<p>I think you can put up to $16500 in a 401k this year. </p>
<p>I buy what is on sale and I have a coupon for. And I looked for marked down items. Got a lb of ground chicken for $1.00 and will get about 3 meals out of that because I combine it with other things.</p>
<p>I would say I spend not more than $40 a week on groceries and I have a large cache of stuff stored.</p>
<p>My big splurge a few weeks ago. Filet mignon cut to order. Ended up being $16 for 4 lb and I will get 6-8 meals from that (I packed and froze it in serving size portions)</p>
<p>Wow Sue, $4 for a lb of a filet mignon is a great buy!!!
How can you get three meals out of a pound of a ground chicken??? Please share! You will be my guru!!!
$40 on groceries for a family a week ??? How??? Do you include shampoo, toilet paper and such?
I also watch what I buy, I cook from scratch.
I do not use coupons as I have found out they make me buy things I really do not need.
I find quality food in US to be very, very expensive.</p>
<p>To be honest, I have not idea how much we spend on Grocery on the monthly bases. I just copied that from T1. </p>
<p>Come to think about it, we probably spend more than just $300 per month on food. That is just a decent dinner for two with a good bottle of wine.</p>
<p>I think this might be the case with most people who responded :)</p>
<p>I have been actually trying to trim down our groceries budget so for the past few months I have been writing down everything. My goal was to spend no more than $150 a week on groceries (family of four) and I have found it to be very, very difficult and honestly for us impossible. There are weeks when I spend less than $150, only to go way above it the following week. In my groceries budget I include food and all the chemicals, paper etc. needed for the personal and house hygiene. Wine has a separate budget.
Like I have said so many times before I cook from scratch, buy in bulk, buy on sale.
We do not consume tons of meat, but have fish/seafood at least once a week, sometimes twice. I try to buy healthy but am not an organic fanatic, prefer local produce even if it does not have an organic label. I do spend a lot on produce.</p>
<p>The couple that went on a dollar a day has spend $60 for a month, for two. I am (provided that I stay within my $600/month budget) spending $300 for two. They have only inlcuded the cost of food, I am including all the groceries. With that in mind, I am spending 5x as much. But look closely - they have bought everything in bulk, ate very unhealthy, the only vegetable was carrot and lettuce, they drank Tang (!!!). They have made they own very basic bread, ate only white flour and lots of it!</p>
<p>It is my challenge to those of you who do not really know how much you are spending monthly on your grocery bill to try and write down everything. You are in for a suprise :)</p>
<p>A friend of mine, family of five, has tried a copule of years ago to survive on $25 a day, which is $175 a week. He found it to be impossible. He was able to make it for about $30 a day, $210/week. And he also watches what he buys, does not buy expensive etc.</p>
<p>Food is expensive, unless you choose to eat unhealthy.</p>
<p>Well…maybe that is how we keep our grocery bills down. A “good” bottle of wine here is Two Buck Chuck…and not that often. </p>
<p>And to others…I know exactly how much I spend on groceries per month. Some weeks, we spend more. Some weeks we spend less. For example…for Christmas eve dinner, we bought a spiral ham. That was more expensive. BUT this week, we’re using the bone to make split pea soup…very inexpensive.</p>
<p>When we go out for a nice, even VERY nice dinner, we frequently have a two-fer or other discount coupon (see restaurant.com for deals-- and there are always additional coupons for that site, so you can get a coupon for $25 towards the price of dinner for $2 - its usually $10 but frequently there are addtional 60-80% off deals for that website). I don’t think I have ever spent $300 for dinner for 2, even with wine, appetizer, main course, dessert and coffee. Yikes. I am way too cost conscious for that, and anyone watching their pennies would not splurge like that.</p>
<p>First of all, I weigh 125lbs so there isn’t alot of stomach to fill up</p>
<p>I cooked the ground chicken. I mixed half of it into a box of hamburger helper (which cost $1). That was good for 1 1/2 meals.</p>
<p>I made spaghetti last night. I put the other half into that. That’s another 1 1/2 meals. </p>
<p>My cc has an analyzer that tells me how much I spent in supermarkets in the past 24 months. It was just under 4000. There were some toiletries. Other times I do shop at CVS (I get very good deals there too - I had $5 off a $25 purchase and walked out spending less than $10 after coupons).</p>
<p>I put everything on the CC and rarely buy groceries anywhere else.</p>
<p>Boxes of brand name cereal, not more than $2.
I’ve gotten tons of shampoos for free. On sale for a buck and a coupon.
You can’t be loyal to any brand to do this.
You have to shop sales and use coupons. I don’t buy it if I don’t use it.<br>
Cans of Chunky soups, never more than $1</p>
<p>The fillet was a big piece of meat that the butcher cut to size. </p>
<p>I got 3 bags of green giant steamers vegetables. On sale for $1.33 I had 3 50 cent coupons(my stores double coupons). They cost me .33 each.</p>
<p>I prefer to wear my money instead of eating it! </p>
<p>However, I don’t cook (at least not much). We are trying to do a lot better about not bringing prepared foods in all the time. H has been good about fixing more dinners for us. Summers seem to go better with good fresh fruit and grilling out. I haven’t been a good role model for my kids in terms of preparing food, although we are all health conscious. One kid (D) has become an amazing cook and has a food blog. The other one (WildChild) developed expensive tastes and uses a lot of his spending money to buy sushi (which may have stopped after serious food poisoning December 30) and Thai food.</p>
<p>My clothing purchases are less than 10% of what I spent on food.</p>
<p>I did just get some stuff from LLBean. I used my discover card points to get a $50 gift card for 40 points. I bought 2 pairs of shoes ($60-$50 gift card) and got free shipping and a $10 gift card. Net cost $10
I then used the $10 gift card and bought a shirt and got free shipping, net cost $0</p>
<p>So I got 2 pairs of shoes and a shirt for $10 total (excluding the 40 points I redeemed from using the discover points). I never pay any interest on my card so those points are free money.</p>
<p>Fashion bug sent me a couple of $10 off a $10 purchase. So I got a couple of shirts for $12 to 15 minus the $10 coupon. Net cost $2-5</p>
<p>I got a hat and gloves (brand new with tags) at a flea market for $5.</p>
<p>I might have spent $150 on clothing this year.</p>
</i>
<p>I’ve spent almost that much on a pair of running shoes. Not to mention Frye Boots, JCrew sweaters and my Donovan McNabb jersey! I likes my “stuff”. :)</p>
<p>I bet you spend as much on 1 trip to the hair salon as I do for the entire year ($18 * 9) = $162 I go every 6 weeks (and yes I am tipping and the owner cuts my hair).</p>
<p>Either you make alot more money than me (probably), have a lot less in the bank than me (have no idea), or live on credit (definitely not me!)</p>
<p>I hate shopping. I decided that even if everything were free, I would still hate shopping. Find something I like, find something that fits, find something that doesn’t make me look either 18 or 80.</p>
<p>I want Stacy london and Clinton Kelly to clothe me (What not to wear on TLC). Even I got 5K to shop in NY, I would be a mess.</p>
<p>I’m not going to debate this. I do love shopping, though. Not so much anymore. We are all cutting back. If I shop, it’s merely to stimulate the economy!</p>
<p>I have been going to the same hair dresser for 20 years, she still charges me $35 for a hair cut. My Ds get their hair cut in NYC(fabulous Dave). I went with them last week, saw the bill for the first time, $100 each plus tax and tips. I was a bit surprised, but they told me it’s a great deal for them because Dave charges other people $200-300/haircut. They told me to let Dave to cut my hair too. I said I couldn’t afford it.</p>
<p>Except for places like NYC where everything costs a fortune, I am a believer in when it comes to hair, you often get what you pay for. I only go to Aveda salons, which aren’t the very top but certainly aren’t a bargain. I have tricky hair, and then there’s the getting older/color thing…</p>
<p>Not sure how much we spend on food, but we try to buy healthy, not too many prepared foods (except with both kids are home). After 5 years of grad school where we lived on pasta and hamburger helper, we swore we would always eat what we like regardless of cost, and fortunately have been able to. I have cut back on Starbucks because I think it’s outrageous although I don’t really like the other coffee that’s available. We try to avoid eating out except for special occasions. </p>
<p>I take leftovers for lunch the next day but H doesn’t like leftovers, so I try to avoid them. We regularly eat meat and quite a bit of fish and prefer to buy the better cuts, although I do try to buy meat in bulk when it’s on sale. </p>
<p>Depending on my mood in the appropriate season, we buy fresh fruit and veggies and I freeze, can, or dry it. At one point we bought a 1/4 of beef, having it cut in steaks and roasts and everything else ground into hamburger. However, that butcher has gone out of business and we haven’t found anyone else in the area who does it. It turned out to be quite economical and very high quality. But I’m afraid now we wouldn’t use it up fast enough when it’s usually just the two of us. </p>
<p>I donate a lot of stuff to Goodwill but can’t bring myself to shop there. My mother passed on to me her aversion for wearing clothes that others have worn, even family members. When the kids were little and I work took less time, I sewed a lot of our clothes, but now I shop sales/Target/Wal-Mart and other such stores. Thanks to Clinton & Stacy, I know what to buy, and if I find something I like at a reasonable price, I buy it in every color. </p>
<p>I agree with a previous poster that coupons often make you buy things you don’t really need. I used to clip them religiously, but it is time consuming. Our local Kroger has a really good targeted coupon program. Based on what you buy, they send you coupons for stuff you really use.<br>
I</p>
<p>I can feed my family well on $5-$10 a day. So that’s about $70 a week including toiletries. I used to love to shop but that habit has been transferred to my two kids. I’m pleased to have 2 persons in my family that are spending for the economy. But I’m not even frugalling. It just happened that way misteriously overnight. I think I need to see a psychologists to find out why.</p>