Household/money

Couponing works for me. I have an Aunt who is retired and has a list of the coupons I use. I have a list of the coupons she uses. We send them to each other once a month.

The other day, my local grocery store had organic blueberries for 1.99 each. I bought 3. We ate them every day until they were gone. Then, the store maxi pads were on sale for $1.88 for 24. I bought 2 pkgs. I was lucky to find my organic hand soap on sale for 1.99 each. This item is normally 6.49 each. So, I bought 3.
I bought wild caught cod because it was marked down to $7.99 a pound.

If I make a big pot of homemade spaghetti sauce w/ grass fed meatballs...We eat pasta on Sunday, pasta again on Monday, then I use the rest of the sauce on Wed and make a tray of eggplant.

Every Sunday, I sit on the floor with the 2 sale papers of the 2 closest stores. I take out a thick, colorful marker and circle what I want that is priced good. I visit the 2 stores and bring my coupons, as well !

It does take a while...but, it is worth it !

I spend $3-400 a month. I do not buy a lot of pre-packaged convenience foods. I stock up when items are on sale, and never pay regular price. I buy larger packages and split them up. I plan meals around what is in season/on sale. I only use expensive cuts of meat once a week for Sunday supper, and rely on less expensive cuts the rest of the week. I do coupon, but in Canada couponing isn't as big as it is down there.

I currently spend slightly less than $200 per month for the two of us. If I really watch the sales and shop carefully, I can reduce that by $40 to $50 per month. With a family of 5 that is about $500 per month. These amounts include food, toilet paper, dog food, and other consumables.

I seldom use coupons. I shop at Walmart because they match prices. I went in there Monday and the cashier refused to match prices. After she was done ringing me up, the bill came to $12.88. I saw a manager and called her over and told her the clerk refused to match prices. The manager then instructed the clerk to ring my purchases up again using price matching. My bill came to $5.29. $12.88 to $5.29. I knew the prices of all the other grocery stores in the area and had written them down. Then I made out my list and went to Walmart.

If you look at your $1200 grocery bill and you look at my $200 grocery bill and you figure price per person, that is about the same as Walmarts regular prices ($12.88) and the sale prices at all the other stores ($5.29). If you want to reduce your grocery bill, study the prices of other stores in your area and buy at the lowest prices.

My rule of thumb is: If its a good price, I buy long term stuff and buy twice as much as I came to the store to buy. If it is a real good/wonderful price, I buy a dozen of them. Example: Ragu cream sauce (alfredo sauce) is normally $3 per 16 oz jar. When it was $.99 I bought 24 jars. When it was $1.50 I bought one. When Ragu is not on sale, I use my Ragu that I bought for $.99. Thus saving $2 per jar.

I do that with almost everything. That is how I spend only $200 per month for the two of us. And back in September 2012, nothing seemed to be on sale. I spent $96 for groceries for the 2 of us over 6 weeks. Almost all of that was for fresh fruits and vegetables.

The other way to really save is to have a garden. Lettuce and tomatoes are real easy to grow. You can grow about 50 heads of lettuce over 8 weeks for less and $1.50. If you use containers or raised beds a 4x8 raised garden can provide half the produce for a family of 4. Read the book, "Square Foot Garden". It will give you lots of ideas. Go to youtube for suggestions. I just watched http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKrkaSf8aT4
It should give you lots of ideas.

ETA: I NEVER buy meat at Sams and Costco. They are just too expensive. Hamburger is almost 25% higher at Sam's and Costco than where I buy it. Sirloin roast or steak is 30 % to 50% higher at Sams and Costco than where I buy it on sale.

Good luck to you and yours.

I generally spend about $500 per month on a family of 4, but our kids are only 4 and 2, and I probably live in a significantly lower cost-of-living area. I also shop almost exclusively at our military commissary and the prices are generally cheaper there on a lot of things. When I don't shop there, I make a quick trip to Target, which is usually more expensive. So, I finally broke down and decided that if I'm going to continue to shop there (which I was doing for my quick trips) I might as well sign up for their Red Card and get that 5% off. So that helped me cut back some. I also always sign up for the little grocery store "membership" cards if they're free and I frequent that store so I can take advantage of whatever "member only" sales they have. MAN do I miss Fry's... They had AMAZING sales with those cards.... 99 cents for a gallon of milk sometimes!

We spend just a little less for a family of four in an expensive location. That does include extras like good coffee, wine, organic produce, seafood and not a lot of processed stuff.

One way I've been able to lower it a bit is making multiple quantities of dinners at once. Lasagne, enchiladas, pesto sauce, dried beans, chili etc. I just make 2-3 three dinner sized portions and freeze them. Less expensive to make a larger quantity and so great to just defrost a homemade dinner on a busy night.

Depends on who is buying. I can keep our family of 5 under $200 a week, but DH usually spends $300 on his weeks. We shop at Giant or Shoppers, mostly. We have a family of 4 adults and a child at least part of the year.

One of the things I do to keep costs lower than DH is I use the scanner so I know what my total is. I also keep an eye on the price per quantity. Not all sales are really a bargain. I try to stick to a list (the list is always on the fridge for people to add to) and avoid bringing people who throw random things in the cart. DD is great - DH and SD can make my bill higher. If someone requests 2 of something, it needs to be on sale. If someone requests something special that is not a NEED, it needs to be on sale. If something is on a good sale, I might stock up (thereby saving x per item when I do use it). I like to buy meals that stretch - so I might buy a roast and we eat it for several meals (lunches, etc.). I always have staples like pasta and potatoes. We try to have a meal plan in mind, and in our home, we try to find out how many are eating on a given night. I buy less when there are fewer to feed. I buy a lot of our spices in bulk in the ethnic food aisle.

Look at what you buy and why. Why that amount? That brand? We don't coupon as much as we could, but I also don't buy a lot of snack food items (other than goldfish) and we rarely have soda. I try to focus on the important food first and then the rest is nice to haves. I agree to watch what you throw out and think about why - sometimes you end up buying more than you really need. If you had an intention, why didn't it get used? We recently threw out a pint of blackberries (probably $4) that somehow got missed. I do NOT want that to be a habit. I used to buy DD more yogurts for the week, but ended up with a fridge of half-eaten experiments. Now she gets 3. Saves a couple of bucks a week not to buy more.

We also have a garden, so in the summer instead of eating a $2 head of lettuce for dinner, we go pick some. We bought a tomato for SD a while back that was $1.50. For ONE tomato. We bought all our seeds on sale when Home Depot was doing BOGO. It's time vs money and mostly DH's thing to do with DD. We do not grow corn. It is so inexpensive in season it's not worth the hassle (and water). We use rain barrels for a lot of our garden watering. Etc.

But the long and short is you should look for creative ways that work for YOU. Think outside the box and I'm sure you'll be able to figure a few things out.

ETA: This is everything from soup to toilet paper. My numbers are not just food.

Adding again - there is no Fresh Food for Families near us, but http://www.gaballi.com/ is near my mom, who could certainly use the help. Thank you to Kimberly for the idea.

Wow!
We are a family of 5 as well. Actually, right now we are a family of 8 (my SIL and two nieces are living with us). So, 5 kids and 3 adults.
I spend about $700 a month for all of us. When it's just the 5 of us it's about $500 a month.
What are you eating?! We do NOT eat steak. It's a rare occasion. It's too expensive and I am not willing to spend that much.
I do coupon, but not extreme. I shop a lot at Costco. We buy a lot of bulk meat and seperate it into freezer bags. We save leftovers if there are any. We pack lunches. We do not buy "junk." No fruit snacks, granola bars, crackers, junk! I *try* (and sometimes fail miserably) to keep us eating "real" food. I find that it's cheaper. I go to farmers markets or the cheaper grocery stores. (Grocery outlet, or one here close by)
L.

I spend $300-400 a month on groceries. (This includes random things I run out of, like sponges, glass cleaner, face soap, lotion, trash bags, etc.) We do eat organically, so we spend more then we would. I shop at Sprouts (you might not have one there) and Kroger. I also hit up the farmers market this time of year. I get all our meat and eggs at a local co-op, from local farms.

Every few months, I load up on certain things at costco. I'd say we spend $150 every couple of months there. They have lots of organic frozen fruits and veggies. My costco haul usually includes: toilet paper, frozen fruits and veggies, butter, yogurt, dish soap, salsa, apple sauce, raisins, cheese, etc.

We don't really buy many packaged or convenience foods. Our snacks consist of cheese, veggies, fruits, and yogurt. I don't use expensive meat, and we only eat a very small amount of red meat once a week. We have 3 meatless dinners per week.

We shop a lot at Costco. It is a little more work portioning and freezing but we eat really good, really healthy and spend about 100 a week for a family of four plus an older son that eats with us sometimes to stretch his budget.

I just looked at our last 12 months finances (yes I keep track of them. LOL) We averaged $775 for a family of 4 with 1 in diapers at night for the last year and during the day for about 1/2 of the year. This includes lunch for hubby and son Mon-Thurs since hubby works weekends. I usually don't cook meals Fri-Sun (or if I do, it's 1 meal) because hubby is at work and we spend 1 day with my parents. We shop locally in town and buy based off their circular ads every week. We also buy 1/8 of a cow every year so we have beef all year round (this costs us about $600/year). We usually have pasta 1 night a week, beef 2 nights a week, chicken once and then leftovers.

check out and see if you have a Fresh food for families program near you. You get a box of food for a maximum of $38.00 but man is there a lot of food in that box.

Couldn't tell you exactly.
I know I save way more when I shop ALDI and BottomDollar.
I also save more when I plan meals and shop from a list.
I'm not a couponer.
I don't play the "price matching" game and I will not shop WalMart.
If a store wants my business, they can have, not match the lowest price.
Perhaps the single best way to reduce grocery spending? Avoid per packaged and convenience foods.
We don't have to buy bargain spaghetti sauce--we make our own. Better AND cheaper!

Even when we had a second family living with us, we rarely spent more that $150 a week on groceries....

However, we didn't buy a lot of processed food and snacks.... take a look at what you buy and see if there are things you really DON'T need, like packaged cookies, sodas, chips, and things like that.

However, if you make a practice of buying organic, I can see where your costs would go up.....

This really depends on where you live. Seriously.

We spend a lot a month on groceries and household supplies. I shop smart, but we eat a lot of produce and expensive meats. In fact, even with buying my produce at a discount store, i spend at least 40 a week on seasonal produce. I'd say we spend 600-800 on food, 20-150 on supplies (depending on if I'm really couponing or not), and then another 200 on booze.

Currently feeding 8 people in the house; 5 adults and 3 children (ages 7-11). I spend around $250 a week on groceries. All my meats are purchased at costco because the prices are lower and quality is better. We cook almost everything from scratch and there is usually very little junk food in the house. Also there's no soda. It's unhealthy and besides water is free from the tap. I don't coupon because most of the coupons are for processed food that we just never eat.

I'd say that if you are looking to cut your food bill then take a look at exactly what you buy. Keep track of everything that's throw out because it's not used before going bad. Try some store brand stuff to see if you taste the difference. Buy larger quantities of stuff you use all the time when it goes on sale. Plan menus ahead of time using the sale flyer. If your family is a soda and chips family see if you can switch over to store brand soda (if you have to have it in the house) and popcorn that you can buy in a bag and pop yourself on the stovetop.

$500 - $600 per month - family of four (2 under 2).

We have a chest freezer and stock up when things are on sale.

It's hard to say - when I shop, which is most of the time, we spend between $150 and $200 for a family of 6. We live outside of Boston and have a chain here that has excellent pricing (Market Basket). However, my husband often feels the need to "supplement" what I buy with convenience foods or little trips to the grocery store here and there so he probably adds another $50 a week to that, and I can easily spend $20 at the deli on meats, cheese and rolls for lunch. So all in? I'd say we're under $1000 a month including extras.

Hi. I live near you. We probably spend $1,000 - 1,100 on food and supplies for our family of 4. $800 - 900 if I'm really skimping it. Oh, and we only eat out or buy lunch maybe 1x a week.