Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Great Grocery Debate! How Much Is To Much?

The dreaded grocery bill! It is something I loath. Every week I seem to spend past my budget that I set for myself.

I take $250 every week from my husbands paycheck. This is supposed to be my money to get grocery's, fill up my gas tank, give my kids lunch money (for the days they don't want to pack), buy diaper, formula, baby food, laundry detergent, etc. And still have cash left in the bank to save for a rainy day! So my husband says. This argument happens every week and has lasted for the past 10 years.

Every week we have the same discussion. "Why do you only have $20 left in your account?" he asks. I reply with the usual "Well, I don't see you complaining when your eating the food and are getting dressed in your clean undies everyday!"

I turned to my Facebook friends to find out what their average food bill was. I must admit, I was feeling bad thinking that I am spending way to much and maybe there was a better way of handling this budget.

Well, interestingly enough, I only spend about $50 to $100 more than the average family of 4 a week. And, I am a family of 5. One of which is a 4 month old.

I am not a huge coupon person. I do use them, but you won't find my sons carriage parked by a dumpster. I don't understand nor have time for the whole coupon craze!. I had someone try to explain to me how to get $200 worth of groceries for $29 bucks. But, I still don't understand. My coupons, they tell me to save, expire. So, I can't hold them until there is a great sale on shampoo and then use all 20 of my coupons and have a stockpile of shampoo my family will refuse to use because it is the generic of some cheap brand name! They tried to explain the idea of getting things for free after an initial investment at the Drug store with the loyalty card. They said you buy one item and get the rewards for them and just pay for each item separately and you keep getting the coupon. One I don't have time for that, and two they put a cap on how many you can buy for that reason. I chuckled when I was told to use a coupon website. I don't need a coupon to buy 2 joint medications  to get $1 off. I want coupons that are for the things that I need every week!

I am finding the grocery store difficult and frustrating. Prices have gone up on most items. This is in part because of the price of oil. It looks as though we will be battling these outrageous prices for the foreseeable future as they said gas is supposed to go over $5 a gallon.

Fruit prices are ridiculous. How are we supposed to feed our families healthy food if we can't afford it. If I want to buy my family grapes for the week there will be a trade off. That means maybe will be eating the on sale chicken with the $2 off coupon (Check the sell by sticker it expires tomorrow!) for 4 nights out of the week instead of 2 nights!

I buy almost all of my items on sale. With a few exceptions. Cereal is one. My family is very particular, no generic and they eat the same thing every week.

I think it is sad that we cannot feed our families healthy food without a trade off. I also think it is sad that we have to go broke doing it. There has to be a way  to tackle the grocery store madness!

If anyone out there has budgeting tips or tips for using coupons, without using them crazily (Please, no dumpster diving tips!). Please let me know. I can't be the only one out there that has this problem!

~Melanie