Monthly Cost of Groceries Comparison

I feed 6 (three of them ravenous boys) for about $125 a week. That includes toietries cleaning supplies and pet food for several animals and the dog.

I never buy meat if I can't get it for under $1.75 a lb. When I find it for that I will buy 30-40 pounds. I only use meat as a "side dish" in most of our meals and focus on veggies, fruit and a startch. We eat TONS of salad and fresh fruit. I buy 10-15 pounds of fresh fruit weekly (mostly at Ranch Market on Wednesday's because their produce is crazy cheap on Wednesday's, well worth the bit of a drive for me.)

We eat mostly home-cooked meals. I use my crock pot religiously. As soon as dinner is done I figure out how to use the leftovers immediately. I take biscuit dough, spread it out into something like a tortilla shape and put the meat and veggie leftovers in with tomato sauce or gravy, then I fold over and pinch the edges closed to make a "hot pocket". I cook these right away while I do dishes and viola...lunch for the next day. Or I will cut up left over chicken and re-season it with lemon pepper to make a great warm meat topping for spring salad the next day (a family favorite for lunch).

I try to use everything and don't waste any food. I skimp on dog food (I buy the cheapest Walmart store brand) because I taught our dog from day one to eat leftover veggies. She will usually get a cooked leftover veggie every night and whatever gravy or sauce we had with dinner. That way even the dog gets good nutrients.

I find that Pine-Sol (lemon scent), Windex and Comet will clean almost everything in my home. So I save big on cleaning products. Three of my kids are boys so I don't have much tolietries expense other than deoderant and all-in-one shampoos. My teenagers clear up their occasional acne with a dab of toothpaste on the zit (works just as well as expense "spot treatments").

It does take some planning and organization to start to pre-plan meals and organize left-overs but the savings can be tremendous!

I think Target is one of the most expensive places you can shop. I devote about 4 hours a week to shopping the "loss leaders" in the ads (matching them with coupons when I can) and buy the rest at Wlamart (that will price match any other stores food ads by the way). It helps to have all major stores with a 3 mile radius of my home.

I bet you could shave your bill in half if you did a bit more from scratch and thought of grocery shopping as "your job". If you are used to spending $800 a month, pay yourself the difference you could save the first month. What a fun game! And a nice "paycheck" just for being creative and frugal.

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cut coupons, look on the sites of the brands of foods you eat & shop at walmart for your stuff...thats what we had to do.

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OMG - $800 a month is a lot for a family of four. I have a family of five and we spend approximately $350 for everything - food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.

I go grocery shopping every weekend. I take all my grocery ads and make a list then head to Walmart where they do the price match. Where I get the most benefit is fresh fruit and veggies. We also save a lot on meats because they price match everyone's ads. And if you like the quality of meat you get from Sam's club, you'll like Walmart's as they are the same company.

Also, don't forget to clip coupons. Walmart used to accept competitor coupons but recently stopped. However, that shouldn't stop you from clipping coupons to save a little extra.

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I think your grocery cost is comparable to ours. Ours is about $750-$900 depending on the month for us, 3.5 year old, 2 year old and 2 month old. We use cloth diapers, so we maybe spend $20/month in disposables (for night use/out and about) and we use formula for the baby.
I've tried EVERYTHING to cut down on our grocery bill and I've finally just started realizing that unless I want to cut out all the healthy fresh fruits and veggies I buy, that's just what we have to spend to feed a family of 5.
I was looking at all the other responses. Seeing that I have a 3, 2 and 2 month old, I refuse to lug them around town to get the cheapest price. In my mind, I save money by shopping at 1-2 places instead of 3-4 like some of these moms. It seems a waste of gas. If you live close to lots of stores, great. But we live 10 minutes from one store and at least 20 minutes from all other stores. Also, one mom said to buy more than 1 Sunday paper. That's $1.50 per paper. So if you buy 2, that's $3 per paper. You need to wonder if you are really saving at least $3 in coupons to make up for the $$ spent on the paper.
Good luck.

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Hi S.,
I use to spend about $800 per month and now it ranges from $400-$500 per month. I joined www.couponsense.com. I went to a class that a friend of mine had and I cannot believe the money we are savings. It costs $14 per month and you have to buy the Sunday paper and have it delivered. The more papers you get delivered the more coupons you get and the philosophy is to buy the sale items with coupons and stock up on those things your family uses and then you save money that way. I get two Sun. newspapers and it costs me about $13 per month for that. But I save so much per month on the total grocery bill that those costs don't matter. If you have questions about the whole thing and how it works, you can call the instructor on the website, or call me: ###-###-####.

K.

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S., that is my spending amount ($800/mo.) as well, but I have a family of 7. 5 kids and my husband and I and 2 dogs. I would have loved your budget when I had 2 kids. :) If you can afford it go ahead, we just had a very tight budget, and I had to learn what was a Necessity and what was a Want, and then go from there. :) Good luck.

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I've learned to shop with coupons. I purchase sundays paper and if I like the coupons, I purchase additional copies. The reason for multiple copies is, you can stock up on a great sale. For instance, Fry's has the buy 10 and receive $5 off, this week. I will be purchasing, 10 items at under $1 or free at Fry's because I have coupons for the items that are on sale. I have a costco membership and use it to purchase meat, grapes, strawberries, honey, spinach and a few other things. The main thing to focus on is to stock up when there is a good sale and if you can afford it. It sounds like you can. I wish I had $800 a month!
The way I shop, I have lots of fun with it because its a challenge. It's great to see my bill come down to $40 from $120 or so..... Before it was like urgh, I have to go grocery shopping! Also, you can take your reusable bags and get and addtional 5 cents off for each bag you use.
Keep an open mind with coupons. My family and I have tried so many new things and enjoy the variety. We found some new favorite foods that we love! Good luck!
PS: try to shop alone, my husband and kids thrown in so much and the bill goes up when they are with me!!

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Hi S.,

On average I spend less than $450 a months on food, toiletries and pet food food for a household of 7 plus three childcare children. My household includes my husband, two children, father and law, niece and sister and law. I also make healthy homemade meals from scratch and limit eating out.
I wrote an article providing tips to reduce your grocery spending. Here is the link if you are interested in reading. http://hubpages.com/hub/Tips-On-Reducing-Your-Grocery-Bill

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We spend $500 a month for a family of 5. I think it's a matter of learning the difference between wants and needs. Because $ is really tight right now, we are even having to include haircuts, clothes, entertainment in that $500 budget. It's difficult, but it is doable. If you have the time to do coupons, that is always helpful. I myself just can't seem to find the time to do them anymore. I mostly shop at Walmart and ad match all the good deals at the local grocery stores. I rarely go to Target just because I find that I will buy things there that I more want rather than need. I only shop at Costco every couple of months and pick up only the things that I really need in bulk. I just watched an Oprah show last night with Suzy Orman and she highly suggested that we learn to live on 1/2 of what our income is each month and put the rest in savings. With the way the economy is going, saving $ is crucial for all of us. Good luck in your budgeting endeavors. :)

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$200 seems like a lot each week, especially when you're not feeding teenaged boys! A couple things I do:

Buy a tiny phone book and list different food items and the lowest price you've ever seen for it. That way, when I'm shopping sales, I know if I can get it cheaper somewhere else (for example, we just went to Sav-A-Lot because my mother in law swore it was so much cheaper to buy groceries there... canned veggies were 63 cents for an off brand... but I've purchased brand name canned veggies for 50 cents on sale at Kroger/Smiths).

Use coupons! Buy more than one Sunday paper and trade coupons with friends.

Shop the ads. When I get the grocery ads, I figure out the best sales, determine my menu from that and then go shopping. I also do most of my shopping at Wal-Mart and price match (always bring the ad with you!) so I don't have to go to several stores. The only time I shop at other grocery stores is if they are doing double/triple coupons.

Finally, we are Sam's club shoppers, but it is NOT always cheaper. Remember the canned veggies example from above? At Sam's they have a large pack of canned green beans. Seems like a good deal, but they work out to 75 cents per can! Not the cheapest you can find.

Bottom line, be a smart consumer. Know what you can pay for stuff, and wait until it goes on sale. When it does, stock up! Good luck!

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I don't know what average is, but I spend maybe $400 a month on grocerys for my husband, 2 year old son and myself. I know in the near future it will be going up as our second son is born too. Have you tried cuponsformoms.com? That's helped a little with out grocery bills. Good luck!

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We spend about $150/week on groceries so approx. $600/month, but I think we have 1 less person in our family than you (there are 3 of us total), so if you break it down by person, we'd both be spending about $50 per week per person on food. That seems reasonable to me. I did, however, talk to a financial advisor a few months ago, who told me that $600/month in groceries was a big expense, and that he talked to people who spent considerably less than that. He suggested thinking about my values with regard to food vs. money and going from there. I thought that was a good way of putting it. I like "high quality" food; it doesn't have to be name brand but it needs to have wholesome, natural ingredients, and sometimes (but not always), those do tend to be more expensive. We could eat Ramen for dinner, but I don't want to go there (did enough of that in college, heh!). Something I've done that helps me reduce my food bills is trying to cook more and buy less pre-packaged, and setting a limit on cost for any given food item (e.g. we won't pay more than $2.99 if it's just going to be 1 meal for one person...) Other things that work include not buying the stuff on the end of aisles (these tend to be more expensive items), never shopping when hungry, buying less meat & dairy & using bean/veggie replacements (cheaper and generally healthier!), buying store brands instead of name brands, limiting "junk" food (desserts, etc).... so many ways to save! I don't do weekly menu planning or coupon clipping but I've heard those are good ways also. Sounds like I need these responses just as much as you! ;-) Good luck!

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We spend $400 to $500 each week, including toiletries, for our family of four (parents plus a 2-year-old in diapers and a 4-year-old). We don't have pets, which I'm sure makes a difference. I shop at Walmart and price match using the ads (walmart is much cheaper than target) and I completely stock up when there is a really good deal on specific items that I use a lot. I go to Costco about once a month (I spend way too much if I go there too often) and I split the large amounts of produce with my sister so I'm not spending money of stuff that goes to waste. I also buy most of my produce and bread through a co-op (www.bountifulbaskets.org). It's $15 for an overflowing basket of fruit and vegetables and the bread is whole-grain, delicious, and freezes well. I love the variety the basket contains. I get a basket every week and split with my sister so I have a little freedom to buy extra produce that I need for meals at the store. Try to meal plan (www.savingdinner.com if you need help) and challenge yourself to buy only what's on your grocery list. Pre-packaged food and snacks are expensive and unhealthy, so I only buy them as special treats and not as a regular part of my grocery shopping.

Lots of great suggestions here. One thing I'd like to add/emphasize is to cut out prepared foods and cook more from scratch (healthier too). There are lots of great freezer meal recipes and it is so nice (and doable at your family's size) to cook, for example, if your family likes lasagna, put it into two (6x8?) pans instead of one 9x13 and freeze one, to have a week or two later. You did the cooking once for two meals (and I bet you'll have leftovers from both of those pans so that's 4 meals, with only two being "true leftovers")

Things like that - combine with all the other suggestions to shop elsewhere, coupon shop, price match, shop/menu plan to the sales, etc. It doesn't have to be hard, it's a fun challenge to see how far down you can get it to go.

I am a Costco member but find myself rarely shopping there anymore. I always spend too much when I go! So, maybe you could cut down to once a month?

Best of luck on getting your bill down!! It is so rewarding to see it go down!

You already have a lot of good suggestions, so I don't have much to add. To save on our grocery bill, we started careful meal planning each week and shopping only once a week. We do spend about what you do, but with no pets. We buy organic mostly, so that is why ours is high, but before the meal planning, we threw out a lot of food that went bad before we ate it, which is REALLY expensive.

hmm, I have a family of 6 (love food) and my grocery bills are not that high.
I do purchase cereals, bread, toilet paper, cleaning supplies at costco.
The rest of my foods are purchased at our local grocery store.
Just a suggestion, and no judgment if I'm wrong....We drink water so I don't purchase beverages. I limit snacking foods so I don't buy a lot of junk food or even bags of chips, pretzels, etc. I don't buy foods that are put into extra packaging, I purchase the bigger jar and divide out myself using tupperware, for example yogurt, apple sauce, trail mixes.
I don't use paper towels, paper cups, napkins or paper plates. I wash cloth napkins and dishes, each kid has a special mug to use and it is only washed every few days.
I hope this helps, I always think that if you're going to cut your budget it would be in the extras that you don't really need. Food is good, if you buy good food and make stuff from scratch, it's a lot cheaper and healthier....
Good luck....

I think that that is more than a reasonable amount. My budget is $200 every two weeks, sometimes I may go over another $50 or so in that time. Yes that includes dog food and toiletries. We have five children. Things are tight right now, but we are still able to get what we need for that amount. I'd love to be able to spend $800 a month! What a blessing.

We spend 600.00 a month for a family of 6 and 2 dogs. We shop at Walmart mostly (because the will price match everything!) We also go to Costco 2x's a month as well. I have 2 teenage boys who eat every chance they get! Fry's usually has some things on sale cheap as well. My husband does all the grocery shopping and he doesn't use any coupons. Good luck scaling back, it's not easy when your used to spending a lot a month. But you still buy diapers so that WILL add tremendously to your bill, and if you buy formula that will add to it as well! The Rancher's Market is very inexpensive for your fruits & veggies.

I spend about $300-$400 a month on groceries etc. Coupons and store ads are the best way to do it. I spend about an hour every week trying to figure out who has the cheapest what. And if it is not on sale we go without. When toiletries are on sale I stock up because they do not go bad. Also we do a lot of frozen veggies because they are cheaper and I don't have to cut them up. Or since there are only three of us I also freeze half of meals that I make so that non of it goes to waste.
As far as dog food - my two large dogs get pretty expensive food but I only fill the bowls when they are completely empty and they eat leftovers. Some of the neighbors even give me their left overs that are almost bad for the dogs so that they don't have to throw them out.
However - dogs cannot have onions, garlic, grapes, raisins or chocolate - that can cost you a vet bill.

Target is very expensive and so is Sam's Club for a variety of items. I do not shop at walmart though just because I hate the lines and rude people. I normally go to Fry's or Albertson's.

Good luck.

My husband is in the Air Force so we get to shop at the base Commissary which saves us a lot. BUT....before we lived close enough to base to do that we saved about $150 per month buying generics of everything possible. They are regulated by the FDA just like the name brands but cost half or sometimes even less! Also, sometimes I've noticed that the savings from the wharehouse clubs isn't what you think it is.....compare prices per ounce/quantity and you may find that you aren't really saving by buying in bulk. We spend about $300 per month on groceries but our baby JUST started solids so that will go up a bit since we will now be buying jarred baby food. Hope this helps!

Hi S.. We also noticed an out of control grocery bill each month and have since decided to go on a budget. Our montly budget on groceries is less than $300 and my family is the same size as yours with kids similar ages. In order to cut this bill I use two websites http://savvysavingstucson.blogspot.com/ and http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/CouponList_AZ.php
have started filing my coupon inserts in a file so that when I see a sale on something we use a lot of I can type the item into pinching your pennies and find out if there is a coupon out for it. Let me know if you have any more questions about this. Good luck!

I ususally spend about $150-$200 a week on groceries, and little items like toothpaste, etc. That is us eating out once a week. Some weeks are more than others if I stock up when meat is on sale. I shop the sales and got a vacuum sealer for my meats. When it is on sale at Sprouts, under $2.00 a pound for most things I buy about 30 lbs. I hardly every use coupons becuase I hardly ever buy anything that is in a box, mostly fresh foods for us. This is for 2 adults and a 2 yr old that eats a lot!