We go once every two weeks, buy things that are on sale in mass quantities. Buy off-label stuff... and go to 3-4 different stores for sale items. Thankfully, all of those stores are close to each other, or i'd be blowing the savings on GAS :(

So if I'm reading this right, the shitty economy could be a potential solution to our obesity problem? Buying more veggies and less meat!

It's become cheaper for me to buy three $1 items at McDonalds than to prepare a similarly sized meal at home. Not to mention the time involved.

I really don't think this is the direction we should be headed. :/

What kind of car must Jamie Dorgan, homemaker from Joliet, IL be driving? Possible answers are quite limited.

Our Walmart is a TON cheaper than any of the local grocery chains -- Publix, Winn Dixie, even the skanky Food Lion.

Bulk buy what I can at Costco, fruits and veggies every week or two at the local grocery, and jump on any good deals I can find.

Luckily it's just me and my wife, so we aren't trying to feed a family of four.

I just can't wait for gas prices to rise in the summer and really hit us.

Definitely noticing it. It's 10 cents here and 20 cents there, literally nickel and diming, and I can see it add up. What's worse, that seems to be the increase every few weeks. *sigh*

@ptkdude: or increase them with more pasta, rice, and other starches . . .

/moderate carb and clean protein advocate.

I went to a gas station with $100 and came out with nothing.

I am a personal Chef and out of fear of losing clients I have not raised my prices accordingly with the cost of the food. I have tried to shop at Walmart but the produce is not up to my standard. I know I will take a little of a hit, but make it up in the long run.

Don't worry the 1$ menu at McD's will soon also be a thing of the past. Restaurants are also feeling the economic squeeze, fryer oil has already doubled in price, it went from 15$ for 35 pounds of oil to over 30$. We live in a global economy, food is shipped in from every corner of the globe, the dollar went to shit, I'm surprised it's taken this long to start trickling into the price of food.

I can't say I've noticed a huge increase in food prices. But I shop at Trader Joe's and they've always had really good prices. Also, I don't drive, so it's not like I have to choose between food or gas.

"Reuters went around and cherry picked a few choice comments to support whatever they wanted their article to say"

Nuff said.

i eat subway every day and budget for it. huaa for $5 footlongs

I've watched milk and other staples go up by a dollar or more since 2003 when I moved out of my parent's house and started buying my own groceries. I remember one week that I was really poor and I spent $5 and got an onion, a green bell pepper, a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon (omelettes, all week). Now the onion is still less than $1, and bacon isn't much more expensive, but the pepper now costs almost $3 by itself, and the eggs doubled in price. Milk cost about $2.50-$2.70 a gallon and now it costs $4-$4.30/gal. Walmart is sometimes cheaper than Publix, but it costs me a lot of time - Publix is very close by, whereas Walmart is twice as far in distance and four times as far in time (I have to go through a major and busy intersection and drive on one of the busiest parts of one of the busiest streets in my city).

I am making everything from scratch now, because it's cheaper. I rarely buy pre-made stuff. In the last three months, beans and lentils have become a staple, and we have stopped eating meat. All are cost related.

I shop at my local Korean store to save money on produce and meat; everything at Safeway.

@rmz: A lot, if not most, SUVs have a capacity of at least 28 gallons.

@RBecho: This is pretty much what my partner and I do. CostCo once a month, then hit up 3 supermarkets once a week. We usually stick with loss leaders, and buy as many as we can. You can buy a fair amount of stuff that way, so we end up saving tons.

And Sunflower Market in Denver lets their sales carry over until Wednesday, which is when their weekly sales start. So you get to take advantage of two weekly ads if you shop on Wednesday! :)

@ptkdude:

The problem with that is vegetable prices are increasing faster than just about everything else.

The next step down the ladder is processed starchy fatty foods.

@louveciennes: The Trader Joe's here (Atlanta) has been been raising prices like crazy recently. Stuff that was .99 is now $1.29. There are .50 price increases on more expensive items. Still, they do have the best bargains on a lot of products.

@rmz: THis is CA we are talking about
3.7-4.0 a gallon in Southern CA

Silly Monkeys, you don't need food to live. Food is a scam.

Beans are a good solution. I make lentil casserole on a regular basis and I'm making 16 bean soup tomorrow.

I make lists and shop for what's on sale. I really try to limit the meat that I buy and convenience foods. I do buy a few things that are "extras" but on a very limited basis. In MA and NH, we have Market Basket. It's a great discounter. They are holding the line on milk at $2.99 per gallon.

@ecwis: That's kind of my point.

And she's complaining about gas prices because...?

Most of these prices are because of the price of diesel fuel. Somewhere along the line a truck is involved, so it's not necessarily that milk or meat is more expensive, it's just more expensive to get it to you.

We really need tax breaks or something on diesel fuel

@Assimilation: Suburban.

@Echomatrix: I god damn HATE those ads. And they're so damn infectious. I found myself singing along before recoiling in horror. Damn Subway!

News flash: generic cheerios are cheaper. You can even get good quality generic cheerios at places like Whole Foods and Target and still save money.

I've tried all sorts of things to cut down our grocery bill as our family has grown to include two small children. Costco bulk items, sales, dollar stores but they all end up being too expensive or too time consuming compared to the Trader Joes down the street. Their prices have been going up some but not nearly as much as the Ralph's in the same parking lot. We do limit our meat and plan 5-6 meals per week plus lunch and breakfast stuff, we can get out of Trader Joes under $120/week, including alcohol...w00t for two-buck-chuck, plus they have really tasty Trader Joes branded beer.

Like I said I've tried all sorts of ways to save money on groceries and this seems to be the best way to go, both in terms of cost and time savings.

@louveciennes: really? because i don't drive and it's a good thing, because my grocery dollar isn't going as far as it used to.

I'm really noticing it in my bills lately. I know it kind-of crept up for a while, but I feel like I started noticing it all at once.

So far we haven't made a lot of changes beyond the norm (since we're on a continual process of cooking more, eating out less, eating better, not wasting money), but I'm definitely tracking it more closely and trying to get a handle on it.

I did spend 30 extra cents on purple cauliflower last week because, dude, PURPLE CAULIFLOWER!

Food's only a small part of our budget (no growing kids and all). Not much to cut back on except for meat; we already make everything fresh. The only "luxury" item is pasta sauce, in that it's better than what I've managed to make, and it's quick as heck. Other than that we make what we eat from real ingredients. Well, we buy butter rather than make it. You know what I mean. Also having just gotten back from Europe, I re-discovered the joys of mineral water, and as a consequence I've added a new purpose to my beer system -- I make my own sparkling water, and drink a lot of it. It's reduced my beer consumption, so it's a two-for-one win, especially now that a half-barrel of Labatt Blue has gone up five bucks. I've also learned how to turn it into homemade cream soda for only a few cents, but the water is good enough all by itself.

I worry more about gasoline. Not to the point where I change my habits. Because I'm lazy and don't like to drive all over the place, I've been economizing on time (and consequently fuel) for years and years now.

Mostly I save money by not running out and buying electronic gadgets all the time now.

I carpool to school (and pay my friend once a week in coffee), ride the bus (for free!) back home, and spend time portioning out my meals. I've also made a plan to pick up things like fruits and vegetables from the farmer's market on the way home, so I don't have to make a separate drive out. Even on a small, single-income budget, we can still afford to go out once a week to dinner.

I'm not saying that all of the interviewees are failures and whatnot. Times are hard, especially with painful gas prices. I'm just saying that it can be done.

We started cooking just about everything from scratch. Buying raw materials in bulk from Sams. We also are eating much more brown rice, lentils & beans. I started hoarding 10# rolls of ground turkey that were $14 each. I have been buying an extra one every big grocery trip and putting them in the deep freeze. At least I know we will have some sort of meat even if prices go through the roof this summer.
Our garden has started looking more like a serious portion of our ability to eat rather than a hobby.
Even with all of these cost cutting strategies our bills are only about staying steady because everything is going up still. This sucks.

@Me: You still have a Food Lion in your area?! That's crazy! The building that once was a Food Lion in my neighborhood is now some kind of Vietnamese church. They totally revamped it too: added fancy gates along the outside, changed the front look, added parking, and put statues and fountains in the grass.

I went there when I was a little lad, but I never knew why they shut down until I grew up.

I had to go and double check but my grocery bill has been consistently 550-700 a month for a family of 6 since the beginning of 2007. We are not a crunchy granola family that grows our own food, and I buy real Cheerios and Rice Krispies. I just buy it when it's on sale and pay attention.

I have noticed things. Peanut butter has gone up almost 50% in price, so when it went on sale for $1 a jar, I bought almost 10 jars. When you have 3 grade school boys, you make a lot of peanut butter sandwiches.

I think you just have to know how to shop and you just have to learn the game. I have a friend who lives alone who I think spends almost as much on groceries a month as I do. I have to admit that I have already spent $400 this month, but I don't plan on going back except for perishables.

What shocks me is the unwillingness for consumers to shift habits. There is no reason anyone should spend $100 on a tank of gas. If they are so worried about prices, they should trade in their SUV for a compact. A civic seats five, so even with three little tots in the back, there is plenty of room.

Ride your bikes to the farmers markets and local grocers. Repeat for a few months - I'll bet you'll have more money in your pocket.

Replace all beef purchases with "beef for stir-fry" and cheap ground beef.

$100 for a tank of gas? Holy crap that's a huge car. Even my Xterra can only take at most like $55 at a more expensive place (aka, anywhere not in Escondido or next to the Miramar Air Base).
And to answer the question; it makes me very sad. I don't really mind eating cheap food because I like vegetables and beans, but I also like to eat meat sometimes. I've had to really change how I do things... like I learned how to make southern style lima (butter) beans in bulk. Did you know that a 1 lb bag of lima beans is actually a crapload of lima beans? Me either, I looked at the bag and was like wow, that'll make practically nothing, but that'll actually last you a long ass time if you know how to make them good enough so that you don't get sick of them after a couple of days.

"I went to a gas station with $100 and came out with nothing."

wow. you're in joliet, where gas isn't the almost $4/gallon it is in downtown chicago right now. what kind of vehicle are you driving? at $3.50 a gallon, that's almost a 30 gallon tank! first step to save money: don't drave the family 18-wheeler to get groceries. (unless you've got a reeeeaaaally large family, i suppose)

I still purchase the same groceries I've been purchasing for awhile. Eating good food and eating healthy is important to me, which means ever increasing produce, lean meat, milk, eggs, etc. I've shifted the cost savings to other areas like- hardly ever eating out (it isn't that healthy in most cases anyway), downgrading my cable TV plan (don't watch a lot of TV anymore), and not buying new things unless necessary or have saved up specifically for it.

That said, my bank account has continued to steadily go down the past year. I'm going to have to cut out something else soon or get a new job...

@ ianmac47: Ever tried to put 3 car seats in a Civic?? Not necessarily an excuse for a 10 mpg Tahoe, but vehicles of the size of a compact are not adequate for a family of more than 3.

@CaptainSemantics:

I love Sunflower Market.

I live on the Front Range, but every time we're in Denver, I hit Sunflower, the big HMart in Aurora on Parker, and sometimes the Pacific Ocean Market on Alameda.

Shop online. I find that I spend much much less and get more than if I go to the store with a list.

every two weeks I'm spending about $250 on groceries. -maybe- $35 of that is sundries for the kid, the rest is food. Last week I had the cart slap ass full and it was $500...it's too damned expensive to exist these days.

Beer is cheaper than Milk...I guess kid and I will pour natural light over our cherrios here soon.

everyone says people don't need big cars, but what about all the construction workers who have 30-50 gallon tanks?

So get a job homemakers! I had to do that long ago. Yeah, life sucks!