What is your grocery budget?

[MacMomma]

3 of us (DS is 18 mo). I've always been a food impulse shopper, so right now I've managed to take if from $275 down to $225 on average.

[Lolobug]

Can anyone tell me what you are eating to maintain your budget? I'm amazed at how little dome if you are able to spend, makes me realize how wasteful I'm being!

[Ducko]

Our meals for this week. (we do $300/month for family of 4) Snacks available this week: granola bars, carrots, blueberries, apples, oranges, bananas, fruit snacks, raisins, string cheese, cottage cheese, chocolate chip cookies or bagels. We drink a lot of milk and juice. Probably should drink more water. I stay at home so I'm able to cook a lot from scratch.

B: Pancakes topped with fruit
L: Pita, Hummus, Peppers, Carrots, Cucumber
D: Pizza

B: Granola and blueberries
L: Ham and Cheese Sandwiches for kids/Wraps for adults
D: Chicken Fajitas and strawberries with whipped cream for dessert

B: Cereal with strawberries
L: PB and Jelly Sandwiches or Leftovers
D: Lasagna and Salad

B: Oatmeal with Apples
L: Leftover Lasagna
D: Tomato Basil Soup, Salad, Rolls

B:English Muffins and Eggs
L: Mac and Cheese/Leftover soup/salad
D:Egg Rolls and Fried Rice

B: Bran Muffin with fruit
L: Grilled Cheese/Tomato Soup
D: Wraps

B: Cereal
L: Pitas with Hummus and Veggies
D: Chicken Enchiladas


B: French Toast
L: Chicken Salad Sandwiches
D: Potatoes, Summer Sausage, Steamed Veggies

[Marianna1988]

Originally Posted by goMamaMel Just curious what every one else spends on food. Money is EXTREMELY tight for us, and I'm trying to get a judgement of exactly how frugal I'm being. Please include how many people your grocery budget is for, if it includes non-food items, if you include "eating out", and if you buy all/some/none organic. Also please include how often you eat meat, and if you buy grassfed or not. We are trying to spend $300/month for 5 people, 2 adults, DH's 2 partial custody kids, and one full time 21 month old. If i could afford it, i would buy 100% organic, but we simply cannot. I buy organic off EWG's dirty dozen, and non-organic from their clean 15 list. I try and buy dairy organic when I can justify it, but unfortunately I often settle for conventional because of the price tag. I am always looking for ways to cut my grocery costs. i try and make many many things from scratch in squeeze dimes and quarters out of the budget!

Before we had dietary restrictions, I budgeted $400 a month, for a family of 4 in an average to high COL area. We get no assistance, we eat as much organic and locally sourced as we can (I estimate around 90%), and I make most items from scratch. As long as I stuck to my list, I had no problems staying in my budget (however, I'm terrible with impulse buys, so I usually went over with non list items lol). We are now semi paleo, due to gluten intolerance and dairy allergy, so I'm struggling in the grocery department (I can't eat rice, beans, and potatoes all the time). I think we're on track to spend $800 ths month but I think next month I will be able to trim that down to $600or less now that I've been able to experiment more with gf/df meals (goal is $500, but I may need more work to get that low since we will need substantially more meat tan we used to eat, which is th bulk of our food increase). I've had to completely change wat we eat and how I cook, so it's a work in progress.

In our $400/month days, I would only buy 2 whole organic chickens per shopping trip (I shopped twice a month until this month). That's all the meat I would buy. Occasionally, I'd buy bacon, sausage (breakfast or chorizo), or steaks but only if they had the natural, pastured stuff in the mark down sections for $4 or less, and if the budget allowed it. Once every couple months, I'd also buy the organic ground beef from Costco, but not often. I only kept it in the freezer in case I got sick of chicken, and I also split each package in 1/2 before freezing (comes in a 3 pack for ~$17, so 6 portions). I would make one chicken per week, and use the bones to make stock. We rarely ate te chicken alone, we always used the meat in something to stretch it further (pot pie, with beans or lentils to make tacos, casseroles, salads, sandwiches, homemade pizza). Doing this, we got 4 meat dinners, plus 1-2 nights of soup using the broth. Usually the last night i would make breakfast, since eggs and pancake ingredients are cheap. We ate potatoes and whole grain pasta for cheap fillers, but made up in different ways to taste different. For lunches, we did (still do) "stuff on a plate" (just random whatever's: crackers, leftovers, fruit, cheese, veggies, lunch meat, etc) or quesadillas (tortillas are cheap). I rarely buy anything boxed or prepared. We buy lots of in season produce and from the bulk bins.

IMO, $300 a month for a family of 5, even non organic, would be tough, unless you have a garden, hunt for all your meat, and/or have your own dairy and egg sources.