Israel-Groceries | Imamother

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Jun 08 2015, 3:39 pm

Sanguine wrote:

We spend a lot more!! Don't have a number but it's a lot more!!! Groceries are so much more expensive here. You can't even compare to American prices. Someone there said they save money by eating only dark chicken meat and chicken cutlets during the week!! (that's Shabbat food) I never make chicken for supper during the week. Well, certainly not bottoms. Maybe a full chicken cause those come on sale (but everyone likes the dark meat here). Wings are cheap. chopped meat stopped having good prices - Anywhere!

We have 5 kids and they're big (teens and up). Three are (big) boys. They eat a lot. (I think I buy 8 bags of milk each week). That's why I can't begin to compare amount of money spent.

Forget about comparing grocery prices with America. And, $1070 salary/week - (what started that thread) would be 16,500 shekel a month! I'd buy chicken for supper during the week.

We make much less. Our groceries cost much much more... So what's our secret? Didn't I start a thread like this in LII a few days ago? Not sure if I should post the secret here on the regular board. Well, this is the land of milk and honey... That sums it up Very Happy

I met a guy in the makolet. We were both buying milk. He must hae had at least 5 bags. And he said he comes back countless times during the week, that it would just be cheaper to buy a cow Smile

Sanguine

Mon, Jun 08 2015, 5:09 pm

How do people have an amount per week (or even month?). Our local supermarket isn't cheap so every month or every other or often we go to the big cheap supermarkets like Osher Ad or Rami Levi. We buy a lot of what's cheap (tons of ketchup), frozen vegetables, soda, oil, (just thinking of things that I have a lot of now) - I buy lots of chicken when I find a good sale. My house is pretty well stocked (we're ready for the next war CH"vs embarrassed

) but we're always buying (even dairy, fruits and vegetable, eggs - we use the 30 egg trays). I have a white board in the kitchen where I write things as they run out. It's always full. But how do you know per week? The best I can do is add up the month's credit card food charges (and divide by 4 for one week), but I know that all that food isn't gone this month. We're eating some of last month's and we've bought some food that will go past this month.

How do people have an amount per week?

(now I'm going to sleep - will read answer in AM) Zip it

Smile1234

Mon, Jun 08 2015, 5:41 pm

Sanguine wrote:

But how do you know per week? The best I can do is add up the month's credit card food charges (and divide by 4 for one week), but I know that all that food isn't gone this month. We're eating some of last month's and we've bought some food that will go past this month.

How do people have an amount per week?

(now I'm going to sleep - will read answer in AM) Zip it

That's how I got my number. I pay for majority of my food on cc, and I know that I spend around 400-500 dollars per month on food. So the week amount isn't necessarily exact.

But also - yes we stock up too, so some weeks we spend more and buy a lot of chickens, and the next 2 or 3 weeks we wont buy any. And same for other products (canned goods, paper goods etc) But it all balances out.

etky

Tue, Jun 09 2015, 5:08 am

All included, probably about 1200 Sh a week on average.
Family of 5, including 3 ever-eating teens (one of whom inhales chicken) who also have to bring food and snacks occasionally to all kinds of social and school events.
Including the occasional chessed meal/cake and the food I send out to my father who lives alone.
Including almost every single Shabbat meal (we never ever go away) and a fair amount of entertaining friends and other guests on Shabbat.
Including all cleaning supplies and cleansers and personal hygiene products like shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, soap, toothpaste, facial wash for the girls, sanitary napkins etc.
Including laundry detergent and softner. We do lots of laundry.
We buy almost everything at Rami Levy. Fill in bread and milk and the occasional grocery item or fruit/vegetable at the corner makolet if necessary.
I shop carefully and consider every purchase.

kalsee

Tue, Jun 09 2015, 5:33 am

we spend somewhere between 500-700 shekel every week.
Includes diapers, laundry detergents, soaps, shampoos, etc. also paper goods.
Family of 5.
2 kids eat lunch at the afternoon program 5 days a week.
Shabbos - eat out one meal probably every other week.
chicken or turkey - 3-4 times a week. otherwise fish or beans

I'm not especially frugal
Also, we're on a low carb diet. So no wheat products and very little rice or potatoes.
Mostly protein and produce
including one kid with milk and nut allergies.

alwaybhappy

Tue, Jun 09 2015, 6:08 am

family of 5 (children 4,3,1)
big eaters
we eat only healthy foods and I make almost everything
we spend about $700-$1000 monthly
I don't know if I overspend but I try not to be cheap on good/healthy foods
I usually shop in osher ad and shaarei revacha.

Liebs

Tue, Jun 09 2015, 7:23 am

israelgirl wrote:

I don't know why anyone would answer this question anonymously anywhere, but I guess I just didn't think to post it there as it's a spinoff of the Brooklyn thread. I would also love to see if there is a price difference food wise in the US and here.

I think food in Israel is more expensive.
Especially fruits and vegies and chicken.
I make fleishigs twice a week about. (I'd love to do it more but can't afford it).
We spend about that and not even whole grains....
Not sure exactly because do a chicken order once a month and fruits and vegies separately then groceries separately. But I'd guess 800-1000 a week for family of 6, one in diapers.

LisaS

Wed, Jun 10 2015, 2:34 am

The reason our bill is low is because DH does the shopping. He never buys on impulse, has an accurate idea of how much of each item we need, and splits his shopping between a few stores. In the days when I did the shopping we spent a lot more.

We don't eat a lot of fleishigs, and no fancy items like pine nuts unless it is yom tov.

ray family

Wed, Jun 10 2015, 3:37 am

family of 6 we spend about 600-650 a week- all inclusive of paper goods, diapers, cleaning products etc.
once every other month or so I go to osher ad and buy tons of stuff that I wouldn't normally buy cuz it's much cheaper there. when I do a big shop there it comes out to about 1100.
once a month I do a chicken/meat order for about 400 shekels.

Sanguine, we also go through 7-8 bags of milk a week during the summer (my kids drink fruit shakes every day)

Sanguine

Wed, Jun 10 2015, 4:16 am

ray family wrote:

Sanguine, we also go through 7-8 bags of milk a week during the summer (my kids drink fruit shakes every day)

And you caught me on an "extravagance" that uses a lot of milk. We buy cereal for breakfast (how unIsraeli). Started with just cornflakes but now everyone has their favorite cereal (me too). We look for sales and are flexible for which is on sale, but we buy a lot of cereal.

Sanguine

Wed, Jun 10 2015, 4:21 am

Liebs wrote:

I think food in Israel is more expensive.

Understatement of the day. Did you ever buy Wacky Mac or Fould's nooles and cheese? They're .69 in America and 10 Shekel a box here! (If everyone is home, I need 4 boxes for a meal). I haven't bought them in years but they once were on sale so we got to appreciate them.

etky

Wed, Jun 10 2015, 4:38 am

Sanguine wrote:

Yeah but that's an imported specialty convenience item. It would be fairer to compare it to one of those dehydrated rice/noodle meals. How much do they cost? 5 or 6 sh? Still more expensive in real and relative terms...

amother

Ivory

Wed, Jun 10 2015, 4:41 am

My big extravagance is Mozzerella cheese sticks. My kids refuse to eat the sliced yellow cheese and when we lived in the US they ate cheese sticks for breakfast, as snacks, all the time. You could get a package of 36 at Costco for $4, but here in Israel you get 8 for 20 NIS.