How much do you spend on groceries & what is your HHI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to be honest- I think a LOT of you may be underreporting unless you are tracking every single transaction.

seriously. Probably spend $1000/month at Costco, then buy odds and ends at grocery store. Or consider a can of soup a meal or something

[Anonymous]

I just spent $800 in 2 days. Just to get us through the holiday weekend with 6 humans here, plus 2 extra days of dinners.

[Anonymous]

3 people
HHI is about 250-300k
$400 (food and misc items) + $200 @ Costco per month
I shop at Lidl, H-mart, 99-Ranch, Wegmans (meat).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will likely sound ridiculous, but our family of 3 (2 adults + 1 teen) spends $150 per MONTH on groceries and our HHI is 700K. Caveats: teen’s weekday lunches are enfolded into private school tuition, 1 adult has lunch and/or dinner provided through work 2 or 3 days per week, and we’re kind of insane super shoppers.

That’s amazing! Please post your grocery list & things you make! I’m curious. I couldn’t do this bc I like variety and occasional meat, organic eggs and milk BUT I do admire the thriftiness.

Staples, including eggs and milk, from Costco. Fresh produce from ethnic markets. Whatever meat is on sale that week at the traditional grocery stores (we’ll freeze extra so we have variety and aren’t just eating one type of protein all week). We take full advantage of freebies and almost freebies - for example, we just picked up 3 bottles of organic Kefir cultured milk for free and 3 cans of Pringles for $1 - as well as deals like “get $40 off your pickup order of $75.” We don’t deprive ourselves and would have no problem spending more if necessary, but actually find bargain hunting super fun.

Post a couple days of your menu.

And your teen must not eat much or do any sports—my teens probably eat more than $150/month each of food on top of the 3 meals a day-

Sure! Here’s this weekend’s menu:

Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only)
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies

Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only)
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi

Teen, who actually does play sports, supplements with snacks like nuts, cheese and crackers, fruit, chips, etc., but definitely should be eating more.

This sounds disgusting. I do IF and don't eat much, but when I do, I eat good food. No wonder Americans are so overweight and sick.

I am with your first comment. This sounds awful. But why is this not good food? There is nothing bad about what they eat. To the contrary it is all fresh --- none of it is bad -- where are you making the connection to overweight and sick? It kind of is the opposite.

This is junk food. Processed meats, chips, too many carbs, cookies, not enough veggies, no green salads, no fish rich in omega 3, no yogurt or other foods with probiotics, not enough calcium etc.

There is no junk food on this menu except for the cookies.

Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only) --- I assume home made not processed. Milk is fine and people should be drinking much more of it.
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice ---- all fine
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies again all fine and not processed except for the cookies

Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only) ---- all fresh not processed
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi -- same

I'm puzzled by the person who says this isn't enough calories for adults?? Especially if you don't know the portion sizes? There seems to be plenty of calories here.

Yeah, each meal if standard portion is 500 calories. Not 500 a day for an adult. Anyways, eating less calories is good for health long term. Eating too many calories leads to diseases. The 700K poster simply likes to do coupons as a hobby. I used to do coupons and believe that the 700K poster can spend 150 a month given all of the free meals her spouse receives, and the family are not big eaters. All of these posters that can't believe she spends 150 a month need to stop arguing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will likely sound ridiculous, but our family of 3 (2 adults + 1 teen) spends $150 per MONTH on groceries and our HHI is 700K. Caveats: teen’s weekday lunches are enfolded into private school tuition, 1 adult has lunch and/or dinner provided through work 2 or 3 days per week, and we’re kind of insane super shoppers.

That’s amazing! Please post your grocery list & things you make! I’m curious. I couldn’t do this bc I like variety and occasional meat, organic eggs and milk BUT I do admire the thriftiness.

Staples, including eggs and milk, from Costco. Fresh produce from ethnic markets. Whatever meat is on sale that week at the traditional grocery stores (we’ll freeze extra so we have variety and aren’t just eating one type of protein all week). We take full advantage of freebies and almost freebies - for example, we just picked up 3 bottles of organic Kefir cultured milk for free and 3 cans of Pringles for $1 - as well as deals like “get $40 off your pickup order of $75.” We don’t deprive ourselves and would have no problem spending more if necessary, but actually find bargain hunting super fun.

Post a couple days of your menu.

And your teen must not eat much or do any sports—my teens probably eat more than $150/month each of food on top of the 3 meals a day-

Sure! Here’s this weekend’s menu:

Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only)
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies

Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only)
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi

Teen, who actually does play sports, supplements with snacks like nuts, cheese and crackers, fruit, chips, etc., but definitely should be eating more.

But…how do you buy those ingredients on $150/mo?

I think she’s talking about 150/week, not per month. We are family of five - 3 adults and 2 kids. We eat mostly at home due to WFH. We spend 150 per week for grocery, including everything. Spend about 300 per month on dining out. HHI 400k. We are very very frugal people.

$150 a week is an enormous amount. Especially considering her menu.

+1. I think most people don’t understand how much they can be saving when shopping for groceries.

I mean, it depends on how severely you want to restrict your diet. If you mostly eat beans and tofu, okay. If you want to eat lamb and salmon, not so much.

We don’t intentionally restrict ourselves. Adult 1 actually gets a lot of lamb at work (the EA in charge of ordering lunch for the office loves Indian food!), and adult 2 and teen don’t particularly care for it so we don’t cook it at home. We do eat salmon and other seafood.

You realize that it’s crazy tone deaf to talk about all the free lamb one of you gets, right? Most people don’t get that perk at work, and this cost is not included in your $150 a week. Since you seem rather simple, I’ll spell it out for you: PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO FEED THEMSELVES ON $150 A WEEK ARE NOT EATING LAMB.

Born on third, thinks they hit a triple

The other thing preventing people without a lot of money from doing this is...space. When I was a broke grad student and even now, I couldn't benefit as much from couponing or bulk buying, because I lived in apartments and now a small townhouse with no garage and an unfinished basement. These strategies require full pantries or tons of basement and garage storage, and chest freezers. Many people lower on the income scale have these in the rural area where I grew up, but space costs a lot more money in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will likely sound ridiculous, but our family of 3 (2 adults + 1 teen) spends $150 per MONTH on groceries and our HHI is 700K. Caveats: teen’s weekday lunches are enfolded into private school tuition, 1 adult has lunch and/or dinner provided through work 2 or 3 days per week, and we’re kind of insane super shoppers.

That’s amazing! Please post your grocery list & things you make! I’m curious. I couldn’t do this bc I like variety and occasional meat, organic eggs and milk BUT I do admire the thriftiness.

Staples, including eggs and milk, from Costco. Fresh produce from ethnic markets. Whatever meat is on sale that week at the traditional grocery stores (we’ll freeze extra so we have variety and aren’t just eating one type of protein all week). We take full advantage of freebies and almost freebies - for example, we just picked up 3 bottles of organic Kefir cultured milk for free and 3 cans of Pringles for $1 - as well as deals like “get $40 off your pickup order of $75.” We don’t deprive ourselves and would have no problem spending more if necessary, but actually find bargain hunting super fun.

Post a couple days of your menu.

And your teen must not eat much or do any sports—my teens probably eat more than $150/month each of food on top of the 3 meals a day-

Sure! Here’s this weekend’s menu:

Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only)
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies

Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only)
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi

Teen, who actually does play sports, supplements with snacks like nuts, cheese and crackers, fruit, chips, etc., but definitely should be eating more.

But…how do you buy those ingredients on $150/mo?

I think she’s talking about 150/week, not per month. We are family of five - 3 adults and 2 kids. We eat mostly at home due to WFH. We spend 150 per week for grocery, including everything. Spend about 300 per month on dining out. HHI 400k. We are very very frugal people.

$150 a week is an enormous amount. Especially considering her menu.

+1. I think most people don’t understand how much they can be saving when shopping for groceries.

I mean, it depends on how severely you want to restrict your diet. If you mostly eat beans and tofu, okay. If you want to eat lamb and salmon, not so much.

We don’t intentionally restrict ourselves. Adult 1 actually gets a lot of lamb at work (the EA in charge of ordering lunch for the office loves Indian food!), and adult 2 and teen don’t particularly care for it so we don’t cook it at home. We do eat salmon and other seafood.

You realize that it’s crazy tone deaf to talk about all the free lamb one of you gets, right? Most people don’t get that perk at work, and this cost is not included in your $150 a week. Since you seem rather simple, I’ll spell it out for you: PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO FEED THEMSELVES ON $150 A WEEK ARE NOT EATING LAMB.

Born on third, thinks they hit a triple

The other thing preventing people without a lot of money from doing this is...space. When I was a broke grad student and even now, I couldn't benefit as much from couponing or bulk buying, because I lived in apartments and now a small townhouse with no garage and an unfinished basement. These strategies require full pantries or tons of basement and garage storage, and chest freezers. Many people lower on the income scale have these in the rural area where I grew up, but space costs a lot more money in the DC area.

PS this is similar to when UMC/wealthy people recommend au pairs as cheaper than nannies. Sure they may be, but an unused extra bedroom is out of reach for a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About a year ago, I realized that we were spending $3k/month for our family of 3. I was gaining more weight than I really wanted and when I added up the bills, it seemed absurd so drilled into it. We stopped ordering all our groceries from Instacart and dropped the meal service that we were using. Fast forward and we now spend $800/month for an 3 person family and I dropped 10 lbs.

That's impressive! That is my goal as well.

[Anonymous]

We have 5 and a HHI of around $300k. We spend $250-300 a week at the grocery store. Some weeks maybe more.

[Anonymous]

About $5-600 a month for two adults and a preschooler. That’s with a moderate amount of meal planning, including planning to buy certain items at Costco vs the local grocery vs the cheaper grocery further away. I do some light couponing. Also don’t usually buy organic and tend to eat less meat.

We might spend about $200 or so a month eating out- one or two meals a week. Our HHI is 300k. These responses are fascinating!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will likely sound ridiculous, but our family of 3 (2 adults + 1 teen) spends $150 per MONTH on groceries and our HHI is 700K. Caveats: teen’s weekday lunches are enfolded into private school tuition, 1 adult has lunch and/or dinner provided through work 2 or 3 days per week, and we’re kind of insane super shoppers.

That’s amazing! Please post your grocery list & things you make! I’m curious. I couldn’t do this bc I like variety and occasional meat, organic eggs and milk BUT I do admire the thriftiness.

Staples, including eggs and milk, from Costco. Fresh produce from ethnic markets. Whatever meat is on sale that week at the traditional grocery stores (we’ll freeze extra so we have variety and aren’t just eating one type of protein all week). We take full advantage of freebies and almost freebies - for example, we just picked up 3 bottles of organic Kefir cultured milk for free and 3 cans of Pringles for $1 - as well as deals like “get $40 off your pickup order of $75.” We don’t deprive ourselves and would have no problem spending more if necessary, but actually find bargain hunting super fun.

Post a couple days of your menu.

And your teen must not eat much or do any sports—my teens probably eat more than $150/month each of food on top of the 3 meals a day-

Sure! Here’s this weekend’s menu:

Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only)
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies

Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only)
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi

Teen, who actually does play sports, supplements with snacks like nuts, cheese and crackers, fruit, chips, etc., but definitely should be eating more.

But…how do you buy those ingredients on $150/mo?

I think she’s talking about 150/week, not per month. We are family of five - 3 adults and 2 kids. We eat mostly at home due to WFH. We spend 150 per week for grocery, including everything. Spend about 300 per month on dining out. HHI 400k. We are very very frugal people.

No, I really do mean per month. I completely understand everyone’s skepticism, but it’s the truth. As I stated previously, teen and 1 adult have a number of meals provided by school and work, respectively, and we make a game out of extreme couponing. As another PP pointed out, our portion sizes are likely smaller than many people’s - none of us have huge appetites, even the teen who we wish did! We dine out perhaps once a week, and that number is not included in the $150/month because OP asked only for grocery spend.

Ok you win the contest. Does coupon really save money? I feel like a lot of them are just scam. PP you should share your coupon skills - where do you shop, where to get the best coupon, and what are the tricks one need to have in order to save banks? TIa!

Yay! Thanks for no longer calling me a troll. Our family’s version of extreme couponing may be different than what you might see on tv shows (I don’t know because I haven’t watched them). For example, this week’s groceries will be purchased at Ralph’s by stacking 2 offers: 1) $25 off $50 (offer courtesy of Amex) and 2) $15 off $75 (offer courtesy of Ralph’s). We will therefore spend $35 but procure $75 worth of groceries. Many of the items we select will already be on sale that week, so we can get even more bang for our buck.

Thanks for the advice. Could you please provide more tips for how you do this coupon game? I might not have time to do it all, but I'm interested in incorporating some ideas to reduce our grocery bills. We don't have Ralph's near us. Do you do this at other grocery stores?

I believe pp. She was up front that many meals are free from other sources and that they don't eat a lot. Even if you triple her monthly budget to account for more meals, larger appetites, and maybe a little more fruit and vegetables, that's only $450/month. I'd like to learn more about this couponing because grocery store prices have gone up so much lately.

[Anonymous]

HHI $125.

This year we spent $10,780 on groceries, and $5,430 eating out. That's about $900/mo. on groceries and $450 eating out. We came in under budget ($1,000/groceries and $500/eating out).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, thanks everyone! OP here. I know my spending is too much. I do buy organic produce and meats when I can. I think I’m spending like $600 a week. I’m horrified to say that. I’m shopping at a mix of stores: whole foods, local independent grocery store, co-op, etc. Never been to Aldi and don’t really go to giant chains. I don’t buy much processed, canned, frozen or snack foods. I know I sound ridiculous but I’m not skilled at budgeting or planning. I do need to reduce spending. Anyone use misfits market? Any suggestions for stores, grocery shopping/planning much appreciated.

This is our spending as well, OP. And we almost exclusively shop at Costco. Family of 6 (three kids + au pair). Our spending pretty much doubled from what it was in 2019.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will likely sound ridiculous, but our family of 3 (2 adults + 1 teen) spends $150 per MONTH on groceries and our HHI is 700K. Caveats: teen’s weekday lunches are enfolded into private school tuition, 1 adult has lunch and/or dinner provided through work 2 or 3 days per week, and we’re kind of insane super shoppers.

That’s amazing! Please post your grocery list & things you make! I’m curious. I couldn’t do this bc I like variety and occasional meat, organic eggs and milk BUT I do admire the thriftiness.

Staples, including eggs and milk, from Costco. Fresh produce from ethnic markets. Whatever meat is on sale that week at the traditional grocery stores (we’ll freeze extra so we have variety and aren’t just eating one type of protein all week). We take full advantage of freebies and almost freebies - for example, we just picked up 3 bottles of organic Kefir cultured milk for free and 3 cans of Pringles for $1 - as well as deals like “get $40 off your pickup order of $75.” We don’t deprive ourselves and would have no problem spending more if necessary, but actually find bargain hunting super fun.

Post a couple days of your menu.

And your teen must not eat much or do any sports—my teens probably eat more than $150/month each of food on top of the 3 meals a day-

Sure! Here’s this weekend’s menu:

Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only)
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies

Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only)
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi

Teen, who actually does play sports, supplements with snacks like nuts, cheese and crackers, fruit, chips, etc., but definitely should be eating more.

But…how do you buy those ingredients on $150/mo?

I think she’s talking about 150/week, not per month. We are family of five - 3 adults and 2 kids. We eat mostly at home due to WFH. We spend 150 per week for grocery, including everything. Spend about 300 per month on dining out. HHI 400k. We are very very frugal people.

No, I really do mean per month. I completely understand everyone’s skepticism, but it’s the truth. As I stated previously, teen and 1 adult have a number of meals provided by school and work, respectively, and we make a game out of extreme couponing. As another PP pointed out, our portion sizes are likely smaller than many people’s - none of us have huge appetites, even the teen who we wish did! We dine out perhaps once a week, and that number is not included in the $150/month because OP asked only for grocery spend.

Ok you win the contest. Does coupon really save money? I feel like a lot of them are just scam. PP you should share your coupon skills - where do you shop, where to get the best coupon, and what are the tricks one need to have in order to save banks? TIa!

Yay! Thanks for no longer calling me a troll. Our family’s version of extreme couponing may be different than what you might see on tv shows (I don’t know because I haven’t watched them). For example, this week’s groceries will be purchased at Ralph’s by stacking 2 offers: 1) $25 off $50 (offer courtesy of Amex) and 2) $15 off $75 (offer courtesy of Ralph’s). We will therefore spend $35 but procure $75 worth of groceries. Many of the items we select will already be on sale that week, so we can get even more bang for our buck.

Thanks for the advice. Could you please provide more tips for how you do this coupon game? I might not have time to do it all, but I'm interested in incorporating some ideas to reduce our grocery bills. We don't have Ralph's near us. Do you do this at other grocery stores?

I believe pp. She was up front that many meals are free from other sources and that they don't eat a lot. Even if you triple her monthly budget to account for more meals, larger appetites, and maybe a little more fruit and vegetables, that's only $450/month. I'd like to learn more about this couponing because grocery store prices have gone up so much lately.

I am from the area and we spend about $150/week. It used to be $100/week before COVID.

Ideas:
- Harris teeter will mail out coupons to use in store (or $25 off $75). Typically, 4 coupons come with each mailing, with a week to use them before they expire (on different dates)

- I almost exclusively buy discounted meat, set to expire that day. Ground beef is $.99/lb this way; a whole chicken is maybe $3-$3.50.

- I make almost everything from scratch. I cook a lot on Sundays, which provides lunches and snacks for my teens.

- I make soup with bones. We have a new soup in the house weekly. Tons of veggies this way. I also repurpose leftovers into something new. Roast chicken one night may become chicken salad or added to burritos another night. This works well if you get low on the protein (how much meat fits in a taco if you have lots of other healthy add in options?

- I buy almost all my produce at Aldi. Anything that goes bad, is taken back. IF I have a receipt, they refund the money and give you a replacement item for free. I also buy my produce at Asian markets. Many have a discounted area where each bag of items is $1. This allows us to try many new things we otherwise wouldn’t try AND have lots of variety. I often make a stir fry with the ingredients (and also often need to google how to prepare them). A recent $1 bag had mini eggplant, chayote, mustard greens, several varieties of mushrooms and Bok choy. This $1 of produce turned into many meals after I added a $1.54 package of ground beef. You could add rice or noodles if you prefer.

- I shop seasonal produce. If apples and plums are on sale, we get those. If they aren’t on sale the next week, we don’t.

- I hate when people say they won’t live on rice and beans to eat food that costs little - like this. You can definitely cut costs down and still eat healthy. However…what’s wrong with beans? My kids love bowls like you’d get at California tortilla: beans, rice, cheese, tomatoes, avacado, cilantro, etc. we don’t live on Bean’s but they are a great, healthy add in.

[Anonymous]

We spend about $600 and it's crazy high IMO. HHI is approximately $270,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will likely sound ridiculous, but our family of 3 (2 adults + 1 teen) spends $150 per MONTH on groceries and our HHI is 700K. Caveats: teen’s weekday lunches are enfolded into private school tuition, 1 adult has lunch and/or dinner provided through work 2 or 3 days per week, and we’re kind of insane super shoppers.

That’s amazing! Please post your grocery list & things you make! I’m curious. I couldn’t do this bc I like variety and occasional meat, organic eggs and milk BUT I do admire the thriftiness.

Staples, including eggs and milk, from Costco. Fresh produce from ethnic markets. Whatever meat is on sale that week at the traditional grocery stores (we’ll freeze extra so we have variety and aren’t just eating one type of protein all week). We take full advantage of freebies and almost freebies - for example, we just picked up 3 bottles of organic Kefir cultured milk for free and 3 cans of Pringles for $1 - as well as deals like “get $40 off your pickup order of $75.” We don’t deprive ourselves and would have no problem spending more if necessary, but actually find bargain hunting super fun.

Post a couple days of your menu.

And your teen must not eat much or do any sports—my teens probably eat more than $150/month each of food on top of the 3 meals a day-

Sure! Here’s this weekend’s menu:

Saturday:
Breakfast - egg/chorizo/cheese burrito, milk (teen only)
Lunch - stuffed cabbage leaves with ground beef and rice
Dinner - roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies

Sunday:
Brunch - egg/sausage/bell pepper/onion/potato hash, milk (teen only)
Dinner - Taiwanese beef shank noodle soup with bok choy, red bean mochi

Teen, who actually does play sports, supplements with snacks like nuts, cheese and crackers, fruit, chips, etc., but definitely should be eating more.

But…how do you buy those ingredients on $150/mo?

I think she’s talking about 150/week, not per month. We are family of five - 3 adults and 2 kids. We eat mostly at home due to WFH. We spend 150 per week for grocery, including everything. Spend about 300 per month on dining out. HHI 400k. We are very very frugal people.

No, I really do mean per month. I completely understand everyone’s skepticism, but it’s the truth. As I stated previously, teen and 1 adult have a number of meals provided by school and work, respectively, and we make a game out of extreme couponing. As another PP pointed out, our portion sizes are likely smaller than many people’s - none of us have huge appetites, even the teen who we wish did! We dine out perhaps once a week, and that number is not included in the $150/month because OP asked only for grocery spend.

Ok you win the contest. Does coupon really save money? I feel like a lot of them are just scam. PP you should share your coupon skills - where do you shop, where to get the best coupon, and what are the tricks one need to have in order to save banks? TIa!

Yay! Thanks for no longer calling me a troll. Our family’s version of extreme couponing may be different than what you might see on tv shows (I don’t know because I haven’t watched them). For example, this week’s groceries will be purchased at Ralph’s by stacking 2 offers: 1) $25 off $50 (offer courtesy of Amex) and 2) $15 off $75 (offer courtesy of Ralph’s). We will therefore spend $35 but procure $75 worth of groceries. Many of the items we select will already be on sale that week, so we can get even more bang for our buck.

Thanks for the advice. Could you please provide more tips for how you do this coupon game? I might not have time to do it all, but I'm interested in incorporating some ideas to reduce our grocery bills. We don't have Ralph's near us. Do you do this at other grocery stores?

I believe pp. She was up front that many meals are free from other sources and that they don't eat a lot. Even if you triple her monthly budget to account for more meals, larger appetites, and maybe a little more fruit and vegetables, that's only $450/month. I'd like to learn more about this couponing because grocery store prices have gone up so much lately.

I am from the area and we spend about $150/week. It used to be $100/week before COVID.

Ideas:
- Harris teeter will mail out coupons to use in store (or $25 off $75). Typically, 4 coupons come with each mailing, with a week to use them before they expire (on different dates)

- I almost exclusively buy discounted meat, set to expire that day. Ground beef is $.99/lb this way; a whole chicken is maybe $3-$3.50.

- I make almost everything from scratch. I cook a lot on Sundays, which provides lunches and snacks for my teens.

- I make soup with bones. We have a new soup in the house weekly. Tons of veggies this way. I also repurpose leftovers into something new. Roast chicken one night may become chicken salad or added to burritos another night. This works well if you get low on the protein (how much meat fits in a taco if you have lots of other healthy add in options?

- I buy almost all my produce at Aldi. Anything that goes bad, is taken back. IF I have a receipt, they refund the money and give you a replacement item for free. I also buy my produce at Asian markets. Many have a discounted area where each bag of items is $1. This allows us to try many new things we otherwise wouldn’t try AND have lots of variety. I often make a stir fry with the ingredients (and also often need to google how to prepare them). A recent $1 bag had mini eggplant, chayote, mustard greens, several varieties of mushrooms and Bok choy. This $1 of produce turned into many meals after I added a $1.54 package of ground beef. You could add rice or noodles if you prefer.

- I shop seasonal produce. If apples and plums are on sale, we get those. If they aren’t on sale the next week, we don’t.

- I hate when people say they won’t live on rice and beans to eat food that costs little - like this. You can definitely cut costs down and still eat healthy. However…what’s wrong with beans? My kids love bowls like you’d get at California tortilla: beans, rice, cheese, tomatoes, avacado, cilantro, etc. we don’t live on Bean’s but they are a great, healthy add in.

Where are you getting 4 HT coupons? We get one in the circular most weeks and its 10 off 75 but only Thursday-Sunday.