What is your weekly grocery budget per person?

[amzasmommy]

does this include your household and personal supplies too or just food? how do you stay w/in budget? anything you avoid? staples?

[amzasmommy]

to answer my own thread -

i spend about $30 per person a week and that includes household and personal supplies.

coupons definately help and shopping sales. i try to rotate cleaning supplies and stocking up on food. if i don't need many cleaning supplies i'll buy more food that keeps so that when i do need cleaning supplies i've got food around. i also buy into a csa which helps w/ produce costs. i also dont use disposable female products. i use a resuable menstral cup which cuts costs in that area immensly.

in addition to the normal staples, (meat, eggs, milk, bread), we always have fruit snacks and either organic fruit bars or pop tarts on hand for ds. ice cream is my must have.

[Cynthiabutterfly]

I spend a total of $60/wk for 4 people - me, DH, 5yo DS and 2yo DS, 1 small dog and 3 cats. This includes all HBA and food. That is $15/wk per person if you don't include the pets.

I want to trim that to $40-$50 wk., or closer to $10/person. I have gotten better at it, but only when there are MM deals or overage, and I have to work harder to get those deals at CVS or Walgreens.

[wendypsaves]

My budget is $250-$300 a month for a family of 4 (DS is 4, DD is 2 1/2). (ETA: $15.63-$18.75 per person per week not counting the cat) That includes all food, hba, diapers, cleaning supplies, paper goods, and cat supplies. We eat a primarily organic, whole foods diet.

I'm lucky to live in an area with doubles/triples and lots of shopping options. I buy whatever the loss leader organic produce is each week. I stock up on meats at Whole Foods - whatever is $4.99/lb or less, every other week or so. My Tom Thumb regularly marks down organic milk to $2.30 a gallon and sometimes marks down organic cheese.

I bought a small upright freezer at a garage sale and it has really helped with keeping our budget low. The cost of operating it is minimal compared to being able to stock up on as many organic food items as our budget allows when opportunity presents itself.

We mainly use baking soda and vinegar for cleaners, although I supplement that when I find deals on Mrs. Meyers, Dr. Bronner's, Ecover, etc. I've recently started making my own laundry detergent and am really happy with the results - MUCH cheaper than conventional detergents and that's one less deal I have to chase.

I'm so ready for my daughter to be out of diapers. Diapers/wipes are the biggest consumers of my bargain hunting time. I supplement with cloth, but not as much as I should.

My husband home roasts coffee and home brews beer, so my budget also includes the costs of ordering green coffee beans and beer supplies. But seriously, yum-m-m-m-m-m.

Couldn't do it without HCW and the blogs I read, though. I'm so thankful for finding this site - wow, just over 2 years ago!

[talk2ham.1]

When I first started couponing, I'd had a budget of about $120/week for a 3 person household. Once I realized the potential couponing provided, I started out by spending about $10-$20 more each week on top of my original weekly budget while I built my stockpile. OUCH! I didn't like doing that, but I realized that it was an investment in the future. As soon as I could, I began limiting myself each week by $10 or $20 as much as possible. It didn't take me long before I was down to an average of $80/week. I hovered there for a while and then began to work harder to whittle the OOP even more.

Since then, we have had two new additions to the household, but I spend even less than ever. I now have a personal goal of $60/week for our 5 person household: that includes HBA, cleaning supplies, groceries, paper goods, and especially diapers (3 kids in diapers now: 2 full time and 1 only at night). My husband still allots $80 per week in case I go over for a great deal or something that requires initial $$ OOP to get more $$ back. And our monthly grocery budget does reflect more than a $60/week budget since it also lumps in any expenses paid for buying newspapers or making trades . . . and sometimes (rarely, but it does happen) we eat out and take it from the grocery budget.

I've been evaluating things lately, and discovered that for $60 a week, my family is living like families that typically spend about $200 per week. I've enjoyed it a lot. (The pleasure of it is obvious everytime I catch a sideview of my profile in the mirror . . . ). But I don't think we really NEED to be living like that right now. Especially since money really is tight for us. So I'm going to whittle away once again. This time, I am going to be stricter about what gets put into that cart.

Now if all I wanted to do was increase the quality of living for my family for less with couponing, then I could probably go ahead and spend $200/week come home with $500 worth of stuff each week, and it really wouldn't be a big deal. But for us, we are in it to save $$ for other things. That means I need to be disciplined enough to say no to some things that aren't really necessary at this time. So, while my favorite ice cream might be only $.88 per 1/2 gal. after coupons this week, that doesn't mean I need to spend $20+ stocking up on that deal. My kids could have an extra outfit or two with that money and my midriff doesn't need the temptation to build up any extra padding.

So, to cut costs in the future, I am thinking about switching to the envelope system rather than credit card/debit card to limit me to a particular $$ amount each week. In other words: cash only. And I will only carry a specific amount of cash with me to the grocery store. When the $$'s out, it's out! That means no more impulse buys. No more flexible budgeting. And it means a much more organized and regimented approach to shopping. Will it make a big enough difference to keep up with?But I'm game to try, at least!

A big help in budgeting is planning ahead. Plan your week's menu. Plan it based on what is in your stockpile and in this week's sale circulars. I really like www.supercook.com for a really helpful database of recipes. This site acts as a database centered around the items you already have in your pantry. Type in the items in you pantry now, plus a couple of the items marked down for a good price in the circular, hit search, and voila! You have dozens, maybe even thousands of recipes at your fingertips that use just those few items! It's really a great tool to help keep use up those weird odds and ends that collect dust in your stockpile too.

If you plan ahead and decide what you will actually need, you can really cut costs and remind yourself that, just because it's a rock bottom sale, doesn't mean buying it will really save you money in the long run. If I bought out every rock bottom sale, I'd be spending $250/week easy . . . way more than I ever did before couponing. But I'd also have to invest in a gym membership for my whole family . . . and extra garbage cans to take care of all the food that would go to waste . . . . Eeeesh!

HTH!!

[foodie]

Hi' "y'all"--

Wendypsaves is correct when she suggests shopping at Co-ops or belonging to a CSA. We are Mennonite farmers with kids (1 set of quads and 1 set of twins) and 2 adults so our budget is about $50-$100 bi-weekly for HBA and other food products that we don't produce for ourselves. We produce our own produce, meats, dairy, etc. Also, I make our own homemade cleaning products.

One tip my husband suggested for me to tell you, is to shop at Ethnic markets. "Scratch and dent" grocery salvage stores too. One other thing is also to get "friendly" with your local Farmers/Farmers Markets to buy produce at the end of the selling time at Farmers Markets for "deeply discounted" produce. Most of the time, the farmers comes about 100-150 miles and don't wish to take back all the surplus produce. So you might get a "deal" on fresh products.

Also, if you live near an Amish/Mennonite bulk foods store, you can get great products for cheap. Dutch Valley Bulk Foods is the supplier for all the Amish/Mennonite stores and you can order online. PM me for further details.

Also, if you join a local Food Co-op, CSA, or Buying Club, you can greatly reduce your cost for all kinds of products--foodstuffs, dry goods, etc. Check out my post on the forum called "Useful Information..." on the thread called "Trying to find Organic Farms...". United Natural Foods which is the largest Organic Wholesaler for food products, dry goods, etc. Whole Foods Market and other retail grocers frequently uses United Natural Foods for their supplies.

United Natural Foods also allows consumers to buy as a "Buying Club/Co-op" monthly. If you are interested, you can PM me, and I will be happy to forward info. You can also buy fresh dairy products, dry goods, canned foods, frozen foods, etc. Just not produce--that is why a CSA is another great option.

Foodie

[434Teresa]

well I do all my shopping at walmart..I am stocking up things right now so I spend around $125 a week(sometimes every other week) for a family of 6, I have two in diapers(twins) and two teen boys..I dont have a store where I can double or trible my coupons, I have one food store that doubles up to .50 cents but they are alot higher priced than walmart..I allow myself $150 at walmart each week thats for hair cuts and all what I dont spend goes in the bank for a disney vac. I could spend about $60/80 and buy just what we need each week and no hair cut money but while I can I am going to stock things up each week for another month or so then see just how low I can get it each week without useing to much from the stockpile of things.
Dont forget I have two teen boys to feed that eat up some food now that schools out and the $125 is for things like summer shoes,socks shorts or anything else the kids may need that week if anything, they dont like walmart clothes but in the summer when there is no school if they get them thats what they get and the babies to or goodwill clothes.

so its no more than $150 a week no matter what we need to buy but most of the time its $125 or less a week and sometimes I dont buy anything that week.

$25 a week person at the most for anything we need

[mum2hba]

My budget is $150 every 2 week, or $300 a month. I get my budget in cash so that when it is gone it is gone. I usually only spend about $100 every two weeks for a total of $200 a month, the rest of the money goes into my vacation fund. We are a family of 5, so I spend $10-15 every week per person.

[tn20]

I don't currently have a budget for my family of 4, but I REALLY need one!!! I'm a SAHM, so its just DH's paycheck. I started couponing at the beginning of this year and have built up quite the stockpile. My problem is, I'm still in stockpile mode. I spend about the same as I did before, I just have lots of excess now, where I had little before.

I think I need to start using cash only. Take out my budgeted amount each payday in cash and stick to it- NO MATTER WHAT! I tried this before, but as soon as a deal came along that I really wanted to stock up on, out comes my debit card and I ended up spending about $50 more than I had wanted to.

I seriously think I'm addicted to shopping. Thank God I only buy bargains or I'd really be in a mess. But I need to somehow learn to stick to a budget, regardless if something pops up that is a bargain.

Yes, $1 for a $10 razor is a great deal. But if I already have 50 razors, there is no need to spend $20 buying more razors. And $.49 cereal is a great price, but when we already have 30 boxes, there is no need to buy any more. I feel like I cannot say no to a great deal. A good deal, yes. A great deal, NOPE!

If anyone has any tips or websites that might help me make, and stick to, a budget, I would really appreciate it! I don't even know what a reasonable budget would be?!?

[scoopdecoop]

My budget is $100 per week, if I'm lucky which works out to around $11 each per week. This includes everything for 9 but not the big dog food - I think he gets $100 per month just for him!! I used to do really well on this amount but these days I seem to always be scratching to get a few meals together each week, although that's probably been due to baby and my disorganization & exhaustion. I don't have a car so I do tend to miss many deals, and we're often living on pasta or whatever til I can get to the store, but I guess we save a lot on insurance, gas, maintenance, and an alarm system LOL.