Grocery Budgeting

First off, your house sounds DELICIOUS. ;-)

Second....yes, food is DEFINITELY the heftiest part of our budget, too! We have two adults, and two kids (4 and 1). Since our kids are probably younger than yours, that explains why our weekly grocery budget is about 1/3 of yours.

However, there are some ways you could probably slash your budget a bit more. How handy are you in the kitchen? I have been making my own bread for a year now, and it's really not difficult. Best of all? I get french bread that EVERYONE loves, for just about $1 a loaf. Granola is also a really inexpensive thing to make yourself, as are yogurt and soy milk.

For menu ideas, take some tips from outside our borders. A dinner that includes rice and beans doesn't need another protein source. And rice and beans can take a HUGE chip out of your monthly food bill. There are lots of ways to prepare them - sweet baked beans, curried lentils, or chili are all really easy to prepare. We also eat a lot of Chinese food around here. Several vegetables are prepared, and served family style, along with a small piece of meat or some tofu. (If served this way, 1/2 pound of meat can easily serve my family, with enough left over for my husband to pack lunch the next day.) Serve everybody a small bowl of rice, put all the veg, etc. in the middle of the table, and go to it! Serve yourself a few bites of this, and a few bites of that, eat it up, and repeat. It's a fun way to eat, since you're deciding every few minutes what to eat next!

I haven't included any recipes here, to keep this from being a novel, but please msg me if you would like recipes for any of those things! (Most of them are on my food blog, here: www.chowreview.blogspot.com)

Good luck, and happy eating!

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Yeah...grocery shopping is so expensive. Especially when you get all healthy stuff. This may help...a little-have you checked into any fruit and vegetable co-ops. I was in one for a while and loved it. I was splitting with another girl so my share was only $25 every 2 weeks, but a regular share was $50 every two weeks. A full share was anywhere between 15-30 pounds of fruits and veggies. And all of it was organic. A lot of the co-ops also have connections with free range chicken farmers and maybe you could get better deals by buying chicken in bulk and storing in a deep freeze. I don't think there is any way possible to gett cheap seafood unless you catch it yourself :-)

Good luck...I could use the grocery fairy myself, one who would also do the shopping for me!!!!

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Everyone has already covered going with a list and making out weekly menus based on what's on sale. The big thing is though you have to decide what is more important to you, your budget or buying organic products. See if there are any organic items that you'd be ok buying the regular version. Produce, even non-organic can be as expensive as meat so plan your meals around the cheaper produce items. For example broccoli in my grocery store is regularly $2.50ish/lb. Ridiculous I know! You can check local farmer's market, but I even find those are getting to be high too. You could try buying frozen vegetables and see if that works for you. My family eats one meal a week of beans and rice and that's a really cheap meal less than $1 total for 5 people. I usually make a veg soup weekly with whatever vegetables were left over and that's cheap too. I didn't find coupons saved me much money b/c most coupons are for processed prepackaged food that I don't buy much of anyway. Good luck to you but sometimes you have to pay for what's important to you.

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120/week doesn't sound unreasonable for a family of 4 for healthy food. The reality is, food is an investment. If you want to eat healthy, you have to pay a little more. We spend the same. At one point I tried to get it below 100/week, but found I was spending more time clipping coupons than was worth it in the end. Time is money and I work from home, so I had to weigh the cost of spending my time working for an hour vs. clipping coupons for an hour. If you have the time, coupons are probably your best bet.

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We eat pretty much the same as your family. With coupon clipping our bill is 150 to 220 a week. It is just expensive to eat healthy real food.

I always look at our food at check out and think how can so little cost so much...but I think of what we save in doctor's bills (very healthy immune systems).

If you find the magic grocery fairy send her my way...

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All milk produced in Oregon/Washington is actually rBST free. It may not be labeled that (and much cheaper than those labeled), but it is illegal to administer the rBST hormone to cattle here. You can tell if it is produced here by checking the tracking number. A dairy from Oregon will start with 41; Washington starts with 53.

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One thing I do to keep cost down is to not buy into all that "this version is healthier for you because it was raised organic". I wash all my vegis well, and I refuse to pay up to $4 more just because they say it is better. Who are "they" anyway. Milk is milk, and a tomato is a tomato. But that is just my opinion. My family is very healthy.

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I make, weekly menus.
Then, based on that.... I make my grocery list for the week.
And I stick to it.
I don't use coupons.

Recipes, that requires a lot of ingredients, will cost more and inflate your budget.
Buy basics on sale or in bulk from Costco.

This is what works for me and our family.
I never go over budget that way.
And I cook from scratch everyday and we eat healthily from all food groups.

If you need recipes ideas on what to cook, simply do a Google Search and input in the search box, the ingredients you have already.... ie: "recipes with fish, beans, carrots..." and then recipes with THOSE ingredients will come up.
That way, you can cook meals, with what you ALREADY have, and not have to buy extra ingredients. Thus, cutting costs.

Then, every month, I also cook meals based on what we have already in the freezer and use up what we have. Thus cutting costs even more. It also purges the accumulation in the freezer that way.

good luck,
Susan

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To help keep cost down, I plan a monthly dinner menu. It's really not as hard as it sounds :) I use the website eatingwell.com (which are healthy meals), look at their recipes and fill out the calendar.
Because you can print their recipes, it makes creating the shopping list really easy.
After I create the shopping list, I look online for coupons (and yeah if the paper has them too).
Wal-Mart accepts competitive coupons (printed from the computer and cut-outs).
I try not to buy something just because I have a coupon. I try to buy only what is needed. There are 6 of us and I spend about $100/week.

:)

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We have friends who try to eat only organic fruits and veggies. They spend $60 a week (family of 5), just on the fruits and veggies. You're going great at only $120 a week.

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Great question. Can I ask you a good place to learn about meatless meals that have enough protein that kids and husband would like? Any tips are welcome.

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Hi there,
The way I stay on budget is to make my dinner list for two weeks prior to going to the store and sticking to my list, no matter what. I make an ongoing list the days in between shopping and if it didn't make the list, we do without. I also started going with cash, you can't spend what you don't have. Coupon clipping does take a little time but well worth it, and shopping in bulk does help a lot. We spend $600/month for 5 people and that includes toiletries. We also have to buy Lactaid instead of regular milk and that's $6/gallon. It can be done if you set your mind to it!
Good luck!

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Just an FYI, rBST free milk is identical to regular milk. (My husband is a dairy veterinarian.) Cows NATURALLY produce BST in cycles, much like a woman does with hormones. It is counterproductive to the dairy farmer (not to mention expensive!!) to give rBST to cows when they are not at the right time in their cycles. (there is a narrow window of time when it is beneficial, I forget how long.) Many farmers just don't bother with it because of the expense and the tracking necessary to figure out when the return (in milk) is greater than the expense of the rBST.

What rBST does is help the cow produce more milk for a little bit longer (which saves us a LOT in the long run when you consider carbon footprints, I find this very ironic.) More milk with less cows, less food, less waste, less water, less land.... Or more cows, more feed, more waste, more water, more land, for rBST-free milk. (which many farmers are not using anyway.)

Sorry that doesnt answer your question very well! I do clip coupons and *mainly* I shop the sales. When things are on sale, I buy in bulk and stock up. (You can freeze milk, it just takes a whole day or two to thaw!)
Chicken was on sale recently, so I stocked up and have extras in my freezer. I'm not perfect here but trying to keep our budget down and our food healthy and minimally processed.

There are a lot of blogs that share couponing tips, deals, match up the sales with the coupons, etc. I personally dont pay for any (other than a discounted Sunday only paper subscription for the newspaper coupon inserts).

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I have 2 kids, plus my husband and I in my household. We stick to mostly unprocessed foods as well, though we do eat meat. We budget $130.00 per week on groceries, but I really try to stay at 100.00...plus we eat out 3 meals a week. So, it doesn't really seem unreasonable. However, I don't know the financial implications of your family unit.
To cut costs, I do clip coupons and I do shop at a grocery outlet first. I get what I can there, sometimes everything, sometimes nothing...then finish at Safeway. I have a friend who plays the Grocery Game (www.grocerygame.com), but it only really works if you live in a larger city. There is a small fee involved, but your overall savings far surpasses the fee.
Also, when shopping, I only get what is on sale. We make our meals around what is on sale that week. Unless its an extra special occassion.

Another mom in the same boat! Reading all answers with interest...

I find myself cutting corners from other areas of my life... and have been trying to figure out how to budget back in some "mom money" since I cut things for myself - making due with old clothes, shopping consignment/thrift, no haircuts, pedicures etc. Sometimes it gets a little depressing! But to me the food and things for my kids are priority. Sigh.

I also worked out a trade with a woman who does organic produce delivery. I watch her son for a few hours once a week in exchange for a $35 bin of organic veggies, delivered to my door. That is pretty sweet! I've been looking for other trades - I don't want chickens but lots of folks in my 'hood have them so I'm working on an egg trade.

You don't say where you shop but if you were getting organic at Whole Foods and PCC vs. Trader Joe's, you could cut down there. I always find that Trader Joe's offers veg and fruit for waaaaay less money than any supermarket around, for example. Maybe you need to shop around a little.

$120 for four people per week is really not too high. The price of food has gone up considerably in the past few years and in order to get good food that is organic and locally grown you pay, it seems more. I suppose if you had a huge garden that would help considerably and be healthy! Also sometimes Walmart has organic food for a decent price, especially milk. I'll bet your kids are healthy you save doctor's bills with all the good food you eat!

We eat the same way you do. I buy raw milk and fresh eggs from local farmers. I make my own yogurt, sour cream, mozzarella, feta and cream cheese. I even make our own ice cream as a treat from real cream I buy from the farmers (this keeps it a special occassion treat). We buy from the farmer's market when possible - part of the fruits and veggies, I wash, cut up and freeze. I ferment some of my foods and jar them for later use. The rest is eaten fresh. You can find some great deals on grass-fed beef through word of mouth and Craigslist Ads. Splitting a cow doesn't cost much and I can get some super healthy ground beef for less than the grocery store's same quality. It does cost more to eat healthy, but we don't pay for prescriptions or trips to the doctor, so it's viewed as an investment towards our health!

I am getting ready to participate in the Real Food Challenge put on by Nourishing Foods. The goal is to eat for a month on the amount of money you would get if you were on food stamps while still eating healthy. You can subscribe here:

http://nourishedkitchen.com/nourished-kitchen-community/s...

I am excited to try it and see what we can do to save money.

One area we significantly cut our budget is by making our own bread. From scratch it costs significantly less (even using organic and whole grains). So I make our rolls, artisan breads, sandwich breads, etc instead of buying it. Many loafs are literally only costing us $0.50 or less! It does require pre-planning. I make some rolls, hot dog buns and hamburger buns in advance and then freeze them so they are handy, as these tend to be last minute ideas or invite foods needed.

Good luck! Sounds like you are doing great already!

Do you know that target will let you stack coupons? Use a target coupon and a manufacturer coupon together to save more. I do ths on diapers frequently and save $3-5!

Updated

Do you know that target will let you stack coupons? Use a target coupon and a manufacturer coupon together to save more. I do ths on diapers frequently and save $3-5!

Buy your produce in bulk in season when it is the least expensive, and then can, freeze, or dehydrate whatever you can't eat right away. For instance, I stock up on corn in the summer when it's like 10/$2 and freeze it in ziplock bags. Then we're eating fresh sweet corn in the middle of winter. Or I stock up on celery in the fall when it's around 69 cents and dehydrate it - it's great in soups and stews all winter long. Carrots freeze beautifully, potatoes, tomatoes, and squashes can be frozen but they get a bit mushy - great for soups and stews or zucchini/pumpkin bread, though.

Pick up a copy of Ball's Blue Book; you can find a copy just about anywhere they sell canning supplies this time of year. It has simple instructions for safe freezing/canning/dehydrating just about any type of fruit or veggie. Have fun with it!

If you really are eating all meals at home, and try to buy organic, it is expensive...120/week does not sound unreasonable to me...yes, expensive, but you are feeding your family what you believe to be the healthiest options...

wow I wonder how in the world you spend $120 for all of that, we hardly make it on $200 a week for 2 kids and 2 adults(eat very similar to you)

I buy the store brand organic at whole foods or safeway.. and if chicken is on sale for example buy it and freeze it..

here are some sights I follow with tips:
http://www.frugallivingnw.com/
http://www.naturalonabudget.com/
and
http://savingnaturally.com/

Also I'm not sure where you live but you could look into buying clubs like Portland Green Parenting. If you can can and store food you grow on your own (if you don't have yard and can't wait or get to a community garden try searching Portland yard sharing - people with lots of yard willing to let you come plant right in your neighborhood). Find someone local to get your eggs from, use bulk bins at places like Winco (mostly bobs red mill products anyway), you can even get tofu locally by the lb. Honestly growing your own will cut costs the most - after that it is all about how much time you have available - more time... more money savings :)

Costco has a lot of organic foods these day that help us cut down on cost, like big inexpensive jars of organic strawberry jam (almost the same price as the little ones at the grocery store), large bags of frozen organic vegetables, organic pasta and organic granola. Most of those things are reasonably local as well (I was suprised). The prices are excellent for those items. I think they have organic milk and eggs also. We also go to the Daves bread outlet and buy a dozen loaves of their frozen organic bread for $24 and freeze it. It comes out to be $2 a loaf instead of $5 at the store. Hope that helps!

I wish I could live on 120 a week. We do free range and organic milk (I like happy cows, those that get to graze and that are chemical free).

Seriously, I'd be thrilled if I was at 500 a month.

For the type of diet you are eating, your current budget is actually very reasonable. There are still ways to save though.
Do you make items from scratch, or buy them? Bread is one of the most expensive grocery items (for what you get too-- which is usually full of a lot of junk.) Get a wheat grinder and learn to make bread-- that helps our budget a lot. Other things we make from scratch are yogurt, tortillas, crackers (sometimes,) and fruit leather. We also have a few chickens in our back yard for eggs.
Also, I don't know if you're into gardening, but in the summer and fall my grocery budget is half the usual because we eat mostly what comes out of our garden.
Good luck!

We eat whole organic foods as well and what we try to do is buy bulk as much as we can. We pay 97cents a pound for organic thick cut oatmeal.
We also bought 1/2 of a pig and 1/4 of a cow, all organic grass fed, for a little less than 1000.00 and that will last us for a year and then some. We did the same thing last year and still have some meat left over. I also freeze alot of things. Right now I am freezing tomatos, 2 cases for 60 dollars, that I can use throughout the year. I also grew zuchinni that I have been shredding and freezing and squash as well. I also have 18 Kale plants, we eat a lot of Kale and it will grow throughout the winter. I am going to go to a pumpkin farm and get a bunch of sugar pumpkins and will process and freeze those as well. I can always figure something out with those 3 items. I also buy bulk beans and make soups and chilli's. We are also going to be joining a year round CSA for 32 dollars a week. Unfortunately what I have found is that there is really no way to eat healthy and cheaply. What I have found is that we don't get sick as often so that helps with no medical bills and no missed days of work.

I think you are doing pretty well, actually. Budget target is 10% of income. A couple of ideas, if you can work the logistics (which I haven't been able to) are CSAs for produce, meat, and dairy. They have enough around the Portland area that a lot of families make it work. The produce CSAs also sometimes sell other groceries, and also some include weekly recipes for those things that have some mystery around them (rutabegas). portland also has some buying clubs that I read about in the Oregonian, they are basically precursors to food cooperatives. you have to be somewhat industrious and well organized from what I saw. Perhaps if you search the oregonian site you'll find the article and can search for one in your area, or start one :). I admire your goals, we have similar ones but often cave to convenience, though we remain in the low processed food arena about 80% of the time. For us, meal planning has been huge for saving money, because we waste so much less. When we overbuy due to impulse, we just periodically meal plan out of what is in our pantry, to "eat it down."

Hello,

I sounds to me like you are doing an awesome job at being aware of what is going in your family's bodies. I think I'd keep that up and go try and cut your budget elsewhere. Not sure if that is an option, but coupon clipping might be your only next answer and sadly they usually don't have great coupons for organic and good whole foods....but I'm not a coupon clipper, so I could be wrong.

Good Luck!