Comments on: Adventures in Frugality: Grocery Budget Experiment Preview

By: Rebecca Rivera

Rebecca Rivera — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:04:28 +0000

HI! I spend about $30 a week for 1 adult and 4 kids (ages 3, 5, 5, & 10.) This is for all breakfast’s, lunches, & two snacks a day. Dinners we eat at church one night a week, and my mom’s one night a week. The rest dinners I cook at home. I do cook alot from scratch, and shop ALDI for cheap food.
My kids all do not eat too much, so dinner can be hot dogs ($1), rolls($1), and salad($3). Then we still have like 2 hot dogs and salad for someone’s lunch the next
day. I do serve milk to the kids with at least two meals a day since it is healthy. We also eat veggies & fruit daily (fresh, canned, & frozen.)
I also do angel tree, it is $30 a month for about $60-$70 worth of food. Anyone can do it, look it up online to see if a church near you is a distrubution site. They have menu online every month. It is alot of stuff that kids eat! -Becky in NJ

By: Rob Madrid

Rob Madrid — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:46:00 +0000

One of my tricks to save money on food is to buy as little as possible. I went through the stock up the pantry phase for a while but found it only pushed my average bill up. This happened to co-insided with me being car less. When you have to shop by bicycle you really really think about what you need. I also plan and shop to cook one large meal per week. Usually makes 6-8 portions which can be eaten during the week.

By: Weekend Roundup - Amazon Gift Card Winner Edition | beingfrugal.net

Weekend Roundup - Amazon Gift Card Winner Edition | beingfrugal.net — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:02:40 +0000

[...] Adventures in Frugality: Grocery Budget Experiment Preview – I thought I was frugal with my grocery spending. That One Caveman has me beat by a mile! I can’t wait to see how his experiment goes! [...]

By: Bettsi

Bettsi — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:26:56 +0000

My best tool is my handy-dandy price book. I learned it from The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. By tracking the absolute lowest unit price you have paid for a grocery item, you can determine if a sale or coupon is actually saving you any money. For example, I rarely pay more than .10 per ounce for cold cereal and I never pay more than .15 per ounce. I’m currently in the process of converting my tattered notebook into a spreadsheet. If you don’t have The Complete Tightwad Gazette, it is my frugality bible! I look forward to hearing about your experiment!

By: passivefamilyincome

passivefamilyincome — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:32:34 +0000

Caveman – We buy about 60% of our grocery items at Aldi. They are right on my way home from work so I stop about twice a week to stock up on items. I find that there produce can be great or really really bad depending on the day.

By: That One Caveman

That One Caveman — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:28:50 +0000

I didn’t realize we were spending so little already… You have to remember, we’re feeding two adults and one toddler right now. It’s not like we have a pair of teenage boys raiding our pantry daily.

Since my wife does the majority of the shopping as part of her stay-at-home mom work, maybe I can convince her to post about her grocery shopping secrets. One of them I already know: Stock up at Sam’s and fill in some of the gaps at Aldi.

By: Lynnae @ Being Frugal.net

Lynnae @ Being Frugal.net — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:55:33 +0000

Wow! You must share your secrets! You’re WAY below the national average already!

I attacked my grocery bill this month too….and the large eating out bill that seems to go hand in hand with it. :)

By: passivefamilyincome

passivefamilyincome — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:54:32 +0000

Caveman – I like your thinking! I am trying to attack our budget from every angle including our grocery expenses. Unfortunately, we don’t eat out very much (once every two weeks or so) so I can’t cut that expense anymore. In addition, my oldest son has food allergies so we tend to spend more on specialty items (i.e. soymilk) for him and my wife can’t eat soy right now so we are buying different things for her to eat. I am going to try and use more coupons as the first approach.

Good luck with your experiment!