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amother
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 Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:11 am
| amother OP wrote: | Can you please break it down?
I can’t leave the grocery without anything less than $100. And a full bag costs about minimum $60 these days…. |
So once a month is either bingo for dairy/ Jewish branded stuff, the discount meat place that delivers once a month (London broil, chopped meat and pepper steak at $6.99 a lb, $400 is a lot of meat ) , or Costco for snacks and paper goods.
Then from our local grocery store with a decent kosher section :
$30 a week for chicken legs cover one night dinner, Friday night, and 2-3 lunches of leftovers.
About $20-30 in produce- nothing fancy- potatoes , sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, tomatoes and whatever other fruit and veggies are in season and cheap.
About $50 in pantry goods (pasta, canned beans and veggies, cereal, flour etc) based on the sales. (Some of this actually comes from target or Walmart )
About $20 in bread- but we bake and freeze our own challah and desserts
About $15 in fill in dairy beyond the bingo trip and what’s in Costco.
And about $30 for snacks and ingredients for my child with a medically limited diet.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:14 am
| amother Lilac wrote: | I'm also wondering if people are posting actual real numbers or they're just guestimating. If someone would have asked me, how much do you spend on food? I would have guessed around 2k a month, based on what I think I spend. But adding up every actual penny spent (which was put on my credit card), I see that the actual number is over 3k.
I wonder how many posters are actually doing this. |
I checked my cc bill for the actual groceries.
Chicken and meat is a guesstimate based on knowing how much I actually used and about how much each costs.
I buy chicken and meat once every few months so not something I can easily breakdown to know exact
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:16 am
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I think most number posts here are fake. It just doesn’t translate to real life ever.
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crust
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:22 am
I did not read all the responses.
OP- basic groceries in the tri-state area whichever way you slice it is around 500 a month per person.
Of course its more if you do fancier things but it can't get much less than that for basics.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:23 am
| amother Azalea wrote: | So once a month is either bingo for dairy/ Jewish branded stuff, the discount meat place that delivers once a month (London broil, chopped meat and pepper steak at $6.99 a lb, $400 is a lot of meat ) , or Costco for snacks and paper goods.
Then from our local grocery store with a decent kosher section :
$30 a week for chicken legs cover one night dinner, Friday night, and 2-3 lunches of leftovers.
About $20-30 in produce- nothing fancy- potatoes , sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, tomatoes and whatever other fruit and veggies are in season and cheap.
About $50 in pantry goods (pasta, canned beans and veggies, cereal, flour etc) based on the sales. (Some of this actually comes from target or Walmart )
About $20 in bread- but we bake and freeze our own challah and desserts
About $15 in fill in dairy beyond the bingo trip and what’s in Costco.
And about $30 for snacks and ingredients for my child with a medically limited diet. |
Thank you. It’s sounds very low to me though…
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:23 am
| amother Chicory wrote: | | I think most number posts here are fake. It just doesn’t translate to real life ever. |
Honestly I agree.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:24 am
| crust wrote: | I did not read all the responses.
OP- basic groceries in the tri-state area whichever way you slice it is around 500 a month per person.
Of course its more if you do fancier things but it can't get much less than that for basics. |
Thank you. I feel better. So on a regular month it’s normal then if we spend $2k.
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amother
Garnet
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:26 am
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Do you have an Aldi near you? Produce and pantry staples are so much cheaper there than at nearly any other store.
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amother
Seashell
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:27 am
I live in the tristate area. Family of 6. Our food budget it's about $1,200-$1,400 a month (not including any paper goods). If I'm careful we can probably get it down another $200 or so a month
This is not including months where there is Yom Tov. Also our kids are ages 3-12. I'm sure if they where all teenagers it would be more...
Also 3 of our kids get lunch in school, that could make a difference as well...
We try to shop in cheaper stores - like do a big shopping in bingo 1-2 times a months. We do do smaller weekly shopping in nearby stores which aren't as cheap.
We don't usually host so that probably helps and we have simple suppers as well...
We have leftovers from shabbos one night for supper (scrabbled eggs and fish sticks for whoever doesn't want), pasta one night, chicken cutlets one night, something with chopped meat another night (meatballs or hamburgers...). Thursday is usually something like homemade pizza.....I usually pair those suppers with soup (I make huge batches and freeze) and/or salad... occasionally some roasted vegetables and etc...
I don't make fancy food for shabbos. My family is happy with homemade challah, fish, chicken soup, chicken, a big potato kugle and farfel/quinoa and a veg side for Friday night. During the day it's challah, fish, a big cholent and potato kugle occasionally another side...
Breakfast is usually cereal and milk (although the kids are welcome to make toast or oatmeal)
We always buy plenty of snacks, rice cakes, cheese, yogurt, cookies, fruts, vegtables, ices and etc to eat between meals.
I know my numbers are accurate as dh is unemployed now and we have been getting food stamps the last bunch of months (so it's easy to see exactly how much we spend on food.. Some months we go over a bit and add a little to the credit card at the end of the month and some months not)
Eta op - I just read that you shop more clean ingredients like -Avocado oil, spelt flour, turabnio sugar... we don't so that would add on more to your bill...
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amother
Puce
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:31 am
OP I think clean ingredients add up very quickly
Avocado oil is like 5 times the price of canola
Clean snacks are 3 to 4 times the price of cheapo junk snacks
Spelt flour is at least double what a bag of heckers costs and if you buy organic is 4 to 5 times the price
We eat clean too and it's a lot
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:45 am
| amother Seashell wrote: | I live in the tristate area. Family of 6. Our food budget it's about $1,200-$1,400 a month (not including any paper goods). If I'm careful we can probably get it down another $200 or so a month
This is not including months where there is Yom Tov. Also our kids are ages 3-12. I'm sure if they where all teenagers it would be more...
Also 3 of our kids get lunch in school, that could make a difference as well...
We try to shop in cheaper stores - like do a big shopping in bingo 1-2 times a months. We do do smaller weekly shopping in nearby stores which aren't as cheap.
We don't usually host so that probably helps and we have simple suppers as well...
We have leftovers from shabbos one night for supper (scrabbled eggs and fish sticks for whoever doesn't want), pasta one night, chicken cutlets one night, something with chopped meat another night (meatballs or hamburgers...). Thursday is usually something like homemade pizza.....I usually pair those suppers with soup (I make huge batches and freeze) and/or salad... occasionally some roasted vegetables and etc...
I don't make fancy food for shabbos. My family is happy with homemade challah, fish, chicken soup, chicken, a big potato kugle and farfel/quinoa and a veg side for Friday night. During the day it's challah, fish, a big cholent and potato kugle occasionally another side...
I know my numbers are accurate as dh is unemployed now and we have been getting food stamps the last bunch of months (so it's easy to see exactly how much we spend on food.. Some months we go over a bit and add a little to the credit card at the end of the month and some months not)
Eta I just read that you shop more clean ingredients like -Avocado oil, spelt flour, turabnio sugar... we don't (although we also get a lot of produce like you), so that would add on more to your bill... |
I do agree that your numbers are accurate and make sense. You have younger kids, you are careful with what you serve for suppers, you don't host, it does not include paper goods and it does not include yom tov. Also, $1400 a month, not including dry goods, is not $800 a month everything included. Your numbers make much more sense.
I'm trying to figure out how tock bottom low my grocery bill can be, as we are currently spending over 3k a month, but looking at these numbers, I don't think I can go below 2500 without cutting out things like shabbos fish and cholent meat which I don't want to do.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:46 am
| amother Chicory wrote: | | I think most number posts here are fake. It just doesn’t translate to real life ever. |
Nope. Very real here. I spend about $160 at walmart a week and about $60 at our kosher shop. Thats about $220/ week. About $880/ month.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 11:52 am
| amother Chartreuse wrote: | | Nope. Very real here. I spend about $160 at walmart a week and about $60 at our kosher shop. Thats about $220/ week. About $880/ month. |
Shabbos alone is more than that for us. What do you serve on Shabbos? We serve salmon, cholent meat, chicken and cold cuts. That's your entire $60.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 12:15 pm
| amother OP wrote: | | Thank you. It’s sounds very low to me though… |
We’re on a tight budget so we keep it simple And filling.
So I’ll break down our weekly menu-
Breakfast is oatmeal from quick oats (under $3 a can makes about 6 bowls) or sandwich- that’s most of the bread budget- but figure $5 a morning on average
Lunch - 1 kid gets at school, everyone else takes pasta and cheese or a sandwich or dinner leftovers. Occasionally a can of tuna with pasta or rice cakes. But basically $5 max lunch for everyone.
Snacks- everyone gets 1 snack bag (Costco or bingo) , 1 granola bar (Costco or homemade) and 1 cheese/ yogurt and as much fruit and apple sauce as they need- figure $2 a person so $10 a day.
Dinner- is the most expensive at around $15 a night
1 night is meat from bulk order (2.5 lb @ $6.99 a lb= around $18) plus rice
1 night is chicken ($15 worth) with rice
1 night is ground beef (burgers, meatballs etc) (2 lb @ $6.99/lb = $15 plus pasta or buns or whatever)
1 night is rice and beans and cheese and veggies, often with taco shells- I would guesstimate that dinner is around $15
1 night is pita with falafel and chumus and veggies or eggs , about $10-15
So we’re at $35/day x6 days = just over $200 a week.
Shabbos- Fri night is soup made with bones or wings, and simple veggies so a pot of soup , which lasts us 2 weeks , is around $10, so $5 a week
Chicken ($15)
Roasted veggies -Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots etc ($5)
Homemade dessert and challah.
Lunch-
Chumus ($5)
Rice pilaf($2)
Chulent or borekas or deli roll or London broil (we only do 1 meat main) - ($10- 20, so let’s say $15 on average)
Salad- no lettuce ($5)
So Shabbos costs us approx $60
So about $260 a week x 4 weeks brings us to close to the $1,200 I originally said.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 12:32 pm
| amother Garnet wrote: | | Do you have an Aldi near you? Produce and pantry staples are so much cheaper there than at nearly any other store. |
I do and I’ve been meaning to go. Ok, you motivated me I’ll go today instead of my usual.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 12:36 pm
| amother Puce wrote: | OP I think clean ingredients add up very quickly
Avocado oil is like 5 times the price of canola
Clean snacks are 3 to 4 times the price of cheapo junk snacks
Spelt flour is at least double what a bag of heckers costs and if you buy organic is 4 to 5 times the price
We eat clean too and it's a lot |
Yes, but I’d never bring canola in my house. I literally get sick from it. So that’s an extra $40 a month I’d say.
I buy normal snacks mostly which are expensive nowadays anyway but I do buy some from traders which is not too much more.
I only buy one spelt a month for baking. Challah I use Heckers.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 12:36 pm
I have 6 kids at home, more when my teens have break, and our food budget is about $1200 a month also, including most paper goods/household items.
But we skip a lot of the standard things. No salmon, cold cuts, or cholent meat for Shabbos. One roll of cheaper ($5) gefilte fish. Usually just one or two pieces of chicken in the soup, I don't always serve chicken itself. Homemade challah of course. Fleishig supper maybe once a week, milchig supper once a week. I have more leeway with snacks so I don't have to send packaged nosh. Fruits and vegetables are apples, oranges, bananas, cucumbers, carrots. Pretty much anything else is a treat.
We live OOT but we do come to the city for kosher shopping. We buy cereal ($2) or oatmeal from Walmart (we are careful with bishul yisroel for cereals so only use corn or puffed rice), mostly just sandwiches for lunch, suppers based on eggs or beans.
I could go down more but it would be at the expense of Shabbos.
IOW it's possible to have a low grocery budget, but not without feeling it. You can probably cut $100-$200 without it hurting that much, but there is no way to go from a $3000 grocery budget to a $1500 one without some type of deprivation.
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amother
Honeydew
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 12:37 pm
I can’t imagine how these numbers work either.
It’s just my husband and I with one toddler and we spend about 800$ a month on food (and this is with us being very cautious with what we buy)
We do make shabbos every week and often host which adds up.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 12:41 pm
| amother Azalea wrote: | We’re on a tight budget so we keep it simple And filling.
So I’ll break down our weekly menu-
Breakfast is oatmeal from quick oats (under $3 a can makes about 6 bowls) or sandwich- that’s most of the bread budget- but figure $5 a morning on average
Lunch - 1 kid gets at school, everyone else takes pasta and cheese or a sandwich or dinner leftovers. Occasionally a can of tuna with pasta or rice cakes. But basically $5 max lunch for everyone.
Snacks- everyone gets 1 snack bag (Costco or bingo) , 1 granola bar (Costco or homemade) and 1 cheese/ yogurt and as much fruit and apple sauce as they need- figure $2 a person so $10 a day.
Dinner- is the most expensive at around $15 a night
1 night is meat from bulk order (2.5 lb @ $6.99 a lb= around $18) plus rice
1 night is chicken ($15 worth) with rice
1 night is ground beef (burgers, meatballs etc) (2 lb @ $6.99/lb = $15 plus pasta or buns or whatever)
1 night is rice and beans and cheese and veggies, often with taco shells- I would guesstimate that dinner is around $15
1 night is pita with falafel and chumus and veggies or eggs , about $10-15
So we’re at $35/day x6 days = just over $200 a week.
Shabbos- Fri night is soup made with bones or wings, and simple veggies so a pot of soup , which lasts us 2 weeks , is around $10, so $5 a week
Chicken ($15)
Roasted veggies -Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots etc ($5)
Homemade dessert and challah.
Lunch-
Chumus ($5)
Rice pilaf($2)
Chulent or borekas or deli roll or London broil (we only do 1 meat main) - ($10- 20, so let’s say $15 on average)
Salad- no lettuce ($5)
So Shabbos costs us approx $60
So about $260 a week x 4 weeks brings us to close to the $1,200 I originally said. |
Wow thanks. We eat very differently. My kids take 4 snacks a day. We eat chicken most nights. My kids eat fresh or frozen pizza Sunday lunch. DH has a fresh bagel daily. We eat meat on Shabbos. We eat cholent and mazza and if there’s guests I serve a lot more. I also have my nespresso machine which is about $1.5 a cup.
Btw I’m also including all paper and plastic goods.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 06 2024, 12:45 pm
| amother Lilac wrote: | | Shabbos alone is more than that for us. What do you serve on Shabbos? We serve salmon, cholent meat, chicken and cold cuts. That's your entire $60. |
Exactly. This isn't necessary or a need. We do 1 protein per meal.
Why does anyone need cholent AND cold cuts AND chicken?
Maybe we do cholent (doesn't have to be a huge amount of meat either) and chicken if we are having a crowd.
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