Buying groceries together

Yesterday BF had to work until 7pm, so I picked him up and we went to Superstore to do our weekly grocery shopping. If you’re wondering how we’re doing managing our groceries together (since we eat different things and I was worried about how that would affect my grocery budget and what I eat), here’s what we’ve been doing to cut costs:

• Buying all of our groceries separately. We buy our own lunch items, snacks, fruit, etc. … and then we split up what we need to buy for weekly dinners. We don’t go crazy and calculate down to the penny (I would if he’d let me!), but it ends up being pretty even. We do a good job of it. My weekly grocery bill usually comes to around $30-35, and his come to around $45-50. Which seems right since he much bigger than me, and therefore eats a lot more.

• Shopping at Costco. Thankfully my mom has a Costco membership, so I get to be the secondary cardholder. We try to buy all of our meat from Costco, which saves a lot. Superstore is still pretty cheap compared to Safeway, but we don’t eat a lot of meat anyway. We also buy regulars like bagels, bread, wraps, granola bars, etc. Much cheaper to buy in bulk and then store in the freezer if we have to.

• Meal planning. Last week we organized 4 meals. This week we’re going to plan our meals around what we have left in the fridge to use up from last week. Plus we have a frozen lasagna my mom gave us from a while ago (have to heat it up in the microwave, but that’s ok), pasta, and tons of burgers (meat for him, veggie for me) in the freezer.

The main thing that seems to be keeping our grocery bills low is the fact that we 1) no longer shop at Safeway and 2) have a full-sized fridge now. Safeway is disgustingly expensive (although it’s closer and a lot less crowded than Superstore – which is why we used to go there), and you can’t exactly meal plan if you don’t have a fridge that’s big enough to really accommodate a full week’s worth of groceries.

Before, we were going to Safeway 3 or 4 times per week and buying enough groceries just for dinner that night. There was rarely enough time to cook proper meals. Plus, I hated HATED cooking in my apartment kitchen. The kitchen was old and small and gross and I never even wanted to go in there. So we rarely ever made meals at my house. Not good at all. Lots of impulse shopping and “what do you feel like eating tonight?” … which usually resulted in our meals costing the same as if we had just gone out to eat.

Now things are a lot better. It’s crazy to see how far I got away from my normal grocery shopping habits. It’s interesting how that happens. When one partner’s habits influences the other (my reluctance to cook in my apartment, and BF’s shopping at Safeway), and how much easier it is to control our spending now that we live together.

I know I’m happy about our food situation, and I think BF is too. He seems pleased that he’s saving a lot more money now on food, since aside from his car (which he no longer has), food was his biggest expense. Every dollar we save is another dollar that can go towards our trip!

One Response to “Buying groceries together”

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1. westcoastsoul says:

   Sunday, July 3, 2011 - 05:50pm at 5:35 pm

   Great post! I'm living with my bf for the summer and really struggling with the whole grocery shopping thing. He likes to go every day or every couple of days and doesn't like freezing meat. I'm doing most of the cooking/shopping and have spent almost 100$ in a week doing it his way…it's driving me nuts but he just doesn't have a well-stocked kitchen. Men lol.
   My recent post Disneyworld recap!

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