It has been a while since I’ve done any of my grocery posts on here. Mostly because I tend to buy the same(ish) stuff each fortnight, I’m not prescriptive in “teaching” you want to do like a “real” shopping and meal planning blog (plus I don’t meal plan or follow receipes because ugh who lives a boring life like that – it’s all in my head) … but basically I think adults can look at these things, learn what they want, and take what works for you.
I called this a stock shop because I got hammered by bills in the past month, so my previous few grocery shops were scrimping and emptying the freezer of stock (stocks of food, not stock as in the stuff you make from bones, although I have that in there too) kind of fortnights. One of them was very cheap because I managed to use about $40 of flybuys points to make it even cheaper. This wasn’t a massive stock shop like before I had my tonsils out though!
Stock Up Grocery Shop
Now that I’m back to only regular bills (um, yay?) I could buy more food again. And that is a yay. We spent $59 in Woolies. The $5 weirdly named stuff are museli bars. We don’t like to buy too much prepackaged food but they’re so hand for stuffing in a bag on the weekend or if Ben has a blood sugar low(ish) between meals; too handy not to have. We buy two packs per fortnight and that’s $10 total. My favourite frozen pizzas were also on sale so I grabbed three. I’m a big fan of having lazy food on hand in the house because it’s much cheaper than buying takeout when one or both of you don’t want to cook. Could you get takeout to feed two people for $5? I think not. (If you can, tell me how!) Does anyone not have lazy nights when you don’t want to cook?
I tend to do the bulk of my shopping at Coles as I find it cheaper than Woolies. Milk and dog food are the bulkiest things we buy in Coles. Our dog is a Type 1 Diabetic so we do not ever vary what she is fed, not even flavours within the same brand. I don’t like to get veggies at supermarkets but I tend to be ok with buying potatoes, carrots and onions there as I figure they are harder to stuff up than more “delicate” veggies. I have no idea if veggies being delicate is even a thing but it is in my mind, so there you go! A chunk of our money went on fish, minced beef, chicken drumsticks and chicken breast. We were pretty much out of all meat after avoiding buying it for a few shops and it was time to get some more in the freezer.
I am for $200 per fortnight for all groceries. This includes dog food, cleaning and general household items. We went a bit over this fortnight but after a few shops of going under, that’s fine by me. We will also get more veggies either from the awesome little veggie shop by our house or from the markets on the weekend. Tends to be about $10-20 depending on what they have, what we feel like and what’s in season. I’m actually a bit cranky at both the corner store and markets as they’ve started pre-packing veggies and I just like to buy the amount I want, not what they want, so I’m a bit torn on where to do the shopping. I guess it saves them time and queues in scanning vs weighing but I’m not a fan.
How much do you spend on groceries? Do you have a strict budget or a more general guideline like me?
I spend way too much on groceries every week. Over $300 for a family of 5. This includes cleaning items as well as food.
Ingrid
http://www.fabulousandfunlife.blogspot.com.au
My $200/ft is for two adults and a dog with medical conditions.
I have no idea what we spend – but really should take stock sometime. We buy veggies, fruit and dairy weekly – at the farmers market – and meat & other essentials daily. We find that we have less waste this way & hubby does the daily grocery shop. I use enjo gloves for cleaning everything other than the toilet, so after the initial outlay have very few cleaning products to buy. Like you, I like to buy my veggies loose & unpacked – again, it reduces waste. #TeamLovinLife
Oh daily, that’s interesting. I’m not sure I’d want to go daily haha. I like fortnightly as that’s about all the shop-peopling I want to put up with haha.
I’m a shocking shopper. I used to just call into Woolies / Coles every so often for ‘basket’ shops. It’s harder now I’m a little out of town as I don’t just venture past them and can’t pop in every few days.
Also I eat the same stuff all of the time so it’s almost impossible to stock up as I just keep running out of stuff. #teamlovinlife
It is amazing what you can fit in a basket though. We have a finely tuned system that lets us fit our fortnightly shop in a small trolley (not the big deep ones).
I must admit that we just get what we need and don’t tend to put enough effort into reducing costs – except there and then product price comparison I guess – but then again there are some brands I prefer (regardless of price). I find the best way to keep costs down is to plan and that is what we do – meal plan and then make shopping list to accommodate that. Stops you straying off and buying things you won’t use! 🙂 #TeamLovinLife
I think we all have brands we prefer, for sure! I think I do meal plan, I guess it’s just in my head and not translatable to be written down.
We had always been ‘fortnightly’ shoppers because that was when we got paid. However, in the past few years we have become more ‘every few days’ shoppers because of fresh fruit my hub wants and my needs are varied. In terms of shopping to stock up, I do that (or should I say, did that as I have not done a major grocery shop since I came home from hospital). We used to get out cash of $200 per week and divide it up for our needs including an odd spend here for a coffee and a hair cut every 4 weeks. However, in me not going out and getting distracted at the shops, we have brought our cash down to $150 per week and that is working well. I tend to do bulk cooking for mini meals for me and little cakes and on those weeks we spend a bit more. Good topic! D x
Oh I can totally understand how your needs are changing at the moment! I seem to go through times when I have heaps of food ready to grab and go and others when I’m like aaah better cook something with leftovers today!
I have no idea what our weekly grocery bill is. I have this very bad habit of ‘popping into the shops’ … most (!!) days of the week after work…. I like to console myself by thinking about how I bring my lunch to work every day and only have a takeaway coffee every second day.
My only rules are not to waste food, to stock up on favourites when they’re on sale and bring all my food to work from home as opposed to buying little impulse things at the 7/11.
SSG xxx
I find the more I pop in, the more I spend! It’s so bad.
With two hungry teenagers in the house, our weekly bill is around the $300 mark. I do plan evening meals (it helps stop food waste) and usually do one big shop per week plus a mid-week top up for the fresh items. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to shop around and have to do all my weekly shop at either Coles or Woolies and sometimes get meat at the Butcher. I’d love to be able to go to our local grower’s market, but it’s on Saturday mornings, when I’m working at my 2nd job. My main priority is keeping enough food in the cupboard/fridge for the hungry hoards 🙂 #TeamLovinLife
I still remember the first time I saw a teenaged boy eat (a friends brother). I couldn’t believe how MUCH they go through! I tend to check the catalouges online to make sure something I want isn’t on special in one or the other store, but I tend to shop at Coles most as I find them currently better priced. I used to shop at Woolies but they seemed to go through a phase when things just shot up in price so I got cranky and stopped going there.
I’m a weekly menu planner, and then do a weekly grocery shop for the bulk of the stuff and then top up fresh items mid week. The everyday bulk items are purchased at a no frills supermarket and purchase our meat and fresh items at a smaller store.
I’d like to get to a stage where I can buy a part cow direct from a farmer. I know it’s better quality and a good price, it’s just getting the cash up front that I’m working on.
I used to have a strict budget when I was the keeper of the budget. I was called the “budget bitch” because I wouldn’t waiver and hubby got the cranks so took over. No budget now. Just buy what we need when we need it. Hopefully he has the finances under control because I wouldn’t have a clue anymore!
Haha fingers crossed for hubby then!