I have noticed that alot of you say you have a budget of $40 or $50 a week for groceries. Is that food only or does that include household items? I go to walmart (I go with a set amount of cash and do not even look at anything I do not need) and get food, cleaners, bathroom items, and pet care items. But I spend $125 a week. I am pretty good at using coupons, I buy off brand, we only buy what we need. I thought I did pretty good with my walmart money, but I see some of you saying you spend less than half of what I do and I wonder what I am doing wrong. Now, we do have a family of six and we eat three meals a day at home, but I am sure I am not the only one with a large family! Anyway, just wondering if your $50 was food only or what.

Thanks!
~Jenifer

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Jenifer
Proud wife to one amazing man
Proud mom to four awesome kids

April showers bring May flowers
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

I think that $50 a week for 6 people is quite ambitious. I'd love to hear from others how they do it too. I have just recently gotten down to about $50-60 for a family of 4 but it meant really cutting back. For us this is a short term solution for a short term issue. I would not want to eat this way all the time.

I was listening to a Dave Ramsey podcast on my morning walk one morning and he was telling people how they can get out of debt faster. He said "Beans and rice. Rice and beans" Then within days someone posted What the World Eats | Photo Essays | TIME and I knew I could go lower.

1) I didn't buy meat (and we're not vegetarians) unless it was on huge sale.
2) No prepackaged foods .. only ingredients to make food.
3) Lots of rice and beans (cooked lentils, veggie chilli, veggie baked beans)
4) Only cereal if it was on major sale.
5) No juice, bottled water, pop etc. Only skim milk for cooking. We drink tap water at meals.
6) I used the More with Less Cookbook for inspiration and made a menu and then just got the ingredients I needed.
7) I went to the farmers market and only got in season fruits and veggies (that were cheap).
8) Lots of veggie meals.

More with Less is a fantastic cookbook. All from scratch, no expensive ingredients, great food. When I make my menu from this cookbook and only buy the ingredients from the recipes, I stay easily within the $50 range .. but it does mean giving up all pre-packaged, pre sliced, pre shredded, pre cooked foods and cutting way back on serving sizes and meat portions.

HTH

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I usually just shop at our local market for grocery items. They give me no guff about coupons that I use, I am friends with the owners and I always have gift cards (because I am one of the grocery testers) We (for now) are a family of four and my budget is $55 for groceries each week. I do not buy cleaners with my grocieries- we always get our cleaners, toilet paper, other non-food household items at sam's club- that's a once a month run- but we actually haven't taken that run for 6 weeks now- because we got such good deals last time we were there. When I say my budget is $55, included is all fresh items such as veggies, fruits, meats and what ever is on a good sale (and I have coupons for those sale items). We buy a lot of our canned items at sams club-

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One happy wife and mommy!!!

Can I ask you to type out a sample menu? I'm just curious to see what you would eat for a week.

With 3 meals a day being cooked and a family of 6 I don't think $50 a week for food and household items would work. But of course I'm sure someone here can do it. lol These ladies are amazing.

We spend $15 a week on dogfood alone so it would be hard for us to do much under $40 or so with just me and dh. But of course I am preggo and eat a lot!

I think a lot of it are things you buy that you could stop buying or cut back on. Here are the things that get our budget. Chips--dh eats sandwiches when he's home during the week and I'm working so its his indulgence since all he gets are sandwiches. Bottled water, we live in an old house and I refuse to drink tap water while preggo, and don't like to when not. I try the filters but wasn't drinking as much as I was when I could just grab a bottle.

Things like that really add up and I bet if you look at your groceries there are things you could cut down on or buy a less expensive version of.

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Proud mommy to adorable Kinsley

MY BLOG!

Thanks for asking this question. I have wondered the same thing. I try and keep it under $100 a week for everything, and I never buy name brands, but I don't know how I could go cheaper. I have never done the rice and beans thing because my Dh is such a meat lover I am not sure that would fly at our house.

Sure .. but it's pretty plain, like I said, I wouldn't want to eat this way all the time but our goal this summer is to eat for cheap!

Here's the menu for this week.

Breakfasts
Toast
"Sale" cereal
home made pancakes with home made syrup
Toast
home made waffles with home made syrup
Banana muffins (enough for 2 breakfasts)

Lunches
Mostly leftovers
Sometimes a grilled cheese or peanut butter sandwich
Homemade mini pizzas - just cheese and sauce on an english muffin
Hot dogs (on sale this week)
Sometimes a salad with chopped up hard boiled egg for protein

Dinners
Rice with Curried Split Peas (More with Less page 135), frozen veggie
Spaghetti with homemade sauce - no meat
Cheese omelets with toast and cut up fruit
Baked beans with homemade whole wheat rolls (pg 99 More with Less)
West African Groud-nut Stew (pg 172 MWL) with rice ~ This is a favorite in our family.
Homemade mac and cheese casserole with a side salad
BBQ (We almost always have company on Saturdays and we do a BBQ ~ what ever meal we could find on sale that week + BBQ'd potatoes and BBQ'd roasted veggies.

HTH

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I have enough stockpiled that I shop the sales buying only things on sale and hopefully with a coupon. As for cleaning products i keep it simple - a spray bottle with half water half vinegar and another that is half water half bleach. The only cleaning solution I buy is Murphys Oil Soap. We buy the cheapest Walmart dog food, and almost no snacks. I do end up needing to buy certain things like milk bread eggs etc but almost every thing else I buy is on sale to be used at a later date.

Wow, I am doing something wrong. I spend $170.00 a week and that includes household stuff. That is why I joined mommysavers. I buy pre pkg. and snacks for the kids. What can I do to reduce our grocery cost and eat well at the same time, as well as have snacks for the kids? I rarely use coupons because I don't know how to go about getting them. This frazzledmom is a mess.
Jenifer, Thanks for asking the question

I don't usually include my household because I get most of that stuff free after rebate from walgreens. I have enough stockpile that I only buy if it is free. I usually buy name brand because I can get a better deal using coupons and sale items. I am lucky b/c I have a super Target and 2 major grocery stores within 6 blocks of each other, so going to all three really is now be deal. I also have 2 walgreens with 10 blocks of each other and I am in the middle of them. I don't keep a firm track of what I actually spend but it probably averages about 50 for 5 of us, no pets. I think pets will put that figure higher. There are weeks I can go without buying anything except dairy products.
I also get alot of freebies for personal toileteries. those help more than u think if u do them on a regular basis.
allgirls

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls