Looking at the Grocery Budget in Questions

As I was doing some blog reading over the weekend, I came across the following questions at BerryMorins Bits and Tips. She posted the following questions in hopes of figuring out ways to lower her weekly grocery budget.  I have talked about living on a grocery budget before but these questions struck a cord with me in being a little more specific so I thought why not take the time to answer them for my readers. 

Do you shop every week?
Yes,  I shop every week as you can see from my weekly shopping savings posts. However, I do have a twist to my shopping methods in that I do a relatively big shopping trip on payday weeks(which is the weeks of the 15th and last day of the month) and then the other weeks I just get the essentials and only the deals that I can't live without.  I try on those other weeks shopping trips to keep my overall weekly total to under $100.  

Are you only going to one store to accomplish this?
NO, I accomplish my shopping by going to more than one store. However, I do not go to the drugstores (CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid) for any of my shopping.  I live in a suburb of a big city so I have access to several different grocery stores within a 5 mile radius of my house.  I have Aldi's and Save A Lot stores as my "corner grocery store" and then Meijer and another local grocery store are close as well. If I forget something in between my shopping trips, I will head to my corner grocery store. There is a local grocery store on another corner but sometimes their prices on things are a bit more so I go there more getting my WIC, sale deals and meats(esp. checking for manager's markdowns!).  

How do you decide which store you'll shop a per week?
I decide which stores to shop at based on the amount of deals that they are running for the week. IF I look at their sale ad and find that there is just a couple of items that are deals well those are a couple of deals that I am going to just live without this time that they are on sale.  The savings of those couple of deals is not worth the same as my time, gas and money just to get those few things. NOW if there is a store that has half dozen or more deals then that is the store that I am going to do the bulk of my shopping at for the week and then I will shop at Aldi's or Save A Lot to pick up the slack of what I might need for the week.  

Those of you with special diets ~ how do you stay within your tight budgets?
We do not have special diets as in someone being allergic to something but I do have a hubby who has high cholesterol and triglycerides so I am working at changing some of things I buy on a regular basis.  I have found that buying in bulk and buying more whole foods has helped us to stay within our budget. I am working at not buying so much processed foods and mixes, however, I still have the weakness for frozen pizzas, and breaded chicken nuggets to have on hand for quick meals.  

Do you always use coupons? If you do, do you purchase the Sunday newspaper, print from online websites, coupon swap?
Yes, I use coupons.  I get a Sunday newspaper every week and I print from online websites. That is extent of my coupons. I only clip the coupons that I know that I will use.  I have a expandable envelope that has dividers in it that is small enough to keep in my purse. I separate the coupons in different categories and have those that are going to expire first at the front of each category.  

Do you purchase paid memberships with Sam's Club, BJ's, etc? If so, how does this work into your budget?
Yes, I have a Sam's Club membership that I have had for over 10 years. I have found that the items that I purchase on regular basis from Sam's are items that I have to get brand specific or are cheaper at Sam's than in the stores.  I only go to Sam's once a month and many of the things I purchase last me more than just a month.  My advice about the warehouse clubs, take the time to make up a price book of items that you purchase on a regular basis from the grocery stores before you go into a warehouse club so you can make sure that you are getting the best deal buying the items in bulk.

What's a bargain price on ground beef and boneless chicken breasts?
Bargain prices on meats are going to be somewhat based on where you live. Bargain prices for ground beef will depend on how much fat you want in the ground beef. I usually buy ground chuck or ground round.  When I buy either of these the best bargain price that I look for is $1.99/lb or lower!  I find that during the summer months when there is a lot of grilling going on that ground beef will be lower than the $1.99/lb price. When it is around $1.69/lb(or lower), I will stock up my freezer with at least 20 lbs!  I take the time to divide the meat up into meal size portions for my family before I put the meat in my freezer. 


As for boneless chicken breasts, I normally will get these at Sam's Club for $1.97/lb or lower.  The fresh boneless chicken breasts at Sam's are big enough that I can butterfly cut them so it appears that I have two whole chicken breasts just a bit thinner and I am able to stretch the 6-7 breasts that are in one package into two meals for my family of seven.  If I run out of boneless chicken breasts from Sam's then I watch the grocery stores for a sale on the bags of individually frozen boneless chicken breasts and can get them for the same price of $1.97/lb or lower as the fresh chicken from Sam's.   I also am not afraid to watch the sales for bone in chicken breasts when they are 99¢/lb and getting a few packages to have on hand to cook for some of my dinner meals. 

Is it a challenge to include fresh fruit and vegetables in a tight budget?
Fresh fruits and veggies can be a challenge to purchase on a tight budget, however, I have found buying the fruits and veggies when they are "in season"  makes all the difference.  Like right now, apples, winter squash(butternut, acorn, etc), pears, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes are in season right now so these are more likely to be on hand at my house over strawberries which are in season during the summer months.  The in season fruits and veggies will cost less than those that are out of season. For those fruits and veggies that are out of season getting them when they are in season and freezing them helps to save on the budget as well. Right now, I have several containers of blueberries in my freezer to enjoy during the winter months.  I also have several bags of shredded zucchini to use as well during the winter months.  Also if you have space doing a garden or even teaming up with a neighbor and doing a garden will help with getting fruits and veggies in a tight budget. 


Overall, something that I have found to work for my family within our tight budget is using the buying ahead principle. Wondering exactly what is the buying ahead principle? Crystal, aka MoneySavingMom, does a great job in explaining this principle.  I have space in my house for a nice size pantry and I also have a stand alone deep freezer to use for being able to buy ahead and for my bulk purchases. 


Instead of worrying about trying to get to only $20 or $30 or $40 per week for groceries, I look at the big picture of my grocery spending. I keep track of my grocery spending on Quicken(program on my computer) and at the end of each month I take the time to work with the numbers.  I also take the time to see how much I have spent so far for the year in groceries. Here is the numbers for food only from when I did this at the end of September, beginning of October. After 41 weeks of the year, I spent $5102.34 for food only!  That averages out to $124.45 per week!  At the time I did these figures there had been 280 days, which means if I divide $5102.34 into 280 it equals $18.22!!!  So for $18.22 per day I feed my family of seven 3 meals and 2 snacks!  If I keep to under $20 per day throughout the year, I feel like I have accomplished my goal to feed my family frugally.  I have taken the time to compare my totals with what the USDA Food Plan Charts and find that I am way under the budget for food costs for my size of family. 


Keeping in mind that we are working to do what is best for our families, I would love to hear from you!!

1. How are you doing on keeping your grocery budget?  
2. Do you find that you have had to change it over the year due to price increases?
3. How would you answer the above questions? 
4. Other than eating only beans & rice, what ways have you found to work for you on small grocery budget?

This post is linked to:

• Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!

My Grocery Shopping Savings Story

I know that I have shared this before but I have had several readers over the last few months ask me questions about my weekly shopping so I thought I would pull "my story" from the archives and share it again and include updated figures in the budget section below. I hope that this helps answer those questions you may be having about my weekly shopping. If it doesn't, feel free to ask more questions and I will try to answer them.

Background: I have been married for 13 ½ years and for 13 years I have been a stay at home mom. I also home school my 5 children—ages 13yo-2 1/2yo. So far in our marriage, my hubby has had 7 different jobs along with four different times of unemployment (two times of unemployment were over 6 months). Usually the unemployment would come as a surprise to us, he would go into work one day and the manager calls him to tell him he can pack his belongings and go home. When those "surprises" have come we might not have much in our bank savings account BUT we have food on our shelves to last us at least a week (basically long enough to get our last paycheck and get filed for unemployment). Knowing that a "surprise" could come upon us again, I work at having a consistent stockpile.

Struggles: Hubby grew up eating lots of pre-packaged foods and I grew up eating from scratch and garden fresh cooking. Once we were married, I fell more into the pre-packaged food route along with very little from scratch foods to please hubby's way of eating. However, about 3 years ago, my hubby was diagnosed with high cholesterol with extremely high triglycerides along with high blood pressure. He has gotten his numbers down tremendously through medicines and me changing cooking and shopping habits. I am slowly (read ever so slowly!!) changing how I cook to more from scratch cooking rather than pre-packaged foods. However, I have to be careful as to how much I change and how many new things I cook or bake at once because I live with a bunch of picky eaters! Yes, I have picky eaters who only like certain veggies and not much in the way of fruit. I also have a bunch that doesn't like to eat beans or meatless meals! They like their protein in the form of meat! Aside from hubby's health problems and picky eaters, the other thing I have struggled with is not getting every deal I see "advertised". This struggle started when I started reading other blogs, I started thinking that maybe changing my method of grocery shopping and following other's ways would start saving me even more money. Well after 3 months of trying a "new way", I found that I didn't have any more room to put anything and I had spent way more than I had in the past! I had more items (shampoo, vitamins, toothpaste to name a few) than what we would be able to use in 6 months! My pantry was full! My linen closet was full! My freezers were full! One would think that would be a good thing—having a huge stockpile but when that stockpile is using money that you might have been able to use elsewhere or your marriage is suffering from it, it makes it not such a good deal and a waste of money. Once my hubby talked to me about our stockpile, I realized that I needed to stop getting every deal that I saw on the blogs or in the ads. I needed to get back to a method that worked well for my family not someone else's!

Monthly Method: Each week, I clip coupons for only the things I know we will use and keep them in a coupon organizer. I shop the weekly sales at 2 different stores and stock up on good deals using coupons. I also go to Aldi's or Save-A-Lot to pick up any other things that I might need that were not in the sales. Then the following day after updating my "food inventory", I make weekly menus for 3 meals and 2 snacks from what I have on hand in the pantry and freezer along with doing my version of once a month cooking. I have tried making a menu before I shop and it just doesn't work!! I usually will find some markdown meat or something else on sale rather than what I had planned. So I shop this week for what I am going to use next week or the following week for meals. I also shop in such a way where I am not paying full price(exception being milk & eggs) for anything. That is why to many people looking in my shopping trips look strange or unbalanced because there isn't any produce or meat on any given weekly shopping trip. Shopping this way has helped me during those weeks where the good deals are slim or just not there because I can work off of my stockpile. I also do a monthly shopping trip to Sam's club. My hubby only gets paid twice a month so I started doing a major shopping trip twice a month and then the other two weeks getting stockpile items and essentials to finish up meals for the week.

Budget: If someone were to ask me what is my monthly grocery budget, I would have to say that I do not have one at least one that is set in stone. Some months I only spend around $300 for food, paper products, toiletries, and cleaners while other months it can be close to $900. However, when I do year end averages, I find that my grocery/non-grocery category averages around $600/month for the year. That is a pretty good average considering that I am feeding seven people who love their meat and potatoes meals and the way that prices for groceries has increased over the last year. Also 4 of the 7 are growing boys who seem to have hollow legs to fill up for at each meal!

This post is linked at:

• Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!

My Working Grocery Budget with Sam's Club

My friend, Judy over at My Adventures in Homeschooling left me a comment/questions on my weekly shopping post that I decided I would take the time to write another post to explain my weekly budget and hopefully answer her questions. Thanks Judy for commenting and asking the questions!

She wrote:

Do you do $100 weekly grocery budget plus your monthly Sam's run? So the total food budget of $525 doesn't include Sam's right?

I am trying to re-do my food budget. It seems to be so out of control right now. With a new baby coming in September I want to get this fixed now. I am looking for ideas.

We have a BJ's (which is like Sam's) in my area. What do you think is the biggest help with your budget? Would you say it is the Sam's run?

I saw that my grocery budget was getting out of control too! My hubby actually has commented before on what looked like me being excessive in my stockpiling. So I have been working at keeping aware and having better control over my spending. So I set myself the goal of having a $100 weekly grocery budget that includes everything that I need to run the household(food, cleaners, toiletries, etc). I don't do "drugstore game"(CVS-ing or Walgreens) but do shop the local grocery stores(Meijer, Save A Lot or Aldis) and do a once a month run to Sam's.

I have been trying to work it where the weekly budget includes the monthly Sam's run. But, I am finding that it is easier to keep my monthly Sam's run out of the weekly total because many of the items end up lasting more than a month and its easier to keep track of it.

I decided to go to my Quicken program and do some figuring out as to find out what my weekly totals are with the Sam's run included in the totals. Here is what I found:

• We are on day 175 of this year.
• We are also in the 26th week of the year.
• I have spent $3621.10 this year for everything that I need to run the household. That figures out to $20.69 per day or $139.27 per week that I am spending to feed and clean seven people plus keeping the house, clothes and linens clean.
• Out of that $3621.10, the amount of food purchased was $3274.97. That figures out to $18.71 per day or $125.96 per week for just food!

So taking those totals I am finding that my written down monthly "everything I need" budget of $525 is not working for me because it actually is averaging out to around $557 for the month!! The $525 will work for me IF it was just to be the measure for food only!

It is hard to take Sam's Club out of the equation of my grocery budget so after evaluating things, I need readjust the "bottom line" of my monthly grocery budget to include the trips to Sam's Club, or readjust my spending habits to fit back into the $525 monthly "everything I need" budget.

As for how Sam's Club helps the monthly budget and works for me...

Even though it is not the biggest help with keeping my monthly budget low, shopping at Sam's Club does work for me and my family.

1. I can check their website to find the current prices of items that I normally buy so I know how much approximately(they don't list fresh meat prices) I am going to spend each month.
2. I can buy certain items in bulk that we use on a consistent basis that are cheaper than sale prices in the local chain grocery stores.
3. I find it easier to store the bigger containers rather than a bunch of smaller ones.
4. It helps me with doing a controlled stockpiling better known as the buying ahead principle which is the biggest help to my budget.

Along with buying ahead and shopping at Sam's Club, there have been other "lessons" that I have learned over the last couple of years that has help to keep my grocery budget in check.

One needs to remember what works for me and my family might not work for your family based on number of different variables(location, prices, allergies, tastes, etc). Do what works for your family and challenge yourself to do the best you can with the time, energy and resources that you have.

This post is linked at:

• Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!

Works for Me Wednesday--Shopping Methods

With posting about my year end averages, I have had several people ask me about how I shop so I thought today I would take the time to explain and share how I keep my family fed and not break the bank!  

Last September, Kristin over at BeCentable contacted me asking if I would share my shopping "story" because according to her "your monthly process would be a good counter to the typical weekly shoppers most of us are!" I chuckled when I read that and felt honored to share my story. I had the privilege to share my "story" in how I do the shopping for my family over at BeCentable's Centsable Savings Stories & Struggles. Here is my story...

Background: I have been married for 12 ½ years and for 11 ½ years I have been a stay at home mom. I also home school my 5 children—ages 12yo-22 months. So far in our marriage, my hubby has had 7 different jobs along with four different times of unemployment (two times of unemployment were over 6 months). Usually the unemployment would come as a surprise to us, he would go into work one day and the manager calls him to tell him he can pack his belongings and go home. When those "surprises" have come we might not have much in our bank savings account BUT we have food on our shelves to last us at least a week (basically long enough to get our last paycheck and get filed for unemployment). Knowing that a "surprise" could come upon us again, I work at having a consistent stockpile.

Struggles: Hubby grew up eating lots of pre-packaged foods and I grew up eating from scratch and garden fresh cooking. Once we were married, I fell more into the pre-packaged food route along with very little from scratch foods to please hubby's way of eating. However, about 3 years ago, my hubby was diagnosed with high cholesterol with extremely high triglycerides along with high blood pressure. He has gotten his numbers down tremendously through medicines and me changing cooking and shopping habits. I am slowly (read ever so slowly!!) changing how I cook to more from scratch cooking rather than pre-packaged foods. However, I have to be careful as to how much I change and how many new things I cook or bake at once because I live with a bunch of picky eaters! Yes, I have picky eaters who only like certain veggies and not much in the way of fruit. I also have a bunch that doesn't like to eat beans or meatless meals! They like their protein in the form of meat! Aside from hubby's health problems and picky eaters, the other thing I have struggled with is not getting every deal I see "advertised". This struggle started about two years ago when I started reading other blogs, I started thinking that maybe changing my method of grocery shopping and following other's ways would start saving me even more money. Well after 3 months of trying a "new way", I found that I didn't have any more room to put anything and I had spent way more than I had in the past! I had more items (shampoo, vitamins, toothpaste to name a few) than what we would be able to use in 6 months! My pantry was full! My linen closet was full! My freezers were full! One would think that would be a good thing—having a huge stockpile but when that stockpile is using money that you might have been able to use elsewhere or your marriage is suffering it is not a good thing! Once my hubby talked to me about our stockpile, I realized that I needed to stop getting every deal that I saw on the blogs or in the ads. I needed to get back to a method that worked well for my family not someone else's!

Monthly Method: Each week, I clip coupons for only the things I know we will use and keep them in a coupon organizer. I shop the weekly sales at 2 different stores and stock up on good deals using coupons. I also go to Aldi's or Save-A-Lot to pick up any other things that I might need that were not in the sales. Then the following day after updating my "food inventory", I make weekly menus for 3 meals and 2 snacks from what I have on hand in the pantry and freezer along with doing my version of once a month cooking. I have tried making a menu before I shop and it just doesn't work!! I usually will find some markdown meat or something else on sale rather than what I had planned. So I shop this week for what I am going to use next week or the following week for meals. Shopping this way has helped me during those weeks where the good deals are slim or just not there. I also do a monthly shopping trip to Sam's club. My hubby only gets paid twice a month so recently I started trying to a major shopping trip twice a month and then the other two weeks getting stockpile items and essentials to finish up meals for the week. The two major shopping trips have been working okay!  Old habits(weekly shopping) are hard to break!

Budget: If someone were to ask me what is my monthly grocery budget, I would have to say that I do not have one at least one that is set in stone. Some months I only spend around $300 for food, paper products, toiletries, and cleaners while other months it can be close to $900. However, when I do year end averages, I find that my grocery/non-grocery category averages around $550/month for the year for our family of seven, which according to the USDA Food Plans is still below the U.S. averages.

This is what works for me! To find out what works for others, head over to Rocks in My Dryer.

originally posted September, 2008

A Year in Review--Groceries

Over the last month, I have been working at getting a new household budget in place. One of the things that I do in order to make a new yearly household budget is to figure where I have been over the last year. What better time to look at where you have been over the last year than while you are doing your taxes! Anyway, back in October I wrote a post about what 10 months of groceries total for my family, so I thought I would share what my end results were for all 12 months.  

These totals are only for food, not included in the total: take out/dining out, paper products, HBC, household cleaners or soaps. 

Grand total spent on 12 months of food: $6666.37

Monthly average total: $555.53

Average per week(52 weeks): $128.20

Average per day(366 days-leap year): $18.21

Average per meal(3 meals each day) for 7 people: $6.07

Average per person: 87¢ each

Like I said at the writing of 10 month of groceries, I know that I have picky eaters who could care less about eating fruits and veggies, so I know that they probably don't get the daily recommended amount. However, I still have fruits & veggies available for consumption on a daily basis, even if it is mostly apples, grapes, carrots and corn!  I also am learning to be more sneaky with getting fruits and veggies into our meals. 

Putting all the numbers aside, with my figures and shopping methods we have been able to keep up on a freezer and pantry stockpile! We have been able to share meals with others. We are just picky enough in our eating habits that we eat meat at every dinner meal but I keep the meals simple. We also don't do meatless or breakfast meals for dinner! We don't do a lot of processed foods, however, I do keep things like chicken nuggets and frozen fries on hand for quick meals. I make from scratch the majority of our snacks and sweet tooth longings. 

I am sure that I could get the monthly figure of $555.53 to be lower if my area grocery stores doubled coupons or had other incentives or if I could figure out how to do the "drugstore game"and come ahead of the game without having to buy things that my family won't use or need.  Also with all the food price fluctuations recently I don't think I can do without some major changes in our eating habits.  

For this year,  my goals with the grocery budget is:

• monthly average figure to around $525 per month. 
  
• more fruits and veggies in our diet
• keep my pantry stockpile in check(ie hubby says we don't need 25 boxes of cereal!)
• do not buy anything we will not use even if it is a good deal

For more Frugal tips, recipes, resources, head over to Biblical Womanhood's Frugal Friday!

Ten Months of Groceries!

Its the end of the month, so it is "payday" along with "pay bills day", which means I am working in my Quicken program crunching the numbers. Looking at where we are going for this next month and looking at where we can improve from what we spent last month.

Anyway, I like going and looking at our groceries category to see what was our final monthly total. Well today I decided to look at the big picture in the grocery category, in other words what have we spent for just food to feed my family of seven.

You have seen my weekly savings shopping posts with the totals so I thought I would take the time to give you a look at the big picture as well.

Here is the breakdown...

Grand Total spent on 10 months of food: $5,422.42
Monthly Average Total: $542.24
Average PER Day for 305 days: $17.78
Average PER meal(3 meals each day) for 7 people: $5.93

Now just for comparison, I went to the USDA's Food Plans that are published each month to see if my numbers would fall in their different plans. I decided to start with the "thrifty plan" and here is what I found...

They based their figures on the 2005 MyPyramid food intake recommendations. So looking at the charts and the fine print for a family of 7, I am to take the individual prices in the different age groups and subtract 10% off each amount. So I took the numbers in the "monthly thrifty plan" and did my adjustments and came up with a total of $854.82 for the month. Which figures out to $8548.20 for the 10 months! Average per day would be $28.03 and $9.34 per meal each day! I like my figures better! :)

I know that I have picky eaters who could care less about eating fruits and veggies, so I know that they probably don't get the daily recommended amount. However, I still have fruits & veggies available for consumption on a daily basis, even if it is mostly apples, grapes, carrots and corn!

Putting all the numbers aside, with my figures and shopping methods we have been able to keep up on a freezer and pantry stockpile! We have been able to share meals with others. We are just picky enough in our eating habits that we eat meat at every dinner meal but I keep the meals simple. We also don't do meatless or breakfast meals for dinner! We don't do a lot of processed foods, however, I do keep things like chicken nuggets and frozen fries on hand for quick meals. I make from scratch the majority of our snacks and sweet tooth longings.

I am sure that I could get my current monthly figure of $542.24 to be lower but with all the food price fluctuations recently I don't think I can do without some major changes in our eating habits.

So there you have the big picture of my grocery shopping! Just one side note, so far for non-food items(things like shampoo, body wash, laundry soap, fabric softener, stain remover, bathroom cleaners, toothpaste, etc), I have spent $956.31 for 10 months or $95.63 per month! That figure won't be changing too much because I did a lot of stockpiling at the beginning of the year when I was trying out the drug store shopping scene and found that type of shopping was not for me.

Economic Stimulus Rebate Package

These days there is alot of talk about this stimulus package on the web, news, and even in our homes!

I just wanted to touch on a couple of things in regards to it that keep coming up, basically spreading the word around!

First, is the stimulus package a loan?

I am one of those who thought at first that it was going to be a loan and that my refund for my 2008 taxes would be smaller. However, it is not a loan it is a rebate and it will not effect my refund next year! On top of it being a rebate it is also not taxable, and will not effect your income any should you be applying for food stamps or welfare. Gather Little by Little posted about this very topic the other day and did a very good at explaining things along with referencing the IRS FAQ about the stimulus package.

Secondly, when can we expect to receive our rebate?

While I was reading Thrifty Florida Mama, I found that on Monday, the IRS sent out an "news bulletin" with the schedule!! You can read about here or here! The IRS also has a link in the article where you can use an online calculator to find out how much of a rebate that you will be receiving.

If you have any other questions about this package, hopefully you will be able to find them over on IRS FAQ-stimulus package page.

Other articles to check out are: MarketWatch, and CCH Group--Tax Briefing

I hope that this helps you to understand things about the stimulus rebate package a little more!

As a side note, hubby and I haven't totally decided how we are going to spend our rebate. We have talked about several different options from putting it all in savings to using all of it on debt to doing a combination of savings, debt, and spending it on house repairs.