Help cutting down the food bill

i think $130 is very do-able.
My budget was $150 for 2 adults and 1 child, with some nappies, but I found I was spending almost $200 every week!!
I felt awful, as it is my responsibility to manage the finances, so I decided to take action.
Every week now on a sunday arvo or monday morning I sit down and plan out the weeks' meals, then I make a list of the ingredients I need for those. I always have pasta and sauce or similar in the cupboard so if our week goes pear-shaped I can whip up something else instead of what I had planned.
I do my own baking, and try to make things that have cheaper ingredients (ie, not too much butter- crikey that costs the earth these days!!)
I also make my husband's lunches; and he eats A LOT. Every day he has 2-3 pieces of fruit, 2 muesli bars, 2 bits of baking, and either 4 buns or rounds of sandwiches that have meat of some kind in, or 4 pies (Thanks to my awesome Sunbeam pie maker! Great way to use up leftovers!).
There are a few things I refuse to buy in cheap brands, but will still only buy the good brands if they are on special - tuna, toilet paper, marg (only get canola or olive spreads). I also only buy eco type surface spray, washing powder (although I often use soap nuts) and washing up liquid.
Just telling you all this stuff so you get an idea of my spending habits.

ANYWAY after my meal planning started, I now only spend $100 - $120 a week on food!!!! I couldn't believe it! Some weeks it may be $140 or so, if I need to stock up on things like cleaning products or bathroom stuff, or if there is something on special I really need.
Oh I should also say that we buy 1/2 a beast every now and again, so I only need to buy meat once a week, so we are not eating just cow! I also make one meal a week meatless, much to my husband's disgust.

I think planning is a big part of it. Some weeks I look in my pantry and am shocked at how the food has built up. When that happens I only shop for the basics that week (ie fruit and vege, milk and bread) and plan all my meals around what is in the pantry. That tends to balance out the weeks where I over spend.

However, the best thing I have ever done to reduce my bill is online shopping. It costs $12 do deliver, but I easily save $30-40 a shop by not impulse buying. It is also easier to see what is on special and plan your meals around that. I started online shopping in the UK because we didnt have a car and it was too hard to carry food home - I fed 4 girls for $60-80 pounds (just breakfast and dinner 6 nights a week). I stopped online shopping when I got home because it wasnt very good, but countdown's online shopping has improved heaps and now I am sold!

We have a bit of spare money these days so I budget $170 a week. When I averaged my spending on food for 2010 recently it cam in exactly on budget. But I think you could easily feed a family of two adults and 1 child for $130.

The things to watch are large ticket items - Meat, dairy and cleaning products. Try to stock up on these when they are on special so you are not caught out.

I should also say I dont buy fruit and vege from the supermarket. I do my online shop every two weeks and then vege shop and the local store every week. It saves money.

Buy things like cheese just a little less often. If it's in the fridge, it'll get eaten. If you have to wait a few more days til the next shopping day, everyone will survive.

Have fresh fruit as your default snacks instead of chippies etc. Buy ice-cream only when you have a special event coming up, or perhaps once a month or something.

Try to eat fresh veges and just have one pack of frozens available as a back-up. You can also buy fresh fruit & veges at markets or grocers for much better prices.

I dont buy any snack food. Only things which are for dps lunch. Dd gets crackers or popcorn, fruit etc. All things that are pretty cheap to buy

I found planning meals id spend alot more. I think meat is the major downfall for us. Its just so expensive.

I havent even brought potatoes in weeks i refuse to pay $17 for 10kg bag. or $10 for a 5kg bag.

I guess i need to go on the hunt for cheap meals.

Veges arent really the issue. I normally stock up when cheap and freeze so i always have some available. Today i spent $17 on fruit but we eat alot of fruit, especially being summer

We are spending $300 a fortnight for 2 adults and 2 kids. One which is in nappies and goes through a tin of formula week. Plus Daniel needs night time nappies.

Its not hard to save money with groceries. Ours would be lower again if I actually cooked "real meat" rather than just packaged stuff. I'm a vego and won't touch raw meat at all so if meat gets cooked during the week its chicken nuggets, sausages, tegal chicken take outs and the like which is more expensive.

We make most things from scratch like pasta sauces which is really easy. We go through one block of cheese every 4-6 weeks and its mainly daniel that has it on crackers, I don't really use it for cooking. We only buy the cheap cereals like rice bubbles, corn flakes, weetbix. I use vingear and baking soda to clean which does a surpringly good job

jazzy wrote: nzpiper wrote: Wow!! our budget is $250 a week. It was $200 but I just couldnt keep it to that. I struggle with $250 some weeks. And thats with occassional nappies for 2 adults and 2 kids. what do you buy?

ours is the same, DH did the shop this week and spent just over $300. We do buy some nappies but we use the homebrand ones that are $20 for 50 and one is only in them over night and the other is in cloth/pants/disposables depending on what is happening.
I make my cleaning products so save money there.
We are very picky about which processed food we buy and don't buy much, is mostly all fresh food. We spend a lot on meat, our oldest can't have dairy so we spend extra on his milk and I'm gluten free which adds a bit to the bill when I buy gluten free pasta or cereals, I also quite often will pick organic options which come at a premium too and I also refuse to buy non free range chicken, eggs or pork products.

I do however want to cut ours down to $200 and I think I need to plan meals out better to do so, although they reckon food prices are going to keep going up over the next few months so I might only achieve keeping it the same.

I am trying to spend $400 at my monthly supermarket shop, plus $90 at the butcher per month. Fruit and vege (plus milk and bread) is bought weekly at about $60 so all up that is about $180/wk for 2 adults and 2 kids (1 TT and 1 in MCNs) - gosh that sounds like alot now that I put it in a per week amount

I have been following alot of Babe's blog which has given me ideas on where to cut down e.g. making my own cleaning products.
I have tried the meat free meals but DH complains so much that I often give that one up.
I have found that I don't impulse buy (or don't impulse buy as much) by doing a monthly shop
I do my own baking which is cheaper than buying it
I have cut down our portion sizes as well. 300g mince will easily make enough hamburger patties or meatballs for us. If I am a shepards pie then I chuck in a can of baked beans or grated carrot like Pudgy mentioned and that bulks it out

*Butchers are awesome - you can ask for just the amount of want and the meat is more often better quality. If you have to drive miles to get to one though can be a false economy.
If you can hit mad butcher when they have a meat sale and get packs you can break them down to last dozens of meals.
Buy cheaper cuts of meat and make a casserole

*Farmers markets are often good places to get cheap vege but do your research sometimes people get greedy. Our local one has GIANT heads of cauli flower for $1.50 which is much cheaper then the small ones in the store.

*If you have any room at all, grow some vege. I only *just* got a proper vege garden (i'm so proud!) but before that we had random silverbeets in among the roses and potatos growing down the side of the garage - you don't need a designated space.

Of course our grocey bill is still through the roof because i'm an incredibly picky eater and we are a gluten free house.

I'm probably not the best bench mark since its three adults no kids at the moment AND all meat has to be gluten free (so GF sausages and no processed food meats) AND we arent big meat eaters but i am saying no more then $30 a week max. Just because we only have one meat meal every second day on average.

I spend about $90 (but often less) at our local butcher for 4wks so thats about $22 per week, plus his meat is never on special.
Although I often buy a couple of chickens at the supermarket per month so that would likely bump it up to just over $25/week I would think