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My grocery bill vary rarely exceeds $250 a month. Sometimes it’s even less, which is a good thing because I don’t have a lot of extra money to spend. Granted I am not feeding teenagers. It’s just myself and my two little ones ages two and four, but I still think for the three of us our grocery bill is pretty mild.
All you moms know how picky little ones can be. My youngest wants hot dogs and ketchup every night (mainly so she can just eat big forks full of ketchup) and it’s a challenge to get her to eat anything else for dinner.
Groceries you can always find at my house:
- Hotdogs
- Ketchup
- Bread
- Peanut Butter
- Jelly
- Frozen Dinners
- Yogurt
- Fruit (Usually cuties and grapes)
- Cereal (Usually Lucky Charms)
- Instant Oatmeal (My youngest refers to this as “bugs” because of the pieces of fruit it contains. She loves it though!)
- Chocolate Milk
- Diet Mountain Dew
- Hawaiin Punch
- Ramen Noodles
- Gummy Fruit Snacks
- Turkey Lunch Meat
- Spaghetti O’s/Ravioli
Our house is always stocked with those foods. I may catch some flack from some about this not being the most healthy cuisine, but this is what we eat. And really I don’t think it’s that unhealthy it’s just not a lot of variety.
The girls will usually have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast, a heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich or turkey sandwich for lunch, and for dinner they will eat a hot dog, Ramen noodles, or Spaghetti O’s. Snacks consist mostly of gummy fruit snacks, yogurt, or cuties. And neither will go to bed without first drinking a cup of chocolate milk.
Every now and again I will make spaghetti or chicken for supper but most of the time they choose one of the options above. We are creatures of habit and they are picky eaters!
I go to the grocery store about twice a month and stock up on the above items and throw in a few extras for a little variety. Unless I am buying other household items like toilet paper, cleaner, or shampoo I never spend more than $125 for a trip to the grocery store.
I always buy generic but I harldly ever use coupons. Although, I would like to give couponing a fair try again so I can get more variety for the same amount of money. Also, my mom just gave me a bread machine so that will be fun to experiment with. (I might need some pointers though, I am far from the Martha Stewart type 😉 )
Thats how I keep my grocery bill so low. What about you? How much do you spend?
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We spend about $120-$150 a week, but we do eat very well.
I love to eat so I see no reason on giving myself this as a luxury expense.
I like to eat as well but right now money is tight so we will be sticking to our $250 a month budget.
That’s awesome! We spend a lot on food and are working on getting it down.
Your meal plans always look like a nice variety though. You will look get there if you bring it down a little each month or week.
It sounds like a lot of the same things we have in our house with our 5, 3 & 1 year olds. I shudder to think what our bill will look like when our two boys are teenagers. We budget $475 per month for our groceries and usually end up spending around $425.
That sounds pretty good for a family of 5. Yeah teenage boys will be expensive to feed it doesn’t take much to feed to toddler and preschool aged kids!
Wow! All I want to eat every day is hotdogs, too. I’m coming to live at your house 😉
Come on over! 😉
I think you could save even more money by skipping the processed food and drinks, and buying more whole foods. On top of that, your family would eat more nutritious foods. Also, grapes are one of the more expensive fruits out there. I never buy them unless they are $.99 per lb.
I need to work eating more nutritious foods, I am just in the habit of buying the same stuff every time I go to the grocery store. I will have to do some research on fun, nutritious foods that little kids will eat. (and won’t break the bank)
Wow! I wish we could spend around $250 per month in groceries.. That would be awesome! Maybe that dream will come true now that we’ve cut down on our eating. We’ve switched from ground beef to ground turkey, fried chicken to baked chicken, etc.
I think mine stays so low because there isn’t much variety 😉 But if you are cutting back maybe you can get yours lowered a lot too!
My daughter and I will cook one day and then eat for two days from what we have prepared. It’s not a lot of variety, but it cuts down on time in the kitchen and allows us to eat a little healthier without spending so much money. We spend about $350 a month and I am always looking for ways to bring that number down!
Thats a pretty good idea. I tried freezer cooking before and it never really stuck with me. But I might be able to add a little more if I buy different food for dinner and eat the leftovers for a couple days. But $350 still sounds like a pretty great number!
What ? No Pizza ????
Seriously, my favorite “Emergency Meal” for the kids is frozen cheese pizza and canned minestrone soup. Yum. The soup has the veggies and fiber that the pizza doesn’t. Speaking of veggies…. there were none on your list ? Is Mommy eating any veggies ? Salad keeps really well in a closed Mason jar.
I used to buy any ole brand of hotdogs. Then, I read the labels! Yikes! There is some weird stuff in cheap hotdogs. Now I buy more of a “Whole Foods” type. ~ Christie
Ok I left out pizza lol. We usually have frozen pizza about once a week! Yeah I don’t eat many vegetables and I really should. The girls like canned corn ?? love it actually, so do they eat that a lot.
Should you really be feeding your littles so much processed food? I understand they can be picky, but you wouldn’t want to compromise their nutrition. You’ll find this problem with coupons – most of them are for foods i wouldn’t keep at my house.
I know my list is not the healthiest in the world. I do no need to work on incorporating more nutrtious foods in the house. I need to start experimenting and see what they will eat.
Do you have any suggestions?
I don’t have children, so I wonder if they would eat any of the more “adult” foods my husband and I eat: such as salmon and veggies, homemade soup – very easy and economical if you use whole chicken, breakfast for dinner is always fun, pasta with canned tuna/sardines works. One of the things we have done over the past couple of years is phase out processed foods (SLOWLY). First we eliminated high fructose corn syrup, then any preservatives we didn’t understand. We only buy organic/grass fed meat – but not much of it, to keep costs down. You’d be surprised if you read even the run of the mill bread label as to what is all in there! I think doing this gradually is what really helped – it’s difficult when all our taste buds are used to are sweets and salty.
Also, I realize it more expensive – but I feel like its an investment in health.
Oh, PB and J! This one I agree with, just make sure it’s really peanut butter: ie. peanuts, salt.
You’re right it is an investment in health and slowly cutting out the unhealthy would be the way to make it stick. It would be a very slow process for me but definitley something to think about.
Growing up we had hot dogs now and again because my one sibling was a bit picky but had to eat what mum cooked, end of story. My mum always prepared homemade meals and that’s how I learned to cook and why I enjoy it so much. I like to think of it as creating memories that I can pass on to our kids. Cooking does take prep work but worth it in the end for us and our budget. Sometimes we batch cook and freeze it for those nights that we get in late from work or just aren’t up to cooking. Our budget for 2 adults is $235 a month with a $20 stockpile budget. As for coupons, yes there are lots for processed foods but there are loads more for breads, yogurt, fruit, eggs, cheese, nuts, chicken, beef, and so much more. I don’t know about the USA but there is in Canada, because we use them. Cheers and thanks for sharing.
I need to join in on your grocery challenge, that would surely be a great way for me to add variety while keeping the grocery bill down. Brushing up on my cooking skills wouldn’t be a bad idea either 😉
We always have bread, eggs, pasta, canned tomatoes, and things like that.
Our grocery bill is about $130 a week for two adults (with huge appetites) in NZ, but food is expensive here.
I read your post about NZ being much more expensive than the US so $130 a week sounds like a good number.
Don’t worry too much about the bill getting too high as they get older. Even when my older two kids were still at home, our groceries were about $90 a week for a family of five with two teens. Now it is just my husband, myself, and my 13 year old son. I average $60 a week on groceries.
As far as the food you feed the girls, getting little kids to eat anything new is a chore. Hopefully, over the years they will be open to trying more of a variety of items. I started by introducing one (healthier-veggie or fruit) a month and overall that worked very well for my kids when they were young.
My oldest daughter likes to learn about what’s healthy and what isn’t so thats good. My youngest just wants what she wants lol. But what two year old doesn’t?
I want to eat healthier, but I really wasn’t raised eating the healthiest food and it’s a habit that I haven’t quite developed although I should. Your grocery bill sounds pretty good glad to hear there won’t be a huge spike when the girls hit their teengae years 🙂
My budget is $450/mo but that also includes any household needs (tp, cat food, etc). It’s a tough budget to stick to. I’m trying cash only this month to see if it helps. My grocery list doesn’t look very similar to yours – I cook from scratch almost every night and don’t buy much processed foods at all. My girls (7 & 9) just won’t eat them. What we have for dinner is their lunch at school the next day so I’m still cooking a normal feeds 5-6 people meal for dinner. Then it’s recycled as lunch for the 3 of us. My list always includes milk, drinkable yogurts, cheese, eggs, fresh fruit (whatever is on sale), frozen veggies (when they are on sale for .99/bag), pasta (when on sale for .88/box), chicken quarters (sale .79/lb), plain greek yogurt, lettuce/salad stuff. I use a lot of coupons and websites that match up the weekly circular with coupons. It really helps me find the deals and save me time. I try to go x2/month for groceries plus x1 at Target for household stuff. Based on the circular sales + coupons, I plan out my meals for 2 weeks ahead. Keeps my stress level waaaaaaaaay down since I already know what I’m making. 🙂
I dream of my kids eating healthier (myself too)…and while I try and am doing better on buying more “real” food for the rest of us, my 5 year old WILL NOT eat it. I get so frustrated, so I give in and let her eat Fruit Loops for dinner. She literally will not eat any fruits or veggies. And the only meat she eats is a chicken strip. I really hope one day her picky-ness will subside, but for now I just want her so eat SOMETHING. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about what your girls are eating…I have let go of the guilt over what my little one eats (or won’t eat) and I just know I’m doing the best I can.
I have problems getting my youngest to eat new foods. If I tell her she won’t be eating hotdogs and ketchup for supper I get an hour long temper tantrum. As long you are doing the best you can, that’s all you can do!
My bill is higher but there’s more of us in the house. I try to stay away fron boxed and canned (not always successfully) and I rarely buy meat (economic vegetarian). The other day I bought 2 big, beautiful red peppers. They cost me $6. I joked to the cashier. “I could buy 6 mini frozen pizza’s for this. No wonder the rich are skinny.” It’s sad.
It is sad. I am not against eating fresh fruit or vegetables at all. The problem is that the food goes bad faster and is more expensive. I don’t have the money to buy expensive food and the closest grocery store is ten miles from my house!
We currently buy a lot of fresh meats and veggies. I will admit we have recently been purchasing fruit snacks as we are shamelessly bribing our 2 year old daughter with them.
Be careful you’ll get your daughter hooked on them! Fruit snacks are my girl favorite snacks, we always have a stock pile of them.
We went from $500-$600 a month for 3 of us down to around $350 by doing the Grocery Game on CBB. It helps a ton to post your shops. It also makes me think about he nutritional value before buying. We do buy diet soda, chips, and snacks, but I cook lots more now too. $250 is not much at all, so I think you’re doing great. I never cooked when my daughter was smaller, and I don’t do much when I work. I think the trick is to cook lots when you do cook, like with taco meat or soup, and then freeze it.
I am wondering if you use a meal plan? Also, have you started teaching your little ones how to cook? I remember Spaghetti-O’s! I think that the amount you spend is perfect. But, as you pointed out there is a lot of processed food. Kids will eat what you give them-especially if they get hungry enough. My mom was NOT (and still isn’t) a natural cook. So I remember boring meals: chicken with 2 vegetables, the occasional t.v. dinner, and …wait-I don’t remember. SOOOO boring. I think you guys need to make food fun and exciting. My mom started teaching me the basics of cooking at 6 1/2 and I took to it like a fish to water-and became a better cook than my mom-LOL. Maybe you ladies would enjoy going to the Farmer’s Market during the summer? Or, to a farm so that the kiddos can see where real food comes from? Then you could create a meal based on an item that you picked out? At the end of the day, you’re one person and I think you’re pretty organized. Having a meal plan will just make things so much easier and you could involve the girls. Btw, I love those fruit snacks too!
My little kids are 7 and 3. They are picky as well, but seem to like anything bite size. We have meatballs and pasta, steak sliced up into small pieces, tacos! they love being able to build their own tacos. I am constantly trying to keep my bill lower but I find the foods in Canada are more expensive.
After reading some of these comments, I think it’s awesome that even though you may not be feeding yourself and your little ones the healthiest of foods, you recognize it and are working on changing it! I don’t have any children, but I can only imagine how difficult it must be to have little picky eaters, be on a tight budget AND still have the want to change! One place I know I had gone to when our household started cutting out processed foods was http://100daysofrealfood.com I don’t know if you’ve ever visited her blog, but she has two little girls and offers a lot of suggestions when it comes to feeding children healthier foods AND keeping it on a budget. She even has meal plans. Good luck! 🙂
hmm… what about starting small and easy with coupons- like just looking to pair coupons with sales for fruit snacks and juice? That way it is not overwhelming, but you still save, and learn to coupon.
What about grilled cheese and tomato soup for the girls? If your older daughter likes to dip in ketchup, make grilled cheese with the soup as the “dipping sauce”. What about buy wagon wheel or spaghetti-o shaped noodles, and making them with pasta sauce? Sometimes it seems that just dividing kids food into smaller bowls/ramekins for each item, more like a store-bought single serving, makes it more appealing for some reason.
Your freezer is your best friend for easy meals. I do not get to the grocery store much either, so I freeze lots of things after I do go to the store so I can have it whenever- breads, chicken, onion, veggies, I even get my deli meat put into two separate baggies at the deli counter so one baggie is immediately ready to toss in the freezer.
Hi Alexa! I am a young single mother of one boisterous little 4yr old girl. I commend you for raising your girls, keeping them safe, and providing for them. There are SO many stories of neglect, abuse, etc, etc. and although doing what you are supposed to do does not win you a metal, but from one mother to another, you are respected!
I grew up on fast food and when I had my daughter I said I would try to cook more, buy whole foods and feed her the best, HOWEVER (lol) my little one will NOT eat anything that looks or smells “weird.” Of course I could be a hard ass and say “you will eat this or you wont eat at all!” but who wants to do that? Will it kill her or rob her of opportunities if I feed her the things she likes and will eat and that are easy for me, within moderation of course…NO?? Do I want to force things on her just because it is slightly healthier? NO! Has anyone ever died from a few hot dogs and fruit snacks? NO! We as single mothers have enough to stress about (Money, shelter, transportation, bills, savings, our child’s welfare, etc.) I think some of these ppl need to chill out.
Yes, there are some better alternatives, like when I make hamburger helper I use ground turkey instead of ground beef (same cost), I make sure the juices I buy are 100% juice, turkey hot dogs, organic ketchup, etc. Trader Joe’s is a great place to get reasonably priced items that are also healthy. I purchase processed food because it is easy, the kids like it, and it works with my budget. As single mothers, we are already down on ourselves enough, especially if the father is not involved.
So in conclusion 🙂 Do not feel bad for what you are feeding your kids, at the end of the day they are YOUR children and you are doing the best you can. Kuddos to you girlfriend! :))
While I don’t have kids, figuring out what to eat everyday seems to be a constant battle that I am working hard to figure out. I have read so many articles that scare me about food and say that you should only eat “whole” foods. I went through a period where I felt that I couldn’t eat anything because the health nuts had found something wrong with it!
Well now my strategy is pretty simple: I eat cereal & toast and coffee for breakfast (sometimes I’ll have eggs or pancakes on the weekends), a turkey sandwich for lunch and something easy for dinner like chili or a casserole. I live close to my mom so we often split dinners.
Trying to keep up with health trends AND budget for food is exhausting. I like my simple plan much better.