Sheesh the groceries are getting pretty crazy

[Jack91]

Cant just be us. Groceries for the week just cost $511.
Me and the mrs, 2 dogs and a cat. Granted this was one of the weeks that included toiletries and windex etc..
No takeaways, home cooked healthy meals, mainly meat based as we are on keto. We couldve trimmed about 50 bucks off for dog treats and a slab of coke zero. Everything is home brand or the cheapest of its kind on special. No smokes, booze etc in it either.
We have tried going to butchers and grocers seperately in the past but it wasnt any cheaper, and surprisingly the meat wasnt as good.
How high can this go?
Us with a small mortgage, no kids and both on pretty good coin with work cars are now starting to feel it a bit.
I really dont know how young families are doing it with new houses and 2 new cars on finance.
I guess my observation is that prices never come down, but wages cant go up either because most of our industries are already struggling.
Whats the end game here?

[Citroënbender]

Two people, weekly shop averages $160. I monitor it - not obsessively, but to see how things are tracking.

[prktkljokr]

Full retail price is only for people who pay for your discounts

I know some people will roll their eyes, weirdo prepper etc, the more you read the more you will understand the madness, A old couple told us this 30 years ago and it took us a while to adopt the right attitude to make it work, we too thought why bother at the time, this is not about hoarding supplies in case zombies attack or a nuclear attack or whatever, its to save money plain and simple .

You have to look at this as a yearly saving your not going to see the reward until you have what you need.

Based on what you just purchased, your yearly grocery bill would be $26,572, you can halve this and in some cases go even lower depending on your will power and your storage space

Its simple, you just need to adopt different shopping habits, places like Coles and Woolies etc will have lots of specials as they always do, they tell you they are keeping prices down blagh, blagh, blagh, they are full of crap, they recoup the discount they give you on other needed items that are not on special, so you might save $1 on your bag of Pasta, but pay a extra $1 on the sauce to go with it, they are in the business of making profit they are not just going to discount stuff without recouping it somewhere else, so to beat the system you need to buy a whole carton of pasta when its on special instead of 1 packet, but only buy 1 sauce for the week, next week the sauce will be on special and the pasta will be more expensive, so a carton of sauce goes in the trolly, this will give you pasta and sauce for the rest of the year, you adopt this on nearly every item you need, before you know it you will have a stock of weekly used products and a yearly bill that is thousands and thousands cheaper, you wont need to buy that item at full price ever again, you do need a room you can use to store it all or lots and lots of cupboard space and you will save money yearly over time by even not having to go to the shop at all, I am lucky as I have a 5 bedroom house but only use 2 as bedrooms, 1 is now our store room, the other 2 are for guests .

For an example I use LYNX deodorant, it is usually $6.50 per can, wife found it for $2 per can, she purchased 30 cans @$60 with a usual full retail of $195 ( they had to grab her a box from out the back ), nearly 2 years worth for me so she saved us $4.50 per can a total saving of $135, seeing I use a can roughly every 3 weeks just for the year she saved us $78, I know it does not sound like much, but when you add this to every item you purchase every week it does not take much to save a fair few thousand dollars or more, plus it will go on special many times again before we need to think about purchasing it again, so we are never paying full retail for it ever again.

I myself have never really looked at a grocery bill ( not my dept ), but we do buy our meat farm direct, with our fruit and vegetables coming from a growers co op, have done this for about 10 years now, even delivered it is way cheaper and way better quality than any of the mainstream supermarkets have to offer and way fresher.

You have to buy the meat in bulk, so we pay $800 for just over a couple of months worth of meat to feed 3, the one we use does chicken, pork, lamb, beef sausages etc, can you imagine buying a weeks worth of meat for $100 from a supermarket?, not going to happen, be lucky to get 4 half decent steaks, and seeing meat will be the biggest expense on most shopping lists its a good idea to look for a farmer who butchers his own meat, our contact was from word of mouth and he delivers once a week to Perth metro.

Luckily the wife has always had a habit of buying stuff in bulk when its on special or from places that sell bulk at discounted prices, so we have a store room full of most household weekly needed supplies, not even a really big thing to do even if you are struggling and not a bad habit to slowly adopt if you can, you just need to start out small like a couple of extra items each week and you get to a point where your weekly shop is only to top up the store and buy bulk items that are on special, we would save thousands each year just on buying when on special, one of the best things I ever did with the money we saved was buy a 700ltr chest freezer its now full of frozen specials , now have bulk frozen products, cartons of soap, cartons of drinks, water, cartons of toilet rolls, cartons of toiletries, deodorant's, shampoos, etc, cartons of tin food, you get the idea, I feel a bit like we are living one of those prepper shows you see on TV when I walk into the store room as its full, but I reckon we could go close to a year without having to go to the shops, our stockpile was created over a fair few years, but has saved us enough money over the years to pay out the mortgage early.

[Rallye Sport]

Same as prktkljokr
Pantry room in a spare room, freezer and vacuum sealer, shop the specials and stock up. Helps that the Mrs is a Chef too.

Vege's come from local farm gates or markets. Meat bought in bulk portioned at home.
We've been doing alright lately, scotch @13kg, fresh local prawns @$6kg, thats surf and turf a couple of nights a week for the next few months.
Razors half price, got a years supply.
Meat and vege scraps vac packed and saved for soup stock later, waste not want not.
Once again same as prktkljokr has said, its just habit now, its helped us to be mortgage free and I'm starting to get fat in my middle age
Love hearing people complain about the cost of going out too, we try to get out a couple of nights a week and do the local parmi and pint, pasta, pizza, ribs specials. Nothing over $25ea.
Its not all doom and gloom out there if you choose to make some changes.

[fatgas]

Family of three here and the grocery bill is around the $240 a week mark of late. The same groceries would have been close to $190 not that long ago.

[aussiblue]

Three of us $250 to $270 a week.

My special dietary requirements add significantly to my bill; no chicken (allergy) no gluten and especially no, potatoes or other nightshade vegies (otherwise my psoriasis flares up and not just on my skin but in my gastrointestinal system - seems it is virtually an extension of the skin so it bleeds). But yes it has increased by about $100.00 on what it used to be a couple of years ago.

Jack being in a regional location like Ballarat rather than a capital city with less competing stores and likely higher transport costs won't help. Perth and WA suffer a bit too with a lot of goods (probably needlessly) shipped here from the EAST but places like spudshed and Aldi help by providing competition to Coles and Woolies.

[raised by monkeys]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

Three of us $250 to $270 a week.

My special dietary requirements add significantly to my bill; no chicken (allergy) no gluten and especially no, potatoes or other nightshade vegies (otherwise my psoriasis flares up and not just on my skin but in my gastrointestinal system - seems it is virtually an extension of the skin so it bleeds). But yes it has increased by about $100.00 on what it used to be a couple of years ago.

Jack being in a regional location like Ballarat rather than a capital city with less competing stores and likely higher transport costs won't help. Perth and WA suffer a bit too with a lot of goods (probably needlessly) shipped here from the EAST but places like spudshed and Aldi help by providing competition to Coles and Woolies.

Off topic for a sec.

Tremfya - from 70% psoriasis coverage for 20yrs to none in weeks. I eat clean 95% of the time, only drink time to time, exercise 4-5x per week, and get plenty of sun. Tremfya was the only thing that helped after years on poorly managed heavy meds and steroid based oitments and fobbed off by private practices.

[Citroënbender]

That’s amazing; really pleasing to read. I hope it sustains the results.

[raised by monkeys]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

That’s amazing; really pleasing to read. I hope it sustains the results.

3-4yrs in no dramas.

[Itsme]

You are right, it is tough times atm, cost of living has skyrocketed with no relief in sight for the middle incomes, I've even delayed my retirement for a year or two so I can secure more funds.
Your cost of $511 is certainly high for a couple's weekly groceries bill, you need to try different shops for different discounts & specials, try shopping in stores such as "NQR" https://nqr.com.au/ for better deals, as others stated, bulk shopping is another way to save.

[danzvtil]

Couple of problems when it comes to groceries-
Ingredients now cost more than the finished item (priced a lasagne from scratch vs ready made tray?)
“Bulk” very rarely means cheaper per kg when colesworth is involved. You buy a bigger pack when it’s convenient, it’s not automatically cheaper per kg.
Technically groceries are up 9% (heard on the radio) which is BS, there’s a whole stack of my trolley that has DOUBLED since the pandemic.

[T3rminator]

$8 - 5 piece KFC FTW.

On a serious note, I find if you sacrafice a bit of convenience and time (that is, not shop at colesworth), you can reduce your bills quite substantially by bargain hunting at the independents and smaller chains.

One of my favourites is Mercato. Tomorrow specials - $1 avacados, $1kg zuccini, $3kg eggplant, $4kg green beans. They do these deals every day. Won't ever find that at colesworth.

KFL - 2 dozens eggs 700g $7.50 all day every day.

Tasman and Aussie Butchers have good deals every day. I raw feed my dog, it can get exey, but these two joints have saved me a lot of $$$.

[HIPO]

Yep raped at either end of the chain, by the likes of filthy Woolworths etc, who have been making record profits as usual.

[prktkljokr]

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the $511 grocery bill

4 x Hungry Jacks small burger meals per day @ $7 each, works out to be $196 per week, no need for plates, knives, forks, detergent, fridge etc, and it only works out to $10220 per year, could mix it up with a few Domino's budget pizzas, chicken dinner or two from Red rooster all within budget, and it leaves $315 per week for living it up

[Citroënbender]

I was waiting for your explanation of how you doubled your savings on Lynx by only wearing deodorant every other day.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

I was waiting for your explanation of how you doubled your savings on Lynx by only wearing deodorant every other day.

I'm not that thrifty, I would say most of it ends up in the air anyway, I wouldn't say I waste stuff but no longer care if I have to throw something out like I used to when we were struggling to make ends meet

[naddis01]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the $511 grocery bill

4 x Hungry Jacks small burger meals per day @ $7 each, works out to be $196 per week, no need for plates, knives, forks, detergent, fridge etc, and it only works out to $10220 per year, could mix it up with a few Domino's budget pizzas, chicken dinner or two from Red rooster all within budget, and it leaves $315 per week for living it up

You'll also save more in the long run on that diet, being dead within a few years.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by naddis01

You'll also save more in the long run on that diet, being dead within a few years.

I don't know you can go a Veggie pizza from Domino's, lettuce and tomato in the Burger and there are peas and potato in the chicken dinner, there's your weekly vegie intake right

I'm pretty sure its expensive to die these days, so there is the savings gone

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the $511 grocery bill

4 x Hungry Jacks small burger meals per day @ $7 each, works out to be $196 per week, no need for plates, knives, forks, detergent, fridge etc, and it only works out to $10220 per year, could mix it up with a few Domino's budget pizzas, chicken dinner or two from Red rooster all within budget, and it leaves $315 per week for living it up

Your medical bills and health will suffer considerably with this diet, trust me I know a few bods who use to do it, God bless them, RIP.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by Itsme

Your medical bills and health will suffer considerably with this diet, trust me I know a few bods who use to do it, God bless them, RIP.

You do know I'm joking, I eat chicken salad nearly every day for lunch, and a proper cooked meal each night, junk food is a sometimes meal, but it just goes to show that you can live off a smaller amount, if they can make your meal for $7, you should be able to as well, but be able to eat well too, my chicken salad would only be $5 tops.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

You do know I'm joking, I eat chicken salad nearly every day for lunch, and a proper cooked meal each night, junk food is a sometimes meal, but it just goes to show that you can live off a smaller amount, if they can make your meal for $7, you should be able to as well, but be able to eat well too, my chicken salad would only be $5 tops.

I took your post as tongue & cheek, but honestly, I have come across some people doing what you stated, and they don't see the wrong in it.

Cheers

[FairmontGS]

Originally Posted by Jack91

Cant just be us. Groceries for the week just cost $511.
Me and the mrs, 2 dogs and a cat. Granted this was one of the weeks that included toiletries and windex etc..
No takeaways, home cooked healthy meals, mainly meat based as we are on keto. We couldve trimmed about 50 bucks off for dog treats and a slab of coke zero. Everything is home brand or the cheapest of its kind on special. No smokes, booze etc in it either.
We have tried going to butchers and grocers seperately in the past but it wasnt any cheaper, and surprisingly the meat wasnt as good.
How high can this go?
Us with a small mortgage, no kids and both on pretty good coin with work cars are now starting to feel it a bit.
I really dont know how young families are doing it with new houses and 2 new cars on finance.
I guess my observation is that prices never come down, but wages cant go up either because most of our industries are already struggling.
Whats the end game here?

$511 per week? You’re doing something horrifically wrong. We are $230 meat included.

[Jack91]

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

$511 per week? You’re doing something horrifically wrong. We are $230 meat included.

Sometimes its around 300 if theres no toiletries or cleaning stuff in it.
But its usually over that. This week was the biggest ever by a fair whack.
I wonder if people saying theres is so much lower is forgetting about lunches or the smoko van?
And yeah we were way better off financially living on takeout and junk food. It probably shouldnt be that way.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Jack91

Sometimes its around 300 if theres no toiletries or cleaning stuff in it.
But its usually over that. This week was the biggest ever by a fair whack.
I wonder if people saying theres is so much lower is forgetting about lunches or the smoko van?
And yeah we were way better off financially living on takeout and junk food. It probably shouldnt be that way.

Just wondering if it's the pets causing your high prices? pet food & associated gear can be expensive at times.

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by Itsme

Just wondering if it's the pets causing your high prices? pet food & associated gear can be expensive at times.

After this remark I costed the cat’s diet and scaled up to my own weight. He’d eat $42/day if he weighed the same as I do.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by Itsme

Just wondering if it's the pets causing your high prices? pet food & associated gear can be expensive at times.

Is it any surprise? People call their pets their fur babies, and will throw ridiculous amounts of money at them, both to buy, then to maintain them.

If you had asked someone 30 years ago if they thought they could make a living towing stupid fibreglass portaloos from house to house for washing dogs in, they'd have laughed. Now they're everywhere.

Things cost as much as people are willing to waste.

[Adamz Ghia]

My wife and I do two to three big shops a year- excluding breads, fresh fruit and veg and dairy. We work out a bunch of stuff we like to eat and buy enough stuff to make it a few times, 5 fays a week. One night is take out night and one night is free for all. I’m into low and slow bbq so we also cook a bunch up and vac seal it

So we buy in bulk. Costco, Campbells Cash and Carry, IGA, Coles, Woolies, Aldi, we compare prices between all of them and buy from where we need to. Costco is pretty great for meat, and Amazon can be pretty decent too for groceries.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by Jack91

I wonder if people saying theres is so much lower is forgetting about lunches or the smoko van?

If your on a budget, Lunches are home made the night before and the smoko van is a no go zone.

I watch the apprentices spend $20-30 a day on the smoko van, 2-3 items and a can of overpriced Mother, then they borrow tools and say they cant afford good tools.

Why pay $3 for a can of coke off a smoko truck when you can buy a block of 30 for under $30?

[fordomatic]

We only eat whole foods at home. Meat, veg, fruit, spices. Saves an absolute fortune. Veggie shop for the week at farmers market averages $70. Meat and eggs for the week averages $60. We buy direct from farmer and I butcher, plus I hunt for about 30% of our meat. Consumables, washing liquid etc $20 a week. Family of 4, all my kids lunches are home cooked for school, no packet anything.

Went to woolies the other day for the first time in forever as needed an egg flip. Man the prices there are insane, $10 for a tube of toothpaste, $30 for washing liquid. Obviously people pay it, or they wouldn’t sell it.

[XR Martin]

$500? Love to see the receipt
No one is forcing you to buy marble score 10+ Wagyu porterhouse.

Eating out at your local club every night would be cheaper.