Author Topic: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018  (Read 121281 times)

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #100 on: January 28, 2018, 11:10:42 AM »
As I am tracking all my spending, I'm also saving my grocery receipts to see which items I am buying frequently.  These it would make sense to buy in larger quantities at Costco or elsewhere for example.  I'm also tracking the cost of items we buy a lot to see where I can get it most cheaply.

I just found this spreadsheet online comparing Aldi's and Walmart's prices on various stables, many of which I buy myself.   It was dated about 6 months ago.

https://www.mashupmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/aldi-vs-walmart-prices-1.pdf


Abe

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #101 on: January 28, 2018, 03:34:38 PM »
Our grocery list for other's reference:

1 pound kidney beans: $3
1 pound lentils: $3
5 pounds rice: $5
Bell peppers: $2.50/lb = $5
Yams: $2/lb = $6
Zucchini: $2/lb = $6
Onions: $1.50/lb = $3
Garlic: $1.50/lb = $1.50
Butternut squash: $2.50/lb = $5
Milk: 2 gallons for $8
Banana: $1.50/lb = $4.50
Apples: $2.50/lb = $7.50
Oranges: $2/lb = $6
Eggs (18): $5
Salmon: $15
Bread: $3

Total: $90 for 6 days of food for 2 adults, 1 kid (we eat out one lunch and dinner).
- Salmon is by far the most expensive per portion. The rest is bought at a store that buys secondary market produce that ninnies at the regular stores think looks too weird to sell.

Where are you located that you’re seeing these prices? Some of them seem really high to me. I’m in Ottawa, Canada for reference which I understood to be about 20% to 30% more expensive than your average American grocery store prices.

These are the best prices I’ve found locally for some of the items on your list:

Bell Peppers $1.25/lb
Yams $1/lb
Onions $1/lb
Butternut Squash $0.67/lb
Bananas $0.57/lb
Apples $0.66/lb
Oranges $1/lb
Eggs (30) $5

Much cheaper up there than here in southern california. Other than bananas, nothing is below $1/lb. It's kind of crazy since a lot of the US eats comes from farms in California. Prices don't fluctuate much if they come from Chile (fruit in the winter) or from here. We still manage to cook for <$10 / meal.

DTaggart

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #102 on: January 28, 2018, 03:39:25 PM »
I completed my last grocery shopping excursion for January, and the grand total for the month is... $224.08, plus ~$25 on my Sprouts gift card. Right on target! Plus, I now have $21 in my iBotta account, which is enough to cash out (I need to get my phone number updated on my account first though). I think once that goes through I will add it in to my February budget.

I had to keep this weekend's shopping pretty minimal to squeeze under, but I did get 5 loaves of bread since they had a 1-day only deal on the bread we like for .77/loaf. I was also able to stock up on some bags of frozen vegetables that were .49 each. The rest was mainly fresh produce and some milk plus a pack of swiss cheese slices to keep hubby happy.

I still need to do a freezer inventory.







zeli2033

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #103 on: January 28, 2018, 04:14:49 PM »
Alright, just completed the last planned grocery shopping trip of the month. I still won't be breaking out household goods from this budget (that can be a goal for 2019 or something).

Average Monthly Spending Last Year: $1,377
Goal Monthly Spending 2018: $850
January 2018: $744.54

Of that total, only $29 was spent on eating out/coffee out. Last year, our average for those categories was $252. I'm feeling pretty stoked about this! I know it's ridiculous that we're spending this much for two people but the level of progress is awesome.

jim555

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #104 on: January 28, 2018, 05:47:31 PM »
Last year's monthly food spending, 1 person house:
$210.33
$201.83
$191.98
$240.30
$216.64
$227.01
$227.28
$216.89
$207.56
$167.36
$169.10
$190.36

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #105 on: January 28, 2018, 06:11:04 PM »
People who make their own yogurt -- any success making your own sour cream?

We do not eat much yogurt but do go through a lot of sour cream.

What do you use the sour cream for? In recipes, I pretty much always sub yogurt anyway, as I rarely have sour cream on hand. If I'm serving it with something (tacos?), I'll mix in sriracha so it has a bit more flavor & use the yogurt that way.

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #106 on: January 28, 2018, 07:32:13 PM »
I use it for ... dolloping!   Tacos, meats, soups, whatever.

I have an unusual situation where I am looking for ways to up the calories in meals for 3/4 of my family members while reducing calories to myself.  So I do tend to use a lot of sour cream or butter sauce, etc., on the side.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #107 on: January 29, 2018, 02:13:53 AM »
This weekend I made a batch of yogurt. But in my country, when using full fat milk from the store, you don't save any money. The yoghurt was reduced in volume compared to the milk and we are left we a similar liter price.
But it is nice to finally have a succeeded batch. The previous time I used low fat milk and I stirred quite often during the process. Eventually the yogurt separated into whey and a concrete-like structure that could not be eaten.

Roadrunner53

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #108 on: January 29, 2018, 04:40:25 AM »
Try freezer cooking: https://newleafwellness.biz/2015/11/02/17-free-printable-freezer-meal-plans-and-grocery-lists/

I have some books here at home and have done it a few times.

fruitfly

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #109 on: January 29, 2018, 04:29:24 PM »
CrustyBadger we use full fat greek yogurt in our house instead of sour cream (my SO is lactose intolerant). I actually like it better than sour cream now. When I make homemade yogurt it usually comes out pretty thick but otherwise you just drain it to make it thicker.

I totally blew my budget this month, it's over $1k. I got too many snacky things and have poor impulse control when faced with bargains. Ugh. Next month is a new month, right??

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #110 on: January 29, 2018, 04:35:32 PM »
Thanks @fruitfly !  On reflection, sour cream is pretty cheap and I don't think I can get it much cheaper by making it myself, really.   I think I will instead spend my time learning how to bake the muffins my family loves so much, that are like $1 a muffin.

They really like these muffins from Wegmans:   Oats, nuts and cranberries.   I am not much of a baker, but they can't be that hard.

frooglepoodle

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #111 on: January 29, 2018, 05:17:55 PM »
Thanks @fruitfly !  On reflection, sour cream is pretty cheap and I don't think I can get it much cheaper by making it myself, really.   I think I will instead spend my time learning how to bake the muffins my family loves so much, that are like $1 a muffin.

They really like these muffins from Wegmans:   Oats, nuts and cranberries.   I am not much of a baker, but they can't be that hard.

A quick google found this recipe: http://hometownqueenbee.blogspot.com/2015/10/cranberry-nut-muffin-healthier-recipe.html

But I’m partial to this recipe: http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/oatmealmuffins.htm. I use whole wheat flour and add some spices (at least 1 tsp of cinnamon) and it is a great base to add all sorts of extras. I made them this weekend with diced apples and chopped walnuts, and used cinnamon, cardamom, and a tiny bit of ground ginger for the spices.

galliver

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #112 on: January 30, 2018, 12:34:01 AM »
I guess since I'm commenting on SoCal stores I'll end up following along permanently. And if that's the case I should share my own situation. I'm kind of unreasonably pleased we are only just barely over my typical $500 budget goal for 2 of us....I'm pleased though because we actually spent the first $100 on two nice, meaty dinners for 7 (and one leftovers-dinner for 4) while staying with family, i.e. it's not actually *our* grocery spending... we've been making our choices a little differently lately and don't include 10lb of red meat in one week, lol.

I'd love to get our bill down to the ~$400 range. I know the bulk of our eating costs well below that, even with meat. I think what trips us up are beverages (LaCroix, infrequent ginger beer, alcohol, bottled cold brew...), prepared foods (emergency dumplings, frozen pizza), good cheese and deli meats (for breakfast and non-leftovers lunches). Oh also it includes stupid expensive probiotics...but dammit they seem to work. Last big shopping trip, out of a total ~$110, drinks were $30+$11+$6 so a good 40%. :( Buuut changing that requires nudging bf (we shop together, which is actually pretty great relationally), so it's an interpersonal problem rather than a personal willpower/planning/responsibility problem...

Much cheaper up there than here in southern california. Other than bananas, nothing is below $1/lb. It's kind of crazy since a lot of the US eats comes from farms in California. Prices don't fluctuate much if they come from Chile (fruit in the winter) or from here. We still manage to cook for <$10 / meal.

...where in SoCal are you and where are you shopping? I'm in the LA area and would have a hard time finding produce *over* $1/lb at Super King and Sprouts... (except maybe organic). Smart & Final has occasional good deals, too... And ethnic markets abound. Might interest @FireHiker, too?

MEJG

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #113 on: January 30, 2018, 04:47:40 AM »
Family of 5, about to be 6. 
Goal                <$600/month Groceries     and     <$150/month in eating out
Stretch goal     <$500/month Groceries     and      <$75/month eating out

Jan 2018- FAIL

Goals:
Groceries <$600, actual $728.34                  Exceeded goal by $128.34
Eating out stretch <$75, actual  $70.72         Met goal by $79.82, Met by stretch by $4.82

Exceeded monthly goal by $48.52.

I split out household goods in YNAB so this is food only.

We had a GI illness go through the house and had to run out for gatorade, pedialyte pops and crackers that ran about $20, and three times this month I ran to stop and shop to buy lunch/lunch materials due to poor planning at work, each trip was between 20-25 and lasted 2 days at work. So lots of room for improvement.


CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #114 on: January 30, 2018, 03:30:07 PM »
Thanks @fruitfly !  On reflection, sour cream is pretty cheap and I don't think I can get it much cheaper by making it myself, really.   I think I will instead spend my time learning how to bake the muffins my family loves so much, that are like $1 a muffin.

They really like these muffins from Wegmans:   Oats, nuts and cranberries.   I am not much of a baker, but they can't be that hard.

A quick google found this recipe: http://hometownqueenbee.blogspot.com/2015/10/cranberry-nut-muffin-healthier-recipe.html

But I’m partial to this recipe: http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/oatmealmuffins.htm. I use whole wheat flour and add some spices (at least 1 tsp of cinnamon) and it is a great base to add all sorts of extras. I made them this weekend with diced apples and chopped walnuts, and used cinnamon, cardamom, and a tiny bit of ground ginger for the spices.

THank you so much frooglepoodle! 

OK new habit time.  Tonight we are eating leftovers (so a simple meal for me) and then... daughter and I are going to bake homemade muffins.

I already have a ton of walnuts in the freezer, and baking stuff like whole wheat flour and sugar.  I stopped off at the store to get some cranberries and other ingredients I might need.   Found the muffin tin (I am not a baker much).  Wish me luck!!   I don't like muffins but my husband and daughter go through them like crazy.

I can't decide if I should make them with oatmeal or not.  The ones at Wegman's do not have oatmeal.  But I am trying to incorporate more oatmeal in our diet.


HappierAtHome

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #115 on: January 30, 2018, 05:49:19 PM »
Well it's the last day of January and I am not shopping today, so our official January total is $731, well under our $800 budget. I'm toying with the idea of setting a $700 budget for February...

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #116 on: January 30, 2018, 06:02:52 PM »
Good work, @HappierAtHome !!

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #117 on: January 30, 2018, 07:50:47 PM »
I made the muffins!  It took about 30 minutes all told but next time will be quicker. They are not sweet enough.  I used some frozen mixed berries (cranberry, raspberry, blueberry) because I couldn't find any fresh cranberries.  I think I should have mixed the berries with some sugar or honey or something.  But anyhow, they are made, and bagged. One in the freezer, on in the fridge, and one to be eaten tomorrow morning by my adoring family.  (-:  Yeah right.

HappierAtHome

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Abe

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #119 on: January 30, 2018, 09:22:19 PM »
Came in at $550 for family of 3, $50 under budget and 60% of last year's average!

AmandaPanda

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #120 on: January 31, 2018, 07:47:28 AM »
I made the muffins!  It took about 30 minutes all told but next time will be quicker. They are not sweet enough.  I used some frozen mixed berries (cranberry, raspberry, blueberry) because I couldn't find any fresh cranberries.  I think I should have mixed the berries with some sugar or honey or something.  But anyhow, they are made, and bagged. One in the freezer, on in the fridge, and one to be eaten tomorrow morning by my adoring family.  (-:  Yeah right.

Right now I'm making a lot of cinnamon applesauce muffins for the kids because they love them.  I'm sure they will eventually get bored and ask for a different flavor.  When you made them with frozen fruit, did you have to account for the extra moisture, or did you just throw them in the mix like normal?  Frozen fruit as an ingredient is really the only other add-in I would consider other than applesauce, just because I can always have it on hand.

We are over my $120 budget for the month.  We are at $139 and change, and I am definitely not making any purchases today.  I think the budget may need to be $150 for Feb and March, and after that go back up to $400 for the remainder of the year.  I am enjoying the process of having to come up with meals that use up mostly things we already have on hand, though

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #121 on: January 31, 2018, 09:06:18 AM »
@AmandaPanda wait what? How many people are you feeding for $120 a month? Wow that’s fruga!!

I never made muffins before. I just threw in 1 cup frozen berries where the recipe called for 1/2 c chopped cranberries. I threw in 1 c chopped walnuts as well then added 1 extra cup milk because the batter seemed too thick.

I had one for breakfast. Definitely edible and filling.

haypug16

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #122 on: January 31, 2018, 09:27:02 AM »
Managed to finish the month at $204.65 (Goal of $250, Stretch goal of $200) It was tough and my Dining out total for the month was a little higher ($30) than I hoped. Overall not bad. On to February.

*side note - I need to find that MMM article when he breaks down the household yearly spending. I had a talk with DH about how we can get our numbers down to his and I think we need to take it category by category.

4alpacas

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #123 on: January 31, 2018, 09:36:17 AM »
I'm in.  Our grocery bill has been slowly inching up, so we're at about $400/month (including all personal care items, dog food, etc.) when we used to be around $250.  We did add a second dog, but that should only be about $35/month (buy dog food through Costco). 

We're two adults and two dogs.  We eat out once/week, and dining out is excluded from the above cost. 

AmandaPanda

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #124 on: January 31, 2018, 11:48:23 AM »
CrustyBadger, nooooo. The $120 is filling in with my overloaded freezer and pantry.  Once my stocks dwindle down, it'll be a more accurate monthly number of $400 or so.

Roadrunner53

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #125 on: January 31, 2018, 11:54:14 AM »
CrustyBadger, nooooo. The $120 is filling in with my overloaded freezer and pantry.  Once my stocks dwindle down, it'll be a more accurate monthly number of $400 or so.

Hahaha, my freezers are going to explode! Am whittling down however tomorrow I have 10 lbs of stuffed fillet of sole and 10 lbs of coconut shrimp delivered. MORE in the freezer! That is it...gotta stop the insanity!

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #126 on: January 31, 2018, 12:17:38 PM »
Ok, freezer cooking. That makes sense!

So I kept records of all grocery shopping in January. With me SEVERELY CUTTING BACK I went to the grocery store SEVENTEEN times. Out of 31 days.

That is NUTS!!

Ok I made s list if what items I bought each week. For the items I buy over and over again I’m going to buy in bulk as much as is practical. I have a small kitchen and small storage space.  But I need to cut these shopping trips at least in half. No more than 8 trips in February!

Roadrunner53

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #127 on: January 31, 2018, 12:39:20 PM »


So I kept records of all grocery shopping in January. With me SEVERELY CUTTING BACK I went to the grocery store SEVENTEEN times. Out of 31 days.

That is NUTS!!



Hahaha, I cracked up 17 times in 31 days! I didn't do that but I do a lot of shopping at Jet, Target, Walmart, a food service place, Peapod, and had deliveries on top of grocery shopping! We are food shopaholics!

AmandaPanda

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #128 on: January 31, 2018, 02:24:54 PM »


So I kept records of all grocery shopping in January. With me SEVERELY CUTTING BACK I went to the grocery store SEVENTEEN times. Out of 31 days.

That is NUTS!!



Hahaha, I cracked up 17 times in 31 days! I didn't do that but I do a lot of shopping at Jet, Target, Walmart, a food service place, Peapod, and had deliveries on top of grocery shopping! We are food shopaholics!

Oh you guys, how I relate.  That made me go back and tally, and I have 13 for the month.  Why can't it be 4 or 5???

Roadrunner53

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #129 on: January 31, 2018, 02:39:30 PM »
You know what is even more SICK is that I shop for just the Hub and I! LOL! The dogs are on special Veterinarian dog food. That stuff is expensive!

What are you all pulling out of your freezers to eat for dinner tonight? I have stuffed Costco Salmon thawing. One little dent out of the refrigerator freezer. A long way to go!

FireHiker

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #130 on: January 31, 2018, 04:17:07 PM »
We will eat dinner at home tonight, so that puts my January numbers at $1126.20. Ugh, my goal was to get it under $1100. $123 of that total was food at Disneyland earlier this month. Even without that, our eating out spending is still more than some of you spend the entire month so we have a lot of room for improvement, $325 (not including the Disney day). $677 on groceries, 13 trips. To be fair, some of those trips included hunting for good masa flour; we finally broke down and went to Northgate which is a local Hispanic grocery store. At least it's an incremental improvement since last year's monthly average was $1264.

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #131 on: January 31, 2018, 04:22:13 PM »
Oh you guys, how I relate.  That made me go back and tally, and I have 13 for the month.  Why can't it be 4 or 5???

The incredible thing is, this was me CUTTING BACK.  I specifically did NOT grocery shop as much as I used to.  I was Uber Frugaling January!  I was batch cooking!

I guess I actually shopped almost every day before?   I do have grocery stores on the way home from both places I work and I do often just pop in and pick something up.

Oh, the changes I have planned....

I made a spreadsheet for everything I bought this month, and listed Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4.   Then I noted how often each week I bought which products.   Not the cost, just how much I am buying.

SO for example for milk I bought:

Week 1: 2 gallons
Week 2: 3 gallons
Week 3: 3 gallons
Week 4: 2.5 gallons

So now I safely can assume I'll use 5 gallons of milk every 2 weeks.

I have identified the 20 things I buy the most frequently, at least 3 weeks in the month, to see if I can bulk purchase them more cheaply or at least more conveniently. I have an aversion to buying in bulk because (a) small kitchen and no storage (b) I waste too much food that way.   But now that I have a record of what I have used the most this month, I can be more confident that this food won't go to waste.

The foods I bought most frequently were (when I list "bags" that means just the normal, everyday size the food is often sold in a regular grocery store - not family size or bulk size. I'm not sure of exact ouces):

bacon - 4 lbs
milk - 10.5 gallons
cheddar - 6 pounds
eggs; 5.5 dozen
butter- 7 pounds
OJ- 4 bottles
fudge brownies - 3 containers
cheerios - 4 boxes
yellow potatoes - 15 pounds
various greens: 9 clamshells
carrots: 9 pounds
peppers: 9
yellow onions: 12 pounds
strawberries: 4 pounds
apples: 18 pounds
bananas: 16 pounds
PB Pretzels: 4 bags
potato chips: 3 bags
Goldfish- 3 bags

Some of these things I can't buy for the whole month ahead. I don't have enough fridge or freezer room to store everything.  But for others I am going to check out Costco and see if they have something similar in bulk sizes, for a better price than Aldis.  OR I can just buy all I need for one month in one gigantic shopping trip!

AmandaPanda

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #132 on: January 31, 2018, 04:28:18 PM »
So much butter! Tonight I made baked nachos using up frozen chopped peppers, frozen chopped turkey breast, can of beans, half a can of enchilada sauce that was leftover in the fridge, and some chips from an open bag left here after a party. It’s not my best meal, and I thought it sounded pretty good when I made it up.

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #133 on: January 31, 2018, 05:19:08 PM »
So much butter! Tonight I made baked nachos using up frozen chopped peppers, frozen chopped turkey breast, can of beans, half a can of enchilada sauce that was leftover in the fridge, and some chips from an open bag left here after a party. It’s not my best meal, and I thought it sounded pretty good when I made it up.

Baked nachos sound delicious!

Yes, it is a ton of butter!   3/4 of my family is under medical orders to gain weight!  (I wish I could give them mine.)  We are a high fat, high calorie, hugh nutrient dense family.

frooglepoodle

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #134 on: January 31, 2018, 05:31:28 PM »
January total: $573, but this includes two months of herdshare fees, so it includes February’s milk deliveries as well. Not even close to my Uber Frugal January goal, but on track for my annual goal so I’m counting it as a win.

haypug16

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #135 on: January 31, 2018, 07:34:51 PM »


So I kept records of all grocery shopping in January. With me SEVERELY CUTTING BACK I went to the grocery store SEVENTEEN times. Out of 31 days.

That is NUTS!!



Hahaha, I cracked up 17 times in 31 days! I didn't do that but I do a lot of shopping at Jet, Target, Walmart, a food service place, Peapod, and had deliveries on top of grocery shopping! We are food shopaholics!

Oh you guys, how I relate.  That made me go back and tally, and I have 13 for the month.  Why can't it be 4 or 5???

I had to go back and check my count for the month. 7 trips. Would love to get that down to 4 times a month

galliver

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #136 on: January 31, 2018, 08:15:31 PM »
Ah, I spoke too soon... bf and I both ended up stopping by the grocery store yesterday. I wouldn't call our food purchases unreasonable (spinach for dinner that night, bread, bananas, white cheddar w/ cranberries for $3/lb, coffee beans, cold brew coffee (him not me!)) But we also stocked up on like $100+ worth of the probiotics. At least I should be set for >2 months...

I like the idea of tracking visits, though I think shopping days or perhaps trips is more meaningful than individual transactions? We usually go to 2, sometimes 3 stores when we do a big shop because we like the produce and meat at different places. So we have 9 shopping days with 18 visits. Still more than I would think/like! I'm thinking 6ish (~3-4 weekend ones, +2-3 "I need X to use up Y" small trips). Looking at the transactions it seems evident I should discourage bf from grocery shopping mid-week. Especially after the gym! (Not that I am blameless.)

Re: probiotics because I'm sure someone is wondering (or judging :P) (TMI alert?) It's not some fad clean-eating thing, some very important microbiota got nuked by antibiotics a couple years ago and "consume probiotics" is the best that docs (multiple) have recommended for the resulting symptoms. The cheap ones didn't seem to do jack but the kind with 30-odd varieties seem to maybe help when I don't forget to take them, and also eat yogurt. Hoping that if I redouble my efforts I can build my own back up in time, but it seems a very slow process to get it to stick... (I realize there are probiotic foods but I don't relish the idea of switching to straight sauerkraut and yogurt...)

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #137 on: January 31, 2018, 08:48:44 PM »
I like the idea of tracking visits, though I think shopping days or perhaps trips is more meaningful than individual transactions? We usually go to 2, sometimes 3 stores when we do a big shop because we like the produce and meat at different places. So we have 9 shopping days with 18 visits.

I think, whatever works!  I am thinking about the time involved in shopping as much as I do.  I already only go shopping when it's on the way from somewhere I need to go, but it still easily takes at least 30-45 minutes to get in and out.  If I could cut out 8 such trips, that's an extra 4 hours I could have back to myself each month.

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #138 on: January 31, 2018, 08:52:09 PM »
(I realize there are probiotic foods but I don't relish the idea of switching to straight sauerkraut and yogurt...)

There's also pickles, olives, and miso-- but the cost for naturally fermented varieties would probably be more than the supplements, unless you did it yourself.

Abe

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #139 on: February 01, 2018, 12:44:16 AM »
One of the stores we go to will sell groceries by the case for substantial discounts. That may help you all with the big families.

Re: probiotics - does stopping them for 1-2 days significantly affect your bowel function? If not, you can probably try every other day dosing which seems to work well for our Crohn's patients who're always in & out of the hospital and getting antibiotics.

galliver

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #140 on: February 01, 2018, 01:07:27 AM »
One of the stores we go to will sell groceries by the case for substantial discounts. That may help you all with the big families.

Re: probiotics - does stopping them for 1-2 days significantly affect your bowel function? If not, you can probably try every other day dosing which seems to work well for our Crohn's patients who're always in &amp; out of the hospital and getting antibiotics.
Hmm let's maybe not get into the internet diagnosis game? ;) I appreciate your desire to help.

It occurs to me I could avoid the budgetary issue by splitting transactions and calling it OTC medical; didn't occur to me at first because we get basically no other non food things at the grocery store. Derp. :)

imadandylion

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #141 on: February 01, 2018, 02:47:21 PM »
I want to try to get my household monthly grocery spending to $160-200.

Prior to this goal I just stated, I had been trying to achieve $200 (just my end, since we try to alternate buying groceries every week, so my partner and I each buy half a month's worth of groceries), usually spending $90-100 for two people in a week. Recently, I've found that going to the farmer's market is a lot more inexpensive than buying at the grocery store, so for the past couple of weeks we've been able to spend $40/week for two people, using basics we already had on hand from the grocery store (things like rice, beans, legumes, other grains, noodles, pasta). I'd really like to keep this up with going to the farmer's market because it seems much more wallet-friendly to buy the produce there instead.

The new goal will require spending $40-50 per week for two people – half the amount of my previous goal. I think it'll be okay, but we'll see! We don't eat a lot of packaged products except for convenience things like pasta/noodles (really inexpensive, and I'd really like trying to make my own), and sometimes beer/wine.

CrustyBadger

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #142 on: February 01, 2018, 04:09:08 PM »
I ALREADY went to the store again.  February 1!!

I hope I can make it at least 4 more days without another trip.

I bought fish, chicken and chorizo.  That makes three meals.  We have two dinners in the freezer still. 

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #143 on: February 01, 2018, 04:18:55 PM »
Here's how we netted out for January. Spent $554 on a budget of $625. Note that I did use a Costco gift card, so would have ended up pretty much even if I hadn't had that. We started the month with pretty much nothing in the fridge, as we were out of town for the holidays.

So, feeling good about how January went. We have quite a bit in the freezer, so once I'm home from my work trip, I'll itemize available meal options, menu plan, & then stock up on fruit & veggies.

MEJG

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #144 on: February 02, 2018, 04:50:47 AM »
Lost all our chicken from shopping last weekend.  It smelled off on Tuesday.....  That puts us WAY behind in protein for the next 2-3 weeks.... we bought 2 Costco flats of chicken thighs.
Bought a fridge thermometer since fridge seemed warm...

Fridge is freaking broken, holding at about 55 degrees, on the "coldest" setting.  So now we need to figure out what the heck to do with the fridge, make it through on the food in the freezer and the food that won't spoil at 55 in the fridge.

frooglepoodle

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #145 on: February 02, 2018, 12:00:06 PM »
Spent $80 on groceries yesterday, forgot to buy chili powder that I need for tonight’s dinner. The freezer is well stocked to keep my husband fed for the next ~2 weeks while I am gone, perhaps supplemented by $10-15 of fresh veggies.

My (very ambitious) goal is to keep total spending for the month to $300, including the herdshare fee for March.

galliver

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #146 on: February 02, 2018, 01:23:53 PM »
Lost all our chicken from shopping last weekend.  It smelled off on Tuesday.....  That puts us WAY behind in protein for the next 2-3 weeks.... we bought 2 Costco flats of chicken thighs.
Bought a fridge thermometer since fridge seemed warm...

Fridge is freaking broken, holding at about 55 degrees, on the "coldest" setting.  So now we need to figure out what the heck to do with the fridge, make it through on the food in the freezer and the food that won't spoil at 55 in the fridge.

Based on your location: what's the weather, and do you have a garage or other indoor, unheated space that's getting refrigerator-cold right now? My bf's family puts holiday leftovers and big pots of soup in their covered porch or garage in the winter (in Iowa). Sorry to hear about the chicken :/

HappierAtHome

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #147 on: February 02, 2018, 09:09:48 PM »
I've spent $204 so far in Feb. I think I want to keep my overall Feb spend to $700. This may be harder than I expected!

Clara Smith

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #148 on: February 03, 2018, 12:48:09 AM »
In the first month of 2018, January. I reduced the intake of-of fast food, snacks, and instant noodles and I noticed that my grocery spending is reduced. 

MEJG

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Re: Reduce your grocery spend - 2018
« Reply #149 on: February 03, 2018, 05:25:38 AM »
Based on your location: what's the weather, and do you have a garage or other indoor, unheated space that's getting refrigerator-cold right now? My bf's family puts holiday leftovers and big pots of soup in their covered porch or garage in the winter (in Iowa). Sorry to hear about the chicken :/

Yep it's cold here so all the perishables went into coolers and out in the cold. 
DH couldn't find a fridge handy man in our area yesterday, spent some more time trying to research on the internet.  We unplugged it and he took off part of the back- our coils were frozen solid.  Our toddler has recently learned to open the fridge and freezer so it may be that it was left open for too long making it into a solid block of ice.
We will see if it works after defrosting it and plugging it back in.
I really don't want to have to look for a new one right now.