Author Topic: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge  (Read 118381 times)

Cookie78

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #450 on: December 07, 2015, 10:11:28 AM »
After a very successful hunting season, piles and piles of veggies from my garden, my dad's garden, and a CSA delivery, and buying large bags of rice and oatmeal in September I haven't had to buy ANY groceries in just over 11 weeks. I was working through various sauces, canning, and other non-perishables in my pantry. I still feel like I'm overflowing with food, and I've been substituting the things I ran out of with other similar things or figuring out how to create things like sauces with other ingredients I already had. I was going to see if I could go until the end of the year, but I had a date last night to whom I had promised homemade pizza. I had dough, sauce, herbs, and ground meat already, but not enough pizza worthy toppings and no mozzerella cheese. $10 spent at the grocery store, but it was worth it. Pizza was delicious!

Jakejake

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #451 on: December 07, 2015, 06:38:02 PM »
After a very successful hunting season, piles and piles of veggies from my garden, my dad's garden, and a CSA delivery, and buying large bags of rice and oatmeal in September I haven't had to buy ANY groceries in just over 11 weeks.
I landed at $70.64 for Nov (2 adults) and was feeling good about that, but I am bowing down to your superior skills!

Sister C

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #452 on: December 17, 2015, 03:54:10 PM »
After a very successful hunting season, piles and piles of veggies from my garden, my dad's garden, and a CSA delivery, and buying large bags of rice and oatmeal in September I haven't had to buy ANY groceries in just over 11 weeks. I was working through various sauces, canning, and other non-perishables in my pantry. I still feel like I'm overflowing with food, and I've been substituting the things I ran out of with other similar things or figuring out how to create things like sauces with other ingredients I already had. I was going to see if I could go until the end of the year, but I had a date last night to whom I had promised homemade pizza. I had dough, sauce, herbs, and ground meat already, but not enough pizza worthy toppings and no mozzerella cheese. $10 spent at the grocery store, but it was worth it. Pizza was delicious!

Wow, that is some badass self-sufficiency!  Way to go.

We have gotten more frugal recently in many areas- but haven't touch the fountain of excess that is our food spending.  This is embarrassing: so far in December our weekly spending averages $170 for 2 adults.  That's about $750 per month- holy moly!  (More like $800 per month counting our 1/4 cow we buy yearly).  My goal for the rest of December is to get it down to $120 per week- still ridiculous I know, but successive iterations seem to work best for my household.

I am tracking all food spending (we combine grocery/dining out in one category) in detail so I can see where our money is going.  Trying to avoid the co-op (aka the yuppie corner store) which is much closer than any other grocery store.  Another strategy is not replacing staples before the weekly shop- this  week I skipped a planned midweek grocery run for yogurt.  It can wait until the weekend!  I am also going to check out some discount grocery stores (Aldi and a similar regional chain).

Sister C

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #453 on: December 17, 2015, 03:58:45 PM »
I'm embarrassed to admit this but cut me some slack as I'm just starting to wake up to our lack of frugalness and lifestyle inflation and am embarking on a series of cost-cutting measures. Groceries and beer/wine is probably the biggest culprit.

...

 Which brings up a question -- how do you store giant bags of flour? I have this large galvanized can that holds probably 25 to 30# of dog food. I was wondering if I could wash it out, line it, and store a huge bag of flour bag in that. I suppose I could also bag it into smaller quantities and store in my chest freezer.


I am right there with you ponyespresso.  It's a big start to actually know how much you are spending on groceries! 

I store my flour in the freezer.  Whole grain flours go rancid pretty quickly, and white flour also decreases in quality over time.  Enjoy the baking!

kathrynd

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #454 on: December 18, 2015, 09:48:00 AM »
1 Jan- 18 Dec 2015 we have spent $1639.24 on food....I expect we may spend $20 before end of  the month.
This for 2 adults.
6'1-220 lbs male
5'1-115 lbs female

This includes cleaning supplies and toiletries, but not take out food/ restaurants.
We rarely eat out, and this would fall under entertainment, anyways.

Except for buying milk...we could  live at least a month, on our food storage.

This = $136.60 month
or $31.52 week

Sister C

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #455 on: December 18, 2015, 12:15:40 PM »
1 Jan- 18 Dec 2015 we have spent $1639.24 on food....I expect we may spend $20 before end of  the month.
This for 2 adults.
...
This = $136.60 month
or $31.52 week

Wow.  That is mind-blowing.  What sorts of groceries do you buy?  And where?  Was your grocery spending always this low or have you made changes?   

kathrynd

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #456 on: December 18, 2015, 07:38:09 PM »
1 Jan- 18 Dec 2015 we have spent $1639.24 on food....I expect we may spend $20 before end of  the month.
This for 2 adults.
...
This = $136.60 month
or $31.52 week

Wow.  That is mind-blowing.  What sorts of groceries do you buy?  And where?  Was your grocery spending always this low or have you made changes?

For 2015 we lived 4 months in Australia and 8 months in Canada.....and we have found we are able to eat well in both countries.

We take advantage of all store incentives. Credit card points.Gasoline purchase rebates for groceries. Coupons once in a while.
When something goes on special, stock up. Buy 10, when they are 1/2 price :)

Grocery stores, fruit/veg markets, have reduced to clear tables. If most of it is edible, buy it. If you can't eat it all fresh, freeze it, or cook it up into a meal, and freeze it.

All our meat is either on sale or reduced.
We throw out very little food. If you are tired of leftovers, incorporate them into a new meal.

Breakfast is usually oatmeal porridge (not instant) with chopped up apples, or other fruit and cinnamon/ brown sugar.
Or cream of wheat porridge (not instant)
or eggs in a variety of ways...lots of omelets with vegs/cheese.
Cereal on occasion...only if it was on sale, and topped with fruit.

Lunch might be a homemade pizza, salad, soup,..if we eat at all.
Or it could be almonds (filling)

Supper is usually meat, potato, vegetable.

Snack- might be cake, toast, bagel, nuts
Tea and coffee all day long
Juice at supper time

In Canada we use our bread machine. In Australia, we take advantage of the $1.00 loaf bread.

We buy many of the same things, and cook them in different ways.
Potatoes- mashed, baked, boiled, casseroles, pan fried
Veg- boiled, oven roasted, fresh
Meat- stew,in  soup, roasted, pan fried

Use spices to change flavors.

We don't buy large bulk containers of food at Costco type stores. By watching sales and buying reduced, I think we do just as good..or better. We splurge on treats now and again...but if you always have them, they aren't treats.


We've always been careful, but we are probably getting better, mostly because we make a game of it.
Sometimes we will go to the store several times a week, for reduced food.
We only have a small fridge, and decided against getting a chest freezer. Try to have a variety of food on hand.







Sister C

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #457 on: December 21, 2015, 05:35:22 PM »
Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

ilsy

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #458 on: December 21, 2015, 07:28:44 PM »
A family of 3, a female and two kids under 10 (plus occasional boyfriend, though he feeds me sometimes, but with all do respect he eats way more than I do). My goal is actually $120/m including everything (restaurants, groceries and school lunches)

2015
Jan - $183.48
Feb - $153.68
Mar - $88.73
Apr - $135.29
May - $114.01
Jun - $143.25 (includes a 20$ dinner at Village Inn for fathers day)
Jul -  $74.96 (groceries) + 56$(one time restaurant)
Aug - $198.29
Sep - $147.56
Oct -  $128.52
Nov - $135.01(groceries) +52.40$( restaurants)
Dec - $103.42 + possibly another $40 till the end of the month

Total for the 2015 $1754.66, which is more like $146.22/m
The goal for 2016 is to stick to 120$/m budget.
p.s "groceries" include laundry detergent, hand soap, toilet paper, multivitamins, toothpastes and such, I only shop at one shop, but use their coupons and sales, they also send checks to pay for groceries and give gas discounts. I buy a lot of produce, but try to get them at "manager special" price.   
« Last Edit: December 21, 2015, 07:44:09 PM by ilsy »

SuperSaver

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #459 on: December 31, 2015, 02:02:32 PM »
Groceries/Alcohol For Entertaining/ Restaurants: Over budget in all categories for both months.
So I'll post as an end of year recap.

15% of spending for the entire year was on food. *womp womp*

$531 was on Alcohol for entertaining/bars
$3,631 Groceries
$4,031 Restaurants

I spent nearly double my original goal. I'm glad I was trying to be somewhat frugal in food so it did not get even more out of control. Every time I mentioned being uphappy we were overspending on food, my fiance kept mentioning since groceries/entertaining at our place/ going out with friends/family is one of our major joys and splurges not to worry. He was fully supportive cutting most of the budget categories down this year in order to put more towards debt (32% of 2015 spending was to debt); except the food budgets. So if there is a 2016 thread I will probably try again but budget a lot differently that aligns more with our joint goals.

Congrats to everyone who stuck to their budget and good job everyone for at least trying!

mm1970

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #460 on: December 31, 2015, 06:46:51 PM »
Alright, done for the year.  I believe my original goal was $80 a week plus CSA of $950 for 44 weeks.  I did amend that as the CSA ended early, and the natives were getting restless. ($101.60 per week).

Total for the year:
$5706.05
$475.50 per month
$109.73 per week

Compared to $10,251 for last year (2014).  A savings of almost $4545, which is cute when you realize that I am 45.

And I lost 10 lbs.

This is for 2 adults and 2 boys, 9 and 3.  Did not include lunch for the 3yo (gets it at daycare) and towards the end of this year (last 2 months), I bought my 9 yo lunch at the school, not included in the total.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #461 on: December 31, 2015, 11:39:29 PM »
Total Food and Dining Spending in all categories in 2015 was: $12,726.82 Which is an average of $1,060 per month.

This honestly isn't as bad as I thought it would be. And better yet, the trend is fantastic: down down down.

Obviously we still have miles to go in 2016, but for the year we've had, what a start!

Jakejake

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #462 on: January 01, 2016, 11:37:01 AM »
I've just entered my last receipt for 2015. I came in at $1144.33 for the year, for the two of us, or $1.57 a day per person.

Last month was spendy due to some awesome sale finds. Yesterday, for example, I got 12 bags of fancy flavored holiday coffee at 90% off, or less than a dollar a bag. That $10.51 might (?) cover my coffee for the next 6 months until I retire. I can't believe people spend that in three days at starbucks. Also yesterday - a case of markdown kale and another case of markdown kiwis for $2.50 total. I had to dump out the 5 bags of kale into a roasting pan and pull out the old trouble maker leaves and rebag it, but that's enough fresh stuff for a week solid of VERY GREEN smoothies, and even more to freeze for later.

Edit to clarify - this doesn't include booze. My husband buys that, beer at costco, boxed wine at meijer, but I'm not sure how much he spends/drinks. I'm mostly drink free except for homemade baileys in my coffee sometimes, at this point using whiskey I got for free.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2016, 05:42:15 PM by Jakejake »

kathrynd

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #463 on: January 01, 2016, 03:04:13 PM »
I've just entered my last receipt for 2015. I came in at $1144.33 for the year, for the two of us, or $1.57 a day per person.

Last month was spendy due to some awesome sale finds. Yesterday, for example, I got 12 bags of fancy flavored holiday coffee at 90% off, or less than a dollar a bag. That $10.51 might (?) cover my coffee for the next 6 months until I retire. I can't believe people spend that in three days at starbucks. Also yesterday - a case of markdown kale and another case of markdown kiwis for $2.50 total. I had to dump out the 5 bags of kale into a roasting pan and pull out the old trouble maker leaves and rebag it, but that's enough fresh stuff for a week solid of VERY GREEN smoothies, and even more to freeze for later.

Well done !!!
I was pleased that my husband and I came in at $1678.56 for 2015...which is a hefty $2.30 average per person per day.
This does include our cleaning supplies and toiletries.
Like you, we have taken advantage of many amazing deals, and we have a LOT of food in our house.

GermanStache

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #464 on: January 01, 2016, 04:30:09 PM »
Congrats to everyone that did it! I failed big time... but I already calculated and set goals to make 2016 my year in which I stick to a grocery budget, meal plan and shopping list. Will there be a similar thread for 2016?

Pooperman

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #465 on: January 04, 2016, 07:58:04 PM »
I threw down the gauntlet last year to spend $300/month in food for a family of two. Here is how it ended up:

$3,777.16/$3,600.00, or $177.16 over. Almost, but not quite. I'm ok with it, and it's a definite improvement over a couple of years ago ($500/month give or take).

NinetyFour

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Re: Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge
« Reply #466 on: January 04, 2016, 09:24:03 PM »
I didn't do very well in the last few months of 2015.

However, I am pleased that my average grocery spend per month in 2015 was lower than that in 2014.

In 2014, I spent an average of $196 per month on just food for just me.

In 2015, I spent an average of $178 per month on just food for just me.

Not a huge improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.