How much do you spend on LC groceries +?

[texastigerlily]

I think I spend too much on groceries. I'm trying to find a way to cut food costs. Family of 4, 2 of us on LC, 2 kids who absolutly will not eat what we eat (What can I say? picky eaters...). What do you do to cut costs? I was thinking about getting a Sam's membership. Will that do me any good, or is it a waste of $40? The closest farmer's market is about 12 miles away. It saves to buy there, but I can only manage an occassional trip, plus the vegys go bad too quick.

[peanutte]

We spend about $60-80 a week for two people. It depends entirely upon what kind of meat and fish I choose to get; wild-caught fish is expensive. But to cut costs, I buy a lot of chicken, pork, ground beef, etc when it's on sale and divide it up into small freezer packs at home.

To make your vegetables last longer, you might want to invest in a few of those green bags. I have never tried them myself, but I hear they work really well!

[rls1321]

We spend about $60 for an average week's worth of meals. Two people, both low-carb, no kids. We eat out an average of one meal per week (Friday lunch). We often get meat at Sam's club. I definitely feel like it's worth it.

When I'm on a creative kick and I'm cooking something different for each meal, we can easily spend $130 or more in a week on all those extra ingredients... but usually we eat pretty basic, with few ingredients, and make things in bulk (such as meatloaf, chicken salad, and hard boiled eggs).

[cleochatra]

I spend about $400-600 a month for groceries, but this is for beacoup steaks, organic foods, and we feed a family of six. Much cheaper than eating out.

[jo2621]

We're "empty nesters" now. The youngest, 18 yr old food chute just left for college. I spend about $125 a week for food and that depends on the need for "extras" such as condiments or things for special recipes. That's average.

BUT, we very rarely eat out, my hubby takes his lunch or comes home to eat and I buy really good food. Of course, that budget drastically goes up as all three of our adults kids come home for the holidays. As does the water bill and the household products such as toilet paper and detergent .

I have both Costco and Sams because you can get different things. Costco is more "gourmet" & Sams has great household items. Both have the larger packs of produce such as the tubs of organic baby spinach, salad greens, romaine. I have a Foodsaver, which is well worth the investment & I buy good meats and cheeses in the big packs. Butter, cream cheese, eggs, half & half, cream, coffee, nuts and wine are good deals at both.

Plus, we travel by car quite a bit and stop at both for gasoline (and a guaranteed clean restroom). They are consistantly .10-.20 cents lower per gallon of gas than surrounding stations.

And over the years we have bought name brand electronics, jewlery, furniture, books, clothing etc and saved quite a bit too. YMMV

ETA: They will both let you go in on a one day pass and look around. Maybe you can do that and see it is right for you.

[phat girl no more]

I shop at Aldi's, Walmart, food for less, and ethnic grocery stores, plus I'm a coupon lover. I stay away from expensive grocery store such as Jewels, Dominicks, and Whole foods.

[texastigerlily]

Good grief! How do ya'll do it? I'm spending over $1000 a month. It's killing us. I even plan a menu, buy meat on sale, and buy only what we need. What I am doing wrong?

[jamistar77]

I have a family of 3. I am the only LC'er in the family. I usually spend about $200 biweekly.

[LinearChaos]

I try to stick to $50/wk budget. That's feeding me on LC, DBF (super tall and skinny food black hole from Iowa) and three cats. I can usually get my stockpiling in on this budget as well.

I coupon like a mad woman...yes you can coupon on LC. I also shop at multiple places to get the deals and stockpile items when they are cheap or free and I price match at Wal-mart for fresh fruit and veg. Check out a full cup dot com if you need pointers on saving.

A large place to cut costs is on health and beauty and household items like cleaning products. Much of this you can get free or very cheap to help off set the cost of some of the other items that don't go on sale often or don't usually have coupons. I can't really think of anything that I've never seen a coupon for aside from the low carb specialty products.

[Lurchy]

Generally, it's just my 7 yr. old and I and he eats school lunches during the week. We eat out "maybe" one meal a week on a weekend day. During the week, there might be 2 nights that one of the big kids comes over for a free dinner. I also try to buy organic when possible. Steaks are ribeyes from a local rancher. For just food items, I spend about $400. - $500. a month.

[jo2621]

Originally Posted by texastigerlily

Good grief! How do ya'll do it? I'm spending over $1000 a month. It's killing us. I even plan a menu, buy meat on sale, and buy only what we need. What I am doing wrong?

I buy meat in bulk and on sale, use the Foodsaver & freezer. I buy big cuts and whole chickens and turkey and make meats for more than one meal. I stock up on cheese and things that have a longer shelf life. I will buy both fresh and frozen seafood and fish because we love it. We eat mostly fresh vegetables and fruit, I spend extra on that but I do keep a basic supply in the freezer too.

I shop specials, buy one get one free and use coupons (2 of our stores double coupons up to 1.00) for all my condiments etc. I don't buy "frankenfoods" and have cut down our consumption of sweetners, sodas etc. to almost nothing.

Soups, casseroles and stir-fry. You can make extra and they make super leftovers.

But to be fair I do have a nice sized pantry, an extra fridge in the garage and a deep freeze so I have quite a bit of space to stockpile my bargains and to freeze prepared foods (like chili or soups).

I try to shop once every two weeks but if I need to I can make it last at least another week supplimenting from the freezer and pantry.

***I could shop once a week or even everyday but I prefer to do my menus for two weeks and shop all at once, that saves lots and stops impulse buys too***

[rls1321]

For us, the meal plan has a serious effect on how much we spend. For example if we have a week like this, we will easily stay under $60 in food:

Breakfast: 2.5 eggs, 2.5 slices bacon
Lunches: Chicken salad, green salad, 1 ounce cheese
Dinners: Meatloaf 2 days, burgers 2 days, pork tenderloin 2 days, salmon 1 day with green salad

But the following week would cost me closer to $150:

Breakfast: spinach quiche
Lunch: Leftovers from dinner, deli meat roll up, homemade fresh herb cream cheese with sliced veggies
Dinners: white castle cheeseburger casserole and asparagus, low carb shephard's pie and broccoli, steaks and grilled zucchini, tacos with low-carb tortillas, pizza smothered chicken and mashed loaded cauliflower
Dessert: low carb cheesecake or low carb ice cream bars

That's a difference of about $360/month!!!

I definitely go through phases - this month, I may just need to eat just about the same boring simple thing every day/week. The next month, I start getting "creative" and lean towards the second weekly menu plan. On a side note, I can definitely tell you which plan I lose better on too...

[NutinHonie]

Originally Posted by texastigerlily

Good grief! How do ya'll do it? I'm spending over $1000 a month. It's killing us. I even plan a menu, buy meat on sale, and buy only what we need. What I am doing wrong?

I'm with you. I seriously need to get a grip. I spend at least $800/week for four of us and the teenager is always complaining there is nothing to eat (he's pickier than the 4-year-old). I do buy quality food. I guess I am spoiled. If all four of us would eat low-carb like I do, I think I could scale it back a bit, but having four different WOE is hard to manage at times.

[steady]

2 of us, I LC and DH does not. We spend about $175 wk...it does include alcohol. So that is about $70 of it when we buy cheap bottles of wine. About $20 is on household misc. so that leaves about $85 dollar per week for food. Dh breakfast and lunch is paid for by his employer, I don't usually eat breakfast or lunch. So it costs about $12.00 for dinner. I usually make about 1.5 lbs (12 oz for me & 12 oz for DH) of some sort of slab of meat(love steaks)...beef ribeyes, beef porterhouse, lamb chops, pork ribs, pork loin, duck breasts. Also 1x wk salmon or fish "steaks". Occasionally chicken, we like it whole roasted sometimes use thighs. Most of the meat isn't cheap, but I do buy in bulk and when on sale. I have a problems of buying too much meat, when it goes on sale. Who can resist a sale?

Lots of fresh produce runs the LC gamut, usually a loaded salad, and then a warm vegetable w/butter. I am enamored by fresh produce, I can't resist and buy way too much so I cram it all into our meals before they spoil. I should probably buy more frozen to cut costs.

DH will have a rice, noodles, or bread. Usually these are very cheap items, like $3/wk if that much.

So that is the breakdown of our grocery bill and much more than you probably want to know.

[thisisrightnow]

I shop at Aldi's and my parents give me $40 every 2 weeks, and that usually lasts me the entire two weeks. Then I buy my meat at Kroger's so probably spend around $120 a month on groceries. Also keeping in mind that it's just me eating low carb.

[jezzie]

My LC food costs for one averaged $57 a wk the brief time I tracked it in 2003.
Now it's $48.
'Almost' a trade off. Less for meat, cream, etc. ... But more for fruit, legumes, etc.

Since there is just me (and my three fur babies) bulk doesn't seem to work for me.
My son buys my paper goods for me in BJ's (like a Sam's)

[miboje]

You did not mention how much you are spending. Costs for food my be relative for your area.

I feed 2 (i'm the only LC'r) adults and 2 kiddos for between $75-$100/week. It's less during the growing season since I have 4 gardens, and tend to eat from there every day. I recommend gardening along with preserving the harvest. I make my own bread and have salad and bread almost every day for dinner. I buy free-range brown eggs locally for $1 a dozen. We do not eat meat every day. I tend to make a large pot of something every week that feeds us at least two days.

I shop mainly at Aldi's and a little at Wal-Mart. I also pick up certain supplies at a local bulk food store; mainly bread ingredients.

I did/do a lot of canning. We just did pears in their own juice this weekend, apple butter will be done tomorrow, and soon it will be venison that needs canned. My fiance is a hunter. We are moving toward a self-sufficient lifestyle, and I think that helps.

[BillB]

Originally Posted by NutinHonie

I spend at least $800/week for four of us

Wow...that is over $41,000 a year, or nearly $30 per person per day.

Our groceries for a family of 3 are about $80 a week or less.

--bill

[Looweewoo]

I feel I spend too much too, and short of buying lesser quality items, I don't see how I can save much! It's very frustrating.

Just for myself, I spend about $100/mo on freezer meats, then spend $50/week on eggs, salads, butter, vitamins, and some few unfrozen meats. It's getting better now that my calories have gone down from about 3500 to 2200, but it's still high, IMO. I guess that works out to $75/week for one person.

Of course, I don't keep accurate count, so I may be spending more or less than I think.