How much do you spend on groceries? And how do you save?

amother

Thu, Nov 27 2014, 7:49 pm

This is more/less our "big" once-a-month shopping list. The amount of each that I purchase vary each month...depends if there are chagim, more guests than usual, etc.
1. Grape juice for Shabbos
2. Bottled drinks - like coke, juice, etc. (unless we have guests, we have 2 every Shabbos and only drink water or homemade ice tea during the week)
3. Sugar
4. Oil
5. Mayo/ketchup/mustard
6. Canned tomato sauce
7. Canned mushrooms
8. Canned corn niblets
9. Canned baby corn
10. Canned olives/pickles
11. Jarred sourkraut
12. Canned chickpeas
13. Flour
14. Brown sugar
15. Bamba
16. Tortilla chips/Tortillas
17. Spaghetti, penne, and other types of pasta
18. Rice
19. Pearl barley
20. Cholent beans
21. Brown/red lentils
22. Popcorn kernels
23. Plastic plates/cups
24. Napkins
25. Disposable pans
26. Aluminum foil
27. Disposable plastic covers for table
28. Garbage bags
29. Pads
30. Sponges (reg & Shabbos)
31. Candles/lighters (if needed for Shabbos)
32. Tilapia fish (frozen)
33. Gefilte fish log (frozen)
34. Salmon (frozen)
35. Whole chickens (Frozen. I cut them up once defrosted)
36. Ground chicken/turkey
37. Vegetarian cutlets (called tival?)
38. Hot dogs (frozen)
38. Frozen string beans
39. Some other kind of frozen veggies (broccoli or mixed veggies or peas)
40. Baby formula/diapers/wipes
41. Craisins
42. Jarred pasta sauce (I don't like how it tastes when I make it from scratch)
43. Sometimes I'll also buy salad dressing... we have a lot of sauces/dressings at home, so I only need to buy new ones every once in a while

this delivery usually costs around $400... sometimes less.
My weekly shopping is:
fruits/veg
milk
eggs
yogurt
cream cheese
shredded cheese
humus or techina
gum Smile

Hashem_Yaazor

Thu, Nov 27 2014, 10:09 pm

To the poster who said they save by buying big nosh bags, I actually just (almost) stopped that. I realized my kids were eating much more of it proportionally and once the bag was open, it was used up quickly. I am actually saving now by buying individual snacks (at Costco though)....anyway, I doubt that is what OP is buying Smile

I make my own baked goods which helps cut the costs down a lot.

I also don't run to a gazillion different stores, or even look at what is on sale to figure out where to shop, but I do take advantage of sale prices for things I KNOW we eat and would be on my list in the next couple of weeks (today I did my pre-shabbos quick run at the regular store vs where I usually get produce due to thanksgiving, and they had minute steaks marked down half off to 4.99/lb -- I got 8 or so for under $10. This will be the meat for a week in my house making my shopping list next week very small. I probably just need some chicken, dairy, and produce.)

I think the main thing for me is to work my menu with what I have vs having to shop almost anew every week for the menu.

Also I don't know what else the money is going for, but we hardly use cereal these days (my husband and 1 kid only eat it) -- we use a lot of oatmeal, though, which is cheaper.

MaBelleVie

Thu, Nov 27 2014, 10:45 pm

Here are a few ways I save:

1. Shop in a few different stores weekly. The same three, usually, but this is a big money saver for me. Kosher supermarket for products available only or most cheaply there. One store where produce is much cheaper than elsewhere, and we buy lots of it. And finally the biggest shopping, which is at a large chain that has good prices on all other products.

2. Buy everything possible on sale. If you shop at the same large chain weekly you will learn their sale patterns and can make this work for you. Don't get stuck on "needing" the same produce week after week, be flexible and learn how to use a variety. This applies to meat and chicken as well.

3. Cook with what I have. I don't make a menu plan in advance, but I do try to maximize what we have in the house. So if peppers were on sale, I'll use those in the stir fry. If cauliflower was on sale, that's the side dish for shabbos. I'm not going to buy things at full price if I can make a different dish using what we got on sale.

mazal555

Thu, Nov 27 2014, 11:57 pm

I save a lot with crock pot meals. Whatever veggies are starting to go I put in the crock pot with either meat or chicken or fish on Monday night and I put it in the fridge. Tuesday morning I put it in the element and I grocery shop Tuesdays. This way I come home to a good dinner. I almost never throw out food. I do crock pot dinner 2-3 times a week but definitely for Tuesdays. I never use takeout. We don't buy lunches. I make extra dinner and send it with my husband for lunch and I keep a cooked frozen chicken or two at all times for bad days. I don't buy drinks or snacks except I buy anti oxidant juice concentrates from Walmart. We drink a lot of water. I buy all my paper goods, canned fish, flour, etc from Walmart and get free shipping. I don't buy cold cereal I make oatmeal which I put together the night before to save time for the morning crunch and just turn it on in the morning. I don't buy instant except for Shabbat. I have a route of three stops I do on Tuesdays and I buy the cheapest at each stop. I don't buy pre cut veggies unless they are cheaper than regular. If a vegetable is on sale I buy a lot, cut it and freeze it. I serve big meals so people don't eat expensive snacks between meals.

mommy3b2c

Fri, Nov 28 2014, 8:11 am

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

Im the one who buys the big bags. It is definitely working for me. I dont put a lot in each baggie, and my kids are only allowed one baggie a day. Some of the big bags are lasting me a full week or more.

mille

Fri, Nov 28 2014, 9:28 am

I spend $250 on groceries for 2 adults per month. I honestly can't fathom how I would spend more money unless we went crazy and had meat all the time, but we don't like meat that much.

We eat a lot of dairy during the week. I also make a lot of ethnic food, and some of it is very cheap compared to the standard jewish fare or the "chicken + starch + green veg" dinner concept. Like red beans and rice. Or indian food, which is very heavy on lentils, chickpeas, rice, etc, all cheap ingredients. I use chicken wings in my chicken soup because I can usually find big packs of wings on sale for 1.49/lb and I stock up. I use ground turkey instead of ground beef almost exclusively, and we like ground turkey better so it's not much of a sacrifice. I buy chicken thighs, which happen to be cheaper than whole chickens where I shop.

I buy a lot of greens from farmers markets and such. We love all kinds of greens, like swiss chard, collard greens, mustard greens, etc. A big bag at the supermarket is like $2 and lasts multiple meals. It's also very healthy! For other produce, I shop seasonally and what looks good/is on sale. I buy heads of lettuce and wash it myself instead of the little bags. A head of bibb lettuce or red leaf lettuce is like $1.25/lb, which ends up being less than a dollar a head, vs the bags which are $2 for like 5oz of lettuce. A salad spinner makes washing lettuce no big deal. A big thing for us is that we buy ingredients, we don't buy pre-made stuff. Even something as small as "cholent mix". I rarely make cholent, but the last time I did, I noticed those little bags of cholent mix were $2. In the "ethnic food" aisle, I could buy barley, pinto beans, and kidney beans all dried and make the mix myself. I spent $3 for 3lb (1lb each) of the ingredients. The cholent mix is also 1lb... So I saved $4 by just mixing it myself.

I cook very simply for Shabbos, even with guests. Simply doesn't mean not as good, and it doesn't mean everyone gets a plain piece of chicken and plain rice. A sample shabbos menu for 8 people I would do would be: a green salad with 2-3 ingredients (during the summer, something like fresh raw corn, grape tomatoes, and walnuts with a homemade dressing), turkey meatballs with a homemade red sauce, garlic rice, roasted zucchini, and probably one more dish depending on the guests (e.g. more meat and potatoes eaters, I'd do roasted potatoes with sausage, more 'healthy' eaters, I'd do roasted pattypan squash or bok choy, more adventurous eaters, I might make tamales). When it's just the two of us, I cook less dishes and more 'all in one' dishes. Like a chicken and rice dish cooked together. Or a hearty soup with mini meatballs. Or pulled bbq chicken sandwiches. Things like that. It's just two people, and yes Shabbos should be 'fancier' than weeknight meals, but it doesn't have to be a large quantity. I wouldn't normally eat so much on a Tuesday lunch, so a sandwich and salad for shabbos lunch is very adequate.

I also think it's helpful in terms of pricing to create an excel spreadsheet of the common items you buy and the sale prices. I know many sale prices by heart, but when you are starting out, it's good to keep track. A sale doesn't mean it's a good sale. For example, gatorade goes on sale for 4/$5 ($1.25/each) here quite often. But that's not such a good sale. It's also on sale for 10/$10 ($1/each), and the BEST sale is $.88/each. So if you wanted to stock up on gatorade before the next fast, you'd wait until it hits that 88 cents sale. Same with pasta. The 'bad' sale is a dollar a box, the 'better' sale, which we often buy, is 88 cents a box. The BEST sale which is very rare, but we always stock up on pretty much the max they let you buy is 66 cents a box. Keeping a spreadsheet to track these trends will help you see what the best deal is. It's also helpful to look at the price versus the size of the package. Often there will be a sale on the largest size, but the smallest size at regular price is still a better price! I've noticed this with ketchup.

As a disclaimer, we eat pretty much all standard hechsherim (like all but tablet-k pretty much), we eat chalav stam, and all that jazz. Pretty standard MO, but I am sure some is not as translatable price-wise for those who hold by other standards.

LittleDucky

Fri, Nov 28 2014, 4:28 pm

amother wrote:

And how do you cook cheap?? I've been so proud for cutting back on take out (always rationalized that I work crazy hours so I need to do it so I can work and continue making money) and I've been cooking every night for the most part. I even thought I saw a slight difference in credit card bill but that was made up for by baby expenses. Anyway, I just calculated how much we spent on food for the past month (just me and my husband...may have gone away for a shabbos meal or two and had company for a meal or two as well but otherwise just the two of us) and between groceries, minimal take out and seven eleven runs (but not counting the random groceries I pick up in target or walmart while buying baby stuff) it was close to $1000. I don't cook fancy or make expensive foods. For instance tonight was shnitzel and rice with enough left overs for another meal plus. Other meals I make include lasagna, penne a la vodka, hamburgers, meatballs, chicken burgers etc. Shabbos is simple with challah, dips when we have company, soup, chicken, kugel, liver, eggs, cholent and deli. What am I doing wrong and how can I halve my grocery expenses?

I didn't read all the posts so I am sorry if this is a repeat comment. 1,000 is a LOT. You say you don't cook fancy or expensive, and I hate to be harsh but- your menu is expensive and is not that simple.
I don't make fleishigs that many times a week. Can you switch up your menu to do omelets? Chicken bottoms are way less than cutlets. You can also use cut up chicken pieces (leftovers) in a tomato sauce over pasta. Beans are a cheap and filling protein.

Why on shabbos do you need chicken, cholent AND deli especially if it's just 2 of you? Plus both eggs and liver? There is a lot of expensive proteins in this 24 hour period. This is an easy way to cut costs. Soup, eggs, chicken, salad, and kugel is quite a filling meal. And you just cut huge amounts off- and multiply that by 4 shabbosim a month.

Do you shop around? Price shop- the local kosher market sells regular pasta at almost 3 times my non jewish market!! Shop sales too!

granolamom

Sun, Nov 30 2014, 2:29 am

LittleDucky wrote:

I think one thing that hasnt been mentioned is how much OP and her dh eat. If there's leftovers from her shabbos menu for another two nights, then its not such an expensive menu. I wind up cooking three mains for shabbos because my kids/dh like different things, but they will eat leftovers on sunday and tuesday. so its the same thing as cooking one main three times.

amother

Sun, Nov 30 2014, 6:31 am

Planning helps me a lot, because if I don't then I am so collapsed after a 12 hr shift plus hour travelling time each end, that I will grab a takeaway salad or whatever from the store on the way home, and I can end up spending a lot.

So, I also work 4 long shifts in a row, and the day before (esp now shabbos goes out so early) make suppers for each day, and fridge or freeze. This saves a lot. Or use super quick shortcuts, so prepared stirfry plus couscous, which takes 3 minutes to make in a bowl, not rice, which takes 15 and uses a pan.

I shop once a week for shabbos, and every other week for veg and groceries, and then just make do with what I have, even if it means changing the menu. I plan the menu once a week and stick to it. I buy according to sales and seasonal foods.

I save by not eating meat or chicken apart from shabbos and leftovers, we both brown bag lunches, but obviously my dh is on board and is happy with a hearty soup with pasta/ poached egg for an evening meal, rather than a steak or whatever. Everything I cook gets doubled and at least 2 meals go in the freezer, so we can eat out the freezer every other week if I want.

We also have bad months and better months in terms of cost, depends on work schedules, fatigue and yomtov /other factors. I try to be very careful in months where our income drops a lot (due to dh's job structure), but gife myself a break on a better month.

I would say it is only worth driving yourselves mad for if it is necessary, working such long hours with a baby and other stresses is hard enough, if you can affrod it and it works and alleviates some of the day to day stress, then I think it is worth spending the money.

amother

Sun, Nov 30 2014, 8:06 am

LittleDucky wrote:

Omelets is for breakfast and dh doesn't like chicken on the bone (and I can't stand cleaning it!). We use leftovers for the next meal or two (unless I froze for another meal entirely).

On Shabbos chicken is Friday night and cholent and deli is Shabbos day. Liver is the part of Shabbos dh looks forward to most so I can't save on that. I have eggs too because he likes the liver made with an egg and I have to cook three anyway so I make egg salad too. Like I said, the liver and deli is $10/week so not putting me over the edge and not worth fighting over.

And yes, I shop around to some extent. Past is usually not from the jewish stores I usually get that at Target when I'm getting formula. And I try to make a sale when I can but with my work schedule (48 hours this week with 8 hours commute and having the baby all day on my one day off) it's kind of hard.

On the bright side I started by making a soup that was free last night. Easy too and dh loves it. I've had the ingredients in my house for forever and finally getting some use out of it. Will hopefully make us eat less of tonights dinner (fleishig lasagna) so it will be enough for two nights. I'm hoping that since we have the soup we'll use less of the meat I'd typically use for a meal and be able to make extra into meatballs and freeze for next week.

Oh, and I can't cut out my meat during the week entirely because then dh cries that he's anemic and he needs meat for his blood type and yada yada yada (I'm perfectly happy with grilled cheese every night).

Another thing we are going to try is to split Shabbos leftovers for two meals. Instead of warming everything up Sunday night and then the rest going into the garbage we discussed having cholent/kugel/deli Sunday night and chicken/rice and maybe fresh salad on Monday (maybe fresh soup?). So far he seems ok with that. We were away this Shabbos so I guess we'll see how it works next week.

amother

Sun, Nov 30 2014, 8:12 am

amother wrote:

I would say it is only worth driving yourselves mad for if it is necessary, working such long hours with a baby and other stresses is hard enough, if you can affrod it and it works and alleviates some of the day to day stress, then I think it is worth spending the money.

There is afford and afford...bh I can pay the bills but not saving as much as we'd like. Also, we usually get whatever we want when we want...still covering bills bh but would like to be more careful and I'd like to be able to splurge on other things more often (night nurse when I'm falling apart from work schedule etc) and cutting corners here can definitely help in that department. I read here about spending previous months paycheck and that's something I'd like to work towards (hard because I only get paid once a month) and trying as much as possible to get this spending under control can only help towards that. I won't drive myself crazy but would love it if next month I can look at bill and see several hundred dollars saved (especially since chanuka presents are on that bill and I don't want it going even higher than usual).

amother

Sun, Nov 30 2014, 9:07 am

Try making pareve meals once a week. I know you said an omelette is for breakfast, but try it for dinner one day, with lots of veggies that would go bad otherwise, or even leftovers that get thrown out. Omelette, rice and beans, salad, yum. Eggs are a great protein source, and cheap. I make spicy shakshouka once a week, and omelette another. Usually Monday and Thursday. Sunday's we eat shabbos leftovers, Wednesday chicken. Red meat only shabbos. NO soda, juices or bottled drinks, ever ( more for health than budget). Snacks is popcorn, which my kids can airpop on their own ( also for health reasons), and fruit or carrot/celery sticks that I cut myself.

We are a family of 6 big eaters. I never made a food budget, but I do shop sales. I do spend a lot on veggies, though, fresh when possible.

Also, make your own when ever possible.

mandr

Sun, Nov 30 2014, 11:35 am

Probably the best way to save is to get only what you really need to at the grocery store. In other words, whatever could be gotten elsewhere at cheaper stores, should be. Toilet paper doesn't have to be gotten at the grocery. And it's pathetic to pay twice the price of shampoo and other health ad beauty aids at a kosher grocery than at a Shoprite/Target/Walmart (especially when it's on sale).

The only stuff I buy at the kosher supermarket are dairy (since we don't eat chalav stam), meat and chicken, crackers/some snacks, and produce (believe it or not, fruits and veggies are often cheaper at our groceries than at Shoprite-like stores).

At the non-jewish supermarkets I can get: baking items, pantry stuff, condiments, frozen veggies, drinks, juices, body care, household products.

Also, bake your own snacks and cakes if at all possible. You save so much. One batch of rugelach for example will cost you max $8 in ingredients - and the yield would cost you over $20 in the grocery/bakery.

Make suppers that yield more than one supper at a time (only works with smaller families or couples usually). The cheapest supper to make (from the recipes I make) is lasagna: $3 worth of shredded cheese (from a $9.99 Costco bag), $3.50 cottage cheese, $1.50 tomato sauce, .30 for eggs, $2 for lasagna pasta, $2 potatoes = $11.80 and this makes 6 portions for us. So since we are two adults, that's 3 suppers at $3.93 a supper! That's the price of a slice and a half of pizza at the pizza shop.

amother

Sun, Nov 30 2014, 5:28 pm

amother wrote:

How on earth is that only $400??????