Stick to a grocery budget in 2015 Challenge

[Dyk]

I am in.

I will probably post a separate 'Ask a Mustachian' post when I have more time.  We link to it here.
We have been tracking groceries for about 4 months.

Family = 7
Groceries/Restaurants/Toiletries/Alcohol - $1,000/month.

For us it's the last large frontier to tackle, but will be a tough road. 
- Restaurants are only $40/month
- Costco = 40 miles away
- Aldi = 20 miles away (With gas so low, does anyone think we would save enough for the commute?)
- Little to no soda/pop
- We aren't very fancy
- Plant based and kids seems to be very tricky

So, we are in, more details (plea for help) to come in the future.

[Gin1984]

I am in.

I will probably post a separate 'Ask a Mustachian' post when I have more time.  We link to it here.
We have been tracking groceries for about 4 months.

Family = 7
Groceries/Restaurants/Toiletries/Alcohol - $1,000/month.

For us it's the last large frontier to tackle, but will be a tough road. 
- Restaurants are only $40/month
- Costco = 40 miles away
- Aldi = 20 miles away (With gas so low, does anyone think we would save enough for the commute?)
- Little to no soda/pop
- We aren't very fancy
- Plant based and kids seems to be very tricky

So, we are in, more details (plea for help) to come in the future.

How much is alcohol?  And to answer for Aldis, maybe.  Do you have times you are closer for other reasons?

[Dyk]

Good question on alcohol, average of $65/month.  There's could be some room there.  This keeps some of our other expenses low.  After the kids go to bed the wife and I have a beer/glass of wine, and sit around a campfire, or play games, or catch a Netflix show.  We love each of these traditions and they scratch our entertainment itch wonderfully, so we seldom if ever go out.
Aldi's - We stay in town, and are not any closer on a regular basis.

[Juslookin]

We have avoided eating out for the past two weeks.  That is a big deal for us on multiple fronts, first of all we have been on a staycation over the holidays, using up some vacation days. Usually we would become bored and head out for the day and inevitably eat out.

For the four of us, two adults, DS 16 and DD 14, we would easily spend $50.  We don't eat fast food so would go to a sit down place, everyone will add a salad and so on and so forth. Next thing you know, we've wasted a ton of money.

So I'm pretty happy with how we've done.

I have cleaned out my freezers and pantry and worked on some meal plans. We have a ton of food to use up, and that's the plan.  Focusing on use it up and scratch cooking around here. I'm gluten free so that saves us a bunch if I make bread, pasta and treats from scratch. 

Made GF raviolis today, dinner.

[benjenn]

Created a menu plan for the next week:

Cajun Cornbread Casserole
Spaghetti bake
Chickpea Tacos
Pizza Bites
Jambalaya
Green bean chickpea casserole
Curried Sweetpotato casserole

Checked what we had on hand to make these items, created a list for what we needed and only bought what was on the list.  (List included green smoothie ingredients for our breakfasts - we both take leftovers for lunch each day.)  Went to both Whole Foods and Walmart for groceries and spent a grand total of $66.68 for the week!  Woo-hoo!

[KulshanGirl]

Okay, I haven't been very active on here in the last year, but I am back for this challenge.  My one resolution this year is to reduce food waste.  I spent yesterday cleaning out the freezer, fridge, pantry, cupboards, everything.  Tossed a shameful amount of food. 

Family size: 2
Avg food spend in 2014: $460/month
Target food spend 2015: $300/month or less

Target for January:  $180, due to the need for a couple months of extreme austerity.

My garden is still feeding me at this time of year, just a little.  There are leeks, carrots and turnips out there that are pretty ragged looking but taste amazing.  EAT THOSE!

I did a really abbreviated grocery shop yesterday, and did a meal plan for the next two weeks.  I should be able to make it that long without buying much.

Saving money should be a side effect of better meal planning, but my primary goal is to cut down on the waste and be more mindful about the bounty of food that I have and have access to. 

[swick]

Okay, I haven't been very active on here in the last year, but I am back for this challenge.

YAY! Glad you are back! I've missed you around the boards :)

[KulshanGirl]

:D

I still visit almost every day, and read quite a bit.  But it's getting so busy here and I have a hard time keeping up with things, so I just lurk and absorb.  But this challenge is right up my alley.  I will keep up in here at least.  I thought about digging my old journal out of the cobwebs too, but we'll see how I do in here.

Still rolling along with my mustache, though.  Doing great!  Saving much!

[thecornercat]

I'm in, joining a bit late. I'd already been tracking, so that helps. Already used up 20% of my budget and the first week isn't over yet. It'll turn out OK, though, I think!

[swick]

I'm in, joining a bit late. I'd already been tracking, so that helps. Already used up 20% of my budget and the first week isn't over yet. It'll turn out OK, though, I think!

From the crypt I have pulled up this thread:

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/fire-drill!-skip-this-week%27s-grocery-shop/

Was one of the first grocery gauntlets and has some awesome ideas and inspiration in it, fits in very neatly with this thread, hoping the info will help and inspire :)

[Thegoblinchief]

I'm actually quite enjoying that thread swick. Thanks for linking it, as that's way before my time here. I've had good luck with the 'flax eggs' in cookies and pancakes (though if you ask my family, they'd say mixed results on the pancakes :P). Haven't tried it anywhere else yet.

[KulshanGirl]

Ok, now I'm even more motivated.  The old fire drill!

I am still addicted to toast.  :(

[Juslookin]

I had to take my daughter for a doctors appointment today. Every two months we end up at local children's hospital. I always feel guilty and inevitably end up buying her a snack. (Mothers guilt, she has arthritis, and I feel so bad about it) Not so bad though, we stopped in the gift shop at the hospital and she bought a package of goldfish and a bottle of apple juice. The prices there are the same as the grocery store, no price gouging at least.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store for eggs, apples and we picked her up a chicken pot pie to bring home and cook for lunch since she didn't get done in time to go to school. $3.99 for the most wonderful fresh turkey pot pie chock full of veggies.

So I allowed her some treats, but didn't break the bank. Everybody is happy and I intend to save a fortune off of my grocery budget this month by using up what we have. (See cooresponding thread, LOL)

[Ready2Go]

First week in and I already blew the grocery budget ($100/week).  DH came shopping with me and added extra $30 of stuff.  So next week I go alone and spend less... there's a lot in the panty we can eat.   

If it was easy we would have done it already.

[swick]

First week in and I already blew the grocery budget ($100/week).  DH came shopping with me and added extra $30 of stuff.  So next week I go alone and spend less... there's a lot in the panty we can eat.   

If it was easy we would have done it already.

When we first started trying to reduce our grocery budget, we decided that if either one of us wanted a food item that was unnecessary (mostly junk food or convenience style foods) we would have to take the money out of our individual discretionary "fun Money" it sure made us question if we really wanted the stuff. Most of the time the answer was no and we realized we were "hiding" a lot of items in our "grocery" budget that we didn't need or were treats. We don't have to do it anymore because it has just become habit and if we want to splurge it is more often then not on a special ingredient or something to cook with.

[4alpacas]

Acorn, how do you keep grocery so low? What sort of meals do you eat?

I eat a lot of vegetables, and fairly little meat.

My meals consist of
1. 50% Brown rice, lentils, noodles, occasional quinoa - stockpile 2-3 times a year from costco (I tag along with friends who have costco membership)
2. 35-50% Vegetables/fruits: Spinach, kale, beansprouts, leafy greens, mushrooms, bell peppers, tofu, etc - there's an open air market a 30min bus ride away that sells vegetables from local farms in Cali for super cheap. $15 gets me enough fresh vegetables for the week. In a pinch, I shop at Trader Joe's (10min away) for vegetables.
3. 0-15% Meat: Chicken, white fish, tuna, occasional shrimp - stockpiled from costco/walmart

Every week, I shop for vegetables and cook in bulk. Each time I cook, food goes into tupperware and becomes lunch/dinner for the next 3 days. At any one time, my kitchen has a corner with dry grains and canned food, a freezer full of frozen meat/vegetables, and a fridge with packed lunches/dinners. 2h grocery shopping + 2h x2 cooking = 6h of minimal work for all my lunches/dinners each week.

Other random things:
- I don't meal plan, I go to the store see what's in season and on sale that day, buy it and cook it.
- I cook on the day I buy food so nothing will go bad, and I won't buy anything I'm not going to eat/cook.
- Packed meals means on lazy days I only need to microwave, and don't need to get takeout or eat out for convenience's sake.
- Spices are your friend, a little can go a long way.
- I rarely buy processed food (microwave meals/pizzas/whatnot), nutritionally and cost-wise, the closer you get to real food the better it is.

Caveats: I am female and have a sedentary job, so I definitely eat less than people who are more physically active. I'm not into cheese and am alcohol intolerant, so no fancy cheese or wine there. I'm only cooking for one, so I can see how stressful it will be to cook daily for an entire family, and cater to everyone's tastebuds.

This ended up being a much longer post than I intended. oops. There's still much to learn but that's my weekly cycle for now.

tl;dr - Eat less meat, shop around to find the cheapest vegetables (know what's in season), stockpile grains and meat in bulk, cook in bulk and pack your meals. Good luck to everyone for the challenge!!

Awesome advice!  Thanks for sharing!

[Peacefulwarrior]

Most of my adult life I have spent around $1000 a month on food (single dad with 1 young son). In the last 6 months I have cut down to around $500 which have felt like I have really been restricting my options. But now I will try to bring it down to $250. I should note that I live in a very expensive european city with food costs much higher than in the US. And I do bodybuilding for a hobby, so maybe $250 will be pushing it too far. We'll see.

[MustacheMom]

From the crypt I have pulled up this thread:

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/fire-drill!-skip-this-week%27s-grocery-shop/

Was one of the first grocery gauntlets and has some awesome ideas and inspiration in it, fits in very neatly with this thread, hoping the info will help and inspire :)

Thank you for the link to this thread!  It's inspiring and has also given me a new idea.  Someone mentioned keeping a food journal of everything her family actually ate.  I'm going to do that as well! 

[wildflowersarefree]

Yess! Our food spending has gotten away from us. Last year the two of us spent between $700-900 a month on groceries (includes toiletries), restaurants, fast food, work lunches, wine and pet stuff.

We're doing a spending fast in January so our budget is $0 then afterwards we'll go for $250 a month. Thats plenty if we eat from the pantry, stop our food wasting and pack our lunches.

Thats a differences of $9600 - $2750 = $6850 or over 2/3 of what I owe on my Yaris. :-D

Edit to add:
2 large vegan adults, one RN and one engineer
2 medium sized dogs
2 medium sized cats

[Juslookin]

Between this thread and the use up the food thread I am having the best time.

My using it up has overlapped into the bathrooms, I dug out an Axe bath set my son received last year for Christmas and put the shampoo and shower gel right in the shower for him. He just mentioned he needed more shampoo when I go shopping.  Here you go, I'm not going shopping. :)

Food budget is doing great, I am at $94.23 to date, but $50.00 of that is a check I wrote out for my son's school lunch for the month.   I have plenty of meals planned for at least the next week and will only need a run for milk, eggs and fruit.

Every penny I save is going right towards a bill I want to eliminate. Couldn't be more pleased.

[wildflowersarefree]

Today I made a double batch of blueberry muffins and two more loaves of wheat French bread.

I also ate leftovers for breakfast (spaghetti-and-acorn-squash-tofu-casserole) and lunch (chili with brown rice, AGAIN! One more serving and then I'm finally finished with it!).

Also last night I used up some Meyer lemons I brought home from my in-laws' yard along with some very old frozen cherries and made blended frozen cherry Meyer lemonade with vodka.

That was very, very yummy.

So far the pantry is holding up fine! I am pretty sure the first things we'll run out of first are unbleached flour, garlic powder and non-stick spray. We're already low on fresh produce (except lemons) but we have tons of frozen stuff. I haven't even begun to unearth the things in the little garage freezer.

[wearfannypacks]

Checking in.

Some new habits:
-Actually running the dishwasher before going to sleep
-Clearing out the sink after meals
-I usual cook way too much food and underestimate how much leftovers. Since meal planning, I've been pushing back cooking more meals on our calendar and instead add some leftover type meals.
-My husband can see what meals are coming up. We've tried 2 new meals and they were both delicious
-Instead of being excited to eat out, I've been excited to eat the new creations we're trying.

So far we've spent $89 of our $320. This should last us until at least the 15th. We are on track!

[One Noisy Cat]

   Eight days in, $85 spent for food. More than what is budgeted ($210 for month) but have enough stockpiled so I shouldn't have to food shop for a week.

[savedough]

Updated spreadsheet to reflect current spend - $152.32

That is one grocery shop to fill cupboards after not shopping for two weeks in Dec and eating out when we had to wait 90 minutes for a tow truck and the little ones were hungry.  We should be able to hit budget just fine for the month even though it looks like we are high for the week.

[irishbear99]

Oooh, I definitely need this! Here are our numbers:

Family size: 2
Avg food spend in 2014: Didn't track (pre-MMM), but I'd guesstimate ~$700/mo
Target food spend 2015: $500/month
Yearly savings in 2015: ~$2400

My husband and I have two really bad food habits: we eat out A LOT (including icky fast food), which leads to food waste as some of the stuff we buy goes bad before use and gets thrown out. Our goals for 2015 are to significantly cut back on eating out (and eliminate the icky fast food), which will hopefully lead to reduced waste. Also, I've begun meal planning (have my first plan set up for next week and will be grocery shopping tonight) and focusing meals around what we already have available in the house.

We've spent $137.90 so far this month, which (if we keep that up) will lead to more than our target. I'm hoping that the meal planning helps us decrease the next trip.

[BarkyardBQ]

Ditto

Family Size: 2
Average Food Spending in 2014: $1683 per month ($670 groceries, $1020 restaurants)
Total Food Spending in 2014: $13465 (ouch!)
Target Food Spending in 2015: $4800 ($300 groceries, $100 restaurants)
Total Projected Savings: $8665

Even worse, these numbers are for 8 months (April - December) once we setup everything on personal capital. Even worse, it doesn't include expenses from the deleted checking account my wife used to use. Feeding 7 people for 4 days during our wedding including the dinner and some other reckless spending throughout the year. Needless to say, we are quite focused on reducing the waste.


Strategies:
1. Buy weekly, budget divided by 4 weeks, instead of randomly buying what we want and trying to keep it under 300. Doesn't work at the end of the month.
2. Reduce waste by not buying more than 7 days of food.
3. Have non-organic grocery trips to international markets.
4. Meal plan.... but I like this "Eliminate food waste by NOT meal planning more than three days in advance"
5. Double cook some dinners so we can take it to lunch for days we don't take sandwiches etc.
6. I liked the stock of non-perishables on hand idea. If we keep pasta, rice, tomato sauce, beans, tuna, and frozen chicken I can make dinner without needing to buy more food.

[SuperSaver]

I'm in. I will try to keep our budget the same as last year but not go over it as often.

 Family Size: 2 24 year olds. Plus we host dinner parties a couple times a month and bring a dish to a party 1-2x a month. We also pick up the tab when my two younger cousins visit. (2 year old doesn't have a job yet)
Average food spending in 2014: $228 groceries, $260*restaurants/ alcohol.
2015 Goal: $150 groceries, $100-$150 restaurants, $25 alcohol.
* we went to fogo de chao twice & picked up the tab for our guests about ~10x over the course of a year which drives it up a ton.
Projected 2015 savings: $1,966

I live in Baltimore so my grocery prices jumped when I moved here in April. I luckily stockpile staples/ awesome priced meat when visiting my dad in a lower cost area (where I moved from). I keep my groceries low by: stockpiling, shopping sales, couponing & comparison shopping. After 8 months I have finally figured out I need to shop at Wal-Mart, ShopRite, Costco, HMart, and occasionally fill in with Shoppers and Giant. I know what the stores each charge for certain items and shop 1 store every week or two and rotate through the first 3. I will be checking out Aldi and revisiting Trader Joe's this year. I also went to Wegmans for the first time ever! It was amazing but definitely not a staple store for us.

The restaurant budget will be easier this year since I was going out a lot last year to meet coworkers and network but this year I'll stick to free happy hours/lunches from my company and eat out lunch once a month ish. Luckily my female coworkers I've befriended tend to pack; it's mainly the guys who eat breakfast/Starbucks  & lunch out EVERY DAY.
My fiance and I do enjoy going out to restaurants and trying new cuisines- we tend to think of going out to eat as Entertainment. :) There's a lot of amazing places to check out in Baltimore city. So $100 -$150 should be reasonable for the two of us.

Zdrave- where do you live? That would be so awesome if you practically halve it!

[irishbear99]

Planned out next week's meals and went grocery shopping off a list for the first time in - well - ever. We spent $79.67, bringing our total this this month to $217.57. Unfortunately, that total doesn't include the produce I still need to get (targrt's stash was looking pretty sad so I need to go to Safeway tomorrow), but I think we can still keep it on budget.

ETA: Back from safeway and spent $34.25 on the needed produce for the week. That brings our monthly total to $251.82, or just over half the budget for half the month's food. I think we can still come in under budget, especially considering we didn't start the meal planning and list shopping until the second week of the month.

One thing I noticed is fresh herbs are effing expensive here! I spent $8 on rosemary and thyme. We should find out in the next couple of months whether we're moving; if we end up staying here I may start researching how to grow my own herbs.

Here's our menu for the week:
Sat: chicken curry (all ingredients are from pantry/freezer shopping)
Sun: lemon chicken and risotto (bought a whole chicken; risotto was found in the pantry)
Mon: chicken quesadillas (from the leftover chicken)
Tues: potato and ham chowder (pantry/fridge shopping)
Wed: mexican skillet pasta (had to buy the ground pork, most of the rest came from the pantry)
Thurs: Fried rice (from the leftover chicken, or if we're out by then, TG turkey from the freezer)
Fri: breakfast for dinner (called BFD in our house)

[Pooperman]

Spent 52 the first week, 88 the second week (stock up week). We're on track to be under a little bit for the month and on track overall for the year ($3600).

[Malaysia41]

It's only Jan 10 and we're at $435 for the month.  (Budget is $700).

Granted, we decided to give ourselves the gift of a few yummy meals while in the states - food we just can't get at home in Malaysia.  Breakfast at Outerlands in SF, Zeni Ethiopian in San Jose, hole-in-the-wall taquerias in LA, two Vietnamese restaurants and vegan food in LA with my old college roommate who I haven't seen in 18 years*.   Wow eating out in the US is CRAZY expensive!  The rest of the time we lived off of bags of apples, chocolate and nutrition bars from grocery stores.

Also, for a few of these meals, we treated our hosts as they were usually putting us up for the night for free.

In any case, today I'm cataloging the pantry and fridge, and when the sun rises, I'll go shop at the local wet market for beans and pork, tomatoes and spices. Then I'll get busy making a big pot of chili.  I'll freeze half and we'll eat the rest through the week. 

Meal planning commencing.

*We split the check but it still came out to $25 for me alone and I didn't even order a drink!

[wintersun]

I found a meal planner hiding in my computer so I am using that for a while to see how it goes.  I have written down what we have right now and then created meals from it for the next few weeks.  I have already spent half my budget, yipes!

I have separated dog food, dry goods such as toilet paper, etc and food into three categories. In the past we have thrown out a lot of rotten veggies so that is an area for big improvement as is eating out.  Now eating out comes from our personal money so it really reduces my "fun money" if we eat out.  Last time we ate out my husband treated me with his fun money.

I am, like Juslookin, using up toiletries as well, I am in year two of that exercise with lotion and smelly soaps.

With the meal planner I can see a rhythm developing: each week make two soups/stews and package them to be eaten once a week for a few weeks  stir fry one night, mexican one meal, fancy restaurant style meal one night. 

Right now I am also eating downy pantry so I have peculiar things to consume, mostly in jars and tins.

[Credaholic]

Joining this thread a little late, but I need help in this area! When I track the spending we do pretty well. It's when we don't track that things get out of hand. So I don't have concrete numbers for 2014, but extrapolating what I do have I would say:

Family of Four (baby is nursing):
2014 - $600/mo grocery/toiletries and $400/mo restaurants
2015 Goal - $400/mo grocery/toiletries and $200/mo restaurants
Potential Savings - $4800

Some things are out of my control, and I'm just going to accept this and focus on what I can control. DH likes to eat lunch out, but this is supposed to come out of his $300/mo free spend money. He sometimes "accidentally" puts it on the credit card instead. He's also been buying the guys lunch on the weekends because he's building us a house in his free time and feels he should. These guys aren't helping us out of the goodness of their hearts, so I disagree, but I can't (and shouldn't) control all my husband's actions/opinions. So restaurant spend is a definite goal, but will likely be more fluid whereas I have total control of groceries and WILL make it happen.

I will shop the first weekend of the month at Costco so that I know at the beginning what I have left for the rest of the month after staples.

I will buy lunch meat at Safeway on Fridays and get whatever is $5/lb on special.

I will buy $3.69 growth hormone free milk instead of $5.29 organic milk. We drink 3 gallons a week (sorry, we love milk!) which will save $250 a year.

I will buy cheaper bread ($1.50 per loaf) instead of the bread I've been buying for around $2.70, and I'm going to try my hand this week at baking my own. Approximately $100 saved per year.

If we hit our grocery max before the end of the month, we will MAKE DO. We have a well stocked freezer and pantry. We will not go hungry.

Hoping hubby can restock our seafood this summer, and that I can get some stuff going in the garden, although our yard will be a construction zone for some time. I'm going to look into a quarter cow, whole chickens, etc. to see if I can get better meat prices too.

Will update how we've done at the end of the month, and looking forward to getting more ideas following this thread!

[ruthiegirl]

Oh man, we eat a lot of food.  So far, I have spent $261.30 of my allowed $700.  I have some hungry kids.

I bought whole chickens, eggs, milk, lots of produce, oats, beans, nuts, cheese, peanut butter.  Almost no packaged food.  I do not buy organic and shop at Winco, the cheapest store in my area.

I did buy a big pack of TP; there are a lot of bottoms in my house.  TP and kitty litter are the only non-food items I have bought this month. 

I have reduced the amount of bread we eat and I skipped buying lunch meat, seltzer, beer, wine, but I still spend a lot. 

I think I can still keep my overall budget under $700, but it will be a stretch.  Calling this a challenge is just right, I am feeling very challenged.

[BarkyardBQ]

Zdrave- where do you live? That would be so awesome if you practically halve it!

Pretty low COL city. It's not so much where we live it's that leading up to our wedding we were getting comfortable with our spending (and cutting) and still living separately, which mean't eating out more. Once we moved in together, rent, food went down, but then things get hectic and going out is easy. We spent the latter part of the year working out the budget and figuring out what the minimum of things we required was, how much we enjoy cooking at home and how much more we appreciate going out when we don't do it every day. So I think halving it is pretty simple when we've decided to essentially prepare 3 meals a day and go out once a week. Another trick and habit we are getting used to is taking food and snacks to our part time jobs. It's very easy to eat on the way or grab something while working, but it's expensive (when you calculate the true cost of a dollar from a part time job). So making anything or being prepared to survive those hours on what you can muster up from the fridge or densely packed calories (Lara bars, beef jerky, and apples) is better than buying out when you're not prepared. A lot of savings goes for preparation in having food supplies. We had to go to Costco last week to get breakfast things for the office (reimbursed), and struggled with the idea of buying a rotisserie chicken, we only had about 20 bucks left in our weekly grocery budget and I argued that we had plenty of sustainable stores at home. I had to 'defend' that I was happy to make dinner and I could figure out plenty to make out of frozen chicken, pasta, noodles (asian), rice, tuna, canned tomatoes etc; anything from Chinese, to pasta, to tuna casserole. Which I ended up making from pasta, tuna, peas, carrots, cream cheese, parmesan and milk. Wife had never had it and loved it. I think the hardest part is going to be just sticking to the decision and being ok with that, even when it we don't want to. The reward comes later.

We ended up not maxing our grocery limit last week. And according to PC, average weekly spending for last 6 months was 1k week. So far this year, minus mortgage, we spent $364 the first week and $342 last week... Except $163 of that was ski tickets and gas on the 3rd!

[wildflowersarefree]

We are still at $0 this month! But we made the rule that you can use your money in your wallet for whatever, so my hubby bought a salad at lunch one day and I have got some refills on drinks for $1 or so several times.

Of note: I found the ingredients to make tamales in my pantry so I made a huge batch of black bean sweet potato tamales and had my parents over.

We had a "don't buy anything" pot luck and invited friends to do the same. Cheap and good food was had by all.

I made a rhubarb/blackberry pizza-sized pop tart that was quite the hit.

I have made french bread twice and a double batch of blueberry muffins.

:-)

PS hey ruthiegirl, my name is Ruthie, too!! Small world!! :)

[SuperSaver]

Hmm... winning really hard at restaurant $44/$150 budget.

Groceries I am at $145/$150. I will be over this month because I need a pound of beef for a dinner party (homemade bread & lasagna & fancy veggies for an Indian/Hawaiian couple). I also need fresh produce to feed the ladies homeless shelter on the 20th. And my fiances oj. So I will be about $15 over at most- I'll just take it from our restaurant budget!

[MustacheMom]

I'm at $300 of my $400 budget.  There i plenty of food in the house, I should be able to make it to the end of the month on this.  Meal planning will be key for me! 

I remember growing up my mother stuck to a strict grocery budget and went grocery shopping only on Fridays.  If we ran out of something before Friday we were out of it.  Friday nights were always hot dogs, except during lent when it was tuna pasta salad.  Pork chops, chicken, spaghetti, an occasional pot roast - the meals were simple but we were all fed and she did it on a budget that I now realize was very tight at times. 

I enjoy cooking, I enjoy trying a variety of foods, but I also am seeking simplicity.  I'm thinking of changing the way I go shopping - to only go 3 times a month - twice to Costco and once to Trader Joe's.  I also want to have more set days - not necessarily hot dog Friday, but I have implemented home made pizza saturday, which can be topped with whatever is handy, and which everyone in the house enjoys.  Meatless monday, a mexican night, soup Sunday...  I think I can cut back a lot by just approaching things from a different angle.  Instead of thinking of all the food and all the possibilities (and then wanting to buy all of it) to think of things differently, and more simply. 

Love this thread, and the Fire Drill Grocery Shopping thread - so many great ideas that really have me reconsidering things! 

[savedough]

I'm at $230 of $400 so far.   I've got enough on hand to skip this weeks grocery shop.

We've had two dinner parties the last two weekends - one was mexican themed and the other was a pizza night.   Both fit in fine with our food budget and I was able to use up some leftovers from relatives visiting - salsa, lettuce, bacon, artichokes, etc.

It's not sustainable to have folks over every weekend, but I'm glad to see that this new budget even allows us to still entertain at a decent frequency.    It helps that a lot of our friends and myself are pregnant right now and my husband doesn't drink at all, so folks are very willing to BYOB because they know any leftover beer or booze at our house is pointless.

I do have a bottle of champagne left over from NYE and I read yesterday it makes a great face toner and can also be added to baked goods.   I may try both...

[BarkyardBQ]

We are on $81 of 300...

We haven't really gone to the grocery store since we've been kind of busy. We spent $40 the day before going on a ski trip to grab sandwich stuff (some other items too), which we took 2 and a couple apples. We ate the other sandwiches the Monday after for work lunch. We also spent $6 at a gas station on the way back and bought chips and sodas. Spent $25 last week on eggs, milk and some veggies. $7 on Vindaloo Curry paste and lentils last week. As I said we've been pretty unwilling to go to the store due to time, but we've been holding up using the freezer and pantry stores.

Made chicken vindaloo* yesterday, enough for dinner, lunch today and possibly lunch tomorrow.

Wife is starting to get itchy for some fresh veggies though.

*Chicken, onion, potato, diced tomato and tomato paste, water, curry paste, served over rice.

[SuperSaver]

Super winning on alcohol $0/$25.
Winning on restaurants $ 45/$150.
About to be failing at groceries $145/$150.  However we just got invited to a giant weekend long friend's surprise 21st birthday party. I am bringing soda, homemade Italian herb bread, Costco butter- All things I have or can make. & a giant vat of beefy pasta.
All groceries over my $150/ month budget will be coming from the restaurant budget. I definitely value my friends and community more than $2 breakfast splurges and fancy dinner dates.

 So this weekend I will be buying Orange juice, produce for homeless, 2-3 pounds of ground beef and a jar of pasta sauce (I have 3 from couponing left but lasagna needs 2 & pasta needs 2). Possibly ranch dressing for the giant salad another guest is bringing.

Good luck to everyone else this week.

[Pooperman]

Grocery budget update: $143/$300. I'm thinking $250 is going to be possible this month.

Side notes on other somewhat food related items:

Date night (aka once a month restaurant): $50/$50
Hobby Me: $12.50/$50
Hobby SO: $22.62/$50

[mm1970]

Me too

Family size: 4
Spending in 2014: $10,261 (ouch)  That's about $180 per week (after subtracting the CSA)
Goal for 2015: $90/ week (+CSA, which is $935 pre paid for the year)

[irishbear99]

We're nearing the end of our first week on this challenge, so I thought I'd give an update.

The good:
Our first week of meal planning went very well. We stuck to our menu every day but two. One of those days I switched around planned meals to a less "fussy" recipe when I had a late night at work. (The second day you can read about in "the ugly" section.) We also stayed out of the grocery store the entire week.

Meal planning has completely eliminated our annoying what's for dinner conversation that went something like this:
Me: What do you want for dinner?
Mr. Bear: I don't know. What do you want for dinner?
Me: I don't know. What do you want for dinner?
And so on....

This often led to what we call "the fuck its", which means we got tired of the what's for dinner conversation and decided to get McDonalds.

The bad:
The crock pot ckicken recipe we had was a bust. It came out uber dry. Unfortunately,  that chicken also starred in a couple of other meals during the week. It got the job done, but it was not yummy.

The ugly:
One night we both had a very late night at work. We got the fuck its and called Domino's. So that's an extra $31 and change onto our food budget. I'll add up our total for the month after our next grocery run.

[Credaholic]

Okay, half way through the month and more than 80% through our budget, and about to blow up restaurants big time. Ouch...

I've spent $320/400 of the grocery budget. Still need to buy lunch meat on the 16th, 23rd and 30th and expensive Jalapeno chips for DH's lunches. Minimum $7x3. Also will need to replenish milk at least once, ~$10. That leaves $50 for anything else, and I really want to buy Blue Apron next week because it looks delish. (This is my secret shame.) I actually have a $10 credit, so that would fall within the budget as long as I bought NOTHING else. Technically I can do this, we'd just have to rely on frozen berries and frozen veggies for two weeks, no fresh. And I guess there will be fresh from Blue Apron, and I have fresh avocados and spinach for the upcoming week. I don't know, we might actually make it if I'm SUPER strict.

Restaurants is at $170/200. I don't know how people eat out so cheaply. I guess Seattle is just not a low COL area. We've eaten out twice, once for our anniversary and once we picked up Thai food on the way to some friends as a house warming. We're headed out of town this weekend for a wedding, but will eat out 1 dinner, 2 breakfasts, and a lunch. So that part of the budget is BLOWN. Also doesn't take into account $160 of DH's work lunches that I just don't have any control over.

[Malaysia41]

I've been making use of budgetbytes quite a bit - and learning a few cooking insights along the way.

The trick for arrabiatta sauce: NO onion!  Sauteed onion harmonizes all of the flavors, but in arrabiatta you want the garlic, chilli pepper and tomato flavors to stand up for themselves.  YUM!  Total cost of that meal ~ $3.  For the fresh tomato, garlic, chili peppers and chicken.  We used frozen Thanksgiving turkey broth and frozen tomato paste from the freezer, and items already in our pantry (can of crushed tomato, pasta, dash of dried oregano). 

Other insight: vinegar is KEY to making yummy biscuits.  Who knew?  (Not me).  I roasted two whole chickens yesterday and served them with home-made biscuits.  Then I made oodles of stock. #winning.

Actually #losing!  It's  Jan 16 and we are 82% through our food budget (573 of $700).  THese next two weeks will be an exercise in serious mustachianism for us. We won't be buying our favorite tub of yogurt, salami, or fancy cheeses til Feb.  That's for sure. 

Anyway - this stick to a grocery budget challenge is becoming real work - and a blessing.  I'm learning a lot more cooking tricks as I attempt to make delicious dishes with nearly no money. 

[greenshade]

I’m having a hard time getting our food expenses below $400 a month for 2 people.  I meal plan and we both pack a lunch every day.  I only started paying close attention to this a few months ago when I noticed we had a month where we spent >$700.  So far I have focused on looking at the circular every week and tailoring my menu to what is on sale.
Currently, I am going to experiment with going longer than a week between shopping trips.  I think that one of the traps we fall into is that I plan 5-6 meals *knowing* that there will be 1-2 meals where we order pizza, takeout, or go to a restaurant and I would like to avoid this.  What I have done is make a list of as many of our main meals as I can think of and then I am going to make a plan for the month around those meals. I am going to plan 10-15 meals in one go and hopefully keep us away from the takeout. 

Goal:
1.   400 a month for 2 (including everything) – I will push to get this lower
2.   100 a month for eating out (I think this was averaging 200-300 sometimes, ouch!
3.   Eat more vegetarian meals

[kathrynd]

My husband and I spend an average of $50 for the 2 us.

This includes all toiletries and any restaurant/treat food.

We get a LOT of free food....which helps

[Ready2Go]

2 weeks in and looking good for the first month.  I am at $230/400 for first 2 weeks.  Have met my goal of bringing lunch every day and meal planning every night!  Finding that having a meal plan is actually making dinner time easier because there is no question of "what are we going to eat tonight."   
Going to make bi-weekly updates to keep myself on track and motivated.

[asauer]

I'm in for this.  Family of 4 and aiming for $350/month.  In 2014 we averaged $450 (yikes!).  We signed up for a Community Sponsored Agriculture (food direct from the farmer) that includes meat, veggies, fruit, milk, cheese and butter each week.  And they deliver to my house!  So...it's a predictable weekly cost AND I should be spending VERY little time at the grocery store.

[Juslookin]

I'm still doing well. Had a big stock up last week for things we were out of, Sams trip included. So my spending looks a little high, but I don't expect much more in costs for the month.

$378.30 out of $900. budget.  I would like to work on getting it down further.

First step this month.....