MemberMy husband and I are cracking down on spending, and trying to save more (Dave Ramsey stylie!) and are finding our monthly grocery bills to be a bit ridiculous. Right now for the 2 of us we are spending about $500 monthly. I like to cook yummy but healthy meals, meaning less processed foods. Trying to gauge where we are at and would love to know where other stand.
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MemberWe easily spend $600+ per month on groceries, including paper and cleaning products, even for just the two of us. Eating healthy and organic costs a lot more than junk and processed food. Bummer, but it’s true. We just budget for it, though.
Member@Soon2bBB: You can save a bunch of money by doing the prep work for cooking yourself (i.e. no pre-wash or pre-cut). We buy whole chickens that we breakdown ourselves. We also make our own chicken, beef and vegetable stocks the same way you would in a restaurant. Another cost saver is baking your own breads. Hope these tips help.
MemberWe do one large shopping trip per month, which is usually around $250 – $300. We do a few other trips between to pick up things like milk, eggs, or fresh veggies. Overall, I’d say it’s around $350 – $400. Also depends sometimes on if we entertain friends, as we tend to buy a few snackfoods as well as wine/beer to accomodate them. 🙂
MemberI’m not good at keeping track but I spend between $150-200 each week. We eat pretty much all our meals at home and have our teenage stepson with us most weekends. We don’t shop at expensive stores but we do splurge on good meats and produce. Plus I bake a ton. It blows my mind how much we spend on groceries!
MemberBefore you feel too bad, make sure you factor in what you would be spending if you were going out to eat all the time. My grocery bill is high, but like you, I’m cooking most of the time and eating unprocessed and sometimes organic foods. For me, DH, and my 4yr old, we’re in for $500 a month, counting cleaning products. To cut costs, you can use dried goods, frozen foods, buy in bulk, cook large amounts (so there’s little wasted food) and freeze left-overs.
MemberWe also are trying to cut out processed/pre-made foods and cooking a lot more. I always think we sepnd so much mre, but if you think about it, last night I made turkey burgers from ground turkey. It made 8 burgers, and with the buns and fries total, it was about $9 for all of it, and we have plenty of left over. Usually, $9 would buy a bag of forzen Tyson chicken tenders or something, which are a lot worse for you and don’t really give you that much. We spend about $500 as well probably a month. I’ve been looking into getting a Sam’s club membership and buying in bulk things I can freeze, like bread, veggies, etc and pantry food. It would cost more upfront but really we would be spending less per pound and wouldn’t be running to the store every other day and picking up things you don’t need while you’re there. Eating healthy is hard, and sometimes feels like its more expensive, but anything that requires you, the consumer to make yourself, will be cheaper than something that someone in a store or factory put together.
MemberWe probably spend about $400 a month these days… I like organic meats/produce, and that comes with a price.
MemberI do alot of shopping at the farmer’s market. that’s the ONLY thing keeping us on any kind of budget.
MemberWe spend aroun $300 a month for the two of us. I am no where near an extreme couponer, but I always check out the flyers in the mail before we shop. I buy in bulk when I see a good deal, I buy meat when it is on sale and freeze it. And I use any coupons that might be in the flyers. I swear just that little but of trying to save helped out a lot. We eat lots of fruits and veggies. And we eat well rounded meals. We also do a bit batch cooking. Chili, soups, homemade spegheti sauce, things that we get multiple meals from.
Member@Soon2bBB: $60 a week for two adults. Plan your meals for one protein and two sides for a week and stick to them. We also do lunches of left overs, sandwiches, soups, and salads with the above budget. We make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two adults for 5-6 days with the above budget. I also try not to go to the store on a certain day each week and instead shop when we have cooked all of the meals out of the last shop. I do shop 1 additional day per week for staples like bread and milk (FH drinks two gallons a week!) as necessary.
MemberI’m not sure exactly how much Fiance and I spend monthly, but we try to spend as little as possible. Have you heard of emeals.com? It’s a website Dave ramsey recommends for meal planning. You pay a small subscription and the website gives you a meal plan and a grocery list for a specific store. You can choose different meal plans like “clean eating” and “organic.” The weekly cost to purchase the 7 meals is about 60 dollars, but depends on the store and meal plan you choose. Another tip for saving money on groceries is to buy generic brands….the store brand pasta/soup/rice/meat/etc is exactly the same as the more expensive brands.
MemberWell over $500. Eating healthy is very expensive. If I ate more carby foods I could save a ton but I would blow up like a balloon. Also grocery shopping in the states is much cheaper than shopping somewhere like Australia.
MemberWow, I appreciate all the advice and input! This is great!!! My husband and I do have a Costco membership and have seen great savings from it. Buying meat in bulk saves bunches of money! The 2 packs of bagels/2 loaves of bread for $5 also helps – the husband has a very physical job and needs the carbs. We also live in the country and have access to roadside farmers markets that are significantly less $ than grocery stores. I may have to drive around more but maybe sticking to these options are best. I’m going to try to stick to mostly Costco and farmers markets for February and see where that leaves us, experiment time!
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