Grocery Woes

I normally just use this blog to write about what our family is up to but today I want to ask you all for some advise. Over the past couple of years we have really been trying to tighten up our budget and one of the biggest parts of our budget is food. We eat most of our meals at home (maybe eat out once or twice a week for lunch or dinner) so grocery shopping is where most of our money goes to feed the family. How do you all do it? I am so frustrated with groceries and the cost of food. We found when we moved to NC that food prices were higher here than they were in Washington State. I used to be able to stop by a produce stand on my way home from work and get all of our produce for the week for cheaper than the grocery store but the produce stands here are the same or more expensive than the grocery store. Though price is a big part of our decision making when it comes to food we also want to consider health and be wise about where our food is coming from. I would love to go all organic and all natural but our grocery budget is already bulging. Here are some of the choices we have made about the food we buy that we don't feel like we want to compromise:

• We buy fresh fruits and veggies instead of frozen or canned whenever we can.
• We choose to not shop at Walmart (both personal and corporate reasons).
• We buy snacks that don't have a high sugar content or high fructose corn syrup in them.
• We try to make two meals a week that don't contain meat.

We know that the above choices may increase our budget for food but for our health we feel it is worth it. Here are the things we do to cut costs:

• We buy items in bulk such as cheese, milk, eggs, toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, wipes and a few other things at Costco.
• We use "The Grocery Game" to shop at Harris Teeter. Use coupons and buy items when they are on sale instead of when we need them.
• Buy cereal and snack items at Target when we can't get them on sale at HT.
• Shop once a week and plan our meals for the week.

When we budget for groceries we include anything we get at the grocery store: cleaning supplies, detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, dog food, diapers, wipes, toiletries ect. Our budget for groceries for the four of us and our dog is $600 a month. I am ok with spending this much but we are really struggling to stay within our budget and are ending up spending more like $700 a month. Ouch!! I just feel like this is too much. Before I started staying home full time I figured we just weren't being consistent enough. But I have been trying very hard to stay within our budget and am struggling big time. Any suggestions you all might have would be great. We don't want to compromise health but are up for any other suggestions.

I wanted to post what we spend because maybe this is just what it costs and I can just chill out about it. I know some of you have a budget that you stick to and know exactly what you spend and others have a rough idea. Either way I would love to hear what you all do.............