Amazon: Feed Your Family for $200-$250 Per Month (Free Kindle Downloads) + What’s Your Budget?!
Head on over to Amazon.com where you can snag the following FREE Kindle Downloads. If you don’t have a Kindle, keep in mind that you can still read books on your computer or other mobile devices with the FREE Kindle Reading Apps found here.
2012 Family Guide to Groceries Under $250 a Month (regularly $3.49!)
The average family of 4 in the United States spends more than $700 a month on groceries alone. In the “2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month” the author outlines how and where to cut grocery expenses to get spending under control while opening the consumers eyes to little known dirty manipulation tactics employed by retailers to seduce unsuspecting customers into spending sprees.
How to Feed a Family of 4 or More for Less than $200 a Month
Grocery expenses have risen drastically and finding ways to trim the household budget without feeling like you’re constantly “going without” is getting more and more difficult. Despite the economy and lousy gas prices, you can still feed a family of four or more for under $200 a month using these simple tried and true techniques. Discover how to slash your grocery bill, whether once a month cooking really helps your budget, sample 30 day dinner menu plan as well as tried and true tips and tricks for reducing your grocery expenses, all WITHOUT having to deal with coupons.
With this, I would also like to know what your monthly grocery budget is for your family as well as your best tips for sticking to it! Please share any tips, comments, and questions with us below.
(Thanks, What’s In My Book Bag? !)
We are currently on a budget of $500 per month. However, we don’t really eat any processed foods. I still save about $200-$300/month couponing.
We don’t eat many processed foods either, and during the summer we spend only about $20 a week on groceries. In the winter months when we can’t shop at a farmers market, it’s probaly about $30 a week. This is just for two people though. Most of that budget will be for the fresh veggies and meat, since couponing takes care of the packaged stuff 🙂 Thanks so much for all you do, Colin!
My budget is $300/month for 2 adults and 2 teenage boys. That includes all paper products and toiletries. I shop the sales, use lots of coupons, do most of my shopping at Aldi and meal plan.
Me too..I love Aldi’s. My boys are high school and live at home college age and eat like horses. I spent my summer canning and freezing veggies and fruits.
My budget is $50 per month (down from $100 a few months ago) for myself and my son. This amount includes all my paper goods and toiletries. Coupons and a well stocked freezer, fridge and pantry help me stretch my $50 to the max.
My budget is the same as Jen B’s…$300/month. That’s with 2 adults and two teenage kids. Some months I can be more frugal than that but I would say that’s our average WITH coupons.
Wow, Jen! I am impressed with the 300 especially with teenage BOYS..I have one and I think he is gonna eat me out of house and home. I have couponing down for all toiletries, paper goods…but I just can’t get it down with groceries (even though I save at least 30 on each shopping trip)..I think I need to be more disciplined!
Ours is $300 per month for 2 adults and 2 children. This includes diapers, wipes, toiletries and paper goods.
We spend between $350 and $375 for groceries, toiletries, diapers, wipes, paper goods, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies and any other “essential” for the house. We are two adults and one child right now. I wish we could cut it even more, but I feel that we do pretty good with the budget that we have. I also coupon and always save between 35% and 60% on our grocery bill. We are never without, we are never hungry and we always have really good food in the kitchen. 🙂
I’m impressed by all of you!!! My budget is $400 for 2 adults and 2 children 8 & 4. I’m doing something wrong here!! I love to hear all your ideas!!
Saving money on groceries started with composting for us:) When I saw how much food we wasted I created a monthly menu. We use the same breakfast, lunch and snack meals through the week and all month long and change up dinners. I make a grocery list from these of what I’ll need and plan to use my garden, freezer,leftovers, and my crockpot. Then I use the whole month to search for these specific coupons. That month before I began my family ate everything that wasn’t on that grocery list and we got pretty creative cleaning out the freezer, etc…
When shopping this way, in a few months you will recognize the sale cycles, and buy what you use most often in bulk. For condiments/staple items you can begin to cabinet store three of each and rotate oldest to last–then you’ll only buy when you’ve used one and they will not expire.
Then I started making my own cleaning supplies:)
Ours hovers between $200-$320 per month. I DO freezer cook 8 weeks worth at a time. It costs more while I’m cooking of course and a lot less when we are eating out of the freezer. I do think budgets are going to vary widely based on where we live and what stores we have available to shop at. I only have Kroger, Food City, and Walmart available for groceries.
We just lost the K mart in my area and are now only left with walmart , food city, and save a lot. Non of them double. So not a lot of options here. Yet with coupons and Walmart price match I would say I spend around 500 on food for 6 people. I stock my paper products cleaning supplies and condiments at CVS about every 2-3 months. I know a lot of people in my area who spend a lot more.
My budget is $300/mo for our family of 4. (2 girls aged 7 & 10). This is includes all groceries, including their lunches, which we pack, pet food/litter, toiletries, laundry, etc. I usually save 30-40% at the grocery store.
We are currently spending $300 – $350 per month for a family of 4 (two adults, two teens). However we also don’t buy anything pre-made or processed.
Maybe I need those books to drop another $100 per month. It’s hard to imagine spending less than I do now, but then again two years ago I never thought I could spend less than $500 – $600/mo.
We keep ours at around $200-$300 a month for two adults and two children 10&12. It helps that we have a freezer in the garage to buy meat in bulk when it is one sale, and we cook at home 99% of the time for 3 meals a day. I coupon when I can, and try to buy items when they are on sale.
We are really good about eating leftovers, or using them in other meals so we have very limited waste which really helps. Plus cooking enough food for two dinners, or lunch and dinner helps a lot since it is about the same amount of effort to cook 4 servings and it is to cook 8.
I think the biggest money saver I have to share is allow yourself an easy meal as a “cheat” when you need it. For me it’s usually Wednesday or Thursday night . I’ll do a couple frozen pizzas, or potstickers. They take a few minutes to throw together, and give me a mental break from cooking big meals. And it keeps us from going out to eat, which would end up costing WAY more!
I am slowly learning its ok for cheat meals.. Im glad you suggested this I am hard on myself when I cheat but I know I need the mental break.
It was hard for me at first too. I would feel guilty and that I should be making a big meal, but you know some weeks are tough. But I finally told myself that if throwing a few frozen pizzas in the oven makes the evening go better… go for it!
mine is 335 a month we are family of six Mother myself hubby three teenage girls (18,17,13) times it is hard but most of the time I am able to do it especially if I leave girls home while I shop the older two are really good helping stay on budget the baby is learning. Hubby is a blessing he helps w coupons too.
I really want to get better about cooking some meals ahead in the freezer, thanks for the motivation. Because I have time in the mornings (once the kids are at school) – I use my crockpot for easy dinners to keep from ordering out at the end of busy days. By then I’m so tired lol!
I agree with those comments that occasionally you need just a frozen pizza or sandwich night to get that “mental break”!
Ours is around 300 a month. We buy our meat in bulk so out of that 300, 45 goes for bulk meat purchases. We eat 80% organic produce, %100 organic meat and little processed stuff. I coupon once a year around black friday for non food stuff. We live in the suburbs of a midwest city for reference.
Nora, where do you buy organic meat? Ours costs us way more then $45 :((
I would love to know where you get your organic meat in bulk. That is the hardest for me to find at a good price. I know I will pay more than non organic meat but I am always looking for a great deal!
My budget is approximately $400 per month for 4 teenagers and two adults. It did not start out this way , but has been a gradual process over the past twelve months Once, I began to understand the sales cycles, I realized that I could stock up at rock bottom priceson packaged goods including snacks, condiments, toiletries,etc and then leave my weekly budget for fresh fruits , produce and meats. The first few months was difficult because I was afraid that I may have spent too much on stockpiling one item and leaving out something else. However, each week I was surprised to learn that my grocery bill was decreasing because I did not have to buy ketchup or A1 sauce for our burgers or meats..so I could concentrate on buying fresh quality foods. Also, I like to use comp coupons at our local grocery store . They are usually in newspapers and offer 5 off of 30 or 50 dollars when you shop. It has been fun and yet sometimes tiring, but saving money has been so wonderful. Colin’s website is seriously the best at finding new deals and fabulous freebies…I have not had to buy deodorant or makeup in over a year due to the wonderful sample websites that she has provided. Thank you Colin for giving and working so hard to make our lives so much easier!
Around 275-300 a month for a family of 4. Me, my husband, a 4 year old, and 2 year old. I buy things on sale and use coupons when I can, but nowhere around here doubles coupons over 50 cents. I still buy things we like even when they aren’t on sale sometimes. I typically save about 30-40 percent on groceries. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
I’m still spending $600/month for my family of 4 with 2 preschool-aged boys (who eat a TON), but we eat all of our meals at home. I coupon when I can and I only grocery shop every 10 days to avoid impulse buys.
I’m so glad to see this! We spend $600 a month on our family of four and thats with couponing. I don’t know what we’re doing wrong if people are spending $300 a month on groceries!
So glad to see Liz and Leah that I’m not alone. I would love to know how everyone does it as well. I meal plan and coupon, but for my family of 3, it’s normally around $500/month (this includes food, cleaning supplies, personal items…) I feel like I’m saving b/c I always compare prices and such but comparing myself with everyone else, I feel like I’m missing the mark somehow…I do however always have a completely full freezer and pantry.
Thank goodness you guys are on here! I was reading the comments and thinking “Wow, I thought I was doing okay but I guess not.” I spend $600-$700 a month for 2 adults, 1 teen boy (he eats A LOT!) and a preschool boy. Between sales and coupons, I generally save $100/wk on my total. That includes all breakfasts, lunches and dinners (although the preschooler gets some food at school too). Hubby and I take food to work so we don’t buy out. About once a month we do order pizza but generally no fast food, etc. We don’t buy soda unless we have guests coming. I think part of it is living on the East Coast – the coasts tend to be more expensive than the Midwest. We don’t have Aldis or any of the cheaper stores in my area. Walmart here has awful product selection and even worse produce! Oh well, we are debt free so I’m not going to stress too much but I would still like to see how people do it!
Nora – Suzanne, etc. We too spend a lot on the East coast and it’s just 2 of us. The only thing I can figure out is a lot of people are eating a lot of grains, pastas, beans and rice, etc. For health reasons I can’t and won’t do that so consequently our grocery bills are high. We eat meat, poultry, fish, veggies/salad, fruits. Add paper products, dog food and miscellaneous to the food and we can’t get out the door under $135, sometimes more, per week!!!
At Liz, you are doing nothing wrong! I went from spending $150/month on groceries before I was able to choose mostly organic and zero grain diet. Now it is more than triple that. Chronic illness led to this important change, but it depends on so many things like cost of living in your area, personal preference and health needs. For me it is worth paying more for what goes into my body. When I was young and had no health issues this wasn’t as important to me. But don’t feel bad. As long as the spending is mindful you are doing nothing wrong. In fact, you may be doing exactly what’s right!!! 50 years ago the percentage of income that was spent on food was MUCH higher than it is today. There are many reasons why this is the case.
Anyway, my two cents!
~Nora from Seattle
I spend about $800 a month for a family of 8, sometimes less. I actually spend less now that I started working part time because I am usually so tired I just do a crockpot meal or something similar.
Glad to see I’m not the only one spending a ton. I am spending $700 a month for six people 22 adults 4 kids (8,6,5 and a 4 month old-Enfamil and breastfeeding). We have Albertsons and Walmart nearby. And a Kmart I visit once a month because it’s so far away. No one around here doubles, heck they don’t want to even take the coupons you cut out of the magazines sometimes. I honestly try hard I plan meals, we eat leftovers, usually skipping lunch because no one is home…where am I missing it? Oh and we never seem to get redplum. I’m located in Baton Rouge, LA area.
I spend $350 a month for food and everything else we need for a family of 7 in Idaho. I can and freeze all summer long and buy our meats in bulk. We don’t eat out and everything is homemade, no prepackaged meals.
Wow, you ladies are awesome! My current budget is $500 per month for 2 adults and 2 young boys (2 & 4). It includes food, toiletries, diapers (for 1), I make my own wipes so that helps, and other household items. We eat almost no processed food and I make most stuff from scratch. We are a gluten free household as well and that does NOT help my budget at all! But after reading all these wonderful posts I’m now super encouraged to stay under $500 (I usually go over!) and even to decrease it. Thanks!
We’ve got food intolerances here as well (corn, dairy, peanuts) so I feel your pain of the added grocery expenses. I make as much as I can from scratch & do our own gardening. I try to keep my grocery budget to $400/month for our family of 6 (1 baby). It’s not easy!
Someone told me for gluten free to shop the Asian food stores for cheaper alternatives to what you find in kroger etc. I’ve thought about attempting gluten free for us because my husband thinks our oldest may be ADHD. While never diagnosed, anything that may help with him would be good.
For ADHD food intolerance issues I would strongly suggest eliminating artificial colors and flavors first. They are very often the cause. We have been through that ourselves. ourfamilyeats.com has a whole tutorial on going color and flavor free as they had to do it.
We spend between $300-$400 a month for a family of 6 (2 adults & 4 children ages 6 and under). It varies depending on the sale cycles for stocking up.
wow i’m impressed! my family (2 adults, 5 kids) spends like $200 a month in beverages alone! milk, juice, water, soda. all totaled, our food budget is around $500-$600/month
I am allowed to spend $30 per week, so $120 per month. I try to use cash only and leave my debit card at home.
$600 per month for two adults, two kids, and two dogs. That’s down from $900 that I used to spend with one last kid. That gives us plenty of food.
* one less kid
Tolietries, cleaning supplies, groceries and gas = $300-325.00 a month or less (with a family of two adults and boys 6 & 4. We coupon, garden, freeze/can, and barter. I like Kroger for our area–they send out coupons, double manufacturer coupons up to .50 and we get points off gas.
I spend $300 on our family of five – that’s the groceries and eating out. This site has been great at getting the price we pay down on food.
I spend $150-$200 a month (for myself and my husband) on groceries (actual food), paper products, and toiletries. Before I found Collin on YouTube I was spending at least $400 every month. Interestingly enough, I’m spending less and I have enough items stockpiled to share with friends and family! Before with no coupons or stockpiling (and no Collin) I was spending more and could still see the back of my cupboards. Thank you Collin from the bottom of our hearts for all that you do for us! 🙂
I am trying to lower our grocery bill but its difficult. I am so envious for all of you with a variety of stores to shop. Collin posts awesome deals from various grocery stores but where I live we only have 1 type of grocery store. They dont have much for good sales and I think its because they dont have any competition. We do have a Wal-mart but I try to avoid shopping there when possible because its such a headache. I hope these books have some good tips
I have 3 kids (a kindergartener, a 3 year old and a baby) and a husband. We live in TX. GO RED RAIDERS!!! All prices are rounded up to the nearest 0 ending, with the exception of stuff that was less than $10, which is rounded up to the dollar. I have a spread sheet of every dollar spent last year that I’m referring to right now.
I never budget…it’s just to much of a pain, because of what we buy when we buy it. In the summers/falls I’m buying local, organic produce and honey from farmer’s markets and eating from our large garden, $250 last year, including all supplies for garden and for canning. We eat veggies out of the freezer and home-canned thru the rest of the year. The only exception to that is organic oranges, we spent $50 last year on them, they don’t grow locally. We buy half a grass-fed non-certified organic cow a year (our friends buy the other half), I don’t eat meat so that feeds husband and our one child that eats meat (one is vegetarian by her choice), along with company. Whatever we don’t eat by next slaughter we donate to a charity. That cost $600. We bought 6 whole organic chickens, $60. We bought into a milk share, the only way you can get raw milk in TX because otherwise its illegal, booooo government. $250 a year for a gallon a week. Everyone gets 1 cup in the morning if they want it, otherwise all we drink is water, and fresh squeezed OJ on weekend breakfasts and more during school season, pack in that Vit C!! Eggs cost us $210 last year from the same place we buy our milk. I make all of our bread, treats, pasta, everything! We buy everything we need (flour, sugar, flax, etc) bulk from various places. $1000. We use Dr. Bronner’s soap for our bathing needs and toothpaste, $80 last year with about 1/4 gallon left for this year (liquid for shampoo, bar for body and teeth). We clean with vinegar and essential oils $140, but we use the essential oils in our toiletries too. I make our deodorant, lotion, Chapstick, body scrub and bathsalts. All of that is included in the $1000 above bulk purchase, as it’s baking soda, coconut oil, etc, except for organic bee friendly beeswax which was $40. I also made a years supplies of candles with that (also using essential oil from the $140). I make a lot of natural medicines, cough syrups, chest rub, ear oil, those supplies cost $50 extra, some of the stuff was from the $1000 above. The only thing we bought medicine wise last year was one thing of dye free baby Tylenol to have on hand for when nothing else worked, and we never used it. That was free with a coupon. Feminine products aren’t needed, I use a cup and cloth pads. The cup was $30(??) several years ago and I make my pads from old sheets and receiving blankets I buy at garage sales, $10. We cloth diaper and cloth wipe, wipes made from the $10 above, diapers we’ve had for 6 years. We don’t buy toilet paper, so $0, same with paper towels. We make our own, so it came out of that same $10. Well, we did buy 2 rolls of TP last year for guests, so $3, we still have them though. And that’s it, so, we spent ~$229/month or ~$60/week even though most was spent in the summer. It definitely won’t work for everyone, but it works for us and I’m happy for it.
Whoops, and a toddler toothpaste, so add $20 to that.
Excuse the typos- posted from my phone!
Sorry, I forgot dog food too! $600 for year. Make that like $70 a week then! Do people buy dog food from grocery stores? Not sure if it counts.
Ok I need some of your recipes for stuff! You are amazing! I definitely couldn’t do some of that but would love to work towards.
Haha, I am pretty amazing. 😉 I’m just kidding, I’m just very into the idea of your body is your temple. I use a deodorant recipe from Crunchy Betty blog posted 09/07/2010, out of necessity. My armpits were getting torn up from regular deo and the gentle stuff like Tom’s of Maine didn’t work. The stuff we make works soooo well, I didn’t shower for 2 days during camping and didn’t reapply once and I still smelled fine! Even with regular deo that never happened! 🙂 Bath salts are just Epsom with some essential oil, scent depending on my mood. Chapstick is beeswax and oil, same with chest rub with a variety of essential oils. I highly encourage you to research different essential oils and their benefits and what is and isn’t safe for skin and pregnancy and children and such. Crunchy Betty and Frugually Substainable are 2 blogs I use for prettying all recipes, but seriously research before making anything you find on the Internet.
I just read your post to my husband because, like everyone else said, that all is amazing. Do you have a blog too? Thanks for all of the info!!
Ok, I have got to ask. How do you make your own toilet paper? This is something we spend a lot of money on and we go through it quickly.
Kristen- You’re beyond sweet- but I’m definitely not amazing, just second hand. No blog, as none of my ideas are original.
Roxy- Cloth wipes…definitely not for everyone but we already cloth diaper, so it isn’t much extra. It was kind of daunting at first, but it is really nice. We have a bidet too, so they are really more for drying purposes for number 2.
Wow. I need to look at my budget again. We are somewhere around $700+a month for a family of 3. But we do a lot of organics and my child is on a very strict gluten free, casein free and low oxalate diet, so there is not much she can eat anyway 🙁 Guess that would be the norm for a family with a kid with special needs and a lot of medical issues.
Our food/home spending has gone up just about every week for the past few months 🙁 For two adults and one child, we spend probably $150-$175 a week. That does include toiletries, OTC medicines, paper goods, and many times there are extra such as the past couple of weeks when I got mums, chicken feed, bird seed, etc…. Only have Ingles as the grocery store, Walmart, and RiteAid, so savings opportunites and freebies are limited.
Wow, I’m so impressed by so many of your budgets. We budget $100 per week for our family of 4 (but I should disclose that the 4th family member is only 5 months old :)). So this month, with 5 weeks in it, our grocery budget is $500.
I will say that before I started couponing (and budgeting!), we were spending $700-$800 per month on groceries… and that was when it was just my husband and I! So we’ve made some progress.
I’d really like to get this expense down to about $300 per month for most months – I think that’s do-able! I can’t wait to read these books.
Have you moms that do a lot of freezer storage found that the money you save eating justifies the cost of turning on the freezer? I have some opportunities to get meat from my inlaws, but I don’t want to turn on the freezer and eat up the savings… and the inlaws are 400 driving miles away, so that’s a factor as well. Thanks for all the ideas – we do $600 per month and there are 2 adults and 2 kiddos 3 and 5. Looks like I have a lot of room to improve!
Looking at our electricity bills from the past years you can’t even tell we bought a freezer, the year averages are always within $50 of the year before. Well worth it.
Hi Jenny – go ahead and use your freezer. the electricity cost won’t be much – and i have heard that to really keep the price down, keep your freezer full. you will also benefit by being able to buy frozen food in bulk when it is on sale and maybe even having a space for freezer meals (if you choose to go that route). plus, you will be paying much less than store prices for your meat if you buy it from your relative/farmer/meat locker. we have a family of 7 and buy our beef from a family friend – we usually pay about $2.18/lbs and that is across the board including steaks, burger, roasts, etc. it is also such a nice feeling knowing that in the dead of winter, we don’t have to run to the store because we are out of hamburger. the best of luck to you!!
For just me and the hubbs I spend $100 a month, and that includes food, health and toiletries. Most months I come under that budget. By using your site I just spend that $100 to grow my stockpile stuff. My hubby an I are moving in a few months and I have been in overdrive to stock up on everything I can so that when we move my hubby can focus on school (nursing) and not work and we can live off our stockpile. Your site is helping me to accomplish this. Thank you so much!!!!
We have a family of three and spend about $100/month on groceries. This is after tax as we have 10% precoupon tax in Alabama. I don’t included rebates, rewards, PayPal credit from surveys, and checks from surveys in this total. I try to use overage to buy meat and also like to go to Winn Dixie after a week with not so great bogos or repeat bogos on meat and buy markdown packs at bogo with a 5/30 coupon.
I am motivated reading these to work on our budget. We typically spend $400 on all groceries and toiletries and paper products. I want to get it down to $300. I have been couponing for years but still only save like 25% for foods. I do great on toiletries.
My budget for food and pop (which we drink a ton of…oops) is around $150/month for our family of 4. But our kids are only 2 1/2 and 10 months (who eats more than the toddler). And, we buy a quarter cow and half pig every year, plus DH hunts and fishes. So the only meat that I’m including in that budget is the occasion chicken/chicken breasts. My area grocery stores don’t double q’s but they do have great sales (like the occasion $1.50 gallon of milk, .68 eggs, etc) which REALLY helps.
we’re at about $350-400 a month for two adults and three children. This includes household cleaning and paper products as well. We have dairy allergies, so we stock up on soymilk when it’s cheap and also buy it in bulk at Costco. That stuff ain’t cheap! I also pretty much cook everything from scratch, including all of our own bread. We eat one meal out a week, usually lunch on the weekend.
We budget $400 a month for 2 adults 5 kids living in home and 3 @2 weekends a month but most of the time we don’t spend that much and the rest goes toward savings. We spend $100 a week we shop a lot at United Grocery Outlet, Shop Rite, Save a lot and any where something we use in on sale
I try to keep our budget under $70/month. But, that includes diapers for two, all paper goods, cleaning supplies, and my son is special needs and is on a strict gluten and casien free diet. His stuff is super expensive, and there are not a lot of coupons for it. A small loaf of bread is $5.50 and one six ounce cup of yogurt is $2. Reading the handful of comments of people with special needs kids makes me feel a little better. I coupon like crazy and usually save 40-50% at the grocery store (and by grocery store I don’t mean the specialty shops I have to go to for my son’s food).
OK, typo. $700 a month. $70 would probably buy a week’s worth, not counting diapers, etc.
Omg, I kept rereading your post trying to figure out how you lived on $70 a month w/diapers, special foods, etc! Then I scrolled a cm and saw your reply, LOL!
Ha! I figured people would be confused at first. I hit post comment a second before I saw I missed a zero!
I don’t know much about gluten free diets, but I wonder if you can make your own bread. I got a bread machine and it saves me so much money and the bread is delicious and no weird ingredients, like the one in the store
I haven’t tried it yet. But I know from (trying to) make other gluten free items that gluten free flour is pretty difficult to work with. I am also not sure how to cut it so it would be thin enough for a sandwich. My son is 3, so two slices of bread with whatever is in the middle is already a mouthful for him. I think cutting it myself would make it too thick. If anyone else has had success with making GFCF bread themselves, please let me know!
I haven’t made the bread, but I have found coupons on facebook to help bring down the cost. Udi and Rudi often have some coupons there or on Mambo Sprouts.
I even found a coupon for Barbara’s Puffin cereal on facebook recently, and the honey rice flavor is GF. My daughter loves it!
Keep an eye out on Living Social or Groupon (or other daily deal sites) for vouchers, too. I was able to order a lot of bread from Glutenfreely.com after purchasing an $85 voucher on Groupon for only $39.
I spend $500 a month on groceries for two adults and a toddler. We are a gluten and dairy free household and I only buy grass-fed beef, pastured pork, and free-range chicken. I plan my meals every week and make everything from scratch. My budget includes toiletries, soaps, etc. I live in Washington and coupons don’t double here. Most of the time I don’t bother with using coupons unless it’s on something I’m already planning to buy. I really enjoy cooking and baking and experimenting in the kitchen so the grocery budget is one area I’m not willing to skimp on.
My family of 3 (me, my husband & 3 year old son) usually spend about $400 a month. But that’s including eating out which we do a lot of when we get busy! (def could save more money).I find that buying organic contributes a lot to the cost of food. We are in California & we also go to the farmer’s market which is a little cheaper but still expensive. As far as toiletries, I make our own deodorant like EM above, I make our own cleaning supplies (vinegar, baking soda, essential oils). I bought (2) packs of 8 rolls of paper towels in march of this year, and still have a pack left because we clean with rags. I also make our own lotion, but for my son I buy Episencial because he has eczema & the lotion I make does not help it (looking for a new recipe to make). That lotion is 8.99 for 4 oz! We usually make more food for dinner and my son and I will eat it for lunch and my husband has food to take for lunch. We try not to eat much processed food so it’s hard to use coupons with our budget.
I thought I was doing pretty good on a budget of $400.00 a month for 1 teenage boy, one husband, myself and three cats. My budget includes all human and cat food and supplies. This also covers school fees, clothes and shoes, school and office supplies, birthdays, car maintenance, entertainment, allowances, and all household supplies. This budget has come down since I learned to coupon better, and by learning from all of you. I budget for everything, and make weekly menus. We live in a small apartment so I can not stock up as much as I would like, but the pantry is fuller each week. By using this site and paying attention to all of you, I can afford things I could not before. Thanks everyone!
We budget $100 a week for a family of four (two teenage girls, but one is with her dad 1/2 the month). That includes food, toiletries, etc. And I could probably tighten it up, but I’m using the extra each month to stockpile in the *hopes* that I won’t have to buy anything but fresh veggies/dairy in the month of December to free up some Christmas cash. I’ve got a long way to go and want to eventually be down to $50 a week. Thanks for all the help you give here!
I seem to be way over budget in the food category compared to all of you. We spend about $1000 a month on food to feed 2 adults, 2 teenage boys, and a 10 year old boy and 8 year old girl. We live in Wisconsin so maybe our food prices are higher and we don’t eat out at all during the month so maybe that is it. I am so impressed by all the lower food budgets .. I will have to keep trying to lower ours ( I already use coupons, sales, menu planning ect) but there has to be something I am missing.
I live in Los Angeles. I can’t find a store that doubles coupons. My monthly groceries for 2 adults and 1 toddler are $375-400 a month. I make my own bread and cook every meal at home. I use coupons as much as I can. Buying in bulk and stockpiling help a lot.
But what I think helps the most is shopping at the Asian and Latin grocery stores for meat and produce. Their prices are so much lower than the “regular” grocery stores, especially when on sale.
I live and die by those silly little weekly mailers from the grocery stores. I price and compare all the sale items every week from the 8 stores nearby, then make a meal plan, then hit the stores.
We spend around $600 a month for 2 adults, a 4y/o, an infant and two dogs. I’ve tried to get it lower but we just can’t seem to lower it any further than that. We don’t eat much processed food so coupons only go so far for us unfortunately.
I spend 275 to 300 for 2 adults and which ever kids and grandkids are home for the day or weekend or whatever. We eat very little processed foods, and buy alot of organic foods including dairy. Once our 5 kids were grown I was just tired of trying to keep everyone fed on a small budget and I relaxed and let myself spend more on things we enjoy and better for us food that I could not afford when we had 5 children at home.
We spend $700 a month for everything FOR OUR FAMILY OF 11 🙂 no coupon doubling her and no processed foods really watching the sales and buy grains in bulk (organic) our diet is abot 50% organic. I also mae 5 meals a week for my gram and her friend. God is good.
Where do you buy your grains at in bulk??Thanks!