grocery budgetin . ..again

Have prices gone up again? Im spending like $40 more each week. Stop and shop and pathmark are closest large markets to me.

I used to think i do well with shopping and follow all these tips.

shop by unit price
buy family packs of meat and freeze portions
Bring all meals, coffee and snacks to work
Limit packaged items

Not sure if prices have gone up or me and DDs who are older now are eating more. Half my cart is fruit and veggies. I dont buy organic. I spent 160 today and its not like my cart was overflowing.

i do have a stocked fridge and pantry and do buy a couple more items of staples if something is on sale.

Message edited 3/7/2015 11:15:08 AM.

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

I like to shop the smaller stores like best yet or IGA I'm always spending a lot less there. I do feel their prices are higher for everything at the bigger supermarkets and I always end up getting stuff I don't necessarily need.

grocery budgetin . ..again

I buy things in bulk that we use often through Amazon subscribe and save. It saves me money. I buy bulk in meat that's on sale. And veggies and fruits I buy what's on sale and we eat that. I love peppers but will only buy when they are 99 cents and under! I also shop and shoprite and use my loadable coupons and I print coupons that match up for double the savings! To save $ I look at my total savings at the bottom of my receipt and put it into a small little account we use for a dire emergency. It only have a few hundred but it's all the savings I have on food. I also use our AMEX for all groceries since it's 3x points on groceries we just got it but bought it so we can use the points Amazon from AMEX

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

You can't shop in just one store. I went to three stores today and went over my $110 budget by $10.
This is for all food and necessities for 4 people, 2 adults, 1 teen and 1 tween.

grocery budgetin . ..again

Definitely stick to the produce that's on sale for the most part. Also look at your receipt to see what things are costing. Sometimes I buy something like grapes bc they're on sale but then I look and they still cost something like 6 dollars. Not worth it to me. You can still get lots of fruits and veggies got not a lot if you pay attention to what costs less. We eat sweet potatoes, salad, carrots, bananas, apples, broccoli a lot bc they're cheaper. Add to that whatever is on sale and it's a lot. Shoprite always has coupons in their circular for produce and they're great deals like strawberries for 99 cents for example. also check out savingstar.they always have a healthy offer of the week, this week is 20% back on oranges. I put my cash back from them into my amazon account.

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

Message edited 3/7/2015 1:25:37 PM.

grocery budgetin . ..again

I also use checkout 51. We buying almost nothing packaged I used coupons I get for things like toothpaste cleaners etc. sometimes I get coupons for stuff to make tacos. I do meal prep and freeze a lot so I usually spend $250ish a month for 2 people and that's buying fresh stuff

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

I only buy fruits and veggies that are on sale and plan around that. I agree with the pp and look at what produce actually costs sometimes it's not worth it.

My kids love chicken soup. So I try to make a whole chicken when they are 99 cents a pound and make a soup with the leftovers. I freeze the stock of we are not in the mood for it. The whole chicken turns into 3 meals just by making the soup and buying carrots and celery.

I will send dh to a second store to get the really good sales for the week on his way home from work each week.

It's probably a combo of prices and your kids eating more.
I have 3 kids 4 and under and the amount of fruit we eat in our house is insane!

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

Ugh! At S&S the prices have def. went up and the sales/coupons have went down. It adds up. I've been feeling the same.

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

Prices are def higher. I buy a lot of salad, bananas, oatmeal, eggs, chicken thighs , White rice and pasta because sales on those items are pretty good.

Our normal staples like milk, bagels, half and half, beef, certain fruits are becoming very expensive. Especially Beef.

Re: grocery budgetin . ..again

S&S is just insane with their prices. Their cheap bananas don't make up for the overpriced everything else!

Last month I tried something new and so far I'be saved a lot.

I went to BJs and bought about $100 worth of meat. Portioned everything out to about 1 months worth of dinners.

Then went to shop rite for my canned stuff

S&S has best pricing on frozen veggies , so I went there and loaded up on them.

I have one freezer full of meat and another full of veggies.

Weekly, I go to best yet for produce bc I find it to be the cheapest and pretty good , ripe wise. And will grab milk, bread & eggs when needed.

Saving so much money doing it this way

grocery budgetin . ..again

If you have an Aldi near you, pick up some staples there. At my local one, milk is $1.99!