What is a reasonable grocery budget per week for a family of 4? I try so hard to spend as little as possible and to budget, but always go over. Maybe I'm starting out with an unrealistic amount. :?
Wow! That's awesome, HG. If I add a couple of kids and subtract a dog, I should be able to make my budget work.:lol: My H swears he could do better than I do at budgeting. He's probably right.
We have a family of 4, a dog, two cats, turtles, and fish. It's rare that we spend more than $100 a week. The exception to that rule is that about twice a year, I clean out the cabinets and do a "stock up" on can foods, etc... But only when it's on sale.
LOL, moneybags, Lobster, Snow Crabs, Filet Mignon on the weekly list, how much of that is alcohol related?? Some Dalla Valle, Colgin cellar, Sine Qua Non.
Well, that's your answer, then. If H could do better, let him. Then you will know what your budget should be.
You should do whats right and take some of that and donate it to Dan and Sherry's grocery budget so they can afford them some hamburg and hotdogs instead of ramen noodles. How the heck do you sleep at night?
:lol: He doesn't have time to shop, and he has no idea how to cook. I think I'll just work on sticking to my list. That's my downfall...buying stuff I see that I don't need.
Go to WRAL.com.........check out the Smartspender articles on there. She does TONS of planning, budgeting, etc. and can point you in the right direction. I've fallen so far off the coupon wagon, it's nothing but a dot on the horizon, but one of my goals is to get back to it. I try to stick to the loss leaders, my biggest problem is meal planning. The idea is to plan around what you have in your freezer/pantry and supplement with what is on sale at the stores. However, what I feel like/have time to cook may not coincide with that right now. We have been eating out entirely too much. I have stuck to my rule of only paying so much per pound for chicken, beef, etc and that really helps. I keep a stock pile of chicken breast, hamburger, roasts, etc in my freezer at all times all bought on sale at my target price. I try really hard not to have to buy meat at full price. I do the same with our most frequently used side items, rice, veggies etc. Oh, and laundry detergent, never, ever pay full price for that.
I'm not sure what a reasonable amount would be for a family of 4 but smartspending at WRAL can help. Faye is awesome! For us, coupons help a little but since we don't really buy hardly any processed foods, it doesn't do us much good. Tons of fresh fruits and veggies but we've made a deal w/ a local farmer w/ a standing order. That helps. Other than that, we get discounts by buying off the reduced racks at Lowes. Find deals when we can and stock up. Over the summer, our bill really creeped up but had many "extra teens" here as well. So, getting back to normal. We used to spend around $800 a month on food. Now, it's more around $900 b/c everything seemed to have skyrocketed this last year in regards to food. So, 9 people at $100 each per month I don't think is too bad. Working on doing better. Should be able to do the same amount of spending even when we have 12 people living here in October. Good luck. Totally wish we had our own farm. Stephanie-- mom to 7 (soon to be 10!!!)
