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DoubleF · 10-19-2015, 09:55 AM

I think my wife and I spend about $250-350 a month on groceries and another $150 a month or so on random eating out (either with friends or date nights). This still includes a bit of junk food.

Things that probably help a lot would probably be our high consumption of rice and potatoes. Cheap and filling. We also don't consume a lot of pricey vegetables like Kale, swiss chard, bell peppers and mushrooms. We love these foods and purchase them on occasion for variety in our meals, but it's not a main staple. We rely a lot on frozen vegetables and use them only in certain recipes or when we run out of fresh vegetables. Due to this, our spoilage of foods is often extremely low. (less than 1% maybe?).I think the lack of spoilage alone saves a huge amount of money. 5-10% spoilage might not sound like a lot, but it adds up fast. 10% on $400 is $40. That's a lot of junk food or even frozen food that doesn't spoil. That's like 8 pizzas or 60 frozen burritos a month. Even $20 a month is 4 pizzas, 30 burritos or even 7 bags of chips.

We also like to buy a large flat of ground beef, cook it on the stove with a little bit of onion and freeze it in ziploc bags once it cools off. Excellent and easy portion controlled additions to things like stir fry, fried rice, chili etc. and saves cooking time.

We also cook with very little spices and oil which probably reduces costs in replacing that stuff. Our flavor staples are really just soy sauce, garlic salt, black pepper, sugar and a little bit of chili pepper. We also rarely use condiments other than hot sauce, so replacement costs of that and having multiples is rare.

For meats we like doing ground beef, pork (ribs or loin depending on what's on sale) and frozen chicken legs (about $12 a bag at Superstore). Depending on price, we will grab seafood for variation (left over fish goes great into fried rice FWIW).

For junk food, we often force ourselves to share a fruit or two (peach, apple, orange, whatever) just prior to a bag of chips or whatever. This means the chips lasts two sittings on average. We rarely buy pop or juice. This might be another factor.

Misc: A magic bullet, flavored yogurt and frozen fruits makes for some good smoothies. A shot of vodka while blending makes it even better snack. Canned fruits and ice can make easy slushies.

Premade food: We try to reduce this, but we will consume a frozen pizza perhaps one or twice every 2 months when we are lazy. We also on occasion buy frozen burritos from Superstore (18 for $12) to bring to work (2-3) if we don't have food for the next day. This helps to reduce eating out which is often 10x more expensive.

As a consumption reference, when confronted with a 10" pizza, I will consume 4/5 and my wife 1/5 in one sitting for dinner. That being said, I don't have a habit of eating breakfast but my wife does eat cereal in the mornings.

10-19-2015, 09:55 AM	#27
DoubleF Franchise Player Join Date: Apr 2014 Exp:	I think my wife and I spend about $250-350 a month on groceries and another $150 a month or so on random eating out (either with friends or date nights). This still includes a bit of junk food. Things that probably help a lot would probably be our high consumption of rice and potatoes. Cheap and filling. We also don't consume a lot of pricey vegetables like Kale, swiss chard, bell peppers and mushrooms. We love these foods and purchase them on occasion for variety in our meals, but it's not a main staple. We rely a lot on frozen vegetables and use them only in certain recipes or when we run out of fresh vegetables. Due to this, our spoilage of foods is often extremely low. (less than 1% maybe?).I think the lack of spoilage alone saves a huge amount of money. 5-10% spoilage might not sound like a lot, but it adds up fast. 10% on $400 is $40. That's a lot of junk food or even frozen food that doesn't spoil. That's like 8 pizzas or 60 frozen burritos a month. Even $20 a month is 4 pizzas, 30 burritos or even 7 bags of chips. We also like to buy a large flat of ground beef, cook it on the stove with a little bit of onion and freeze it in ziploc bags once it cools off. Excellent and easy portion controlled additions to things like stir fry, fried rice, chili etc. and saves cooking time. We also cook with very little spices and oil which probably reduces costs in replacing that stuff. Our flavor staples are really just soy sauce, garlic salt, black pepper, sugar and a little bit of chili pepper. We also rarely use condiments other than hot sauce, so replacement costs of that and having multiples is rare. For meats we like doing ground beef, pork (ribs or loin depending on what's on sale) and frozen chicken legs (about $12 a bag at Superstore). Depending on price, we will grab seafood for variation (left over fish goes great into fried rice FWIW). For junk food, we often force ourselves to share a fruit or two (peach, apple, orange, whatever) just prior to a bag of chips or whatever. This means the chips lasts two sittings on average. We rarely buy pop or juice. This might be another factor. Misc: A magic bullet, flavored yogurt and frozen fruits makes for some good smoothies. A shot of vodka while blending makes it even better snack. Canned fruits and ice can make easy slushies. Premade food: We try to reduce this, but we will consume a frozen pizza perhaps one or twice every 2 months when we are lazy. We also on occasion buy frozen burritos from Superstore (18 for $12) to bring to work (2-3) if we don't have food for the next day. This helps to reduce eating out which is often 10x more expensive. As a consumption reference, when confronted with a 10" pizza, I will consume 4/5 and my wife 1/5 in one sitting for dinner. That being said, I don't have a habit of eating breakfast but my wife does eat cereal in the mornings.