What is a reasonable grocery budget?

[sunnykristina]

Hi,

I am moving from the Caribbean where we are missionaries to the states, for a few months possibly longer.

We arrive in two weeks and I am trying to read everything and build up as much knowledge as I possibly can that will allow us to effectively take care of our needs on an extremely limited budge.

I will be feeding a family of six (My parents, my husband and I, two small children, and the one in my belly). What is a reasonable budget to expect to spend on groceries?

I will be shopping mostly at Kroger and Wal-Mart. There are IGA's close by, but it seems they do not have many sales... so it will not be likely to get the exceptional deals when combining coupons...

Any advice or budget ideas would be great, because I do not know what to expect. I have looking on the forums for a shopping list with how much others have spent and have not found any yet.

Thanks for all your tips and advice.

Blessings,

Kristina

[crystalh256]

Hello Kristina! I guess a reasonable budget depends on where you live, how picky of eaters are in the family and how organized you are. I live in Alabama with my husband, 2 teenagers, and 4 younger kids ages 1-12. Weekly I currently spend around $150 on food, cleaning, and HBA. Roughly half is stockpile money now, as we have a decent size stash of our most common and costly items. In September we are anticipating my husband's 7 day work week to go to six....meaning income will go down by several hundred dollars a week. My plan is to cut the budget down to $75-100 a week. Since it sounds like your move will be temporary, a stockpile probably is not a goal of yours ;) I suggest planning your menus as far advance as you can, based on the items that are on sale weekly. When I first started out years ago, I planned my first weeks meals by the sale paper and bought extra to go toward the next week too. The second week I based on last weeks extras, plus what was on sale, buying extra again...and kept going. Now I plan several weeks of dinners at once, sometimes they get shuffled or additions and changes are made.