Groceries: Another Challenge for the Revolution.
Who wants to start a conversation about money?
And food?
If we were all seated together at a table somewhere it would either get really loud right now or uncomfortably quiet.
It just depends on how you roll, I guess.
Our family has been on the Low to No Revolution for manymanymany months now it seems.
I haven’t been continually writing about it, but I have been continually living it.
We’re still using that homemade laundry soap. It’s definitely cheaper. And I made our own hand soap and bath soap a while back and it’s super long-lasting and fragrant. As for the shampoo – well, I don’t know. I used it until it ran out. I think I might have made batch two and used it, but it has not been my favorite. I loved the feeling of the conditioner but was not so in love with the shampoo. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens when I run out of shampoo again.
One of our largest expenditures of money is groceries. (That and rent. But they are a pretty close pair. Almost equal is the rising cost of gas. But I’ll save that rant for another post.)
Groceries.
Budgets.
Keeping your family fed for a reasonable price.
That’s what I want to talk about.
A friend and I were chatting recently about how much we spend each week on groceries – her for a family of five and us for a family of eight.
My goal each week is $100 to $125 on groceries.
I think I’m doing pretty well reigning in the high costs yet eating nutritious and (mostly) tasty meals. But I actually have no idea what normal is. What else do other people spend? How much does it cost to feed the six people at your house or the two or the twelve?
I really want to know – if you are willing to share.
I’ll share what I do – then you can share what you do. And maybe we can all help each other out a little in this mundane but so important routine in our lives.
I don’t buy very many packaged foods. (No ready-to-eat meals and minimal soda (the occasional glass-bottled Coke for Kevin) and very little junk food.)
I use coupons, but not excessively.
I shop at primarily one store – Publix.
We don’t eat meat every night but when we do it is organic and as local as we are able to manage.
I buy our milk from a local dairy farmer and I usually buy my eggs from a local farmer as well.
We do not eat out weekly so the majority of our meals are created and consumed at our house.
The biggest factor in keeping us on budget for me is weekly meal planning. Looking at how the leftovers from Monday’s meal can be recreated for a meal on Thursday.
And that’s really the basics.
Now it’s your turn.
How much do you spend each week?
Are you satisfied with that amount?
And how do you save on grocery costs?
17 Comments
Rhonda H.
I do extra-mile things. Take the chicken and beef scraps and bones and make my own stock (which I freeze). In my freezer are two one-gallon bags. All leftover meats go into one. Leftover vegetables go into another. When the bags are full, I dump them in with my meat stock and make a pot of "Stone soup". I also have a huge bag of over-ripe, peeled bananas (I'll buy them at the market at a greatly-reduced price) from which we do smoothies and banana bread. We try to eat only "twice removed", i.e. each food cannot be more than two steps from its earthly origin. I find that it's cheaper to eat whole foods than it is canned and bottled. I don't do all-organic, because I am an informed consumer. All meats and dairy must be hormone-free, however. We use no paper products (paper plates, napkins, paper towels), so that saves a bit. Portions aren't even close to what is offered in a restaurant, but quality, whole grain, not-stripped-of-its-fiber foods keep you fuller longer anyway. We also stick with protein/vegetables with just a bit of carbs, so not a lot of breads and other gluten-based foods.
Kyle Begley
I love that you are asking this question! I often dream of starting some sort of "break the taboo" budget blog…but alas, that is just one more idea to add to my list. For two adults and two children under age nine, living in a city, we spend around $300/week on groceries…that is our budget. That does include toilet paper/toothpaste etc. It's the "grocery store budget". Americans spend a much smaller portion of their income on food than people in many other countries. Partly because food is so cheap here. Partly because we spend our money on so many other things. The economy does pretty much suck and so there does not seem to be enough money for everything, even when you are living simply and trying to make as many items as possible, such as clothing and growing your own food/ chickens, whatever. I don't love cooking…I cheat a lot with local pre-made foods – we have so many options here in Portland. This affects the food budget, but sometimes my sanity is worth more. I am shocked to hear how little you spend on groceries…I think you must be in the kitchen a lot or have skills that I do not. I commend your abilities and admire your commitment to good food no matter what! xoxo
LaceyKeigley
Yes – start that blog.
Or at the least – tell me some more taboo topics and we'll go at them here.
It would be great to have a lot of local pre-made options! (We need to visit Portland one day!)
And I completely agree that sanity is important – you have to decide what is most important to you. I actually do enjoy cooking so I'm cool with that. And by choosing to spend less on the groceries I can justify spending money on date nights and I need that for my sanity.
My mom was a great grocery saver too and meal-planning has been my ticket to saving and sanity. I abhor the mystery of the question at 3 o'clock – what's for dinner? If I already know the answer, I have no problem heading in to the kitchen to cook it. I just can't stand waiting until the last minute and then trying to force creativity on to the plate!
@treadingwater
I spend $375 each month on groceries. I don't even know who that feeds. It definitely feeds the five of us three meals and one snack each day. We don't eat out and Drew packs leftovers for work. (He is eating a lot more with this new job!) But it also feeds Nick some meals and the kids that I keep a few times a week…
About a year ago, I was spending $300 each month. I've been feeling guilty about the increase, but I think a variety of reasons are to blame: growing children, food cost increases, and the artificial color/sodium benzoate/high fructose corn syrup free diet that we've been doing this last year. My kids do eat A LOT though. And I'm saying this as in: competition is stiff between my kids and Drew's three 17 year old brothers as to who consumes more when they are with us.
Honestly, I know we could cinch things in better. We eat meat everyday. Okay, usually twice a day. We also consume lots of cheese, which is expensive. I haven't made all my own bread since the diet changes. But we don't do processed or prepackaged food. I try to buy at great sale prices and freeze or can to last until the next great sale. I buy bulk. I feel like I spend most of my time in the kitchen either breaking down into freezer packs, chopping, prepping, cooking, but it's worth it. I don't do coupons. I admire the ladies who do and want to be like them when I grow up. But I lack the brain space for successful couponing right now.
Oh I lied! On splurge nights (about twice a month) if I don't have time to cook, I will buy frozen pizzas. That's prepackaged food. Those are the nights that I would go out if that were an option.
I love to get what I can at Aldi. What they don't have, I get at Walmart. I will stock up on sale things at Publix, and I go to SavMor once a month when they have a great sale on meat. I sneak in Trader Joe's every few months because they have some dye free treats we can't get anywhere else.
Drew and I were just talking about needing to redo our budget- if he takes notice of the 'excess' since last year, I may need to get thriftier in my shopping!
LaceyKeigley
So your budget beats mine! 🙂
You're funny.
1. Couponing is pretty easy if it' snot extreme – but I understand your desire to not do it as well. It's not my favorite.
2. Maybe Drew won't notice your increase – although I think it's a low one and completely justifiable. 🙂
Rachel
There are three of us. My two year old eats as much as my husband most days 🙂
I shop at walmart (it's the cheapest where we live) with the very occasional trip to meijer or kroger.
I buy beef, chicken and eggs from a local farmer, because I am willing to pay the extra to feed my family food I do not fear getting sick from. I don't buy much "packaged" food, but I do buy things like pasta sauce and lunchmeat.
My grocery budget includes anything we need for the house that week: food, diapers, hygiene items, prescriptions, medicines, dog treats and kitty litter (pet food is a separate envelope), light bulbs, etc. We eat 18-21 meals each week at home, including my husband's packed breakfasts and lunches. My parents tend to feed us a few times so they can see their grandkid! We also host people or take a meal to someone about three times each month.
For over a year our grocery budget has been $140/week. I find myself needing to stretch it further and further each week, though, and ruthlessly cutting items off my list each week. I do meal plan, and I do use coupons, mostly on non-food items. It sounds like a lot, I am sure, but each week roughly 25-40% of it is household items and not actual food.
LaceyKeigley
Homemade pasta sauce sounds dreamy but – after a few attempts at it – I stick with the Prego and Paul Newman sauces. (Of which I find loads of coupons regularly.)
Yes – I don't include the non-food items in the budget usually. That would make a big difference in cost.
And – we budget in for sharing meals too. Now we just need some grandparents to live nearby to feed us! 🙂
shelley
I have 4 teenagers, an 8 yo, husband and me in the house. That's 7 people. Of those 7 people, 4 are 6 feet tall or taller and 2 are extremely active teenage boys. I spend $1400 a month . . . and we still are getting bare by the end of the pay period. It also does not include any non-food items, i.e. paper plates, napkins, etc. I cook from scratch. I bring home pizza or Zaxby's one time in a month. Any eating out does not come out of the $1400. Husband has to be willing to take it out of his pocket : )! 5 of the 7 are gluten-free, so that adds. The only way I can keep it to $1400 is to make a schedule of what we're going to have and then stick to it and not run back and forth to the Publix at the end of the road!! Wal-Mart is cheaper then Publix. Just saying. I hate it, but shopping there has saved me money. I shop at Wal-Mart, Sam's for bulk items, Publix for deli meat, and Earth Fare for gluten-free flours and breads, eggs, and milk. I cook 4 meals a day. That's just the way it is with teenagers. At 10:00 pm last night I was making grilled deli meat sandwiches on sourdough and chocolate milkshakes. Sorry, Lacey, this is totally unhelpful and not what you're looking for : ). Just giving you a little glimpse into your future!! Don't kill me : ).
LaceyKeigley
Oh you scare me Shelley. You scare me.
But I know the future is coming – I had three brothers and we lived on a farm where we all did hard labor and were hungry people!!
The gluten-free would be an added struggle – grateful we are not in that camp as of now.
I still disagree about Wal-Mart being cheaper – if you shop the buy one-get one free sales and plan your meals through it. Besides, the stress of Wal-mart makes me happy to spend a few extra cents at Publix. 🙂
But you are absolutely right about sticking to the plan. The weeks I just make a "quick stop" at the grocery store are always the weeks that I go over the budget!
I can imagine the extra meals – when we have summer staffers visit we seem to be always making full meals at late hours.
Melissa
It's just my husband and me so ours will be vastly different but we spend about $250 a month on groceries. I use coupons and we shop at BJs for most things. We don't buy many ready-to-eat meals (except the occasional vegetable lasagna for rushed nights) or snacks so it's mainly ingredients for meals: flour, artichoke hearts, canned tomatoes, cheese, oats, almonds, etc. and my husband and I (though mostly my husband) make almost everything from scratch (pasta, sauce, bread, almond milk, etc.) and we grow as much food as we can in a small-ish raised garden. We also started delaying our trips to the grocery store until we're almost completely out of food so we don't waste anything. We've also found that not buying paper towels or shampoo (I've been doing no-poo since November and hubs uses soap) and buying store brand toilet paper and toothpaste in bulk has saved us quite a bit.
LaceyKeigley
We don't buy paper towels at all either.
(Although last time my dad visited he was tired of using rags and towels to clean up messes so he bought us about 15 rolls of paper towels. That was four months ago and we still have some left!)
Yes- the bulk of my budget is supplies for food – and some weeks we play a game where we try to clean out the cabinets too and finish whatever we have left. Which is why we had waffles and and peas and homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch this week. 🙂
Sarah D.
Just for the two of us, we have a budget of $400 a month for the grocery store(s). With that said, a six pack of craft beer normally finds its sneaky way in our shopping cart every week, along with a toiletry or two.
I believe the benefits of healthy eating outweighs the cost of a higher grocery bill. We buy a ridiculous load of organic fruits and veges every week (5 lbs of apples, 5 lbs of oranges, 10 lbs of carrots, lots of spinach, and more). We hardly ever buy processed foods. We do save money by rarely making meat the main star of our meal. I'll cut half a chicken breast up in tiny pieces and add it into whatever we are eating. Also cook up a whole chicken in the crock pot and use that in lunches all week. Whole Foods bulk items like quinoa and couscous make for inexpensive healthy dinners.
I know some wives here that love to post pics on FB of their coupon purchases. I cringe at the terrible foods they buy for their families. Their healthcare down the road is going to cost a whole heck lot more than their savings.
LaceyKeigley
Ah – craft beer. Interesting, that one. I do not allow that to count in my budget so lately those are few and far between for Kevin.
I absolutely agree about the value of healthy eating. We are all about that. We are a from-scratch, few ingredients, know what you're eating kind of family. I just have to work hard to make that affordable but it's totally worth it. Which is why I'd rather eat less but have quality meat than eat loads of poor quality meat.
We eat the apples up too – man, we can go through a 5 pd. bag every other day. It's insane. Do you juice though? Because I don't think we'd go through 10 pounds of carrots that quickly.
And the crock pot chicken is a big one for me – Any chicken-only meal is too expensive for our size family so it's always shredded in a casserole or something where you don't need as much.
Yes – I have seen those coupon savings pictures too – loads of oreos at fifty cents and twenty bags of betty crocker meals in a box is not my idea of savings.
Whole Foods often has great meat sales and have you ever tried quinoa cakes? Our family loves those!
Sally
ours is like $600 a month, not including our milk shares. It is supposed to include non-food things like tp's (toothpaste and toilet paper) and such. I make a generaly $400 ish run on or near payday, then weekly0ish trips for fresh produce and fruit. and eggs. i don't coupon much, if any, because we don't buy most stuff like that.. That said, I am sure that if I were to scour the Internets,I would find some. We'd like that total to come down,and as we learn more in the garden (ie, kill less), we can put by more, and all. It takes time, and most of the time I'm cool with that.
LaceyKeigley
Yeah – to be fair I do not include the price of non-grocery items in that budget. Not shampoo or diapers in that number.
There are a large amount of coupons for things I do not use either – and I just ditch those coupons – – but I still find plenty for yogurt and butter and crackers and pasta and things we do use. And the random bag of salt and vinegar chips, because if they are on sale, they must be meant for me to consume!
Beckey
Lacey, I probably spend double what you do on groceries, and that is down from a year ago. I make most things from scratch-though I buy jelly and I know you make yours(delicious). I have guilt eating out because I know how many better tasting meals I can make for the same price. I use coupons-not gonna make a tv show for my savings but I do save. I shop at the commisary or Walmart-because they are much better priced than any grocery chain I have found. I buy meat only once or twice a month-and desperately miss my butcher who would package exactly what I wanted so there would be no waste! One to two bags of chips for a two week span is about all the junk food I buy, though you know I am a baker-so there is that. I use Suave shampoos-$1.75 each and the beautician says my hair is super healthy so I am sticking with it. The majority of what I buy is fresh produce and there are no coupons for that-so I just deal with it because it is better for my family. I would love the laundry soap recipe, as well as the taquito one! Summer is coming-plant a garden-start up is pricey but it is so worth it!
LaceyKeigley
I agree about the produce issue – no coupons for that. We have loads of local produce stand in season and I buy lots of that too.
The laundry soap recipe and the taquito recipe are both from pinterest – which means you should probably just go ahead and get on that thing and waste some time there! But I will happily e-mail them to you as well!
🙂