Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

[Prado BB Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado BB]

How much do you spend on groceries each week?
My wife an I are constantly arguing about the how much is enough to feed our family. To put it in perspective we are a family of 5 - kids, 12, 11 and 8, have a dog (beagle) and a turtle. To define 'groceries' - it includes all food items and fast moving packaged goods (e.g. shampoo, washing powder, cleaners, paper towels, oil, razors etc).

I need some support on this guys :!: :!: :!: I have just be accosted for an increase of at least $50 a week. :?: Geez at this rate I'll have to get a second job. :x

Our bill = $580 per week

What's your bill? (obviously comparing apples with apples, otherwise use a relativity adjustment)

Cheers
Andy

[Daz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Daz]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

Same conversation in our house recently Prado BB
We are a good comparison to you
2 x boys aged 14 & 12
1 x daughter aged 7
1 x Beagle

Always average over $500 per week. Our lifestyle isnt extravagent, but we always eat good quality meat.
BTW we grow some of own veges and bake own bread.........
Our discussion about bill ended up something like "best you come shopping with me next week then......"

But, some tips when food shopping
1. Always use the list
2. Never shop on an empty stomach

[WBY 1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close WBY 1]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

find out what day of the week your closest coles has its discount day and go shopping then. will save you huge $$. its not the ususal save 3c, theres heaps of 1 for $4 or 2 for $5.80 type deals or half price on heaps of stuff be it cleaning products or food. Hope there will be better prices in <a href="https://www.catalogueau.com/coles/">Coles catalogue</a> in the future.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

There is no doubt that food is getting more expensive.

Have you checked how much is being thrown out? (because it went off or stale, spoiled or no longer wanted)

If there is little waste, you're eating it! Pay Up!

[zookcubr Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zookcubr]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

You havnt been to Alice Springs yet, many more places around Australia are far more expensive than the capital cities. I just wish we had ALDI here, that would reduce all the supermarket prices in town.

[adam's prado Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close adam's prado]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

Hi all my wife and I went shopping yesterday in Darwin we had a quarter full trolley of necessity items to get us thru the week not including meat and came to $150 thats just for lunches and meals thru the week and some cleaning products. We usually do our shopping do our shopping on a Sunday night when there are alot more discounted items or on a Wednesday night as the new weekly specials start on Thursday so we stock up on discounted meat chicken etc and freeze it down. The things that put a whole in your wallet up here is fruit and veg as the large supermarkets run the show and a lack of fresh fruit a veg shops, but at least we get the fuel docket to fill up but recently those servo's diesel is still about 4cents dearer than say united where we usually fill up.
Adam

[Mrs Two+Four Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mrs Two+Four]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

We've got four kids (17yo boy, 14,10 & 8 yo girls) + 1 dog, 2 cats and a Prado. Our grocery bill would be no where near $500 a week. We buy alot of stuff in bulk, epecially cleaning gear, it does save alot of $'s, Big W, and Godfreys have alot of bulk stuff. You've got to space your purchases out a bit so your not running out of everything at the same time. Also bulk buy when things are on special. We've stopped buying snack foods eg museli bars etc for the school lunchboxes, when you work out the kilo price on those things it's a shocker! It makes banana's at $12kg a bargin. The kids like getting in the kitchen and making cakes and biscuits to - there not great at cleaning the mess up though but hey it's cheap entertainment for them 8)

[WBY 1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close WBY 1]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

Bunnings also sells a lot of cleaning products which Ive found to be cheaper than the usual places that sell them.

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

Meat has gone through the roof recently. I can only hope that the farmers are getting some of it. Though I heavily doubt it. Milk has also shot through the roof and I know for a fact that dairy farmers haven't seen much of that rise either. Doesn't it make you wonder. It's very telling when trays of $20 / kilo rump steaks are going off on the shelves. You see them there one week with a decent hit of a price tagged on them. You see exactly the same trays there the next week all with reduced price stickers on them... nobody is buying them. It's the chicken pieces at say $2.00 / per kilo in some instances that are walking off the shelves.

What we've done is buy less of the expensive products like meat and packaged / frozen stuff. Buy more things like potatoes and rice that you can use to bulk meals out. Our Saturday night meal has now become a simple fried rice with whatever we feel like putting in it that week. Things like stir fry's where you can put in a minimum of expensive ingredients and bulk up cheaper fillers. Stuff like mince we buy when on a decent special and leave a good swag in the deep freeze. We would now only have steak maybe once per fortnight. It's too expensive to justify right now.

Cereal is another thing that's rocketed up the price charts in the last 12 months. $8 - $10 for a box of cereal is now nothing unusual. We buy Corn Flakes, Oat Flakes and Weet Bix which are all still at reasonable prices. Get some dried fruit like sultanas when on special, we recently got a kilo bag of sultanas for our cereal we are currently chugging through. Anything packaged like frozen meals will send the bill through the roof.

Can't do much about cleaning products. I too have noticed places like K-Mart and Bunnings are beginning to sell these so I might check that out.

Some black and gold stuff is actually ok, believe it or not. Their tissues are the goods, and their pickled onions aren't bad either. Stay away from their biscuits though... freaking horrible cardboardy affairs!

Still just the two of us though right now. We can get away with $120.00 a week.

[Hutch Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hutch]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

Guys, good times to shop are generally the weekend, for example Coles runs specials Thurs- wed and then also normally have extra fresh food specials across the weekend fri- sun, interesting thing with Aldi they are all generic brands and if you buy the Generics at the other supermarkets you find the prices are generally the same but you also have the other choices, however in an area were their are multiple supermarkets you will generally find prices are a bit keener. We have two kids, one in nappies and struggle to spend $250-$300 per week, we will also stock up on things when they are on multi buys etc. we always stock up on meat while on special and aren't afraid to buy some generic lines as some of them are good value and taste. Good examples are Milk, come from the same cow as the dearer milk, bread comes off the same production as the dearer stuff and most of the generic lines are manufactored by a major company. Ie Coles weetbix are made by Sanitarium.
a bit of insider info for you.

[Golly Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Golly]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

Crikey! we have 3 girls, no pets. 15, 9 and 2 and they can eat like horses mind you.
Susan my wife is Anglo Indian so you can imagine the cooking aroma's in the Golly house. We eat mainly indian dishes with the odd caesar salad and chicken dish or the occasional BBQ and even last night before work we had a Corned Beef and roast vegies.... but we do not go over $200.00 a week and that is with $25.00 worth of Nappies and Wipes each week included..... Girls have bought lunches from school at $40.00 a week for the two older ones. So about $250.00 a week for us.

Tip: forget the main supermarkets for your meat buys. Compared to a quality Butcher or even your local butcher in your suburb Beef at such and such supermarket I priced for 1kg was $16.00 where the Butcher was $9.95 always. Chicken at supermarket was $6.95 a kilo of drumsticks, butcher $3.00 a kilo so shopping around to find the best place to always go is the best thing.

Trick is, a curry we cook contains approx $3.00 worth of of quality diced beef or any meat for that matter, 2 spuds and masalas which you buy in bulk every couple of months. All up including rice (2 cups in a rice cooker) about $6.00 a meal for 5 which goes for lunch the next day.
Some may think Curries are boring, believe me with no offence to my fellow Aussie's (Aussie Curries as we oldies know of Dad attempting to cook) haha taste nothing like the Curries from the motherland India. They have so much variety and flavours its not funny and I never used to eat them until I met my darling wife. I cringe at site when they have a curry on the baymarie, you can just see the Keens Curry Powder and smell it, and its nothing like the real thing.

Saying this, Casseroles, Stews and so forth are a good substitute for the chilli afraid to save on your food bills.

We always have a budget to go on and we stick to it, its as simple as that, if we get close to going over it, out goes a luxury item from the trolley. ( or a Prado Mod ) LMAO!!! :mrgreen:
In todays climate, you simply have to do this in order to not get caught up.

[Kev &amp; Jas Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kev &amp; Jas]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

Currently we are a family of 4 + pet

Kev & I, daughter 5 & son 1 + cat

We manage to get away with under $160 a week easy. we buy all our fresh fruit and veg at local places such as for you perth ppl. the local farmers market, forrest fresh, spud shed, raebourn orchid. meat we buy from a quality butcher who has been in the area for many years and he is really cheap too. the only things we buy from Coles, Wollies or Big W are Nappies, wipes, baby milk, my daughters soy products as she is allergic to dairy, cleaning products. as you can imagine all that non dairy stuff cost's A HELL OF A LOT! e.g Soy Cheese is about $28/kg. & she LOVES cheese!
It is a lot of running around. but it saves the $$$$. The trick is to buy the specials you know you need and in BULK! + shop around and find the cheapest price lots of fresh fruit and veg not pre made processed packet stuff. It's great for a treat. but not for everything. :wink:

Some weeks we get away with a shop for under $100 as the BULK store of soy and baby stuff, toilet paper, washing powder means we can leave it for a week or two till we need to buy again. keeping our weekly costs DOWN! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

My 2 cents.

Jas

[Prado BB Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado BB]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

How much do you spend on groceries each week?
My wife an I are constantly arguing about the how much is enough to feed our family. To put it in perspective we are a family of 5 - kids, 12, 11 and 8, have a dog (beagle) and a turtle. To define 'groceries' - it includes all food items and fast moving packaged goods (e.g. shampoo, washing powder, cleaners, paper towels, oil, razors etc).



Cheers
Andy

Hello all, this is Mrs Prado BB, :evil:
OMG!!!!.......I just found this thread, and I thought I would tell you the right story (what would he know!!!). My husband likes to eat goumet
food. We spend so much on food and groceries because.....Everyone is fussy, my husband being the main one! He is greek, so, I have to cook him what his mummy used to make him, plus being healthy and low fat. I could not serve up baked beans on toast for him,(he would just laugh at me and say
what's this???). And I have coeliac disease (gluten intolerance) so when I make a pasta dish, I have to buy special expensive pasta for me, plus for me to
eat bread, I have to buy gluten free, which, wait for it....is $10 a loaf!!!!

So................what will I do???? mmmmm, he wants to cut the bills! I think his next thread on here will be...."how many different ways can you have
toast"!!!!!!!!!!

I shall leave it at that....I have to go do some shopping! he he he :lol: :lol:

[Kev &amp; Jas Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kev &amp; Jas]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

[quote=Prado BB]

How much do you spend on groceries each week?
My wife an I are constantly arguing about the how much is enough to feed our family. To put it in perspective we are a family of 5 - kids, 12, 11 and 8, have a dog (beagle) and a turtle. To define 'groceries' - it includes all food items and fast moving packaged goods (e.g. shampoo, washing powder, cleaners, paper towels, oil, razors etc).



Cheers
Andy

Hello all, this is Mrs Prado BB, :evil:
OMG!!!!.......I just found this thread, and I thought I would tell you the right story (what would he know!!!). My husband likes to eat goumet
food. We spend so much on food and groceries because.....Everyone is fussy, my husband being the main one! He is greek, so, I have to cook him what his mummy used to make him, plus being healthy and low fat. I could not serve up baked beans on toast for him,(he would just laugh at me and say
what's this???). And I have coeliac disease (gluten intolerance) so when I make a pasta dish, I have to buy special expensive pasta for me, plus for me to
eat bread, I have to buy gluten free, which, wait for it....is $10 a loaf!!!!

So................what will I do???? mmmmm, he wants to cut the bills! I think his next thread on here will be...."how many different ways can you have
toast"!!!!!!!!!!

I shall leave it at that....I have to go do some shopping! he he he :lol: :lol:[/quote:3q5xdvp6]

:lol: :lol: :lol: LMAO oh you gave me a great laugh their Mrs PradoBB!

It's so hard to keep bills down when their are "special diets" :mrgreen:

Jas

[HGMonaro Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close HGMonaro]

Re: Grocery Shopping Bill - outrageous

...I have to cook him what his mummy used to make him...

hehe!!!! pure gold!