I’ve got the cost of groceries on my mind lately so today’s question is related to groceries!
I’m Wondering: What part of your grocery bill always costs the most? (Meat, produce, dairy…etc.)
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The one thing I have a problem with is kids school snacks. Our kids have 2 snack times and a lunch time at school. There are so many restrictions of what the can bring that unfortunately a lot of time I get the easy processed stuff.
I would like us to send healthier options for snacks, but with limited time it is dificult. It needs to be a grab and go to throw in their lunch bags in the morning. Plus not add too much small containers to the pile of dishes everynight(with 4 kids it adds up)
It’s sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch, but the extra snacks is the struggle.
They are getting a bit sick of cheesestrings, yogurt, applesauce, fruit cups, etc.
Lactose free milk and the obscene amount of cheese that we go through take up a big chunk of our bill. Meat, cereal and starches I only buy on sale.
And in these cold months, fresh produce is probably neck and neck with the dairy line on my budget.
We are mostly gluten and sugar free, and make the majority of our meals from scratch.
For us (couple of empty-nesters), it is dairy. I grow a large country garden, and put up fruit during the summer. We raise our own chickens, so eggs are a good protein source, and use legumes(beans, lentils) to “stretch” meat dishes.
Dairy is our big expense. I look for dried milk on sale, use it in cooking, and make half-and-half with fresh milk. Grocery bills still average $200 a month. How does that compare?
For the two seniors,meat and chocolate treats (for my husband) cost the most. I cut our monthly grocery bill in half when I retired by shopping at Walmart, The Box and Superstore, buying generic, weekly sales, in season produce, well stocked pantry and coupons . I cook almost all our meals from scratch, we hardly ever go out to eat and we don’t drink much alcohol. My husband does not like homemade baking so that is why he has a chocolate bar a day..what the heck, when you get to our age one should have the luxury of eating whatever you want.
For us, it used to be meat. Those Costco sized packs of chicken breasts and pork tenderloin add up. I used to freeze them in smaller portions but found that because I wanted to rotate the freezer items frequently we were consuming meat with nearly all of our meals. I started experimenting with plant based proteins like lentils, dried and can beans, and even nuts/seeds to make healthier meat free meals. Now we eat meat maybe two or three times a week and vegetarian the rest. Or I make a little bit of meat go a long way by incorporating in to a meal (like cajun red rice and beans with a few farmer’s market sausages thrown in). This saves us a lot of money on our grocery bill and I feel like we eat healthier too as a result.
I think our grocery spending is pretty equally split between packaged foods that stretch, to meats, to produce. We don’t buy much dairy at all due to my partner’s allergies. It’s hard to mentally separate the food items from the non-food items I buy at the grocery store (walmart or the co-op) because household consumables are usually the largest part of our budget. Cleaning products, hygiene products, etc.
Fortunately we’ve reduced our bill VASTLY through the use of coupons. We’re saving hundreds a month.
I should qualify – through using coupons and strategic shopping, we’ve reduced our grocery store spending by half.
Just a tip. To get a cost breaksown. Separate all the grocery only items and have the cashier scan the first, then ask for a subtotal. Then its easy to know how much is for each category.
Alternatively, just have them on 2 separate bills.
For us, it would be meats. For Fruits and veggies , I go to H&W produce (Edmonton) and can get decent prices there, plus they have coupons on their website.
Fresh fruits and vegetables. My family loves them and we try to eat mostly fresh food but it is getting really expensive to keep feeding a family of five using fresh vs. frozen or canned.
Most of our grocery bill is fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter, but the most expensive products we buy are dairy, specifically cheese. In the summer, we bring the cost of fresh produce down by growing some produce and an assortment of herbs in our garden. Because of this dairy becomes the most expensive part of our grocery bill then.
For us it’s the produce that we spend most of our grocery money on.
The meat, the produce and the gluten free foods are what eat up “excuse the pun” our food budget the most. Food prices in general are horrendous; the companies continue to reduce the size of the packages and still the prices are skyrocketing.