Grocery bill out of control. 400 dollars this week!

groisamomma

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 3:19 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Because I didn't have 6 people sitting home all day eating!!!

One kid isn't usually home at all

I am a good shopper. Now, I'm paying premium price. Like a dollar more a lb than usual for chicken. Everyone has raised their prices. It's a free for all, I cant shop in my regular cheaper grocery store, they don't practice safe social distancing, and I'm afraid, so I shop in the safest most expensive store

Prices have definitely gone up. I have one that dorms and my kids are eating the free lunches (mostly). I commented on another thread how there's been no change in my grocery expenses. Now I see why. The prices have gone up everywhere.

amother

Mistyrose

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 3:20 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I can't make them eat what they dont like.
They like salads. Im grateful. I won't make them eat junk.

I didn't say anything about junk.

I know (because I eat vegetables as well) that my money goes further on carrots than it does tomatoes.

zaq

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 3:22 pm

A lot depends on where you live. The prices hotpink listed are lower than anything I can get even on sale. Ground beef at $6 a pound? here it's $10. 3 8 ounce bags of cheese for $10? Here it's about 5.99 each. Maybe more, I haven't bought any in a long while. Since the start of the covid situation, my supermarket has not put anything on special and may even have increased prices.

You have essentially six adults (teens eat as much as adults if not more)eating 21 meals a week, which is 126 meals. $400 doesn't sound like an extravagant sum for that many meals. especially since like many of us you're paying top prices and unable to buy on sale.

I almost never buy food at regular price, unless it's something like milk or poultry that never goes on sale here. But given the matzav, the need to make shopping trips as short as possible and not go from store to store looking for the best price, the fact that supermarket shelves are depleted , the fact that after pesach the pantry and freezer are empty, and the fact that we still need to eat no matter what--we chalk it up to the matzav and try not to look at the bottom line. When there is just one box of pasta left in the store and it's the premium brand that costs double the house brand that we usually buy--we're buying it anyway, let the chips fall where they may. This situation won'r go on forever and we will eventually be able to return to our usual frugal programming.

rivkam

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 3:40 pm

Our food bills are up too. OP you seem to be shopping as smart as possible. The only otger thing I can think of is to try do your shopping online somewhere cheaper. Then you dont have to worry about the social distancing issue because you literally wont leave the house.

cbg

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 4:13 pm

I thought it was my imagination but prices are going up
I usually pay $1.99 for Jumbo Eggs
I stock up when there is a sale of 2/$3 and occasionally I find for $.99
For the past month, since right before Pesach the cheapest I found eggs was $3.69
Right before Pesach they were almost $4

Peppers I use to pay $.70- $1- this week $1.69
Avocado I use to pay $.80 this week $1.20
$1 more here and $1 more there
My bill at the vegetable store is usually $25 -$39 this week was $40+

B”H I still have meat and chicken from before Pesach. I’m not sure if there has been an increase

thunderstorm

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 4:17 pm

amother [ Beige ] wrote:

I think those of us who are relying on grocery deliveries are paying more because we are not shopping around for better prices.

I never shop around. I use the same grocery for a few years and I make one grocery order once a week. It’s always more or less the same. The groceries are $100 more than it was previously

amother

Jade

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 4:19 pm

cbg wrote:

I live oot. BH they haven't raised prices on any of the fleishigs, afaik,

Raisin

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 4:19 pm

I don't know about NY but look around on google - I found a restaurant supply company who started filling online orders for private families since so many restaurants are closed. Great prices and they split cases of veg. And click and collect so no reason to hang out in the supermarket.

miami85

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 5:16 pm

Fresh and healthy=expensive. There's a reason why carbs, processed foods and shelf-stable are cheaper. Just from your headline I would say you are probably still restocking from Pesach, but yea, fresh produce and fresh fruit are expensive. We were doing a diet last year that relied on a LOT Of fruits and vegetables and my kids also like a lot of fruits and vegetables and yea it got expensive very quickly. "Healthy eating" is expensive. No doubt.

lkwdlady

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 5:43 pm

thunderstorm wrote:

Guess what I just discovered? I was going through my receipt to see what items had increased prices and I discovered a major typo. Instead of charging 9.51 for my chicken they charged $92.51! No wonder my order was $100 more!

Wow!! That’s a major mistake. I’m surprised because usually they scan items. Good thing you caught that!

DVOM

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 6:23 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Ok. I wonder if it's just me.
We are a family of 6 with 4 older kids.
Apparently they/we eat.
Alot!
I spent 400 dollars this week, between a kosher grocery store, and a regular one.
My kids eat tons of salads.
All day, there's tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers being eaten. I check my own lettuce as well, to save on that. But it's a total food fest. I never have had all of us home for three meals a day, 7 days a week. Am I the only one spending a bloody fortune?
My dinners aren't extravagant, no meat during the week, except on shabbos. Snacks, breakfast. Lunch. A loaf of lite bread a day.
Not a complaint at all, just wondering, am I completely spending outrageous amounts on food?

That sounds pretty normal to me. Our budget is 400$ a week, family of 6.

If you want to lower the weekly cost though, try shopping only once a week. When you run out of fresh veggies to snack on, you run out and thats it till next week. This forces us to eat stuff thats been languishing in the pantry and freezer. A two dollar bag of frozen green beans steamed and sprinkled with garlic salt is super cheap and just as healthy. So is canned hearts of palm or baby corn. Its ok not to have our favorite snack foods every single day.

cbg

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 6:31 pm

Raisin wrote:

Can you send us the link

PinkFridge

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 6:59 pm

DVOM wrote:

Hearts of palm and baby corn are for Shabbos, though I'll sometimes use baby corn during the week. Definitely not for noshing. But you can get sales that many of us can't.

DVOM

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 7:35 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

Hearts of palm and baby corn are for Shabbos, though I'll sometimes use baby corn during the week. Definitely not for noshing. But you can get sales that many of us can't.

Gotcha. There was a long stretch of time when a grocery store in my town had very large canned hearts of palm, baby corn, green beans, for $1.25 a can.