Weekly Grocery Spending
It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I did my $100 a week grocery challenge. Over a 12 month period we managed to average just under $100 spent on groceries. That did include cleaning products and personal care products but not medical supplies. It was a fun challenge and I was surprised at the time how easy it really was. We didn’t even have to go without treats.
Lately I’ve been a lot more “slack” when it comes to grocery spending (and all spending in general). We’re buying more prepackaged stuff and a few more expensive items (like frozen berries for our smoothies).
However, I’m SURE groceries have risen in cost quite considerably in the past 12 months or so.
I know I can spend $100 and not even come close to half filling a trolley. It’s scary really. I have no idea right now WHAT I’m spending per week but I’m not sure if I really want to find out!
BUT…
I also know I need to get back to tracking what we’re spending. It really is the best way to keep spending under wraps. And with all our plans for what we want to do around the house, the less we spend, the more I’ll have for the fun stuff.
I’m going to start tracking our grocery spending from February 1st. I haven’t decided yet whether to set myself a budget or to start with simply tracking and take it from there.
While I’m thinking about it, I thought I’d run a poll to see what people are currently spending per week on their groceries. I know there are a lot of variations that effect how much we spend but I’ve just kept it simple for this time around. Feel free to make more detailed comments about your grocery spend in the comments section if you’d like.
Loading ...It would be great to get as many responses as we can so if you feel like tweeting this or encouraging your own blog readers to visit and add their “vote” to the poll, it would be much appreciated. 
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Oooh, first voter
I said $150-$199. I know I could do it under that, but Kiki’s allergies mean many specialist (ie expensive) foods. Eg instead of 66c for 500g of pasta, I spend $3.50 for 250g of gluten free pasta. Instead of $1.30ish for a litre of fresh lite milk, I pay anything up to $2.85 per litre for rice milk.
Having said all that we still eat fairly cheaply (in my opinion) and well. Our new menu plan is working quite well:
Monday - spaghetti bolognaise
Tuesday - Burritos
Wednesday - Haystacks
Thursday - Taco’s
Friday - Fish & hash browns
Saturday - Something different (ie whatever’s on special/reduced that week)
Sunday - pasta bake
Again, I know I some of those meals are more expensive than they need to be, but everyone will eat everyone there and that way I don’t have to make two meals a night, plus the longest any of them take is 40 minutes start to finish, and that’s on Sunday. I’m all about speed these days.
Gawd. Groceries have definitely gone up significantly in the past year… and what hasn’t gone up now comes in smaller packages.
Our average is usually closer to the $200 mark than the $250. I used to be able to get away a few $100 weeks here and there, but don’t think I could right now but I am hoping to get down to $150 most weeks.
I also think groceries have gone up, we used to spend under $100 most weeks no problem but now I don’t think I would ever get it under $100 and sometimes even top $150. The small changes to our family and our diet are not enough to explain this increase. Each week it seems like something else has crept up in price 10-20 cents, special offers aren’t as cheap as they used to be and I think prices of fruit and veg are more expensive than they were the same time last year. There seem to be more specials on luxury prepared meals that we don’t buy and not as many offers on basics like tinned food.
I have put 200-249, as we get Aussie Farmers Direct, which is $140 a week, then meat at the markets once every few months, and basic groceries, figured it would even out somewhere in this range. But that includes pet food as well as our food, alcohol and cleaning products :D. Of course if I go to Costco its a whole lot more, but thats not too often
Like Joyce we spend around $200-$249 pw and also get Aussie Farmers Direct.
It is about $70 pw on Aussie Farmers Direct and the rest at ALDI and Coles.
I only allow in the budget for $500 a month which is only $250 a fortnight - sometimes we go over sometimes we don’t. I buy the coles gift cards so I know when it runs out we have used it all up! I don’t do a big shop every week like some traditional people do either. Usually it’s the major things or special I probably do a big shop about every 2 - 3 weeks.
We are a family of 6 with 3 adult eaters & 3 kid snackers. I shop fortnightly with a top up on milk, veges and some specials on the off week. I budget $300 per fornight and don’t go over - sometimes very close, but not over.
I’ve found that by meal planning for a fortnight I can buy larger sizes without waste, and the cost is spread between the two meals, instead of one. ie.. 1kg frozen fish we like from Aldi is $10.99 a bag - even though I only use half the bag per meal. I’ll plan fish florentine one week and fish & chips the next, rather than having half a bag lingering in the freezer with no plan for it.
I have found that groceries have increased quite alot in the last year & sizes have been shrinking - not happy, Jan.
I find that I am scanning the shelves and assessing value everytime I go to the shops - it can been really tiring.
I’ve completely lost track of my spending too. I don’t know where the money goes. There’s only two of us here, one who lives on smokes and coffee and one meal a day. I’m really going to have to knuckle down and sort out my budget. I need to save money. You’re right about the grocery price hikes too, and they can’t blame all of it on droughts and floods either.
I am positive costs have gone up! I’ve only really started doing the shop myself after a good 18months off my feet and we used to cruise in under $100 - we used to spend $300 a month for 3A, 1C, 2 cats and more - not a hope now!
We average $250/fortnight - that is for a family of three (two adults and a toddler), a dog, a cat, and a canary, and includes cleaning & personal care products, basic medicines, and sometimes household goods (storage containers, towels, etc), gifts and cards.
DS3 is only in nappies for sleep now so we should soon see a slight drop in our bill!
I’m about to switch to a weekly shop as I hate how full-on a fortnightly shop is, so I will need to try to keep things under $125/week. If I find I’m spending more by shopping weekly I’ll have to make some adjustments!
I could probably get our bill down to $100/week but we’re happy if we manage to come in under our current budget
When I try I can regularly shop for under $100, but then my 2 boys sometimes barely eat! This week I think I spent just over $80, and then bread for about $6. However, most weeks it is just over $100 as I am being lazy & looking for quick meals.
I generally spend between $100 to $150 per week on groceries (not including Nappies) and there are only two of us and a newborn. We had it down to $100 a week before Max was born, but I have been a bit slack since then. We’ve also been using the nappies that were gifted to us and they are about to run out. I have no choice to cut back on our weekly spend now that I am going to have to pay for nappies. Is 6 weeks too early to potty train?!
We spend somewhere between 100 and 150 a week… but we do a big shop monthly and then top up on fruit and vege etc during the week. Our monthly budget is $450, but I sometimes end up spending $500…. prices have definitely gone up plus I am sure I will spend more when sending two school lunches this for the first time.
I agree prices have gone up and sizes of products gone down too. I haven’t really a great estimate of what I spend but it’s what I like to tell myself.
I am going to track our spending too !
I used to easily spend about $300 a week on groceries but now that I buy online delivered groceries I am finding that I buy $300 groceries FORTNIGHTLY plus an additional $50- $90 a week on fresh fruit and veg (there’s nothing like selecting your own fruit and veg for quality and quantity from my local fruit and veg market!). Online delivery provides me with exactally the same products as I would buy normally but I’m not tempted (or pursuaded by the kids) to buy the end of aisle tempters which I would slip in the trolley. Online delivery ordering also assists in giving you a price as you put something in your ‘basket’ so you know exactally how much you are spending before you get to checkout - so much easier to keep to budget and allows you to remove items! Also specials are more easily identified! I am a huge online delivery convert! It not only saves me money but time! Instead of driving to and from the supermarket and then shopping for my groceries, buying online I can have it all done in 15 minutes instead of 1hr 1/2!