"I was wanting to know {if any of you] work from a food budget and if you do how you set your budget. I feel like I spend way too much at the grocery store and never have what I really want in the house...does this happen to anyone out there? Do you guys set your menu for the week and then make your list and only buy according to your list? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated."
Planning my meals for each week DEFINITELY helps me save money!!! I make a list based on my menu and don't deviate from the list - this is a great help in the budget department.
I personally don't have a set budget (I should!), but I generally spend $80-$100/wk (including diapers). As far as the amount you should be budgeting...the average grocery spend for a family of 3 in the U.S. is $101/week. Miserly Mom on The Dollar Stretcher said when her budget was tightest she spent $10/person/week - wow!
Here are a few things I do or keep in mind when planning and shopping each week. My bottom line: You can certainly keep to a strict budget if you're willing to make the effort and, in some cases, spend the extra time. I pick and choose the ways I save money, balancing time spent with money saved.
- I go to more than one store to get best prices. Every week I go to Ralphs and Trader Joe's.
- When I can, I go to Henry's (a local San Diego chain market) for produce. I encourage you to find local markets where you live to save on produce (and more!).
- Trader Joe's has the best prices on a lot of items (butter, eggs, bread, crackers, cheese, etc). A lot of times they carry the same exact item as the grocery store and it will be cheaper than the grocery store's SALE price. Example: King Arthur's flour is $3.00 on SALE at Ralphs right now, but $2.79 regularly at TJs.
- Get a club card and only buy sale items at your grocery store.
- Buy in bulk! Costco, BJs, Sam's Club are all good candidates. I am not good about doing this. I should buy more bulk stuff. Also, Costco has great prices on meat and it is great quality, however...
- You can get great sale prices on meat at your regular grocery store! Just keep an eye out. I always get my boneless/skinless chicken breasts at Vons - they regularly go on sale for as low as $1.79/lb (Costco is $3.00/lb), so I buy a bunch and freeze it.
- Buy FRESH foods. Packaged and processed foods tend to be more expensive. A cartful of veggies is more filling, cheaper and much healthier.
- Coupons. The key to really saving money with coupons: use them on sale items and at stores that double coupons. Newspapers and weekly grocery store mailers will tell you the sale items each week and websites like The Grocery Game help with that as well. I've done coupon shopping in the past, and I did save money, but in the long run it's not for me so I don't use them anymore. If you are willing to spend the time, it can be a real money saver!
9 comments:
This is a great post. I often find myself in the same predicament. Making a weekly menu really does help. (And I should post it here on your blog!) When I go to the store with a real plan, I end up spending at least a third less because I'm not buying random things I don't need.
Trader Joe's definitely has the best prices around.
I have also heard of certain websites that you can join and have coupons or tell you which grocery stores are having which sales--like the grocery store game you posted about. My friend does this and she says that they even have menus and recipes that help you use the things you buy on sale and with that week's coupons.
Jane--great suggestions. Some friends interested me in coupon shopping and went during "triple" coupon time. I got a lot of great deals but came home with a lot of foods I would never normally buy and that aren't that healthy anyways. Good for stocking up the pantry though I guess! Costco is great for butter, milk, and eggs. How much is butter at TJs? At Costco it's a little over $6 for 4lbs! Awesome deal! LOVE your site! Tried "the Rachel" and had my husband raving!!!
Janers,
I was JUST TALKING TO MY FRIEND ABOUT THIS VERY THING. A couple things: First things first: Gas is so expensive these days, many of us out there might not have a Trader Joe's RIGHT next to a Ralph's. In this case, I'd say look at your newspaper and plan your menu AROUND whatever is on sale at a particular market. If pork is on sale, make pork chops, if chicken is on sale and you eat it all the time, go buy some chicken and freeze it-- same with veggies and other random items. When I did this, I was the most penny-wise I've ever been. Also, I never got around to doing this more than once or twice, though I patted myself on the back those times that I did: I'd go to Costco and buy with a buddy. Since for a long time it was just me and my hubby, it was always tricky buying in bulk, ESPECIALLY THINGS LIKE FRESH SPINACH, which I love, but never could get around to eating all of it in a week. Many of us with tiny fridges in student housing don't have room for 30 chicken breasts, so maybe splitting it up between 2 or 3 pals not onlys saves $$ but room in our homes.
great ideas - keep them coming! one quick note on coupons... maren, I agree - a lot of the food for coupons I don't necessarily buy. if you do coupons, make sure you don't fall into this trap - only buy stuff you would normally buy or you aren't saving money.
on the other hand, there are always coupons for things like toothpaste, shampoo, pasta, etc... toothbrushes and toothpaste especially are good buys with coupons (practically free frequently).
definitely keep WHAT you're buying in mind when you do coupons.
again thanks for all the great tips! can't wait to read more!
Wow, I asked about grocery budgeting on my blog last week too! Our current budget is $250 a month. I've been struggling with it lately, as my interest in cooking grows and I keep wanting to try more and more stuff.
I do a little bit of everything. I plan my weekly menu, usually with the help of the grocery store circular to use ingredients that are on sale. While at the store I do my best to stick to my list. I am however a bit of an impulse shopper. If I start having a frequent problem staying within my budget I will take a calculator to the store with me and add up everything single thing I put in the cart. It really helps you decide if you need that extra bag of pretzels or pint of ice cream.
I don't bother with coupons in general. Occasionally I'll get one that's useful, but usually they are for products that I don't normally buy.
Also, since we're a family of two it means I end up halving a lot of recipes. Which in turn means I will often have a fridge full of half onions, peppers, half a can of beans, etc. So, if I'm going to make a recipe that uses a half of something, I try to make something that week that uses the rest.
We cut back on the amount of meat we eat. I regularly cook M-Th, and then only occasionally on the weekends, depending on our schedule. I try to make no more than 2 meat meals in those 4 days, less if I can. Buying meat when on sale, and in the 'family' packs and dividing up at home is also helpful. This tip can have the added bonus of weight loss. ;)
Buying in bulk is a good tip, especially if you have a family, and have the room to store stuff. We have no children, and practically no storage, so we don't.
This is a great post. I go in spurts where I'm really good about planning a menu, going to the store to buy only the things for my menu, and sticking with it. Then for a while I run to the store every other day, which is time consuming and much more expensive. I really need to just stick to the menu idea because it really does work for me. When I stick to a menu, I can usually feed my family of 5 for about $80/week. But I don't buy a lot of prepackaged stuff, and I tend to make things from scratch, and ahead of time.
coupons aren't my thing either, but I know a lot of people who swear by them.
Man, I hear about Trader Joe's all the time and I'm jealous. We don't have TJ's in Iowa. Maybe someday... :)
Blogger ate my comment.
I go through my pantry and call the numbers on the backs of my food and have them send me coupons, that way I have coupons for the food I actually eat.
I also try and plan the month's worth of food out and buy all the dry/pantry items for that at one time, then make weekly runs for fresh food that way I always have meaningful stuff in the pantry. I also buy stuff and then freeze it, like the huge bag of spinach from costco I food process what I know we can't eat in batches and freeze it for spinach lasagna.
And if I'm feeling really broke I will take all the flyers to VoldeMart and get all the food on sale at the other stores there so I don't have to make a billion trips.
I've also tried to stop wasting food, so it makes me really creative with leftovers and we really do save on food each week.
These are all good suggestions! I have just one thing to add....I've been experimenting with freezing things lately. Since my husband and I have only two small children (small eaters), all my recipes for 6 make for LOTS of leftovers. My hubby is good to eat most of them, but really, how many days in a row can you have Mexican casserole??? So, a lot of times, especially with casseroles, I'll mix all the ingredients together (or most of them, if something isn't particularly good in the freezer), fill up only an 8x8 pan as opposed to a 9x13, then freeze the rest. It is easy to defrost frozen casserole fixin's in the microwave, pop them in a pan, and bake as usual. It has helped me save a lot of wasted half cans of beans, etc., as was mentioned in a previous comment. This is a fun site! Thanks!
What great posts! THANK YOU!
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