What's Your Grocery Bill Each Month?

[flyfisher]

Anywhere from 100-125 a week for me, my fiancee and 3 year old boy who eats almost as much as i do but at least he eats normal food most of the time.  My big fault is going out to eat for lunch because i hate bringing leftovers to work for some reason.  

 

I do go to BJ's to get most of my meat products as the price is way cheaper and in bulk which is nice.  The farmers market is also a frequent stop which is also considerably cheaper than the grocery stores.

[preach4bass]

My wife, two girls, and I get by on about $300 a month, and some of that is feed.  We raise and can our own vegetables, have chickens for eggs and meat, and most of the other meat we eat is wild game.

[Bankbeater]

With me, my wife, and the two girls the bill is usually around $200 a week.  More if my youngest gets a growth spurt.  My oldest daughter is in to eating healthy, so I am glad that the nearest Whole Foods market is about 10 miles away.

[Tuckahoe Joe]

I make cash tips, get off at midnight, and work right next to a 24-hour Super WalMart which has a complete grocery section.  Every night when I get off, I hit the WalMart and spend about 20 bucks on food for that night and maybe the next day.  So doing the math, that's between $600 bucks for just me and my wife.

[craww]

About a grand a month counting diapers and formula for two kids. Irish twins are expensive lol. The bills went up since I started lifting in February, I'm always eating and though I'm pretty savvy, meat ain't cheap.

[jhoffman]

My local butcher shop prices are WAY better than the grocery store. I usually hit it once a month and when I buy meat at the store its a killer deal. Im buying three times as much chicken as I need when it goes on sale, same with beef and everything else. Individual meal portions will hammer your budget. My local butcher charge 6.99lb for delmonico steaks. I can make a steak dinner for about $14 and its better than any place you could go out to eat which would cost $40 for two steak dinners. I can make anything and make it well. I cook 95% of everything in my house I also make my own wine and hard cider.

[craww]

That's much more reasonable J.H., going out and buying a couple GOOD steaks retail is ludicrous...my father in law and I got a couple Holsteins to grow for a year and then have butchered. It's a dairy breed but they eat pretty good, just have to feed them during the winter. My grandpa used to keep one chained up to keep the barnyard vegetation down, then butchered and fill up the freezer.

[SirSnookalot]

I buy my filets at Costco and they are pretty good, but not restaurant and hotel quality.  My former business partner owned a 5 star restaurant, the meats were bought at a packing company that catered to the trade.  I was able to have him order an extra box when I was in Detroit (at Belmont packing they came in boxes of 12), the steaks were outstanding.  As good as they were I was not cooking them on professional grade equipment and there is difference, mainly professional ovens cook at a much higher temperature.

Waygu beef is supposed to best and it is available to the public, one day I'm going to grill some of these up.

[Mr_Scrogg]

Craww, cans of tuna is cheap. Staple in bodybuilding. Oldtimer at the gym says, "6 cans of tuna at 6am". Ive seen my old lifting partner just pop a can and pour in his mouth.

[craww]

Believe me,I'm all over the cheaper protein sources like, tuna, hard boiled eggs, lean ground beef, chicken breasts (not so cheap anymore) and 1% cottage cheese daily.

[Fishing Rhino]

We shop at a Super Target for our groceries and other essentials (baby stuff/medicines etc..) I use a Target red card which is a %5 savings each time used.  I still am cranking out $700 to $1000 for groceries each month.  Occasionally I will go get fresh produce and meats from a local family owned market called Caputos which has pretty good deals but there dry food/boxed items are outrageous.  Being that I live in a small condo, growing my own food is out of the question just on space alone. Besides that, my patio doesn't get direct sunlight except for early AM for 1-2 hours tops.

I can't imagine what it is going to be like when I have 2 growing teenage boys eating and possibly 1 or more younger kids at the same time.  These financial responsibilities are what scare me as a parent.  TV/internet can always be cut out along with other non-necessity spending. But food can't....and I just find it ridiculous how much it costs compared to when I was growing up.  I splurge at Costco or Sams every great once in a while but I might need to shop their more as my boys grow older.

What are you spending on groceries a month? Where do you shop?

 

 

 

LOL!

 

I've heard my parents say that, and heard my grandparents say the same thing.  When I got into my 40s, I was saying the same thing.

 

When I was a kid, back in the 1940s and 50s, a coke was five cents from a vending machine, and even cheaper off the shelf at a supermarket.  Popsicles were also a nickel, and a loaf of bread was ten cents.

 

In the early 1960s, I worked part time in a supermarket.  The average cost for a week's worth of groceries was about twenty bucks, which got you three to four bags full of groceries.  Cigarettes, while not food were about twenty to twenty-five cents per pack.

 

Sugar was ten cents per pound.

 

At the local hangout,  you could get a hot dog for twenty cents, and a hamburger for a quarter.   During the gas wars of the late 50s and early 60s gasoline was as low as 15 cents per gallon.  The regular price was 20 - 25 cents per gallon.  In 1965 it cost me less than eight bucks to fill up my 63 Pontiac Bonneville convertible.  It had a 25 gallon tank.

 

In 1965, when my wife and I got married, she made 87 dollars per week as a registered nurse.  That was less than five thousand dollars per year.  We bought our first home that year for 18,900 dollars, and our mortgage, including the money we paid into escrow for taxes was just over a hundred dollars per month.

 

Not meaning to terrify you, but you are not yet halfway to my age. 

 

Please, please, do not go out and cut your throat.  I wouldn't want that on my conscience. 

[SirSnookalot]

^ Ain't it the truth^

Near the same age as Tom, 68 today as matter of fact, and I remember those prices.  One day I'm with dad and I ordered a sandwich it was .60, he said when he was a kid is was a nickle.

We had a hamburger joint like a MCD, 2 burgers fries and drink about 50 cents.

There was gas station, in those days there were stations that sold name brand gas as surplus, ours sold sunoco, 12.9 regular and 14.9 premium. We used to chip in change and put a buck or 2 in the tank and drive around all night.

I had a job part time stocking shelves midnights at the A & P making $2.65 an hour, full timers were putting their kids thru college and their wives were stay at home moms.

[Fishing Rhino]

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.

 

Sir Snookalot, you must have had one or two of those standard issue black bow ties too.

[MarkH024]

Not meaning to terrify you, but you are not yet halfway to my age. 

 

Please, please, do not go out and cut your throat.  I wouldn't want that on my conscience. 

I'm a much stronger person than that, so no worries.  It just disgusts me that I pretty much have a second mortgage just to feed and take care of my family.  It's not easy on 1 income.  Things will be better when my student loans and car are both paid off.  

Now only if a meteor would crush my condo while we're away from the house........

I bought my condo in March of 2008 for $170k.......they now sell for right around $100k some even in the 90k and less.  Had I waited another year I'd gotten my place for 20 grand cheaper. But you can't predict the economy.  I'd really like to move out of Illinois but I don't want to take my kids away from either set of grandparents and both sides of our families are pretty much all here.

 

Keep on...keepin' on..

[Bladesmith,]

My wife informs me that our grocery budget is $150 per month and she will not spend more or less.. She keeps an accounting of everything she buys. That amount includes eating out 2 or 3 times a month. We do have a small garden but don't get much out of it (more of a hobby). There are just the 2 of us old folks but we do eat well and healthy. My wife is a very frugal shopper and buys on sale and in quantity when she can bless her little old pea pickin' heart (thank you Tennessee Ernie Ford-you young guys won't get that). We have a full large pantry. I am blessed with a frugal wife, and she fishes so she doesn't give me too much trouble when the bait monkey makes an appearance (as long as I buy 2 of everything).

[SirSnookalot]

 

 

 (thank you Tennessee Ernie Ford-you young guys won't get that).

"I hope you don't owe your soul to the company store"..........lol

[Bladesmith,]

Nope. Never have owed the company store. Saw that scam at an early age.

[tallydude]

For my wife and I, along with our two boys (ages 5 &1), I'd say we're right around $1000 per month.

[tipptruck1]

Not munch as single guy. I would say I spend more on gas a month. Then I do on food by a long shot.

[derekxec]

Craww, cans of tuna is cheap. Staple in bodybuilding. Oldtimer at the gym says, "6 cans of tuna at 6am". Ive seen my old lifting partner just pop a can and pour in his mouth.

 

lol i have a friend who did this...he would eat cans of tuna all day everydayyyyy he would go to the store and buy a months supply....lol the people at the store would look at him weird buying cart fulls of tuna cans and water..he would also get super ticked if anyone at any of it lol but he got ripped doing this for about 6-8 months straight

 

not sure how healthy it is to just eat cans of tuna and not much else all day everyday though

[SirSnookalot]

The jury seems to be out on canned tuna.  Tuna steaks are high in mercury content and not recommended eating it too often, canned tuna has less mercury.

[preach4bass]

Tuna causes cancer......this week.  Next week Tuna will cure cancer.

[deaknh03]

About 6 years ago, I was still into lifting pretty heavily, and I used to load up on tuna, everyday, 2 or 3 cans, at least. I started getting blurry vision and a couple of other symptoms. Turns out I had minor mercury poisoning. I still eat tuna, but only once every week or two.