How do you save money on groceries?

[tdeveson]

My housekeeper has always done all my grocery shopping. I never look at the receipts. The other day she came in from the supermarket complaining bitterly about the price of things. I know prices have been going up, so I took the receipt and looked.

 

I went like this :svengo:and dh went like this :eek:. We had no idea!

 

My grocery bill is unbelievable. We're spending $2,500 a month for a family of 3 (plus our nanny who has lunch with us daily. We don't buy expensive, exotic foods. Just meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs and dairy and a minimum of processed foods (frozen, canned). I make my own desserts and ice cream, we don't eat chips and junk food. No idea what I'm going to cut.

 

How the heck does one cut costs at the grocery store? My first thought is to cut meat consumption and eat more lentils and beans which are better for us anyway. Do coupons work? Are they worth the time and effort? Make my own bread? I can do that, but I'm not sure it's very cost effective.

 

How do you keep your grocery bill under control?

[Snickerdoodle]

Wow.

 

Is your housekeeper skimming off the side? (joking...but...)

 

We live in a very high COL area and we are doing about 1000 a month on 4 people but we have a limited diet due to allergies, etc.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

That sounds like an awful lot of money for 3+ people.

 

What kinds of meat are you eating? Are you using sales? Around here, almost all meat not on sale is too much money. Certain cuts are always expensive, we just don't buy them.

 

Fruits and veggies- again are you shopping sales and seasonal?

 

I just did a weeks shopping for our family of 5+ and I spent $120. Except for picking up some milk a couple of times, that should be it.

 

We hardly ever eat rice and beans. :-)

Edited October 19, 2009 by Virginia Dawn

[tdeveson]

No, the housekeeper isn't skimming. ;) The bill also includes cleaning supplies, which makes up a big portion of the bill. There are liquids for cleaning this and powders for cleaning that, and dog food and cat food, and wild bird food.

 

I guess we could save on meats. We have seafood three times a week -- that adds up. I should tease out what is people food and what is "other."

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

Yesterday, I spent about $135 on groceries for our family of 6. (With 3 teenagers!) .. for about a weeks worth of groceries. The week of payday I spend about that.. and the weeks with no payday, I spend as little as possible. :)

 

I use coupons and buy store brands. I shop at Kroger (mostly) and use my Kroger card.

 

Do you realize how blessed you are to have a nanny and housekeeper and the finances to spend over $2k a month on food? :) If you had less you'd spend less. (up to a point.. LOL)

[Brilliant]

... The bill also includes cleaning supplies, which makes up a big portion of the bill. There are liquids for cleaning this and powders for cleaning that, and dog food and cat food, and wild bird food.

 

Cleaning supplies can't be that much. I have a large home (5 bathrooms which get cleaned at least weekly!) and probably spend about $25/month on cleaning supplies. That would include laundry & dish detergent purchased about once a month, and no more than twice a year I have to restock each of the following at Costco: paper towels, windex, soft scrub, & clorox clean-up.

 

I guess we could save on meats. We have seafood three times a week -- that adds up. I should tease out what is people food and what is "other."

 

I live in a high food cost area. I couldn't spend $2500/month on food, pet food, and cleaning supplies for my family if you told me I had to! We could eat out at almost every meal for that amount. Something is really wrong to be spending $2500/ month. I spend about $500, and we eat fairly well - seafood only about 1x a week, though, and I buy what's on sale. If snapper's on sale, we eat that; tomorrow we're having salmon b/c that's on sale...

[elegantlion]

We're a family of three and get by on about 400-500 per month, including cleaning supplies and one large dog and one fat cat.

 

Ideally I would go back through your receipts and divide into categories and see where it tends to be excessive. If you budget out all other supplies what is your cost per meal?

 

I would also look at your housekeeping schedule and get an idea of what supplies and how many she is using. Would it be better to buy those items in bulk? Is she using paper towels when she could possibly be using rags and washing them instead?

 

I would start with looking at each area and see where to cut back, what is a priority for you, and what is negotiable.

[melissel]

I have no real advice because I haven't been pinching pennies myself lately (too busy these days), but I wanted to throw in that you might want to consider being careful about your mercury levels if you're consuming that much seafood, unless you're eating specific kinds to account for it.

 

BTW, is she shopping at an expensive store, like Whole Foods? That might account for part of it. I can never get out of WF without spending over $250, and I don't even buy all our groceries from there. Also, consider any differences in the cost of groceries where you live -- it can vary widely by location.

[gardening momma]

That sounds like an awful lot of money for 3+ people.

:iagree:

Are you buying all name brand, all organic, etc? Even then,I don't know how you can spend that much. I've been spending about $300/month for a family of 4 by buying mostly store brand, on sale, less pre-packaged, less processed, and doing without.

 

ETA: my bill includes cleaning and other necessary household products, paper products (napkins, tp, etc), health & beauty, and so on. Doesn't usually include cat food & litter. Dh gets those, and I don't know what they cost, but I don't include them in my figure.

[nutmeg]

I should tease out what is people food and what is "other."

Yup, start there. These sorts of comparisons are useless if we aren't defining our terms. On another thread, someone included cat food, furnace filters, and printer ink as 'groceries'. Me? If I don't eat it, it isn't in the grocery budget.

[SheWillFly]

That is a lot for a family of 3. I can eat all organic, stocked pantry for $1000 a month for our family of 5. However, it really depends on where we shop. Also my grocery budget is only food that people are going to consume. I don't count household into my food budget because honestly when push comes to shove usually the household items get cut first.

[Jonibee]

Wow.

 

I have a family of 6 -- two teens -- and I spend about $1000/month tops, including paper products, cleaning supplies, and cat food. When I find my food bill creeping up, it is always! money I spent in deli food. Some months, it seems like we have sub sandwiches every day, and that adds up a LOT.

[Pajama Mama]

I have been saving alot lately in my grocery bill. I go on my grocery store's website and pull up the store sales pages. I make an online shopping list of all the sale items that I like. I then print up that list. I do an online search for coupons that are on my list. I can often get items incredibly cheap this way. I usually don't buy the items without coupons-unless the price is too good to pass up.

 

My store just had a sale on McCormick spice for 40% off. I then found a bunch of $1 coupons off of the spices. I bought ground cloves which are usually about $7 for under 2.50. I bought curry and others that I've wanted but didn't want to spend the money for about $1-2 each.

 

I usually go on Rite Aid's website to look up and buy tolietry items because they are cheaper. You can use coupons there and they have rebates.

 

I try to cut our meat consumption down. I usually double a food recipe for us. But I will keep the meat in the recipe at 1 lb instead of doubling it to 2. If I make steaks or pork chops, each person get 1 piece of meat. We usually have a starch and fresh veggie to help fill you up. Ds12 would eat a side of beef if I let him:)

 

I think to keep prices down you need to shop the sales and maintain portion control. Our society thinks bigger portions are the way to go-especially with meats.

[LaxMom]

That is a lot for a family of 3. I can eat all organic, stocked pantry for $1000 a month for our family of 5. However, it really depends on where we shop. Also my grocery budget is only food that people are going to consume. I don't count household into my food budget because honestly when push comes to shove usually the household items get cut first.

 

Yup, I used to shop at Whole Foods for 6 of us, dog and cat, and I didn't spend more than $1000 a month. Now I shop through a buying club and with local vendors and spend less than $500. That includes natural/organic cleaning products.