how much do you spend on groceries?

[Jina]

We are 2 adults and 1 toddler + 2 seniors and we spend about $250 per month

We don't have pets, don't drink alcohol, and we only eat out about 3-4 times a month, mostly lunch. I can guess when my Loblaws/RCSS will have reduced items like fruits, veg, bread, and meat/poulty, so most of the time I only pay 30-50% less than normal price, I buy a few and put in the freezer. I also only buy items on sale and use coupons a lot. Last time I went to RCSS there were lots of Italiano bread 50% off and I had 50c off coupons, so I bought 6 packs.
My MIL is a great cook and makes everything from scratch. We are asian so it's mostly rice and 2-3 dishes at dinner time. A big bag of rice on sale at 9.98 can last for months.

[momof5boys]

Grocery costs for our family of 7 (plus another 6 or so teenage boys over on Sundays for dinner) is about $525 per month. Baking all our own bread/cakes/cookies/french bread/buns is a huge savings for us...saves at least $100 per month.... We have our own veggie garden, two deep freezers, pick free fruit (blackberries and blueberries esp) when we can. Coupons don't help us a whole lot b/c most coupons are for processed foods which I try avoid.

[Ciel]

Just a thought about the cheaper food prices and/or higher value coupons in the US: the minimium wages in most states are lower than what various Canadian provinces likely pay, depending on the occupations. Hence, a high value coupon for a US shopper probably makes their money go farther on a budget.

[veggiegirl]

When we're in the states (Detroit area) we stock up on things like Milk (so cheap there!)

Otherwise we spend around $700 a month for 2 adults & 1 toddler and 2 cats including groceries/ cat food/litter/personal items (including OTC meds, cleaning/laundry/personal care/tp etc..)/eating out.

We regularly put a good chunk of $ put towards stocking up on super sales (ie case of mushroom soup, large size frozen fruit, multiple pasta sauces, discounted meat to go in the freezer) etc... Our summer costs go down with local produce (live close to greenhouses - tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers for next to nothing) and stuff from our garden) We freeze sliced peppers and fresh corn and made our own baby food when DS was younger. We bake cookies/muffins/ etc... more often than purchasing them in store.

We end up spending a lot on fresh bread - hope to invest in a bread maker or at least try out making our own bread - from what others have written it sounds like it would definitely save us a lot of money each month!

[lekate]

Don't they pump american milking cows with growth hormones?

I think it's partly cheaper in the states because #2 corn, which is the basis of just about every processed foods, is heavily subsidized by the gov't (american tax payers). It may look cheap, but when taxpayers are subsidizing the two main crops that "Big Food" buys (at a fraction of the cost!), they aren't really winning (hi Charlie Sheen!).

Frankly, I will always argue that food should never be compromised. Health starts with what you put inside yourself, whole foods are where it's at (as I munch on chips...hi period! okay it's once a month I go crazy for salty chips...)


(I'm also not biased, I'm so poor I had to move back into my mom's house. I make like 20 000$ (if) and have a pile of debts, and am considering going back to school. Ah, life.)