| Bella07
|
|
|
| In our house (just my husband and I), our weekly grocery cost has gone up by 60%! While we were well-stocked with pantry items for cooking, we spend a lot on fresh veggies, meat, cheese, and herbs. I guess it's cheaper to eat unhealthy! Just wondering how everyone else is on this. |
|
Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:38 pm |
|
| Dylan
|
|
|
| In the beginning it is a bit more expensive to eat SB-friendly, but once you get most of your basics it really isn't any more expensive. I buy whatever fruits, veggies, and meats are on sale that week (I usually only have to buy meat like once a month b/c I buy when it is a good price and then freeze it), stock up on cheese, yogurt, salad dressings, and frozen veggies when they go on sale, and buy milk and eggs every week. When I look at my receipt, most items on there are less than $2 (except milk and meats). When you consider how much less you are spending on junk foods ($5 on ice cream, $3 on cookies, $4 for frozen dinners) it really isn't much more expensive. And you are worth the extra money! |
|
Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:50 pm |
|
| 2of3
|
|
|
It's probably doubled.
I now get through veg at an alarming rate and it costs a lot.
I never bought much junk or frozen stuff before. But things like pasta, rice and potatoes are cheap and filling.
I don't miss them though.
2/3 |
|
Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:18 pm |
|
| SALAD!
|
|
|
I don't feel like our bill has gone up, because we are saving tons of money by not eating out so much!
Also, I stocked up at Costco when we started with a huge bag of chicken breasts ($10), a bag of Sockeye Salmon ($20) Nuts ($10) String Cheese, V8, Feta, Parmesan, eggs and turkey bacon etc. We are going on 4 weeks and I haven't run out of everything yet. Every weekend I pick up about $15 worth of veggies at a farm stand and about $40 at the grocery store for things like beans, fresh eggs, canadian bacon, I'm SAVING money! |
|
Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:02 am |
|
| TKfromUK
|
|
|
I only started Phase 1 yesterday, and did my big shopping yesterday.
The bill was quite large, but I stocked up on some things which should last me weeks. The most expensive item I bought was ground linseed (flax seed) which was about £4.90 (nearly $10) for a 450g pack. I can only eat a few tablespoons a day, though, so it should last me for ages!
Chicken breast is also rather expensive here (I paid £3.20 for a 400g pack), but next week I will try to buy it at my local butcher where it is twice as cheap. I still have some lovely lightly smoked fish in the freezer, which should see me through half of the week. Luckily, my local supermarket will often massively reduce the price of meet and fish from the fresh counter at the end of the day, and I tend to buy loads of it and freeze it. The smoked trout was normally something like £15 per kilogram, and I bought it for £4 per kilogram.
Salad stuff and other vegetables are luckily very cheap here, as are beans (actually, beans and lentils are among the cheapest foods, and I love them!). Salad is expensive when I am lazy and I buy prepared salad. On the other hand, it costs next to nothing to buy a large lettuce at my local market, and it should not really be that hard to wash and chop it myself.
Also, I will save money by not eating out, especially by not buying sandwiches at work. I will also save money by not buying biscuits and chocolate. On the other hand, I am really, really looking forward to spending some money on clothes two sizes smaller when I lose weight! That will be priceless.
:D |
|
Sun Aug 26, 2007 11:00 am |
|
| pucksgirl
|
|
|
| mine went up on the first trip. if you can find a farmer's market/farmer's stand. i go to my local farmer's market every week or every other. last week-i spent $10 for three huge bags of very tasty home grown stuff!!!! |
|
Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:55 am |
|
| Jadzia
|
|
|
In P1 it was really expensive, mostly because I stuck to the proposed meal plan and bought a lot of veggies that were out of season ($$$).
On the other end, my DH and I used to buy most of our lunch, and I always bought breakfast at the job. So overall the grocery bill did increase more than the money we saved from lunches but not that much.
Now my overall food expense is probably about the same as before SB. I expect it to increase this winter though, since most veggies will be more expensive ! |
|
Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:17 pm |
|
| rushsmom
|
|
|
| Don't forget to subtract all the money you're NOT spending at fast food places and mini-marts, though. I know for me it was substantial. My grocery bill itself might be higher, but the overall food dollars probably didn't change. |
|
Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:34 am |
|
| oh_what_a_wabbit
|
|
|
I just had this conversation with my husband last night... at the store (actually 3 different stores) I wanted to buy ground beef and chicken breast. I couldn't believe the price they wanted... $4.99/lb for the ground beef, and $3.59 for the chicken breast.
Then, the more I thought about it... the more I realized that a pound of beef, costing me $5 would give us 2 meals. And then I realized that we used to have NO problem going to a fast food place and paying $5 for JUST the burger. Or a sit-down restaurant I'd pay $14.99 for a piece of meat and veggies... I can get SOO much more if I cook it at home.
So as much as I don't want to pay $5/lb for meat, it really does make much more sense than paying more than that at a restaurant.
I love to cook, so our "eating-out" bills will be 0 for quite some time!! Yippee for me! |
|
Tue Sep 04, 2007 6:11 pm |
|
| AleciaBneedstobefreed
|
|
|
| You have to learn the sale cycles and stock up and freeze things if you can. I use frozen veggies and canned alot. I am a die hard coupon/sale shopper. |
|
Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:32 am |
|
| nygirl22
|
|
|
I pay $2.19/lb. for lean ground beef -- either at BJ's or Wegman's. Once in a while it'll be up to $2.99/lb. but $4.99? That's crazy.
Chicken has gotten expensive though. It used to be so cheap. Now that everyone eats it b/c it's good for healthy weight - the price has gone up.
I just try to be careful and watch sales - coupons once in a while. Honestly I find that I don't use coupons much on food b/c there never are any for what I buy -- my mom was always one who bought things b/c 'it's on sale and she's got a coupon!' To me that's a waste of money that I would not have otherwise spent. Gotta be careful!
To save money - I make lists of things that I actually need and do not buy anything not on the list. Simple as that. :)
But we really don't eat out much anymore so we've saved money there. Really fresh fruits/veggies are probably the things I spend the most on b/c I stock up so much but there are many ways to save money - sometimes it's just easy to get lazy - buy whatever I want - whatever is easiest. Natural pb can be pricey but it's all worth it. :wink:
I also have a spreadsheet on my computer comparing prices at the different stores I go to. Be careful w/ Wal-Mart - they change their prices weekly -- I have noticed w/ things like half & half -- they'll take all of the brands (they have like 4-5) and switch up the prices so one week their brand will be super cheap and the next week the best brand will be cheaper and the "cheap" brand will be more expensive than every other store in my town. They're sneaky. Makes me mad. I've also noticed they lower their prices on certain things every once in a while to get ppl to buy them -- I bought flavored water once b/c it was so cheap - figured we'd try it. Well we like it and now the price has gone up and hasn't gone back down. Really just annoying more than anything else.
Contrary to popular belief in my area, Wegman's is not overpriced - they're pretty average and in many cases cheaper. Tops has made me mad lately b/c their prices have gone up on things I used to buy there - the only reason I go there now is b/c they're closest to my home. Things like ricotta, provolone, cottage cheese - all cheaper elsewhere (esp. WalMart). I went to the deli for provolone b/c it was cheaper than the already packaged stuff but these are things that I could've gotten for at least half the price at WalMart. So compare prices and be alert! |
|
Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:08 am |
|
| lovielareau
|
|
|
| it was up a bit at first while we stocked up on spices and such, but now it is about the same, maybe 10% higher. but we save a lot of money each week because we don't go out to eat nearly as often as we did pre-SB. |
|
Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:48 pm |
|
| Lessoff
|
|
|
| i never got over the size of wegmans. I refer to it as Wegman town. LOL. maybe one day I will venture in and actually buy something. |
|
Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:34 pm |
|
| nygirl22
|
|
|
| I LOVE Wegman's. If I really need/want something (food-wise) - it's the only place I KNOW will have it. Plus they have a lot more healthy/natural food options. There are definitely certain things that places like Wal-Mart will have cheaper, but in comparison to stores like Tops and P&C - I choose Wegmans! |
|
Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:42 pm |
|
| JMCP
|
|
|
| I commented on this to DH yesterday! My shopping bill was $15 more than normal weeks. There were lots of things I bought that won't need to be purchased every week though - nuts, popsicles, peanut butter, etc. I do frozen veggies, so those are much cheaper. I think I'll be going through more meat - that's where the expense will come. |
|
Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:51 pm |
|