Making Over My Grocery Budget
At the end of my pregnancy and during the first few months after Ezra was born, Matthew did all the grocery shopping. On average he was spending more than $200 a trip and I was like, I have got to get back to doing the shopping. He must not be shopping the sales.
Turns out, that groceries have just really gone up in price. We work hard to do most of our shopping on the outside edges of the store and produce is NOT cheap.
Yesterday our grocery bill was $268, and I did not buy a lot of items outside our regular weekly purchases.
TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT DOLLARS.
What the heck is going to be when my children eat significant portions?!
My friend Erin Chase from $5 Dollar Dinners is offering a new 13-week course called the Grocery Budget Makeover in which she promises to teach how to cut your grocery budget in HALF.
Sign. Me. Up.
I have known Erin since 2009 and she is incredibly savvy, down-to-earth, fun and smart! She’s also a mom of FOUR BOYS (aren’t they adorable?). And she seriously makes meals for just $5.
Erin’s family has food allergies and she doesn’t buy many processed foods. The class is about changing methods and mindset – not coupons. (Praise the Lord because I am terrible at using coupons.)
While I have always been a good shopper (hello, Target clearance!), clearly my grocery bill needs Erin’s help. I am so excited to learn her secrets and really reduce our grocery bill. With Ezra starting day care next month, our budget needs all the help it can get.
If you are like me and you spend way too much on groceries, then sign up for Erin’s Grocery Budget Makeover.
Let’s do this together.
The course is just $39, or you can do a 3-month payment option for $15 a month ($45 total – a bit more because of admin costs).
I figure since I am going to learn to cut my grocery bill in half, the course fee is money well spent. I’m so excited about this course and know our family is going to benefit. I’m sharing about it today because I hope it is something that you could benefit from too.
Do you want to join me? Registration for the Grocery Budget Makeover is only open this week – between May 11th & May 18th! Click here to register.
Still not sure? Check out this video from Erin:
And I’d love to know – how much do you spend on groceries each week?
Disclosure: Compensated affiliate links used. Crazy grocery bill? All my own.
I hear you! I spent $200 last week, put everything away, then stared at the fridge and wondered what the heck I was going to make for dinner!
We are a family of 6 (boys almost 8, almost 6, 3 1/2 and a girl 18 months). Our budget is about 175 a week, which includes some non-grocery items such as diapers, tp, anything I get from Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club. First of all, I stay at home and my husband only works 40 hours a week and mostly works from home, so I have a lot of help that way, which I know plays a role in choosing what works for each family. I also enjoy cooking so I know that affects what food we choose for our family. I meal plan every two weeks and then grocery shop for one at a time. To save money we eat a lot of meatless meals. The majority of my cart contains, some cheese/dairy products, beans, fruits and veggies and carbs consisting of pastas and breads (usually only whole grains). Where I live I have a small grocery chain, a larger grocery chain and Wal-Mart available to me. I choose to shop at Wal-Mart because they will price match any current ad. I’m one of those annoying people, I know. But it saves my family money. Because I can match Aldi’s ads, I can feed my family fresh produce much more affordably. Such as last week I was able to purchase blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries for $1.29 per package, whereas normally priced the black, blue and raspberries would have been closer to 2.50 or more. I can also get fresh pineapple’s for 1.99! When we do eat meat, it’s usually chicken breasts or ground beef which I purchase at Sam’s club. Beef is insanely expensive! If I purchase convenience goods it’s because they are on sale. We also mostly drink water. The kids get a small glass of juice with breakfast and once that is gone they get water. We all have camelback water bottles that we use the rest of the day. I drink a cup of coffee and use a reusable k cup. Not as convenient as a real k cup, but a lot cheaper! I’m scared of what our grocery budget looks like once the boys get older. The oldest one right now constantly says he’s hungry! I tried the coupon thing, but it seemed that it’s usually for convenience foods that I don’t really want my family to eat. – See more at: https://www.themomcreative.com/2015/05/on-being-noble.html#comment-730705
You are the second person to mention Aldi to me. Yesterday I thought I was getting a bargain at $3 blackberries. Blueberries were $4. ACK! I have an Aldi not far from my office. Maybe I can swing by there once a week on my lunch break.
I have an Aldi near me. They are much lower priced. And not to be contrary, but I have found I have to be very careful because their produce isn’t that good. I often came home with moldy produce, or produce that went bad quickly.
If you can get to a Walmart that matches prices, that’s awesome! I don’t have a super Walmart anywhere near me.
We have a higher weekly grocery bill then I’d like, but one thing that’s worked for me is eating only chicken, fish, and some ground beef. I always buy whole chickens and then cook them and use all of the chicken in various meals throughout the week. Then we eat beans and lots of fruit and veggies!
Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get lots of advice from this class. Sounds amazing and maybe I’ll join at some point!
Good luck getting your grocery bill lowered. 🙂
Oh, I forgot to say our weekly grocery food budget runs about $150 right now. But that doesn’t include non-foods. It’s usually $75 a month for non-foods.
Yikes, you’re scaring me! We are a family of four, and our weekly grocery budget is $100 which is hard here in California, though we do have the advantage of amazing prices on produce in one local grocery. But milk is $5/half gallon so it probably evens out;)
We are moving to Michigan, and one of the things we haven even looking forward to is more reasonable grocery prices, but maybe we won’t find them after all, darn!:)
$100 a week is awesome! I haven’t been that low since before having kids.
We don’t have Aldi here which IS an amazing place. We do have Trader Joe’s which is a great place to get meat — do you have Trader Joe’s there?
Yes, we do have a Trader Joes and I love it. However, it is not super convenient to my home, so I don’t go there as regularly as I would like.
Trader Joe’s and Aldi are owned by the same family – Aldi is definately worth checking out!! They have a large selection of dye-free and gluten free products if you need those (we have a lot of allergies) and the prices are STILL lower than shopping regular grocery store sales!
I really enjoyed the books by America’s Cheapest Family Cuts Your Grocery Bill in Half and Gets You Right on the Money to help us save.
I look over the ads, plan our meals by whatever is on sale, and (try to) only buy items for those meals. We’re feeding 5 (with 3 pre-teens) for $150/week but that includes all the non-grocery items, too.
Good luck!
I tried shopping at Aldi last week and spent $63. Then went to other stores to get the rest of what I needed and ended up spending the exact same amount as the previous week (~$200 total). It was frustrating shopping at Aldi on a Sunday afternoon with few cashiers (and a 20-30 min checkout) and then knowing I still had to hit another store to finish my shopping. So far I’m happy with what I bought at Aldi but I need a better plan. I do Erin’s $5 dollar dinner plan and signed up for the budget make over. Figured it was worth a shot. The dinner plan helps me at least get started on meal planning for the week even if I only use 1-2 recipes each time.
I spend usually $80-100 per week at our regular grocery store and then usually $60-$150 at Costco every 2 weeks. We try and buy most of our meat at Costco and some produce. And this is for a family of 5 in CA.
Seeing another California commenter with a lower grocery bill, I’m thinking that our produce makes a huge difference. When we started to try to stick to $100 about a year ago, I started making a point to go to a local grocery that has a huge variety of produce and amazing deals because it’s all local produce and competing prices.
I’ll miss it so when we move. When we found out we were moving I stsrted going there twice a week just to get more produce:)
Be prepared for Aldi…have a quarter to get your cart and your own bags (they don’t bag your items as you check out they put them back into a cart and you bag them yourself at a counter near the front of the store)….do check their produce for hit and misses, but their prices on Organic produce is very competitive! Lots of gluten free options that are priced like their gluten alternatives, not like a regular grocery store where anything gluten free is automatically double the price. They have kids foods (gummies that are colored naturally-with fruit/veggie juices instead of the dreaded numbered dyes). They also have (drumroll!) a guarantee on all food. You don’t like it, it’s not right, it was bad you return it for a full refund (in cash) and no questions asked. With this guarantee they also request you try the same product (a new package) for free, after they have refunded your money. They are really trying to win over customers….stay on target in Aldi and focused on Aldi products and you can do really well. Once I started shopping Aldi it was eye opening how many choices at places like walmart/Kroger really cimplicate grocery shopping completely!
I just registered! Looking forward to Erin’s class.
As a working mom, I am always trying to figure out easy meals on a budget. While I obviously missed the class, I am going to check into Erin’s website. I could definitely use more easy cost-effective meals.