Teach me how to spend less than 250 weekly groceries

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Forum -> Shopping

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amother

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 8:33 am

Family of 4 healthy eating

amother

Tuberose

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 8:51 am

Don't buy dairy besides milk if needed. Have plant based meals three times a week. Don't buy snack bags. Shop in a cheap store even if it's not as nice or convenient.

amother

Lilac

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 8:56 am

I would look at what you're buying that's expensive and see if there are cheaper alternatives or ways to get it or make it cheaper. Ex: if it's kids' snacks, try making popcorn, baking your own, buying big bags and putting in smaller containers yourself for school. If it's convenience foods, find a way to cut back/diy them. If it's veg, buy in season. If it's organic, buy from somewhere with better prices (Aldi is pretty good for basic organic stuff).

amother

Trillium

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 8:57 am

Also very interested.

What helped a little was to meal plan in the beginning of the week so I don't keep running to the store and buying random items.

I also started to buy many items at Walmart such as mustard, spices, cereal, can goods ect.

notshanarishona

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 9:08 am

Cut on chicken/ meat. By fruits and veggies by what is on sale. Beans are cheap.

amother

Lawngreen

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 9:21 am

Honestly healthy eating costs more.
Produce and protein costs more money than pasta and and yogurts.

I am learning that hashem will always feed me and my family and I do my basic hoshtadlus of shopping in cheaper stores for produce. I did not cut back on protiens.
We cut back on clothing and toys instead. We cut back on snack backs and make everything homemade which saves alot. We dont buy dairy which is anyway not healthy these days and has a crazy markup.

amother

Mistyrose

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 9:27 am

Oh wow. We are a family of 10 and I aim to spend max $300/week. Where do you shop??

amother

IndianRed

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 9:30 am

amother Mistyrose wrote:

Oh wow. We are a family of 10 and I aim to spend max $300/week. Where do you shop??

Can you share your shopping list? We are KAH A family of 9. Are you in town or OOT?

amother

Catmint

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 9:32 am

amother Mistyrose wrote:

Oh wow. We are a family of 10 and I aim to spend max $300/week. Where do you shop??

How do you spend so little for 10 ppl?
We are 6 ppl and spend 400-500.

amother

Mistyrose

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 9:44 am

amother IndianRed wrote:

Can you share your shopping list? We are KAH A family of 9. Are you in town or OOT?

I live in Toronto so I guess it's not actually comparable.

I meal plan and sit with the weekly flyer and base my shopping off what's on sale that week. This does not take very long. I also will buy chicken when it's on discount because it's close to the sell by date and then batch cook. I shop twice a week - on Sunday for the week and Thursday for the weekend. I shop online - don't step foot in the store, which really helps with budgeting - no throwing extra stuff in the cart and I'm only buying what I need.

I try and stretch proteins so instead of making salmon the main dish I'll buy a side of salmon and split it into three portions for poke bowls. Use one and freeze the other two.

I'll cut up three chicken breasts instead of needing 8+ and toss with noodles and frozen veggies.

Instead of making meatballs for ten ppl I'll make meat sauce as I can use one pound of ground beef instead of 2 to have enough meatballs.

I'll switch up the produce for what's on sale - pears were .99/lb last week and apples were a lot more so I bought pears for snacks.

I buy store brand for most things instead of name brand.

Shakshuka I find is a cheap meal, I make a hearty chickpea soup - also very cheap.

I enjoy planning on a budget though and like the satisfaction of saving the money so I don't find it tedious or annoying.

In terms of a shopping list....I'll make a dinner plan for the week and then buy those ingredients and then add in what we need for lunches and breakfast so it varies weekly.

If I can't find chicken on sale - we don't have. I buy salmon only when on sale, etc. I adapt for what I can find. But it may mean one week I'm spending a lot on chicken but last time I bought 11 club packs of chicken breast when they were clearing them out at around $8/pack for 8 chicken breasts. I cooked all 11 packs and froze 11 dinners. So while I spent more that week...I don't have to buy chicken for a few weeks.

I shop online for Costco. It may come to a few dollars more for that but I only buy what I need and nothing extra goes in the cart. That is my best way to stop spending! Shop online and it saves so much time too!

amother

Cerulean

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 9:52 am

Stay boring. Find a menu that works and stick to it consistently
Serve meals in which the leftovers can be the next days lunch
Repurpose
Shop once a week.

amother

Ballota

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 10:13 am

Same here, we are a family of 10 and I would love to learn how to spend only $300 a week. I can't completely cut out snack bags though, I can't make my kids stand out from their peers. And I can't serve beans for supper, people don't like them.

Amarante

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 12:21 pm

It really depends on what you are trying to achieve in terms of "healthy eating" and what your priorities are in terms of allocating your budget.

It also depends on how flexible you are regarding the willingness of your family to try new foods AND your willingness to try new food products and recipes.

It is not difficult but it requires some commitment to exploring until you get used to them. For example tofu is cheap and healthy but it does require "learning" how to prepare it in ways that you and your family enjoy.

Also to cook healthily and less expensively generally demands a commitment of time although you can cut down on time but preparing larger quantities on Sunday and freezing. But generally it is much easy and faster to roast or saute chicken or fish.

There are now loads of sources for extremely healthy vegetarian or even vegan recipes. Many of them are easy to prepare and/or are modified versions of more traditional recipes.

amother

Tulip

Fri, Feb 02 2024, 12:40 pm

We're a family of 10 and I spend $700/week.

amother

Oleander

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 8:27 pm

amother Mistyrose wrote:

What do you make with chicken breast that you freeze?
What do you buy at Costco? Do they deliver?

accountantmommy

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 9:05 pm

Depending on where you live, you can do Amazon fresh. I spend about $175 a week from there on Sunday and about $90-100 for shabbos from local kosher store but we are not very frugal with shabbos stuff (premade dips, herring, mezonos,etc). My husband also picks up yogurts for the kids for the week during the shabbos run at the kosher store bc we keep CY.

From Amazon fresh where I live Ican get frozen pack 3lb empire chicken breasts 17.99. I can also get plenty of organic produce and kids snacks. They have sales and coupons every week and I only buy what's on sale that week. I generally buy the big 3lb back of chicken once a month and then gardein brand plant based proteins or beans to make some kind of soup the rest of the week for suppers. You can get pas yisroel bread on there and PB and J for kids lunches as well as siggis vegan yogurt that is literally the same price and healthier than CY yogurts. Their 365 brand almond milk is parve and really tasty. A lot of the whole foods store brand stuff is kosher and cheaper than the name brand, much of it is organic. We eat meat on shabbos and sometimes once during the week, but mostly parve suppers.

I have family of four with two kids under 5 with allergies and eating restrictions and this seems to do the trick and could potentially work for your budget.

amother

Whitesmoke

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 9:36 pm

I recently started shopping at Aldis and it’s made a big difference. I buy (off brand) sandwich cookies, snackers, pretzel sticks, graham crackers, chips and a few other things.(if you don’t keep CY you can get even more there). I buy big bags and put them into small ziplocks for snack. I also buy tons of fruit and vegetables for a fraction of the cost. And French fries. I usually spend between 45-70$.
We also have cosco membership and buy chicken, Pringles, chips, applesauce pouches and many dry goods there. I have a basic two week menu and mostly stick to it with some variety. For example Tuesday is a pasta day but that can be lasagna, ziti, fettuccine etc.

amother

Blushpink

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 11:19 pm

When people say they spend 300 a week or 700 a week on groceries ...is that on avg after taking into account the more once in a while costo bulk purchases, or if something is on sale and stock up etc...

Also does it usually include related paper or household goods?

Or does that number refer to just the basic food grocery orders per week?

Maybe it's different per person so maybe if possible for people to share this info when sharing #s it would be helpful.

We are family of 8
Weekly grocery order is usually around 275 BUT does not include paper goods which usually buy bulk every 2 or 3 months and does not include for example if chicken was on sale and ordered a lot to stock up. Plus not unlikely for there to somehow be another grocery purchase per week maybe thurs/Fri for misc which depending on week cld be between 25-100. On average (Not even taking into acct yomim tovim) our grocery and household items costs more than the weekly grocery trips.

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