Can anyone give me examples of what their food menues look like for a week?/month? I would like to know how to only spend the $400 a month or less. I can't seem to get it below $600 or sometimes even $800 a month for a family of 4. I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old in diapers still. I am very interested and would love to hear how you do it.

The kitchen Mods do this every month:

~*~*December's Menu?*~*~* and some of the same menu planners do the grocery budget/cost also:
$$$~December's Grocery Budget?~$$$

Getting your grocery budget down is doable, just takes some work. I know a lot of us plan menus weekly/monthly around our grocery stores and what is on sale. Stocking up on items on sale (if you have storage room) helps a lot too. And dont forget the power of coupons! Those add up too. Do you buy all name brand items or do you buy generic?? Many times generics (store name brands) taste exactly the same as the bigger name brands. Do you or your family eat leftovers? That helps save money even if it is eating dinner leftovers for lunch later in the week. Doing once a month cooking sessions help when certain things are on sale. But than you have to have adequate freezing space for that. You will get lots of great ideas on here to get your grocery spending down to where you want it. Good Luck!

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I started out by using thegrocerygame.com once I got it down I can now do it on my own. I do have an upright freezer and I buy in bulk when on sale and stock enough for three months then it usually goes on sale again. My general rule of thumb is I don't spend more than $2 a lb for meat, and $2.99 a gallon for milk and $2 for juice. I plan a menu for the week and have a breakfast night, sandwich/soup night and a frozen pizza night which is usually a Friday treat along with a redbox movie and popcorn. I definitely use coupons and I shop at stores that double to $.99 and have occasional triple sales where I get things for free. I buy all cleaning products and paper products on sale at Walmart or Target. I also love afullcup.com there message boards for sales are great. I try not to but prepackaged foods unless on sale.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

Lets see....

1. I buy in bulk when things are on sale. Like a local store has been running sales for boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.39/lb. I bought several packages. My bent and dent store had cans of broth on sale for 5/$1 - I bought about 30 cans. I buy fruit in season and freeze that as well.

2. I will try to make ahead meals. Make 2 lasagnas/casseroles and freeze one. That way I don't go out to eat on a night that I don't want to cook - just pull out the frozen one.

3. I will freeze leftovers. If I know that things will not get eaten before they go bad, I will put them in the freezer for lunches for dh or simple family suppers. This way I am not wasting food.

4. We use coupons and shop stores that double coupons. Some areas of the country do not have this. I also shop at my "bent n dent" store frequently. I also shop at Aldis. These things save me tons.

Those are my big tips. I don't use a menu - I am just not that organized. I do have a stockpile going but I need to increase it. This helps me to keep my cost down and fix almost anything I want most any time.

I hope that helps.

I agree with araefinn.. it takes work. nothing pre made, nothing in a box. I can give you a normal month for me. I don't have kids yet but there is 2 adults and we spend about $100 a month.

Breakfast (everyday) is oatmeal or toast
Lunch is leftovers from the night before or a salad
Dinner- tacos
spaghetti
cranberry chicken
hamburger roll- up (recipe posted on mommysavers)
tuna casserole
goulash
tater tot casserole
lasagna
roasted garlic pizza
porkchop and applesauce
sausage noodle wrap
pizza pocket
ravioli
tuna sandwich
chinese chicken and rice
BBcups
chicken enchiladas
beef stroganoff
meatballs
chicken roll ups
clam chowder
9 can soup
crockpot lemon chicken
chicken fajitas
breakfast
hamburger steak
chicken and potatoes
french bread pizza
goulash( yes this is twice a month, but BF loves it )

For all the stuff to make everything on this list is $79

That puts us at about $12.50 per person per week. In reading here at MS and other places people spend normally about $25 per person per week..

Everything is made from scratch though, no spices are included, we have a salad with every meal. I don't think that we eat anything that is bad or anything like that. Basically we just sat down wrote out a list of what we would like to have every month and then figured out the best and cheapest way to make those things. Honestly these prices that I figured this of was last week's grocery total. So they are current and I did not use any coupons. I shop at Winco. the other $20 is used mainly for stockpiling. Sometimes we splurge and get a generic bag of cookies or chips or something but not very often. I really enjoy eating at home and preparing our meals. I hope this has been of some help to you.

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These have all been great ideas!!!! I am not sure if prices are different depending on where you live. It seems that sometimes I see lists of what people buy and what they spend, and my cost would be way more. Does anyone see a difference depending on location?

oh yeah.. there is def. a difference depending on location. and brand/store/quantity. it all depends. tricky situation!!

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My choices yesterday create my today. My choices today create my tomorrow.

Forget the Joneses Boot Camp Blog

from my understanding the north east is a lot more expensive that the midwest.

Yes, there are big differences depending on location. For example, where I live, there are fixed prices for milk. Here, there is no need to shop for best prices in milk, everybody gets the same.

Where I live bent & dent cans are forbidden by law because of botulism. A store can never sell those.

Also, because in the winter fruits & veggies have to come from down south, they are much more expensive.

It is still possible to lower grocery bills, I'm working on this right now. It depends on how much work you are ready to put into it and what sacrifices you are willing to make. For me what is working now is to start slowly - it's all in the baby steps for me !!!!

Since I was more around 800$ per month, I decided to go for 600$ per month. For me this comes down to 125$ per week and it leaves 100$ per month for beer, steaks once in a while or if we have people over. For 6 weeks now, I have been making my list for my grocery shopping and I calculate as I go along to make sure I don't spend over my 125$.

Two things have made this possible:

- I go once a week and I don't go back
- We eat leftovers, I try to use everything and not throw away any food.

I don't know if I make sense but I hope it helps...

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Marie - SAHM of DS Benjamin (april 2004) and DD Rose (march 2006).