need help with my grocery budget...

[Wifezilla]

If anyone in your family is prone to weight gain or there is a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, cutting meat and fats while upping carbohydrates like pasta, rice and potatoes is a very bad idea. Eating this way helped me all the way up to 280lbs.

Remember, eating carbohydrates makes you HUNGRIER. You eat them, they rapidly convert to sugar, it spikes your blood sugar which raises your insulin levels. High insulin pushes the nutrients in to your fat cells while trying to get your blood sugar back to the right level. Next thing you know, you have a blood sugar crash and then you are hungry again.
Call it "Chinese Food Syndrome" if you like.

If you are all skinny and have great blood pressure, then feel free to ignore this post.

 

[breconbcs]

Like it has been said, it's hard to tell/make suggestions to how to not spend money without knowing how you do spend it.

I feed a family of 5 (DH, kids are 17, 11,10 yrs and myself). My bill every week is between $100-150. Can be more when things are on sale but then lower for weeks after. I try to keep the freezer stocked with meat from local farms that I do barter system with (my dogs and I work for the meats) or I buy and stock up on sale. One of my local stores carry what they call fryers 2 for $10. they are maybe 2 lbs each so when I can't get farm fresh I buy these. They also sell thighs, legs, and breasts in bulk so I will buy those, occassionally they have beef on sale so I stock up then. I try to stay away from the processed and junk foods just by not going up those isles. The one thing I do buy weekly are school snacks as our school is very picky about foods due to other kids' allergies.
I try very hard to make a menu up every week, and base it off what I have and what's on sale. I also go first thing in the morning when they mark the meat down (my dad taught me that one), I also take a look at the marked down veggies/fruits but usually they are too far gone to bring home.

Best thing to do is sit down and figure out what you buy every grocery shop and then try to find those in bulk - either from the store or from local producers/raisers. Figure out how much things will cost per pound (like when buy flour in bulk, see which way is the cheaper way to go). We have a grower's store (they grow their own in season and buy in during the off) who sells 50lb bags of culled carrots and potatoes for $6. each. They don't look pretty like the ones in the store but they still taste and cook the same but for a lot less.

I have started making our bread which I can then make into buns rather than loaves. My main reason the 17 yr old will eat a loaf a bread a day. With me making it daily, we limit how much he eats. Also though it feels like alot of money going out on supplies, when I broke it down to per loaf and it worked out to about .58 cents per loaf rather than the $2 I was paying.
Also I joined a crop share program through a local farmer. You pay so much for the year (we are paying $400 and this is for organic), and you share in the crop. Some let you volunteer to cut down on the price. It works out that for the 16 weeks of the season we have it will cost $25 a week and it will be enough for a family of 4. I know I said we are 5 but the oldest has grand dreams of touring Europe for the summer and possibly not coming back. Either way he will be contributing or gone. This is what I would spend in the store for fresh produce that isn't organic. And their hours of pick up work with my work hours so I'm already in the area so not wasting time or gas to go over.

I forgot to mention that the money I spend every week does not include feeding 5 dogs. Their monthly bill with what we work for, buy from the processors (I take pretty much anything they can give/sell me), buy in bulk where I have to from chicken/turkey processors works out to be around $40 - though I do have to buy $300 worth at a time but it lasts months if I don't sell it to other dog owners, so sometimes their food is free.

 

[love blrw]

A few ideas,
buy your dog food at a feed store like Tractor supply in bulk (or walmart if you are not opposed to the store) and store in a garbage can, no treats they are not good for the dogs anyway, I mix in some table scraps
I can my own tomato sauce and when I run out I buy canned sauce
Use less soft cheeses and a little bit of hard cheese and more veggies in sauces
make double batches of meals and freeze one batch before you serve it on the table, or just pull out an individual meal or two for the next day
start a garden, use your produce, some beginner crops like tomatoes, peppers, or zucchini can add some free foods to your menu
shop at dollar stores for canned fruit, etc or buy on sale
check local farmers markets, I go once or twice a month
think about going to U pick farms for things like apples or potatoes that store a long time
Five chickens will give you about four eggs per day, if you use those eggs you will decrease your dependence on other food items, eggs are a good protein source
We don't buy any drinks, the exceptions would be orange juice on a good sale, or Koolaid made the old fashioned way. Mostly we drink water or milk, milk= another protein
make breakfast foods for dinner, to make them a little more special just look for recipes online, I personally like to search for recipe videos
Chile, soup and sandwiches, egg noodles and onions and cabbage, pasta dishes, rice stir fries, soft taco wraps, mac and cheese, quiche, can all be made relatively cheaply.
Good luck

 

[Cybercat]

I don't know if you have a local Craigs List, but I often see people offering to allow folks to pick their unused apples and other produce. Of course this is during the harvest season. Sometimes its free and other times you can get the produce for pennies on the dollar.