I am blessed to have a military commissary at my disposal. I usually will spend about $140 there, which includes things like paper towels and toilet paper, and it will last us about two weeks. I figure I spend another $10 a week in "bread and milk" money.
this includes dog food, cat food, and food for mom. i eat so little. but we eat a whole lot of convenience foods because mom is incapable of cooking anything at this point. if we'd actually cook, this food bill would be reduced by at least 20 bucks, i think.
I tried to vote an "average". some weeks it's just a few things, then once a month or so we do a "coupon" run which includes all sorts of things. We also eat out a lot.
This week I got a real bargain (love those). Store had WW Smart One entrees at 50% off. I also had a coupon for $1 off 4 of them. So I got 4 for a total of $3.24. Have never tried them so hope I LOVE them or it won't be such a bargain. dh of course won't eat them but then he doesn't need to.
WW entrees aren't as good as Healthy Choice, IMHO. I've always found that I need to add salt, pepper, and other spices to help them out. Also, you will probably have to cook them longer in the micro than they say on the box. No matter what micro I'm using - school, home, doesn't matter - I have to always cook them about a minute and a half longer than the time on the box.
We spend a whopping $70 on food every 2 weeks... and we're still stuffed silly (gotta love veggie food...ha) Lately, since it's been terribly hot, we've been eating out more often... but we're trying to curb that, so all in all, for 2 weeks, including going out, we spend maybe $125 for food...in those off times like we've had lately... who knows???? lol it could be $500 for all I know...
Please guys tell me how you spend so little.
We spend 120 a week and still eat out once or twice and Dh has coffee shop money everyday, but takes his lunch. It is our beiigest expense after rent and we want to buy a house this year and can't seem to save anything.
We are 2 adults and 2 young children.
I need help in this arena big time.
SunDrop - Since you have young kids, are you including things like diapers or baby food in your grocery bill? Those two things alone can really add up!
Even though I have the option of a commissary, sometimes it's just too much trouble 'cause it's a 45 minute drive. Here are some suggestions that might help you...
1. Always shop with a grocery list and don't deviate from it at all. This is good for weight loss, too, as cookies won't magically appear in your basket this way.
2. Even if you're shopping with a grocery list, never shop when you're hungry. Everything looks good when you're hungry!
3. When my kids were little, I used to make hubby watch them while I went grocery shopping. I didn't cave to the little kid sort of things they always wanted if they weren't with me. (Although my son used to holler "geen beens! geen beens! get geen beans, mommy!" on the canned veggie aisle.)
4. Try to stay away from convenience foods - especially those pre-packaged frozen family dinners. They're really expensive; you could usually make twice as much for less from scratch. They're horrible for you anyway - loaded with sodium!
5. If having time to cook is an issue, invest in a pressure cooker and a good crock-pot (one where you can take the pot part out of the warmer part). A frozen-solid 4 lb. roast will cook in a pressure cooker in under 2 hours. For crockpot meals, you can toss it all in the crock the night before, refrigerate it, then toss it in the crock cooker part and turn it on before you leave for work. When you come home, all you have to do is make a salad and dinner's done.
6. Buy the cheaper store brands whenever possible. There are very few foods I've found where the store brand is not as good as the national brand, and there are even some things that are better than the national brand! The Kroger stores in our area even have a store-brand guarantee: If you try the store brand and don't like it as much as the national brand, you can return it and they will either refund the price or exchange it for the national brand. Look in your area and see if any grocery stores have the same.
Some people swear by coupons, but I find them to be way too much work. Also, I can usually buy store brands cheaper.
First - write down every supper you normally make. I came up with a list of 16 different dinners. But I'm still adding to it.
Second - come up with a menu (I only do supper).. do this for 1 week. Base your menu on two things.. 1/ food you have on stock (fresh foods first ie. fresh veggies - canned / frozen foods second) 2/ base your menu on what is on sale at your grocery store. ie. ground beef was on sale - I'm making meat loaf this week.
Third - If staples go on sale - Stock up! - but only stock up with all you would need for 6 months. ie. I don't need more then 2 packages of flour at a time. Apple juice went on sale today for 97 cents - I stocked up Get the store's flyer before you go to the store - my store has their ad online.
Fourth - Since you have 4 people in your house hold - make enough for 6 - that way you have left overs for lunch or suppers. On my menu I have one day that is just for left overs - best to do this the day before grocery shop.
Fifth - If you have to bring the kids to the store with you only allow them one "treat" - they can change their mind as often as they want - they can get what ever they want - but only one treat!
Sixth - Don't buy non food items at the grocery store - ie. laundry soap, kleenex
Seventh - write a list - stick to it!
(I have a hard time with this one - when there is a great deal I have a hard time walking away)
I hope some of these ideas help! Grocery Shopping is my favourite thing to do by myself (next to scrapping).
I spend about $100.00 a week give or take. But I have two kids and 2 dogs. I spend about $10.00 a week on them and then have to get pull ups for my little one. Since she is allergic to all but the Pampers brand, they cost a pretty penny. But to me that isn't bad. Granted, I may spend more, but that is the average.
For us the problem seems to be that I like organics and "natural food items", and also that we buy a lot every 2 weeks or so at sam's club to "save" money and I end up throwing a lot away. I do most of what you all say, we don't shop hungry. The kids do not at this point whine for stuff, that's just not acceptable and they know it. I make menus, and save leftovers for hot lunches. I think we buy too much.
Yesterday we made a list for the grocery store and sam's club, I budgeted 100 dollars between them and made us stick to it. Next weekend we'll need another 50 from the grocery store, but that will be it so that averages 75 a week, good for us.
We had to skip chips and cookies (I make better cookies than we can buy anyway) and I wish we could have bought more fruit, cherries were too pricey for instance. But DH said he'll stop at the farmer's market today and see if he can get us some cheaper stuff.
We do include dogfood, and diapers in that, infact had to but both this week.
I put cigarettes(DH), coffee and gas into a different category in my budget too.
This money crap is hard. We make a lot and never seem to have any, I have such guilt about the waste, I have friends who get by on half of what we make aand own a house and two cars and we can't seem to stop the juvenile impulse buying and retail therapy.
Anyway, thanks for your tips guys, I'm just feeling defeated right now, I want some security, I want us to be able to retire and we just live contract to contract. wasting a third world country GNP in the process.
Sun Drop - I've been there, done that! We've wasted money on "toys" I was giving myself a huge allowence (or what I thought was a lot) $100 every week - but I had anything to show for it and was always "broke".
I stopped eating out - big time savings. I bake more - that saves lots.
My dh makes good money (I am a sahm) yet we live pay cheque to pay cheque. I finally said enough. - this was just this summer. My dh thinks he deserves everything - well.. he doesn't make that much!
The killer for us is that his ex ruined his credit rating - we've are still working on that (should be fixed by spring) - I have no credit here in the states. We pay $700/month on child support. That's what hurts!
We recently got rid of digital cable - we don't need to watch that much tv.
Dana, it's good to hear we are not alone.
We don't have the excuse of childsupport or even child care. We have gotten by with one car for years, though that's about to end.
We don't have a lot of debt, just the truck we purchased last year, Credit card is under 500, and we try to keep at zero. Health insurance kills us, 500/month, and we have a rather high tax burden as the owners of our company. So why do we never have money? beats me... I don't have a lot of clothes, we seem to have a bunch of video games though!
We have a lot of computers but write most off as business expenses. We don't eat out, 2 yo prevents it nicely. We get take-out maybe twice a week. we use the library for books and videos.
We have high speed cable modem and every movie channel available, but we never get out, no babysitter (literally have not been without kids since last November), so I feel like we need to have that entertainment factor you know.
i guess that's what it boils down to, we feel we are entitled, we both work really hard and treat ourselves. It has to stop.
Grocery Shopping
