TheHaitian
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Post by TheHaitian on Jul 26, 2020 17:24:47 GMT -5
Went to Costco today and my lost my card so stopped at customer service to get a new one. There they asked me if I would be interested in the black one or the citicard credit card because I spend alot of money there and so far if I had it I would have received an $95 check back for my spending at Costco.
That quick visit to Costco just for a few things was $170 and already spent $200 on groceries last week. So I finally decided to open Quicken up and run the reports; I knew/guestimate we have been spending a lot but never got the actual number.
So per Quicken so far this year we have spent $10,540.55 on groceries So far this month we spent $1,332.77 on groceries Based on the past 6 months we average bout $1,534.60 (crazy how close to this we are this month because we have 1 week left and will most likely do another grocery run before the week ends).
This is for 4 adults, 1 toddler and 1 dog. Since March 13th, my wife, my MIL and daughter has eaten 100% of their meals at home. My brother and I may grab something while we are out (pizza at costco, burger king -> his favorite, etc) so maybe 1% of our meals... I brink lunch to work so may grab a snack or drink there.
Also as I mentioned to another poster here and noticed with my own chain : we have fewer good sales, prices have steadily increased, fewer opportunities to stock up on a good sale (not that we have the space). We have not given any rain checks since March 14th... you get it, you get... no rain checks.
I know we kept on being told our bonus next year will reflect how good this year is/was... we will see. I know the folks on tops that a big portion of their overall salary is based on bonus are salivating already. Has your grocery spending gone up? Are you still able to find good deals/ sales?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 17:43:29 GMT -5
Went to Costco today and my lost my card so stopped at customer service to get a new one. There they asked me if I would be interested in the black one or the citicard credit card because I spend alot of money there and so far if I had it I would have received an $95 check back for my spending at Costco. That quick visit to Costco just for a few things was $170 and already spent $200 on groceries last week. So I finally decided to open Quicken up and run the reports; I knew/guestimate we have been spending a lot but never got the actual number. So per Quicken so far this year we have spent $10,540.55 on groceries So far this month we spent $1,332.77 on groceries Based on the past 6 months we average bout $1,534.60 (crazy how close to this we are this month because we have 1 week left and will most likely do another grocery run before the week ends). This is for 4 adults, 1 toddler and 1 dog. Since March 13th, my wife, my MIL and daughter has eaten 100% of their meals at home. My brother and I may grab something while we are out (pizza at costco, burger king -> his favorite, etc) so maybe 1% of our meals... I brink lunch to work so may grab a snack or drink there. Also as I mentioned to another poster here and noticed with my own chain : we have fewer good sales, prices have steadily increased, fewer opportunities to stock up on a good sale (not that we have the space). We have not given any rain checks since March 14th... you get it, you get... no rain checks. I know we kept on being told our bonus next year will reflect how good this year is/was... we will see. I know the folks on tops that a big portion of their overall salary is based on bonus are salivating already. Has your grocery spending gone up? Are you still able to find good deals/ sales? Grocery spending up a bit for two old people at home, but spending far less on restaurant expenses. I shop Aldi 99% of the time and prices seem pretty stable. I'm maybe paying a bit extra for online purchases through Amazon or Walmart.com but okay with that vs. an in-person experience at those stores.
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Jul 26, 2020 17:52:39 GMT -5
Yes, our grocery bill has gone up. I have no idea how much I spend a month. If I'm stocking up the freezer, it can be more.
If I can find a good deal on hamburger or chicken, I stock up a little. This week was butter 3/$5 and Cloverdale summer sausage half price. We have venison from 2018 but a person can eat only so much roast and put it into so many casseroles.
I try to extend any meal as a casserole. This helps H. with his 3 ounces of meat per meal.
I eat out with girlfriends once in a while. This past month was twice. H. and I will grab a lunch out BUT the darn fast food bill runs $20. I do like to go to BK because of their 2 for pricing.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 18:03:59 GMT -5
My grocery costs are $2,800 YTD- almost exactly the same as 2019 YTD. One person, no pets, no shifts to delivery, very little meat or fish, no real changes in eating out (not a big part of my food budget). Excludes alcohol but includes cleaning products. I don't really look for deals- the deals are mostly packaged, processed foods I don't eat. I'd say about 70% is Costco, 30% the local grocery. I have the Costco credit card but rarely use it- I get 2% back from my Fidelity card and can deposit it in my account every month. Costco makes you wait a year. I keep the Costco card for gas, restaurants and travel where the % is higher. Not much spending on any of those lately.
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Jul 26, 2020 18:18:06 GMT -5
We also went to Costco today, first time since February. And yes, the bill went up. We bought beverages (club soda and sparkling water; we don't drink soda other than an occasional Diet Coke for me), two inexpensive bottles of white wine (both under $12 each), a two - pack of chicken and cheese ravioli, paper goods like paper plates, plastic cutlery, foil and plastic wrap (no paper towels or TP; we're good on that), a four-pack of dry spaghetti, agave syrup, dried cherries, a two-pack of mouthwash and a package of shop towels (DH can still work on his cars, and I like them for cleaning because they are washable and reusable). That's it. And that was over $150. We're not eating out (DH's health is pretty tenuous at this point), but I do try and support local restaurants with a once-a-week takeout. Sales on staples have been hard to come by. A six-pack of TP is over $10 here; you can buy plenty of it, but the price is outrageous (glad I stocked up months ago!). I've become a big fan of Sprouts, a national chain with organic groceries but good prices, much better than Whole Paycheck. And a bigger fan of Aldi. Both carry excellent produce at very fair prices. We don't have farmer's markets here in the summer; the nearest farm stand is in the next county north. We have a second fridge/freezer, a small version of the regular kitchen fridge, and I keep it stocked with cold drinks and some extra dairy. The freezer is pretty full: chicken, beef, pork, veggie burgers, butter, and frozen fruits and vegetables.
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sesfw
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Post by sesfw on Jul 26, 2020 18:39:53 GMT -5
We eat a lot of fruit so our Costco trip today was a restock of that. Grapes, strawberries, cherries. They were out of grapefruit so had to get some on my trip to local grocery. Groceries for the two of us might have gone up a little but we seldom go out for dinner so not spending as much overall. Right now I have chili in fridge, and cooking some pre-mades from Costco. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes are in oven right now and that is good for 3 dinners for us. Just took stuffed peppers out of oven and that is good for 2 meals. I'm not a good cook so take the easy way as much as possible. ..........
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buystoys
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Post by buystoys on Jul 26, 2020 18:47:16 GMT -5
Our spending has gone up as we have no kitchen right now. Frozen meals are expensive! I could make a whole pan of chicken tika masala for what one frozen meal costs me.
Hopefully we get our kitchen back in another two weeks or so. That will let me see what our budget is really doing for food.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Jul 26, 2020 18:59:30 GMT -5
I don't know haven't kept track. for about 3 months helped feed another family so hard to tell.
I hope they don't have another shutdown as I'm not planning on doing that again.
I was doing good ordering, now not so much. It's about time for another meat run, been a few months, so need to stock up.
I will go through bank statements and see but will include whatever I bought there like Sams and sometimes buy clothing so wouldn't be real accurate. Still might be interesting.
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saveinla
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Post by saveinla on Jul 26, 2020 19:16:14 GMT -5
2475$ up to the 15th of this month. There are only 2 of us and we don't eat meat.
It was high since we stocked up on a lot of food items. I am thinking that we will end the year at 3500$ if all goes well.
But I just ordered 3 bars of chocolate at 30$ and if that experiment goes well, we may see an increase of 200 to 300$.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 19:28:10 GMT -5
Meat prices are definitely up. I read somewhere that it is 25%. That is probably right for Publix, but not for places like Target, etc.
Other than that, I have noticed that Publix runs few specials. They do run a few . . . stuff like Helmann's mayo, Kraft salad dressing, etc. That is probably manufacturer driven. The lack of sales specials really hurts.
I buy stuff other than meat and vegetables at Walmart. Their prices are a little higher but more like 10-15% and not on everything. I've started buying meat at Target and Sprouts. Vegetables are at Sprouts or at the curb market. The curb market isn't cheap, but their tomatoes are awesome.
I don't want to guestimate my grocery bill lately because my sister has been here for almost 3 weeks. Before, a six-pack of eggs would last me almost a month. We've consumed 2 dozen in 3 weeks. When she leaves, I will go back to my more moderate eating habits, but we've kept eating out to a minimum, which pays for a lot of groceries.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 19:29:44 GMT -5
Mine is up some the past few months, but mainly due to two birthday parties and a graduation in there. That was a lot of extra food and alcohol. Groceries are up some but mostly due to the increased costs at the stores I think. We're usually about $450/month for one adult, one teen and a 10 year old.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 19:34:24 GMT -5
Was that 3 pounds of butter for $5? If so, damn, I haven't seen it below $3.99 a pound for ages.
My grocery costs for this year so far I am sure are insane. But, my house is fully stocked up for hunkering down and I make the effort to keep it that way.
We'd assumed that would most likely be this winter, but we've been adding cases here everyday lately, so perhaps sooner.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 19:37:26 GMT -5
We've always purchased DH's hearing aid batteries from Costco, plus a lot of our over-the-counter supplements etc. But Costco doesn't ship batteries so I have to get them from Amazon which is a bit pricier.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 19:39:15 GMT -5
Was that 3 pounds of butter for $5? If so, damn, I haven't seen it below $3.99 a pound for ages. It's 1.99/pound here a lot. Normal price is 2.50-2.99
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jul 26, 2020 19:52:14 GMT -5
I really don’t know what our budget has been like since I have been hitting road side stands heavily. We are paying far more for fruit especially, but it has been quite excellent. I spent $26 for half a flat of strawberries, 6 lb cherries and 4 pints of blackberries. Then spent another $20 for 10 lb of blueberries (about 2/3 frozen back) and $10 for 5 lb of tomatoes. I don’t need to go to the grocery store until late next week.
I get butter at Costco, I think it is 4 lb for $9.
I have been trying to time grocery shopping to the need for milk. We hit Costco last week, and are good for awhile. I stocked up on beef, it was a still higher than it normally is, but not as high as a month ago. I think we only spent $150, which was cheap for us.
At this point, what we are saving not eating out is going to the grocery store, Costco and road stands. Just as well, we are probably eating healthier.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 26, 2020 20:03:38 GMT -5
Ours is up, but that's for two reasons: One, one of our children had to come home from college; that's at least an increase of $200 per month. Second, we've not been eating out as much. That means that we've been purchasing additional groceries, but our restaurant line item has reduced by a few hundred dollars per month.
We have had the Costco Citi Card since it was an American Express Card. We usually get at least $300/year on that cash back reward.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jul 26, 2020 20:20:45 GMT -5
Ours is up, but that's for two reasons: One, one of our children had to come home from college; that's at least an increase of $200 per month. Second, we've not been eating out as much. That means that we've been purchasing additional groceries, but our restaurant line item has reduced by a few hundred dollars per month.
We have had the Costco Citi Card since it was an American Express Card. We usually get at least $300/year on that cash back reward. I am embarrassed as to how much we get back from Costco. All of our travel goes on this card, as does just about everything we buy.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 26, 2020 20:30:26 GMT -5
Ours is up, but that's for two reasons: One, one of our children had to come home from college; that's at least an increase of $200 per month. Second, we've not been eating out as much. That means that we've been purchasing additional groceries, but our restaurant line item has reduced by a few hundred dollars per month.
We have had the Costco Citi Card since it was an American Express Card. We usually get at least $300/year on that cash back reward. I am embarrassed as to how much we get back from Costco. All of our travel goes on this card, as does just about everything we buy. I know, Right! One year it was $500. That's not counting the cash back rewards we get from Chase which is probably $1,000/year. But, I put everything I can onto those two cards in order to the cash back rewards. I treat them like debit cards and pay them off every Thursday.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jul 26, 2020 20:34:49 GMT -5
I am embarrassed as to how much we get back from Costco. All of our travel goes on this card, as does just about everything we buy. I know, Right! One year it was $500. That's not counting the cash back rewards we get from Chase which is probably $1,000/year. But, I put everything I can onto those two cards in order to the cash back rewards. I treat them like debit cards and pay them off every Thursday. Right now, we have a 4 figure credit on our Costco card. Fiji Air refunded our flights that were canceled for our trip in May. That trip has been rescheduled June 2021. Hopefully, we can use it then.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Jul 26, 2020 20:35:16 GMT -5
We were way up for a while. There are still fewer sales, which hurts us as we would stock up more those weeks that our regulars would go on sale. I think some prices are coming back down, like meat. TP and paper products are still high. They are still take what you can get prices.
I can't tell you what we're spending now. We started getting the free food for the kids from the school, so that's helping us a bit--especially with milk.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jul 26, 2020 21:31:00 GMT -5
Went to Costco today and my lost my card so stopped at customer service to get a new one. There they asked me if I would be interested in the black one or the citicard credit card because I spend alot of money there and so far if I had it I would have received an $95 check back for my spending at Costco. That quick visit to Costco just for a few things was $170 and already spent $200 on groceries last week. So I finally decided to open Quicken up and run the reports; I knew/guestimate we have been spending a lot but never got the actual number. So per Quicken so far this year we have spent $10,540.55 on groceries So far this month we spent $1,332.77 on groceries Based on the past 6 months we average bout $1,534.60 (crazy how close to this we are this month because we have 1 week left and will most likely do another grocery run before the week ends). This is for 4 adults, 1 toddler and 1 dog. Since March 13th, my wife, my MIL and daughter has eaten 100% of their meals at home. My brother and I may grab something while we are out (pizza at costco, burger king -> his favorite, etc) so maybe 1% of our meals... I brink lunch to work so may grab a snack or drink there. Also as I mentioned to another poster here and noticed with my own chain : we have fewer good sales, prices have steadily increased, fewer opportunities to stock up on a good sale (not that we have the space). We have not given any rain checks since March 14th... you get it, you get... no rain checks. I know we kept on being told our bonus next year will reflect how good this year is/was... we will see. I know the folks on tops that a big portion of their overall salary is based on bonus are salivating already. Has your grocery spending gone up? Are you still able to find good deals/ sales? Get the Citi card! Between 2% at Costco, 4% gas, and 3% for travel and restaurants it's one of my best rewards cards. And as they mail you the "check" each year it forces you to cash out the rewards too. Only negative is they did away with their travel insurance last year so it only gets the travel I don't want insurance on.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jul 26, 2020 21:36:59 GMT -5
As for the question mines not up a ton. I used to eat lunch out at least once a week and would grab a bite or a drink on average once a week which was a bit more than what my grocery bill has gone up. If it's higher than it's my wine doing that.
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bobosensei
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Post by bobosensei on Jul 26, 2020 21:38:21 GMT -5
I've become a big fan of Sprouts, a national chain with organic groceries but good prices, much better than Whole Paycheck. And a bigger fan of Aldi. I love Sprouts too. They have the best deals on fresh produce, and when I go I always get some wild caught fish or shrimp and very often steak too. I think I am spending about 800 a month on groceries for 2 adults. There are fewer sales, and less selection on things like marked down meat. I'm also supplementing from my garden at the moment and also using up things I purchased in March at the start of the pandemic which is balancing out higher prices some. About twice a year I look into the freezer and try to use up food from there.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Jul 26, 2020 21:43:52 GMT -5
I don't buy much of anything processed and the sales on ingredients are pretty much non existent. The amish meat store is very reasonable. A friend went the other day because their ground beef is $3.99 a pound. She said it was 80/20, for real, has so little fat I have to use oil when making hamburgers. I think it is whole cow hamburger and they trim the fat very well. It's just excellent meat.
And in the summer raise veggies. But I still spend a lot. I've started getting a coupon deal from CVS so going to start getting milk there, it will be pretty much free, so that's good.
Our biggest expense beside health ins is getting to the be pharmacy.
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pooks
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Post by pooks on Jul 26, 2020 22:04:05 GMT -5
Feeding 3 adults. My grocery bill went pretty crazy in the beginning, as we started stocking up. I think February and March were both about $900-1,000 each. April was probably still high, as I was buying things in bulk online where ever I could find them. I also started using the more expensive grocery store, because they were better stocked. May was pretty normal and June/July were really low months, probably $500 each, because we haven't needed meat, rice, soda or personal hygiene items, since I stocked up on those.
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jerseygirl
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Post by jerseygirl on Jul 26, 2020 22:05:05 GMT -5
So far this year for 2 adults $5500. Includes food, cleaning supplies paper goods and about 4 cases of wine Entire 2019 year costs were $10800 So actually less, probably because no big parties with food
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dippyegg
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Post by dippyegg on Jul 27, 2020 6:11:33 GMT -5
I am embarrassed to say that I honestly do not know how much is spent on groceries in a month. I really never tried to figure it out. I do look at prices, price per ounce and so forth to try to make good buys.
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Blonde Granny
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Post by Blonde Granny on Jul 27, 2020 6:38:47 GMT -5
So far this month I've spent $200 on groceries....and $0 on restaurants. I have $1k left over and that will go into savings. It doesn't take much to feed 1 person.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2020 7:12:01 GMT -5
Mine is up some the past few months, but mainly due to two birthday parties and a graduation in there. That was a lot of extra food and alcohol. Groceries are up some but mostly due to the increased costs at the stores I think. We're usually about $450/month for one adult, one teen and a 10 year old. I just got on my computer with YNAB and double-checked my numbers. I'm at $3,087 for the year which comes to $441/month, so I was pretty close. However, last year it was $4588 total, so yes, it has gone up. My other two categories (eating out and school lunch) are at $481 for the year. Last year was $1432, so that's dropped.
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resolution
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Post by resolution on Jul 27, 2020 8:13:24 GMT -5
I don't have a Costco, or a Sprouts, or a Trader Joe's, so I am feeling pretty sad reading this thread. So far this year I have spent $5200 on groceries, so approximately $750 per month for two adults. A lot of it was the initial stocking up, and I still have a packed freezer in case we have the promised second wave (if we ever finish the first wave). The past three months we have averaged $530 per month, so it went down once I no longer needed to stockpile. This is just normal purchases as I replaced what we consumed. Last year, I was spending $400 per month for two adults, so my groceries are up by 30%. Restaurant spending is down $500 a month, so my food expenses are down for the year.
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