are less than 10 dollars each and they’re the most expensive you’d make. Soups, relying on legumes, etc can lower the price if you are in a financial pinch.

But there’s a certain cost to producing high quality food - if you see chicken for 1.99 per pound, there’s a reason it’s so cheap.

This mindset won’t save you money. I am NOT saying the mindset should be “eat crappy items because the savings is worth it.” I’m saying you can buy cheaper items and still eat healthy. I do not believe that cheaper items equate to poor quality. If you believe this, then your groceries will always be higher than people who don’t believe this.

I’m not sure what made you think from what I wrote that my goal was to win a competition for “cheapest” grocery bill.