Today I received a text regarding how much I spend a week on groceries.  Always an interesting discussion, to me.  I am infinitely curious as to what people spend at the grocery store.  It’s a barometer of where we are as a family (am I blowing too much on x, y and z?), but also a GREAT way to get tips and such.

I have friends who can coupon like the TLC show (in my eyes), friends who once had a $1000 grocery budget FOR. THE. ENTIRE. SUMMER., friends who cook ahead and freeze and friends who just wing it.  It never gets old to me and so, once again, it was an interesting text conversation on groceries and I thought I’d share a few tips that help us and would LOVE to hear your tips.

• We shop at Aldi.  We’ve comparison shopped and they are consistently lower than Publix and Walmart.  Downside:  they don’t always have everything I need on my list and they don’t take coupons since they sell their brand (aside from the surplus of various name brand items from time to time).
• I plan our meals ahead for the week.  I don’t plan specific meals for specific days, but a menu of meals for the week.  I shop for the menu.
• Our fruits and veggies come from Aldi and the produce store/farmer’s market.  We do have to replenish bananas mid-week (a family of monkeys, I tell you) and I buy the verrrrry ripe ones @ .29/lb and freeze them for smoothies.
• Eating out is a rarity and a luxury.
• It’s a dry house.  However, Aldi does have beer and wine—FYI.

Sadly, we don’t have a Costco close enough for regular grocery shopping (I hear they are the bomb diggety!), but we do have a Sam’s Club and a BJ’s.  When we get a stand alone freezer, we will stock up on meats there or possibly look into purchasing a 1/2 a cow or something like that.

We’ve tried to coupon, however, with both of us working full-time outside the house, we simply don’t have the time or energy to really work the system.

Our summer garden was awesome and we’re planning on doing a winter one as well.  (the perks of living in sunny Florida!), However, if I had a big ole garden like Mavis HERE….hooooooey…that’d be awesome!

Eating healthy is a mainstay in our house.  Not to say we don’t have junk around here, because we sure DO.  Meals however, are pretty healthy and we have a wide variety of healthy snacks for the kiddos to choose from…almonds, protein bars, popcorn, fruits, veggies, raisins, smoothies, nut butter.  We also have one who doesn’t seem to tolerate dairy well, so we’ve got almond milk in the house and some dairy free ice cream as well.

Bottom line, for our family of 6 (2 teen boys and 2 growing tween girls, a triathlete Papa and a Mama always in search of healthier choices) we average $200/week.

So, what are your tips, tricks and average spent on groceries each week.  This inquiring mind wants to know!!