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Healthy or "ok enough healthy "?He always believes in name brands items and says that $450 a month for food will cover 4 people. But he is saying this includes various types of good quality meat, canned and fresh vegetables as well fruits, drinks, pasta, milk ( Prices at $4.98 a gallon and going through at least 4 a week...) sausages, bacon etc. Even with store brand names I can barely feed 3 full" healthy "meals for four, ( sausage/bacon not weekly as he wants) but we are actually are 5 on this budget! And we DO go over! I try value packs and sales....

Also, he says that trash bags, cleaners etc do not cost as much as we say! He says he shopped and the bill was half the price of when we go ( even after he went blind he had help shopping said it was low) Any ideas other than neighbors reading the receipt? Maybe having the cashier tell him all the prices the next time we go?

I would love to learn how to extreme coupon like that tv show!

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Buy your cleaning supplies from the dollar store, and if he is blind shop for produce at your local ALDIs if you have one. They have limited stuff, but thier produce is 1/2 the price of supermarkets. I am plain cheap, and I love Aldis
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yea, well , hes evidently too blind to see that a box of cereal is about the thickness of a sheet of writing paper nowdays. grocers knew we wouldnt stand massive price increases so theyve cut the portions. get a paper shredder and feed him the sunday paper in his meat loaf..
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In my household of two adults and 3 cats, our grocery bill is around $650.00 a month. Grocery costs have gone up quite a bit in the past couple of years due to extreme weather conditions, flooding, longer winters, longer summers without rain. Hardly any meat products on our grocery list. Cleaning products are organic products.

Couponing is great if you have the time and patience to cut out coupons for items you already use or if you want to try something. When items are *buy 2 for 1*, that is when I stock up if the product has a long shelf life.
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Just me, 2 dogs and four cats (in Ontario, Canada) and I spend less annually than I ever did. I go through the weekly flyers and note anything I use that's on sale and stock up. My first full year on this land, I'll be growing a few veggies and buying other fruit and veg at farmers markets in season. Wild apple trees on these back roads and I forage in the fall to make sauce. By winter the pantry and freezer are full.

I'm planning to grow a lot of my own and keep meat chickens in the future. In the meantime I buy free range eggs for $2 a dozen one road over. Of course I live in the country so my ways are not all possible for most folks but a freezer more than pays for itself when stocked up with sale items and cooking from scratch

That said I don't bake. I tried to make bread once years ago ... you could have paved the driveway with it :)
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I feed 3 adults and one dog, coupon like there is no tomorrow and have a thriving garden from which we get tomatoes, broccoli, collards onions and some months watermelon. Grocery bill is near $1000 a month including paper goods and cleaning supplies. FIL eats more that the two of us put together and of course needs, "special" foods that are expensive. I shop at a meat market, BJS as well as a regular grocery store. Quite the job and actually cook three meals a day. Tired just plain tired.
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When he was shopping, things probably were cheaper. Grocery costs seem to be skyrocketing in recent years. Some of the prices are scary. I search for bargains. I don't know what we'd do without the store brands, the costs would be so high.
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pamzimmrrt,I love the dollar store! I try for us but my grandfather insists on name brands. Sadly I don't have the ADLIs store by me.

captain, good point about the smaller portions and love your humor!

freqflyer, thank you for the information on costs and the tips! Organic, do you buy or make your own cleaning supplies?

Ashlynee, great idea about having your own garden! I wish you the best on your new land! I do not have a green thumb, but am going to try. Great ideas! Aww that was only your first time making bread, Im sure you will do fine next time!

1tired, thank you for your break down as well. I bet your garden is beautiful! I do like buying pre-frozen breakfast or dinners, to cut down on cooking, but I think that brings up the cost for us. Cooking three meals a day is a lot of work but I may need to start. Im sorry your so tired :(

JessieBelle, the prices do keeping going up don't they? I remember when store brand bread was around $1 on on sale, no coupons! Times change :) I agree about store brands, I think I would be in deeper debt without them! They taste about the same dont you think?
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I don;t know about you but we eat diffently these days too Me1000! I have never had so many cookies, ice cream and sweets in my house!! And dad is diabetic! Mom and dad just plain eat differenly than we did , but they help pay so what do you do? We do keep Dads sugar in line with yougurts, salads etc. Mom would never give him yougurt, she grew up on a farm and it was very different back then!
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It seems the diabetic guys here want way more sweets than I do...but the rest of the diet has to be "special" LOL! FIL is not pleased that I stick to what the doc has actually told him to eat. On top of that he buys tons of crackers and always has at least 5 bags of candy in his room (not sugar free I might add) . That man eats more than any two people and lays around all day...drives me nuts.
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Me1000, for cleaning items what I recently found were products made by a company called *Mrs. Meyers Clean Day* which are organic and I found it at Target. You'll find their website fun to read. You can also order on line, and instead of putting items in your *cart*, they go into a *bucket* ;)
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My husband and I spend about $50 a week on groceries, paper goods, and cleaning supplies. We have our daughter and her family (5) for Sunday dinner. I shop specials and stock up and freeze. I cook most foods from scratch. and we eat very well. I buy basic foods and most produce at Aldi, but not everyone has an Aldi. I don't splurge on "out of season" foods.
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Much of this depends where you live. Big cities are killers. Country is cheap as long as you stick to what is in season and can or freeze food. Anyone who lived through the great Depression can feed a family of four for a week with only 3lbs of ground beef and one chicken.
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Cooking three meals a day is a pain in the patoot. I cook in bulk - meats, casseroles, spaghetti sauce, shepherds pie, quiche and freeze in portions. Then all I have to do is find veg, salad, rice or baked beans to go with whatever it is. Cook once and deal with big pots and pans only once. Saves so much time every day for things I'd rather be doing.
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i eat a lot of sweetened rice with fruit. ive a few times observed chinese workers at china buffets eating nothing but a big plate of white rice. you know enough food is returned and wasted that they could fill up on whatever they wanted. they dont seem to be eating for comfort or pleasure but for sustainance. very healthy looking and vibrant people i might add. the american customers sitting around eating are quite the opposite story. i might die living on chicken livers and rice but at least ill leave a beautiful corpse. lol ( otto , the simpsons )
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Captain, how true that is about how Americans eat. Many Asian countries eat much healthier diets then we do. While some of us eat to live, we are seeing too many who live to eat. Fresh brown rice with a small can of mixed vegetables thrown in sounds real good right now :)
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we have 6 cats and feed grain free food and friskies wet as a treat so cars alone cost about $90/month with litter. I have a big veg garden and grow a lot and can/freeze. Make my own jam/jelly. But I buy good bread and though dad has a good appetite I am wasting less as dad eats lots of leftovers. I take $200 from his bank account to cover food cost, the occasional eating out and cover his sweet tooth.
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There was just my mom, myself and my husband. (..and 2 cats). We would seem to always spend over 200 per week. I get what others are saying about the sweets. My mom paid for her own food, but with all her prepacked things, hers seemed to be about 100 of that bill. She recently moved out, and my husband and I went shopping for the week last Friday. We went to Walmart and ended up spending 130.00, we stocked up on laundry detergent, shampoo, etc. So the majority of that wasn't food. We live in Winter Haven, Florida. I need to make a shopping trip that is just dedicated to food. When my girls were teenagers..uuggh...We probably spent over 300 per week when everyone was still living at home. I have 2 daughters, and my husband has a daughter that was over on the weekends, so we always stocked her favorite things too.
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You might want to check this article on how to save money from grocery shopping, find out if all the tips included here are applicable to your current situation. Everybody needs a good financial planning for grocery shopping especially if you are trying to juggle your budget along with long-term care expenses for your loved ones:
http://www.infolongtermcare.org/save-more-money-from-grocery-shopping/
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Thank you everyone! You all have been a great help! I am going to take all of your information/advice and see how to fix my own bill :) I will be attempting a garden, cook from scratch( a lot of trial and error from this im sure) and cook my meals when I have a few hours and freeze them.. hopefully this will work. I will also check into these websites you have given me! Coupons for sure as well!
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