Stick To a Grocery Budget 2016

[monstermonster]

Total for this month was high again, new job is stressful and I'm realizing I need to pack both lunch AND dinner in order to resist buying an overpriced snack. Definitely a contributor to the high numbers. Also there was a bike camping trip in there so higher grocery bill to stock up for that.

Groceries: $180.54
Sparkling Water: $0
Restaurants: $39.50 (mostly birthday restaurant)
Booze for Home: $36.42
Bars: $57.25 (birthday drinks + watch party for work)
----------------------------
Total Food: $313.71

[andy85]

July
category: Actual/Goal         
grocery: $333/$347
alcohol: $56/$43
dining: $66/$65   
Total   : $455/$455   

nailed it...lol (it was actually $0.13 under)

[SuperSaver]

July Totals:
Groceries $301/$250
Restaurants $417/$200 <--- WTF.  ($30 of it was 2 meals for my cousin but...that's still double our budget)
Alcohol $118/$0 <--- We stocked up on hard cider, beer & liquor unexpectedly and had a lot of company. Fiance will try to not buy booze in August for sure since I'm pretty sure the bottles of Sailor Jerry's & Honey Whiskey were mostly drank by him. We have a stockpile of vodkas, triple sec & rum now though for company as I rarely drink.
Over budget by $386. :( womp womp feeling defeated. going to try again this month.

August Totals:
Groceries: $0/$250
Restaurants $32/$300
Alcohol $0/$0

August will hopefully be much better although we'll be on vacation for Otakon for 3 days and out of town two more weekends & hosting a family housewarming party this Sunday. I hope to get this more in check. I bought a food scale and will try to monitor my portions so I'm not overeating. We are trying not to waste food and our wedding is going to be a bit more than I had hoped for so Restaurants really needs to get controlled better since it's the main category we can cut back on to save extra cash.

[Juslookin]

I have been lurking and reading.  I think I posted way back at the beginning of the year, but not since then.  I have been working hard to get groceries under control at our house.

I had multiple freezers full of food, but still was spending $800 - $1,000 per month for our family of four, two adults, two teens, 18 and 16.

So I cleaned out the pantries and freezers.  I donated a lot of canned goods and non-perishables. Anything that we had way too much of to eat before it went out of date or things that we bought multiples of and didn't like I donated to the local food bank.  The freezer I organized, made a freezer list and gave old produce to the chickens or passed on things to friends I knew could use a little help.  We had too much food in this house and it was overwhelming. I sold a chest freezer on Craigslist and made $150.

Of course, cleaning things out just to stock up again was not the answer.  So I have been meal planning and buying only what I need for the week.  It may seem counter intuitive not to buy a bunch of things when they go on sale, but this way I am not throwing away rotten, expired or unused food.   I then went one step further, I started using a shopping service our grocery store offers.  For $4.95 you can shop online and they will do the shopping, meet you at the car, load your bags in and take your coupons and payment.  You never have to set foot in the store.  Its baffling to me why they offer it because you would think at only $4.95 per shopping they would be losing money, they are definitely losing it on me.

So for the past three months my food bill has been less than $200 per month.  Of course,we are still eating down the meat in the freezers and old frozen garden produce, but we are coming close to the end of it now.  I have started buying some meat as we need it and I am still seeing a significant improvement in our grocery expenses.   My husband picks up the groceries after work on Friday and I meal prep for the week Sunday morning.  I cook most things from scratch and we're eating healthier and saving a fortune.  Meal time is more relaxed because I always know what we are serving and I used the food savings on some needed home improvements we wanted to do.  Now that home improvements are done, that's money going into the bank.

So I'll keep following along with the thread, and maybe jump in from time to time.  It has inspired me to find the best way to shop for my family.

[Kansas Terri]

I have found that knowing a lot of recipes is a GREAT help t saving money in the kitchen!

For example, boneless pork loin was on sale for $1.67 per pound so I bought three of them and put them in my freezer. It looks like I will get 6 meals out of EVERY pork loin! The first day I made BBQ pork, 2 days after that I breaded and fried slices of pork, and 2 days after THAT (Today) I am making pork fajitas.

I alternate days of a pork meal with days of something else, so people do not get tired of pork.

When I go shopping next week a different type of meat will be on sale, so I will buy a few meals worth of that.

My goal is to spend $75 or less per week for the 2 of us.

[1967mama]

I had multiple freezers full of food, but still was spending $800 - $1,000 per month for our family of four, two adults, two teens, 18 and 16.

So I cleaned out the pantries and freezers.

Thanks for the motivation! This is ME! (well, except for a different family configuration)

I started with my bigger freezer and its in good shape now. Tonite I started on the pantry. Put some beans out to soak overnight, combined 2 cans of cocoa into one, emptied a bag of baking powder into the jar, etc, etc. I plan on continuing to work through the pantry this weekend, and then tackle the second deep freeze in the basement next week. We have 2 sides of beef arriving in the fall, so I want to make sure I have plenty of room for it, and also that we've used up every single package of beef from last year .. we are close, I think.

[SuperSaver]

August Totals:
Groceries: $0/$250
Restaurants $32/$300
Alcohol $0/$0

Reality:
Groceries $299/250
Restaurant $$375//$300
Alcohol $0/$0

So only $124 over budget.
September started off well at $140 groceries (a Costco run) and $16 Restaurant as of today. I'm getting fed 6 times at  work in September too.

[Landlady]

I'm late to the party, but want to get jump in for the last quarter of budgeting fun. :)

My goal: $600
Last month was $610

I went over by $10, but I'll take it considering I was only going by feel and was too lazy to track. This month I'll legitimately track my groceries. It'd be nice to get it below $600 since there are only three of us.

[sisto]

Well I'm happy to report that we've really brought our grocery bill down. We had been spending around $1200/mo and we have just come in under $600.

[monstermonster]

I forgot to report on August!

Groceries: $151.81
Sparkling Water: $0
Restaurants: $10
Booze for Home: $16.33
Bars: $8
----------------------------
Total Food and Drink: $186.14

Pretty good!

[SuperSaver]

According to Mint I am at $190/$300 groceries and $130/$200 Restaurant as of today. :)

I am also trying my hardest to eat down the pantry and freezer. My fiance and I are cooking more at home.

His birthday is coming up and I promised he could go to a real butcher by our new house (he wants some quality hard to find meats like lamb or duck or something fun to try out...hes cooking his own birthday dinner since we rarely experiment on hard to find items) so I've been trying to provide lots of wiggle room in our grocery budget when we head over next week. I think we just need some juice and produce to get us to next week... Will check in after butcher.

Keep up the good work everyone!!

[JoJo]

I'll join this challenge.  I have loads of food in my cupboards & freezer and I want to move out, become nomad sometime next year so on July 1 I made a vow to not spend more than $60 a month on food.  Also to consider, I'm on a strict diet so restricting calories and I don't include food while vacationing in my total and I will be out of town/on vacation for an average of 6 days per month for the 2nd half of the year.

Spending so far:
July: $57.03
Aug: $36.05
Sept (thru 9/20): $29.11

I'm not making a very big dent in using up my canned goods (pun intended) so maybe I need to ramp up on that and stop spending on fresh stuff.

[SuperSaver]

According to Mint I am at $190/$300 groceries and $130/$200 Restaurant as of today. :)

I am also trying my hardest to eat down the pantry and freezer. My fiance and I are cooking more at home.
... Will check in after butcher.

Restaurant: $195/$200 *Throws a parade!!!*
Groceries. We are at $249/$300 we did not go to the butcher as I had the flu the last few days.

Squeak! so happy =^.^= must try harder to keep it up.

[JoJo]

Update.  I have loads of food in my cupboards & freezer and I want to move out, become nomad sometime next year so on July 1 I made a vow to not spend more than $60 a month on food.  Also to consider, I'm on a strict diet so restricting calories and I don't include food while vacationing in my total and I will be out of town/on vacation for an average of 6 days per month for the 2nd half of the year.

Spending so far:
July: $57.03
Aug: $36.05
Sept: $42.92

Used up a few things in my cupboard the last couple weeks of September.  Have eggs to last another 3 weeks & fruits and veggies to last a week or two (lots of carrots & cabbage the lasts awhile) so I shouldn't be buying much this month.
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[EngineerYogi]

I'm still mind blow at how little some people spend on food. For those of you with super low grocery budgets would you mind detailing what a day of food looks like, or even a week? I don't think I've ever spent under $350/mo for food and more realistically spend between $600-1000/mo for just me and my husband.

[JoJo]

I'm still mind blow at how little some people spend on food. For those of you with super low grocery budgets would you mind detailing what a day of food looks like, or even a week? I don't think I've ever spent under $350/mo for food and more realistically spend between $600-1000/mo for just me and my husband.

There are lots of threads on saving $ on food.  I'm going super low this year, but cleaning out the cupboards.  Other than than, I buy nearly everything on sale - eggs on sale for 99 cents a dozen - buy a month's worth.  One local grocery store does coupons and I can get frozen chicken breasts/tenders for $5-6 for 2.5 pounds or cottage cheese for 99 cents - stock up again.  I eat lots of veggies but buy what's on sale.  As part of my diet, I eat 2 tablespoons of flax seeds per day - 100 calories costs about 5 cents from the bulk bin.  Dinner tonight is green bean casserole & a chicken breast - all from my stash of stuff bought on sale.  I used to regularly eat $2 microwave meals for the convenience but now make my own with a chicken breast, brown rice and frozen veg for about $1 apiece, spiced with some curry or mexican spice.

[Zikoris]

I'm still mind blow at how little some people spend on food. For those of you with super low grocery budgets would you mind detailing what a day of food looks like, or even a week? I don't think I've ever spent under $350/mo for food and more realistically spend between $600-1000/mo for just me and my husband.

Yesterday for me:

1/2 bagel with peanut butter (breakfast)
Oatmeal with fruit (snack)
Leftover lo mein (lunch)
Slice of bread with peanut butter (snack)
Pitas with roasted vegetables, hummus, salad, basmati rice (dinner)
A few maple cookies with soy milk (snack)

We spend about $115/month per person on groceries.

[kathrynd]

Today my husband and  I ate:
omelette with green pepper, onion, tomato, and cheese
toast and jam
plum
coffee

mid afternoon snack my husband had a slice of bread with peanut butter
coffee

Dinner was:
pan fried sole
white and sweet potato mashed potatoes (waned to use the last sweet potato)
carrots
homemade tartar sauce
small glass of apple juice w/water

snack
honey sesame coated almonds and strawberries

Yesterday we ate:
homemade oatmeal porridge cooked w/ fresh apricots and cinnamon
toast and jam
coffee

snack: honey sesame coated almonds

Dinner
Homemade spaghetti  sauce with lots of vegs cooked in it, along with homemade meatballs on top of a bed of pasta
topped with cheese
cookie

snack:
toasted chicken sandwich (this was unusual...just wanted to use of the last of the chicken)


we usually have breakfast mid morning, thus we rarely eat lunch. If we have an afternoon snack, it will be a small handful of nuts, piece of fruit, or a cookie

[Rightflyer]

I'm still mind blow at how little some people spend on food. For those of you with super low grocery budgets would you mind detailing what a day of food looks like, or even a week? I don't think I've ever spent under $350/mo for food and more realistically spend between $600-1000/mo for just me and my husband.

Hi EngineerYogi,
As requested. (Maybe too much detail now that I read it...sorry)

On approx $450 a month for 2 adults (includes entertaining throughout the year and having parents up for 1-2 weeks a year)

1) A normal mid-week day for us

Breakfast
Poached egg on buttered toast (homemade bread)
Numerous cups of Typhoo tea

Mid-Morning
Coffee (brand name but instant) with cream

Lunch
Large salad w/ greens, spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, beet, olives, feta cheese topped with left over protein (chicken, beef, lamb, shrimp etc) and homemade salad dressing.
Homemade soup (from leftovers)

Supper
Barbecued pork chops, chicken parts
Potato or rice
 Barbecued veggies (summer) or frozen veg (winter)

2) A weekend...

Breakfast
Omelette w/ spinach, peppers, cheese, ham, mushrooms
Ridiculous amounts of Typhoo tea

Lunch
Small Salad (same as mid-week... just smaller as we are normally still satiated from a larger, later breakfast.)

Mid-Afternoon
Cheese and cured meats with homemade crackers... (we love Euro-gustatory-experiences)

Supper
Roast Lamb/Chicken or Pork Leg or Pot Roast
Potato/Carrot/Rutabaga Mash
Veggies


Note:
Friday night is Steak or Seafood Night at our place.

We either split a big grass fed sirloin steak (from the local farmer when available) or every couple of months we splurge on lobster, fresh oysters, green-lipped mussels etc.

I feel that we want for absolutely nothing and eat very well indeed on $400+ a month.
Hope that helps.

[monstermonster]

We're a 2 person household with separate finances, but most meals together. My average grocery spending is ~$150/month for one person, with $20/month of that being a split farm share subscription, which is weekly vegetables. We could spend a LOT less, and if things ever get tight, I'll go back to shopping at Grocery Outlet regularly. For now, we do our weekly shopping at whole foods because it's one block away
We don't eat meat, which is a large part of the cost savings - neither of us have eaten meat in our life so it's not really a sacrifice to us, just default.

We meal plan and grocery shop every Sunday. This is the #1 thing that has positively affected our grocery budget.

A Day in our Food
Breakfast: Every single day breakfast is 3 tacos, with a marginal costs of $.22 per taco (black beans, made from dry beans in the crockpot once a week, lettuce, hot sauce, vegan cheese, corn tortillas fried)

Lunch: Almost always leftovers from the night before. Today it's roasted brussel sprouts with some crumbled vegan sausage, garlic, leeks, a shallot. Marginal cost is $1.55/meal (4 meals total from one prep).

Dinner: Tonight we've both got late things to do, so it's a crockpot night, with a marginal cost of around $1.70/meal (5 meals)- Kung Pao Tofu. Made it before we left for the day, threw in a lot of farm share veggies.

Included in our grocery costs is around ~$10/month of coffee. Booze is not included (we mostly drink cocktails so that comes out to around $30/month in liquor costs).

Our meal plan for this week is: Cauliflower Stir Fry (TBD cost, we need to pick up cauliflower), Pumpkin Coconut Linguine ($1.65/meal) Mac + Cheese with Veggies - ~$2.25/meal (vegan for me, dairy for my SO), Steamed Veggie Bowl in Peanut Sauce ($2.00/meal), Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup ($1.80/meal).

[EngineerYogi]

You all are awesome. Thank you so much for sharing and putting in that level of detail!

I'll have to do some serious experimenting, my hubby and I both have higher than typical calorie requirements (I'm 5'11 180lbs and he's 5'9 215lbs and we're both healthy weights just more muscle from weightlifting hobbies) so I think we'll still have slightly higher grocery bills but we can definitely do better.

[wintersun]

Please keep sharing ideas for how to reduce, I need all the help I can get.

I seem to go through waves of trying things to reduce our grocery bill: 

I have done the Eat Down Your Pantry challenge a few times with the last time being the most extreme and satisfying and cupboard clearing.

I have isolated our food spending from spending on any dry goods or pet food or toiletries so I know for sure what we are spending on food.

I now reduce portions of meat by putting away left overs before the meal is served.  This is very successful.

I have incorporated eating soup first to reduce our appetites. My husband does not want too many soups as the main course but as an appetiser it fills us both up before the meal.

I freeze bones for chicken broth.  But, I have not been freezing vegetable scraps so that is my next addition.

Most recently I went through several grocery bills and found that I buy a certain amount of condiments and spices which are rarely used.  That was an aha! moment for me. No more buying 5 types of oriental sauces, herbs for a one off recipe or specialty super foods.  This has made an impact on my spending.  Some of those things cost $10 each and could really make the bill jump.  And then they sit for years unused. 

I am more discerning with purchasing health supplements.  They can be super pricey.

With all this said I still struggle with big grocery bills. Especially when entertaining. A recent lunch for ten cost way too much. I think I need to look at budgetbytes.com

I am also going to try what Jessie Meecham suggests at YNAB: spend a week or two breaking down your grocery bill by category so you know how much you spend in various areas. 

Our limits are as follows:
No red meat, lots of fish and chicken
Lots of veggies and monster-sized salads
Limited amounts of carbs

[WootWoot]

I just tracked three months' worth of grocery/toiletry spending using Mint and I'm shocked that in one month, we spent $660. There are only two of us. We're vegetarians, and I try to stick to a low carb, high fiber diet. I can't/don't eat pasta, sandwiches (unless they are on a low-carb tortilla shell), potatoes/yams, rice (even brown rice), fruit juice (even 'natural no sugar added' types.

One problem I know of is that my DH, who does the shopping, makes unplanned stops at Sav-A-Lot. At least once or twice a week, and the cost ranges from $5-10. We're going to discuss cutting down on trips to the grocery store. The other problem, I think, is trips to too many stores. There are at least four we visit regularly, and that's largely due to price tracking. For e.g., the soy milk we drink (unsweetened) costs less at one store, the soy hot dogs we eat are only available at another store...you get the picture. Coupons are hard to use because I rarely see them for the products we use. We do use generics whenever possible.

I'm going to try and get this down to at least $100 a week.

[kathrynd]

This is what we bought this month.As you can see, we buy a lot of produce, and very little convenience foods...and we still have splurges in there too.
We eat meat or fish everyday.
We stock up when something is on special, so we may only buy certain items a couple times a year.




month of Oct 1-29 2016

$171.85 for 2 adults ( 5’1- 118 lbs, and 6’1-220 lbs)



4L milk -4 @ $5.99 - $23.96

gift card- $5.00

1 lb strawberries 2 @ 1.88= $3.76

227g mushrooms – $1.29

reduced produce – $1.49

broccoli 2 @ 77c= $ 1.54

nn bacon- $2.99

coffee creamer- $4.49

coffee creamer 2 @ $3.49 = $6.98 (reduced) = $3.48

PC salsa 2 @ $2.49 = $4.98

carrot chia dip =$0.99

4 kit kat bars 4/$3.00= $3.00

2 crunchie bars 2/$2.00= $2.00

apple juice = $1.00

honeykiss melon $5.99 (reduced)= $2.99

green grapes = $3.93

pork rib chops $2.78(reduced)= $1.39

pork butt chops $3.05 (reduced) $1.52

pork boneless $2.54 (reduced) = $1.27

pecan pie $8.99 (reduced) = $4.49

iced pound cake – $5.99

tuna 5 @ $0.99= $4.95

 2- 2.87L apple sauce @ 2/$5.00= $5.00

canned corn 2 @ $0.99= $1.98

cream of wheat 2@ 2/$3.00= $3.00

canned pineapple slices $1.35 (reduced) = $0.68

50ct soft taco shells= $0.50

canned pop- 2 @ 5/$1.00= $0.40

20 single serve size tartar sauce 20 / $1.00= $1.00

3 whole grain mustard  @ 3/$2.00= $2.00

240ct red rode teabags – $7.99

1/2 lb garlic pwd= $2.00

can spray baking oil= $3.00

 4 QT apples- $3.99- coupon= $2.99

 
 1 kg peanut butter- 5 @ $3.25 (-0.81 discount)= $15.44
1 kg peanut butter – 2 @ $3.25= $6.50

 bananas=$0.62

cantaloupe- $2.49


2. – 2 1/2 doz pee wee eggs @ $0.97= $1.94

salami -4 @ 50c= $2.00

potato chips 2 @ 2/$1.00= $1.00

3.94 lbs sweet potatoes= $3.82

cauliflower- $1.49

produce- reduce- $1.20

2.89 lbs bananas- $1.94

5 lb stew pak- $2.49

 mushrooms-$1.97

fresh pineapples 2 @$0.97= $1.94
Brother’s honey garlic pepperoni- $4.29
fresh raw chicken- $5.68