Whoa, first, maybe.

It seems okay to me, but I would imagine that formula, diapers, etc adds up fast.

Right now I’m trying to figure out how much we spend on groceries. I’m thinking it’s around the $500/mo mark and that’s with a 9 and 6 year old. Food is going to go up simply because of the price of gas. The only extravagance I see is the ‘organic’ stuff (I mean, how can you be sure it’s really organic????) otherwise your list looks normal.

Grocery prices are going up at a scary rate. In our house it’s just me and the husband and our average weekly bill has gone from around $80 to a little over $100 in the past year or so. And it’s not like I’m buying foufy gourmet food – we’re talking meat, veggies, starch, beverages and some snack stuff. And coupons don’t alleviate it very much. And if you watch the news, it seems like it’s only going to get worse.

Seems okay to me. But I think it’s like when we go to Trader Joes and buy $100 worth of stuff. Then we get home and have nothing to eat. WTF?

I’ve been thinking about using Amazon or Peapod. But if your list is considered expensive, then maybe I’ll take a pass.

Hey chickie! I hear you about the grocery thing. I actually started going to different grocery stores around here to see if I could figure out the cheapest one. Bread sucks. Almost 5 bucks down here. I just bought the store brand for 2 bucks, but I bet you the 3 dollar difference that Charlie turns his tiny discriminating nose up at it. If I haven’t mentioned, Dylan is perfect, Riley looks so happy, and you guys did a fantastic job with that transition. Did you see Polly? Dylan’s future girlfriend, I’m telling you!

Your prices seem like regular grocery store prices, which are going up at an alarming rate. TJ’s and Fresh and Easy (don’t know if you have these stores up there) are slightly cheaper, as is the farmers market. So, lately I’ve been making like two or three stops a week to buy groceries. Am I actually saving money after gas and time spent??

I looked at our online spending report a couple months ago and nearly fell over when I saw what we were spending on groceries every month for two people! As annoying as it is, I’m now shopping sales and Costco which has helped the budget significantly. Good luck.

Well, I don’t want to seem like a know-it-all here, but you are getting ripped off. All of the non-grocery items are significantly cheaper at WalMart or Target (seriously, the ziplocks should be $2.00), and the produce seems waaaay overpriced to me. I live in San Diego, which is an expensive market, but I am crazy insane about saving money (my hub and I are grad students and we have a 5 mo old). The sandwich meat and milk seem high, too. Groceries ARE getting more expensive, and with two kiddos it might be worth the premium you pay to get them delivered (I dream of being able to afford grocery delivery!). You definitely pay a lot more for organic, too.

Your list is certainly not extravagant – I’m lucky to leave the grocery store every week for under $150 – and all 4 people in my house eat regular food and are potty trained! I think we suffer because we choose to buy organic, which is more expensive.

I think you’re doing just fine and not being overcharged. Then again you could be suffering from lack of grocery shopping prowess because you were spanked as a child, and since I was as well, we’re both delusional when it comes to shopping for food. Ha. Ha ha. : )

I was thinking the same thing when I spent $81.15 at WinCo last night, on barely a week’s worth of groceries for hubby and myself. WTF? Our bill used to be literally half that amount, for more food. Prices are getting ridiculous, no matter where you shop. Fear not, you’d spend the same on your stuff at a supermarket, plus you’d have to use gas, wrangle the munchkins into a cart, and carve a bigger chunk of time out of your day. I’d say you’re coming out ahead with Amazon.

I live in NY and use Peapod. Your pricing looks average (or cheaper) to me as far as non-baby items. (My “babies” are 16 and 19.)

Someone already mentioned the C word (COSTCO), which is my family’s saving grace.. and our curse, if we’re not careful. We save TONS on diapers, wipes, and non-perishables. (They also have a great store brand formula that’s a fabulous deal.) That way, when you visit the store (or Amazon), you really only have to focus on food.

I have been trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong. There are two people in my house. TWO. I go to the Walmart grocery store every Friday, and rarely spend less than $200- a week! I swear every Friday, I am only going to get a few things, and those few things end up towering in the cart. I do not buy exotic items, we eat really easy stouffer one skillet meals, that cost around $5 (easy to throw on after work). I just don’t get it.

We buy none of the same items (really NONE, how odd is that?) but your broccoli is cheaper than my cauliflower and your cereal is cheaper than mine. Cereal here is over $4 a box. I hate that. Eating healthy (weight watchers) is freaking expensive. Oh and I order from a company called Fresh Direct that delivers in NYC.

I have one word for you: COSTCO.

Or Sam’s Club, if that’s closer.

I buy almost everything at Costco, and I swear to God, their prices rock. Yes, I do drop $250 each time I go, but I only go maybe every three weeks and buy almost all my groceries there. I go to the regular grocery store maybe once a month now, for the few things I can’t find at Costco. They also have deals on tons of other handy things, like coffeemakers, clothes, autmotive junk, tools. Watch out, your husband may get all excited and decide he needs a $380 pressure washer (mine did).

Also if you join Costco, you can get the Executive Membership for $100. The regular membership is $50, but with the Executive one you get a percentage of your purchases back as store credit. Last year our membership ended up costing only $30 after the refund, this year I think we’ll MAKE money.

Forgot to mention, Costco has tons of ORganic stuff, including Annie’s mac and cheese, milk, fruit. And great house-brand diapers.

There is certainly something to be said for buying off-brand items. And I don’t know about your local WalMart’s prices, but you can buy a larger package of diapers for less than you’re paying for the 40-count. And the Costco/Sam’s Club prices for formula are really great. We saved a ton of money buying my son’s formula from Sam’s Club.

Uhhhh yeah. I shop at Trader Joe’s, exalted for low prices (and dangerously ripe cheese), but notice even there, my grocery dollars are now more like grocery nickels. Makes me want to go off the grid and grow my own asparagus.

You can save a lot on diapers by signing up for Amazon’s Subscribe and Save auto-ship program – that’s how I can afford to use the Seventh Generation disposables! Amazon also sells your formula by the case; my very rough estimate had you saving over $30 if you buy six double-size cans at once rather than one regular size can. It adds up. If you’re already ordering through Amazon it doesn’t make any sense financially to get 40 diapers at a time when you could order three times that many and save money. SnS here: http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_6331352_1?ie=UTF8&node=251482011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-sparkle&pf_rd_r=1Q3RVWFH5BGDTWCP51Y0&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=363100301&pf_rd_i=subscribe

Trader Joe’s regular milk doesn’t have rBST in it and it’s half the price of organic.

We belong to Costco, too, and I thought we’d impulse shop but we don’t. It’s hard to impulse shop when you have to buy, say, eight boxes of mac and cheese instead of one. You could really save on the Ziplocs, for instance, and yeah, their diapers are great.

Funny, I NEVER paid attention to grocery prices until now, but have just started to, baby #2 is coming and we’re about to have that huge formula bill again. Also, Target is pretty cheap for food too, even if it’s not a Supertarget. My husband eats a box of cereal every 2 days I swear and Target generic is much better than most crap generic cereal.

God yes. I mean, we’re ONLY TWO PEOPLE and we eat at home most nights with the simplest of meals and yet … oh my hell, how did our bill come to $97 for like, three days’ worth of food? On NOTHING EXCITING OR EXTRAVAGANT. I do not buy carloads of imported smoked oysters and I am not buying goat cheese shipped from the Swiss Alps. I even buy some GENERIC ITEMS. So why, I ask you, does my meager grocery order of chicken and vegetables come to almost $100?

I don’t think that your list is extravagant at all. However, I do think you can do better. As long as you aren’t wasting tons of gas, shopping at several stores saves me tons of money and I just recently started clipping coupons. I generally have between $7-$10 worth of coupons each week (yes, it’s a pain). Also, we buy diapers, wipes, TP, and some staples at Costco and it saves us lots.

I only started doing all of this in the last 6 months or so because I work in the commodity/agriculture business and the future doesn’t look bright. Gas prices, as we all know, are high which raises the cost of food at each landing point (try to buy local). The US dollar is falling which allows foreign countries to buy cheaper US goods so we are exporting more, creating a higher demand and higher demand equals smaller supply which equals higher prices. What we do import (such as spices and pesticides/fertilizers) are extremely expensive because of the small US dollar (also think the farther something travels the more fuel it uses which equals higher cost). US farmers are not planting their crops because they can’t count on a workforce to pick them and they can’t compete with imports. Biofuels are causing corn prices to skyrocket, which means that feed prices are rising, every animal’s meat that eats that feed is rising, not to mention the breading that may be on that meat.

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer.

I also have to say that I put high importance on quality of life and when I have my second child in October (currently have a 2 y/o), our grocery bills will go up because I will not be the smart shopper I am right now. When I get my sanity back (at least somewhat) I’ll go back to this crazy game.

I know, the cost of groceries kills me, even when I’ve made an effort not to buy many processed foods.

Have you tried using Diapers.com? I would suggest stocking up on non-perishables if you can find a sale price (Costco’s prices might be cheaper, I don’t know); I grab as many packs of diapers as I can when I see a sale, since my son is going to be in the same size for a while. Which means I have years of changing diapers ahead of me, o joy. You might also find that you can use store brand diapers part or all of the time (during the day, for example).

The only other tip I can offer is to eat oatmeal in place of cereal, since it’s cheaper, although it sure is lacking in any kind of crunch.

you seriously need to buy at costCo, Sams, or other place iwht bulk and cheaper formula, diapers, etc.