I am just curious as to what others spend. I have never put a set limit on grocery's but this month I am. We have a family of four, 3 of which can eat! LOL
I plan on spending no more than $200.00. I am very into coupons and stockpiling so this should be pretty easy.

By Cybermommyx4 on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 11:46 am:

About $175-$200 per week, ($866 per month) for a family of six (including two teenagers, and two gradeschoolers). This also includes WalMart items such as laundry detergent, trash bags, shampoo, cleaning and paper products. I can't believe the cost of groceries these days! We pay almost $4 per gallon for milk, which translates to at least $24 per week for milk....then there's fresh produce, meat, and other dairy products. I try to make very healthy meals, especially with DD being a competitive gymnast - she works out 4 hours per day, and needs to eat meat, carbs, and fresh veggies to maintain her schedule. I use coupons,etc. as well, but I never find any for meat or milk......I'll be interested to see the results of this post...

By Marg on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 11:46 am:

Do you mean just food or food and other items, toilet paper, shampoo, etc? We are a family of 5 and for all that a good $400.

By Kolbysmom on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 12:01 pm:

We spend $200-$250 for a family of 3. That includes everying(even Pull-Ups).

By Debbie on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 12:14 pm:

Truestori, is that $200.00 for a month!! We spend about $150.00 a week for groceries including household item, etc., for a family of 4. Milk is just so ridiculous now and I have two big milk drinkers. I also try and buy very lean cuts of meat. Dh usually takes his lunch and we eat out only once a week.

If it is just $200.00 a month, I want to know how you do that!!!

By Sunny on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 12:24 pm:

Average around $1000 a month for a family of 7. That includes everything. During the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter), I spend about $300 dollars more a month.

By Emily7 on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 12:40 pm:

I feel like a really bad shopper I spend about $350.00 just on food, $60.00 on diapers & wipes, & $50.00 on pop & water. This is for a family of 4, one that eats baby food & 2 in diapers.

By Truestori on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 12:50 pm:

I am including all paper goods,meat, vegetables, cleaning supplies etc.. The dog food will be seperate as well as the cat food, but as I am typing I just realized I have coupons for her litter and food. LOL
I have tons of coupons on hand for milk, and fresh salad and meat. I don't do the whole junk food shopping thing with coupons. I make a point of letting my kids have snacks but we usually eat very healthy.
The coupons for fresh stuff seem to be showing up everywhere now, so it makes coupon shopping much healthier!
I am very connected to the coupon and refunding world so it makes it alittle easier.
So, 200.00 for everything this month.

By Eve on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 12:54 pm:

We spend somewhere around $1000/ per month for a family of 3. This includes eating out, take out, bottles of wine. It does not include trips to WalMart for little things that I forget or pick up outside of the grocery store. I would love to know how you all plan so well. Do you buy a lot of fresh produce? I do know that groceries are expensive in my area. I usually pay about twice as much (For produce,dairy,and especially meat) as my Mom does 2 states away. I'd love any tips you want to pass along.

By Truestori on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 12:56 pm:

Debbie,

I just realized you asked a question..lol

It takes planning and coupon searching, cutting and sometimes trading, mostly with girlfriends that love this hobby as much as I do!
Just yesterday I got 20 bags of Act2 popcorn for free, along with 4 oust bathroom deodorizers.
For us it is well worth the planning. I figure by next year I can save enough to go on a very nice vacation. Maybe Italy? LOL

By Happynerdmom on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 01:12 pm:

Truestori, you sound like me! It's a game, for me, to see how much I can save each week. I create our weekly menus around the sales flyer...if chicken is on sale, I get out my chicken recipes, etc. I do some coupons, especially for things I know I'll use...Tide, for example. It helps that my family is not picky...for example, my ds eats a lot of cereal, but I buy what's on sale, plus I usually have cereal coupons. I will not spend more than $2.00-$2.50 for a box of cereal. (That's national brands, too. Not store brands) I usually spend between $75.00 and $100.00 at the grocery store each week, and that is counting cleaning supplies, etc.

By Insaneusmcwife on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 01:17 pm:

Wow, maybe I should start clipping coupons again. I used them all the time in Okinawa but have really slacked since we have been back. I spend, without coupons, $200 every 2 weeks and that includes almost everything. Maybe another $100/month at walmart for odds and ends.

By Truestori on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 01:19 pm:

Michelle,
You live in a great state for coupons from what I hear! I love coupons also. I am so cheap now that I usually only buy cereal when I get it for 50cents a box or free..LOL

By Boxzgrl on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 01:22 pm:

Thank goodness for the savings at the commissary Kristie! We spend about $400.00/month not including diapers and paper stuff. DH *really* likes his meat so we are constantly having steak, carne asada, whole chickens etc... so thats a chunk of our bill. But that is our commissary bill. At a regular store i'd estimate the cost to be about $600/month! And thats a family of 3. No wonder I can never fit in my pre-preggo jeans!!!

By Kaye on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 01:27 pm:

We spend about 200 every two weeks, so that is about 400 for a family of 5. It includes everything, but no diapers, etc. Also my kids are in school so it does not include lunches, they mostly buy at school. I have found the biggest way to save money is shop only for sale items and only the outside of the store. I walk through the produce, only buy what fruit is on sale, etc. Then to the meat dept and buy what is on sale. The other thing I have found to save big bucks is PLANNING. If I write down what we are going to eat each night and then shop accordingly I literally spend half as much as I would if I shopped per couple of meals. I always wondered why this is, but I finally figured it out. We are having tacos for dinner one night this week, well that amounts to lettuce, meat and shells, BUT if I went to the store to buy that, I would come home with sour cream, avacados, maybe even stuff to make fresh salsa on top of the other ingredients. So our meals aren't as complete, but close enough. Also I buy larger sizes when I need hamburger meat for three meals instead of just one, you can save up to 20-30 cents a pound. As for cleaning supplies, I buy clorox clean up, toilet cleaner and sometimes a non bleach cleaner, laundry detergent, and dish soap, that is it. I buy big sizes so I only end up buying one of those every two weeks as they last a long time.

By Colette on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 01:31 pm:

Coupons are great when I remember to use them, but usually I forget about them and then they expire.

By Debbie on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 01:57 pm:

Well, it looks like I need to start cutting coupons. Dh would kiss my feet if I started spending just $200.00 a month for groceries!!!

By Ladypeacek on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 02:08 pm:

We are a family of 4 and i soend about 400 a month for everything....i love the commissary. My dh likes to think its only 50 a month, lol. He even walks away from the register so he never has to know the truth, lol!!

By Cat on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 02:51 pm:

I spend about between $120-$180 a week. That includes everything for our family of four, plus all food and paper supplies for the daycare kiddos. We shop at the commissary, but do get some things from the local Safeway and King Soopers (sale items), Schwan's and shop at Sam's Club, also. My dh likes meat. If there's not meat, it's not a meal. So things like potatoe soup--has to have ham in it, spaghetti has to have ground beef in the sauce (or meatballs). I remember when my dh went to Saudi back in 2000 the kids and I ate for about $75 a week, including daycare kids! lol

By My2cuties on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 03:51 pm:

Wow!! I think we pay about $200-250 every 2 weeks (but go back every few days for milk alone), I applaud anyone that can clip coupons I just don't have it in me. I have 2 milk drinkers too. We go through about 6 gallons of Milk on average a week. 1 dd to buy diapers for...they run about 16.97 here for 50 of them (Huggies Convertibles) and last almost 2 weeks.

By Marg on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 04:50 pm:

I clip coupons, but our local stores do not allow computer generated coupons so I am very limited to the Sunday paper, anyone have suggestions on where else to receive coupons?

By Amy~moderator on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 05:28 pm:

Stori - send me an email, I want to email you and your email in your profile is not working.

By Mommyathome on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 05:38 pm:

We are at about $700 monthly. Family of 5. That includeds paper products/cleaning supplies/etc. That also includes eating out probably about 1/2 dozen times. That does not include the little trips to Wal-Mart for odds and ends, or for special things that have to be fresh. I would love to save $$ on groceries. I just can't get into the coupon clipping. We don't have a large newspaper in our area, so we don't get any coupons from that. Just the regular store adds. I could print coupons from the internet, but a lot of our stores aren't accepting them anymore.

By Lauram on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 07:10 pm:

We spend about $700 for a family of 4- but that includes everything. NO WAY could you survive on $200 a month where we live! You'd starve! (I clip coupons, go for deals, shop at Costco....)

By Audreyj on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 07:17 pm:

We are a family of four. We spend $90 a week, or if we decide to go to the Warehouse Shopping, we spend about $400 for a month. This includes everything. If we buy for a month, we usually go to BJ's. If we are tired of "mass quantities of pickles" for example, we may elect to do some weekly shopping and then we go to Publix. I am a coupon girl!!!!

The only thing I do not like about the "warehouse" grocery shopping is we wind up eating the same type of stuff over and over because there is so much of it, so, sometimes I request a weekly visit to buy some "different" stuff. AJ

By Tink on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 10:01 pm:

We are a family of five and we spend about $450 each month. I hate to clip coupons and we eat a lot of junk food but I don't have any kids in diapers (as of this week! WooHoo!!) and my dh works where I shop so he always lets me know about good buys! That includes all our cleaning supplies, etc. but not eating out. That might be another $100 each month.

By Truestori on Thursday, August 5, 2004 - 10:22 pm:

Amy you've got mail! LOL

Laura,
You would be surprised at the money you could save. I live in California and nothing is cheap here. LOL...... (including the cheese!)

By Palmbchprincess on Saturday, August 7, 2004 - 08:52 pm:

I used to do really well with coupons, but have slacked off in the past year. I need to start again. Stori, do you have any tips?? I currently spend about $75-100 a week. That isn't including diapers, which I found the cheapest Luvs prices at Target. I did just join Sam's Club, and buy whatever I can in bulk there.

By Karen~moderator on Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 09:56 am:

We spend a fortune, even with just one *child* at home now. I get all my cleaning/laundry/paper products at Sam's. I also get a lot of other stuff at Super WalMart. I still get my meat and a few other things at the local grocery store, just because the grade of meat is better there, and I have a *saver* card with them too, which gives me special pricing, as most chain grocery stores have now. The grade of meat is usually better there than at Sams or WalMart.

We STILL spend at least $800 a month for everything. But I buy only lean beef, and boneless/skinless chicken, and we eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegies too.

By Nicosmom on Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 04:07 pm:

We grocery shop about once every two weeks and spend about $100. We never have food though so obviously we need to buy more! This does not include trips to Wal-Mart. I feel like I'm at Wal-Mart 1-3 times a week. I'm so forgetful and we run out of stuff left and right. At Wal-Mart we spend probably $50 every two weeks.

By Nicosmom on Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 04:10 pm:

oh I forgot, Stori I would love to know your secrets. Dh would love it if I saved a dime! I'm here in Cali too!

By Truestori on Monday, August 9, 2004 - 12:34 am:

The secret to success is planning your trip to the store, sorting and clipping before you get there and having all of the coupons on hand that you will use. I also believe in getting connected with others that enjoy the same hobby. I belong to some coupon trading boards and if I can't find a specific coupon that I need someone out there has it.

I have many coupons on hand in case something unexpected is on sale. The funny thing is most people can't believe that they actually have coupons for good food not junk.(its a total misconception actually) I buy my milk, cheese, salad, lunchmeat, condiments, paper goods, juice, water, bread and much more with outstanding coupons!
This past week before coupons my bill was $169.00 and I paid $49.00 for everything. I was actually a little disappointed because I usually do much better than that! LOL
I guess it truly depends on where you live but my part of the world is awesome for coupon savings!

By Children03 on Monday, August 9, 2004 - 07:36 am:

I spend about $400-500 a month on groceries and sometimes that includes our paper products like toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, & also household detergents and cleaners.

By Tunnia on Monday, August 9, 2004 - 10:13 am:

Between the butcher, farmers market, grocery store, and Walmart we spend about $600-$700 a month for our family of four depending on if my dh and dk's go with me or not. When they go the bill is higher, when I go alone it is lower because I don't buy all the junk.

By Rayanne on Monday, August 9, 2004 - 11:19 am:

We send about 400 a month for a family of 3. This does not include diapers either. I am a bad spender though. I buy stuff that we don't necisarrily need, but would eat or use.

By Fraggle on Monday, August 9, 2004 - 12:36 pm:

We spend about $1000 a month for a family of 4. I have never been able to get into a good habit with using coupons-but there usually are not very many I can use from our Sunday paper. Fresh fruits and vegetables are almost always very expensive here and those are the bulk of my shopping bill.