Grocery Shopping

There was a time @Loganwayne when we spent $40/week on whatever we needed from the grocery store, plus I made a separate trip once a month for dog food from the pet store, where it was cheapest for the decent food. That was in 2009 doll-hairs.

I'd been meaning to look at this again for a few weeks, out of curiosity... I know I've posted them before in other threads. Family of four shopping "thrifty" is $221/week, per the USDA, for August 2022. In January of 2021, it was $155.

USDA Food Plans: Monthly Cost of Food Reports | Food and Nutrition Service

www.fns.usda.gov www.fns.usda.gov
 
I get paid once a month and my wife grocery shops once a month. Its a hard pill to swallow seeing more than a mortgage payment go in one day, but it's done. It requires planning and work but we make it happen. 80-90% of our groceries come from Sam's. For a family of 5 it makes buying in bulk easy. We are fortunate to have plenty of storage and freezers to make this work. We are also fortunate to have a local butcher not too far down the road that has spoiled me with the quality of meat. Its not close enough to "run" over but we will wait till we need 150-200$ worth, order it and pick it up.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Also @Cherokeekid88 some alternatives to consider....
It's the wrong time of year now, but in the spring look into buying into a local farm share. Its a lot of $$ up front but the amount of food / $$ is way better and you get better food AND support local farmers.

Also - look into Every Plate, Dinnerly, and the other pre-planned meal services. NOT the ones that are pre-cooked, just the ones where they send a3 or 4 meals you make yourself in a box.
They are expensive by the meal - but there's a trick . They ALL have an introductory rate, for the first 4 or 6 or whatever weeks it will be like 30%-40% the normal cost. For us when we did the math there was no way we could buy the same food ourselves for ththe same cost. When you 4 weeks runs out, just change to a different service. After about 3 months, the first one will mail you a coupon to restart again at the introductory rate. After that, go back to #2 or whoever hast he best offer again. We did this a whole year and never paid full price. The only reason we quit was because our farm share started again and we'd have too much food, and Wifey started a weight loss diet that wasn't compatible with the pre-planned meals.

A final thought - Leftovers. Learn to make meals that either are exactly what you need for dinner, or even better, a meal for lunch the next day. Leftovers for lunch = free lunch (not really, but way less than anything else). This has the biggest strike here since Wifey started her diet, she now makes smaller dinners and I rarely have a lunch, so I have to make or buy something, and our net costs have gone back up... along with my wastline.
In fact I think our net family body mass has not changed with her diet. Hmmm.
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So we did Hello fresh for a month or so, basically, just to get the recipe cards for the things that we liked so we could replicate later after we were done with the subscription...I think we had a coupon or something from something else we had bought that gave us a good deal for the first month or something. I enjoyed it, but I noticed just about each shipment we got, something was missing.

Wife and I had a long conversation last night about our finances and what we are spending on groceries and just stupid stuff that we impulse, its getting ridiculous. So Starting this week, we are making changes. I canceled 3 subscriptions last night which is $40 a month right there. I'm gonna try Walmart this week and actually go to the store. We have a neighborhood walmart 5 min from our house, if that doesn't work out, then I'll try Food Lion/Aldi/Lidl. We have also pretty much kicked sodas. My wife loves those Propel waters, and we've also started buying flavored sparking waters, and usually Ginger Ale.

My daughter who is 4, is eating ALOT more than she ever has, so we have simply just having to buy more to keep up with her hunger right now.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So we did Hello fresh for a month or so, basically, just to get the recipe cards for the things that we liked so we could replicate later after we were done with the subscription...I think we had a coupon or something from something else we had bought that gave us a good deal for the first month or something. I enjoyed it, but I noticed just about each shipment we got, something was missing.

Wife and I had a long conversation last night about our finances and what we are spending on groceries and just stupid stuff that we impulse, its getting ridiculous. So Starting this week, we are making changes. I canceled 3 subscriptions last night which is $40 a month right there. I'm gonna try Walmart this week and actually go to the store. We have a neighborhood walmart 5 min from our house, if that doesn't work out, then I'll try Food Lion/Aldi/Lidl. We have also pretty much kicked sodas. My wife loves those Propel waters, and we've also started buying flavored sparking waters, and usually Ginger Ale.

My daughter who is 4, is eating ALOT more than she ever has, so we have simply just having to buy more to keep up with her hunger right now.
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Must be the weather! We had a similar convo last night. We dont have much fat to trim, but we are trimming anything not critical.
 
EugeneTheTJ said:
Switched from HT to Wal-Mart thanks to Brandon. Family of 5. Saving about $50 every week from the switch.
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If I can save $50 a week or even pay the same I am paying now but get more food, I am down for that! I am just tired of 3 days after going shopping and looking in my fridge and it looking like I haven't been to the store in a week..
 
JSJJ388 said:
Must be the weather! We had a similar convo last night. We dont have much fat to trim, but we are trimming anything not critical.
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Must be! But every year or so, we go through this...where we have just fallen off the wagon and our spending is just out of control. All those little $10 a month subscriptions/lunches here and there/energy drinks/coffees/whatever, really adds up quick and makes me sick thinking about how much is spent on things I don't need.
 
Do you have an actual monthly budget for what your family spends on?

if you don't, I feel you will be in the same situation 6 months from now, you will just use that money on something else, and wonder where does all of our money go yet again.
 
If youre in the Aville, Hopey is a discount overstock food store.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
Must be! But every year or so, we go through this...where we have just fallen off the wagon and our spending is just out of control. All those little $10 a month subscriptions/lunches here and there/energy drinks/coffees/whatever, really adds up quick and makes me sick thinking about how much is spent on things I don't need.
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Glad its not just us. Our big thing is eating out and amazon purchases. Those seem to just creep up on ya.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
My daughter who is 4, is eating ALOT more than she ever has, so we have simply just having to buy more to keep up with her hunger right now.
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This will always be the case - their food consumption is a constant geometric increase, lol. Wait until they are teenagers and a half a pizza is the norm. Our kids, 17 and 12, consume about 70% of the food at meal time now..
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So we did Hello fresh for a month or so.... I enjoyed it, but I noticed just about each shipment we got, something was missing.
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We had that happen a few times too. They have a thing you can contact them online and they'll often credit a whole meal in compensation... turns out to work better for you, you just have to be creative at the moment.
 
DSM Turbos said:
Do you have an actual monthly budget for what your family spends on?

if you don't, I feel you will be in the same situation 6 months from now, you will just use that money on something else, and wonder where does all of our money go yet again.
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Well, we used to. We used to keep it at $100 a week, then over time, its just creeped up slowly to now where we try to keep it around $150, but its almost impossible (shopping at HT) to get enough to last us a full 7 days and we end up spending closer to $200.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
My wife loves those Propel waters
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Me too... full disclosure, I like my "water" bottled/canned :D , but when sweating like horse, tends to DE-hydrate
My wife turned me onto Propel powder (10 packets for like $1.75)... and since we quit buying "bottled water" (we were downing 10-12 a day, generating a shitton of plastic, and have GREAT well water), that alone saved $20/week minimum

To your original question, we've got Lowes/WallyWorld locally, we occasionally hit Kroger/FoodDog in Martinsville (during trips for other things), 6-7 trips/year to Costco for bulk items (when visiting family in GSO) and we go out of way to support local farmers/producers. We did a moderate garden his year and have already seen a huge savings over buying those items... As @trailhugger , we do the least/per unit, grab stuff on sale, and when we see both, will buy a years worth...
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
Well, we used to. We used to keep it at $100 a week, then over time, its just creeped up slowly to now where we try to keep it around $150, but its almost impossible (shopping at HT) to get enough to last us a full 7 days and we end up spending closer to $200.
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My opinion, redo your entire budget since inflation has changed so much, look at everything and establish a new baseline you both agree to and review it monthly.

This though is coming from somebody that doesn't budget at all for any of this stuff :laughing: but I did back when I was more worried about it and money was tighter. Now I have done it long enough that I just "know" what I have and what I have left to spend for the month. Mostly because I put a ton into various savings per month, and everything left over is what I can live by.
 
i have like 7 checking accounts. All incoming monies hit acct 1 (debit card stays in a drawer). Each month, all money for bills plus 10% goes into acct 2 (all bills auto draft from here). I try to keep acct 2 always 3 to 6 months in que. Then at the same time i transfer X% into acct 3. This is an intermediary savings. Then i also immediately transfer X$ into acct 4, this is the money set aside to go to alaska 4 times a year to see my son. Then i also immediatley transfer X$ into acct 5, this is my BLOW account (no not crack) and this is my fun money, strictly for me. I can let it sit, or blow it. If i want to order a new bra for @Loganwayne as a joke, it comes from here. If i have a smoking or bourbon addiction, it must come from here. Then i immediately transfer X$ into acct 6, this is money set aside for recreational travel. The final account is kept low balance and used for risky purchases, like attaching to paypal etc. I use the CC for daily expenditures, and pay it off each month from Acct 1. If i do good each month any leftover at time of 'paycheck' goes immediately into Acct 3 which is intermediary savings. When Acct 3 hits X$ i always transfer half to a savings account that is at a separate bank (out of site out of mind, retirement or hitman money)

This is my approach. In this way i spend less time budgeting and more time just living. By controlling my "BLOW" in such a manner, i can spend less time trying to control food, gas, bills, etc.
 
Caver Dave said:
Me too... full disclosure, I like my "water" bottled/canned :D , but when sweating like horse, tends to DE-hydrate
My wife turned me onto Propel powder (10 packets for like $1.75)... and since we quit buying "bottled water" (we were downing 10-12 a day, generating a shitton of plastic, and have GREAT well water), that alone saved $20/week minimum

To your original question, we've got Lowes/WallyWorld locally, we occasionally hit Kroger/FoodDog in Martinsville (during trips for other things), 6-7 trips/year to Costco for bulk items (when visiting family in GSO) and we go out of way to support local farmers/producers. We did a moderate garden his year and have already seen a huge savings over buying those items... As @trailhugger , we do the least/per unit, grab stuff on sale, and when we see both, will buy a years worth...
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We were buying the bottled propel!! I didn't even realize they have it in powder form!

A 6 pack of those propels is almost $7 when they aren't on sale. I'm switching to the powders! My wife usually fills her huge bottle of water for the day, she could throw 2 packs in there and call it a day...
 
ckruzer said:
i have like 7 checking accounts. All incoming monies hit acct 1 (debit card stays in a drawer). Each month, all money for bills plus 10% goes into acct 2 (all bills auto draft from here). I try to keep acct 2 always 3 to 6 months in que. Then at the same time i transfer X% into acct 3. This is an intermediary savings. Then i also immediately transfer X$ into acct 4, this is the money set aside to go to alaska 4 times a year to see my son. Then i also immediatley transfer X$ into acct 5, this is my BLOW account (no not crack) and this is my fun money, strictly for me. I can let it sit, or blow it. If i want to order a new bra for @Loganwayne as a joke, it comes from here. If i have a smoking or bourbon addiction, it must come from here. Then i immediately transfer X$ into acct 6, this is money set aside for recreational travel. The final account is kept low balance and used for risky purchases, like attaching to paypal etc. I use the CC for daily expenditures, and pay it off each month from Acct 1. If i do good each month any leftover at time of 'paycheck' goes immediately into Acct 3 which is intermediary savings. When Acct 3 hits X$ i always transfer half to a savings account that is at a separate bank (out of site out of mind, retirement or hitman money)

This is my approach. In this way i spend less time budgeting and more time just living. By controlling my "BLOW" in such a manner, i can spend less time trying to control food, gas, bills, etc.
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You lost me at account 3! lol

I think if we could find a grocery system that works for us by spending less for the same amount of food or spending the same amount for more food, along with stopping all these frequent $20/$30 purchases that just add up so quick, we would be in a MUCH better situation.
The funny thing is, my wife is making more money at her new job, which is great, but it also gives us this false sense of having more money to "blow" when in reality, because of inflation, we aren't seeing the full benefit of her raise.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
You lost me at account 3! lol

I think if we could find a grocery system that works for us by spending less for the same amount of food or spending the same amount for more food, along with stopping all these frequent $20/$30 purchases that just add up so quick, we would be in a MUCH better situation.
The funny thing is, my wife is making more money at her new job, which is great, but it also gives us this false sense of having more money to "blow" when in reality, because of inflation, we aren't seeing the full benefit of her raise.
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If you spent less on groceries, what would you do with the money that you are saving? What is your goal? Save for college, a vacation, rainy day fund?
If you don't have a plan, then its just going to be spent on something else and really do nothing overall (unless you are skimping on something else you need the money monthly for). Are you in debt every month?
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
The funny thing is, my wife is making more money at her new job, which is great, but it also gives us this false sense of having more money to "blow" when in reality, because of inflation, we aren't seeing the full benefit of her raise.
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Tell me you're not serious about your wife staying home with your kids(s) without telling me you're not serious about your wife staying home with your kids. Because I know it was said in that thread to treat her current income as out of sight, out if mind in preparation for that.
 
trailhugger said:
I'd been meaning to look at this again for a few weeks, out of curiosity... I know I've posted them before in other threads. Family of four shopping "thrifty" is $221/week, per the USDA, for August 2022. In January of 2021, it was $155.
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But inflation is only 8% or whatever they say :rolleyes:
 
NCJeeplover said:
I get paid once a month and my wife grocery shops once a month. Its a hard pill to swallow seeing more than a mortgage payment go in one day, but it's done.
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Easy fix! Get a bigger mortgage! And for a limited time, its even easier because rates are high and so are the prices! :laughing:
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
, along with stopping all these frequent $20/$30 purchases that just add up so quick,
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easiest way to curb this is to lock debit cards at home in a safe and take out X amount of cash for the week. thats it no more. a card you dont think about but when someone asks if you wanna go to lunch and you only got a 20 and a couple ones and its only tuesday youll be more likely to say no

Also unlink your debit/credit cards to places like amazon so you cant just single tap to buy. you have to physically go get it out of the safe and then put the numbers in this gives you time to rethink the purchase and see if you really need it.



Im also going to say i blow some money so far several grand on new hunting/hiking stuff this year, BUT it comes from an account i put "play" money in. I have done what i said before and have been able to cut my personal spending WAY down on little bullshit stuff that you never will use or stuff you dont really need.
 
DSM Turbos said:
If you spent less on groceries, what would you do with the money that you are saving? What is your goal? Save for college, a vacation, rainy day fund?
If you don't have a plan, then its just going to be spent on something else and really do nothing overall (unless you are skimping on something else you need the money monthly for). Are you in debt every month?
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Right now, we are taking our smallest bill that we can pay off and paying more to pay it off quicker and then on to the next smallest one. Also putting money back each paycheck into savings for a rainy day.

Loganwayne said:
easiest way to curb this is to lock debit cards at home in a safe and take out X amount of cash for the week. thats it no more. a card you dont think about but when someone asks if you wanna go to lunch and you only got a 20 and a couple ones and its only tuesday youll be more likely to say no

Also unlink your debit/credit cards to places like amazon so you cant just single tap to buy. you have to physically go get it out of the safe and then put the numbers in this gives you time to rethink the purchase and see if you really need it.



Im also going to say i blow some money so far several grand on new hunting/hiking stuff this year, BUT it comes from an account i put "play" money in. I have done what i said before and have been able to cut my personal spending WAY down on little bullshit stuff that you never will use or stuff you dont really need.
Click to expand...
We used to do this and it does work and we need to get back into that habit, because if we didn't have it on us, we didn't make the purchase.
 
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