How much do you spend on groceries?

[lizzie bargain]

This week was only $80 for our family of 3 but that is because I found meat marked down and it was 10% Tuesday. Most weeks I would spend $100-125.

[lizzie bargain]

It sounds like your family tradition is to eat a lot of meat, cheese, processed meats etc which we all know are very expensive-especially if you need to buy European specialty foods. Would your family be open to starting with one meal or one day per week that is non-Hungarian-for eg you could make a Chinese stir fry with a little meat and lots of veggies. Do you have time to bake your own breads? Is your family willing to try the occasional vegetarian meal for the health and economic benefits or eat smaller meat portions with more side dishes-as you may be getting more protein than is necessary. Try reviewing the Canada Food Guide with your family. Perhaps you could put the savings into a jar for something special the family would like to buy. It does take time to adapt to change. On the other hand if you can afford it and wish to spend your money on these foods and you are all healthy then carry on. Your post sounded like maybe you might like to reduce your food budget somewhat-certainly feeding a family of 8 is quite costly!

I have a family of 8 and spend close to 2000 a month.. I really have tried to cut the spending but it's impossible even with couponing. As we are hungarian and eat a very different lifestyle.. it makes me upset that we have to spend this much and there is no junk food or frozen pizza involved in this just meat meat a few fruits (no salads are made here) cream cheese bread! not toast bread but hungarian bread, sliced meat, cheese.. its kind of insane

[kasha100]

Can you describe what your family eats then maybe someone could give you some more suggestions? Can you post from your grocery recipts what you buy say in one week?

Lizzie has some good ones,

It sounds like your family tradition is to eat a lot of meat, cheese, processed meats etc which we all know are very expensive-especially if you need to buy European specialty foods. Would your family be open to starting with one meal or one day per week that is non-Hungarian-for eg you could make a Chinese stir fry with a little meat and lots of veggies. Do you have time to bake your own breads? Is your family willing to try the occasional vegetarian meal for the health and economic benefits or eat smaller meat portions with more side dishes-as you may be getting more protein than is necessary. Try reviewing the Canada Food Guide with your family. Perhaps you could put the savings into a jar for something special the family would like to buy. It does take time to adapt to change. On the other hand if you can afford it and wish to spend your money on these foods and you are all healthy then carry on. Your post sounded like maybe you might like to reduce your food budget somewhat-certainly feeding a family of 8 is quite costly!

[RealCouponSavings]

When you have a family of 6+ you learn to be a thrifty buyer, prior to couponing, groceries for 1 week was about $150

After coupons I learned to shift that budget down to about $50-60 (I also accumulated a large freezer of meat, frozen pizza's, icecream ect... this greatly reduces the cost of further grocery trips and plus I have a freezer full on hand.

SUPERSTORE: In the early morning hours before 10:00 am you can find tons of brand name Reduced Meat, Yogurt, Cheese, Bakery items (can be frozen) etc... Also they have reduced areas through out the store (if your in a city like me they always have tons of goodies in their like last week I got 12 boxes of brand name fruit roll ups and dunkaroos for 0.60 per box. Just because the boxes were a little dented. lol. So for $7.20 for all 12 (x6 snacks in each box x 12)(and that is good for 74 lunches :0

(superstore also has no tax events where the store charges you no tax. However when using coupons at superstore be aware that they are almost always unwilling to take coupons easily, they make it a hastle

SAFEWAY: Like superstore safeway reduces the prices on merchandise in the early morning hours so it doesn't take up room, for some reason they almost always reduce shampoo, conditioner, soap and toothpaste wayyy before the expiration date. They just want to move it off the shelves I guess. When using coupons at safeway I always get these items for less than 0.40 cents.

WALMART: Alrighty walmart has a reduced section (always) located at the back of the store usually close to the bathroom area and near the back of the store's one checkout area. They also keep moveable carts on hand and shift them around the stores in the early morning hours. Again filled to the brim with reduced, they want to move the product as quick as possible to the prices vary.

SAVE ON FOODS: Save on foods is trickier because they almost never have reduced areas or the like, however if you venture down the freezer isle you will noticed placed on the boxes ect... will be $1 - $5 off stickers/or even 50% off stickers. Apart from that save on allows stacking of coupons.

That people is how I shop on a budget and to think most 24 year olds are going to clubs lol

[momof5boys]

Grocery total for May $326.24....family of five now - one teenager, the rest adults. This translates to $2.10 per person per day for food/beverages(very happy with this!) BTW we eat like kings

[momof5boys]

Grocery total for June $434.89...will be trying hard to get it down to below $400 for July!

[Abby5]

We are only eating organic and non GMO foods here since April. My food budget has gone out the window but all of our health has gone way up too

[mrsmac]

I have been couponing on and off now for about 2 years. We recently bought a house and now need to get a bit more serious with out budget. There are 4 of us in our family with our 2 kids living with us 1/2 the time. I have set aside $250.00 a month or $62.50 a week. Hopefully we won't starve!

[frugal50]

anywhere between 20-40 a week.

[momof5boys]

Grocery total for June $434.89...will be trying hard to get it down to below $400 for July!

OK, I'm absolutely thrilled with our July grocery total of $237.55. This total is so low mainly because we have a very large garden that has provided for us abundantly

[CanadianCouponCollector]

OK, I'm absolutely thrilled with our July grocery total of $237.55. This total is so low mainly because we have a very large garden that has provided for us abundantly

Way to go!! amazing difference!

[lighthousejen]

OK, I'm absolutely thrilled with our July grocery total of $237.55. This total is so low mainly because we have a very large garden that has provided for us abundantly

That's crazy awesome!!! We spend about $450 a month for a family of five. But I just started my first garden this year, so some things were hit and miss. lol

[scouponer]

Lately, we've been spending max $92 on food per week for six of us + often our boys have friends over for dinner....we very rarely ever eat out. My secret is my garden in the summer, shopping sales and stocking up, watching for reduced sticker items on meats, baking nearly everything (I save at least $100 per month this way) and having two good sized freezers and using coupons of course We are also very fortunate that our RCSS allows us to use both a manufacturers coupon and their coupon zone coupon together (provided the coupon zone coupon doesn't say 'manufacturer' on it). I know there has been a whole discussion about this on this forum a while back, but rest assured that our RCSS store management allows this.

w
hat it are ou in... i have never tried to use both cz and manufacturers coupons at RCSS. I am in London

[momof5boys]

Grocery totals:
August $473.25
Sept $204.73

At least Sept made up a bit for August lol...goal for October is to stay below $200 and just try and empty the freezers somewhat.

[momof5boys]

w
hat it are ou in... i have never tried to use both cz and manufacturers coupons at RCSS. I am in London

I haven't been using coupons a whole lot lately because I am well stocked up, but I think the rules at RCSS regarding using a mfg and coupon zone together have changed. I noticed the wording on the coupon zone coupons have changed for sure.