So what is your average monthly grocery bill....

[Kristinemomof3]

Just curious, I need to look and see what we spend, but it's been between $500-$600 a month for a family of 5 (kids ages, 7-11, so they are starting to eat a lot more), but I just started couponing, so I hope to drop it. We don't buy a lot of processed foods, I bake a lot, make a lot of homemade stuff, have a small garden, know someone who works for the local University, so we were able to freeze corn and can applesauce from corn & apples that we got free. I'm waiting on pumpkins to can pumpkin pie filling and more apples to make more sauce to be able to make fruit roll ups with. I do anything that I can to put stuff up. I also belong to a local food co-op, so I buy all of my beans dried, in bulk and other baking supplies in larger quantities.

Anyway, just curious what others spend and what you would like your goal to be.

Kristine

[Ladyturtle2]

I used to spend around $400-450.00 a month. Now (after finding coupon mom) its around $300-350.00 a month and we have alot more food. I think after about 6mths I am going to not go to the grocery for a month and just eat what we have stocked. That doesn't include diapers, wipes, and cleaning supplies. My youngest in 3mths and he is on breastmilk alone, so feeding him is free! If its free, than its for me!!!! I am interested to see what everyone else is spending.

Here's the makeup of my family
Myself,
Husband,
11 yr daughter
10 yr old son
8 yr old daughter
almost 2yr old son
and 3mth old son

[cheapchick]

I figure about a $100 a month per person is pretty good. A lot of people spend twice that. I buy off brand and shop at Aldi's or Save-A-Lot. I combine Qs with items already on sale at my reg grocery store for huge discounts. Today I'm getting Eggo waffles for 90c, Campbell's Chic Nood Soup for 40c, Swanson broth for 33c, 16oz Bird's Eye veg for 45c and 57c (that makes them cheaper than Aldi's frozen veg). If you see an item on sale, go to that coo's website and check online for a Q. A freezer is a must; that way you can take advantage of meat sales. It will eventually pay for itself (you sound like someone that already has one of those huge coffin-sized freezers). Another great place to look are salvage stores. This is something I only recently discovered. I live in a small town and about a 20 min drive away there are 6 Amish run salvage stores. The savings are amazing: 25c for canned veg, $1.50 for Kellogg's Nutri-Grain bars, 70c for big cans of Bush's, 50c for big cans of sweet potatoes, 10c for salad dressings (I'm not kidding you; I bought 16oz bottles of Kraft dressing for 10c, there was nothing wrong with them, not even expired!). Some places have chain salvage stores. I'm wondering if anyone else here shops at salvage stores? I also buy bread at a disc bakery and freeze it.

[IndianaMom]

I guess we spend a lot! We spend $800, but that does include diapers, cleaning supplies, paper products, toiletries, anything you buy at Target or Meijer besides clothes. We are a family of 6 total. We do drink a lot of milk, at least 5 gallons a week so that adds up to $60 or so alone. Diapers and wipes for 2 kids is $50-$60 even with sales and coupons. I donate a lot of what we buy, and I have 3 kids who bring in snacks for school, so those 2 things alone can also add $50 a month too. Oh, and that does include $60 or more a month baby food also, finally we are done with that though! 6 jars a day multiplied by $0.50 per jar adds up fast! We don't eat out often, we get pizza once a month for $5.99 for a large pie(Papa Johns Mondays). I track every penny we spend, so I know what comes in and out.

** I do have at least 3 months supply of food stocked up though, and most of that has been purchased in the past 6 months? I do know I have to cut back some, I think the mentality is the more you make (income) the more you spend, so I have to try to cut back $100 and pretend we don't have that to spend, and buy fewer snacky foods. And I have 38boxes of pasta ahead! (Kristine, they are 2 for $1 at Meijer this week!)
I know my parents used to spend $120 a week and that was back in the 80's, so that was $500 or so for just the 3 of us who lived there at the time (I am by far the youngest of 5 kids, my sisters are 19 and 17 years older than I am, my brothers are 16 and 12 years older). She used coupons too.

[hotamoly]

I spend about $600-$700 a month. That is down since starting CouponMom. It got to over $1000 when I realized, Houston, we have a problem.

The $600-$700 includes everything, food, Target, meat store, seafood store (only on occasion), produce store, and CVS.

My goal is to spend only $500.

We have my DH and I, a 15 yr old, (2) 3 yr olds, and a 1 yr old.

[ncscgirl2005]

I spend about $250 (usually less) for our family of 4. Since I've started couponing, I have only reduced my grocery bill by about $20 but that's better than nothing. I never purchased toothpasted and toilet paper at the grocery story anyway so I don't include that in my total grocery bill.

My uncle and his wife spend about $400 just the two of them. I told them they need to start couponing.

[Marine_Wife]

I have no idea anymore

I started about a month ago and stockpiled some things (like $14/16 boxes of cereal) But I can tell you that I was going to the store BCM and spending $125-$200 easy and throwing anything in my cart WITH NO COUPONS!! Yes, I was THAT lady.

Now I go and spend $20-40 every five days or so (I try to go every five days looking for the deals) And before when I was spending $200 my cabinets were almost bare at the end of the week. Now they're bursting and sometimes I have to wait to go to the store because there's no room!

I will NEVER go back to how I was shopping!

I have four people in my family as I am a widow.
Me
12 year old daughter
7 year old son
5 year old son

Edited: I guess I should point out that there is a stray $100 or so in there for milk or some meat or fruit, etc throughout the month. So I guess it's around $350ish for groceries for a family of 4.

[lswheatly]

Our grocery bill has went from $500-600 month to now it is $300 month and sometimes less and that amount also includes cleaning supplies and hygiene.
Since i have started couponing about 4 months ago, we have drastically reduced our bill.

I shop once a week. I plan out my meals based on what is on sale and what I have coupons for. I spend no more than $75 a week. We eat out on occassions and most of the time it is little ceasars pizza ( $5 for a large) or we try to make it a point to make friends that work at restaurants for more free food. ( olive garden, starbucks, mcdonalds, claim jumpers, etc).

My family consists of myself, my hubby, 2 boys ( ages 10 & 7).

[TLC]

I think we have almost cut our grocery bill in half...but I am buying more than I used to. I used to buy what I needed when we got really low and I tried to use Q's if there were any that I remembered to cut out... but it seemed like I had the hardest time with that.

I can remember needing Miracle Whip (more than once) and of course when I ran out there weren't any Q's to be found... so I always had to pay full price... and the same thing would happen with other things too.

But since I started with couponmom... I have gotten stocked up on so many supply items that I could probably not buy them again for at least a year, and only buy the staples bread, milk, meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruits... things like that ... I know we wouldn't starve for some time... for sure...

[Lfwh]

I spend anywhere between 250 and $300 a month on just groceries. Not sure how much we spend on drug items. Before Coupon Mom we were spending about $300-$450 a month, and it's just two of us. I really am glad I found Coupon Mom and really, really glad she started this forum!!