Post by littlesthobo on Apr 3, 2016 14:47:30 GMT -5
What's your weekly/monthly budget? $125/week but I find by the end of the week we're adding to this by grabbing fresh fruit, milk, or other small things we've run out of. So $160ish?
How many people/children in your household? 3: DH, me, a toddler.
How often do you eat out? Fast food Fridays once per week, and out for a nice sit-down dinner once per month. DH and I both take our lunches to work.
Any ways you try and save money? We drive to the discount grocery store in a bigger town, and I make my list based on their sales. I don't have time to shop multiple grocery stores.
Our average weekly grocery bill for two is about $60. We have gotten pretty bad at eating out frequently and are working on cutting back, but we usually go out to dinner once a week and then get some sort of takeout once a week as well.
The biggest way I save money on our groceries is to meal plan and go into the store with an exact list of what we need. We'll usually end up throwing some random snacks in as well but for the most part stick to the list. And I try to make sure the meals I make are all quick and use inexpensive ingredients. We also only shop at a discount grocery store unless I've forgotten something and then I'll go to the closest place.
Right now our grocery budget is $220 a month and that includes all home goods (toilet paper, paper towels, formula, diapers etc). At this point we do not eat out, after we sell our house we might be able to get a little more lax with our budget. It's me, H and DS but H works at a restaurant and eats at least one meal there 5 days a week and I eat at my moms maybe 2-3 days a week.
Just to add we do not meal plan but if we get to the end of the month and don't have any budget left (we do an envelope system) we just get super creative with what random things we have.
What's your weekly/monthly budget? We are about $125-150 a week for breakfast, lunches and dinners
How many people/children in your household? There are 3 of us. DH, DS (14 mo) and myself
How often do you eat out? We try and not eat out more than once a week. DH takes a lunch to work or comes home for lunch.
Any ways you try and save money? I try and shop the sales and base our meal plan off what is a good deal that week. Same for the fresh fruit we have. I also try and make sure that we only buy snacks that are on sale and if they aren't we don't buy them until they are. Same for staples. I try and stock up when the prices are rock bottom.
Post by littlesthobo on Apr 3, 2016 18:49:17 GMT -5
mcktymck and beebe918 I'm impressed with your low budgets! I need to get creative with the random things in my house too. We used to do a "cheap night" once per week where we would eat grilled cheese or Kraft dinner, I need to get back to that.
mcktymck and beebe918 I'm impressed with your low budgets! I need to get creative with the random things in my house too. We used to do a "cheap night" once per week where we would eat grilled cheese or Kraft dinner, I need to get back to that.
I think we would have to spend a lot more money on food if I wasn't at my moms so much and H didn't work at a restaurant. Also DS is the only one of us that eats healthy at this point. I'm giving myself until after the baby is born to worry about being healthy but I know that will up our budget
Post by cabbagecabbage on Apr 3, 2016 19:10:23 GMT -5
So tell me:
What's your weekly/monthly budget? About $200/week for groceries
How many people/children in your household? 2 adults/1 child. Also 1 dog and 3 cats.
How often do you eat out? Once a week as a family and H eats a couple fast food or fast casual lunches. That's outside the grocery budget.
Any ways you try and save money? Meal planning and buying just for those meals, shopping at Aldi for lots of things, following meat sales, Eating vegetarian dinners at least a couple nights a week, dining out much less, keeping less food in the house (so I know what we have and nothing rots) and I don't overbuy since I shop at least twice a week now, using up leftovers. I can get us down to $150 a week and still enjoy our food and buy organic milk and eat well but I am not too budget crazy these days.
How many people/children in your household? 2 adults 2 kids
How often do you eat out? Once per week we usually do and we eat dinner at my parents every Sunday.
Any ways you try and save money? I always stock up on stuff on sale. I cut recipes down to make only what we will eat because we're horrible at eating leftovers unless I know it's a meal where they'll get eaten.
mcktymck and beebe918 I'm impressed with your low budgets! I need to get creative with the random things in my house too. We used to do a "cheap night" once per week where we would eat grilled cheese or Kraft dinner, I need to get back to that.
I think we would have to spend a lot more money on food if I wasn't at my moms so much and H didn't work at a restaurant. Also DS is the only one of us that eats healthy at this point. I'm giving myself until after the baby is born to worry about being healthy but I know that will up our budget
DS eats healthier than DH and I too... The fresh fruits and veggies do add up and we end up running to get more mid-week! That's awesome that you can get free food at the restaurant and your mom's!
Post by tikoberry99 on Apr 3, 2016 20:28:39 GMT -5
Yesterday DH and I were talking about our weekly grocery budget, and I got to wondering what other people spend on average. So tell me:
What's your weekly/monthly budget? 400-500 monthly depending on what's available that month.
How many people/children in your household?
Just dh and I now.
How often do you eat out?
We eat out 2-3x a week. This is a huge issue when it comes to our budget, but I just love eating out!
Any ways you try and save money?
I only buy organic and grass fed meat so if I see anything on sale I buy in bulk, especially meat. Organic produce usually doesn't go on sale so I'm screwed there, but recently I've been seeing eggs on sale so we've been eating lots of omelets.
Post by sarcaztic10 on Apr 3, 2016 21:14:00 GMT -5
What's your weekly/monthly budget? About $350-400 every 2 weeks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
How many people/children in your household? 2 adults 1 child
How often do you eat out? 1 or 2 times per month depending on the circumstances this may be more but that's a good average
Any ways you try and save money? We split our grocery budget between Aldi (for most of the groceries) and Kroger (for what we can't find at Aldi). I also meal plan and only buy what we need.
H and I have talked about getting our food/household item budget down more but it's hard for us because we really like fresh veggies and fruit. We always have dishes that use fresh veggies, and fruit is what I eat for snacks at work. I just don't think I can really go without those so as a result our grocery budget is higher.
This thread makes me feel like I have no idea how to adult. I don't have any idea what we spend on food, and we eat out at least twice a week, especially now because we keep finding ourselves surprised by dinner
On average, we spend about $120 a week on groceries (including non-food items). Sometimes a little less sometimes a little more depending on what we need.
Just me and DH right now
We eat dinner out every Thursday because we play in a pool league so its just easier to eat there, plus usually one other night over the weekend. We both usually bring lunch to work every day, but I probably eat lunch out once a week. (Eating out is not included in the weekly budget)
We buy lots of fresh fruits and veggies, so I try really hard not to overbuy. We also portion everything out into individual baggies as soon as I get home from the grocery store to make things quicker to grab. I'm much more likely to grab for the healthy fresh stuff if I don't have to cut it up each time. I also try to buy fruit when its on sale, and I buy a lot of frozen fruit for my shakes since its much cheaper!
We spend between $350-$400 a month at SAMs club. Then I typically spend $30-$50 a week on fresh fruit/vegetables/bread/milk. So.... Between $120-$150 a week.
We buy most of our bulk items at Sams club. That's probably where we spend most of our money. I also try to buy mostly what's in season. I think we do pretty well considering that budget covers breakfast lunch and dinner for everyone except MH. He has a budget card that his job gives him for buying lunch every day.
Post by harlowjune1984 on Apr 4, 2016 11:54:04 GMT -5
What's your weekly/monthly budget? I am embarrassed to admit that right now, I haven't been paying attention to it. We use to buy a portion of an organic grass fed cow, but we didn't do that this year, so we hardly have any left from our last cow. Usually, towards the end of summer, our bill is only meat every week (so maybe $100 or so). Everything else, we get out of our garden, or barter with other friends who have gardens if they have something that we didn't grow (or vice versa). That lasts for about 3-4 months out of the year. If I had to guess on what I am spending right now, I would say about $150-$250 a week on groceries (but we buy a lot of organic, so really it could be done for cheaper if we switched).
How many people/children in your household? Husband, myself, four year old DD
How often do you eat out? I eat lunch out every Tuesday. We eat dinner out once a week (but it is usually something like grabbing Papa Murphy's on soccer night). My husband grabs lunch twice a week.
Any ways you try and save money? We have been total slackers when it comes to budgeting groceries lately, grabbing coffee, and not using deals/coupons when they come up. After a 10 hour work day, adding in about 90min of commute a day, and being pregnant...I am kind of just in survival mode when it comes to meals. That will all change when the baby comes though, because of the fact that I am going to be SAH, and will be able to do a lot more meal planning and will have to budget our grocery bill.
What's your weekly/monthly budget? Groceries: ~$600-$700/month, including alcohol and a few household goods. That doesn't include our restaurant and lunches out budget.
How many people/children in your household? 2 Adults and 1.5 children
How often do you eat out? I eat lunch out ~3x/week. I just recently started bringing my lunch 2x/week :/ . H eats out almost every day. As a family we try to only eat out once a week or every two weeks, but we really blew out our restaurant budget last month. Like, holy shit we need to reel it in.
Any ways you try and save money? Well, I'm trying to get better about bringing my lunch to work. We buy cheaper cuts of meat that require more work than prepackaged or broken down cuts (like whole chickens v. chicken breasts, for instance.) We buy enough food to get us through at least a week, as we've learned that it's the "little" grocery trips midweek really add up. But really, I commiserate with harlowjune1984 , we are in survival mode during the week. H and I both have long commutes and we both get so worn out. We consider lunches out a small pleasure in life that is really tough to give up. This month I'm hoping we can keep our total food budget under $1k. Baby steps
Post by littlesthobo on Apr 4, 2016 18:53:34 GMT -5
harlowjune1984 I hear you on survival mode and being pregnant... There was a time there in first tri that I was buying doughnuts 2-3 times a week because it was one if the few things that tasted good! Things have gotten better in second tri, thank goodness! There are still times when I feel like we've eaten out too much, but that's because I'm so tired at the end of the day.
Post by madamewaffles on Apr 5, 2016 9:13:14 GMT -5
What's your weekly/monthly budget? $100-150/week (including toiletries like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, shampoo/condition/soap, etc)
How many people/children in your household? Me and MH
How often do you eat out? Average is once a week.
Any ways you try and save money? I definitely take advantage of my grocery store's online shopping option. I can sort items by the weekly flyer to get the best prices on things I'm not brand loyal to. I also am less likely to impulse buy online since stuff isn't just sitting at the ends of the aisles to catch my eyes, or samples, which tend to be my downfall, haha! So, I just use the site, create my order and then drive up to the pick up area at my designated time and someone loads them in my trunk for me. Easy peasy.
For all of you busy mom's struggling, I cannot praise enough my crockpot! I'm the same way where after working all day I don't want to be in the kitchen for hours, and the crockpot has definitely helped me out in that department. Even when I'm not using it I make sure any recipe doesn't take any longer than half an hour at most to have done and ready to eat, because ain't nobody got time for that (waiting forever to eat that is). There are a couple one pot meals that we really enjoy and if you aren't disgusting like DH and don't have the ability to shovel 3 plates of food into your mouth, you'll have plenty of leftovers for another meal OR lunches the next day.
For all of you busy mom's struggling, I cannot praise enough my crockpot! I'm the same way where after working all day I don't want to be in the kitchen for hours, and the crockpot has definitely helped me out in that department. Even when I'm not using it I make sure any recipe doesn't take any longer than half an hour at most to have done and ready to eat, because ain't nobody got time for that (waiting forever to eat that is). There are a couple one pot meals that we really enjoy and if you aren't disgusting like DH and don't have the ability to shovel 3 plates of food into your mouth, you'll have plenty of leftovers for another meal OR lunches the next day.
The crock pot is also amazing on maternity leave! Prep when baby's napping and you're good to go. I need to prepare some freezer dump and go crockpot meals before baby comes.
littlesthobo I think a thread with freezer meal recipes is in order as July gets closer! I have a list of what needs to be done before baby arrives and prepping meals is definitely on it because no way in hell am I putting as much effort into cooking as I do currently once baby arrives.
littlesthobo I think a thread with freezer meal recipes is in order as July gets closer! I have a list of what needs to be done before baby arrives and prepping meals is definitely on it because no way in hell am I putting as much effort into cooking as I do currently once baby arrives.
I agree! It's on my to do list too so we will definitely need to have a freezer meal thread!
littlesthobo I think a thread with freezer meal recipes is in order as July gets closer! I have a list of what needs to be done before baby arrives and prepping meals is definitely on it because no way in hell am I putting as much effort into cooking as I do currently once baby arrives.
I agree! It's on my to do list too so we will definitely need to have a freezer meal thread!
I agree too! Maybe in May? Whoever remembers, go for it!
littlesthobo I think a thread with freezer meal recipes is in order as July gets closer! I have a list of what needs to be done before baby arrives and prepping meals is definitely on it because no way in hell am I putting as much effort into cooking as I do currently once baby arrives.
Yes to this! It was in my list to do with ds. I literally had gone to the store and got all the ingredients and then I got induced 2 weeks early. While I was in the hospital, my mom went to my house and made meals. I was so grateful!
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