Comments on: How Much Do You Spend On Groceries?

By: hanna

hanna — Sun, 20 May 2012 09:20:06 +0000

hi, id just like to let you now its the junk food thats cheap over in the USA – like maccas and other take out places. Its part of the obesity problem, people are buying junk because thats all they can afford.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:38:07 +0000

I can’t speak for single people, but I too found the price of food in SE QLD expensive when we first moved here (and yes I’ve noticed that goods are getting smaller and more expensive HB rolled oats comes to mind here!). It’s certainly challenging when you’re one person paying a mortgage! On the plus side, you have full control over all the spending decisions.

Will make this a reader question for the month and get some input from other single people!

By: Rosie

Rosie — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:14:45 +0000

I hope someone sees this, as I just found this great discussion page. You all sound like familiies, so it’s hard to compare expenses. As a ‘singleton’ maintaing a household alone (well, with 4 pets) I’d be really interested to know how other singles manage, esp. if they are paying mortgages on their own. Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed by the price of utilities (electricity – eek) and I find the price of food (this is south east Qld) frighteningly expensive. Also, I walk out of the supermarket every week wondering if they (the big shops) think we’re stupid, ie, that we can’t see they are reducing sizes but charging us more ! My main interest is whether I’m overspending, compared to others in a similar situation. Any comments out there?

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:09:07 +0000

Hi Sal, that’s a great way to meet your grocery budget.

I also get the impression that food is much, much cheaper in the US from what I’ve read, but I also get the impression that it’s not as good a quality as it is here, and their farming subsisidies makes it quite cheap to buy (but aren’t necessarily a good thing). Although, that’s just my impression from what I’ve read, I’ve never been, so can’t say for sure!

By: sal

sal — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:44:58 +0000

I’m a single mum on a disabilty pension in Brisbane, Australia. I have two daughters (13,15) and we budget for $50 per person per week but this includes cleaning supplies, toilet paper . . . If we shop at Woolies (Woolworths), or worse Coles we usually have to plan which items will go through the checkout last because the budget reaches its limit too soon at those places. If we shop at Aldi we can get everthing we want (‘need’ actually) and be well inside the budget. Of course there are some items we don’t like at Aldi – like the frozen sausage rolls YUK! So we get some special things from Woolies. Then again, we can also go to independant green grocers and butchers and get good prices on fresh food.

From what I’ve read here, food must be much cheaper in the USA!

By: how much do you spend on the groceries–an update | frugalandthriving.com.au

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:02:16 +0000

[...] It has been nearly a year and a half since I wrote about how much we spend on the groceries. [...]

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 07 May 2011 23:39:53 +0000

Hi Janet, thanks for sharing your grocery bill! Sounds like you’re doing pretty well with five adults to feed! I’m planning an update to this post because our grocery amount is ever changing. And of couse (shameless plug ahead) my grocery saving eBook is nearly finished . We also get the cat’s food from the pet store. Royal something or other – not cheap but I think worth his health.

By: janet

janet — Sat, 07 May 2011 16:11:05 +0000

I wish that i had your grocer bill. I have just been adding mine up for the month and it came to 258 $ a week
There are five of us to buy for all adults apart from a 13 year old who is always hungry. In my figure it did not count the cat food as they have food from the pet shop.
We only have one takeaway,wood fired pizza,wish works out about 37$ for all 5 of us

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:55:19 +0000

Silly me! I nearly forgot the most important one. Menu planning. One of the biggest household expenses when it comes to groceries is waste. If you're throwing away food, you're throwing away your money. Menu planning helps you to buy only that which you need and use it up before it goes bad. It can also save time by reducing trips to the shops.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:38:10 +0000

Hi Lisa,

There are some recipes on this site for homemade cleaners, a large bottle of vinegar costs about $1, lasts ages and cleans just about everything along with bi-carb. Check out the cleaning section and there are some posts on cleaning. I recently discovered homebrand toilet paper and I’m impressed with the quality, if you don’t use homebrand stuff already, give it a go to see what suits your family’s tastes.

For fruit and veg, try greengrocers or farmer’s markets to compare prices. It depends where you live as to whether the supermarket or greengrocer is cheaper. Here the grocer is cheaper, but where my mother lives, the supermarket is. I buy meat in bulk from the wholesaler and freeze it in individual portions about once a month. We have two (and a half) mouths to feed and we have a tiny box freezer above the fridge, it’s amazing how much we can pack in. Try your local butchers if you don’t have a wholesaler to compare prices because the supermarkets can be way over priced. Again, it depends where you live.

Another huge expense in my opinion is cereal. I nearly die when I see the price of boxed cereal. Making your own, buying homebrand, having no cereal weekends may reduce your grocery bill if you eat cereal.

Finally, a good way to find out where you personally can save on the groceries is to track exactly what you’re spending your money on. I wrote a bit about how I do this in excel here. Tracking exactly what you spend your money on can be a real eye opener as to where you money goes. When I started I couldn’t believe how much money we were spending on bread, for example. It was our third biggest food expense after meat and veg. I could then target that expense and work out how to reduce our bread costs (we bought bread marked down at the end of the day. Now we make it. It actually costs us more to make but it’s healthier than homebrand white).

Good luck with saving for your holiday, we’re saving for a holiday too.