Challenge: To trim down the grocery bills by at least 33%

According to the US Department of Labor, the average American family of four spends $8,513 per year on groceries. This statistic breaks down to $177 per person a month. My family is not the traditional nuclear family. In addition to me and my husband, we have four children -- three teenagers, a two-year-old, and a mother-in-law. Applying the above figures, our grocery bill for a family of seven should approximate to $1239 per month. And astonishingly, it has regularly fluctuated in the range of $1000- $1300. My goal is to trim this monthly pile of receipts down to $830,(including diapers, wipes, hygiene products, and restaurant bills) if not less. Being able to frugally feed my nutrition-conscious husband and appease the voracious appetites of my teenagers will be my main challenge!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Back to School Snacks (Already?)

I fell for Stop and Shop's "Buy any 10 get $5 instantly" incentive for this week.  It is really rather ridiculous thinking that these pre-portioned Cheez-Its and Keebler cookie and cracker packages are actually going to remain untouched during the summer, but I went ahead with the intention that these will be used for back-to-school snacks.  The expiration date for some of them are not until January 2012 (if they last in the house).  The cookie and cracker packages are only $3.99 for 12 (so are the Oreo and Nutter Butter ones, but they are not part of the promotion).  After  $1 cracker coupons, I calculated that each little snack bag comes out to around 25 cents (would have been less if I found even more Keebler coupons; I think they expired).  It came out cheaper than those vending machines my teenagers are attracted to, but I still might have had a better deal at BJs or Sam's Club (I usually don't shop there).
Posted by Dilara Channing at 9:25 AM

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