I'm sure I've seen another thread on this but I can't find it.
I'm trying to tighten our belts a little without going too OTT about it. This week we spent $200 on groceries for me, DP, DSD and DD and that included all our work/school lunches too. So no money was spent on food apart from that $200.
It still seems a bit much to me so just want to see what other people spend (remembering to factor in your lunches too).
that sounds pretty good to me, especially if its all your lunches and dinners and snacks in between!
sorry i dont have any advice though im sure others will have some more tips for you.
We spend between $90 and $100 at coles then around $15-$20 at the markets for fruit and veg, but then we have pizza tues nights which is $11.
So around $130 pw thats for me and DP(DD still BF)
Okay I just did my first online coles order and it came to $199.35 and that included a $45 box of fruit that I am going to split with my mum and SIL so it worked out cheaper then normally going in....YAY!! Going to go to a super butcher here in Yatala with mum on monday and buy some bulk meat with her and start saving there as well. I am getting all excited...Lol!!
thats a good idea buying a gift card with the left overs!!!! (also works well when a birthday is coming up u can either give them the gift voucher or shop at store on the card and get a nice gift!
We spend between $100-120 a week, and thats $60-$80 at the supermarket, $15-20 at the butcher, and then extras we get from The Warehouse or Crazy Clarks (like soap, washing powder, dishwashing powder, fabric softener, dishwashing liquid etc).
We go to the butcher every 6 weeks, and end up with 40-50 nights meat for $100-120. Our freezer is REALLY handy. It's a bulk butcher, low prices and a 2kg minimum, plus if you spend over $50 you get three loaves of bread. We get mince, steak, sausages, chicken, roasts, seafood and even kiev or parmagiana filos!
Shel takes her own lunches and drinks, and I only eat at home. We could definately pull the meat tighter, and make about 60-70 dinner meals, but we usually cook double and have left-overs for lunch, or freeze them for lazy-nights. I bake snacks - muffins, pikelets, mini quiches and pies, and freeze it all for snacks so the only "snack food" we buy during groceries is chocolate (hehehe), sometimes some crackers or biscuits if they're on special (woot, In A BisKit on special at Coles this week!) and maybe some ice-cream too if its on special. We love enchilada and taco kits but I only buy when they're $5 each, and that special comes around once every 4-6 weeks.
Plus Jazz just eats what we eat, or I make her food fresh, not the 'baby food' stuff, and cloth nappies and wipes make it cheaper still.
Just wondering if anyone out there buys primarily organic/eco friedly products? DH has been suggesting I tighten the purse strings a little, and I realised I had no idea what an average household grocery bill is. We spend about $300 per week (for everything, food, toiletries, baby stuff etc). I split my shop between Woolies and an organic store for fruit and veges. There is DH, myself and our 10 month old son (who eats a lot!) plus 2 cats. I know it would save me a packet to use cloth nappies, but with all good intentions I haven't yet managed to get around to it. I use the semi-biodegradable ones. Also against all plans, DS was weaned onto formula (also organic) recently as we needed to get started IVF for baby #2 because of my age and fertility history.
Having read some posts I'm amazed at how little many of you spend each week! Anyone out there also buy organic, and if so what do you spend per week?
I am so lame with thrifty shopping, I need to meal plan. I'm in Perth and there's no Aldi or anything, and the green grocers in my area are NOT fresh at all so pretty much all of my shopping is done at coles. I waste a lot of food too, I forget about things and they go off.
hiya
great comments from everyone. I am trying to get by on $200 a week with 4 (2 adults and 2 small yet hungry boys)of us in the house.I am never able to do it!
Each week we do an aldi shop which includes 3 x breads a week, 12 x 1L soy milks (!) some cereals, sauces, a little snacks, some meat, nappies, wipes & sometimes DH's scotch and coke
Thats normally $100-$120
Then the rest - another $100-$150 is at the normal super plus the rest of the week's meat, fruit veg, toiletries and cleaning...
It always seems too much. I no longer buy much in bulk, in advance or stock up just in case as we dont have the extra dollars in the week.
What I think the secret is for us is planning more carefully for the week, including lunches, baking more treats at home and clearing out the pantry more reularly.
I would love to be getting by on $180 a week. see how i go...
will look at simple savings too, heard it is excellent
thanks again
rach
xo
$300 per week, sometimes more and thats without meat. Prices have really gone up here over the past 6mths and fresh fruit and vege prices can be through the roof at times - and we go through a LOT of fresh fruit and vege in a week. I do loads of baking of biscuits, cakes and slices etc for lunchboxes and buying all the ingredients is very exxie so there is a lot of cost there that a lot of people wouldn't have too. Although yesterday was a bit exciting because the groceries were only $230 LOL. I only go to town once a week (we are 42km from town) so I have to make sure I have enough bread and milk to get us through the full week so I'm not topping up with bread and milk during the week.
we do it fornightly and everything is about $200 - $220 , so about $100 a week on food .
recently we started going to the brisbane markets and for about $60 we got a fornights work of fruit and veg , where as the same amount in the local shop would only last a week .
we have 3 ppl eating in the house and this includes the cat food .
we dont buy any baby stuff like wipes or nappies and buy the jar baby food on special , if its not on spesh i dont buy it , but its hard because dd has allergies ,and jar food is a "safer' wayt for her to eat as its all done for me and i can see on the label whats in it ... apart from that its mashed veg and that can be boring and not easy to take out .
we shop for only what we need . i check the pantry and grab my 4 ingredients book and make a fortnights meals from that .
i dont buy snack foods aimed at kids , just the muslei bars from aldi ,we aviod junk food like chips and lollies as you dont really need to eat them to live , they dont do our bodies any good and the cost alot , adding to the bill ... so we have learnt to live with out them (cept chocolate )
we also have something called "the grocery club" which sells cheap groceries ...
i joined "simple savings " a while ago and learnt many money saving tips aswell .. i am inlove with this site and am constanly on there looking for hints ..
i also dont buy supermarket cleaning products , i just stick to amway (they last a long time) or the old bi carb and vinegar .
things like nappies , wipes and sanitary pads can be done in cloth , which saves heaps (pads and tampons have a luxury tax on them ..... they are exe too !!!) and will bring down the grocery bill alot .
I just spent $180 at Coles today. We will go to our local farmers market tomorrow and probably spend about $50 there. That should last us a week, although we usually buy bananas a couple of times a week (we love smoothies in this house). And hubby buys the odd coffee, but usually takes leftovers for lunch. We rarely have take away dinners these days.
i could spend $150 per week easily, thats not including meat (which dp's mate buys on our behalf from his families butcher )
BUT there is always something that we need to buy mid-week.
also, things like toiletries/nappies/washing powder seem to run out in the same week, so thats bumps up the total.
whenever we come into some money (ie. ruddy bonuses/tax returns/centrelink advance payments etc) i do a 'stock up' shop... where i buy one or two of everything we need/use. and that lightens the weekly load, and i can grab things on special as they come up.. rather than running out and 'needing' everything IYKWIM.
the only thing i can suggest is, if you dont already do so, is make a meal plan/list including everything you will need to buy. so rather than think 'ill grab this this and this while you're at the supermarket. make a note that for the entire week you will need 1 box of salada biscuits, 4 loaves of bread, 4/6/10pk of tortillas (if you get my drift) rather than have excess that gets thrown out.
This week I spent $197 with everything included cause we don't have time this weekend to go to the markets. That is with everything though...nappies, wipes, the baby fruit gels cause DS still loves them! I am slowly converting to MCN's so this will hopefully take our food bill down abit!!
It also had a pork roast, roast beef and silverside in it cause they were on special and they were $15 each approx. Normally on average its about $150 but can rise up to $200 easily depending on what is needed in the week.
I am going to start meal planning in a couple of months just for the organisation factor!!
our shopping yesterday came to about $190 but that was the first "real" shop we've done in weeks due to Gremlin being born - and included stuff we didn't necessarily "need" but got cos it was on special. so we got a roast lamb (almost 3kg) - and we will have roast tomorrow night and make shepherds pie from the left overs (end up with frozen meals). we got ham bones to make some soup - again, on special - and will leave us with frozen meals. we also bought ingredients for snackish food (savoury muffins etc) and things like cheese and kabana as we're still having people pop over to meet our girl and have a drink with DH - and i hate having nothing to feed them (guys plus alcohol on empty stomachs - no thanks!)
today DH is going shopping to get some extra stuff that we forgot last night so that we can make and freeze some sweet muffins for when he goes back to work again next week. our shopping is made harder by the fact that we essentially, while he's working, have two seperate "homes" so as much as we try and cook food that we can both eat (frozen meals) there is only so long DH can keep food ok in his truck before he has to start buying food while away - and there is only so much slow cooker food i can eat before i need a real meal - so we do find it more exxy to live when he's away!
i do agree with buying in bulk and cooking and freezing meals where you can. every couple of months, we do a big veg and meat shop - last time i split this with my mum and my aunt. for $240 we got nearly 90 meals for the freezers - so well worth it... it just meant we spent a whole weekend cooking in slow cookers but it was fantastic to fill the freezer and know that we had food no matter what. i also find that bulking out food with as much veg as possible makes it cheaper and much more nutritious - i put everything i can in everything! veg i wouldn't have on my plate (like swede and turnip - too bland) go into everything i make in the slow cooker - they take up the flavour of the "sauce" or gravy and make for a delish dish!
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Groceries: How Much Do You Spend Per Week
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