I was reading an article on Yahoo’s home page today about grocery shopping. The Lazy Way to Save on Groceries, basically advice on how to save money by buying store brands and paying attention to the per-unit pricing stickers located on the shelves in front of the products.
This was all good advice, but advice that most of us already know and use. What got to me is the information at the end.
In 2007, the average household spent about $3,300 on groceries -- closer to $5,000 annually for families….. finance.yahoo
$5,000 annually for families? Ok, so how many in a family? Since the average family size is 4 (2 adults and 2 children) I am guessing this is the size we are talking about. When you break this down the average family is spending on $416 a month. Wow!
Our family of 4 spends $280 a month, give or take a few dollars. How are we spending less then the average?
We don’t clip coupons, because honestly our paper doesn’t offer all the coupons that other cities do and the ones that are offered, we don’t use the stuff. We buy store items most of the time. But I am a picky eater and will only eat Publix or Target store brands. Walmart to me just doesn’t taste right. And I want to throw in I am not sure who all was tested, but at both of these stores the store brand peanut butter is good! I am a huge peanut butter lover, eating it with a spoon from the jar, so I should know!
Back to the topic at hand. We make a menu. By that I mean I sit down and plan out 2 weeks worth of meals (we get paid bi weekly) and purchase the items necessary for these meals. I only make the menus for dinner time. We pick up oatmeal packets, pop tarts and cereal for breakfast. Lunches consist of either left overs or sandwich’s. And with the sandwich’s I only buy the lunch meat that happens to be on sale. Publix always has some sort of lunch meat on sale, either buy one get one free or 2 for $5 and I put one pack in the fridge for the 1st week and then 2nd goes in the freezer for the 2nd week.
We always, no matter what, pick up extras that aren’t on the list. Cookies or some snack crackers that are on sale.
Now you may be thinking wow $280 a month, you must be eating out some nights. Nope, we just don’t have the money to do that. Once in a blue moon, by that I mean no more than once a month we will eat out. But our eating out consist of Burger King or Taco Bell and we never buy drinks, we always buy the food and bring it home and drink our own beverages.
So in my studies a family of 4 can eat on less then $300 a month when you have no other choice. If we spent more than this a month we wouldn’t be able to pay our power bill or something of equal importance.
Making a menu works! And in case your wondering we shop at Publix and Target for our grocery needs.
