There has been a lot of talk lately about how much people spend on groceries a week and I have been shocked to find out that I spend quite a bit more than most of my peers. I don't think I splurge at the grocery store; take today for example-- the guys at the food both thing (at HEB they have people cook food for you at these little stands in the middle of the store, awesome) had this cracked pepper viniagarette salad dressing. That is not something that I would normally buy, ever. I buy ranch for $0.99. This particular salad dressing was SO good. I was convinced that I could eat lots of raw vegetables if only I had this salad dressing. I debated over it through my whole THREE HOUR shopping trip (how I miss the days of just running to the store and being back in thirty minutes). I decided I was going to go get the dressing, a little splurge. I got to the counter the chef guy looked victorious as I reached out for the bottle and then....SNAP my logic kicked back in. I whipped my hand back so fast it almost hurt. What was I thinking SIX DOLLARS for salad dressing puhleaaase. No way.
So I was proud of myself. I usually always buy the store brand of everything. I don't buy fancy cuts of meats or anything. Anyway I about suffered heart failure when I got to the checkout. I won't say the number but it was more than double what Ralphie spent on groceries this week (I asked).
I think part of the problem might be that for the last two weeks I was doing a "spend fast" where I tried to not spend any money. At all. I even tried to conserve gas and electricity, etc. I read some article in Men's Health (yes, I read Men's Health) about doing that once a month and it sounded healthy so I did it. Well, I tried to do it, then every single person in my family got sick and had to go to the doctor and get medication. That is kind of like the ox in the meyer (sp?)right ? So that doesn't count. I did pretty good in other categories. Not perfect though, but there is always next month. So I am hoping that my shopping trip was kind of a compensation or rebound from the spendfast. Kind of like the reason I gained so much weight during this last pregnancy was because I lost so much doing weight watchers the year before (riiight.).
Anyway, take my poll or leave a comment on your thoughts about grocery shopping. Thanks.
8 comments:
Last week when I went to the grocery store, I made Bart calculate our running total as we went so I knew how much more I had to spend. It was quite awesome :)
I try not to over-react to a specific shopping trip's total. They fluctuate SO much. I look at the month as a whole and even then we check our running average. Or at least we did until the last couple months when my budgeting data entry has gone to crap...
We spend about $600 a month on groceries. We buy a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. How long is the spendfast? I'm interested in trying it.
We also spend $600/month on groceries. Again, lots of fruit and veggies. Also, that total includes not only groceries, but detergents and toiletries and gifts.
Ditto on the $600 a month. And I barely make it on that every month!! I need to just go with cash to the store. That would make me way more cost-conscious.
I try to keep it under $400 a month, but that doesn't always work. I have friends and sisters who do it and I just can't figure it out. I generally stay under $500, though. Unless, I'm buying food storage, then those numbers go out the window.
I'm with Gretchen...I look at the month as a whole, and sometimes 2 or 3 months. Some months I'll totally stock up on meat or other expensive stuff so the next month won't be quite as bad. We probably average about $550 a month just for food (not counting household supplies and such)...but about $115 of that is just for milk. :-) (And that's without Connor drinking it yet)
We spend between $80-100 a week. But lately I have to run to the store in the middle of the week for something random (like popsicles for sick kids) and I end up spending $50. (because food storage stuff was on sale... Trav didn't buy that excuse, but it was true.)
It exhausts me to think about grocery shopping. It takes forever, your kids are always screaming by the end, and somehow you always come home with something you didn't intend to buy and forget something you did.
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