We Spend Way to Much on Groceries.

Do you have local farmer's market? That is a great place to find inexpensive healthy and fresh foods.

Do you belong to a Sam's Club or Costco? They usually have great prices on meats and produce. Also, Wal-Mart usually has great produce prices. I don't know how often you go, but maybe you can cut down the number of times you go to the grocery store.

The organic co-op is a great idea. Also, look at what you are spending the money on. Typically fruits, veggies, and a little meat shouldn't cost as much as most things people eat. Freezing what you find on sale is good too. We eat mostly organically....a family of 3 adults and 2 teenagers ...and I don't spend but about $400-500 a month. That does not include a weekly night out with the family so you might want to adjust that number up.

I go between Publix and Fresh Market to get my food. Whatever is on sale is what I buy. I don't make a meal plan first. I buy what's on sale and then make my meal plan for the week. My husband is also a diet-controlled diabetic so I'm real specific about what I do buy.

Sorry I can't help more!

M.

Eat more beans.

Oatmeal is ALWAYS cheaper than boxed cereals.

If you have bread or pizza, make the dough yourself and save a ton.

Don't buy soft soap anymore. It's a ripoff. Use bar soap which will last 8 times as long-really!

Dont buy soda and juice. Flavor your water with a squirt of real lemon juice. It also helps you become more alkaline. If you do buy juice, buy frozen concentrated -its cheaper. Then dont make it full strength, water it down some.

Dont buy bagged salad. Buy fresh heads and wash it, dry it, cut it and put it in a zipoc.
Make your own italian dressing and save a bundle.

Make your own laundry detergent. You can even add a little bit of wisk to it if you want.

Use half as much dishwashing soap and half as much laudry soap than is called for.

If fruit is starting to go south, catch it before it does and put it in a ziploc and put it in the freezer. Make smoothies with it.

Rewash ziploc bags- they are too expensive not to. I also keep cereal bags and bread wrappers to use to store food in, as i would a zip bag. I use a twist tie or i just fold it under.

During the summer and fall check craigs list for produce- local farmers can have produce at a 1/3 or of the price at stores.

Here are just a few things to think about:

Healthy food is more expensive than junk food. So you may not be spending too much after all.

You might evaluate your grocery bill by seeing how much waste there is. Do you throw out a lot of food? Do fruits and veggies spoil before you can get to them? Are people in your family "allergic" to leftovers? Are there things you buy but nobody eats after all?

Another money-saving routine is to plan your menus, make a list of what you need for those meals, and then shop from the list. Don't allow yourself or your family any impulse buying for a while. Long ago I found that it was more economical to shop from a menu list than to buy the cents-off coupon foods and then try to make menus. I just use coupons if they happen to be for things I was going to get anyhow.

Keep close written track of what you spend at the grocery and for what kinds of food. It's a nuisance to do, but it'll help you see what your money habits are and where your dollars are going.

I haven't looked at the other answers so I may just be repeating what other moms have said. I do commend you for your lifestyle change!

I would keep track of WHERE you are spending your money and see if that gives you an idea as to where you can cut back. Buy fruits and vegetables in season...and they don't always have to be fresh from the produce section...you can use frozen foods that are just as healthy as the fresh, as long as there is no salt and sugar added. Frozen vegetables are wonderful AND healthy when you steam them.
Do you live in a house where you have some land to plant a garden in the spring? Plant half a dozen things that your whole family loves to eat...if you have more than you can eat, freeze them to use in the winter.
You can still use coupons to save on cleaning supplies, cereal, paper products etc. I agree with you that $1000 a month for a family of four is way too much...you just need to pay attention to where the money is being spent...and start price comparision shopping on forzen vs. fresh food.

First, congratulations on your new lifestyle and surgery, best wishes on that. As for the monthly grocery bill, that is a lot, but don't beat yourself up over it right now. I recently moved from the DFW area and have noticed that my grocery bill has gone up 20-23% for the same things---not sure if that is because it costs more here, or if prices just went up at the same time. But it's a big jump. Still, my budget for 4 people (my youngest eats more than my older!) is $95-150 a week (some weeks I stock up on meats and things, other times I've got leftovers and items already stocked, and just need incidentals).
It does sound like a pain, but it is NOT something you have to do forever, once you get into a basic groove and know what things will basically cost, but I suggest that you do look at your receipt for about 6 weeks. Make a little list of categories (home supplies, dairy, fresh produce, meat, etc) and just add up each category from your receipts in a notebook. You will be able to see from looking at this trend where the bulk of your money goes and make adjustments you don't know need some tweaking.
Keep in mind that anything you can peel (pineapples, bananas, melons, etc) or if it's strong enough to scrub down well (apples, pears, etc) you really do not need to bother with the expense of "organic". If there's a Braums near you, I know their hormone free milk was a much better price than at the grocery stores when I was there, and it's delicious. Honestly, we eat frozen vegetables as well as fresh, just depending on what we can get for the price. Eating frozen okra that I stew, or frozen green beans that I steam is not going to cause me to gain any weight or shake up my healthy lifestyle. There are a few ways to tweak your shopping to help out. Again, it's something that may be a pain for now, but after a couple weeks it becomes very easy and you can just breeze through it with practice: first, keep a basic running inventory of what you have. Check the sales ads, keeping in mind what you already have. What could you purchase that you could combine with what you already have on hand to make a meal? Make a menu using the combination of what you currently have plus what is on sale, and make your shopping list from that. If a store has a great deal on meats, I will go there and pick up whatever else is on sale that is on my list, because I do not buy meat at Walmart. However, the bulk of my shopping is usually at Walmart: you can buy whole grains, some organic produce, hormone free milk, whatever there plus the bits I may need to pick up for household goods (soaps, diapers, etc), broth, seasonings, etc. Buy storebrand on certain things. I put an asterisk on my shopping list for anything on my list that is on sale somewhere else if I don't feel like going to the other place, because Walmart does price matching for whatever the ad says, and that saves me from driving all over town trying to save a little here and there.
And yes, I clip coupons too. Dish and laundry detergent, toiletries, milk, canned goods that you do need occasionally, whole grain pasta, coupons for all those things can be found in the Sunday paper. Some weeks are full of coupons, other weeks are lean. But I always saved more than the paper cost every week. I got a little checkbook sized tabbed file folder (found in the office section anywhere) and made labels for my tabs: Cleaning; Bath; Refrigerated; Frozen; Produce; Dry Goods; Canned Goods; Misc (for light bulbs, batteries, insect repellant, etc); Kids (diapers, wipes, activities like putt putt golf, go kart racing, Chuck E Cheese tokens, etc); Going Out (restaurants or whatever that may or may not get used if I was out with the girls for lunch, or on an impromptu date night). I bring my shopping list and a pen, carried in this little file. I organize the coupons once a week by putting them in order by date of expiration (the day I'm cutting them, usually while casually watching TV and talking to my husband, so it's not all wasted time) and I pull the coupons I will be using the day I shop and put them in the front of the case with my pen and list (*do this so you aren't digging around at the register), on the same day I'm making a menu and shopping list by seeing "Ok, I have this on my list--is there a coupon for it?" It's in categories pretty easy to find, and if there's something that is expiring that weekend that I want, I'll add it to the list, or throw it away. I can cut, sort, and organize them all before a 30 minute show is over, while watching the show, so it is not too difficult to try and can save money every week. It is better after a few weeks when you've actually built up a few coupons in "store". You can begin to make it a game where you see what you can find on sale AND be able to add coupons on top of it. My husband got very excited to see how much I was saving that way and realized that it was my way of earning money for the family. Just for kicks, we got a bank and put the money that is SAVED from sales and coupons into the bank every month to see what difference it made. He insisted that I use that money to get a massage, pedicure, or something fun just for me which I thought was sweet. But now that we're moving into a much larger home, the money is being saved for items we need, bit by bit. It can be fun if you want it to be.
A few other suggestions: don't buy bottles of water when you can just buy a brita and just replace the filters. Much cheaper and less wasteful for the environment. Buy a large bottle of juice (we love V8 Fusion and cranberry juices, sometimes unsweetened applejuice) and just pour that into individual sized bottles that you can wash for your kids' lunchboxes. If it's a stronger juice like cranberry or V8, there's no harm in adding a little water to it, to taste. Avoid some convenience foods like bagged salad, chopped vegetables, ready made salads or sandwiches, etc. Purchasing the Ziploc or Glad plastic containers and washing them is better than going through sandwich bags all the time. I send my husband to work with 2 sandwiches in 1 deep container, with his lettuce and tomato slices in a shallow container, rather than throwing away 2 bags a day just on his lunch alone. The bags are more for me to divide meat that I purchase in large packs and put into small bags, then put several small bags (about 4lbs) in 1 gallon size bag for the freezer. I did have a vegetable garden in TX with 2 tomato plants, onions, green onions, jalepenos, anaheim chiles, okra, carrots, cucumber, eggplant, and strawberries. I made my own salsa, spaghetti sauce, and had we enjoyed making omelets and dinners with our OWN stuff. If it gets to be "too" much harvest for your family, you can chop the vegetables and freeze them, or can them. I make my own sauces and use a pressure cooker to can them so they last.
A bag of potatoes may be high on the dietary sugar index, but if it's not the main ingredient and just used to bulk up a stew, or to add a little to your breakfast burritos or fajitas, it will help fill you up without being bad. A bag of potatoes is cheap and can go a long way!
We have noticed over the last few years that American recipes really don't need as much meat as they call for. Instead of 4 chicken breasts, I will often use 3 or even 2 (2 if I can add more veg like beans or eggplant, brown rice, or potato) and it is perfectly fine. Instead of cutting the whole onion and adding it all in, you can often use just half the onion or 3/4, and save a few slices for the next day's lunch. You can healthfully (and tastefully) add beans to recipes that have meat so that you are still getting the taste of the meat and not missing the protein but less fat. Also, instead of buying meat from the deli for lunch sandwiches by the pound, I do it by the slice. (My husband will eat 2 sandwiches per lunch, 3 days a week, 2 slices of meat rolled up per sandwich, that's 12 slices...and if the rest of us want some, add that)---This saves waste from having not enough slices for his sandwiches that he wants, or what to do with 1 single slice leftover. I choose whatever is good that is on sale. The rest of the week our lunches are pasta salads (millions of varieties), a greek salad, or leftovers from dinner. Leftovers from dinner make good lunches and save waste! If your family thinks they don't like leftovers, there are always ways to sneak them in anyway. A roasted chicken, sweet potato, and green beans one night is easily a chicken salad sandwich for lunch, or added to some sausage and shrimp with bell pepper, and our garden vegetables, chicken broth, and spices for a gumbo. We may make hamburgers one day and freeze the leftover patties and serve them later with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, and green peas for a totally different meal.
Also, make friends with a pressure cooker! I can buy 7lbs of chicken on sale and season it with poultry seasoning, tonys, garlic, or whatever I want, throw it all in the cooker and it will all be cooked and soft/falling apart in half an hour. I'll freeze them in individual packs to be bbq chicken sandwiches, chicken enchiladas, king ranch casserole, chicken tortilla soup, a chicken-vegetable lasagna, homemade chicken noodle soup, quesadillas (delicious with artichoke, tomatoes, spinach, black olives, and cheeses), arroz con pollo, any variety of chicken and rice you may like (i love mine with spinach, fresh mushrooms, rotels, cream of whatever soup).....etc. There's no reason to go broke OR use every minute of your day trying to make good meals for your family.
That's about all I can think of. Good luck on your new journey.

Congratulations on making the committment to a healthy lifestyle. Our friends eat organic and whole foods and their grocery bill is just like yours. The bottom line is it does cost more.

Here are a few suggestions I hope will help.

Plan your meals around what's on sale for that week or what you have in the freezer
Fresh organic fruits and vegetables are the best, but also very expensive. Buy frozen instead. There are always coupons for frozen veggies.
Stock up when things go on sale.
Rather than buying meat at the grocery store, see if you have a local meat/butcher shop, sometimes by buying in bulk at the specialty store you can get a nice savings, and better quality.
For the packaged foods that you do eat (cereal, rice, whole gran pasta) try using the store brands.
Plan on planting a garden this spring.

Ouch. That is a huge bill. And I thought my bill was nuts at $900 for a family of 6! We eat healthy too and buy very little in the way of processed foods. I do buy some soup mixes, a few bags of pasta, some pot pies and some frozen pizzas to keep on hand for days that are too hectic to plan a regular meal or if something comes up. Other than, we make pretty much everything such as pasta, breads, fruit leathers, crackers, etc. At the beginning of the month, I stock up on all of the basics such as dried beans, big bags of rice and flour, etc. While I prefer fresh vegge I also stock up on frozen since I can't always budget the insane prices for fresh. Once the basics are taken care of for the month, I divide the rest of my budget up for weekly necessities like milk (this is one of my big ticket items since I buy fresh local milk at $10 a gallon), bread (if I don't get it made myself), fresh fruit & vegge and any treats we want. We eat a mainly vegetarian diet, planning no more than 3 meat meals a week (this includes fish, beef, pork, wild game, etc.) although we might have it another time if we have left overs. And often left overs from dinner makes at least one meal for lunch the next day (that usually goes with my husband for work). Also at the beginning of the month I buy all the meat for the month and then as it goes by and I'm making the week's menus I just select my meat from the list of meat I have on hand. I also rarely pay full price for it. I always take advantage of the sales; I shop mostly at my local co-op and Rosaurs. As much as possible I try to get local meat so it does cost a little more, but I buy less which is better for us anyway. One thing you could look into is Saving Dinner. It's a subscription program that gives you recipes plans and shopping lists. It was inexpensive and I loved already knowing what to buy. There are several different menus to choose from. Alternatively, there's also a book of the same name by Leanne Ely. One of the best things you can do is keep track of what all of you eat, how much you waste and start paying attention to the sales even if you don't have coupons (which I rarely do, I usually forget them at home). Once you know what you really need, you can set up your must have basics (different for each family) and then go from there. If you make menus each month using as much as possible what you already have on hand and buy only the necessities you will save not only money but time as well. Start doing a lot of research online. There are bloggers out there that are complete PRO'S and they're able to feed their families for next to nothing. I have so much yet to learn! Start with http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/

Have you considered joining an organic co-op? We are part of one and pay 50 every two weeks for what would have cost us 100 every two weeks at Whole Foods/Central Market. We also purchase half a cow yearly from our favorite grassfed/organic farm, cutting our per lb cost to around 4.99 a lb versus the high amount we would have paid for the same thing at WF. Also, substituting protein/fiber rich beans into foods significantly reduces the cost of most meals.

Have you gone through your bill to itemize what foods are making up the bulk of your $1K? When I start complaining about how much I spend on groceries every week, I look down the line and suddenly realize half of what I purchased on that trip to Super Target was non grocery related and instead that discounted tshirt, laundry detergent, etc. Scrutinizing your bill will help you isolate where exactly the bulk of your money is going.

I love Bountiful Baskets www.bountifulbaskets.org. They are a food co-op and I am pretty sure they have locations in TX. The way it works is you pick your desired pickup location and order your basket and any add-ons you wish at the designated day and time (for instance, every Monday around noon). Then on Saturday morning you show up with a basket and pick up your produce. The lines are generally quite short and you get so much food for a very low price. A basket is $15.00 and you get about $45 worth of produce. You get 1/2 veggies and 1/2 fruits and it is always a surprise what you are getting, which is part of the fun. They do offer organic baskets for $25.00. They will offer different add-ons such as 9-grain bread, "Italian pack" which has a ton of Italian veggies and herbs, cases of fruits such as pomegranates or whatever is in season. It is a great way to get high-quality produce for a very low price. You can also see their page on Facebook and see what other people think about it. I highly recommend!

Congratulations on your healthy lifestyle!
It's true, things that are good for us can be really expensive. Especially at this time of year.
We love veggies and fruits, but the prices are ridiculous.
For instance, I was in the produce section today. They had cantelope and my mouth was watering. I weighed one and it would have cost $6. In the summer, you can get a 20 pound watermelon for that at a fruit stand. I didn't buy one.
Some stores are definitely cheaper than others. And, you can find frozen alternatives that are cheaper than fresh. It's not nearly as great, but it's an option. Also, in the case of the cantelope, it might be something I'd splurge on once in a while as a treat, but not like in the summertime where we can have melon whenever we want.
The thing that really helps me is to make a menu for each week BEFORE I go shopping.
Monday: Chicken breasts, baked potatoes, spinach, yogurt with brown sugar for dessert
Tuesday: Baked white fish, rice, cole slaw, berry smoothies for dessert

I just plan things out that way and then make sure I write down all the things needed for each. Frozen berries work great for smoothies. We always have yogurt. A bag of potatoes can go a long way. Cabbage and carrots used to make cole slaw can go into a pot of soup along with potatoes.
I'm fortunate in that we don't have any dietary restrictions or allergies or picky eaters so that really helps too.
This time of year everything seems so expensive, but buying in bulk when you can and getting as many meals out of one thing as you can helps a lot.

I hope you get some really great suggestions!

Keep in mind that grocery prices have risen A LOT over the past few yrs due to increase in oil prices, with no sign of letting up.

My best advice is to simplify everything. I try to cook things like sweet chili chicken (bake chicken whole legs, thighs or drumsticks with a jar of sweet chili sauce, I serve with roasted carrots and steamed broccoli over rice), roast chicken with peaches (same thing with chicken pieces, empty a lerge tin of drained peaches, sprinkle with cinnamon, salt and pepper and roast, serve with sweet potato mash and steamed mixed veg). Make the vegetables and carbs the main event, use 2 chicken breasts chopped small and stir fry them, or use campbells healthy request soups as the sauce. Finely chop a whole medium onion, 2-3 large carrots and as much celery as you like, sautee in some chicken stock (2-3 tbsp), remove from pan, sautee chicken in stock until browned, add veg again and add a can of soup, simmer 10-15 mins serve over rice and with a side salad. Or, one of my husbands faves... dice half an onion and chop a bag of dried apricots, sautee in chicken stock till soft. Remove from pan, add 2 chicken breasts chopped small and brown. Add onion and apricots again and add 1 jar of Korma sauce. Simmer for 10-15 mins, serve over rice with side salad.

If fresh produce isn't looking up to par, get frozen. If there IS a sale, e.g; 10 for $10 in frozen fruits and veggies, stock up! Same with meat. Other than that I'm in the same boat! We're just 3, husband and myself and our 17 month old who is unfortunately still on pureed foods... that what kills us is baby food! (Still waiting for doc to refer us to a GI doc to make sure nothing wrong... it's taking her forever to get back!!!)

Food prices have gone way up especially in the past few months. I spend about what you do for a family of four. I read most of your posts and I didn't see this mentioned, in fact, I don't know if moms still today even do this (my mother did it big time as I was growing up and she said that it saved her tons of money---canning fruits and veggies). My parents were immigrants, so I don't know if this is an American thing or not, but I remember as a kid going during the summer to local farms and picking fruits and vegetables. We'd spend hours picking them and we'd can a whole bunch of stuff. We would freeze fruits like blueberries and strawberries. We had a pantry full of canned stuff for months. Needless to say, I never got into canning because I don't have the space to store stuff, plus I think it's too much work, (I'm lazy that way, I guess), but mum swore it saved her tons of cash and we always had fruits and veggies all year long.
Hope this helps,

M.

farmer's markets have good deals at the end of the day as they dont want to take home the produce, etc. find out where they have them in your area and go check it out!

Not sure if you have fruit and veggie markets by where you live, but my hubs and I hit up the local fruit markest always cheaper and fresher than a supermarket. We buy our meats in BJ's or a Costco sometimes find great deas there on fruits and veggies also. We will shop in 3 different stores to get a better price. Search your area and go check out the offerings, you'd be surprised of the huge price difference between these little fruit/veggie places and a supermarket. Also Whole Foods if that is where you shop is outrageously expensive but they suck in in with organic and grain fed meats. If you are buying a lot of organic fruits veggies, you only need to do that with grapes, tomatoes, peppers anyting thin skinned. Otherwise it's not worth it. Congrats on the lap band and the healthy eating, you'll find a happy medium.

Start planning your menus and buy what is needed for the meals only and use up what you have at home. Make enough for two dinners and freeze one for later in the month. If you clip coupons use the ones for the food you eat and not for what is on sale as you won't use them.

I used to plan meals for a month and have an odd week thrown in so that any leftovers could be used in the misc meal plan section. Every night the meal was fresh and the leftovers were lunch the next day. This included making homemade bread twice a week. If you have chicken buy it whole and cut it up at home it is cheaper than precut. Same goes for stew meat get the roast and cut it up. In the summer go to the farmer's markets and buy veggies and bag and freeze them for the winter. Use the veggies in stews and soups as well.

Look for easy dinner fixes in cookbooks that you can perfect to your family's tastes and enjoy.

Buy bulk and divide out to smaller and it is cheaper than the prepackaged sized.

The other S.

I am dying to see what people have to say about this topic because I feel the same way you do. This past month we spent $1100 at the grocery store and it's INSANE! Something has to give. I need to do better. We have four people in our house too but the groceries are out of control. I'm looking forward to the answers that you get....I need advice too!

Fresh food seems to be way more expensive at big chain grocery stores (such as Jewel or Dominicks). I don't know what options you have in your area, but I like to go to a produce store for my meat and produce.

I buy my meats from a butcher the ones near me typically have bundles so it costs less plus their regular prices are generally cheaper then the grocery store. I go to a produce store during the winter for fruits and veggies during the summer/early fall I go to farmers markets again cheaper then the grocery store we also plant a garden and freeze whatever we don't eat.
Yes I agree that eating healthy is way more expensive then buying junk food.

N.,
Make a menu for the week. Look at what produce/meat is on sale and plan accordingly. If broccoli and stir fry meat are on sale, plan on making stir fry for one meal and the next night use more broccoli to cut up in a salad, etc.
Even plan snacks for the kids and set them into special containers (reusable) that are set for them so that they aren't downing just whatever when they're hungry.
Clip coupons where you can watch for manager's specials on the meat since you can freeze it in the deep freeze. Milk can be frozen as well as yogurt, so when you get those on markdown, they can just go right into the freezer (milk will have to have 1oz poured out first and then frozen).

we make a weekly menu of what we are going to eat and make a shopping list out of that. We are a family of 4 and our weekly bill is usually around $120-$140 sometimes less. I don't use any coupons either. Just my preffered card that goes with the store I'm shopping at.

3TeensMom's response is funny bc I was thinking the same thing - we spend that much on average a month too for a family of 4. It was actually more for awhile but I got better about waste. Cutting how much is made for dinner and not going crazy buying fruit etc only to see it go bad is the only way we were able to "cut back". My mother swears by Trader Joe's though if you have one near you.

Do you shop at a regular grocery store? If so, stop! Shop at Costco or Sam's Club and you will save! We belong to Costco and they have the best stuff - lots of organic stuff, too (organic veggies, fruits and meats). You will save lots shopping at Costco/Sam's. Another suggestion - if you buy juice boxes or milk drink boxes, stop! Buy a container of juice or milk and pour it into cups to send w/ your kids' lunches. I used to buy Horizon organic milk drink boxes and it came out to a dollar a box!! An entire gallon of milk costs $1.50 at Kroger (okay, get your milk at Kroger - it's even cheaper than Costco). If you buy gum, stop buying it b/c you don't need gum to survive, since it's not food. I am very bad at looking for/using coupons, that's why I feel better that I buy a lot of groceries at Costco. If you need something that Costco doesn't have (or has it but you don't such a large amount of it), shop at super Wal-Mart. If you do the majority of your grocery shopping at Costco/Sams and Super Wal-Mart, your grocery bill should go down. Good luck!

My sister is a big deal at Whole Foods (this is the home of the Mother ship as we all call it) and admits that organic produce does not have more nutritional value than regular produce, but it does not have the herbicides that regular produce has..

That being said, I will purchase organic berries, but not organic bananas.. I will purchase regular potatoes and carrots.. they can be peeled, but I purchase organic snow peas and asparagus...

I purchase commercial bread products with 9 grains or more, because the bakery made breads are so much more inexpensive..

I always shop the specials and base my menus on what is on sell that week.. I agree, if you are throwing away a lot of food, re think your quantities or make it a priority to start eating leftovers.

Lots of soups, stews and chili.
Simple meals with less meat.

Cut way down on how much meat you eat. Make it a small part of a meal instead of a main part. For example, instead of steak and salad, make it a "steak salad." Eat vegetarian at least 3 times per week.

Make sure you're shopping at the most affordable grocery store. Whole foods is wonderful, but it has about a 300% mark up. You can get fruits and veggies anywhere. If there's a trader joes around you, I highly recommend it. Way cheaper than anything else around here.

There are some fruits and vegetables that are much cheaper than others. Yes, it gets repetitive, but make those other veggies a "splurge." You can get three times the number of green beans you can get for the same amount on asparagus. Same thing with apples v. berries. Make sure that you're buying fruit that is locally in season because otherwise it costs an arm and a leg.

Finally, find "healthy" things to do with "junkier" options. Starches are what's really cheap - pasta, rice, beans and potatoes. Even if you don't want them to be the main focus, "cut" healthier stuff with those things. For example, make chicken fajitas, but make them equal parts chicken and peppers and a yummy black bean and corn salad. Stuff baked potatoes with cottage cheese and veggies. 4 servings of whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, even with extra added veggies, is going to be tons cheaper per serving than any dish made with meat.

We eat much the same way you do, and our monthly max is $650, so it definately can be done. We don't clip coupons or anything like that, it's just about shopping smart.

Good luck.

WOW really $1000 a month I have a family of 5 I don't spend over a $100 a week on food & other household items including diapers,i'm frugal use coupons & eat plenty of fruit & veggies with our meals.I have portions under control so there is less waste on foods we are eating if we don't like it I won't buy it.I have a stash of candy,snack food items but also bulk up on the healthy fruits & veggies we eat out a few times a month as a family we typically will have left overs.I would take a look at what your spending money on & see where you can cut back.I love that you are doing something healthy for yourself & are now eating healthy that can be expensive but so is buying junk foods.My advice is next time you make that shopping trip make a list of what new foods you would like to add including recipies,buy your fruits & veggies compare prices some stores like ALDI food store I will only buy fresh fruits & veggies if they are on sale I won't pay the high cost for them any where else that would be wasting my money.I also don't buy alot of meat my kids & I aren't big meat eaters hubby is we eat mostly the fresh fruit & raw veggies not vegeterians we just prefer a smaller portion size in meat products.

Wow! We are a family of 2 and we spend $150 a month on groceries! Technically, we are a family of 3. My son is only 19 months, so we don't spend anything additional on his food, he eats what we eat. We eat only fruits, produce, whole grains, and meats. I buy EVERYTHING on sale. I get the cheese that's on sale. I only buy the produce on sale every week. I stock my freezer with on sale meats. Frozen fruits and veggies (which are frozen at the peak of freshness) save a lot. I make our own yogurt, tortillas, tortilla chips, own salsa, spaghetti sauce, pickles, salad dressing, and chicken stock. We buy NOTHING in a box, or can. (except some whole grain pasta.) We don't get any convenience foods...like pre-cut veggies, bagged lettuce, jarred sauces, fruit snacks, chips, tortillas, etc. Basically, if it's not a fruit veggie, or meat...we don't eat it. If we are hungry for a snack, we eat fruits and veggies. We don't buy snack food. If we want a sandwich we use leftover meat, not lunch meat. If we want a sweet treat, I bake it. Our cupboards are almost always empty, because we buy nothing packaged. I am a stay at home mom, so I have the time to make everything.

I try to plan my meals so that the produce I buy can be used for more than one thing. Same with the meat, and like you I try to buy it when it is on sale. Do you have a Trader Joe's in your area? I personally can't make it there, but have friends who say that they have the best prices.

I agree that eating healthy ruins the budget. I buy as much real food as possible (but do buy things like mac&cheese or doritos, lol). I try to find sales and coupons, but it is hard. What helps me is to plan a week's worth of meals and go from there. I always see what I have in the frige, freezer and pantry to help me plan. I try to waste absolutely nothing, and keep an eye on what produce I have and think of ways to use it. I try to plan meals that use some of the same things in a given week so nothing is wasted. For example, if I have tacos one night and have lots of onions, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, etc, we will have burgers another night and use the leftovers for toppings or have chef salads to use up the cheese and produce. No matter what, it always costs me more at the store than I want to pay. Food prices keep going up too. I have 2 teenage boys so I feel like I am always at the store and no matter how much I cook for dinner there is hardly ever leftovers. But, it really really makes me feel good to know they are eating well and learning good lifelong habits. It will pay off in the future. They rarely eat junk food. Snacks they go for are yogurt, veggie juice, bananas, whole grain toast. They never drink pop either. I do not have to pester them at all to eat healthy, so even though you are spending lots of money M., it is WELL WORTH IT!!!