This is going to be a multi-post series about my efforts to change my food bill!
Have you noticed how the prices for everything keeps going up? We thought we would be saving money right now but some unexpected changes ( no federal raises for 2 years, David new labor agreement, higher health care, higher daycare) have caused us to not be sitting the way we would like financially. I was noticing that I was always shopping for food and always coming home with less and less.
I reviewed my bank statement from July 29th – September 16th, and found that I spent about $1,577 on food. HOLY COW! That’s 262.00 a week and that’s without the cash that I spent at the farmers market each week.
- $1,147 was spent at Hannaford's alone for about $191 a week
- $53 was spent at Nice N Easy for Bread, milk and “Emergency” stuff (8.83/week)
- $89 was spent on Dunkin Donuts (I think that a bit much) that’s $14 a week
- Another 209 at BJ wholesale
- the remaining balance was at Rite Aid and other random stores
Until 16 September I would shop for a 2 week period. I would plan those meals and buy what I needed. The “off” shopping week I would run into get things that needed to be purchased fresh or that I forgot about. Some produce I would get thrown out before I could use it 
. But I did feel like I we didn’t buy too much unnecessary stuff.
I feel as if my best saving is my garden – the above timeframe really doesn’t have that much produce cost in it. My garden was pumping out major product then. But now its fall and my garden is mostly over other then some fall root veggies. So now I am looking at the potential for even more cost to feed my family of 4.
So the obviously thing I need to do is one cut out Dunkin donuts. Then start hacking away at my Hannaford's bill and the corresponding Nice N Easy bill. My new plan is to shop weekly there for I can buy break and milk at a more reasonably priced grocery store.
My plan for this multi-series post include:
- Trying new stores (Aldi’s and Price chopper)
- Using coupons
- cost saving tips
- Wrap up and review – hopefully I will see a savings to report.
So where are you trying to save money? Do you have any good tips?
Goal: To decrease my $262.00 per week grocery bill.
1 comment:
Great ideas. I need to do the same. What about just buying a coffee maker instead of DD's? Here's the tip I found (& it works when I plan). Buy all your meat one week and then plan the next week's meal around it. Then you will have bought meat on sale instead of regular price. Vegetarian meals also lower your costs and breakfast for dinner! Good luck!
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