October 2010 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How much do you spend on groceries?
It seems like I am spending a small fortune on groceries every week. I
was just wondering if anyone has any tips for saving money (and still
eating healthy).
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Re: How much do you spend on groceries?
The best way to save money on groceries is to plan your meals for the entire week, and then go to the grocery store with a list. Stick to the list and shop ONLY once a week.
We spend an average of $75 a week on groceries.
We've been able to save money by really shopping the sale ads. We stock up on things we use often and that aren't perishable when they are on sale. It took us a few weeks to get a good stock going, but now we can skip a week and manage to get by w/o grocery shopping.
We also plan out our menus weekly before we go shopping to prevent return trips to the store that always ending up costing more.
I read somewhere (could have even been on this board) that you should try to make 1/2 of your cart fresh food. The article also said that shouldn't cost more. We have been getting a lot more fresh food lately and it hasn't increased our grocery bill. I was suprised by that. We are really cognizant of eating fresh food before it goes bad.
We spend about $80-90/week on groceries (this includes things like shampoo, dog treats, cleaning supplies also).
You're totally right - this is the absolute best way.
I wish I could do this, but I will buy groceries for the week, then decide on Tuesday that I don't want anything I bought/planned for the week and it's all downhill from there. I end up wasting a ton of food.
So instead, I go to the grocery store probably four or five times a week. SO bad.
Hopefully when Carter comes, I won't have the time/energy to do this anymore, and will be better about planning, and sticking to it.
Megan & Chris
I also plan my weekly (it ends up actually being about a week and a half) meals ahead of time and make a list that I stick to. I also figure in "leftover" nights and at least one night of eating out. We have been doing pretty good at sticking to the meal plan.
My only problem is that I get nervous buying all my produce a week in advance so sometimes I don't get all the produce in one shot, I will go on the day that I know I am going to need my produce.
We spend about $100ish every other week. I also get my chicken in bulk from Sam's (Cost Co) and then put it in packages of 2 breasts/package and freeze it. I do have to buy milk at least once if not twice a week, we go through at least 2 gallons of milk/week. Needless to say we won't be getting osteoporosis anytime soon.
We shop primarily in bulk with the exception of fresh veggies. Meat is generally purchased from BJ's in the huge packs and then we pre-portion and freeze it. Joe takes something out every morning for dinner that night.
Same with frozen veggies, we buy gigantic bags and they keep for months. We generally only go to the grocery store every other week, which is almost always less than $100 and when we do a BJ's stock up (paper towels, cat food and litter, TP, meat, etc.) it's around 200, depending on what coupons we had.
Yeah, I do this too. I get it in my head on the way home that I don't want whatever it is that we're supposed to have that night, and we end up either getting take-out or having something we'd planned to have later in the week.
We usually do grocery shopping on Saturday or Sunday together, and buy through Tuesday or Wednesday. And then we'll stop at the store again for the second half of the week. We probably spend $80-$100 on food, depending on the week. I think we're going to start using Boston Organics for our veggies/fruit, though, so maybe we'll stop wasting so much produce.
We spend about $80/wk on groceries for the 2 of us. That includes food for 5 or 6 dinners and 10 lunches (we both bring our lunch to work). We eat out usually one weekend night, occassionally 2.
Like others said, I typically buy chicken and pork in bulk and divide into 2 serving packages and freeze it.
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My sister uses Boston Organics and LOVES it. My nephew (he's four) helps her to unpack the bin each week, and they talk about what the vegetables and fruits are. She is then able to come up with new recipes, and said she loves cooking things that she never would have otherwise cooked.
I must say I'm jealous they don't have a program like this in Houston.
Megan & Chris
We usually spend about 85$ a week. However I went on friday and spent well over $100 because we needed to stock up since moving into the new apartment.
I coupon somewhat - and I'll look online for additional coupons on thursday night once I know what we need to buy. I'm very careful not to buy stuff just bc we have coupons. We plan our meals on thursday night and then I go shopping friday during the day since right now I have friday's off. This reduces some of the craziness around weekend shopping and gives me more time to do price comparison when I'm shopping to make sure we find the best deal. One tip: always look at the unit price! and if the store brand is cheaper (which it usually is) compare the ingredients. If they're exactly the same, go with the store brand. We're actually addicted to Wegmans marinara sauce right now and its 99c a jar, which you can't beat and we wouldn't have tried otherwise.
We also want to join a CSA program to get veggies june - october. we'll see how that works out.
bloggity blog
Most definitely, this is how I do the majority of our shopping. It's funny b/c yesterday I realized that buying the store brand jumbo size peanut butter was actually more expensive per ounce than the regular size jar. Strange!
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