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Random Question...Groceries
How much do you spend a week? For how many people?
Any tips on how you keep your grocery bill down? Find coupons?
DH and I seem to spend a ridiculous amount (just the two of us). I can't walk into the grocery store without spending at least $50 and I usually go more than once a week. Plus, we eat out a lot (especially lunch while working).
One of my friends swears she feeds herself and her teenage son for like $20/week. I can't fathom how that's possible?!?
I don't buy only brand names- if the generic is the same, I go generic. If I have/find coupons I use them. I don't go out of my way for coupons, but if they have some in-store, on the package, or a neighbor gives us their Sunday paper, I'll cut them out. I would work a little harder for them if you know a good site.
Re: Random Question...Groceries
I spen aboout $140 on groceries yesterday between Sam's (Costco) and our local grocery store, that will last us about 2-3 weeks. I actually tried to plan out meals so that I wouldn't have to get stuff so frequently. I don't like buying my produce in advance though, so there maybe a few things that I will have to grab before the meal.
Part of that was also spen on chicken in bulk that I then portioned out in freezer bags. We get 1/4 of a cow once a year and then we did a 1/2 a hog about a year and a half ago (which we dont have anything besides sausage left). If getting your beef or pork from a local farmer is an option for anyone, I highly recommend it, you can usually pick your cuts of meat and it also saves you a decent amount of money.
I also price shop, for example, I knew that boneless skinless chicken breasts were $2.99/lb at our local store so when I saw them at Sam's for $1.99/lb I bought them there and went home and put them into smaller portions. I also found (before I bought beef in bulk) that if I went to Sam's and got a 20lb roll of hamburger and portioned it out myself, it was a lot cheaper than buying individual packages.
We have $80/wk budgeted for groceries for DH and I. We're usually close to or below that. We typically: eat breakfast at home 7 days a week, take our lunches to work 5 days a week, eat dinner at home 5 nights a week.
I used to be great w/coupons in college, but now I'm not as good. Whenever meat's on sale (like BOGO) I try to stock up. Like pp, I using buy large portions of meat, re-wrap at home and freeze. <doing this recently I've been able to pay $2.69/lb for chicken (get 3+ meals) instead of paying $5.99/lb for one meals!
Blog Sale
<a href="http://s582.photobucket.com/albums/ss262/hzswanson/?action=view
This thread has a LOT going on, but if you read towards the middle/end the ladies have shared awesome ideas/tips and I've already been able to start my grocery savings!
We just went last night, to replenish the breakfast and dinner supplies (we're trying to eat in 4-5 nights a week); we spent $60 on staples (eggs, greek yogurt, meat, etc.). We buy a lot of the things that don't go bad in bulk at Costco, and that also helps prevent buying impulse stuff when at the grocery stores, as we don't go as often. Costco is about every 4-6 weeks, at ~$100-150, and grocery store is ~$50 a week. But we're also lazy and like to get some stuff that's pre-prepared (like chile verde pork meat that's heat and serve), as we don't always want to cook when we get home from a long day.
Proof and point of our impulse buy last night: we totally splurged on Easter candy - I mean how could we walk by the Cadbury caramel eggs and not buy some? We just have to wait until Saturday (self imposed) to eat them...
We spend $50 to $100 per week on groceries for the two of us, but we tend to buy high end cuts of meat almost every week. We try to use coupons and price matching as much as possible.
Now I worked in management in a local grocery store for years and I have some hints for you.
-A lot of sale items at the grocery store that week will have coupons in the paper on Sunday. This is not always true, but more often than not there are coupons for the sale items.
-Stock up on sale items! Be willing to spend the money to stock up so you don't have to purchase those items at regular price later.
-Our local grocery store did rotation sales. Example: Week one-Coke products, Nabisco products, Suave hair products, etc; Week two-Pepsi products, Keebler products, VO5 hair products, etc; Week three-7 up products, Store brand cookie/cracker products, store brand hair products, etc. Week 4-same sales as week one. If you spend the time paying attention to their sales ads you can quickly find the rotational scale pattern.
-Price match and double coupons! Some stores advertise they do this, but others may not necessarily tell you so ask. Oh and if stores offer an advantage/savings card sign up for it! It may allow you to get even better discounts. You will not believe the amount of people that will not sign up for an advantage/savings card!
Hopefully that helps you ladies. If you already knew well more power to you! Happy grocery shopping to you!
I don't know what we spend a week, as we go grocery shopping monthly and spend anywhere between $100-150 (it gets closer to 150 if Zach goes and tosses random things in the cart).
Shortly after we got married, I made a grocery list, then went to 3 stores in town and wrote down what the prices were for each thing (all non-generic, so I could get the max spending), then chose the cheapest store. We shop at Walmart, and save a ton that way. I do purchase generic in some instances, clip coupons like it's my job, and try to make sure I've got everything I need to make all my dinner standby's at least once a month (meatloaf, chicken tetrazinni, spaghetti, etc). I don't know what we're saving, but it's enough that we can still go out to dinner at higher end places like Olive Garden every once and a while. Not bad for 3 part time jobs between us.
Edit: We also get venison from my FIL once or twice a year, so that saves on having to buy hamburger, although it's on my list for this month's trip. I just need beef for a change.
Before we menu planned, I think I spent about $120/week on groceries, but we were also dining out frequently and I was always tossing spoiled food out (I would buy extra of a lot of stuff on sale, but if I didn't plan very well, it ended up being a waste as it often went bad).
After about a year of that, I finally started menu planning. The first couple weeks I was insanely strict with shopping, if it wasn't on my list, I didn't buy it, no matter how delicious that mac and cheese sounded in the store. It actually became fun, I kind of turned it into a game (telling Scot "I bet we can make it out of the store spending less than $50!). Now we spend about $50-60/week, but I try to buy some higher end cuts of meats and some organic produce.
After doing this for a few months, I've developed this acute sense for what exactly we have in our pantry, fridge and spice collection, making shopping easier than ever (though I still always have a list in my hand).
And I get a kick of having a near empty fridge the end of the week, knowing that we aren't letting a lot of stuff go bad.