Monthly Grocery Budget.

[lazy gardener]

Following this thread with interest. Big savings for me: freezer full of cockrels... though not sure how much of a savings due to up front feed costs. At least I have no hatchery costs. Eggs are pretty much free for me. Egg sales pay for almost all of their feed. Again... building expenses not accounted for. Looking forward to future production from new orchard, increased production from garden, learning to pressure can. Our expenses are very minimal. I feed 2 adults and a ravenous 14 y.o., also have 9 y.o. here almost 1/2 of the time. I don't follow a budget, but would be surprised if I spend more than 80 - 100/week. No couponing here, as IMO name brands w/coupon are less of a savings than store brands w/o coupon. Go to discount bakery for "day old" breads. Typical savings is about 66% from grocery store prices. Try to do an egg type meal 1 x /week, cook soups, chili fairly often. Buy meats on sale, and serve smaller portions of meats.

 

[N F C]

I wish we had some of the food shopping options here that some of you do. Our choices are Publix, Winn Dixie, and Wal-Mart which we can reach in a 40 mile round trip and 2 tiny mom & pop groceries/convenience type stores that are 20 miles round trip. There have been attempts to start farmer's markets in the area but they fizzled (more vendors than customers...we tried it one year with excess garden produce). There's no Costco, Sam's Club, discount bakeries, ethnic stores, etc. around here. You can find them if you're willing to spend at least an hour driving there and another hour back but there goes money in the tank.

The next time DH and I move someplace, you can bet I'm going to pay a lot more attention to shopping options!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It's nice to be in the boonies but it's nice to be able to buy things when you want them.

 

[N F C]

It's nice to be in the boonies but it's nice to be able to buy things when you want them.

It's definitely a good/bad thing.

Sorry if I sounded whiney in my last post.

 

[donrae]

I sure hope we're less than a grand a month, but that's only $200 per person. And like I said, we eat a lot of meat......that ain't getting any cheaper. And I'm buying chicken feed and eggs right now

We had local Albertson's markets and I liked shopping there, but they bought Safeway and were forced to relinquish some of their stores due to concerns about a monopoly in the area. So Haggen's bought two Albertsons. One only lasted a few months and closed. The other one is still open but the prices are outrageous. I have a Fred Meyers also, they have good sales from time to time but mainly I shop Wal-Mart now. Costco, etc are in Medford, half an hour south. Oh, we do have a Franz bakery outlet here, that's where I get our breads for the carbers. I've done the bake our own bread thing before and we all gained a good 10lbs, not a good thing.

I don't coupon as a rule either, I buy house brand. I did use a coupon for Blue Bunny ice cream recently though

 

[donrae]

Okay, first shopping trip yesterday.

Wal-Mart 91.60
Grocery Outlet 27.74
Bi-Mart 4.00

so a total of $123.34 so far...

 

[donrae]

Friday spend $20 for The Locusts to eat dinner at Subway
Today spent $14 on breakfast for bowlers. I should have just bought them donuts, it would have been cheaper.
Went to Food 4 Less, they had some great sales on meat. 111.14


so I'm at 268.45 for the month so far.

 

[lazy gardener]

Now, Rachel... If you don't use up all of that meat this month, how's that fact going to enter into your $ plan? Or will you just keep a rolling month by month comparison??? Locusts... appropriate term for teens!

 

[donrae]

I just keep a rolling stash of meat going. I try hard to rotate, but that doesn't always happen. but I figure for the most part what I buy each month balances out with what we eat each month, cause the freezers stay about the same level. We eat so much meat I just buy what's on sale (what I consider sale, not what the store calls a sale) cause we're not going to quit eating meat any time soon

.

We spent 91 on dinner tonight ( I know)

and 9.66 at Wal mart for peaches and ice cream and ramen.

So I'm up to 369.20

Looks like a grand may be too conservative! Although dinner out tonight was definitely not a usual expense.

 

[lazy gardener]

I just keep a rolling stash of meat going. I try hard to rotate, but that doesn't always happen. but I figure for the most part what I buy each month balances out with what we eat each month, cause the freezers stay about the same level. We eat so much meat I just buy what's on sale (what I consider sale, not what the store calls a sale) cause we're not going to quit eating meat any time soon

.

We spent 91 on dinner tonight ( I know)

and 9.66 at Wal mart for peaches and ice cream and ramen.

So I'm up to 369.20

Looks like a grand may be too conservative! Although dinner out tonight was definitely not a usual expense.

I wouldn't consider pizza night and dinner out to be part of the grocery budget. Those go under entertainment in my money plan. Cause they are not necessary, while eating is. When it's time to cut back the budget, those entertainment meals are the first ones to go bye-bye!