How I feed my family of 5 well on $125 a week by Cameron Huddleston on Jul 26, 2016, 3:14 PM Advertisement
 A family of four spends, on average, $243.70 per week on food at home with a moderate plan, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data from May 2016. Of course, that amount can be less with a thrifty plan — $148.50, on average, for families with children between 6 and 11. The average for a liberal plan featuring larger quantities of food is a shocking $296.30 per week. Most weeks, I beat even the lowest average for food spending at home — and I buy organic items, fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses and more for a family of five. I have two daughters who are 9 and 11 and a 4-year-old son who often eats twice as much as his sisters. And I’d say our meal plan is moderate, not thrifty. Now, I know that there are people who can buy $200 worth of groceries for $20 with avid couponing. However, I manage to feed my family well for about $125 per week, without spending hours searching for coupons. Here’s how I do it. Related: 35 Ways to Save Hundreds on Groceries SEE ALSO: One couple fed themselves for 6 months on less than $200 by eating the food no one else wanted 1. I shop at the store with the lowest prices One of the best ways I’ve found to keep the cost of groceries down is to shop at the store with the best prices. So, I have spent time figuring out which area supermarkets have the lowest prices. After filling my cart with items we typically buy at Kroger, Meijer and Walmart — the three major stores in my town — I determined that I pay about 20 percent less shopping at Walmart. (Note: Aldi is even cheaper than Walmart, but its selection is too small for me to do all of my shopping there.) This is a price comparison exercise that you only have to do once to get an idea of which supermarket is cheapest. Second, I check the stores’ circulars online each week to see which one is offering the best discounts on items we want. This task isn’t very time consuming, and it helps me determine whether to head to Walmart with its “everyday low prices” or one of the other supermarkets.
2. I join supermarket loyalty programs An easy way to cut costs at the supermarket is to sign up for the store’s free loyalty program. For example, Kroger offers discounts — which are clearly labeled on shelves — to customers with Kroger Plus cards. Once you swipe your card at the checkout counter (or enter the phone number linked to the card), the discounts are automatically applied. I saved about $50 on my last shopping trip with the Plus card by buying items I needed that were on sale. I also created an account on the Kroger website and linked my card to emails notifying me of sales and special offers on items I frequently buy. And I load store or manufacturer coupons from the Kroger site to my card.
 3. I use supermarket apps I downloaded the free mobile apps of the supermarkets where I shop for those times when I forget to check for deals online before heading to the store. The Kroger app even shows sale items based on your shopping history. And you can quickly scroll through coupons and clip them to your Plus card for discounts at checkout. With the Meijer app, I can also clip coupons and offers from the store’s loyalty program, mPerks, and add them to my account for savings at checkout. The Walmart app lets me see the weekly ad and use Savings Catcher to scan my receipts and get an electronic gift card for the difference in price, if a local competitor has a lower advertised rate on eligible items. Related: 10 Best Home Improvement Apps
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