This is what we do also. We have a family of four and we plan out every meal and buy only what we need for the meals. My wifes collects coupons also but groceries are still one of our biggest expenses, second only to the mortgage payment on the house. We spend about $200 to $250 a week on groceries and household items. We can't seem to save any money due to high grocery & fuel prices - both have gone up ridiculously high over the past couple of years! First rule about grocery shopping - NEVER go to the grocery store hungry.
The equivalent to $130 USD a week. Carrefour supermarket. In argentine pesos around $780. This is for a house with 5 people. This includes basic stuff, nothing fancy.
Around $15/week, for just me. If you know when and where events and meetings on my campus are, you can get their left over food for free, so I rarely have to buy food or cook for myself.
Mine is about £70-90 a week for the wife, my daughter and me. We don't eat like kings but we do enjoy some nice stuff, and try to buy some stuff on sale, and if decent meats like leg of lamb or pork loin or on special I get it to chuck in the freezer. I used to try and get the own brand or cheaper branded products in store, but often the quality just isn't good enough to justify the slight price difference, I'd rather pay more. It does make a difference on your mindset though, I'm earning not bad money at the moment so I'm happy to buy quality, drive a car that only gets 23mpg, and eat out every lunch, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made, and if the OP wants to live in a nicer area, then making a sacrifice is worth it, it just might mean more rice and pasta dishes. A little suggestion too, buy frozen chicken pieces, much cheaper, just as good quality as fresh, and goes a long way, will help with that £50pw budget.
you cant compare dollars with euros. Plus bread here (supermarkets do it themselves, its not top notch, but its from the day and tastes fine) its 0.9€, and i think where i buy its a little expensive... (@ my old town it was 0.7€ and top quality one, little smaller i think) :wanker:. Bimbo (sandwitch bread) x25 its like 1.40€..., around 12 sandwitchs for 5€ i think you can make (which is usually half my dinner :nerd.
I second that, prices do vary greatly, in NZ in 2010 I was spending about $200NZ a week in shopping ($165US and £103), compared to my shop in the UK since then being consistently £70-90. Bread is cheaper in the UK, but milk is cheaper here (despite NZ producing so much of the stuff), cheese is about the same here though, but NZ Lamb at £6kg for a leg is cheaper in the UK, despite being shipped 12000miles, but in NZ we pay export prices (or more) for our meat, though on special I could find a good thick piece of rump for cheaper in NZ for $10NZkg, but I'm lucky to find it less than £13 here, and that is scraping the barrel for quality. Seasonal veg is cheaper in NZ, but when out of season the UK is cheaper, fruit is similar priced in the UK, but of an inferior quality IMO. So its much if a muchness, strengths and weaknesses of various currencies make up some of the fluctuations too. EDIT:just realized cheese is cheaper in NZ, I was paying the equivalent of $10kg, in the UK I pay about $6NZ per 400g
reply: I usually go food shopping at weekend for 2-3hours, i buy most of food for the whole week: meat, beef, eggs, milks, ...I also go to the market everyday for vegetable and fastfood, this takes me just 15-20minutes.
