The Grocery Budget Challenge

[snappy]

WAAAAAAAAY more expensive!

It took forever to get my wife to understand the cost vs. convenience.

She pays the bill so i gave up and said yes dear....

 

[ManglerYJ]

WAAAAAAAAY more expensive!

It took forever to get my wife to understand the cost vs. convenience.

Our kitchen often looks like the back prep area at Applebees. We are constantly buying bulk items and repackaging them into smaller pack sizes. Chicken (cooked and raw for freezing), beef (cooked or raw for freezing), shredded cheese, breakfast burrito stuffing, you name it.

 

[GONOVRIT]

I'm still trying to grasp people grocery shopping on the weekends.......if you see me doing that in my hometown something will be very wrong lol.

I have no idea what we spend but I assume it's probably less than $80 a wk(just the wife and I). We eat breakfast at home when working and pack our own lunches. 99% of the red meat we eat is lean deer meat(that's lean grass fed venison for you yuppies). We normally only buy poultry when it's on sale. There are 3 freezers In the house for when it isn't, something can be found there. We both are active outside of work and work 12hr shifts. No scheduled shopping days. Lists get made and shopping gets done when the house gets empty enough.

We go out to eat sometimes once a wk. Travel just about every other wknd, eat out more then.

 

[trailhugger]

This week's total was higher, but included quite a bit of stocking up. $74, saved $54.

1 gal whole milk
96oz Lactaid milk (x2)
32oz yogurt
1.5# Pork chops
Buy 2, get 3 free ice cream
But 2, get 3 free Pepsi products
Frescetta supreme pizza
2.5# Bananas
1# Pears
1# Strawberries
1# Yellow squash
Loaf of bread
Five bagels
Dz cookies
2 dz bottles of water
10 cans of tuna
Oh, and a 12 pack of Dos Equis

 

[Fabrik8]

I don't like that brand of diapers. Hard to cook and too chewy..

 

[trailhugger]

Those boxes are actually full of books I haven't unpacked yet.

 

[BUCKEYE PERFORMANCE INC.]

WAAAAAAAAY more expensive!

It took forever to get my wife to understand the cost vs. convenience.

Please explain that to my wife.

 

[Falko]

I can't believe nobody has data on this already...

Over the past 99 weeks I have averaged a grocery bill of $33.19 per week. Add another $24.36 for dining out to get a complete food cost.

This does not include beer. Add another $21.51 for that.[emoji4]

 

[Fabrik8]

I can't believe nobody has data on this already...

Over the past 99 weeks I have averaged a grocery bill of $33.19 per week. Add another $24.36 for dining out to get a complete food cost.

So you eat 21 meals for less than $58 a week? Are you starving?

 

[Falko]

So you eat 21 meals for less than $58 a week? Are you starving?

Oops, there was an error in my tabulation.

The numbers are correct; however, they are for the time between August 2010 and July 2012. Back then I was in grad school and living on dry pasta.

The actual numbers for the last 99 weeks:
Groceries: $49.39
Other food: $41.76
Booze: $49.16

 

[Ron]

Just for @trailhugger

Our most recent bimonthly score:



Cost? Too damn much. Around tree fiddy ...literally.

Photo and arrangement by the 11 and 14 year olds. All the meats are covered up on bottom. 25lbs chicken. 8 lbs ground beef. Couple pork tenderloins. Boneless skinless chops, bacon, deli lunch meat....etc.

 

[trailhugger]

I forgot to post last week's, but it involved two trips to Harris Teeter; $61.99 and $24.24 -

2 dz cookies
12pk Dos Equis
6pk of little boxes of raisins (actually cheaper that way)
2.88# bananas
1.33# plums
1# peaches
1 head of lettuce
2 ears of corn
1.4# tomatoes
2# carrots
1 package of hot dog buns
1 loaf of bread
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 bag frozen cauliflower
1 bag frozen brussel sprouts
2 16oz boxes of butter quarters
2 cans of biscuits
2 8oz blocks of cheese
2 jugs of Lactaid
2 gal of whole milk
3 packages of 10" burrito coverings
5# AP flour
4# cane sugar
package of 10 boneless pork chops that fed us 4 meals (including one with company and one that's in the freezer)
and some other stuff I'm forgetting because I can't find the receipt for the $24 trip

and one trip to Target; $10 -

21oz can of Bar Keepers Friend
52oz bottle of dish soap
64oz refill bottle of hand soap

This week's (yesterday's) trip: $36.85

2 Butterfingers (for a cookie recipe)
2# chicken breasts
1 dz cookies
2# grapes
5# apples
2# bananas
2# pears
2/3# yellow squash
1 cucumber
2 ears of corn
1 jug Lactaid
2 gal whole milk

I'm pretty sure the check out guy fawked it all up because he didn't ring up the bananas but did ring me up for a 'local peach basket' (instead of pears, I think) and an extra cucumber.

 

[shawn]

breakfast burrito stuffing

You mean "eggs and meat".

Unless you're referring to burrito coverings, which is something else entirely.

 

[shawn]

12pk Dos Equis

There are only two left, btw. Limes are also gone.

 

[trailhugger]

There's still a lime and there's Yeungling and Miller Lite in cans.

I have to go back to get my $3.59 credit* or my local peach basket, anyway.










*I will not be visiting the Customer Service desk for $3.59 with three small children in tow. There are not enough free sample cookies to make that worthwhile.

 

[ManglerYJ]

You mean "eggs and meat".

Unless you're referring to burrito coverings, which is something else entirely.

Eggs, breakfast sausage, diced onions and diced green peppers. I typically deep fry a hash brown patty and dump a reheated scoopful of this stuff into a burrito shell (large tortilla) add salsa and call breakfast done.

 

[Ron]

I'm pretty sure the check out guy fawked it all up because he didn't ring up the bananas but did ring me up for an extra cucumber.

These jokes...they write themselves.

 

[Fabrik8]

Eggs, chorizo, diced onions and diced green peppers. I typically deep fry a hash brown patty and dump a reheated scoopful of this stuff into a burrito shell (large tortilla) add salsa and call breakfast done.

Better.

 

[rockcity]

I have no idea how you go into HT and spend less tha $50.

I go in for a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk and walk out with a basket of stuff and $100 poorer.

 

[Fabrik8]

I have no idea how you go into HT and spend less tha $50.

I go in for a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk and walk out with a basket of stuff and $100 poorer.

That's why we don't shop there. That, and because the produce is crap.

 

[trailhugger]

It would've been $50 if I'd remembered to buy beer.

Seriously, though, that was part of the reason I started the thread. We set the grocery budget in 2009 and I've been at least attempting to spend $40-$60/week on groceries (mostly at HT) since then. I would occasionally go to Kroger, but HT is by my parents' house and is super convenient, especially with a parking deck for shopping with kids in the rain. The bill had been steadily creeping up, despite shopping the sales and buying mostly house brands, or whatever was cheapest by unit price. When we moved, I tried out Carlie C's IGA and the nearest Food Lion and was still spending $80/week. Having a second side-by-side fridge and freezer did and didn't help. Stocking up when something is really on sale aside, I think the VIC sale stickers were luring me into putting more in the cart than we need, especially while trying to keep the kids contained and entertained. The challenge, here, was about not being so distracted while shopping.

It may depend on the store or the demographic, but I don't think it actually costs more or less to shop at any store, if you shop by unit price. I also have no complaints about the produce at our local Harris Teeter stores, compared to anyone else. They were bought out by Kroger, actually, over a year ago and they kept the brand as the 'high end' line.

 

[Ron]

I think HT/Kroger are at a higher margin point than Bilo/Publix/Wal Mart.

But I think HT/K run more specials to get down to the others price point.

 

[Fabrik8]

I think HT/Kroger are at a higher margin point than Bilo/Publix/Wal Mart.

But I think HT/K run more specials to get down to the others price point.

That's regional I think. When we lived in Colorado and Virginia, Kroger (King Soopers in Colorado) had perfectly fine prices.

 

[ManglerYJ]

Better.

I'd love it.... wife would say no.... if she can't pronounce it, she doesn't buy it.

 

[GONOVRIT]

Totally off topic but Cydney remind me to tell you about the old Frank Sinatra picture that was "relocated" in Colorado. your avatar just reminded me.