Grocery budget - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Tim & Robyn · RV-Dreams Family Member

Grocery budget

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

There's no dumb questions on this forum!

We can't keep it quite that low either. Last year, we averaged about $456 a month. When we had a house, we used to buy up large quantities of "sale" items and stockpile them. Now we don't have the room, so we can't save like we used to.

I suppose if we really tried, we could get it lower, but we didn't go Full-timing to scrape that much.

If you go out to eat a lot, your grocery bill will be lower. biggrin

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

We spend about $475 a month with us going out a fair number of times to eat.

I don't think you should look to spend any more or less than you now do.

Your not changing, your only moving to a new house. smile

Fred

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have experienced a rise in our food budget here I think the cost of highter fuel has lots to do with it.
southwestjudy & Bob &2blackdogs

Howard · Host

Tim & Robyn,

As you know our Grocery AND Dining Out budget is $400. Though we go over that budget when we eat out a lot, if we remove our dining out expenses, we easily can do groceries in under $400.

We always shop at Wal-mart, buy generic brands when we can (I actually like many of the Great Value products better than the name brands), buy ingredients to prepare meals rather than pre-made pre-packaged, and when we do be buy ready-to-eat meals, we stick to 99-cent pot pies and other cheap, but decent meals.

We buy very little alcohol and no soft drinks (because of the soda machine), but we buy lots of cases of bottled water and jugs of water as well.

Linda does a lot of crockpot cooking and we have leftovers for up to three days - that's my limit. smile

$400 for groceries and eating out is really tight, but for groceries alone we have no problem at all. We even include cleaning supplies, toothpaste, and the like in that line item.

Granted, we are not buying the best cuts of meat (the meat at Wal-mart is not great anyway). But we will buy a large package of pork chops or steaks and freeze them in pairs or buy large bags of frozen chicken breasts which have multiple uses. Everything tastes good off the grill if seasoned a little. smile

Before this lifestyle we didn't shop at Wal-mart and we bought whatever we wanted. We eat differently now but by no means are we suffering. smile

jimdee · RV-Dreams Family Member

We seldom go over $350 a month and it has been less. I started going to Dinners to go, others are called, Dinners out or My Girl Friends Kitchen. There's several names for the places that you make your own dinners, freeze them and you can eat for a month. Ours are $9.00 a meal for two. We are trying to lose weight so the smaller portions are ideal. We make enough for the whole month, adding cereal for those times of hunger, snacks of fresh fruit from outdoor fruit stands, so we do well. We decided to take that route to save money for fulltiming. We don't drink sodas, just ice tea or water. When we eat out seldom go over $20 for two people. It can be done, just a little tricky. BBQing is awesome, I don't eat red meat, but DH does and that's about once a month. Just thought I'd throw that out for a suggestion. You can find the dinners to go online and there's several all over the USA.

-- Edited by jimdenyse at 18:57, 2007-07-04

Darrell and Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have a $120 per week "Wal-mart" budget that includes all cleaning and personal care items but not eating out. We find it hard to stay on that budget. We are trying to eat healthy foods with lots of fresh vegetables, lean meats, and 100% whole grain breads and cereals. These are more expensive. Our fulltime RVing grocery budget is no different from our budget when we lived in a stick house and the fact that we shop weekly instead of bi-weekly makes it a little more expensive. We will probably end up at around $500 per month when all is said and done.

wmalefyt · RV-Dreams Family Member

Darrell and Judy wrote:

We have a $120 per week "Wal-mart" budget that includes all cleaning and personal care items but not eating out. We find it hard to stay on that budget. We are trying to eat healthy foods with lots of fresh vegetables, lean meats, and 100% whole grain breads and cereals. These are more expensive. Our fulltime RVing grocery budget is no different from our budget when we lived in a stick house and the fact that we shop weekly instead of bi-weekly makes it a little more expensive. We will probably end up at around $500 per month when all is said and done.

Our experience is about the same, an average of $117 per week so far this year and that includes cleaning supplies, wine, etc but not eating out. We're still wannabes so living at home. I would doubt that our budget will change much once we go fulltime. I have to maintain a gluten-free diet so that costs more to buy items like cookies, snacks, bread, etc.

-- Edited by wmalefyt at 18:52, 2007-07-03

Froggi · RV-Dreams Family Member

One thought I had....don't know if it would work but could help I would think.

I have a Sam's Club card....when staying in one campground for a while (especially when workamping), several RVers could band together, make a list of those items you can only buy in bulk but can't store a lot of and make a group purchase, splitting up the cost. Takes a little negotiating but I would think it would help alleviate some of the higher costs. Initially my thought was dry goods but it could be applied to fresh/frozen as well since you could rebag things for individual use.

Has anyone done something like this?

Howard · Host

Froggi,

That's an idea Linda has had since we started. We have yet to follow up on it, but it is a great idea - it must be since both You AND Linda thought of it. biggrin

It's a little tougher in transient campgrounds, but it is perfect for long-term stays where you have more time to get to know each other and there are more people to choose from. Once folks agree to do that, you still have to get enough folks to agree on WHAT to get. smile

Darrell and Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Froggi D that's a great idea. When we spend a couple of months in Alabama we will share this idea with the other ERPU members (Escapees Rainbow Parks Unlimited). If it works out I will report back to let ya'll know.

Froggi · RV-Dreams Family Member

Yeah, the what to get and how to divide it will be the toughest but I think the cost savings would be worth it.

Glad to know others have thought about it....and look forward to hearing out it works out if tried. For me traveling solo, it would definitely be worth while since the only other way to save would be Dollar Stores and Big Lots. <g>

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have talked to people who do the buy at Costco/Sam's Club and split the packages and it works out. I know they do it at the Benson, AZ SKP park for the Tucson Costco. We have done some splits like buying a big package of Brita filters and splitting them.
We have cards for both stores since in many areas one dominates. If both are in town we find that 3/4 of the stuff is cheaper at Costco. Our view is if we spend $400/year at the store we have paid for our membership since we should be saving at least 10% ($40 membership fee). So far we have exceeded these numbers. We buy more than groceries at these stores.

I will say we spend more than $400 on groceries and eating out. Still less than when we were working but I guess it is an area we don't choose to budget tightly.

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

Luvglass wrote:

We spend about $475 a month with us going out a fair number of times to eat.

I don't think you should look to spend any more or less than you now do.

Your not changing, your only moving to a new house.

Fred

I just relaized this looks like I said our food expense averages $475 including eating out. NO, I meant the opposite, it's $475 and doesn't include the cost of eating out, which we do a fair amount of. The restaurants probably average another $300 or so a month. It's hard to break out, we record it as part of entertainment which has been running $550 a month.

Wow, looking at these numbers leads to a couple of fast conclusions -
We have room to save money, and no wonder I'm gaining weight. idea

Fat but happy Fred smile

wmalefyt · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hey Fred, I think being fat and happy is more important than saving a few bucks! Besides, I've seen your picture and you don't look fat to me and neither does Jo! Just don't forget to get out there and hit those hiking trails on a regular basis. biggrin

blinky · RV-Dreams Community Member

Wow! I see no one has posted on this subject for awhile, so I'm going to. Our youngest left home a year ago. We spent approx. $250-300 a month then on groceries and for several years before that. I cooked simply and from scratch. Now we only spend between $200-250 a month for the two of us. We usually eat cereal for breakfast, but once a month or so I make a big breakfast and since my husband's favorite meal to eat out is breakfast, we eat that meal out 1-2 times a month. We eat out maybe 2x's a week. We have soups, salads, spaghetti, etc. at home. We have a misc. account that we use for eating out, entertainment, etc. that is usually $100 a month. We like to do such things as walk on the beach, go to a state park and sit by the water and talk, read, play dominoes, cards, etc. We have also been volunteering. At both places we received free meals on the days worked and that helps, as well as a free site. We have never been wealthy and when we started this journey, we knew we would have to budget as we always have. We will probably never take a cruise or go to an expensive RV resort, but we have the whole country to explore for no cost and we have each other and our families and we are enjoying this life!! Hope I don't sound judgemental to any of you spending more on groceries. Not my intentions at all.
Sally

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sally: The great thing about this lifestyle is it lets you be in control of most of your expenses. You can do things your way, not like someone else.

breezy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Raman Noodles and friendly visits to the neighbors at meal time won't cut it , huh? LOL

I am pretty frugal at the grocery store now, so I think I could do it for under $400 a month...but, I am used to buying in bulk on sale items and freezing...WHen I fulltime I see now I will have to think "smaller packaging" and "on the fly purchases" that will raise the cost...hmmmm? Crock pot will definately be coming along.... biggrin

-- Edited by breezy at 17:43, 2008-11-28