Sounds like you are on the right track! Our family of 4 usually has a monthly food budget around $400-$425. Of course, we do live in TN so the cost of living may be cheaper than where you live. One of the cheapest things you can have is also one of the healthiest; beans. A crockpot of beans seasoned well can last a long time. Add into that some cubed ham and you have several ready to go meals that might have cost a total of $2-$4. Bags of beans usually cost (at most) $2.98 around here. We aren't purposefully organic shoppers, so I'm not a lot of help there.

I'm on a low fat diet right now and one of my favorite lunches is a can of chicken (yes, I said a can) with 1/8 c crushed pineapple mixed together. You can also add a small amount of mayo to "bind" it together. Spread this on a piece of toasted whole wheat bread with a few carrots on the side...delicious. This meal can be as cheap as you desire. It does, of course, taste better with fresh boneless, skinless chicken, so at times I will cook a chicken breast and chop it up for use in this or to make soup.

Making your own chicken noodle soup can be as simple as boiling a few chicken breasts and combining the meat and stock with whole wheat noodles, chopped carrots, celery, onion and a little sea salt. This whole pot might cost around $3-$5 and supply 2-3 meals. We buy frozen chicken breasts and I use them for the soup.

Last but certainly not least, shop the sales. If you go to Whole Foods, pull up their online weekly ad (or the online ad of your favorite store) and do your shopping based on the sales that week. An online site you might look into is www.e-mealz.com. They take your budget, favorite stores and family size into account and create a weekly meal plan and grocery list to your preferences. I don't use this personally but have looked into it and may use it in the future. Family members using it saved $30 their first trip to the grocery.

Hope this has been a little helpful for you! Happy Saving!

Try researching food co-ops in your area. To give you an idea about what it's all about, here's my neighborhood: http://dillpicklefoodcoop.org/

Trying to save money and shopping Whole Foods? Try cheaper grocery stores.

Farmers markets are great. Buy in season and only what you need.

Ethnic markets have great prices on produce.

Same reaction as Zivanod...Whole Foods!?! Unless you're buying artisan cheese or booze, I would avoid that place like the plague. Their markups are ridiculous and it's not exactly a wholesome place to buy (I would read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma about his take on Whole Foods).

Definitely stick with farmers markets and food co-ops for your produce.

Also, with some veggies , I'll buy a lot if they're on sale and then store some in the freezer. No one notices that they've been frozen if you're making soups, stews, or my fave, shepherd's pie!

1) Trader Joes will be your best friend if you have one in your area -- particularly for pantry items.
2) Freeze stuff and eat leftovers! It's ok to make batches of things even if you're cooking for one; and it can actually save you money. Save spaghetti sauce, stir fry, soups, etc. to use a few times over.
3) Go vegetarian a couple of times a week if you don't already. Meat can tend to cost the most at the store. It's a double-whammy of cheaper and healthier.
4) Buy the right sizes. Don't get the gigantic tub of yogurt because the sign says it's a better deal -- if you don't eat it all before it goes bad, it's not a deal at all!

I just started cutting down on grocery expenses also and I have found the following things work well for me:
1) Buy in bulk - especially beans, rice and pasta. Whole foods bulk bin is pretty cheap and you can base most meals around one of those 3 items above.
2) If you enjoy cooking - try to make some stuff at home. I recently made homemade granola from cheap stuff I got from the bulk bins (oats, almonds, cranberries) and it was pretty ridiculous how much money I saved. I also made tortillas in about 10 minutes and froze them.
3) Buy fruit and veggies in season and locally if you can. If not try buying bulk frozen veggies.
4) Try to eat a little less meat if you can. You can make bean burgers, veggie sandwiches and stirfrys with cheap ingredients.

Also - I agree - Trader Joes is amazing!

I think one of the best things my husband and I started doing was actually planning what we were going to eat for dinner and lunch for the week. We pick up the basics we need for the week plus ingredients for whatever we are going to make!

Less wandering through the aisles and more precise list has helped us!

There's a lot of good advice here already but one more is that you should clip coupons and watch for sales. I think Safeway offers double coupons which will double the discount on manufacturer's coupons. It sounds like a pain but I spend about 30 minutes a week going over the store ads and coupons and I probably save an average of $30 on my weekly grocery trip. It's worth it.

I agree with all the above comments but what really saved me grocery money was using the store ads to plan my weekly menu (or to be honest - twice weekly) and sticking to my list.

I actually dont find wholefoods to be that expensive. I used to thing that but since i went vegan, I started shopping there instead of Safeway and Giant and i found that alot of the store brand items at wholefoods are really decently priced. Comparing the organic stuff at wholefoods to the pricing of organic things at like a giant, its actually much better at wholefoods. Im sure that different locations the prices are higher/lower based on region but ive definately changed my mindset that conventional grocery stores have better prices on organics or produce. Not too mention that alot of the in season produce is local which is a plus. When I can I go to the farmers market too but even that has gotten a little pricey.

I agree with Lauren. Sit down once a week and plan out the week---dinners and lunches. As other have said, cooking for one means you'll probably freeze a lot and have leftovers.

My husband and I spend only $150-$200 total on groceries a month and we eat really really well. It's done by planning things out, having a list, and sticking to the list, and not buying any junk food/soda/etc.

If you cook 3 times a week, you'll have six dinners (with leftovers). If there even more leftovers, freeze it and have one less meal to buy next week.

Healthy food is not that expensive if you buy fruits and veggies that are in season and local. You can find a lot of really great deals on these. So if it's December, don't buy strawberries, there's going to be a ridiculous markup from having to ship them from Peru.

Whole foods can be reasonable. Their 365 organic line is cheaper than organics at Walmart, Safeway, King Soopers, etc 90% of the time.... I CHECKED! The only way to cut grocery store moolah too deeply is by eating UNHEALTHY! Check your priorites, most cultures spend about 20% income on groceries, Americans only 10%. Could be why Americans are disgustingly unhealthy, on the whole.

Wow anon, I'm so glad you came here and set us all straight. It's simply untrue that eating healthy = expensive, and eating unhealthy = cheap. It's just not. I used to eat tons of junk food and spent double what I pay now that I eat mainly whole foods and healthy food.

I don't have a Whole Foods in my area, but I've heard that it can be fairly pricey. I would say a good thing to do would be to research the "dirty dozen"...the 12 fruits/veggies that you should absolutely buy organic. There are many fruits/veggies that you can buy conventionally and they aren't that bad. Onions, broccoli, cabbage, asparagus, locally-grown tomatoes, garlic, etc. don't usually have pesticides applied to them. I would also encourage you to look for a local butcher for your meats. Our city has a butcher that sells locally raised animals and their prices are actually lower than the grocery store. Also, when you shop, avoid buying a ton of stuff that you might not actually need..plan a few meals for the week and buy what you need for them. I also keep a fridge inventory of what I have in there so I don't overbuy produce that could spoil.

In the summer, definitely hit up the farmer's markets for locally grown produce. Cheap, cheap, food! Or if you can, plant a garden or volunteer in a community garden. Or become good friends with someone who does have a garden and ask them to share with you. My neighbor grows tomatoes and cucumbers and other stuff in her garden and she can never eat all of it, so I get as much as I want.

I agree with planning your week of meals. I use the store ads to decide what I am going to eat, if it's on sale I will be finding a recipe to go with it. Also, I go to the asian market near me. The produce is half the price of the grocery. Alot of the items are organic but they are off sized so they do not pay to get the certifications because they can't sell at places like whole foods. I also have a garden during the summer and freeze and can alot of things.
Oh and most important of all. Stick to your list. Impulse shopping is a budget killer!

Syako you are crazy! Eating healthy costs more. Too deny that is just ridiculous. The U of Wa did a study that was posted in NYT in which it was reported that eating a nutrient dense diet FRUITS VEGGIES LEAN PROTEINS costs like 20x more than eating cheaply. Yes, if you go to WF and buy the organic cookies and other crap you can still eat cheaplyish. However, eating fruits and veggies (and it recommended we eat like 10 servings/d) is simply not cheap no matter how you slice or dice it (fresh, frozen, canned).

I think you must be eating somewhat crappily still. Good luck with you health in 20 yrs.

Also everyone keeps citing eating lentils as their healthy cheap alternative. Lentils are fine, but do you really eat lentils daily. A balanced diet includes lean protein, moderate amounts of carbs, and LOTS of fruits and veggies. A lentil heavy diet will be way too carby, also you could become nutrient deficient if you ate lentils and beans all the time in place of other nutrient dense foods.

Actually, whole foods 365 brand is way, way cheaper than Safeway, and probably on par with everything at trader joes.

Eat more beans and less meat. Beans are cheap and healthy. Meat is neither. Not to mention all the ethical reasons for avoiding animal products.

Other legumes are your friends too, and like people said, frozen veggies.

It's amazing that an anonymous poster knows more about me and my eating habits than I do myself.

When I ate "crappily" I would always have bags of chips, cookies, ice cream, juices, soda, etc. etc. in my cart... albeit each one of those might have been "cheaper" than a bag of apples (which they won't, where are you shopping??) the sheer amount of food that I had in my pantry for snacking cost probably twice as much as what I spend now.

Check out http://blog.greensherpa.com/index.php/family-budgeting/4-relatively-pain... for some great tips on how to keep your grocery budget low

Ok Syako, there is no point in arguing with you. I am sure you cut calories and are eating about half as much as when you were snacking and that is hypothetically why your food cost could go down. NO OTHER WAY!

You make no sense.

I'm still confused at this animosity from an anonymous commenter? Maybe if you logged in it would make sense how much you know about me and how much I spend at the grocery store.