I only have the two of us to feed but my weekly bill never goes outside of the $35-$45 range. NEVER. I occasionally buy paper goods like tp at a different trip, but mostly it covers everything.

Am I the only one who tries not to stare at what other people have in their grocery cart? I have fresh fruit and veges, milk, bread, meat if it is $1.99 or less a pound, sometimes a can of soup or tomatoes or some dried beans or cheese or eggs.

Cathleen

I usually do my major grocery shopping once a month. I make a list of things I am out of or getting low on and I watch the sale ads. I pair up the sales with coupons. I buy the basics and some produce at Aldi and the rest at the other grocery stores. I stick to my list as best I can and I avoid the candy and snack food isle. I can usually get by on feeding my family of 4 on $200 a month.

I agree that meat is getting very expensive. Luckily some of the grocery stores in my area are doing a lot of sales such as: $5 off any meat purchase of $25 etc. It helps a little.

I would find it easy,easy, easy to spend $500 a month in groceries (cat food, paper products, cleansin, HBA, etc in this total as well)

1.) Buy more organics - that alone would push me into that range without even batting an eye. Organic chicken breast runs about $7.99 a pound, the steaks can be closer to $11- $12 pound. I picked up a roast the other day, I kid you not $45 for 3 pounds, i did put it back, no red meat this week.

2.) Buy more prepackaged/ processed foods - even if they are organic they are not often in this house, but there are a few things we like from time to time. Can anyone say "Dill Pickle" potato chips? --- YUM, but are a very specail treat.

3.) Try new recipes - I would love to try a bunch of different recipes, but often forgo them because it would require me to buy a new spice or three, or this, or that which are not a part of my normal pantry.

9 times out of 10 it's fresh and whole foods in my cart and never have an issue with spending the $300 a month grocery budget I have set. I could totally spend twice that amount without even batting an eye.

Picky people spend twice as much at the grocery store than non-picky people. I'm not trying to be mean- in fact I'm a picky person myself. And no matter how good a cook I am, or anyone else for that mantter, I simply cannot choke down certian foods- beans for example - I just can't hack the texture. Powdered milk, certain generic cereals, certain brands of this or that. I can taste the difference on many generics, and I just can't eat some bargain foods- mainly some of the things listed on the hillbilly housewife website for cheap meal solutions. Hate oatmel, grits, tea, beans, ect, ect.

I've tried many times to make these affordable foods, or save money and buy brands we don't care for. And it doesn't get eaten, or gets wasted. We are just too picky here- I don't know how to get- unpicky maybe have some taste buds removed or something.

anyway, when i see people tho spend alot at the grocery store- I don't think it's a matter of being spoiled or lazy ( except in the case of the nanny story- 500.00 bucks at the wholesale store-eek) but it's more of a case of pickyness- very strong preferences for taste, texture or feel of food. it's not fair. I envy people sho can slurp down a bowl of beans or make a big pot of oats for breakfast.

I usually shop @ WalMart since competitor's ads are welcome and they match the price.
I go on a full stomach, sans kids if possible as well.
I spend about $450.00/month and we're a family of four.
It's worked thus far, we'll see!!

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We budget $700 a month for groceries, and I think it's hard to stay under that some months. I don't feel like I go overboard on things. I buy the big bag of frozen chicken breasts when they are buy one get one free and we eat hamburger at least once a week, but that is about the only meat I buy. We eat a lot of pasta. I also include all grocery items in that price, as well as beauty supplies, pull-ups, cleaning supplies, etc. When our budget was real tight we did $100 a week. Just milk alone can be $10 for the week.

I spend almost $400 a month for my family of 3 .... We don't have an Aldis, I don't have a member ship to Costco or anythin like that. I have only 3 grochery store options. 1 IGA- they do not have good sales at all and most of there stuff on the shelf is almost out of date ( I only go there for things when needed right away it is very close to my house) 2 Safeway - we shop there but I tend to try to stick to on sale only items that we need. Meat when it is 99-1.99/lb I will always go there just to get that. 3 is Winco and that is in ID so we drive alittle to go there. It is cleaper but ID has tx on food so I spend about $10 on tax we shop there for out big trip most of the time it is once a month and I spend 200 sometimes a little more. We use to go twice a month and still close to 200. I don't buy a lot of processd foods but I do buy a lot of veggies, nuts $$, cheese, meat, dairy.

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it can be easy it just depends on what your are buying where you live how many people you have in your household ect. there are many factors my bill runs about 450 for a family of 5 that includes all goods bought for the home i have 1 in diapers 1 in pullups and a large breed dog that can only eat certain food.. so there are many factors.

opps double posted so i deleted

Let's break this down to the grocery bill per person, per meal. That would make it more fair, no matter what the total.

A really nice, low dollar amount per person, per meal is $1. So, if you have 7 people in your house, the grocery bill would go like this:

$1 x 7 people = $7 per meal
$7 per meal x 3 meals a day = $21 per day
$21 a day x 30 days in the month = $630 per month
Then on top of it, add another 10% for non-meal groceries such as snacks, staples and disposables (TP, cleaning products, etc.) So a family of 7 can easily spend almost $700 a month at the grocery store.

What about the typical suburban family of 4? Well, they usually spend as much as $5 per person per meal or ...

$5 x 4 people = $20 per meal
$20 per meal x 3 meals a day = $60 per day
$60 x 30 days in a month = $1800 per month, plus 10% for misc stuff = almost $2000 per month at the grocery store, easy!

What would a $5 meal look like? Well, most of those meals are for eating out. Lunch heads the list. While the kids are getting school lunch at $2.85 a day, Dad is usually dropping at least $10 to eat with his co-workers. It all evens out. SAHM might grab a Starbucks coffee on the way home from dropping the kids off at school or she might grab a nibble to eat while out doing errands. If there is a preschooler at home, invariably that kid gets hungry while being dragged from one play group to another so a quick snack on the road begins to add up. I can easily drop $2 to $3 just grabbing a quick drink at Sonic when DD is in the car.


At home, what does a $5 meal look like? Let's start with the drinks. Every member of the family grabs an single-serve beverage. Mom may grab a diet iced tea, dad grabs an imported beer or Coke, the kids each get their own soda or bottled designer juice. Each of those bottles alone cost about $2.

Then Mom makes a lovely and healthy salad. The lettuce, blue cheese crumbles, glazed walnuts and mandarin orange slices add up. The salad alone, including the bottled Newman's dressing, is easily $1 per person.

That doesn't leave much for the rest of the meal. Is corn on the cob 'on sale' at 3 for $4? Mom buys 4 which equals to almost $1 per person, plus the butter. The meatloaf was made with extra lean ground beef that was on sale at $2.99 / lb (3 lbs) for the meatloaf alone was $9, plus the eggs, bread and other stuff that went into making it. The meatloaf was so good, about 1/2 of it was eaten (the dog will get some and Mom will eat the rest for lunches during the week) but the family still ate over $1 per person in just meat.

And they are probably hungry for a late night snack of ice cream later in the evening, too. The four people might try to share a container of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food (a pint is supposed to be 4 servings but it usually isn't) but more likely they each have their own favorite flavor. At $4 a pint on sale, dessert adds up to a whole extra $1 per person - putting us over the $5 per person budget per meal.

Can a family spend $5 per person per meal? Easy!

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."