grocery bill keeps going up

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Forum -> Household Management -> Budgeting & Bargains

Grocery bill keeps going up

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bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 4:22 am

is it only me or did grocery prices rise again the past few weeks? is $150 a week normal for a family of 3, includes meat and vegies?

5S5Sr7z3

Sun, May 30 2010, 7:43 am

Guess it depends where you live. I keep it $100 or less for a family of 4. I only buy whatever veggies are on sale, and plan my suppers around those. I also rather make recipes that call for ingredients that I already have in the house. And lots of my stuff is homemade - pizza, bread, cakes, etc. Till recently (hubby had a crappy job), it was $50 for my family per week...

bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 8:43 am

I forgot to mention we don't eat milk or fish..... so no pizza or stuff like taht here. I wish I could....

yo'ma

Sun, May 30 2010, 8:55 am

I'm very bad, I don't budget and not necessarily careful with what I buy, but here, absolutely, grocery items go up all the time. When we first moved here about 3 1/2 yrs ago, croutons were $16, now they're $23; shabbos candles were $30, now they're $43; cookies that I buy for the kids last year were $4, now they're $6.

bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 9:02 am

yo'ma wrote:

I'm living in NY, not out there but whoa.... whats the standard salary there if croutons are $16?

yo'ma

Sun, May 30 2010, 9:05 am

bnm wrote:

yo'ma wrote:

I'm living in NY, not out there but whoa.... whats the standard salary there if croutons are $16?

I know that you don't live here, but I'm hoping the prices go up here, not because of customs, but because of where they get it from. The money is in pesos, which is about 3.8 to the dollar now. Expensive, but not as much as it seems. That's why I only buy croutons once in a blue moon Wink

. I even made it once, but it wasn't the same thing. I'm not talking about bread croutons, but the little yellow ones.

bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 9:14 am

yo'ma wrote:

bnm wrote:

yo'ma wrote:

I'm living in NY, not out there but whoa.... whats the standard salary there if croutons are $16?

. I even made it once, but it wasn't the same thing. I'm not talking about bread croutons, but the little yellow ones.

I just bought one of those yellow ones... the Osem ones. I buy them once in a blue moon and they last forever...or maybe not, I probably bought it after pesach and its 7 weeks later and I had to buy another container. bread croutons I also buy only once in a blue moon the same sized container as the little yellow ones.

I don't even know what to do to cut down on my groceries. I try not to buy expensive or ready made food, most bakery stuff I get for free, I don't bake a lot- got the flour on sale right after Pesach for 1.59 and it looks like it will last me to next pesach. I tend to buy lots of meat and chicken but none of it goes to waist, it all gets eaten. if I bake chicken bottoms my husband will eat 2, between my daughter and I we divide the third. cutlets is a pound each time-a pound on sale is $3 so I stock up then. if there is any leftovers from supper I eat it the next day for lunch, leftover chicken cutlets and nuggets get saved in the freezer till I get a stockpile and turn it into sesame chicken. I'm at a loss here....

5S5Sr7z3

Sun, May 30 2010, 12:06 pm

I'm at a loss here....[/quote]

Oy, then you probably dont want to know what my grocery list looks like... LOL it IS possible. Take a look at your list, and you'll see alot of it you can cut out.

bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 12:08 pm

IYamWhoIYam wrote:

I'm at a loss here....

Oy, then you probably dont want to know what my grocery list looks like... LOL it IS possible. Take a look at your list, and you'll see alot of it you can cut out.[/quote]

maybe share your grocery list? other posters too? I want to see what I'm buying that isn't necessary.

gold21

Sun, May 30 2010, 1:02 pm

bnm, 150 a week for a family of 3 sounds normal to me. thats 600 a month. we are a family of 4 and spend a bit more than that on food each month, maybe 650 if I remember correctly. shop in well-priced stores. have u tried Landaus recently? they have amazing sales. they have a name for being expensive, but theyre so reasonable these days. often red peppers are on sale for 1.99 a lb or even less than that, and in general their produce is very well priced and excellent quality. Theres also the Kollel Store, which is awesome for plastic cutlery, plates, cups, ziploc bags, garbage bags, etc. And they have great food prices overall. Though I hate going there, the place is way too busy.....Basically, if you want to save money, avoid the litle corner grocery stores, which are generally overpriced because they get less of each item from the manufacturer and therefore dont get the best rate. And avoid Pomegranate, its kinda pricey, though its beautiful and a pkleasure to shop at.

bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 1:12 pm

I only shop in Kollel grocery, I try to shop elsewhere for fruits and vegies because they aren't cheap in that department.

chocolate moose

Sun, May 30 2010, 2:13 pm

I don't think that $150 is bad, specially give the fact that your family can't eat everything.

Prices go up for all of us, remember.

Do you ever get take out food, or shop at another store? Add those costs in, too.

Fabulous

Sun, May 30 2010, 2:42 pm

Meat is very expensive. I make it but I stock up when the different cuts go on sale (at Kollel). I also buy some nosh stuff when they go on sale in Shoprite when I get there because it's much cheaper. I don't really buy fish or cheese but that's more a taste issue (I don't love cheese and dh doesn't love fish). I spend much less than 150 (about 75-100 at the most) a week, although ds doesn't eat from that bill except about ten dollars worth of jars a week.

PinkFridge

Sun, May 30 2010, 6:16 pm

Question: does grocery bill mean strictly food, or non food items, and if so, what kind?

Fabulous

Sun, May 30 2010, 6:24 pm

For me, it includes everything I need to run my house. Detergent, broom, windex, papertowels, tissues, plastic cutlery, plates, cups, bowls, napkins, silver foil, containers etc...

bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 7:07 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

I mostly do takeout there, its a lot cheaper. I'm not counting takeout suppers and stuff, thats a different part of my budget.

if everyone elses grocery prices went up too, I feel a bit better-it means I'm not all of a sudden buying more, its just prices went up.

chocolate moose

Sun, May 30 2010, 7:31 pm

bnm wrote:

chocolate moose wrote:

You have to include takeout. If I spend $225, which I did last week, it sounds like a lot. Until you remember that we're a family of four adults, and we don't eat any food that's not prepared at home. Tonite we had a guest for dinner, too.

If we ate out a lot, we'd spend less at the store. But it wouldn't really be less, because of the cost of takeout. See what I mean ?

bnm

Sun, May 30 2010, 7:34 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

bnm wrote:

chocolate moose wrote:

if I do takeout its not on the same grocery bill as my weekly shopping, its a different day so I don't include that in groceries. I usually do one big weekly grocery trip and I buy everything I need for the week then

rgk

Sun, May 30 2010, 8:37 pm

we are a family of 4, our "budget" is $125/week, but so many times I find myself going over it. I attribute it to my youngest getting older and needing more, and working long long hours so not being as organized with my shopping, buying things last minute, not on sale etc . . . we only eat meat on shabbos in cholent, even chicken is getting expensive to have more than twice a week. There are tons of nights that I eat cereal and milk for dinner and give my husband and kids leftovers, I don't mind but it's not so healthy. I would love to find out how others keep to their budget without spending a lot of time going through coupons and different stores to find sales, unfortunately I don't have time for that.

ysydmom

Sun, May 30 2010, 8:46 pm

2 things come to mind which might help you out.

Food Stamps and Wic.

go to your states website and see if you qualify. If you need assistance PM me.

Food is expensive, if you add fruits and veggies and lead a healthy lifestyle it's even more expensive.

but 150 sounds right.

Lot's of luck.

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