Author Topic: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...  (Read 19515 times)

Le Poisson

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #50 on: June 30, 2017, 11:58:42 AM »
I'm looking forward to you reporting back in a couple months!

I like to do threshold shopping to eliminate some of the running between stores and to remind me that 50% (or more) off may not be a good deal if I can get a substitute product cheaper.

Threshold shopping means that I refuse to pay more than $4/lb for meats. This includes chicken, fish, pork, beef, lamb, etc. If a protein is over $4 per pound, its not a deal. This means bacon is a go-ahead, but T-bones are not. We eat a lot of pork, chicken, and ground beef.

I also refuse to pay more than $0.23 per egg for eggs. Divide the price by the quantity, and sometimes a flat isn't such a great deal after all.

And so on...

nouveauRiche

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #51 on: July 02, 2017, 06:47:36 AM »
Enchiladas ( ground beef) make the sauce from scratch cheaper and tastes better

Could you post the enchilada sauce recipe (or a link)?
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/61727/ten-minute-enchilada-sauce/

I hope the link works.  Also, I double the amount of cumin, onion salt and garlic powder, actually I believe I use onion powder and garlic salt b/c that's what's in the pantry😃

Thanks!  Link worked.

Beach_Stache

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #52 on: July 02, 2017, 11:28:19 AM »
Go to mygrocerydeals.com it's a great website.  We get standard groceries for our family of 5, with 3 kids in school/daycare we pack lunch every day for them (except pizza day), so the little things can really add up.  We do strawberries on Monday's, which can vary $1-2/pound, so we type it into mygrocerydeals.com and find which store has the best prices.  We have a very fortunate situation where on the 3 mile trip to daycare we pass by a Walmart, Target, Harris Teeter, Food Lion and Farm Fresh, so between those 5 places, you can almost always find the best deal.  For example, Food Lion's eggs almost always beat Walmart's.  I have no idea how, but Walmart is rather expensive for eggs.  Harris Teeter normally has very good meat and dairy prices, and for some reason chips.  I generally know the best place to get stables from each store, so if we are low on a certain item and other prices are the same I'll just stop at whatever store has the best prices.  For meats and other things you can freeze, I stock up big time when there is a good sale.  So if you find good ground turkey or hot dogs then I stock up.  I did away with the Sam's Club membership because the savings really didn't end up being much if you are doing your smart shopping.  Most of the time with a family you just stop at the most convenient place, but you can end up saving $10-15 or so/trip each week just by going to the right store.  You may have to make a few trips, but if you can plan it so it's back from daycare or work or on your way then it's really not costing you much more in time or mileage.  Then there are some other things you can do like meal planning and going through your pantry/fridge to cook meals so you aren't wasting food rather than letting that produce/meat/dairy go bad.  Hope that helps.

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #53 on: July 02, 2017, 07:31:05 PM »
I have posted almost this exact same question in the past so I hear ya!
We currently spend $700/month for 2 adults, a preschooler and a toddler in Atlantic Canada. That's just food, not organic,  no toiletries, paper towel etc. It could be lower if I could eat corn, eggs, wheat or dairy but I can't do that does up our bill a little with using spelt flour ($23/2.5kg bag), rice pastas and non dairy milk etc. Plus, with little kids and two FT working parents, we now buy more convenience foods than before. We shop mostly at Costco and Superstore, no Lidl or Aldi here. We eat meat or fish daily and I take food to work, never buy lunch, coffee/tea or snacks there. We rarely eat out but DH's job involves a lot of travel so he does have to eat out but he gets reimbursed for that. I don't include any of his work related food expenses in our grocery costs. I do make some meals from scratch like pizza dough and marinara sauce, homemade baked goods etc.
Costco is not always the cheapest but I also don't want to be going all over town to get the best price, I just don't have the time/energy  for that these days. Eggs are cheaper at shoppers drug mart, often on sale for under $2/dozen.
Could we trim at least $100/month off? Yes, but right now we are ok spending this for the trade off in not spending  our limited free time shopping at several stores every weekend or spending a good chunk of my precious weekend doing food prep (I used to do this but with two little kids now, I just can't give the food prep this much time and still give my kids the attention required at this age!). . Also, as we don't eat out much, I feel ok with what we spend on groceries.

Le Poisson

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #54 on: July 02, 2017, 08:41:42 PM »
Funny - all the things you quote are the things we use specifically to beat our grocery bill. We AVOID Costco/Superstore as they tend to be the most expensive options for us (Toronto, east side) and mostly shop at No Frills/Freshco/Food Basics. At the height of our savings manis we would preshop the list using various apps to maximize coupons/points/etc. against teh flyers - now we mostly have a routine down that sees us mostly shopping the closest Food Basics and hitting up Freshco etc. if they fall into our weekly routine.

We buy meats and cheese in bulk and break down the packs to family portions. Our staples (flour, yeast, oatmeal, Pancake mix, etc.) come from Wholesale Club at a commercial rate that grocery stores can't touch.

I think that if someone wants to get serious about cutting their grocery bill, the first step is to track you eating and buying down to itemized lists for about a month. Then, get intimate with actual costs per serving, per hundred grams, and per item to develop a sense of what a 'normal' price on something really is. Then never accept normal unless there is no other option. Once you spend a few weeks/months attacking the grocery list on flipp app, digging through flyers, and making substitutions in your meal plan to match the meats on sale you will hit the low grocery numbers.

Case in point - today Momma hit Stewing beef on sale for $3.00 per pound... then found packets with a 30% off tag on them - beef for $2 per pound... you will never see that at Costco. We now have a freezer full of stewing beef. For dinner tonight we had Pho - made using noodles from the reduced to clear rack - and all the veggies that were getting a little old in our fridge. Waste not, want not. For a snack we had sweet potato fries made using "slightly imperfect" sweet potatoes that were less than half the price of the "normal" ones.

You have to dig and scrounge if you want to hit the prize.

plainjane

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #55 on: July 02, 2017, 08:51:44 PM »
This week was approx $100, so I decided to open up the fridge to share what we got.

Loblaws: $33. The steak is an obvious splurge, but is required for the SO to not feel deprived by the budget.
$8 steak (at 50% off)
$6 pork tenderloin (at 50% off)
$4 turkey thighs (at 50% off)
$2 bag of mushrooms (at 50% off)
$5 2 bags of maple flavoured marshmallows for the cottage next weekend
$3 Miracle Whip
$5 5 avocado

Freshco: $41
$6 2 loaves bread
$5 18 eggs
$8 cheddar (700g)
$5 cheese strings (SO's splurge since their work isn't providing cheese snacks ATM)
$1 3 zucchini
$6 snap peas (my splurge)
$2 frozen broccoli
$5 spaghetti squash
$4 2 yogurts

No Frills: $13
$3 1L half & half
$4 frozen fruit (I am a sucker for the Welch's mango medley and decided to pay the $1 premium over the sale at Metro this week)
$1 tomatoes x 3
$1 bell pepper
$2 pint of blueberries
$2 half pint of raspberries

Metro: $12
4 bags of frozen fruit

As you can see, we have a lot of places we could have saved money. But the raspberries were delicious, the SO really likes steak, and snap peas are a great snack for me at work. I'm not sure if we'll keep at the spaghetti squash experiment.

At Freshco today there was a large block of cheddar for $80. The SO asked whether it was a good value. The guy standing there had already done the math - it was not a good deal.  We had a quick discussion about what a reasonable number was (we try for $1/100 g, but currently settle for $1.15/100g most of the time). An fellow MMMer by sentiment if not an actual reader.

To build on Prospector's comment - it isn't just knowing the cost per lb or 100gs, it's also realizing that certain types of veggies are just always more expensive, and deciding whether to keep them in the rotation. Also finding the sweet spot between shopping with a list, and being able to identify and take advantage of great deals.

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #56 on: July 02, 2017, 08:52:30 PM »
More good tips!

I have to say, I've definitely had the years with very small children where the shopping around at many stores just wasn't happening.

Also, CSA.  Our CSA for 15 years was fantastic!  But then the drought killed them.  They stopped 2 years ago.  We switched over to a produce delivery, which is $40 instead of $20-25.  It's a bit more produce (maybe 33% more, and definitely more fruit), but they deliver (awesome) and you can get substitutions.

Le Poisson

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #57 on: July 02, 2017, 09:01:04 PM »
What is amazing about PlainJane's shopping is that:

#1 - she is in a HCOL deadzone, and
#2 - she has no car at all.

You won't hit the target without doing the work.

ElleFiji

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #58 on: July 02, 2017, 09:20:00 PM »
Oooh, are we sharing groceries now? I love a good thread derailment.

My $30 at Loblaws (too exhausted to go to multiple stores, and my chauffeur needed something there)
$2 red leaf lettuce
$5 5 avocados
$2.31 apples
$1.59 apricots
$2.5 bread (not for me)
$5.79 bocconcini pearls
$0.9 bananas
6.49 gf pizza
$3.99 regular pizza

I have lots of staples on hand, and I also went to Walmart Friday night $19.36 for holiday entertaining, and because I panic when the stores close
$2.97 Gouda and chive popcorn (okay but there are better options)
$3.97 frozen fruit
$3.97 Fe sunflower - no clue what it is.- searched the kitchen. It's a salad kit!
$2.27 cream substitute
$0.85 bananas
$1.98 chocolate (fruitnutfam)
$1.98 chocolate (mintfam)
$0.47 - bananas for the chauffeur. Did not realize she did that. Completely okay with it



Le Poisson

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #59 on: July 02, 2017, 09:36:20 PM »
Hold up for a minute - Jane - MAPLE FLAVOURED marshmallows? Tell me more.

plainjane

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #60 on: July 03, 2017, 01:05:22 AM »
ElleFiji - it is not derailment, it is precisely on topic for the OP. :) For people who are in HCOL areas (GTA especially), how do they bring down their grocery bills? What exactly are they eating? What are the tradeoffs? Are they fully optimized? What does optimized look like for them? I am glad that we both got the $5 bag of avocados at Loblaws.

Prospector - I don't know that I would characterize us as being in a dead zone - HCOL definitely. We also have an easier time visiting multiple stores because we are 2 mobile adults with minimal commitments who are not trying to wrangle kids.

maple marshmallows - http://www.presidentschoice.ca/en_CA/products/productlisting/pc-maple-flavour-marshmallows.html
I cannot vouch for anything beyond that we can smell the maple in the bag they were transported home in.

Kyle Schuant

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #61 on: July 03, 2017, 01:53:53 AM »
Prices vary hugely from place to place so it's hard to get too specific in advice. But generally, if most of your spending is at the greengrocer's, butcher's and fishmonger's, you're probably doing alright in both health and finances.

I got tired of all the arguing about what to have for dinner and did we have the ingredients and who'd go to the shops and all that, so I just made a menu.

Monday - Chilli - ingredients carrot, celery, onions, garlic, zucchini, minced beef, tinned kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, spice mix
Tuesday - Soup - usually pumpkin/vegie - carrot, celery, onions, garlic, capsicum, butternut pumpkin, potatoes
Wednesday - Steak, chicken schnitzel or salmon and salad with fruit salad
Thursday - Japanese curry - onions, potatoes, fried tofu, japanese curry mix
Friday - Roast - cycle through chicken, beef, lamb and lasagna, except for the lasagna accompany with salad and roast potatoes
Saturday - Pasta - usually a sauce with same ingredients as chilli except no beans or spice
Sunday - wife's choice, ie this is the day she cooks.

Lunches during the week, I just make extra portions of dinner and that gets reheated the next day. Breakfast is weetbix, oats or eggs.

We get some plain biscuits for snacks, and go through stacks of milk.

So you see a lot of ingredients in common through all of that. This means I just have a stocklist, a couple of times a week I go through fridge and pantry and see what we're short of. Like, "Should be 12 litres of milk, we have 4, get 8. Should be 3 zucchinis, we have none, get 3." And so on.

I allow $20 for treats, like last Friday I picked up smoked salmon, cream cheese and bagels.

I change the menu each three months to allow for seasonal fruit and vegies. We just have a normal fridge with a small freezer section on top. As two adults, a 5yo and 1yo, we spend $120-$130pw. The variation is mostly from the vegies, like zucchini might be $3/kg or $6/kg, etc.

If anyone doesn't want what's on the menu, "Great! What are you making for dinner?" And then it turns out they don't mind having pasta again so much after all.

In this way we have more or less consistent nutrition and grocery price. It takes a fair bit of work in shopping and cooking, which not everyone has time for. But that's the equation we all face: money, or time, you must spent at least one of them.

I think the main thing is to have some sort of plan. Whether it's a good or bad plan is less important than it's a plan. And then if the results aren't what you want - not tasty enough, too expensive, not enough nutrition, "but can't we have popcorn?" or whatever - then you change something. And eventually you end up where you want to be.

life_travel

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #62 on: July 03, 2017, 02:42:24 AM »
Prices vary hugely from place to place so it's hard to get too specific in advice. But generally, if most of your spending is at the greengrocer's, butcher's and fishmonger's, you're probably doing alright in both health and finances.

I got tired of all the arguing about what to have for dinner and did we have the ingredients and who'd go to the shops and all that, so I just made a menu.

Monday - Chilli - ingredients carrot, celery, onions, garlic, zucchini, minced beef, tinned kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, spice mix
Tuesday - Soup - usually pumpkin/vegie - carrot, celery, onions, garlic, capsicum, butternut pumpkin, potatoes
Wednesday - Steak, chicken schnitzel or salmon and salad with fruit salad
Thursday - Japanese curry - onions, potatoes, fried tofu, japanese curry mix
Friday - Roast - cycle through chicken, beef, lamb and lasagna, except for the lasagna accompany with salad and roast potatoes
Saturday - Pasta - usually a sauce with same ingredients as chilli except no beans or spice
Sunday - wife's choice, ie this is the day she cooks.

Lunches during the week, I just make extra portions of dinner and that gets reheated the next day. Breakfast is weetbix, oats or eggs.

We get some plain biscuits for snacks, and go through stacks of milk.

So you see a lot of ingredients in common through all of that. This means I just have a stocklist, a couple of times a week I go through fridge and pantry and see what we're short of. Like, "Should be 12 litres of milk, we have 4, get 8. Should be 3 zucchinis, we have none, get 3." And so on.

I allow $20 for treats, like last Friday I picked up smoked salmon, cream cheese and bagels.

I change the menu each three months to allow for seasonal fruit and vegies. We just have a normal fridge with a small freezer section on top. As two adults, a 5yo and 1yo, we spend $120-$130pw. The variation is mostly from the vegies, like zucchini might be $3/kg or $6/kg, etc.

If anyone doesn't want what's on the menu, "Great! What are you making for dinner?" And then it turns out they don't mind having pasta again so much after all.

In this way we have more or less consistent nutrition and grocery price. It takes a fair bit of work in shopping and cooking, which not everyone has time for. But that's the equation we all face: money, or time, you must spent at least one of them.

I think the main thing is to have some sort of plan. Whether it's a good or bad plan is less important than it's a plan. And then if the results aren't what you want - not tasty enough, too expensive, not enough nutrition, "but can't we have popcorn?" or whatever - then you change something. And eventually you end up where you want to be.
Kyle , I like your plan! Our grocery bill is not huge but we'd definitely want to get it down to save more :) As a person who cooks most it all makes sense , but where meal plan would not work is reduced to clear items . My ( very recent ) track is to pop into supermarket every 2nd day , it's right next to my work and grab their reduce to clear items . Then dinner is made from that :)

Kyle Schuant

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #63 on: July 03, 2017, 05:50:51 AM »
Well, if it works for you, it works for you.

Quite often I don't follow the plan. I see something cheap, or something reasonably-priced that we don't usually have, and so we're having something different for dinner tonight.

But the plan's the base, if we vary from there it's because I decided to. This is different to when people have no clue what they want and go shopping while hungry - that's how you end up with packaged food and a big bill.

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #64 on: July 03, 2017, 10:51:37 AM »
maple marshmallows - http://www.presidentschoice.ca/en_CA/products/productlisting/pc-maple-flavour-marshmallows.html
I cannot vouch for anything beyond that we can smell the maple in the bag they were transported home in.

I bought the maple marshmallows for camping. My kids went nuts for them, but I couldn't bring myself to try them. I like maple and I like marshmallows, bit these were too much. So, on the plus side I didn't end up eating too much sugar while sitting around the campfire.

Prospector - It's a PC product, so should be available at any Loblaws owned store.

MBot

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #65 on: July 04, 2017, 08:07:27 AM »
Just posting for more Ontario encouragement - between No Frills and Food Basics, we lived very well in Toronto (Leaside) and later in Hamilton.

I find store brands at the  discount chains do save an incredible amount of money over time. And they save me time from not price matching or waiting for sales or traveling to different stores. Sure, sale $3-4 Kraft PB is great, but always having generic PB for $4 for a large jar is better. Store brands save us SO MUCH over time. Eg $1.44 a loaf of whole wheat bread right now at Food Basics.

Eating meat 4-5 times a week (edited for typo), the second  biggest money saver is freezing meat. Not even a deep freeze. Just getting the $3 ground beef or chicken breast sales and freezing it in no name ziploc bags (ground meat squished flat, chicken is best if you pre-cut strips and squash the bag flat). As long as there's no air it won't get freezer burned. No Frills has boneless chicken thighs that make an amazing single portion of meat (two per person if you eat a lot of meat) and don't need cutting or anything before freezing.

Oatmeal, however is cheapest at Wal-Mart of all places! $2 a bag all the time. But as everything else is
so expensive I don't bother. Spices at Bulk Barn are great for what you can't get st a discount grocery store.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2017, 08:09:41 AM by MBot »

Le Poisson

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #66 on: July 04, 2017, 08:54:26 AM »
Just posting for more Ontario encouragement - between No Frills and Food Basics, we lived very well in Toronto (Leaside) and later in Hamilton.

I find store brands at the  discount chains do save an incredible amount of money over time. And they save me time from not price matching or waiting for sales or traveling to different stores. Sure, sale $3-4 Kraft PB is great, but always having generic PB for $4 for a large jar is better. Store brands save us SO MUCH over time. Eg $1.44 a loaf of whole wheat bread right now at Food Basics.

Eating meat 4-5 times a week (edited for typo), the second  biggest money saver is freezing meat. Not even a deep freeze. Just getting the $3 ground beef or chicken breast sales and freezing it in no name ziploc bags (ground meat squished flat, chicken is best if you pre-cut strips and squash the bag flat). As long as there's no air it won't get freezer burned. No Frills has boneless chicken thighs that make an amazing single portion of meat (two per person if you eat a lot of meat) and don't need cutting or anything before freezing.

Oatmeal, however is cheapest at Wal-Mart of all places! $2 a bag all the time. But as everything else is
so expensive I don't bother. Spices at Bulk Barn are great for what you can't get st a discount grocery store.

Loads of great ideas Mbot! If you want to optimize further, we save the 1 litre milk bags and use them in a bag sealer to freeze bulk meat buys. With the amount of milk we go through for a family of 4, those milk bags see a lot of uses. Just rinse them after the milk is gone, and you have free bags. Similarly we use the outer bags for our home made bread to be stored in. I can bake bread for around $0.30 per loaf - but I recognize that this is too time consuming for a lot of folks.

I'm not sure but I think that buying in bulk, we have Wal-Mart's oatmeal price beat. I haven't found anywhere that comes close to teh price at Wholesale club - but it is unyieldy having two 10 kg bag of oats in the kitchen. We go through a lot of it though, so I think its worth it. (10kg for $18.97 but you have to buy 2 bags)



<EDIT - I just checked, WalMart's Oatmeal is exactly the same price per hundred grams (within a cent). Maybe we'll switch and get rid of the bulk bags!>
« Last Edit: July 04, 2017, 08:58:27 AM by Prospector »

APowers

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #67 on: July 05, 2017, 11:26:23 PM »
Hi everyone, new to the forum. I've recently decided to get serious about finances and part of that is setting a monthly budget for groceries. I've set my goal (for a 2 person household) as $520/month ($CAD - equivalent to just under $400 USD). For June, my first month doing this, I'm coming in at roughly $250 over. I've learned a lot and I think I can bring it down somewhat next month, but I'm wondering if my budgeted amount is realistic. We've already started making a meal plan, cooking mostly from scratch, shopping primarily at the discount grocery store, checking out the store flyers to find sales, etc. and not eating much meat. So I'm wondering if I'm missing something, because I routinely see people posting that their monthly grocery budget is $300-$400, for a four person (or more!) household. For those who are hitting this amount, my question for you is - how?

Do your budgets include household supply items? If I take that out, I think I can get a lot closer to my goal, for example. Do you ever eat convenience foods (e.g frozen pizza, rotisserie chickens), or is everything cooked from scratch? Do you have any splurge items (for example, we are still buying a few pricier/organic items where we think it makes a difference in taste, do you do anything like this or do you always buy the cheapest items)? How much are you using your freezer? We are in a condo and so don't have too much space in there to stock up. What types of meals do you eat? Any help or tips are appreciated!

Well, this is interesting. I also often see people posting about their $300-400 grocery budgets and wonder-- how? But I come at it from the opposite angle. We spend (on average) under $200/mo for our family of 4, and I don't know what I'd even buy with an extra $100-200!

Here's what we do for groceries. This is food only, as we track household supplies, toiletries, and whatnots separately. We live in the U.S., so I'm not sure how our situation and strategies translate into Canada.


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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #68 on: July 06, 2017, 12:03:42 PM »
I'd recommend you actually look at your receipts for a month or two and really tally it all up.  There are often a few seemingly small things that add up big time.

Do this! Guarantee you'll be surprised at how much unnecessary stuff you're actually buying. One or two things a trip that weren't planned or you just bought spur of the moment can really add up. I thought I just needed to have a higher budget because I live in a HCOL area (which is still slightly true), but after a month of actually reviewing my receipts and being really conscious of what I was buying, my reaction was "oh, there's where all my money ends up."

My grocery budget is also the one thing that I'm "flexible" on. If I have $50 left in my budget and there's a ridiculous sale on meats, I'll go over my budget, knowing that next month, me stocking up on a sale can keep my future spending lower.

MBot

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Re: Question about $300-$400 Grocery Budgets...
« Reply #69 on: July 07, 2017, 07:34:07 AM »
Just posting for more Ontario encouragement - between No Frills and Food Basics, we lived very well in Toronto (Leaside) and later in Hamilton.

I find store brands at the  discount chains do save an incredible amount of money over time. And they save me time from not price matching or waiting for sales or traveling to different stores. Sure, sale $3-4 Kraft PB is great, but always having generic PB for $4 for a large jar is better. Store brands save us SO MUCH over time. Eg $1.44 a loaf of whole wheat bread right now at Food Basics.

Eating meat 4-5 times a week (edited for typo), the second  biggest money saver is freezing meat. Not even a deep freeze. Just getting the $3 ground beef or chicken breast sales and freezing it in no name ziploc bags (ground meat squished flat, chicken is best if you pre-cut strips and squash the bag flat). As long as there's no air it won't get freezer burned. No Frills has boneless chicken thighs that make an amazing single portion of meat (two per person if you eat a lot of meat) and don't need cutting or anything before freezing.

Oatmeal, however is cheapest at Wal-Mart of all places! $2 a bag all the time. But as everything else is
so expensive I don't bother. Spices at Bulk Barn are great for what you can't get st a discount grocery store.

Loads of great ideas Mbot! If you want to optimize further, we save the 1 litre milk bags and use them in a bag sealer to freeze bulk meat buys. With the amount of milk we go through for a family of 4, those milk bags see a lot of uses. Just rinse them after the milk is gone, and you have free bags. Similarly we use the outer bags for our home made bread to be stored in. I can bake bread for around $0.30 per loaf - but I recognize that this is too time consuming for a lot of folks.

I'm not sure but I think that buying in bulk, we have Wal-Mart's oatmeal price beat. I haven't found anywhere that comes close to teh price at Wholesale club - but it is unyieldy having two 10 kg bag of oats in the kitchen. We go through a lot of it though, so I think its worth it. (10kg for $18.97 but you have to buy 2 bags)



<EDIT - I just checked, WalMart's Oatmeal is exactly the same price per hundred grams (within a cent). Maybe we'll switch and get rid of the bulk bags!>


Thanks for doing the legwork on that! I'm in Northern Ontario now, and while we have most grocery chains (Metro, Food Basics, No Frills, Independent [Loblaws/Zehrs]) we don't have Wholesale Club or Costco in my city. I would have considered getting a stash and bringing it up.

I've never found anything cheaper than Costco Leanfit Whey Protein, however. I don't lift as much or use much these days, but that was worth bringing up the very bulky containers.
I have found I have to go "up" a size in walmart oatmeal. their minute stuff is REALLY fine, but their "quick" oats are just right.

Edited - and thanks for the milk bag suggestion! The thickness of those bags seems very useful for that.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2017, 07:36:11 AM by MBot »