We spend $1600 a month for a family of 4. It was $1200 two years ago.

We buy less meat, and we focus on meals that can be made in bulk and frozen so we can have them again another day.

I no longer drink Diet Coke, but when I did I would take advantage of the BOGO sales at Harris Teeter for Coke products.

I visit different stores depending on the prices//sales each store offers. Wegman’s, for example, has the cheapest family-sized boxes of Cheerios (I’m not a Costco member, so I don’t know if they are cheaper there). Walmart sells the cheapest butter in the brand I buy, as well as fish and frozen shrimp.

Now that we are getting into the colder part of the year, I am making stews and chilis and soups. I usually halve the meat and double the beans. I’ll also use less costly cuts of beef for something like beef stew - in the slow cooker it gets very tender.

We also do meatless twice a week. It’s cheap to make your own pizza at home. I have found it’s really easy to make your own tortillas and burrito/taco night is also a very cheap option. We have a breakfast for dinner night too - eggs are still a cheaper alternative.

Walmart and Aldi are still quite cheap. I don’t love their produce, but usually we can get some basic items that are fine. I still fill that in at the farmer’s market because it’s way better.

Anonymous wrote:I no longer buy any soda or potato chips, or pretty much any snack / junk food. They were special treats before, but now we don't buy any. Too expensive.

Have one meatless dinner per week.

Only buy what is discounted that week and make dinners based on what is on sale, rather than the other way around.

Avoid items that are going way up in price; when eggs were high, I just stopped buying and eating eggs. Now that beef is high, I'm minimizing beef.

Even with the price increases, eggs are a low cost protein - just not as low cost as they once were.

Anonymous wrote:Biggest concern- what happens when the big box stores and companies stop absorbing costs of tariffs/taxes and raise their prices? Most are saying January is when we will see true prices. If it gets much higher, I will have to be very careful about what we buy and avoid waste at all cost.

I don’t think big box stores are absorbing costs.
On some items they are as bad as supermarkets.

Anonymous wrote:I know this is off-brand for DCUM, but the regular item I have found hardest to manage is Diet Coke. Prices got stupid at "normal" grocery stores but also went up insanely at Costco. I started actually googling who is selling it as a loss leader (Target, Giant, and Safeway on my rotation of places to check) and stocking up.

You can just quit as coke or beer aren't essentials of food pyramid. Your health would improve as well so extra saving on healthcare.

Biggest concern- what happens when the big box stores and companies stop absorbing costs of tariffs/taxes and raise their prices? Most are saying January is when we will see true prices. If it gets much higher, I will have to be very careful about what we buy and avoid waste at all cost.

What you need is to cook more, refrigerate and freeze more for seconds, buy at Walmart, Costco, Asian stores etc. However, grocery isn't where you save, you save on eating out, alcohol, clothing, travel, socializing, aesthetic services, using car for 10 years, getting a simpler house with less mortgage and maintenance expenses, etc.

Anonymous wrote:I know this is off-brand for DCUM, but the regular item I have found hardest to manage is Diet Coke. Prices got stupid at "normal" grocery stores but also went up insanely at Costco. I started actually googling who is selling it as a loss leader (Target, Giant, and Safeway on my rotation of places to check) and stocking up.

You are kidding? Right!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grow 10% of our food - eggs, fruit, vegetables
Make 25% of our food - bread, yogurt, crackers, chips, applesauce, fruit leather
Cook 85% of our meals

Shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and part of a CSA

You aren't very good at math are you?

If you added up those percentages and said it's wrong becausd it's over 100%,
Its you who sucks at math!

Sams, Costco, csa share (until end of November), Aldi. But overall, eating less and trying to make do with what’s in the pantry. Frozen vegs and canned beans.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grow 10% of our food - eggs, fruit, vegetables
Make 25% of our food - bread, yogurt, crackers, chips, applesauce, fruit leather
Cook 85% of our meals

Shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and part of a CSA

You aren't very good at math are you?

Seems fairly obvious that some of these are ingredients in meals, doesn't it?

I'd actually be surprised that a household that produces their own eggs, fruit, and vegetables (probably not in the DMV unless you eat apples all year?) still buys 15% of meals outside the home.

I still just shop at Aldi. I avoid items with big price spikes - e.g. I made chili with ground pork instead of beef last week. Still try to eat tofu, beans, or chickpea pasta on a weekly basis although my kids are going crazy for meat lately.

That's about it. Yes my grocery bills have gone up, but they're still generally in the $120-150 range for 4 people. We did buy a Costco membership for paper and household goods that are frequently out of stock at Aldi, and occasionally stop at another store like HMart or Wegmans with a bigger selection, and it's those trips that push our weekly spending into the $200-250 range, so we just try to spread them out a bit.

Anonymous wrote:Grow 10% of our food - eggs, fruit, vegetables
Make 25% of our food - bread, yogurt, crackers, chips, applesauce, fruit leather
Cook 85% of our meals

Shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and part of a CSA

You aren't very good at math are you?