never realizes how much $ we spend

debs

My hubby really wants to quit his second job to spend more family time. So we need to get better with our money I did a print out for our accounts and omg just on groceries from 11/29- 12/24 $1118.31 does anyone else spend that money just on groceries and that's to feed two adults and kids2yrs and 4yrs and $999.26 for the same time period on gas. Omg I'm in shock. I knew we were bad with money but printing out statements and highlighting things in different colors just blew my mind.

2ndtimearound

That seems high for groceries. We spend about $700 a month, but then again we eat out 2-3 times a week.

My2Boys

Welllll we spend a lot too. Gas would be that but hubby has a company car and they pay his gas. Groceries if you add in diapers, family of four here too we spend almost that much, prob two hundred less. Our biggest prob with blowing money is eating out... Even though I cook all the time, weekends we eat out too much and pizza.

My2Boys

After adding it up we prob spend about $800 a month on groceries at the most, and that is including diapers and toiletries.

debs

@2ndtimearound Oh we eat also around $700 worth for that same time period. I'm so use to just swiping and not keeping track of these things. My hubby goes grocery shopping and pays the bill when we eat out. Im still in shock how much money we waste and what we could have with all that money

debs

@my2boys i wish my hubbys job had a company car that sounds nice. We are expecting another baby in may it would be nice to get our spending under control because we will have to pay for diapers hopefully I'll be able to breastfed then got to buy baby food.

jules

Oh my goodness that's a lot we have 2 adults, a two year old and new born. My hubby works a lot so I not only have home made meals in big portions so he can take leftovers to work but I buy different types snacks that he can take with and my lo can have plus because I'm breastfeeding and want to keep my supply up I'm making sure to eat well. We probably do $400 on groceries a month.

My2Boys

Yea we thought the same, but when he got the car we never seemed to save anything, it just got spent on other useless things

debs

@Jules only 400 a month I wish. My hubby went to the grocery store last night with a actual list to stick by and kept it under 200. We usually go to the grocery store every week so if we keep it up and get under 200 a week we will be doing better. And then hopefully get better every month. @my2boys it sounds like us when ever we eliminate something the money goes and gets wasted. We thought buying a vehicle last year would be better so we don't waste as much money on other useless things but that didn't stop.

natashalynn

Our family of three spends about $500/ month

debs

@natashalynn @my2boys @Jules and secrets you ladies like to share

LilliansMom

That's almost my rent I would never be able to spend that much on food I would have no money left for anything else. We spend about $400-$500 on food a month. We try to stay around $100 a week on food and $50 each a week for gas.

jules

Well I always go with an exact list based off of what meals I will be making. And I go to two different stores because some things are much better price at one then the other and it may sound like pain to do that but it's very worth it when you see how much you save. Plus once you have very specific list it's actually pretty simple. Sounds like you guys are doing well though and I'm sure it will get better and easier over time.

natashalynn

I go with the specific list for a meal plan for that week. Each week I do a stock up on one extra thing in our house aside from the usuals (usuals = fruit/veg, eggs, milk) the extras are things that can be frozen or are dry goods (snacks for lunches, soups/sauces, bread, meat, toiletries) "extras" are only bought on sale. I did a huge excel sheet about a year ago, price shopping around, and now know where to go for what. Ex walmart has best prices on snacks, like granola bars, but costco is best price for toilet paper and soaps.

1stWoodsBaby

I would have a heart attack if we spent that much on food!!! That's $300 more than my rent! And $600 more than my house payment!
Our family is husband, me, 2 yr old & 1 yr old and we spent $60-$80 a week (diapers & everything included).. So never more than $350 a month.
We do lots of coupons and buy sale items. No extras or "goodies". Only necessities. I make a list and we only get that stuff.

Ourlittlenugget

Same here, two adults, two year old and almost one year old. We spend about $60 a week. I'm very careful about what we buy. I have several go-to meals and snacks that are super cheap, and we buy just those things. Both kids drink mommy milk, so just one carton of almond milk for me, I buy store brand diapers cheap, we use kitchen towels instead of paper towels, store bags instead of garbage bags - that kind of stuff. I'm strict. My husband would go through two boxes of tissues and two rolls of paper towels a week if I let him. Adds up!

MommyLovesSparkle

Wow thats alot! We have 5 of us in our house plus my grandma and my uncle who are ALWAYS here. And im pretty sure we spend $400-$500 a month on groceries. You should get into couponing. Its really easy after a while you just need to keep up with sales papers. Ive seen people buy cereal for .49 cents a box and the other day I bought 32 boxes of mac n cheese for only $7. That was my first couponing experience and I loved it but beware its extremely addicting! Lol. If you need help I can help you! Apparently they have a sale in diapers... buy two boxes of bru brand diapers at babirs r us at $10 then there is some kinda coupon inside the box that makes the next two boxes u buy free. If anyones interested I can fond out for sure but I dont remember the step by step senario. Any ways.... coupon! Its fun!

MommyLovesSparkle

Gahh so many typos that I dont feel like fixing lol its late.

My2Boys

I don't really have any tips other then try not to buy it if it isn't needed and we buy meats in bulk and then seperate it to freeze it.

luvmy5

Now that I think about it I don't even know how much we spend monthly on groceries. I'm kind of scared to find out! Let me try to total up last month real quick...this may be scary and I may cry.

luvmy5

Yikes! Between grocery and hygiene was $1,400 last month. That doesn't count cash that was just debit. I didn't even add diapers in there or Costco. We are a very large household of a dozen people though. Costco is usually $300-$700 each trip since we stock up and each item is around $10 and they mostly have everything we need and we will replenish as we go to other stores but we do a Costco trip once or twice a month to fully restock. Craziness!!

debs

I hoping to see a difference in spending at the end of the month. I think I need to start going back to Costco @luvmy5 I think it may help to buy things in bulk

luvmy5

Costco is the best but it does add up quickly. We do have the membership that you get 2% back for every $100 you spend so we always get a good refund every year that not only pays for the membership for the year but pays for a shopping trip too! Having such a large family it helps but we can't always make a trip there since its so time consuming so we go to Safeway in between go replenish as needed but we try to do the big stock once or twice a month depending on what we need. We usually end up taking 2 vehicles and loading up for it. Kids love to go to get all the samples :-D I also love target. I refuse to go to Walmart and I only go to Frys when absolutely needed. I don't like going to a ton of different stores because it wastes time and gas. The money saved by getting the sales is spent on gas so it isn't worth it. I do meal plan as much as possible and when 2 of the kids are with their other parents (same weekend) we usually have enough leftovers for who is here. On the weekends we have them all we either meal plan or we do family take out. For instance one night is steak, next night fajitas next stir fry. Tonight is stuffed burgers and tomorrow is breakfast. It makes it easier that way too so we aren't buying random stuff but rather things we will be using ASAP.

SalasMommy

we spend about 6-700 a month too and im talking I cook breakfast,lunch, dinner, snacks, and lunch for hubs. Then again I think a lot of microwaveable food is expensive I make everything. No hotpockets, easy dinner in the oven meals, etc. ? And about gas depends how far you travel and what kind of vehicle you have hubby has a truck and he spends a lot of gas