Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4 - we easily spend 12-15k on groceries / yr. frustrating, but it's hard to cut down.

I'm confused by this...that is what we spend as a family of 4 and it covers all of our food, meaning we don't do take out, lunches out, etc.
I think we're doing great and eating well. Why is $250/week for 4 people too much? That's 21 meals!

It's actually 28 meals!

My DH and I spend very little on eating out and our grocery bill is about $200 a week. There are only three of us. But $250 for 4 people seems really good to me.

Most people eat 3 meals a day. That's 21 meals a week.

Wow, this is making me feel a lot better! I can't get groceries below $150/week (family of 4 plus our au pair). Shop only at WF, get only organic unless organic isn't available. I am realizing perhaps $600/month is pretty good after all! (I think I still remember when it was just me and DH and we never bought organic anything and I could do $50/week in groceries, but food prices seem to have gone up since then, anyway!).

My goal for this year is fewer impromptu Starbucks fancy coffees when I go to Target. They just make it so damned enticing and you can get a little cup holder for your cart and everything...ahhhhh. Come to think of it, I should probably go to Target less, period, since I'll walk in to get toilet paper and walk out an hour later and $100 poorer!

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone put all of their groceries and restaurant meals on your credit cards?

Do you keep track of your cash purchases, too?

Do you use a program like Quicken? Mint.com? Microsoft Money?

All of those allow for categorizing, so it isn't hard to keep track of things. I actually go as far as splitting amounts up when it is different things (like groceries and household things from Target for example).

I use my debit card for nearly everything, but the same principles apply to people that use their credit cards. They are keeping their credit card history up, and that is a good thing.