How Much Do You Spend On Groceries?

[Teacher Terry]

I think 1100 is huge for 3 people. If you shop strictly at Trader Joe’s it gets expensive.

[pinkytoe]

I wrapped up the itemized tracking I did for 2019 and these were the grocery-related monthly averages for the two of us and two cats:
Groceries/Food only - $362
Groceries/non-food - $16 (toilet paper, wax paper, etc)
Health and Beauty - $20
Pets - $51
Coffee - $15

[klunick]

I spend less than $200 per week on groceries. I think it would be a lot less if I didn't have two teenage boys, one of which is over 6 feet tall and still growing! They "require" snacks in the house at all times. I am trying to wean them down so they will conserve what is available but not sure how well that will go. I try to only buy what we need and will pick stuff up during the week if we happen to run out of something I didn't have a "back up" of on hand. That doesn't happen too often though.

[pcooley]

I think 1100 is huge for 3 people. If you shop strictly at Trader Joe’s it gets expensive.

I tend to spend most of Sunday bicycling among three or four different stores. Partly, it is because I know where to get the healthiest, least expensive things, but there's also various preferences among family members for certain foods from certain stores. The amount also seems to go up if I have various family members along with me to "help" with the grocery shopping. I'm sure other persons on the list have the same experiences with family members. My wife, for example, loves to snack on dehydrated mango. The dehydrated mango from Trader Joe's doesn't make the cut. It has to be the dehydrated mango from Vitamin Cottage, and that mango is, I believe, around $7 a bag, and she usually wants two bags. So that's already 14% of my ideal weekly budget of $100. (There's also the ongoing issue some people might remember of purchases of herbs and supplements that also get loosely thrown into "grocery".) Then my son chimes in with all the things he wants to eat. My overall feeling is that it is all those add-ons that push the budget up. (And admittedly, if I'm not being careful myself, I buy roasted cashews instead of roasted peanuts, and I like cheese, so I'm not blameless.) I've learned not to make such a big deal out of it, both for my own peace of mind and for that of my family. But it still gets a little fraught when I AM focusing on getting costs down. I have some cooperation with the college expenses looming. No one wants to borrow money. I bought mangoes this week and dehydrated them myself in our old Excalibur dehydrator, and they passed the finicky-about-mangoes test. Still, even fresh they cost $5 for 4 mangoes, and it amounted to about one bag of the Vitamin Cottage mangoes - but that's still a savings of $4 over the price of two bags, and I got away with dehydrating just the four, so that's a savings of $9 over the usual weekly mango expense.

Recently, I've been trying to shop only at Smith's, because I feel we spend less overall there than if we visit the other stores that have more treat-like items scattered about. It's also closer to our house, so I don't have to spend as much of the weekend bicycling groceries around.

This week's meals are Sunday-vegetarian lasagna; Monday-Filipino Adobo chicken from the "Good and Cheap" cookbook; Tuesday-roasted broccoli and cherry tomatoes with Orzo and feta; Wednesday-posole; Thursday-black beans, kale, and sweet potatoes; friday-bean burritos; Saturday-lentil soup.

We had many of those ingredients on hand, and it still came out to $160 for the week - even with the mangoes getting dehydrated at home. I feel a week like that should be closer to $60.

[Teacher Terry]

Teenage boys eat a lot. We had 3. We always had a list on the refrigerator and the kids would put on it what they wanted. We have never shopped at more than one store.

[Tybee]

Oh my gosh, I had three teenage boys once upon a time, and we were lucky to get by on 125 a week, and that was 20 years ago!

[Gardnr]

I spend less than $200 per week on groceries. I think it would be a lot less if I didn't have two teenage boys, one of which is over 6 feet tall and still growing! They "require" snacks in the house at all times. I am trying to wean them down so they will conserve what is available but not sure how well that will go. I try to only buy what we need and will pick stuff up during the week if we happen to run out of something I didn't have a "back up" of on hand. That doesn't happen too often though.

I think you're doing FANTASTIC feeding those boys for only $200 /week. When it's football season w 2h practice nightly plus a game every weekend, my nephew is consuming 4500 calories a day! That is not cheap. And he's a really healthy eater so a lot of yogurt, cheese, veggies (he'll eat them raw), salads, chicken, pasta meals. She always has chocolate chip cookies fresh in the cookie jar. 2-3 of those will hold him after practice while dinner is made. And after a game, he wants a big steak!

If you figure out how to go lower, I'd love to hear about it!

[iris lilies]

I think you're doing FANTASTIC feeding those boys for only $200 /week. When it's football season w 2h practice nightly plus a game every weekend, my nephew is consuming 4500 calories a day! That is not cheap. And he's a really healthy eater so a lot of yogurt, cheese, veggies (he'll eat them raw), salads, chicken, pasta meals. She always has chocolate chip cookies fresh in the cookie jar. 2-3 of those will hold him after practice while dinner is made. And after a game, he wants a big steak!

If you figure out how to go lower, I'd love to hear about it!

I know! All bets are off in controlling groceries when feeding large male teenagers.

[klunick]

I think you're doing FANTASTIC feeding those boys for only $200 /week. When it's football season w 2h practice nightly plus a game every weekend, my nephew is consuming 4500 calories a day! That is not cheap. And he's a really healthy eater so a lot of yogurt, cheese, veggies (he'll eat them raw), salads, chicken, pasta meals. She always has chocolate chip cookies fresh in the cookie jar. 2-3 of those will hold him after practice while dinner is made. And after a game, he wants a big steak!

If you figure out how to go lower, I'd love to hear about it!

I used to clip coupons but it became a hassle every week. Just use my rewards card and buy store brands when possible.

[Gardnr]

I used to clip coupons but it became a hassle every week. Just use my rewards card and buy store brands when possible.

If there are coupons for things you use, they are worth it when you think about savings over time. Suggestion: put those flyers on the table and have the boys cut out coupons for items they want! Designate an envelope to put them in. Go through it before your weekly shopping trip while you're making your list.