How can people spend so much at the grocery store?

Happymom · **How can people spend so much at the grocery store?**

I was doing the monthly grocery shopping today with my 14 yr old dd. We were talking about what we spent. My dd wanted to know how people can manage to spend so much on groceries. I have been thinking about it all afternoon. I don't know!!!

I told her we were going to spend alot this month. We buy Little Debbie snacks, juice boxes and a big box of individual pks of M & M cookies as well as a few bags of chips, pop and fruit 2 oh. I also bought extra supplies to make up some things to put in the freezer. I spent a total of $255. It breaks down to: $102 at Aldi's, $87 at Sam's Club and $66 at HyVee. I allow $100 more for misc groceries we need for the next month (I always shop the 15th of the month) This is for my family of 7. (9 when my oldest and grandson are here)

We never really want for any kind of food. I just don't understand how so many people can spend so much. I don't think I could spend $500 a month on groceries if I tried

chopey · 10-14-2007, 08:46 PM

Oh wow, no, it's very easy to spend that much. Until I started paying attention to what we spend (just DH and I), I calculated that in the month of July we spent $484. On just little miscellaneous trips to the store for this and that. Since then, I've started watching what we spend on that, since that is ridiculous for two people, and have gotten it to just under $300, and I am still working on that. It's very easy to eat more expensive things in one month that another, but I think the bulk of that kind of spending is just because some people dont' pay attention....like us. haha.

booker81 · 10-15-2007, 05:16 AM

If you buy name brand, lots of processed/box food, and lots of "junk" then yes, it can get way up there.

Of course, shopping at the "wrong" time can be bad - like me last night. Shopping at 5pm, super hungry, with baby making me crave all sorts of things, I walked out about $100 lighter. So I didn't need the purple frosted Lofthouse soft cookies, or maybe the candy corn, or maybe 3 bags of chips, but then wound their way into the cart! Trickery!

However, the rest of the stuff was mainly fruit, veg and meat. And a box of "good" cereal (aka no cocoa puffs or something). Milk and cheese too.

We did some shopping too on Sunday, and spent $80. However, we haven't done any shopping since the end of Sept, and we were REALLY low on EVERYTHING - I'd managed to eat just about everything in the house - all the canned goods, all the fridge goods, all the frozen fruit and veg, everything. No cheese, no milk, no nothing, heck, I ate all the canned beans!

I'm planning on doing pantry stocking this week - so I'm budgeting another couple hundred bucks for that - however, that should put us to only buying fresh fruit and veg for the next couple months. I don't like letting our pantry get that bare! It was scary!

Oh, and I think a lot of people "waste" too - how much food is thrown out by the average person? How much "should" be thrown out? I have a friend who spends more than I do on food, but you look in her fridge, and things are bad all over. I'd rather make two trips to the store/farmer market a week for small amounts of fruit and veg, than make one every two weeks, and have lots of stuff rot before it's used.

Right now though, for us, things are a bit off. I'm eating constantly, and eating just about anything - I'd eat cardboard if you put Ranch dressing on it! I'm EASILY out eating DH - and he's no slacker when it comes to food.

jenmose · 10-15-2007, 05:43 AM

Very impressive, but also wondering how YOU do it??
We are a family of 3 and barely get under $400 dollars a month. I live in the upper midwest and know that demographics have something to do with grocery price as well.

If you are meat eaters do you buy your meat at the grocery store or do you have it butchered?
Do you buy your paper necessities with your groceries or is that a different expense?
When I say $400 it includes ALL groceries(including meat), paper towels, toilet paper, party supplies(when needed ie: paper plates, plastic wear, cups, ect...) laundry detergent, & sometimes dog/cat food. If I did not included all that into grocery catorgory I would be alot lower as well.

Just curious about what you buy, groceries have gone up SO much this past year, it really hits you below the belt sometimes when you are getting your totals!!

jenmose · 10-15-2007, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happymom

I was doing the monthly grocery shopping today with my 14 yr old dd. We were talking about what we spent. My dd wanted to know how people can manage to spend so much on groceries. I have been thinking about it all afternoon. I don't know!!!

I told her we were going to spend alot this month. We buy Little Debbie snacks, juice boxes and a big box of individual pks of M & M cookies as well as a few bags of chips, pop and fruit 2 oh. I also bought extra supplies to make up some things to put in the freezer. I spent a total of $255. It breaks down to: $102 at Aldi's, $87 at Sam's Club and $66 at HyVee. I allow $100 more for misc groceries we need for the next month (I always shop the 15th of the month) This is for my family of 7. (9 when my oldest and grandson are here)

We never really want for any kind of food. I just don't understand how so many people can spend so much. I don't think I could spend $500 a month on groceries if I tried

Oops I see you are from MN as well....so demographics have nothing to do with it.

busymomof4 · 10-15-2007, 07:55 AM

I spend around 100 bucks every week for my family of 6. I use coupons and do as many sales as possible and I still can't seem to get below 100 bucks. I am going today to shop for the week so I am hoping I go under the budget for once! I guess though that is most likely about average...maybe?? Of course when the kids go w/ me it is more so that is why I do my best to go while they (and dh) can't go w/ me.LOL.

Christy · 10-15-2007, 08:00 AM

I do know that buying fresh fruit and veggies does add up and when you have to do that weekly it can dip into the grocery budget. The price of apples for some reason is crazy expensive....and it's apple season which I don't get. Grapes are up there too ~ again not understanding that. We shop at the commissary which typically saves us 20% on most food departments compared to regular grocery stores, but still end up spending a ton of $$ on the produce.

Oregano · 10-15-2007, 08:09 AM

I probably spend a lot but we buy all fresh fruits, veggies, good cuts of meat and I don't use many (any?) prepackaged foods.

flybygrace · 10-15-2007, 08:33 AM

Like Chopey mentioned, it is VERY easy to spend mega bucks at the grocery store. Either the buyer doesn't care or doesn't realize it the amount. When I nannied for my friend in high school, I'd go with her when she shopped, and she'd go to Sam's Club and - no joke - checkout at $500. For two weeks. And then she'd go to Walmart and get some other stuff and drop another couple hundred there. She probably spent $1200 a month on food, and that's without ordering out, which they did A LOT. At the time, she had 5 kids, but one was 2 and two were newborns, so she only had 3 children that actually ate the food, along with her and hubby. My eyes would bug out of my head watching her shop. She didn't care. She'd walk down the aisle and just throw stuff in the cart b'c it looked good. Oreos, Doritos, frozen raviolis, steak, string cheese.. the list goes on. Blew my mind. But she didn't care. She hated shopping, her DH made enough money to cover the costs (and he liked the food she brought home) and that's the way they did it.

When DH and I first got married, we were both working full-time jobs (good ones at that) and bringing home some nice cash. We should have banked it (shoulda coulda woulda) but instead, we'd go grocery shopping at 2 in the morning at Walmart and come home with $400 in groceries each paycheck. And then we'd go out for dinner all the time too. I'd squeal with excitement to have $400 a MONTH for groceries now, with a 3 year old added into the mix. Back then, we just bought whatever we wanted. IBC pop (you know, the stuff that's $4 for a 6 pack), cookies, pizzas, steak, chips.. Looking back on it, we were so dumb (I knew how to shop wisely, I just never did it) and the whole shoulda coulda woulda thing comes into play -- if we had pocketed it instead of ate it.......

Sarah M. · 10-15-2007, 09:00 AM

Yeah, impulse-buying really adds up. Now that I am planning my meals for two weeks at a time and sticking to the list, I'm probably spending $100-150 less per month at least. Plus meat is so expensive! We NEVER get steak because it is just so pricey. Or seafood. I'm trying my hardest to keep all meat purchases under $2.75/lb for anything.. bacon, ground beef, etc, so I'm really watching sales fliers now. And if we bought all the fresh fruit and veggies that we wanted, then forget it! I used to spend almost $100/week at Walmart (which includes everything paper, toiletries, etc) for just me and DH. Now I'm down to $60-70 on average.

ETA: We don't have Aldi's here. I bet that's a big reason why you spend a lot less than other people, if they are really as great as I hear they are!