Grocery Lists

I just recently started to get organized with my grocery shopping. I sit down Sunday afternoon and make a list for the week. I plan for 7 meals at home (if we eat out one night that meal plan gets moved to the next week) and I buy only what I need for the meals I'm going to prepare and for lunches for my oldest daughter, my husband, and myself. I buy very little snack food. I usually spend about $100-130 on groceries each week. I do some couponing (not to the extremes) to help cut costs and is usually does help us decide on the meals and organize a little. I always go Sunday night after the kids are in bed and my hubby can watch them. Much easier to go by myself. As far as prices are concerned I spend about $2 for a gallon of milk, about $1.30 for 1.5 dozen eggs and anywhere from $1 to $2 for a loaf of bread depending on what I am out of. No one in the family eats the same loaf due to preferences.

I've found that in general we are saving a lot of money every month by not wasting food and we are generally eating healthier as well

I want to live where you live. Or at least steal your prices. It's a toss up most weeks which is more expensive here - gas or milk (per gallon).

Our staples include cheese, lunch meat, a few yogurts per family member, 2 gal 2% milk, a quart of half and half, meats (varies - chicken, pork, steak and if DH is making chili - buffalo), fruit and veg in season, eggs, bread, cereal. We stock up when we see sales on things (like jiff cornbread mix) that can be stored.

We tend to stop at one or two places regularly. They have decent selection and decent price and it's not worth my time or gas to go out again for 10 cents off bananas when they are already fairly inexpensive.

We also keep a running list on the fridge so whoever sees that we are out adds it. This also helps when I have to go without talking to the big kids and need to know they are out of shampoo or deoderant. It also helps to prevent yet another dozen eggs when we had a dozen in the fridge.

You are way more organized about grocery shopping than me! I always have a list of things we need around the house, so I bring the list and make sure I buy those items (irregular things, like spices, deoderant, or flour). As far as everyday groceries, I just go and buy what looks good, what's in season, what's on sale, etc. I do this mainly because I don't like planning meals per day..I've tried, but it drives me nuts, and for some reason I rarely want the things I planned for! So, I just make sure I have a variety of items on hand to throw something together. I love having NO idea what I'm going to have for dinner, then I go into the kitchen, look around, and decide what to have based on my tastes and mood. I guess I'm weird like that. :)

We (or I) go "big" grocery shopping about once a month, but we walk to the co-op for bread or milk or fresh veggies every few days. I'm not sure how much regular milk is here, but at the local co-op they're $2.99 (half gallon, fresh, organic), and we take our glass bottles back to be filled.

Living near Santa Fe - this area of the US is so expensive. A half gallon of milk here is 3.50 to $4. yes, that is right. I see how little other people can spend on groceries and it makes me jealous! The funny thing is we used to live in Alaska and it was SO much more expensive there! So, at first I was feeling happy that groceries were so cheap here. Then I see posts on Mamapedia on how little people spend on groceries and it kills me! I do one grocery shopping trip for the week. I plan all the meals for the week and I just go to one store (Smiths) bc our town only has one store.

Ok, so I have a master Family Menu, we choose from the menu for the month. I have a Master Grocery List that includes EVERYTHING needed for each meal (all three plus snack & dessert) and our easy go to meals. I freeze TONS of things and keep a well stocked deep freezer as well as regular freezer. If you were to open my deep freezer now you would find meats to make meals all this month, frozen broccoli, peppers, green beans, bananas and asparagus (home frozen) and frozen bread, milk and Naked Juices. The items that tend to go on sale rarely I have learned to buy in bulk and freeze properly. Did you know you can freeze eggs when they are OUT of thier shell? So, I tend to go once a month, maybe if something went on a Super Sale and it's not gonna happen again for a while I will go stock up, but for the most part my budget is 500 for a family of three!

We're a family of 5 and our grocery bill is around $200 a week. Milk is $2.70 and eggs are $2.35. I can't believe some are paying $5 for milk! Not so long ago I was buying mostly organic and my grocery bill was no where this high. Some prices have more than doubled in the last 3 or 4 years. Needless to say we've cut way back on organics which are sometimes triple the regular stuff. It's so crazy the difference in prices!

Our milk is almost $5 a gallon, $3.50 for a half gallon... and that's generic store brand.

I go about once a week. Would go less often, but the fruit/veggies here go bad very quickly.

I have to shop at 5 different stores to get the best prices, so my list is split up that way (1/2 gallon = 4.89 at most stores -safeway, kroger/qfc, target, etc....but only 1.69 at whole foods or trader joes.)

I shop every 2 weeks, except for things like milk where I run out of space, or veggies that I want fresh... here's my 'usual suspects'... and the price next to it is the individual price per each. Of course, it's not IDENTICAL to this list every 2 weeks, but it's durn close.
________________________________
Trader Joes (milk, eggs, frozen things)

8 half gallons of milk 1.69 (I buy these every week)
8 dozen eggs 1.29
1 lb butter $2.49
1 block of smoked gouda $4
1 half flat of in season fruit $7
4 frozen packages of orange chicken $4 (the sauce is separate, I use the chicken for various things... the price per pound is less than half of raw chicken)
2 frozen packages of fancy schmacy veggies (cheaper than fresh) $3
1 frozen package of gyoza $4
1 frozen package of edamame $1.39
1 frozen pagage of either thai sprig rolls or mini chicken tacos $4
1 frozen package of chopped spinach $1.49
1 frozen package of chimichurri rice $3
(+ 1 box of roasted red pepper and tomato soup $3... the above 2 go together)
2 frozen bags of stir fry rice $3
1 tub of hummus $3
1 tub of greek yogurt $3
________________________________
apx $100

________________________________

WholeFoods (sausages, seafood, & bulk items)

6 sausages (various flavors... like linguica for cajun, or habenero for latin, or mild italian for italian, etc.etc.etc.) apx $1.25
1 Lg (bulk) container of rice $2
1 Lg (bulk) container of bulgar wheat $2
1 Lg (bulk) container of middle eastern cous cous $2
1 Lg (bulk) container of beans/lentils/polenta/ etc (I switch dep on menu) $2
1 frozen package of tater tots $3
once a month - 1 sm container of nutritional yeast $1
once a month - 1 lg bottle of olive oil $5
once a month - 1 2lb bag of frozen shrimp $7
once a month - 1 2lb bag of frozen scallops $5

_______________________________
$15-30
________________________________
QFC/Safeway (name brand things like Coke & Bleach & Cereal, toiletries/cleaning items)

- apx 3lbs of Red meat on sale for under $6 per lb be that hamburger, roast, ribs, whatever... it really varies depending on the sales... regular price on hamburger is $6, roasts $10, steak $15-20
- Toiletries ($4 per shampoo/ conditioner, $5 for toilet paper, $17 for laundry detergent, $4 for spray cleaner, $4 for dish soap, etc... if I have to buy everything in one trip, it totals out to $60)
- 1 box of "I'm not awake enough to cook" breakfast sammies $7
- 1 box of cereal $4
- 1lb of sliced swiss $8
- 15 bottles of coke $1
- 1 bottle of wine $10 (I've been on a $10bottle mission for years)
________________________________
apx $100
________________________________

Uwajimayas

Various kinds of Japanese food... I spend about $20 total here.
________________________________

Day Old Bakery: $5
________________________________

CSA Box (veggies) $26
________________________________

Which brings me to apx $250... BUT, I often only spend $70 at trader joes, and $70 at QFC... giving me an extra $60. It all depends on how many people I'm feeding/ what the "stockpile" (how many frozen turkeys I have in the freezer, etc... I start off every holiday season w/ 6 or 7 turkeys at 11 cents a pound and use for lunch meat, since turkey lunch meat is 12 DOLLARS a pound, chicken breast is $9 a pound, etc) is doing, etc.

Leaving me about $25-85 to buy miscellaneous ingredients for various things (peanut butter, mayonaise, etc.)... because I have a food budget of $300 every 2 weeks.

IF I DIDN'T shop around... the list above for $300 = $800 for "normal" prices all from one store. (trust me, my husband took my list and went shopping once trying to 'help' oy vey... ramen and oatmeal and pbjs for the second 2 weeks, because our budget was *blown*... and I shop at these stores with a running price list in my head).

And yes. I've lived on a $50 a week food budget. Which meant oatmeal every morning, ramen or pb sammies every lunch, and "how many ways CAN we eat eggs???" for dinner. $300 every two weeks is TIGHT, but provides a comfy / mostly healthy diet

I menu plan for several weeks at a time. I shop every 2-3 weeks for everything we need, meat, and pantry items. I go every week for fresh produce, eggs, and yogurt. (Those are short trips.) We get bread every few weeks, I buy many and freeze the extra loaves.

Mil is under $2.00 a gallon, eggs are around $1.00, everything else is pretty cheap. We have a low cost of living here. I spend about $35-50 a week on groceries for three of us. My son (2 1/2) always comes with me. He loves the store!

P.S.
We eat healthy, whole foods. Fresh fruits and veggies several times a day! We don't eat junk. Nothing packaged. We make everything from scratch. We eat well, and are never hungry. Food is simply very affordable here.

You're so lucky with the milk. $4.00 per gallon here. We usually one big trip per month at a wholesale store like Walmart or Sam's. And when we run out of milk, bread, or fresh produce, we just stop at the local grocery store. Some families have a more difficult time with doing one big wholesale trip, but we have a family that likes routine and we don't really vary too much in our dinners each week. We eat different stuff each night, but for the most part, I can plan out meals by the week.

I like lists too! In fact, I am currently creating a master meal list, so that I can sit down and do monthly meal planning (right now I do 7 meals at at time.)

I shop weekly, going to usually 4 stores. I have my produce/deli store, Trader Joes (mostly for milk, yogurt, shrimp), my Target list, and my Jewel sales list ( I don't buy a lot at Jewel, I just go when there is a really good deal, though I do buy most of my steak there). I would love to only make one big trip every two weeks, but sales just don't work that way. I have a second frig, and a full size freezer, so I can buy extra staples.

I pay $6 for a gallon of milk. We fluctuate on how much we spend on food. I've been trying to bring it down by really using the coupons, but we eat a lot of seafood and steak.

I do the grocery shopping once a week and spend $200 +/-$20. I buy enough food to cook about 4 big dinners with enough for leftovers. I must add that I usually mess up a meal or not have enough for leftover like I had planned, each week. I use coupons on things that I'd normally be buying anyway. I hate to leave home without my coupons, I feel like that's free money I'm just letting expire. I use about 10 or so coupons each trip. My list is very organized. I have a blank sheet for each trip printed with the isles in the order that they are in the store so that I can go from one end of the store to the other with minimal backtracking. I know, how girl scout of me. On the blank side of the list is my menu for the week including lunches and breakfasts. My biggest problem is coming up with what to cook each week!