Grocery budgets

[Andy Mac]

Hi there,
Maybe this isn't in anyone's portfolio, but my wife and I are having discussions about the amount spent on groceries each week. I reckon we aren't being too extravagent at $150 for 5 people (2 adults & 3 kids under 10) per week, which works out at about $1.42 per person per meal. Seems cheap to me, considering we live in the country where prices are higher...but apparently we can do it for a lot cheaper.
What's the general feeling about budgets here?:)

Cheers,

[Lignum]

Sheez Andy, thats cheap as chips. I spend over a hundred just on myself

[E. maculata]

I'm with Lignum, how the heck do you do it for less:eek:

[Exador]

I'm with lignum too. I spend $150 a week on myself and 2 kids. Don't the other 2 eat anything at your place?

[jow104]

The way I would gauge the problem if there is one.

Is your (adults) weight increasing or decreasing?

You then have your answer.

[Wood Butcher]

Some of you guys must eat a lot of food. SWMBO and I (plus 2 kids) spend $130 a week on groceries not including a takeaway treat every second week.

[bsrlee]

Obviously you don't live in a really trendy area like Sydney's North Shore. I pay about $10 a kilo more for meat across the board compared to my friends who live in the south west of Sydney. I could easily pay for a day outing just on savings from the meat bill alone.

You aren't doing too badly, you could be buying cheap mince & stale bread sent back to the bakery for a few dollars a trailer load.;) The city/country thing is pretty variable, if you go for the cheapest part of a big city it will be cheaper than anywhere in the country, but you can live for a long time on the price difference if you are buying your own home.

[Auld Bassoon]

Streuth! I spend well over a hundred on basic groceries per week just for myself! Throw in a few butchery and/or deli purchases, well...

[Bulli]

Andy,

I've got three growing boys (soon to be 4). I keep a pretty good record of what we spend. We're in Canberra, and would easily spend $240 a week keeping the tribe fed. And they're not little fatties either, they're as skinny as rakes.

I checked a little while ago and saw that woolies got almost $11K from us last year. Though that includes grog.

I'd say you're doing pretty well.

Cheers,

Bulli

[doug the slug]

Andy, i dunno how you do it for the pricehttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Caliban]

Mate you're kidding
We spend up to $400 each time we go to Woolies and we never buy brand names or chocolates or flash tucker. I'm moving to where you live.

[Ian007]

Andy, your wife or yourself must be doing a lot of home baking or somethng like that.

We are a family of 7 and our shopping bill is $350+ a week:eek:

[Kev Y.]

crickey, I would starve if I spent that much!!! and that is just for me!

I try and buy the "no name" stuff where possible..

I have had my kids for the last month and the MEAT bill was $90.00 for two weeks

[Bodgy]

Andy, you're killing it. I have no idea what we spend weekly cause that's HI's department. We don't get takeaways and we cook nightly. She says she spends around $60 a day. This is not including booze and entertaining. We have two adolescent kids.

Bear in mind we, like Herr Lee, are on Sydney's North Shore, and get ripped off senseless. It's almost worth driving out West and shopping.

To put our situation in context, I went to buy a truck brake drum, from a (Nth Shore) wreckers and they wanted $50 for an old rusty 14' brake drum!

Tell you what, send me a brake drum and I'll send you a basket of groceries.

I'd suggest that your expenses are well under control and, like the rest of us, you need to focus on income.

[jow104]

THE CHEAPEST PLACE IN THE WORLD FOR FOOD IS LAS VEGAS.

Yes serious. But you you must not gamble.

a 1 kilo T bone steak would cost you around $5 us including all the trimmings, stop talking about food you lot are making me hungry.

[PuppyPaw]

we spend about 175 a week for two people.
We don't loss nor gain weight. we Cook every night.
However, we do tend to buy more expensive meats and veg, but then again we also grow our own veg!

Now i'm curious on where it all goes!

[Sir Stinkalot]

Ohhh .... its just the Stink and the Stinkette here (and a small cat) and we spend around $120.00 per week on average but often jump up around $200 depending if cleaning products are needed by the cleaner. We prepare each meal so there are no expensive prepacked dinners in there.

It is a shame that Helgas bread special value two pack has increase from $5.00 to $5.50 or around $3.60 singular :mad:

[Harry72]

Were doing $200+pw just for 2 of us, we dont do weekly shopping rather buy as we need it... nice and fresh, we eat heathly(swmbo is a chef, and me the gym yuppie).

[jow104]

OK. Converting the £ to $aus @$2.25 ours is $125 per week including cleaning materials for two and we keep having to go back on a diet everynow and then. So perhaps the UK isn't such a bad place after all at the cost of living. We do use a large freezer and purchase bigger meat joints and wait for the NZ lamb to come in etc.

[Bodgy]

OK. Converting the £ to $aus @$2.25 ours is $125 per week including cleaning materials for two and we keep having to go back on a diet everynow and then. So perhaps the UK isn't such a bad place after all at the cost of living. We do use a large freezer and purchase bigger meat joints and wait for the NZ lamb to come in etc.

Hang on a minute.

What are yr Rates, Utilities, Petrol, Alcohol, BUPA, Tanning Lotion and football hooligan graffitti repair bills like?

[Wongo]

$150 for 3 girls and a boy. We try to stick with the Chinese diet, lots of veg, rice and less meat.

I buy lunch everyday and we go out to a good Chinese restaurant once a week.

[Schtoo]

About AUS$90 per week for the two of us.

And that's here, where I can buy steak at $35 per kilo at the supermarket without even trying.

Aussie sirloin steak is about $14 per kilo at the same supermarket. :)

We don't eat out too often, we both cook pretty well and nothing prepackaged. Just not done here. Also eat lots of things you guys would consider as not food. Most of it is pretty good too. :)

It's an agricultural area here though, so most of the stuff is fairly cheap and fresh.
I was talking to Niki today, and when he said $1 for a tomato in Tokyo/Yokohama, I know he wasn't kidding and maybe even being conservative.

Andy, I don't think you have many corners to cut off that budget without getting silly, and I don't think anything is worth getting too silly over, unless you have no other choices.

[Iain]

We tend to bulk buy a lot of items, Porterhouse costs $95 for a 7kg piece, chook breasts $6.99 kg if we buy 2kg or more.
The markets offer sliced bread at 90c a loaf 600g or whatever, its got no name on it but I've seen the big bakeries dropping it off.
Veges we grow some and buy what we need as required.
Local supermarket is useful on occassion but generally too expensive, milk $3.30 for 2 lt when we can go to Safeway/Coles and buy 3 lt for $3.40.
Pizza once a week, but we make it ourselves, probably better ingredients than some of the pizza places and considerably less greasy.
A choice of 3 beers in the fridge, Old, Lager and Mexican, all homebrewed (properly with dextrose, malt, hops etc) at about $20 for 60 stubbies, and it's good too, and a cider for SWMBO.
3 of us now and I reckon I get out of it for under $100 a week, and we don't do it too hard.
I am not a great fan of no name with the exception of tomatoes, can't really see how they can bugger them up, baked beans (kids love them) are terrible.
Vietnamese bakery sells Foccacia at 3 for $1.00, so we use the sandwich press a bit at weekends with a variety of preserved meats and whatever, cheaper than the the pre packaged and they freeze well too.

[Andy Mac]

Interesting responses, thanks !:) I feel a bit easier about it now, and will spread the good news with my wife. I think Bodgy's comment about concentrating on income is the key.
I tried adding a bit to the household by vege gardening, but the drought and subsequent water restrictions put the mockers on that! Silverbeet survives but bucketting is hard work, and you're not supposed to even fill them from a hose!:mad: We have chooks too, so eggs are always there...egg and spinach pie is a staple!
I really do have to get back into homebrew, as I didn't include beer in that grocery list...the last brew I did was when the baby bath replaced the fermenter in the laundry:eek:.
Gotta stop breeding:D:D !

[dzcook]

well after reading this i am glad i am single and also get meals 5 days a week at work for free i have a panic attack when i spend $20 at woolies lol but then my buget wouldnt stand up to that sort of expense
am really surprised that its so expensive to feed a family ? do fussy kids make it harder ?

[JDarvall]

$150 sounds about right, Andy. Same sized family as mine. 2 adults, 3 kids under 8 here.

And it is definetly more costly out in the country. We find it much cheaper travelling to the big smoke (Lismore), despite the fuel costs, to shop.

[fxst]

just the 2 of us and a dog :) and we keep it around $75-$80 a week and eat well too.
Subway one week and pizza the other for a treat........dont seem to need extras
Pete

[Schtoo]

I don't think it's fussy kids, just that they do have to eat properly.

Heck, I used to get by on less than $600 per month, all inclusive and here in Japan.

I do not recommend that to anyone. ;)

[Iain]

I don't think it's fussy kids, just that they do have to eat properly.
An average child consumes three times his/her own body weight a day, watching mine eat it appears that way, and they are skinny little sods too.

[ss_11000]

An average child consumes three times his/her own body weight a day, watching mine eat it appears that way, and they are skinny little sods too.

does that mean me, weighing 55kg eats over over 150kg of food a day:confused:
(i can assure you i dont eat that much. maybe in a week or a fortnight????)

[chrisp]

SS,

Iain is hyperbolising for the sake of humour. Yer still got lots to learn young fellow...

Chris

[ss_11000]

SS,

Iain is hyperbolising for the sake of humour. oh Yer still got lots to learn young fellow...yep:eek:

Chris

[Dion N]

Andy, I think your budget is pretty good.

We budget $400 a month for 2 adults and one infant (but she's still mostly on breast milk)

At our last house we use to go to a local butcher who advertised under the slogan "Convenience shopping will cost you money." If you compare the price of meat at Woolies/Coles etc to a local butcher, you can save a considerable amount just on meat. Most of these butchers will also have regular specials on bulk (ie 2kg or more) lots. Even cheaper still is buying a whole topside (if you have the freezer space)

The same principle usually holds true for fruit and vege shopping as well. Generally, we only buy sugar, butter, flour, cleaning products etc from Woolies and get our fruit, veg and meat elsewhere.

Convenience also costs when you buy prepackaged foods as opposed to preparing it yourself.