[Cynthia Davis]

I just checked my June savings and I spent $196.99 for the whole month. We are a family of 4 (including 13 year old twins) plus a dog. Stock piling is the way to go. I have been couponing for about 5 months and at the beginning I was spending about the same as before, but now I had lots of food in the panty and freezer. Before I would spend $150 and in a week I would have no food in the house. I now have enough food that I could go weeks without buying anything other than milk and bread. I shop the sales at Safeway (which I never shopped at before couponing) and occassionally shop at Walmart or Winco. An added bonus to the Safeway shopping is the fuel discount - $10 per gallon off for every $100 you spend. I follow several blogs to help find to good coupons, free samples, etc.

[EstherW]

my budget for our family of 3 (me, dh, dd 15 months) is $250. Generally it is more like $200 for a couple months and then I will spend $300 b/c I find a good meat sale or frozen berries/frozen veggi sale. The majority of our spending goes towards produce. We have a great stockpile of most of our stuff and I make my own bread products, sour cream, yogurt, cream cheese, ricotta and that stuff, so the only thing I have to keep constantly buying is milk and eggs. I also try to get to the farmers market while i'm in that area, but i would love to find a local co-op.

Oh yeah, and while I do get some stuff at Safeway, the majority of my purchases are from Albertsons. I love their gas program. For every $50 of products you purchase you get $.05 off. The purchase price is calculated before coupons are taken off, so alot of times I will come out having spent only $10 or less, but with the savings of over $90 I will still get $.10 off per gallon, which is great when filling up DH's 22 gallon truck!!

[lovelyscraps]

We are a family of 5 in MD. I too just started couponing in March and don't really have the space to stockpile much but I'm trying to stock up on the cheap and frees (although I think we will be eating free Eggos and ice cream all summer LOL). We probable spend roughly $75 a week now and we were doing $150ish. We eat a ton of produce and protein as well and not too much packaged stuff. One thing I've been doing is freezing the veggies I find on a great sale. For instance - last week corn on the cob (a huge fam fav.) was on sale at Giant for 12 for $1.98 we ate 3 and I cleaned and froze the rest. I do this with gr. beans, broccoli, bannanas, asparagus...etc...
good luck! I hope to learn more too and get us down even further

[fullsave]

Family of 6, but four are teenagers. I just did the average for the last 5 months, $145 a week so $580 per month. I'm up to $354 so far this month but that includes a bigger Angel Food order so I'm hoping to go $450 max this month. I follow Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and he generally holds to $100 per person per month for groceries so I'm okay with the amount especially considring the teens.

I first heard about Angel Foods on the DR forums and everything we've ordered from AF has been of the highest quality. One signature box is to feed a family of four for a week, I ordered three this month b/c I liked the menu. The veggie boxes are really great and we had the most awesome seafood box last month. The menu changes monthly and there is no income requirement so it's open to anyone. If you are trying to save grocery money it's worth a look.

Welcome*- Angel Food Ministries

[magna]

There is only me and my DH. Average we are spending $80 a week. I am amazed how family of 5 or 6 can spend only $40-45 a week ! Wish to know all the secrets of couponing! Wait a minute ...that´s why I am here, right?
But seriously, I can´t pass the deal and I am making way to many trips to the store. I need to go ''cold turkey'' set a budget of $40 for food, $15 for stockpile purpose and keep it that way every week.

[wkfrank29]

Before major couponing and stockpiling, I was struggling to get our cost of groceries alone down lower than $150/week. Then I started couponing about a year and a half ago and lowered it considerably, but was still buying things I thought were "necessities" and my costs were still higher than many people I would read on here about. I know where you are coming from OP! What I figured out was that I was buying things that were decent deals, but that we would never use, or I was buying because we felt like having something in particular for dinner that week instead of living with what we had. Now, I rarely have large spending weeks. I get only fruit and veggies that are on sale and in season... I only buy meat on clearence (we bought a freezer, so I usually have plenty of frozen meat to get us through)... I get milk once every 2-3 weeks...and I rarely buy anything that is not on super sale because my stockpile is large.

It takes time to strike a balance in what you *think* you need and what you actually need. DON'T GET DISCOURAGED!!! You are already saving money by reading the posts on A full cup!

[ashtel]

Here is my best suggestion: You may be shopping and spending the same for now, but in time your bill will go down. know the point is to shop sale and clearance all and major part w/ coupons. You may spend the same but end up getting more or better stuff. If you try to stockpile it will help out lots.. for example last week we all got free and or cheap bbq sauce at ralphs and CVS - we'll I don't need 20 bottle of it, but I can USE 20 bottles in less than a month. So I just spend 6 but saved $20 + so I acutally saved $14 dollars of groceries...

free peanut butter at ralphs too.... I bought 2 peanut butters w/ coupons oop $0.25 for 2 and also had a coupon for free bread up to $2.00 when you buy 2 pb we'll I have lots of peanut butter and bread! Now I know i can freeze bread! we'll thats what I'm doing freeze and it will help tremendously - freezing is good and you can get stuff you woudn't usually becuase you were full but you can get a good deal.

now this week I'm going to try to get the buy 10 packs of koolaid and get sugar free - we'll sugar is expensive 2-3 dollars... I use lots of it especially for kool aid. I found me some kool aid coupons for $0.55 off 5 - My vons doubles so I can walk out with free kool aid and maybe cheap sugard.

- and this is how I cut my bill - small stockpile and couponing on everything. I may still spend 10-15 dollars per store , but saved 50+

now you will still spend you can''t eat if you don't spend money - it will just be less in time it will be less.

[magna]

I am learning so much here. I noticed that I am doing better by thinking twice about a product I want to buy. Just because I have a coupon for it doesn´t mean I need it.
Shopping takes longer than usual but savings are bigger, and I´m leaving the store with things I really need.
I like to be a coupon fairy too. When I know there is no way I´ll buy something & use the coupon for it--I am just leaving qp next to the product for someone else.
It is so easy to get overwhelmed.

I think this week I did so much better . Thank you everybody at AFC

[pmchilds]

I am amazed by how little some of you spend on groceries. We are a family of 4 (2 teenagers) and often have at least one extra mouth to feed at dinner. I try to spend no more than $130 per week on groceries since I started couponing about a year ago. We live in California and none of the stores in our area double coupons. I could really save a lot more if the stores would start doubling. I average close to 50% savings at the grocery store and closer to 75% savings at the drug stores.

[frugal2]

Last month we spent $108 (BF+me)...we ate out a little too much and spent over $70 dining out...next month I'm gonna try to budget $150 (per month) for groceries and $50 for dining out and see how that works for us...too late for this month because we've already spent over $145 dining out and only $5 groceries...I hope I can find a great deal on a small frezzer so I can stockpile on meat and veggies...I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow so I can cook the rest of this month.

[crazeecuponlady]

THE FREEZER!!!!!!!!! is the secret, i found one for 200.00 that was a decent size, and since I bought it i found I am doing better because i can stockpile more items, as opposed to items that only non-perishables,
my numbers vary but i average 125.00 a week for a family of 4, and we have tons of everything, my kids dont ever miss out on anything, they have snacks galore to choose from, juices, soft drinks, convience foods, you name it but yet i still cook good wholesome meals every night and bake fresh for them!
they really dont want for anything, so after reading these post! i think, i probably could skim out some of my budget, and they wouldnt even notice!

[amyb882002]

I have a family of 9 and I keep my spending to about 110 a week and I am so stockpiled that I am bulging everywhere. I NEVER buy anything full price and if it is not on sale and I don't have a coupon I don't buy it at all. My kids know the rule on it also. With that motto I am up over 30,000 in savings for the year already.

[dmyersquin]

I hear a lot of people mention their "savings" but I think that can be misleading. I prefer to look at our spending instead of savings. I have been serious couponing and stockpiling for 2 yrs now. My husband converted an unused closet into a stockpile closet, and we put 2 big shelving sets in the garage to organize the extra stuff. I also bought a bigger upright freezer. At first it's hard to see the savings because you may be spending the same or even more, but once you start stockpiling things when they are the best deal, you won't have to buy that same item until the next big deal.
I just now started tracking our grocery and eating out spending again and our goal for both combined is $105/wk. That includes my husband eating out lunch 2 times a week, groceries for 4, and eating out occasionally (with coupons, or kids eat free, etc).
I get lots of coupon inserts from my newspaper guy and buy extra stuff to donate to the senior center where my parents eat lunch, plus I am giving big bags of groceries to 8 families that are struggling each month. We also send boxes to the soldiers, give to the food bank, donate school supplies, send Operation Christmas shoe boxes, etc.
The key for me is to cherry pick the best deals at each store. I have 4 major grocery chains very close to me, and Bloom a little further, but I go there only for triples. I find that a stockpile needs to be fed every week. Even though I have enough in my stockpile to last several weeks, then I would have to restock at full price. Every week buy the good deals that you can get free. Then make meals with what you have on hand. I also have started inventorying my freezer every 2 weeks so I can make sure to incorporate everything into our meals and not have anything "forgotten".
Hope this helps, Diana