Hellobee Boards

*raise hands *

This is where a big chunk of our budget goes. It's hard because we eat more than the average family. And we always cook lunch. So it's hard when others posts that the only spend $100/week. But it's hard to compare because we are meat eaters, both have healthy appetites and you also have to account for the lunch meals.
We only buy on sale and stacked with coupons. I just don't know how to cut more without eating less. And that's not good especially since DH has been working out so his appetite increased.

And oh. We're feeding another adult.

But I'm in!

Totally restarting the no spend challenge first week of January!!!!

I'm with you! We are spending SO MUCH, and we don't eat half of it (we eat out too much). I want to get back to couponing and I'm going to start buying our diapers and other things in bulk to save money.

I'm not even sure we can cut our grocery bill any more but I'm on board to try! We've gotten so much better over the past year or so though! Meal planning saved me.

@cmomma17: I used to be a good coupon we, but we don't eat a lot of things they have coupons for! I don't have a Costco membership, but I might look into one. Kroger used to send coupons that we could use, but they haven't sent any in awhile.

We cut our food bill by meal planning. We threw away SO MUCH food because it went bad. I won't compromise on quality meats and organics so we are just trying to buy less and use it all.

@TemperanceBrennan: Exactly this. We follow a relatively strict meal plan, and only allow ourselves one "off-list" item, per grocery trip. We do like to eat out once or twice, over the weekend, which eats up costs, but we keep it simple - i.e. a happy hour or brunch. We tend to buy local and/or organic meat, produce, and dairy, so we lower our costs by planning our suppers in advance, making things from scratch, and trying to spread our ingredients over more than one meal. For example, if we buy a bag of sweet potatoes, we may make sweet potato tacos one night, and utilize the rest in a soup a day or two later.

We also tend to eat a lot of vegetarian meals throughout the week, as the quality meat we like to buy is expensive, and I actually enjoy finding new ways to cook vegetables.

Also - one big tip since you mention chicken - we never buy chicken unless it is $1.99lb or less. EVER. We buy lots of packages when we find it cheaper than that. I found boneless skinless breasts at Sams Club for $1.70/lb!!!

@deerylou: Wow, we are so similar! We have 5 dinner meals planned a week (two vegetarian) and make sure there are leftovers for the next day's lunch. We also scrounge if needed and eat out once a week or so. I do Soup Sundays, where I make a batch and freeze it in single portions so we have options if we run out of lunches.
I'm trying to make more staples (like bread!) from scratch and we have canning parties with friends every few months or so.

@cmomma17: oh no, no, I didn't mean that all vegetarians must be hungry all the time. I just meant that I have a very big appetite and as much as I love vegetables just vegetables, legumes, etc does not fill me up. I know legumes are very filling for a lot of people but it's not for me.

It's like I can get filled off of chinese food but DH will be starving in two hours. My mom can't get filled off steak and potatoes, etc.

What are your goals? (I know it goes without saying but I think we all know that family size, food preferences/priorities, regional differences in costs and local accessibility, whether or not you are pregnant or nursing or both, create HUGE differences in prices!)

According to Mint, over the last 3 months we've spent an average of:

$550 on groceries
$120 on eating out
$75 on fast food/coffee shops/bars

That's actually a little better than I thought our grocery budget was. Maybe I should aim at getting it down to $450. And the eating out, etc. needs to go down a lot too. Mainly if I stopped grabbing lunch while out and about.

This is terrible...but is there a price book you could just *buy*? I wouldn't know hardly anything to start my own!

@jedeve: Nice! Jerky is something I've been wanting to try - salmon jerky, in particular. Just afraid of it being a giant fail.

Haven't attempted fruit leather yet myself, but my husband's family made it a lot when he was a kid!

Is growing some of your own food an option? I know it's not exactly gardening season but I know for some stuff you can grow it inside providing you have enough light. This thread is a good idea though, and I really should be on board!

@cmomma17: @Lindsay05: You can do herbs! Not a huge budget saver, especially if you usually just used dried. But definitely cheaper than buying fresh and more delicious! Basil is a good apartment plant!

@mediagirl: $1.99?!? A decent sale on chicken in our province is just over $6.00/lb, anything under $4.50 is like a fire sale, and I stock up. Groceries are sooo expensive here.

I'm in though, so see what we can do as well. DH is doing a low carb diet, which it seems everything he eats costs a fortune. We spend almost $700/month for groceries (Including diapers) for two people and a baby, which is ridiculous.

I coupon, but it's not like there is a coupon for chicken and it's the only meat we eat regularly, so I stock up when there is a sale. As far as tissue, I buy 42 double rolls of Angel soft on Amazon every 2 months and it lasts that long and sometimes longer. (It's only me and LO) I also buy fruit from Aldi. They have good prics depending on the sale and they do have some organics so I can get my apples there too.
@looch: I love some frozen veggies! LOL! I stock up when there is a sale.