You don’t have to get net10. Whatever works best for you is what you need to use, but the point is to look hard at your expenses. You can usually find some place to cut!

Blessings!

We spend an average $5200 a year on food (or $100/week or $433/month). This includes all eating out and other consumables for the household, such as cleaning products, but NOT diapers, which are not as consistent of a need for us over time as those cleaning products will be.

Our family’s own “wonder system” works like this:
$150 every two weeks for groceries, household consumables, and eating out
$50 every two weeks for a reserve fund for case lot sales, Costco, or other stores good for bulk food
$? leftover from previous two week cycle

The $150 covers all sales from our local grocery stores, the reserve fund gets used whenever we are out of town (since our nearest Costco, etc, is 90 minutes away), and we save whatever is leftover for better sales in the future.

We also maintain a good sized food storage. We’re LDS and one of the things we believe is that it is worth it to have a year’s supply of food on hand. Without getting into the religious side of things, building this helps me to buy in bulk when a good sale is available… but ONLY on items that we know we will use. On average, about 50% of the food we buy each paycheck is not for that two week period, but rather stocking up on good sales. Much of what we do buy for immediate use are fresh produce and fresh dairy.

So one of my top strategies is actually to buy what I don’t need right then… but in moderation, when it’s at a great price (and pairing coupons with sales whenever possible). And I allow myself luxury “impulse” purchases within limitations… the limitations of $75 a week budget that includes any eating away from home.

And we still feel like we eat like kings.

Trent asked for feedback on what we thought his best tip was: planning your meals and just buying what you need for those meals and nothing else.

I once proved to a girl at work that she could feed her family of four on $75/wk. I gave her a menu plan and shopping list for seven dinners with plans for leftovers for lunch. She called me from the checkout line crying becuase she had done it! She had been spending $300/wk and was still eating out most of the time because there was nothing to eat at home.

We eat meat with every evening meal, so I have a personal target of paying no more than $2/lb for any meat (very rare occasional splurge). Chicken is regularly on sale for <$1/lb (do i have feathers????) in my area. While we raise cattle also, we have not found it to be economical to eat what we raise at this point ($3/lb referenced above).

Our family of 3.5 (my son comes home from college enough that he gets counted as a half)spends $475 a month on food at home and food at restaurants (mostly Sunday lunch after church). We use the cash envelope system so when that food budget money is gone, we have to look harder at the pantry.

Trent asked for feedback on what we thought his best tip was: planning your meals and just buying what you need for those meals and nothing else.

I once proved to a girl at work that she could feed her family of four on $75/wk. I gave her a menu plan and shopping list for seven dinners with plans for leftovers for lunch. She called me from the checkout line crying becuase she had done it! She had been spending $300/wk and was still eating out most of the time because there was nothing to eat at home.

We eat meat with every evening meal, so I have a personal target of paying no more than $2/lb for any meat (very rare occasional splurge). Chicken is regularly on sale for <$1/lb (do i have feathers????) in my area. While we raise cattle also, we have not found it to be economical to eat what we raise at this point ($3/lb referenced above).

Our family of three spends $475 a month on food at home and food at restaurants (mostly Sunday lunch after church). We use the cash envelope system so when that food budget money is gone, we have to look harder at the pantry.

Eating your leftovers/not wasting food is my top choice.

Excellent examples from my life today: We had cooked salmon in the fridge and it just did not sound appetizing as a hunk of meat, but I used it as the bases of fried rice along with leftover rice, bell pepper strips, etc and it was fabulous. Also, I bought parsley to make falafel for a dinner party last night. I could only find it in huge bunches, and only needed 1/2c for the falafel, so tonight I found a Parsley Pesto recipe. Rather than tossing that $1 worth of parsley in the compost, it’s now sitting on $1 worth of whole wheat pasta, mixed with another $1 worth of walnuts, pine nuts, olive oil and parmesan to make 6 freezer meals at 50 cents apiece. When I don’t have time to cook I pay $2 a pop for Lean Cuisines.

I guess that’s a vote for the “Buy fewer convenience foods” tip as well!

1. Use the crockpot – you can cook cheap foods (like dried beans) and meats in a way that makes them really tasty. Plus, it’s ready when you walk in the door.

2. Splurge sometimes to keep eating at home interesting. Someone previously mentioned good spices – but good cheeses and small portions of special meats and veggies can go a long way in creating fun, enjoyable meals at home.

3. Have a few recipes up your sleeve to wrap up leftovers and minimize waste. One of my friends has a weekly “steak soup,” which is essentially meat and veggie scraps thrown in a pot with some beef broth. Round out with inexpensive ingredients (i.e. $.20 per pound potatoes).

My family of 2 adults, 1 child spends more than $300/month, more like $110 to $150/week (although some of that is household products or cleaners) and we rarely eat meat (1 x per week, or less). If I used a lot of veggies and fruit (aside from the waste when very little was eaten) I would raise our costs significantly. We eat a lot of carbs (mostly whole grain), eggs, cheese and tuna.

As for the .5 person, how about a totally breastfed infant? They are a person but don’t directly consume any purchased food.

Instead I make sure I get the best value for my money by stocking up during sales, using coupons when possible, and buying in bulk when cost effective.

Also, I buy only what I am sure I will use. And once I make something, I make sure it gets used up. That is why I like the suggestion about leftovers the most — it is one of my biggest areas for eliminating waste thereby saving money.

Instead of throwing food away because it has spoiled or because no one wants to eat it, leftovers can easily become something different by adding new spices or by adding them to some other ingredients: meat from dinner the night before becomes a bistro-style sandwich with some melted cheese on it for my daughter (her favorite lunch) or a stir fry or even a soup along with whatever leftover vegetables are in the fridge. Or those same vegetables can go into an omelet or casserole…the possibilities are almost endless. And those things that no one wants to eat right now but can’t easily be adapted to a new meal — that is what the freezer is for. They can easily become part of another meal the following month that way.

The result is that we have a healthy, varied, interesting diet but have virtually no waste. And because there is less waste, we buy less allowing us to remain within our budget without denying ourselves the foods we like best.

YAY! It’s so nice to see a similarly frugal city person! (My partner and I live in Chicago, we don’t really eat out, we feel spoiled when we buy good spices, etc.) :-)

Unfortunately, my husband has recently been diagnosed with type II diabetes. We are adjusting our diet to include healthier foods now with more whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and fiber. This is increasing costs that I am trying to keep down, but we need to make these changes for our family. We rarely eat out and make lunches for work.

Any diabetics out there who can give me tips on budgeting for groceries?

We have to remember that this isn’t including eating out. When you include that in the average, it’s likely that the grocery shopping the ~$3000 pays for isn’t even for every meal, and probably includes alot of convenience foods.

My partner and I spend about that much a year on total food (a little less actually), including eating out. Yeah we’re only 2 people, but we live in NYC where food prices are less than reasonable at most times, and eating out is not cheap. We eat very healthily and usually feel like we are splurging for exotic ingredients. We are able to do this because eating out is a smaller portion of our budget and we don’t buy much “convenience” foods that are already prepared, cut, etc.

The $4 a day per family is a great amount to be spending – if that’s all. It’s the fact that the average spends quite a bit more on eating out. Trim that and there’s much more left for quality groceries, or to add to other areas of the budget.

You do need to know your prices. Not everything at Big Lots is a good deal. And, if you are fussy about expiration date, check. My Kuir Glens will “expire” in April, for instance.

Why? Well… very few stores in town compete on price for the food I actually buy. There is *one* store where I can get 25lb bags of jasmine rice (or larger). I don’t buy smaller bags because we eat a lot of rice and the small bags are a *lot* more expensive. I have a choice of 3 stores for sushi rice, but there is far more price variation between brand and grade than there is between stores. For beans, I have a choice of about 4 stores, of which only two stock essential staples like red lentils. One store is cheaper but a 16 mile round trip on my bike, with a route that rules out combining trips. The other is marginally more expensive, and is on a route that lets me combine many errands on a 10 mile bike ride.

Even on meat, there’s not a lot of competition. I’m very careful about what farms I’ll buy meat from and most stores in town source their meat from major meatpackers. If it’s a choice between buy from a major meatpacker or don’t eat meat, we’d rather not eat meat.

For the way we eat, a price book isn’t particularly helpful. They’re most useful when you eat foods like boxed cereal or frozen meals that can have coupons.