2 person gerocerie budget?

[redring]

I couldent figure whear else to post this and here seemed a good place.
My question is "how much dose everyone spend weekely on a two person gerocerie bill?" I spend $50 a week. When we buy geroceries. Only problem is Dh is addicted to Mc donalds. Any tips on keeping him in for dinner?

[chevy_chick95]

well we used to have a budget of $300 just for the 2 of us! how insane!!! LOL''

when i re-did our budget this year, we now have a $80/month food budget. i know that may sound steep to some but i can make it happen!! it's already the 18th of january and i've only spent $34!!! wahoo!

[Candace]

I can't speak for 2, but for our family of 5 our budget is $200 a month. We use the Coupons Galore forum to find deals and I print coupons from http://www.budget101.com/coupons.htm

Last week I bought $168 worth of groceries for $38 and I was featured in the Deal of the week on the site.

[redring]

WOW! im way overspending for the two of us. with us both working 10 hr shifts togather I tend to buy conveint foods. Any tips on meals I can make and have at work? DH gets sick of reheated foods.

[JennyCup]

Some of the things we have taken to work in the past include: Those cheap freezer meals, TV dinners, baked potatoes with various toppings (cheese, bacon, chili, brocolli, etc.), Salads with things like leftover steak, shrimp, etc., bagel sandwiches, leftovers, cheese/summer sausage/crackers with fruit, cereal, oatmeal, cup o soup, ravioli, mac n cheese, and anything canned/boxed/canned that could be microwaved.

I also used to take a mini crock pot in the break room and put it on High for 4 hours. I would build my crock pot meal at home, then just transport it to work, plug it in when I got there and it would be ready to eat by lunch time. You can buy a mini crock pot very cheap at many places. I started doing this and it became such a hit that each day the office staff would rotate and make enough for everyone to share. It gave us all some yummy homemade meals plus you got to eat free quite a bit. So it was a win win.

*We spend about $100 a month for the two of us, including an occasional meal out.

[redring]

I have found sandwich makers are a hit with DH. We bought one at biglots for$10.

I have made

Pigs in a blanket

cinnamon crescents

tuna melts

casadias

hott sandwiches

I am going to experimant with some other ideas too. so far he has enjoyed it all.

[danghsia]

I am not sure since i just live my own recently. It been 2 months and so far
it half bag of rice, about 1 carton of noddle, 2 dozen eggs, and about 20$ meat and vegie

not all food is eaten yet

[starsinnight]

Hmm... I must still be doing something wrong, but I'm working on it!

Before I came here, we spent $150 every 2 weeks, about $300 a month (for two of us).

Now with all the coupons, I go about twice a week to the store and I don't spend too much since I'm only buying sale items with my coupons - but I just calculated my food budget so far and i've spent $99 for the 2 weeks in november so far. So that IS better than $150 and we still have groceries left. And I ordered the angel food for $48 which we pick up next saturday, so if we can make it til then, the total for the month will be $150 instead of $300 like before!

About lunches, I take frozen Lean Cuisines or whatever I can get on sale, and if I have any leftovers I always eat those first for lunch. He never eats lunch til he gets home so we dont worry about that (well maybe I do but I cant force him!).

And for dinners, I'll have frozen meat and meals if I want to prepare something that takes longer to make. Or if I have school that night, then I'll make something easy. Like last night, I popped it one of those Birds Eye Steamers dinners that cooks in the microwave for 10 minutes and I got on sale last week. It was good and fast to eat - and it was only about $5 so $2.50 for each of us!

About McDonalds, what we used to do since we get crazy cravings to go out to eat all the time... is we would go to McDonalds on Wednesdays (or Sundays) and buy about 10 49 cent burgers. It was really cheap, not healthy at all, but helped curb the cravings in a cheap way so you dont break the bank! And that way we weren't as tempted to go out to a fancy meal either on the weekend since we already went out to eat during the week.

[JennyCup]

I love our sandwich maker too. I got it as a gift from my Dad's GF. It is so easy to make sandwiches and everyone loves them. Our favorite of course is ham and cheese. I know...we are boring...lol!

Becca, just remember that each family has their own individual needs. We are able to keep ours low because I spend a lot of time working on it. I spend 3 hours at the grocery store (sometimes 4!), I spend about 1.5 hours doing coupons each week, and about 4 hours planning a menu and doing a grocery list. I have noticed on the weeks that I am kind of lazy and don't spend time planning we spend a lot more. I also try to buy extra to stock up on really good deals.

We also use coupons to eat out. I got coupons the other day in the mail for a salad buffet place that is offering 2 buffets for $10. Add in drinks at $2 each and for $15 we could eat out. If we do end up getting fast food, we are only allowed to order off the $1 menu.

I also pick up extra things at places like Big Lots (watch those expiration dates). I got a package of chicken helper for .75 cents two weeks ago. A can of chicken in the crock pot and we had chicken jambalaya with Jiffy corn muffins. Chicken was $1, helper was .75 cents, extra veggies (celery, carrots, peas, onions, peppers) were about .50 cents, corn muffins are .44 cents for a total of $2.70 for the meal. I don't use these places to do all of my grocery shopping, but it helps as a supplement.

For lunches I eat things like ramen (I really do like it), macaroni and cheese, sandwiches, etc. nothing that costs more than $1.25 to make. Leftovers are eaten first.

I shop at the bread outlet for all our bread, specialty bread (rye, sourdough, pumpernickel, french, etc.), tortillas, bagels, sweets, etc. I save a lot of money by doing this. I spend maybe $5-8 for a month's worth of bread items. I have to freeze them when I get home, but I would rather freeze them then spend twice as much at the grocery store.

I love Jiffy box mixes because they are cheap and easy to make. The corn muffins make 6 muffins which is more than enough for us for a meal plus you can get them on sale 2 for .88 cents. Jiffy has all kinds of mixes available. I also get noodles and tomato sauce from the Mexican section of the store. Noodles are .33 cents a bag and the tomato sauce with seasonings is a quarter for a small carton. Also instead of buying frozen hash browns, I buy tater tots then mash them down if needed. It saves on freezer space and makes them very versatile. They also make yummy oven hash browns.

Try to keep snacks simple. Bags of pecans are made up with cream and brown sugar then baked for a quick snack (Paula Deen recipe called pecan pralines). Popcorn is sprinkled with chili powder or cinnamon and sugar.

Layering ingredients is also a great money saver. Tortillas, cheese, and bacon bits are used for quesadillas for lunch then for dinner I use the rest of the bacon in sandwiches, a carbonara, breakfast for dinner, etc. One package of bacon ($2) stretches for two sometimes three meals. Chili dogs for lunch then use leftover chili from a big can to make nachos for dinner. One large ($3) can of chili stretches for two meals.

I have a really good cook book from Betty Crocker that is designed for meals for two. Here is a link to Ebay so you can see what the book looks like: Link I got mine at a local library book sale for a quarter. It is my favorite cook book and I would be lost without it. Most of the meals are super quick, easy, cheap, and very tasty. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a cookbook catered to smaller portions for two people. I also get the cooking for two magazine. Love it!