Grocery Budget?

[decemberlily]

Ok group, you are the best, brightest and most knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, and I need your help.

There are three adults living in my house. We all eat portions that are a little bigger than we should. Understanding that, I also want to add that we cannot buy regular milk as one of us has a lactose intolerance issue.

So here's the question: What do you spend on groceries for a month?

We are spending way too much - not including any fast food, I would estimate the range to be anywheres from $450-750 a month.

Recently, we have made efforts like going to the butcher to buy direct and in bulk, buying the sale items and stocking up, and trying to have set foods that we always eat that are not expensive to have available for us. We don't eat steak and lobster, much of this cost is dairy, fruit, vegetables and ... ??? I don't buy candy, cookies, etc... But it all adds up so quickly!

Your help is really needed, from advice, menu info, etc... Or is this normal for three adults to pay?? It seems too much!!!

Thanks in advance....

[decemberlily]

Perhaps I should add that we feed three cats and two dogs in this budget as well...
which would equal about $60-80 or less (especially with these great coupons and deals lately!!!).

Just an fyi.

[MissGodiva2u]

Make soups !!! They always curb an appetite. If you serve a bowl of soup as an appetizer, it is pretty filling and you won't be as hungry for the next course, also if you make a little green salad, you will be filled up with these 3 courses. Salad is not expensive, making your own soup either. Anything you can do yourself will be cheaper and healthier than buying ready made packaged food

If you buy a ham , use the bone to make the base for pea soup.

A cheap cut of meat with the bone is an excellent base for a vegetable soup or minestrone, add some veggies + 2 cups of tomato juice, you can add pearl barley instead of pasta, it's healthy and delicious and filling.

I often buy 2 chickens which make a lot of broth, I put a bit of chicken for the soup and the rest I do chicken pies by adding veggies and put some in the freezer.

I never buy cans of gravy or dried sauce bases as I will make my own sauces and gravy with the broth that I saved up on when making a soup, I keep it in the freezer in plastic containers of about 2 cups.

A lot of dishes can be prepared with rice, it's cheap and filling and so is couscous.

You can make quite a few dishes with eggs too like a nice omelette with ham and or zucchinis.

I use a lot of ground meat to make a whole variety of dishes, like swedish meatballs and do a tomato sauce with either meatballs or just do a plain bolognaise sauce.

Making your own pizza dough takes about 10 minutes, you don't have to buy pepperoni but can put left-over ham or sausages and even chicken, a little 2 cup can of Hunts tomato sauce will make quite a few pizzas which you can freeze. You don't have to buy mozzarella you can use whatever cheese is in your fridge really , any type of cheddar and some parmesan to top.

There are ways to eat healthy while still keeping it under budget, you just have to manage your schedule to be able to prepare all the food yourself. Sundays are usually the best day for me to make all my food for a week and do put some in the freezer.

Make your own cookies from scratch ( no Pillsbury stuff )

[MissGodiva2u]

I forgot to mention something which could be worth it for you to check : Where I live we have quite a few arabs , arabs don't like to spend money but love to eat large quantities. Anyway I do shop at their grocery stores because they have the least expensive items including meats.
The fresh produce is exactly that " fresh " and way cheaper than anywhere else , for example in the grocery stores I would see 3 lemons for 1.99 $ but at the arabic store I would get bigger juicier lemons 12 for 1.99 $. It's like every item that is used in their daily meals is so way off cheaper. They will sell fresh parsley 3 huge bunches for 1.29 while elsewhere they sell a scrawny and limp bunch for the same price.
As for the meats, very high quality, and the prices are unbelievable. When I was still married and my daughter lived here we would do all our shopping there and would come out with about 12-14 bags of groceries for about 80-90 $, but once in a while because of time constraints we'd end up at metro or Provigo we would come out with maybe with 6-7 bags of groceries for 130 $ and more while we had less food for what we paid for.
So look around check out if you have ethnic food stores around you and go check out their prices, if it's anything like Montreal and it's surroundings you'll be very surprised to see the prices and the quality you get.

[nicjosemm]

We buy our vegs in the winter at the farmers market, better then the grocery store. In the summer we have our own garden and can and freeze asmuch as we can. I feed a family of five on about $500 a month we don't eat out ever and i make hubby's lunch too, Every 3- 4 months i wiull go to the butchers and spend 200. Also buy cheap reduced price steak from grocery store makes great stewing beef.

[Milton4doe]

We have 2 adults and 2 very young children. We spend an average of 150/week on food & an additional $30-50/week on diapers, laundry soap, tin foil, garbage bags, shampoo hair gel etc. etc
so $800 a month...and I shop around for deals & use coupons

[Connie106]

we found we were throwing alot of fruits/veg out b/c we were buying too much when it was on sale. So now we buy only what we think we can consume and try not to overstuff the freezer.

[travel-mum]

Buy in bulk, cook in bulk. I buy chicken, turkey, roasts, hams, cook it and then freeze it in containers in it's own juice. Just remove the frozen fat before you thaw it, and it's just as good as the first time, and less calories because you've removed the fat.
I make huge pots of veggie spaghetti sauce in late summer when tomatoes and vegetables are cheap and freeze them in containers . We have enough to do all winter. I also make dishes of cabbage rolls in the fall when cabbage is cheap and freeze them.
Buy those cheap lasagne dishes. They can make it cheaper then you can.
If you have the time, make your own muffins, cookies, etc.. I make my husband snack bars too out of a recipe for raisin oatmeal cookies. I just bake them in a thin layer on a baking sheet and cut them into rectangles before I plastic wrap them. A lot cheaper than granola bars!
Buy whatever is in season.
Cook with rice and pasta.
Only eat out on special occasions. It makes it much more special that way too!
Cut out meat as much as you can. Replace hamburger with Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) available at the Bulk Barn.
When you see a sale on something you use, STOCK UP!
Check your fliers before you go shopping, and go to the store with the best deals. Make sure to try and get these deals in combination with your coupons. I usually spend about half of what my grocery bill would have been without the deals and coupons put together.
It takes more work, but make things yourself as much as you can rather than buy ready-made.
My husband and I eat well, (a little too well sometimes) on about $250 a month.

[decemberlily]

Thanks, these are good suggestions. Soup is yummy, however I am the only one who will eat it. We do eat salad, but there are no ethnic food stores here like the one MissGodiva talks about.

Please keep up the good tips, I need them!

[kw2kids]

Use a crockpot! You can use cheaper cuts of meat, and they still turn out nice and moist and tender in the crockpot.
Also, make sure that you aren't throwing away fruits/veggies because they go bad before they are eaten. Those green bags work pretty good for keeping produce fresh for longer so there is less waste.
Buy in bulk! Then double (or triple) what you make, and through the extra in the freezer for another meal. It's not only cheaper to buy in larger quantities, but it'll save you time too.

[kikikollects]

My best tip for reducing waste and saving money is to plan my meals for the week. There are 5 of us now 2 adults (now 3 kids cuz oldest moved out) and we each pick a meal for one day of the week this is based around what we have on hand and what will be on sale that week. The remaining 2 days are a free for all or what I call easy night. Could be breakfast for dinner, soup and sandwiches, etc. Usually Friday night for sure and I usually have at least one other night which is a hectic one because we have something going on. Of course not written in stone but it seems to work on staying on budget (which really fluctuates with me depending on if I'm stocking up on a good deal or not) and not using stuff up so it goes to waste.

[linnie721]

$150.00 a week or more

[tammy8701]

cook everything at home there is 3 of us dh, me, ds15 that are farm boys and eat like it,we have not ate in a resturant in 2 months we shop once a month its around 300.00 to 350.00 includeds cat,dog food and kitty litter and stockpile items to, l make my own laundry soap,frabic softener use vinger for cleaning, crock pot and make extra meals to freeze do all baking at home make bread, pizza crust just about everything there is no waste in this house.l keep a bag in the frezzer one for beef one for chicken any lefts overs go in it for soup same as vegs. use goggle it can be you best friend we dont even buy french fries make them to,buy alot of bulk,frezze milk l could go on all day. with all are cut backs that we have done we save enough money to buy a good used truck(2003) this week and paid cash for it what a great feeling that is l tell you. you have to start small but its better then nothing

[rachel1496]

We spend about 300$ a month for 2 adults, 1 baby and a cat. That's for groceries, formula, diapers, baby food and cat food and litter. That number is a little misleading though, my husband is a kitchen manager in a restaurant so he eats dinner at work a lot.

One of the main ways we save money is by "processing" our own meat. When chicken goes on sale I pick it up and remove the skin and debone it myself, it's way cheaper than buying skinless, boneless. I get roast beef on sale and cut it into steaks and stir-fry meat. You need a good knife to do it but it will pay for itself by saving you money on meat.

I plan our meals for the week around what's on sale and when things go on for a really good price I'll pick up as much as we will use before it goes bad. We also try to do at least one vegetarian meal a week.

I do a lot of trades for pet food and diaper coupons to cut down on costs. I've got 4 bags of cat food in my kitchen right now that were free with the Nutro coupons I traded for.

[Kate]

My budget is $60 for eating out a month and $300 for groceries, cat food, kitty litter, toiletries, etc. That's for 2 adults and 2 cats.