Thursday, May 3, 2012

Do people really spend this much at the Grocery Store?

Somebody needs to teach the government how to shop. This is what the government thinks people need to spend on groceries per week, Anyone else think this is way out of wack and very high. I calculated the weekly cost for groceries for our family of 4 according to this-- the Liberal plan came to $312 per week, Thrifty plan $159 per week. Even before my adventure in couponing which I started this week I could do better than this and we eat very well lots of fresh produce and lean meat. Granted I cook a lot from scratch but even so. Sheesh

My Menu Plan for Dinners this Week

Ground Beef Stroganoff & Egg Noodles Peas

Lime Sauced Chicken & Caesar Salad Ranch Potatoes

Chiles Rellenos Quiche Cantaloupe

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Black Beans Yellow Rice

Ravioli Florentine Garlic Toast

Chicken Cobbler Pear Gorgonzola Salad

Mexican Roll-ups Strawberries Chips & Salsa

I Spent $87 at the Grocery store and saved $43 with sales and coupons this week. Without the sales and coupons my bill would have been $130. This was a full weeks worth of groceries for a family of 4 (15yrs and up). It included staples that were not on sale. There were only 2 non grocery items and they were dental floss and listerine. This did not include any paper products,cleaning products or personal products other than the listerine and dental floss. I bought one item off the list cause the meat guy showed me that corned beef was on sale for $1.99 a pound and that was an awesome price and my Husband loves corned beef and I usually only fix it in March - go figure. I will have to figure a corn beef dinner in next weeks meal plan.

Anyway it is hard to do a complete comparison as i had meat in my freezer from previous sales and I have most staples on hand. I have been spending around $150 for just groceries per week but that is what the Thrifty Gov't plan is suppose to be. I know people that feed their families very healthfully for much less. My personal goal is going to be to stay under $100 per week for our family of four which includes a twenty something and a teenage boy. However I know other families that do way better than this. Just a challenge to me and I love to cook.
How is your grocery budget? What do you spend?Here is another interesting link It is the Government Thrift Menu Plans along with recipesIt is interesting











1 comment:

Anonymous said...

there was a time where i bought $80 worth of meats and pastas, rice, beans, baking mix, canned foods and was able to spend $20 on produce to last two weeks to supplement. This lasted me about three months and it was such a rush being able to save so much money. i agree i don't see how people spend so much money on groceries but some really do buy a lot, doesn't make sense..and then they go out to eat lol