Do You Have a Grocery Budget?
I received this email from reader, Anna:
“I was just thinking it would be very interesting to hear from others on what their grocery budget is and the size of the family and how easy it is to stick to it.”
I think this is an interesting topic to discuss. Why? Well, first I think it’s very important to hear others grocery budgets and how every single one will most likely differ– which is a good thing. We all lead different lives and should have a grocery budget that fits our lifestyle…. NOT someone else’s.
I think sometimes we see how low others grocery budgets are and want to somehow be in their shoes… but by thinking that way you will easily be setting yourself up for disappointment. Instead, be proud of yourself for every single dollar you’re able to save and be even prouder for trying to stick to a budget at all.
My hubby and I love the cash only approach to budgeting– meaning paying with cash as much as possible. We take out $75 every Sunday for groceries, personal care items, and anything else we made need during the week (excluding dining out, entertainment, and gas). This is the amount that works for us and I feel great about being able to stick to the $75 cash we take out every week. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve gone over budget on previous occasions. When this happens, though, we try and scrimp in other areas to get back on track.
Alright, so now it’s your turn…. do you have a weekly or monthly grocery budget? If so, please tell us about your budget and why it works for you. What items do you feel you spend too much on? What keeps you motivated to stick with a budget? Let us know!
love this post!…i started putting myself on a weekly budget last week actually..going thursday to thursday..im going myself $100 a week for everything..whatever is left over, is going into an envelope or something similar as savings for a upcoming summer trip.
thanks to Collin and all her awesome posts..i am positive i will be able to have money leftover every week…i think im averaging 3 or 4 free items/coupons for items in the mail a week, thanks to this site.
thanks to her info on swagbucks and disney movie rewards, i have been able to get mother’s day gifts for free this year.
Ditto, small town, binder gogglers. Oh well, if it saves my family some money, the looks don’t bother me.
We are a family of 2 and we have a monthly budget of $180. We take that out in cash at the beginning of the month and use that. This allows us to stock up on some items that go on sale without going over a weekly amount. Since we started using cash/coupons we almost always have a lot of extra at the end of each month. I know we would spend even less if I meal planned every week.
We are a family of 6 (including my mom) and we have a budget for our groceries, diapers and/or pull ups, paper goods, household, ect of $100 a week. We usually only spend about $75. My husband has a budget of $100 a week for his gas, dip, lunches or whatever else he needs to do with it. I’ve been able to (FINALLY) start a stock pile of things so the past 2 weeks all we’ve needed to buy is the usual bread, milk and other little things which has been REALLY nice!
Ha! I give my husband a $70 allowance per week for his gas station goods 🙂 He eats out for lunch and gets drinks and such. It kills me to see that much money spent on junk, considering I can spend less than $50 for a weeks worth of groceries!! 🙂
Can you really not encourage your husband to eat out less? Maybe start with once a week you give him ( a really yummy) lunch to take to work and a mini cooler of sodas and snacks etc to keep with him? My husband was a junk food junkie when I first met him. He bought a coke every day and loved burgers. Now he takes his lunch almost every day and finds it more convenient and healthy….and we save lots more money too. It took some time but I think it was worth it.
We are a family of 5 (myself, hubby, 5 & 4 yr old boys and my baby girl 18 mths in diapers) I definitely try to budget ever since starting couponing a couple months ago and I have been able to stockpile a lot of personal care items that I have gotten for free or practically free thanks to you Collin…I’d say we spend about $100 a week (that’s on everything). We are a one car family and everything is really close to the house so a tank of gas really lasts a long time in my van, like close to 2 weeks (it’s a 20 gal tank) I am a SAHM with my 3 littles until my oldest starts Kindergarten in August. I know I can do better with the grocery budget so I will be implementing the cash only/envelopes idea. I believe between that and just continuing to follow this site and getting only the best deals, I could easily not spend more than $50 a week for all of our needs 🙂 Thanks everyone for the ideas & explanations on what your family does!
We are a family of 4 and we do a $75 budget for groceries weekly. I do sometimes go over depending on what we need that week, but usually we hover right around that mark. We also use the all cash system and budget for gas, toiletries, eating out, clothing etc. It really works for our family and by doing so we have been able to get away from credit cards which was a HUGE help to our family 🙂
We spend $150 a month for a family of three here in TN. We eat mostly unprocessed (except the occasional splurge) healthy food. We spend $50 a month on toiletries and cleaning products. We also supplement our pantry by stocking up on pick your own fruit and veggies in our local area and farmers market meat in the summer when they are in season and freeze, freeze, freeze! I tend to freeze any significant leftovers and use for future meals. Not much gets wasted in our house!
We are a family of 2 and only spend $35 a week on grocery and nonfood items. We did start with a 6 month stockpile that cost us about $300 to build.
We are a family of 4 (myself, my DH and 2 children ages 8 and 9). My DH works in a grocery store meat dept. that helps A LOT! He finds great deals on our MEAT so when we do grocery shop which is once every 2 weeks (on his payday). We spend around but no more than a 150. And through out the week he brings home the meats giving his store those sales guarantees his hours. I have been couponing seriously since the beginning of this year and I have been able to double what we are able to get for the same amount of money. (So basically its like FREE food)! We are a one income family as well. We have only been married almost 2 years and when we got married he wanted me to stay-at-home with his children. It’s been tough and been tight but we survive. The children love having their La-la at home with them. But with the great deals I find on here I hope to bring that number down! Thanks for all the hard work that goes into this site!
My family consists of my husband and I. I take out 120$ a month for groceries, personal care items, basically for everything except eating out, gas, and our personal spending money for whatever we want. I am able to stock up on whatever is on sale and still buy the necessities. It is hard to stick to the budget and some months I go over, but I think if I planned meals and only spent a certain amount per week I would have an easier time staying on budget. Doing the Rite Aid deals for SCR messes me up sometimes because I don’t want to count that money to what i’ve spent bc I’m getting it back.
One thing I have seen some people do with rebates, pop deposits etc… is count it toward that week’s amount but then when it comes in the mail, you cash them in, etc… it is an overage for that particular week (for example, I have $2 coming in SCR from Rite Aid last week but in a few weeks, when it comes, I will have $2 more to spend that week). Just an idea!
Or… the next time you get your SCR check in the mail, cash it, take the $$ to RA and buy a gift card with it…. then use that gift card for your OOP expenses so it does eat into your weekly/monthly budget
We are a family of 6 which includes 4 boys ages 9,7,5, and 3. I typically spend $70 a week but have gone as low as $30 and as high as $90 depending on the week and the deals currently available. We have been free of diapers for 3 weeks now. I was hoping this would help the grocery bill go down but now I think it won’t because these boys are eating like grown men! Having a garden helps us tremendously as well with the produce as well as freezer cooking. I have been “SUPER COUPONING” for 8 months. My goal is $60 a week. Prior to coupons our weekly expenses were $150 a week and I thought I was doing good then. Freezer cooking helps a lot.
My family of 2 has a monthly budget of $150.00 and I meet this every month by using coupons and ordering most of my food from http://www.angelfoodministries.com. AWESOME organization and good quality food for very cheap….anybody can order.
I have heard about this before! I wish there was something like this in my area!
We are a family of 4. We have a budget of $400 a month for grocery, health/beauty and cleaning supplies. This has been reduced from $800 month when I was not watching at all what we spent. Since income was cut in our household about a year and half ago I have gotten real strict with the budget. I feel so proud that we have been able to save and payoff more of our debt than we ever have done and on reduced salaries to boot. I think about what I could have saved or paid off if I was doing this at our previous salaries! I am also proud that we are teaching our young kids how to be thrifty but not have to compromise in quality. They are learning the value of a dollar. I am a firm believer in things happen for a reason. The way we were heading was not good for us as a family or for our kids. We are in such a better spot now. I would like to reduce the monthly budget for grocery, health/beauty and cleaning supplies to $200 or $300 but I am working on that.
We have a family of 8 and spend about 175 dollars a week on groceries. i have just started to coupon and start a stockpile in the last month and have already seen that with just starting out I had a hundred extra grocery dollars left over this month!! Can’t wait to see what I save in the coming months as I get it down good and more organized and that stockpile gets nice and full!! As for househod and personal care items we were spending about 50 dollars a month….quite a bit more since couponing to get a good stash started, and then can cut that down to almost nothing except to get the awesome deals!! I think I already have enough shampoo, bodywash, toothpaste and toothbrushes to last the rest of the year…all for pennies on the dollar!! Hip2save is amazing….Love it:)!!!!
There are 6 of us and I try and keep our monthly grocery bill to around $500. That includes every household item as well as food.
We have a family of 5 with two kids under 5 and one teenager and we live in California. We don’t technically have a grocery budget and I would like to do the cash system, but with my husband’s job (contractor), we don’t have a set payday every month. So, how much I spend is really determined by how much we have in the bank. I’m lucky that I have a huge stockpile to pull from. On average, I spend roughly $40-70 each week and that includes food and household items. About once every 6-7 weeks, I spend more, up to $100 to replenish stockpile items.
We are a family of 6 and budget $150 every two weeks. This includes anything from eating out to grocery to health and beauty and even diapers. With couponing I have been spending around $30.00 at the store each week and then we have the rest to blow or eat out. I am building quite the stash of food and it feels GREAT.
I never used to keep track of what I spent and before couponing – I would try to stick to $400 a month (for everything – food and toiletries, cleaning stuff, etc). That was hard!! I usually would spend $125-$170/week at the grocery store and that did not include last min. runs for things I forgot or Costco trips for dog food!! So I was probably close to $800/month for our family of 5 (plus two dogs!). Since I started couponing, my grocery trips cost much less, but I shop lots more, LOL! I keep meaning to save all receipts and add them up – but, I have so much clutter and then with rebates….well, I’m not good at being organized 😉 But, when I grocery shop like I used to – my trips cost me $50-$80 instead of over $100. I always have catalinas or RR’s to use (right now have three catalina’s, each good for a free gallon of milk, woohooo!) I’m building up a separate account and putting in all rebate $, money earned from survey’s, etc….its my coupon fund. Right now I’m using it for the non-food deals I want to get (like the $5.60 Old Navy dress) and for eating out – but I’m hoping one day to build it up enough to grocery shop out of it. I know I’m saving at least $200 a month from what I was spending, and as my stockpile grows and I have to shop less – my savings will increase. I could actually stop grocery shopping for a month (except for milk, eggs, produce) and be just fine. I’ve only been couponing for about 7 months..its a learning process. I love Dave Ramsey also – not on the program, but I took the first big step and paid off our car loan – such a nice feeling, now I’m working on that evil credit card, LOL!! I’d be all over it, but hubby is a bit resistant – so, I’m motivated to really save through my couponing and build that coupon acct up and show him how good it would feel to be debt free – then we could “live like no one else” 🙂
I have also learned that I need to stick to my coupon list when grocery shopping – I write down the “5-star” deals at each of the grocery stores/drugstores I go to. Then I can only buy what is on my list…or….any steals (I mean deals) I find while at the store. No IMPULSE buying!! I’m learning price points, so I know what a good deal is when I see it.
I love reading how everyone budgets. It is so vastly different according to needs and incomes.
We are a family of 4 that becomes a family of 6 quite often. My niece moved in with us a year ago (making a family of 5) and my other niece is here for dinner and snack most nights. So it is tricky.
We budget around 250 per pay check (2 times a month), however I do find that we do not need that much. Sometimes I will buy extra’s of stuff if it is on a good sale with the left over money.
I can not begin to tell how much this site has helped me. before couponing we were spending about 150 per grocery trip. Now it is much less and we even have left over.!
We are at about $75 a week. Depends upon what is left after I do bills and pay for gas….
I am a SAHM with a 6-month old. We have a family of 3 but only 2 of us eat (our 6-month old has just started solids so her grocery bill doesn’t add up to much-I just pick up a few veggies or fruits and puree them). Our weekly food budget is $50 and that is ONLY food. Other toiletries, diapers and such come out of other funds. We are huge Dave Ramsey fans, so our budget is set and I have the grocery money in cash. I am fairly new to couponing and have already saved a ton!!! I’m watching this budget stretch farther and farther. It’s a really good thing because finding money to stockpile is a problem sometimes. Now I have some wiggle room to snag a good deal. Thank you Hip2save for teaching me how to shop at different stores. I used to try to do all my grocery shopping at the grocery store. Now I am finding some great deals at CVS and Walgreens.
I’m amazed at some of your low food budgets. I use coupons, probably not well but I use them. I spent 145 this past week and we are a family of 4. It was $170 before coupons. YIKES! We don’t have catalinas at our store so maybe that is affecting me? What am I doing wrong.
This week I bought 2 packages of hamburger, a package of stew meat, a package of stew veggies, yogurt, makings for burritos, makings for pizza, some quick and easy breakfast items, frozen veggies, fresh fruit, a 6 pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade :), lots of packaged shredded cheese, juice, hummus, the swiss cow cheese, teriyaki sauce. I think that’s about it. Crazy right?!
What a great discussion. It looks like we all differ in circumstances. I think a BIG factor in our budgets could also be our LOCATIONS (how much the food costs & whether or not our stores have great sales). You cannot compare across the board to somebody in a different place–because you wouldn’t commute that far just to save on groceries. When I lived on an island, I would complain to my husband about paying $6/ gallon for milk & gas. He just kept telling me, “We’re not in the U.S., & we’re not going back to buy it there.” You can only compare to other stores in your area. But we did use the cash system there. It’s hard to go over budget when you have cash. I just cut out a lot of extra stuff I was accustomed to.
What helps me is to spend part of the budget on super great deals where you can combine coupons with the store’s sales to get a super cheap price – ie. I stocked up on 5 packages of tortillas this week because they were cheap and freezable! Then I base the rest of my grocery list off my meal plan for the week. Most of my meal plan consists of meals that I can make from things already in my stockpile. Last night I improvised a casserole using some of the cheap tortillas, tomato soup, black beans, frozen corn, kidney beans, taco seasoning, and shredded cheese. All of that was from my stockpile except for the tortillas I just bought on sale!
I don’t think that is crazy and meat is a huge factor that can add up to bid amounts in budgets. I live in Ohio and I found this AWESOME little butcher shop about 30mins away from my house. They have weekly sales and when ever they have hamburger or chicken on sale I go and stock up. Yesterday I went and got 20lbs of yummy fresh natural boneless chicken breast for $1.89lb. That’s cheaper then any grocery store around here and I pay under $40 for it and it lasts my family of 2 for 3 to 4 months!
I have to say that when I started couponing, I did NOT have any sort of budget. I also spent a LOT. I stocked up on everything I could and had a mentality of “spend more to save more.” That wouldn’t have been so bad, except that there was no end in sight. I would ALWAYS spend what seemed like a ton of money because I would justify it with the fact that I was saving more than I was spending. The second month of couponing, I spent like $1000! (I saved over $2000, so I felt justified. (I was stocking up on EVERYTHING, even when it wasn’t a super good price because I didn’t know any better). Well, needless to say, I’ve learned a LOT in the last year and have come a long way. Eventually I just made a budget and MADE myself stick to it! Now it’s pretty much second nature. I found it easiest to work my way down. I started with a budget of $100/week, or $430/month (for a family of 5, two in diapers, one for formula) When I found I could stick to that, I lowered it to $85/week, or $366/mo. When that worked, I went down to $70/week, or $301/mo. And so on. I am now to a point where I budget $50/week (or $215/mo) and RARELY ever get close to it. I usually spent more like $35/week. And that $215 covers EVERYTHING! Food, diapers, OTC meds, cleaning supplies, make up, toiletries/bath products, paper goods, EVERYTHING I need to keep my household running. It took a few months and some trial and error, but I’m happy with how far I’ve come and where I’m at! 🙂
That is awesome! If you can do it, I’m gonna try that too.
Yes, you can! Like I said…for me it honestly just came down to making the DECISION to make a budget. Before that I was always justifying what I was spending. But now, it’s like a game to see how much I can come in under budget and it’s fun. It keeps me motivated. And if I ever do go over, I don’t sweat it because I know I’m doing great. It just makes me want to try harder the following month! Good luck!
I went through the same learning curve with coupons. In the beginning it’s hard to say “no” to a “good deal”, but now I am able to go days or even a week (every now and again) without shopping because I have enough of a stockpile to keep us going. I am also working our budget down a little at a time. Toward the end of last year I felt that was averaging about $200 a month for my family of 4. This year my goal is to bring that down to $150/month. This month I came close to that (just a little over). Our budget accounts for grocery, household items, eating out (unless it’s a b-day or anniversary… that way we can splurge a little). Gas is a separate fund. I have a wonderful couponing friend who spends practically nothing. For 2010 she has only spent $25 (TOTAL) on her purchases! Amazing right?!! I’m so happy for her and I hope that someday I can be that good, but for now I’m excited to think I can do it for $150 b/c that is $250 less than I used to spend b4 coupons and I actually have a stockpile now! I never had a stockpile before this!!!!
I think you are right about reducing the budget gradually. It takes time to build up a stockpile and to be able to reduce the amount you spend every week. I now know which stores I should go to for almost every staple item. Most sales and coupons are cyclical and once you get the hang of it, you know when the next coupon/ sale match up is coming and stockpile enough until the next one.
Janae….how does your friend manage $25 a year? I can’t even imagine!
Oh, and one thing I forgot to add, is that for me, I’ve found that next to couponing and stockpiling, the next step in really taking the reins on spending less each month is in meal planning! Seriously. I didn’t believe it until I did it. Now I would never go back. By planning my weekly meals around what is on sale that week, instead of making my menu based on what we want to eat and heading to the store and paying full price for everything. Once I started meal planning, my grocery spending went WAY down. It’s kind of a pain in the butt at first, but it, too, will become second nature and you will wonder what you ever did before it! 🙂
My grocery budget is $200 a month for a family of 4. I find that every other week I go over my $50 when I buy meat or many things that we need. On the “off week” I usually pick up milk, bread, and anything that is free or super cheap with my total way under $50…. At the end of the month I am very close to $200, only over or under by a couple dollars. This also includes all household and personal items, but not diapers.
My family consists of hubby, daughter, twins and myself. Since I don’t have much time to cook because of my twins — they are 8 months old — I use the kraft weekly meal magazine. It already has a grocery list in the magazine so I don’t have to make one, they use few ingredients for several recipes throughout the week, including snacks and desserts. This way I don’t have to be planning what to make, it saves me a lot of time, the meals cook for about 30 minutes or less. They all taste great and I waste about $40 or less a week on groceries.
For household needs and diapers I use my debit card. I opened a separate bank account where I only deposit $75 a month, $25 go to my savings account the rest I spend in anything I need or want to buy. If I run out of money before the end of the month I just don’t buy anything, unless I really need it but thanks to Collin, I’m stocked up in diapers and wipes which is what I really always needed. For the first several months I always ran out of money right away but now I even have some leftover. I also earn points for using my card everywhere. I also deposit all my rebate checks in that account. Thanks, once again to Collin, I’m been able to buy myself several things – which I hadn’t done in a very long time.
I feed a family of 5 (one in pull-ups) for about $200 a week that is gas , food , cleaners, toiletries, and all the extras. My house is stocked up also that way I can get things at there best prices. My older 2 girls take their lunches everyday and so does my hubby so we go through the food quickly. I have kept a tally of all I have spent and saved this year I have spent Jan -Mar $1891.45 and saved $ 1808.68 . Pretty good I think.
We’re a family of 4 with one in diapers. I budget $200 a month on grocery and household, including diapers and wipes. Last month I was great, this month…not so much. (Safeway frozen foods month put me over) So I’m thinking I can def. stick to this if I try the cash method. So, for April, that’s what I’m doing. I think I’m just going to limit my trips to stores…if I don’t go, I don’t spend!! I have a stocked freezer with cheap chicken, tri tip and pork chops. Oh, and lots of cheap Micheal Angelos lasagna! I don’t shop at Costco anymore accept for milk, the big bags of chips and I really like their tortillas and Rosemary bread…mmmmm. I’m excited to see how little we can live off this month!
What keeps us on track with the grocery budget? Using it all up at the beginning of the month and having nothing for end-of-the-month deals. It’s maddening lol. We spend too much on pop, but we also buy a lot of food storage every month. We’re working towards a year’s supply of food storage.
I hear ya on the pop thing! My hubby is a Mt. Dew-aholic! He can literally go through a two liter or a 12pk of pop in a day (two at the most). LUCKILY he travels a lot for business, so that helps, but when he’s home for weeks at a time, it drives me batty how much we have to spend on his pop addiction! Lol.
WOW! Kuddos to all of you! We are a family of 3….myself, DH and a 6 mo old. My dh gives me $150 cash each week for groceries, etc. There’s got to be a way for us to eat on $75 each week. Looks like I’m not working the coupons/sales like most of you. I need to get a coupon mentor. lol.
Gen, my best advice is to buy what’s on sale. We buy almost all of our meat and produce according to what’s on sale, and try to never pay full price for meat. It is so expensive! Not sure if that helps. 🙂
I cringe if I have to buy anything that’s not on sale and/or doesn’t have a coupon. I buy what’s on sale whether we need it now or not. As long as it doesn’t expire I get every deal and get as much of it as I can. My husband doesn’t always understand why I’m buying yet more toothpaste, tp, detergent or whatever when we already have a bunch or we don’t need it now or it’s not something we usually use. BUT he can’t deny our monthly budget totals have dropped in half and I’m trying to increase my stockpiles so I can reduce even more. Also, when I first started couponing last Oct/Nov we went without a few things (nothing too important) for a while until I had a small stockpile started. THEN I took the savings I was seeing and I continue to build my stores while saving money. ALSO we opened ourselves up to using different products because 1) we couldn’t always afford the things I find I can get now 2) the more products you are open to using the easier it is to find good deals!
Nicole & Shelle,
Thanks for your advice! It was very helpful. I think stockpiling will be helpful to us also. 🙂
I have a family of three, on in diapers still, and I spend $50 or less a week on groceries/cleaners/toiletries ect usually I end up spending only about $30 though and with rebates even less. I never used to use rebates untill I found this site about a year ago and now I consistently get rebate checks in the mail every month 🙂 This month I have over $50 in rebates to cash, so much fun! We aren’t picky eaters and I love to cook so we have a wide variety of food. My motto is if it’s free, get it! I donate a lot of stuff to my church food pantry too. I do cut a lot of fruits and veggies in the sense that I only buy what’s in season. I don’t buy $5 of rasberries in december ect. But we do always have fresh fruits and veggies in the house so we eat pretty healthy.
Our weekly grocery budget is around $70-80. Take out food we try to stick to $10 a week unless there is a birthday event or some holiday.
We have a family of 3 (mom, dad, and a one year old son) and we spend $90/week on groceries. Sometimes we don’t come close to spending that much, so we just keep it in case we go over the next week.
It’s reassuring to know that $90 is kind of an average or above average amount. People around where I live seem to spend way more than that every week, but with my couponing I am really good at keeping it right around that amount.
The bad thing here (in Elkhart, Indiana) is that we don’t have many options for produce and meat, especially during the winter… the produce selection is usually not very good and overpriced. I feel like I spend more on produce and meat than anything.
I am brand new to the couponing thing (less than two weeks) and I started a budget March first… After looking at the above comments I think I should be able to cut in some areas soon. We have a budget of $475 a month for groceries, $125 for necessities, $150 for gas (believe it or not, this one will have to be raised to at least $200…which is a bummer) and $150 for spending (eating out, movies, etc.). We actually take the cash out at the beginning of the month and put it in a specific envelope for each. My husband and I have 5 kids from 13 to 3 months… Plus my sister (which we’ve been raising for 6+ years) just moved into a dorm this year so we try to keep her stocked up on food and necessities. And that is where a lot of the gas goes, she’s now about 20 to 30 miles away, so picking her up for weekends is rough. So anyway we will be analyzing our budget in 2 months to see where we can improve…. but this is what we have for now… Thanks to this site and coupons I think we should be able to improve a ton…..
We live in the Houston area, and our usual monthly budget is about $850. We have 3 Children, 1 teenager, 1 pre-teen, and an 8 yr. old. Between lunches, lacrosse games, baseball, and drivers-ed, we seem to favor the buy in bulk method. Usually 1x a month I make a Sam’s run. There I will buy our ground beef, seafood, bread (we go thru 2 lvs. a week), and frozen items (veggies,etc). I spend a whole day (while the kids are at school), seperating the beef by 1lb., pre-cooking, packing it in ziploc baggies, and freezing it. That way during the work week, when we have practice on MTWF&Sun (yes, Thursday is our only day “Off”), I can quickly cook up spagetti & meat sauce, tacos, hamburger helper, roasted chicken, shrimp scampi, etc,etc, with out having to spend hours cooking. Now I have found some great deals since I started at the begining of this year, and have been stockpiling my non-parishables. So I will probably bring that (horrid) number down to a nice $350 a month. Those with small boys…be prepaired! As they get bigger, they eat more!! So far I have been able to stock pile for FREE or Nearly Nothing: razors & shaving gel for hubby, toothpase for the entire family, mens shower gel for hubby and both boys, deodorant for all, cream, toothbrushes, bandaids (we really go through these in our house), bar soap, facial wash for me and my daughter, shampoo, hair products, laundry soap, air freshner, toilet paper, and pet food. Enough to finish off our year, so with those items out of our way…we really only need perisables. I would honestly have to say that before I started this in the begining of the year, our houshold budget DID go above that $850 Easily. We used to eat out ALOT, because it was quicker, and easier that cooking at home, buy stuff at the last minute (No stockpile), and pay…well you get the idea.
I am not very good at kepping track, budgeting, but when something unexpected comes up I always use my food money because I try to have a food storage. We just built a new home so lots of people have been stopping by, when they see my food storage most are impressed which makes me fell better. We are a family of 8, husband, myself , 14,12,10,8,and 3 year old vboys and 6 year old girl and BOY can they inhale FOOD! I would say I spent between $100 and $150 a week on groceries and other household items. I NEED a coupon mentor as well, LOL, but when I do coupon I SAVE A TON!!!! I love this site and the online deals.
We are a family of five, my children being 16, 12 and 9. My goal this year was to spend $125 a week, not including personal care items. For the most part since I started in January I have come in under budget every week. There were two weeks where I came in at $125. I’m very pleased how well I have done.
We budget $100 per week. However we rarely spend it. I do lots of couponing and we try to leave eating out for the weekend and use coupons as much as possible there. We don’t have any of the good grocery stores here (Publix, Food Lion nothing) there is only one double store and it is very high in comparison to other stores (even with the coupon). We try hard to meal plan for the week and I buy what we don’t have on hand each week only. I try not to take the kids because they often talk me into items we don’t need. I like the idea of using extra money toward something special and I just may put that in place. We want to do Disney again next year. Maybe everything we save can make our trip that much better.
We are a family of 8 (including pets lol) There is my Fiance, son and myself. I also have 4 dogs and 1 cat. We live in the country…. I usually budget for $65.00 per week, that includes all of the food and supplies for the pets! I always use my coupons and shop the sale items. I have also started to eat more chicken than beef since that is better for us and usually has a better sale price. Sometimes since I have started stockpiling/using coupons I will skip a week if there is something that I don’t need. This site has helped me tremendously!! Thank you so much Collin for putting all of this together.
I’m a single woman living in a suburb of Chicago. I do not have a weekly grocery budget, but about a year ago I did a huge price comparison chart between the local grocery stores, Aldi and Trader Joe’s. Aldi and Trader Joe’s won hands down on price. Aldi may seem like a cheap grocery store and TJ’s may seem like a gourmet store, but both provide most of my groceries on a weekly basis. My main lunch staple is half a container of Greek yogurt from TJ’s ($1.50), a cup of frozen berries from Aldi (probably around $.50) and a little bit of sugar free vanilla syrup, and some crackers. Then I mix up my dinners with chicken, fish, seafood, and edamame. I love having people over to my place, and often cook enough food to have leftovers for the rest of the week. Cooking healthy and delicious food is very important to me. If I have to spend a little more to get a better product I will.
We have a family of 4 – my DH and I and 2 little boys (4 and almost 2). We spend $200 / month on all gorcery items (food, diapers, meds, cleaner, health & Beauty etc.) We NEVER eat out, only on birthdays and that money comes out of the Birthday money that relatives send us. Money is really tight right now and we have to keep our spending tight too. But, thanks to coupons and site like this, we bring home over $1,000 worth of products each month, so it doesn’t feel like we’re scrimping. I’ve been an extreme couponer for a little over a year now and we’*-0
We have a family of 4 – my DH and I and 2 little boys (4 and almost 2). We spend $200 / month on all gorcery items (food, diapers, meds, cleaner, health & Beauty etc.) We NEVER eat out, only on birthdays and that money comes out of the Birthday money that relatives send us. Money is really tight right now and we have to keep our spending tight too. But, thanks to coupons and site like this, we bring home over $1,000 worth of products each month, so it doesn’t feel like we’re scrimping. I’ve been an extreme couponer for a little over a year now and we’*-0
Sorry – that was my kiddo attacking the key board 😆 where was I…oh yeah, we have a really good stockpile, so we only buy things at rock bottom prices and any fresh items we need (milk, yogurt, produce etc). It took about 6 months of heavy couponing to get our budget down to $200 – it used to be $400, and that was really difficult to stick too – I always felt like we were scrimping by. Now, we spend half that and I feel like we’re living like kings 🙂 I heart coupons!
I’m not the best at keeping a budget! But I do save time by slicing coupons instead of clipping them. Make sure to enter my giveaway for 25 Slice Coupon Cutters here – there will be 25 winners and I don’t have any entries yet!
It’s just me and my fiance… we spend about $100 a month, maximum, on food and hygiene products. Lately I’ve been writing everything down. Last month, I spent $80 and saved $480! Used more than 100 coupons…
(I have such a big stockpile I am constantly giving things to my parents, who I can’t get to use coupons even when I personally cut them out and organize them for them… So if I get stuff for free, I just give it to them.It’s bad when a 21 year old is better with money than her parents…)
Same with me. They finally just gave me their coupons for extra inserts and I go from there. How the tables turn. . . lol.
**************Off Topic, but Collin suggested I ask in one of the posts.*************
I get a MD and PA paper each weekend and clip my coupons while catching up on my “DVR’ed” shows. It’s my “quiet time”.
Anyway, I am pretty picky about the brands I use. I’ve started to notice how many coupons I am actually not clipping and I thought to myself, some of these un-used coupons are really good, (mens, cat food, baby etc.), what a waste each week. In the past I have mailed baby coupons to someone who was having a baby and could make use of them. I used her mailing address as the return, since I didn’t want to use mine.
I would like to offer to mail someone the ones I don’t want. I just thought it would be better than simply just throwing them away each week in the recycling bag. If interested, you can email me your address to babysnark23@yahoo.com. Please reply that you did so I don’t a bunch of emails, lol. First 2 addresses I get via email I’ll use. It would make sense to have a man, baby and cat since those are the type I know I’ll never use.
I am emailing you right now. Thanks.
I just emailed you!! Looking for men’s coupons (1hubby & 2 Boys!!!)
Hollie and Ari, I’ll send them your way!!
Either one of you have a cat, too??
We do the cash only approach. I get $100 per week for the month. I withdraw it when my husband gets paid and the beginning of the month. Usually it’s $400 for the whole month, but like March it has 5 Mondays so I took out $500. This money is for personal items, groceries, eating out, etc. But not gas for the car. With this money I feed our family of 5 and 4 daycare children (So that is 9 people). Coupons help and so does shopping at Aldi. We have no problem sticking to the budget. We find we have so much more money to save at the end of the month once we started doing this. It’s great. I’ll never go back. I may increase it some day, but not any time soon.
Family of three. My husband direct deposits 50 per week into a separate account that I use for my direct sales business and I tend to only use 30 per week!!!!! (he hates all the debits and I don’t like cash because I can’t keep track of how much I am spending!) This is everything… toiletries, groceries, cleaning… AND I pay for our monthly netflix bill and video game equilvalent out of that account also!!!!!!!! Thanks Colin.. You are the shizzle.
Oh and this does not include gas or eating out.
I think I spend more then the rest of you which I will be thinking alot about today! I spend $100 a week on groceries a week for my family of 5 ( 3 boys and I pack all their lunches also) but I also spend 50-75 a week at target/walmart/walgreens geting the extras. So maybe I need to work on this. I would love to see more drug store grocery deals! Like the walgreens once this week!
6 months ago we spent $400 a month for our family of four and that did not include personal care items or paper items. Then we took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, started paying cash for everything and I cut our food budget to $300, including personal care and paper items. Towards the end of FPU, I started buying multiple papers and wrapped my head around Walgreen’s RR progam. As of this month, our food budget is down to $200 a month.
We do the envelope system. I usually will put $200 in it for 2 weeks for food and toiletries. I have done pretty well with coupons, saving $60 in one grocery trip… and I am very unorganized, scattered… I don’t know what is going on here, but I am not staying on budget. Here we are a day before payday (military fam) and we are in the negative. I ended up using our debit card today to get milk and a few other things… I am so frustrated. I think I get so excited about using my coupons, that I will keep going back even after my envelope is empty, etc… I need to take the emotion out of it, and stick to my budget. I keep saying I’ll do better next pay period… and we end up doing the same… ugh.
Always remember that the sales and the coupons will repeat themselves! If you don’t get it this time, you can get it another time. It took me months to really wrap my mind around that and now I can easily skip shopping some weeks even if there is something that is a great deal! 🙂
I guess our budget is set up a little differently than others…I pay all of our bills (this includes the amount for a brand new car we bought 6 months ago and will have paid off in 6 more months) and put a set amount in our saving account (saving for a down payment for a house in a few years). Whatever is leftover is used for shopping for groceries, pet products, cleaning supplies, etc. plus date night every week.
When I first started serious couponing we considered cutting out date night, but it’s very important to us since we never had the money for dates before we were married and then we spent the first three years of our marriage apart while he was in training and then deployed.
Anyway, if there is anything left over at the end of the month (which there usually is) then we just put that into savings on top of the amount we have already put in. I’ve only been doing serious couponing since around September or so, but it is giving us some major savings. I’m working on a stockpile and I’ve already started my Christmas shopping which has always been a budget killer for us.