ChoppinDs40 said:
Without changing your lifestyle considerably, try and be more cognizant on what you're buying. People saying "well just don't go out as much". Duh. How to not spend as much money… just don't spend it. Genius!
Quote:
On groceries, try and meal plan and only buy those things.
Ghost of Bisbee said:htxag09 said:
Dual income here but 1 kid (2.5).
Our grocery budget is $800, we are usually between $775-900. We do typically buy our protein in bulk, portion out, and vacuum seal and freeze. For example when pork loins go on sale for $0.99/lb we'll buy the max allowable and make pork loin chops and a few bags of small pork pieces for stir fries from the ends.
Our restaurant budget is $600. Actuals for this year have ranged from $300-$750. The higher months are cases like meeting my sister and her family for dinner on her birthday and picking up the bill. I'm not a big brown bagger, so eat out for lunch everyday. Really helps that our company has a cafeteria and it's supplemented so each lunch is $6-12.
We used to go out to restaurants a lot. I mean, a lot. That would v around $1,750 for us in a month
In the last month we cut down restaurants increased grocery shopping. We were surprised to see at the end of the month that we were at $1,700
Problem is we were doing grocery trips to Costco, Trader Joe's, and Target. The target trips add up, fast.
So now we're focused on majority Costco, some TJ's, rare visits to Target, and restaurants for the remaining.
Thanks for all the opinions here
ChoppinDs40 said:
My wife is terrible about buying produce just to buy it and it goes bad "oh yeah I'm totally eating a spinach salad this week, has to be organic"
Never gets opened. Thrown away.
Buy meat on sale and freeze it.
A one way ticket to Europe is ~10k points?JobSecurity said:
A lot of y'all need to get the amex gold. 5x points at grocery stores and restaurants. One month for some of you is a one way ticket to Europe. Pm me for a referral
TXTransplant said:
Another thought I had...since you're in Houston, maybe it's worth it to look into some cooking classes. People often don't want to cook at home because they don't really know how to do much more than boil water, brown some ground beef, and pour jarred spaghetti sauce over it. If you are used to eating out a lot you might feel like you can't replicate that kind of food at home (trust me, you can, and it will probably taste even better and be healthier than the restaurant version).
Central Market has some great cooking classes. There is also a lady in Houston who does lessons at her home. Her name is Marcia Smart/Smart in the Kitchen. She specializes in quick and easy weeknight meals. Her website has tons of good recipes, and she also recently published a cookbook that is fantastic. I've taken several of her classes (because I just enjoy that kind of stuff) and highly recommend.
I also really like the Skinnytaste website and series of cookbooks. Same idea - simple, quick, easy recipes using good ingredients.
As others have implied, depending on what types of foods you like best, it also might be worth it to invest in a nice cooking tool/appliance (grill, pizza oven, InstantPot, or even just a really nice set of cookware).
With that said, both grocery and restaurant prices have gone through the roof (stating the obvious, I know). I've never been a grocery shopper who looks for sales each week. I buy what I like, and tend to buy the same things over and over. What used to cost me about $100 a few years ago is now more like $180. When my son was at home, our grocery bill was as high as $1500 some months.
Also, if you are doing most of your shopping at a place like Whole Foods, you are paying a premium. I went to Central Market for the first time in a while last weekend and was shocked at some of the prices there, too.
If you have the time/inclination, you can split up your shopping to save money. Sometimes, I will do a Wal-Mart curbside for the "basics" that I can get anywhere - paper towels, toilet paper, yogurt, etc. Their prices usually are cheaper than HEB (and HEB adds an additional 3% to prices if you do curbside). I save the HEB run for the things that I can only get at HEB.
If you have access to a Trader Joes, they actually have very reasonable prices on some things, like cheese, eggs, coffee, spices, some produce (depending on what it is), and other staples.
If you have recurring food/pantry orders on Amazon, watch these closely as Amazon has been implementing dynamic pricing. There were certain items I started buying from Amazon because they were cheaper. After purchasing a few times, I started noticing significant price increases, sometimes as much as 50-100%. If I don't buy for a while, the price goes back down. It's a shady practice that ticks me off, but it hasn't kept me from going back to Amazon when they do have the best price.
evan_aggie said:
I was talking about central market classes.
$50-$70 per person.
Josepi said:
A lot of good advice in here. My family goes out to eat far too often. It's just too easy with all of the after school activities we have going on.
this.ATM9000 said:Josepi said:
A lot of good advice in here. My family goes out to eat far too often. It's just too easy with all of the after school activities we have going on.
Nope… don't do it. Don't use time and busyness as a crutch. Rarely do you 'save' time by going out to eat and it really isn't that easy other than it makes everybody happy because everybody likes fried and fatty foods.
on the rare occasion we use a third party, I do it because there is a deal that makes the bottom line equal or cheaper than going and picking it up myself.Quote:
I can't think of a single time in the last 10+ years when I've ever ordered food for delivery. I've NEVER used Door Dash or Uber Eats. That just seems like a huge waste of $ to me.
It's still cheaper to just go and pick it up yourself....ChoppinDs40 said:
GrubHub+ with Amazon prime. No fees.
62strat said:And if we are really low, we aren't above eating cereal or cans of soup. Rarely do I think 'hey I'd rather spend $75 tonight on takeout than clear out some pantry food'ATM9000 said:Josepi said:
A lot of good advice in here. My family goes out to eat far too often. It's just too easy with all of the after school activities we have going on.
Nope… don't do it. Don't use time and busyness as a crutch. Rarely do you 'save' time by going out to eat and it really isn't that easy other than it makes everybody happy because everybody likes fried and fatty foods.
dash pass as well with primeChoppinDs40 said:
GrubHub+ with Amazon prime. No fees.
htxag09 said:It's still cheaper to just go and pick it up yourself....ChoppinDs40 said:
GrubHub+ with Amazon prime. No fees.
A lot of restaurants raise the price of individual items. Then you have tips, etc.
Would you like your food to cost much more and be colder? Then Door Dash is for you!Josepi said:
Also, I've quit using food delivery services unless I'm just really exhausted. For an Aggie game, if I order 50 wings from Wing Stop using Door Dash, it's about $35 higher than if I go pick them up myself which only takes about 15 minutes.
