Canadian grocery bill - is sub $400 per week possible?

[red_pill]

As long as we all agree that abs are the key factor here...

The reason I include egg whites is because if I ate 6 whole eggs my fat consumption would be excessive.  Adding egg whites lets me modulate my fat / protein ratio.  Could there be another way to do it? Yeah, probably.  But egg whites are not cost prohibitive, and there are other areas to focus my attention that will give me better returns. 

[nereo]

As long as we all agree that abs are the key factor here...

The reason I include egg whites is because if I ate 6 whole eggs my fat consumption would be excessive.  Adding egg whites lets me modulate my fat / protein ratio.  Could there be another way to do it? Yeah, probably.  But egg whites are not cost prohibitive, and there are other areas to focus my attention that will give me better returns.

Fair enough. It's probably not worth arguing over what amounts to ~50¢/day (3 whole eggs vs 6 egg-whites). I just personally hate any form of waste, and cringe at the thought of tossing anything down the drain.  Plus, I find egg yolks to be particularly tasty (and incredibly useful as a thickening agent in the kitchen).

[TrMama]

I'm late to this, but it's absolutely possible to spend way less, even with your medically necessary restrictions. We've averaged $628/mo for groceries and eating out over the past year. We live in the same general area as you. That's for 2 adults, a 9yo and an 11yo.

The youngest is dairy intolerant and for a couple years was also egg intolerant. We also went through a period 2.5 years ago where we did several different elimination diets with her over several months to figure out what was making her so sick. At one point she was off dairy, egg, gluten/wheat, oat, sesame and soy. Even then (and that was without paying any attention to cost because the restrictions alone made me crazy) my highest spending was only $800/mo. My kids refuse to eat beans (I've tried and tried) so it could be even lower if we didn't eat so much meat.

Your devotion to specific brands, organic, and tons of meat is costing you. It's up to you and your wife to decide if it's worth it.

Some tips that may help:

1. Buy your groceries online. Almost all stores offer either delivery or curbside pickup now. It's ridiculously easy to comparison shop, stick to loss leaders and only buy the amount you need online. Plus it's way harder to succumb to "stuff that looks good, but we don't actually need" online. You could shop online yourself and save your wife the hassle of doing it.

2. When you shop in person at Superstore, look at the price labels on the shelf. Every single one of them includes the per unit cost, so you don't even have to do the math. Just pick the brand/size with the lower unit cost.

In this example, the item is 450g of barley that's $0.331 per 100g. The egg section is labeled the same way ;-)



Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Canadian farmers weren't allowed to use hormones in their animals? It's one of the reasons meat, eggs and dairy is more expensive here than in the US. If so, buying organic is less important here than elsewhere.

[Prairie Gal]

Hmmm ... I'm not sure about meat and eggs, but my nephew is one of the guys that goes to the dairy farms to pick up milk. He has to test it for antibiotics. He told us a story once about having to dump a whole load of milk because it tested positive.

[kimmarg]

Ok I didn't read the whole thread but two things stood out at me:

1. "SHE". You're not going to do well changing someones attitude for them. Especially someone who is doing all the work. So change teh attitude to WE or pick one item you can help with "I'll do the bulk store trip every month!"

2. PLAN. I have a feeling eating the same way you do now with a plan of what's for dinner would result in less cost. I know if does for me because i often have ingredients already from stocking up.

[EvenSteven]

I think Canada and the US are similar in that using added hormones is prohibited in all chicken and pork, and antibiotics can't be in any meats. If a farmer needs to treat a sick animal with antibiotics, they need to wait for the antibiotics to clear the system before becoming meat.

[RelaxedGal]

Back to Page 1 and grocery lists: We use OurGroceries+ for Android.  That way if I'm at work an remember that we're running low on apples I can add them to the list, ditto for him.  Either one of us can cross items off as we buy them at the store.  It supports multiple lists, which we use for multiple stores.  We have a hardware store list, groceries, our daughter's Christmas list, etc.  Items can be categorized.

red_pill, good effort so far on being conscious of where you spend and your options to change.

[Bee21]

I live in Australia, which is also expensive and we spend 150-180 a week on food for the 4 of us.  My husband eats a lot (mostly meat), the kids are picky (and eat a lot of fruit and veg).  I also prefer free range and grass fed, but buy organic only if it has a yellow sticker. I also don't have the time to comparison shop, shop at multiple stores, clip coupons, etc. I plan the meals (buy the ingredients) and have a bulk cooking session every now and then when I make a big batch of bolognese (this, tacos and shep pie was the only meat based thing the kids would eat), stew, curry for the man's lunches,  beans etc. This saves s ton of time. I am also a fan of the extra large sunday roast, which produces leftovers for lunches and an extra dinner on Monday. If you have an issue with leftovers, please reconsider.

My biggest problem was overbuying (am still a food hoarder) and buying interesting looking ingredients nobody else wants to eat (sumac, anyone). Doing an audit of what you throw away and putting a dollar figure on it should help a bit. Also, do a fridge and freezer stocktacke before you plan the meals for a week and plan at least one freezer meal.

The main thing: write a list of meals your family eats and PRICE them. It helped us tremendously. I managed to persuade my husband not to eat out for lunch every day buy showing him, that for the 15 he would spend I can make a decent roast which feeds the 4 of us for 2 days.  Knowing that your dinners would cost say 100 that week  will help you plan better the rest of the meals. Definitely plan for the cost of lunches and snacks.

it would also be better if you gave yourself a budget and planned the meals which fit into it instead of buying whatever looks appetizing.

[elliha]

I live in Australia, which is also expensive and we spend 150-180 a week on food for the 4 of us.  My husband eats a lot (mostly meat), the kids are picky (and eat a lot of fruit and veg).  I also prefer free range and grass fed, but buy organic only if it has a yellow sticker. I also don't have the time to comparison shop, shop at multiple stores, clip coupons, etc. I plan the meals (buy the ingredients) and have a bulk cooking session every now and then when I make a big batch of bolognese (this, tacos and shep pie was the only meat based thing the kids would eat), stew, curry for the man's lunches,  beans etc. This saves s ton of time. I am also a fan of the extra large sunday roast, which produces leftovers for lunches and an extra dinner on Monday. If you have an issue with leftovers, please reconsider.

My biggest problem was overbuying (am still a food hoarder) and buying interesting looking ingredients nobody else wants to eat (sumac, anyone). Doing an audit of what you throw away and putting a dollar figure on it should help a bit. Also, do a fridge and freezer stocktacke before you plan the meals for a week and plan at least one freezer meal.

The main thing: write a list of meals your family eats and PRICE them. It helped us tremendously. I managed to persuade my husband not to eat out for lunch every day buy showing him, that for the 15 he would spend I can make a decent roast which feeds the 4 of us for 2 days.  Knowing that your dinners would cost say 100 that week  will help you plan better the rest of the meals. Definitely plan for the cost of lunches and snacks.

it would also be better if you gave yourself a budget and planned the meals which fit into it instead of buying whatever looks appetizing.

If you have not totally given up on trying to do anything with sumac it is a great spice for chicken. I often use it when doing a chicken in the oven together with chili or cayenne pepper, paprika and salt.