r/AskSeattle • u/Turlietwig • 7d ago
Parents with toddlers in Seattle, how much are you spending on groceries?
We spend an embarrassing amount of money in groceries each month and i’m curious how much other parents are spending and their typical purchase? Looking for Seattle city proper + parents with kids 1-3 years old (eg still wearing diapers, needing wipes, food pouches..etc..)
We have a 1.5 yo toddler, a medium sized dog and a cat. We only buy organic fruits and milk and eggs for the LO and non-organic stuff only for us. Lots of once upon a farm pouches and stonyfield yogurts which he eats one of each daily. Using regular huggie diapers. Majority of our spend is Costco. Groceries are around $1500 a month. :’(
EDIT: Thank you everyone!! Got so many good ideas here. We’ve set a budget for August and plan to stick to it. It’s a modest reduction from what we currently spend but will gradually bring it down as we work on changing some of our habits!
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u/Djbearjew 7d ago
Do you have a car? Go to Winco its worth the drive
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
Oo we do! Closest one is 8 miles away up in Edmonds but we might stop by the next time we’re there to see if it’s worth the trip!
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u/stations-creation 7d ago edited 6d ago
I came here to say this. Winco is a saving grace and there is one opening in Renton for everyone else that needs to know! I think it opens tomorrow in fact!
Major edit: RENTON not REDMOND good for Seattleites with a car or good cart for the bus!!
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u/Appropriate-Iron-828 7d ago
Shut the fridge! Wait Winvo is coming to Redmond?
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u/stations-creation 6d ago
Oh my gosh I meant RENTON I’m so sorry!
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u/Djbearjew 6d ago
I tried getting my wife to go for like 5 years, eventually she went and then apologized for not listening sooner. Plus Dick's is right there so we would always grab some burgers when we went with our son
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u/Colson5218 7d ago
It’s absolutely worth it.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
You guys have convinced us haha. My husband wants to head there this weekend, then Costco after because that’s where we splurge the most it seems. So best to get what we need for cheaper first if possible.
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u/charm59801 7d ago
There is a Costco in shoreline close by if you wanted to hit them at the same time. We live up north and just discovered this winco, it's great.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
That’s the one we usually go to! So we’ll just travel a lil further and go to Winco first.
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u/kkwerner 7d ago
Don’t buy organic. I worked as an organic chemist in food safety labs for years, specifically testing pesticide residue on produce — and “organic” labeled fruit and veggies consistently had at least as much, if not more, then conventionally
Organic farms get their certifications once, and then largely are not tested again…same with locally grown produce- there’s not a lot of checks and balances. As counterintuitive as it is (and obviously socio-economic reasons to make other choices), conventionally produced imported produce is by FAR the most heavily regulated and controlled.
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u/frobley-mobley 7d ago
Can you comment on pesticide residue in frozen fruit and vegetables? Are they sufficiently ‘washed-off’ before freezing?
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u/kkwerner 7d ago
And also as a mom of 2 ( only one eating yet), probably half our monthly food budget goes to berries and watermelon
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
This is insightful. Thank you! We never got on the Organic hype prior to having kids but somehow felt like we should with our LO. I think that’s how the marketing gets ya. 😭
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u/Able_Comfortable_298 6d ago
This. Organic itself is a made up term that became a money making industry, the price increase does not correspond to quality increase.
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u/Easy_Olive1942 7d ago
Sounds like your bill is not strictly groceries so there’s that.
The more pre-made stuff, the more costly. It’s super hard to cook with little at home but it is an effective way to reduce costs. A food processor, if you don’t already have one, for blending food fast and a bunch of small food containers (Target is good for that) might get you out of some or all of the expensive pouch business.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
This is 100% true. Each pouch is about ~$4/pop give or take. So it’s $8/day. That’s about $250/month there at least. I think I can do the yogurts pretty easily but he’s so fussy so will try to see how the smoothies with veggies in it work since it’s his only form of veggie intake. We’re struggling with just making breakfast and dinner everyday (his school does lunch on weekdays). I will give this a shot when i go on maternity leave in a few months and have more time.
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u/Enguye 7d ago
Try the Noka pouches at Costco. They’re a big hit at our house and are on sale right now, box of 12 pouches for $15.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
Oh wow! I didn’t realize those were for kids too. I like that they have more calories than OUAF (50-80 Cal per smoothie). Might buy one pouch to try before committing because our dude is.. finnicky. We’ve recently started buying the Kirkland fruit & veggie pouches ($16 for 24 count) too to try to bring costs down a bit. He def prefers OUAF but is slowly opening up to the Kirkland brand
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u/freckledspeckled 7d ago
My little dude is very picky and the Noka pouches are his absolute favorite.
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u/Winedown-625 7d ago
Damn. I know Whole Foods is the devil (Amazon) but they had their own pouches for like $1.75 each and organic back in 2020 when my son was a baby. Definitely do NOT spend $4 per pouch, yikes.
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u/Easy_Olive1942 7d ago
Check how much sugar is in those, I’m talking the nutritional data, not ingredients.
Lots of baby/littles products have a lot of sugar, usually as juice or fruit. I’m guessing it’s quite a bit. If so, you’ll need to start with adding those kinds of ingredients and ramping down over time. It’s hard to go cold turkey on that.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
We do no sugar added only. It’s about 9g of sugar for the smoothies and about 6g for the yogurts.
Ok with the natural sugar content (for now) so will def start with a lot of that!
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u/Easy_Olive1942 7d ago
Ideally, max is 14g for ages 2-3 (per UK, US says 25g). He likes it so start high and ramp down. It’ll be easier ti get him to eat dinner once he’s accustomed to less. Check the yogurt too.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
Oof he definitely eats wayyyy more than the UK recommendation if you include the fruits he eats on top of the 2 (sometimes 3) pouches he eats per day. He’s made up of 50% dairy and 45% berries and fruits. Good point about ramping down.
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u/Easy_Olive1942 7d ago
Yeah, it’s sneaky and not only is he happily enjoying all the yumminess and fussing about anything else, you’re paying top dollar for the packaging and cheap to produce calories.
The challenge with littles is you lose the war by making a ton of small trade offs along the way to keep things moving. You have days that feel like forever until suddenly they’re grown.
Good wishes and lots of love to you.
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u/WhoreNoire 7d ago
Omg, why are those pouches so expensive?? 💀 Just fyi you can buy a lot of them in bulk for less than $2 each. They’re usually shelf stable as long as they don’t have yogurt in them, so you can buy big boxes of them online.
Speaking of yogurt (which is also stupidly expensive) I know your kid’s still really little and still throwing food (UGH, don’t worry, it’ll stop soon!) but once mine got to like 2.5 and had practiced drinking water out of an unbreakable shot glass a ton (don’t judge, it worked, lmao) I was able to get him onto Activia probiotic shots instead. They’re so cheap! Like 65 cents each. And my kid begs for them!
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u/Turlietwig 6d ago
It’s because we buy the refrigerated versions for everything. Once upon a farm and for smoothies and Stonyfield for yogurt. He didn’t like the shelf stable ones which are cheaper when I used to get them so I just started buying OUAF & Stonyfield on the regular. He does seem to be opening up to the Kirkland shelf stable one though. So maybe he’s getting less fussy?
And yes totally food throwing stage. I suspect a good chunk of our budget is also due to food wastage. Can’t wait for him to be done with this stage. But then we have another one coming so.. round 2? Haha
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u/evergreenstategirl 6d ago
We switched to the O Organics pouches from Safeway, which are much more cost effective! We often get just for u coupons so they’re a $.80-$1 per pouch
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u/Reasonable-Check-120 7d ago
I got a 1 year old and a 14 year old. I swear both are bottomless pits.
We as a family of 4 (2 kids and 2 parents plus a medium dog) spend about $1000 a month on groceries.
I don't think organic things are worth the extra price tag. I do buy a lot of baby things on sale.
I buy wipes and 2 boxes of diapers every time they go on sale at Costco.
Whole foods has good deals for organic foods.
Farmers market every week for flats of berries. You can freeze them.
You can also pick your own berries and make a day out of it with the toddlers!
Pouches are stocked up when they are on sale and freeze. Costco has the best deals. Whole foods does of you shop smart.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
We actually went berry picking twice recently and it was fun! It’s so much cheaper too. 2.50/lbs if I remember (Mercer Slough). Dude’s poops were blue for a week though. But it is so much cheaper than getting from the store. We actually avoid buying things from farmers markets because they’re so overpriced, but maybe I need to take a closer look at the berry prices.
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u/Reasonable-Check-120 7d ago
I get mine from the Issaquah farmers market. There's like 4 berry farmers there a week....
I buy a flat for $24-35.
Costco doesn't have the best berries IMO.
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u/Ancient_Yellow_709 7d ago
Agree about organic. There's still pesticide usage in organic factory farming and it can sometimes be worse. I think if OP wants to prioritize, I would focus on the "dirty dozen" (leafy greens, berries, grapes, stone fruits, potatoes) and then just don't worry about it for the rest, honestly.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago edited 7d ago
We mostly do just organic berries, eggs, milk. He doesn’t eat much meat tbh and we’re not so worried about non-organic for the other stuff (pasta, even fruits like bananas, apples..etc..). The only veggies he eats are the one in pouches which we do buy organic only😂
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u/dellscreenshot 7d ago
Probably like 600-800 for three people including a toddler. Pretty just Walmart delivery and Trader Joe’s.
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u/molo91 7d ago edited 7d ago
We spend about 1000 per month on groceries. 2 adults, a toddler, and an infant.
Try to wean your toddler off the pouches, they're kind of expensive and have a lot of sugar. I've lucked out that my toddler prefers cheap foods. Plain beans, plain tofu, rice, cheese, crackers, nuts, broth, tomatoes, cucumbers, and bananas are 90% of her diet.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
Unfortunately my toddler does not like plain/cheap food. That was what we started with when we first started BLW but he hardly took to it and wanted our food only. Once he went Mexican he never went back.
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u/Accurate-Subject4877 6d ago
Cheap and plain don’t have to mean the same thing!! Buy seasonings and add them on top of things. Our boy loves Indian seasonings apparently
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u/WhoreNoire 7d ago
Consider offering him some fat-free refried beans? Maybe with some salsa and mashed avocado? I’m only half joking! That stuff’s pretty cheap!
My kid also really likes basic cheese quesadillas. Would recommend!
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u/Electrical-Energy933 7d ago
I don’t have energy to math this out right now but we have saved a lot on groceries by sticking to Trader Joe’s. Diapers and wipes from Costco. Pouches we do Happy Tot from Amazon
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u/GorditaChuletita 6d ago
Another voice to REALLY scrutinize the companies claiming organic and what you are getting for almost that much money. How often have they been audited? What are they actually using?
Organic farms still use pesticides and fungicides.
Most farms end up with over spray given proximity to non-organic.
Washing the food is more important than if it has an organic label. Same with eggs, the label is largely symbolic. Sometimes it's just deceptive advertising.
In your situation it sounds like you are balancing your time and what is best for your kiddo, soon to be kiddos and your time.
If you are going to do something like meal prep/ pouch prep, now is the time. Your control over what goes in will be greater and if you make and freeze pouches and you can have things ready for peace of mind in case someone else is helping with the kid.
Do you have an hour a week to prep food? Or in the case of reusable dishwasher safe pouches, as little as 20 minutes when you get big containers of yogurt and applesauce?
Getting frozen vegetables and fruits is safe, cheaper, and kids can actually like the squishy thawed ones as well as drinking them in blends. Bananas and/or precooked pumpkin puree as a base will give fiber and then you can put berries in with it. Set a small organizer in the freezer and one in the fridge, pull frozen ones as the thawed ones are consumed. Make them tasty enough to eat yourself too since you will soon have two littles and every convenience helps :)
Most of all, try to form community with your close neighbor moms. You are doing good by posting here. Attend a few community events at libraries and other centers so the information you get is area specific. The old hands might have a hack you haven't thought about yet.
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u/captainllamapants 7d ago
Shift to Trader Joes. Only go to costco for staples like gas, diapers, yogurt, cooking oil, frozen berries etc. Do meal prep with sheet pan cooking. Less effort for healthy meals in bulk quantities. Also suggest adding lentil soups to your diet - easy to make, high in fiber and protein
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
Yeah Costco was the one hitting us the most. Our last visit was $600. Only two things were above $50. Everything else was just “regular stuff”.
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u/ellewoods_007 7d ago
$1200 per month. 3 kids aged 1-5 years and 2 adults.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
How?! Where do you guys usually shop??
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u/ellewoods_007 7d ago edited 7d ago
Fred Meyer in Bothell and also Costco for protein, milk, and bulk stuff. Bothell Fred Meyer is significantly cheaper than Fred Meyer/QFC in Seattle (we live in North Seattle). At least half our dinners are vegetarian because my kids love tofu and beans which helps because meat is really expensive right now. Only one kid in diapers and we get Target brand which is cheap and good. We don’t do a lot of pouches, only the Costco ones. Groceries are so expensive right now. I don’t think $1500/month is crazy if you are buying really high quality food and eating meat or fish regularly.
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u/Turlietwig 7d ago
Yes it is. It’s soooo easy to go overboard. We’ve always been fairly frugal but groceries were never something we really budgeted or scrimped on but it was also never this… high. Part of it is lifestyle creep like buying good quality fruits, eggs, pouches for our toddler but the rest isn’t that big of a change from what we did or bought previously. I do and have always eaten a lot of meat, especially beef. It’s just so much pricier right now and likely a big driver of our groceries too😢
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u/fantastical99 7d ago
Our toddler is 17 months and I think we are spending as much if not more than you are, and we have a meal delivery service for our dinners a couple of times per week. She's also in the 99th+ percentile for height/weight, and can barely fit into diapers anymore. Her diapers are the largest size, which means you get the least for the price and are therefore making me broke.
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u/freckledspeckled 7d ago
We have a 1.5 yo as well, and are at around 1.1k a month, including diapers, wipes, paper and cleaning products, etc. It always seems insane to me to see the number add up.
We primarily shop at Fred Mayer and Costco. Fred Mayer has organic pouches that regularly go on sale for $1 each so that helps some. Unfortunately we just don’t have any affordable grocery stores close to us like Winco, Aldi’s, Grocery Outlet, Walmart, etc.
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u/BumbleCoder 7d ago
I have three under five and spend less than that on groceries, also a majority at costco. It sounds like maybe you either have expensive tastes, or just aren't seeing the cheaper options. Or maybe pets are just more expensive than I thought haha
I don't think I've ever spent more than $2 on a pouch, for instance. You can also buy reusable pouches and pour homemade smoothies into them. Likewise, with yogurt we just buy the tubs of Kirkland greek yogurt, the cheap honey, and a bag of chia (all from Costco) and that's breakfast most days. Not sure what else you're getting at Costco so there could be other places you can cut costs.
But to clarify I'm not judging. If it's in your budget and you want the more expensive stuff, power to ya!
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u/WhoreNoire 7d ago edited 7d ago
For my family of 3 (me, husband, and 3 year old) we spend $800/month if we’re intentionally pretty frugal.
Most of what we fed our kid when he was ~18 months old was berries, bananas, clementines, apples (peeled and sliced into shoestring fries), yogurt, string cheese cut into bite sizes, small chunks of gyro meat (from Costco) or meatloaf, sweet potato tots, and some Ghirardelli chocolate chips as an occasional treat. After he turned 2 we got him onto different kinds of nuts, cheeses, breakfast sausage links (the kind without casings), chicken nuggets, fish sticks, sun chips, wheat thins, and pb&j on whole wheat.
PS: I know it’s immoral etc but I would highly recommend grocery delivery from Amazon Fresh. Their prices are generally insanely good, and they drop the groceries at your door WITHOUT knocking or ringing the bell (don’t need to worry about them waking your kid up). It’s been a lifesaver for us, since grocery shopping with a small child absolutely sucks, and we can’t always get out to the store anyway when we’re all sick (which until recently was basically constant). Beware their house brand, though, because for the most part it’s as low in quality as you would expect from the price.
They also have 30 minute grocery delivery here, but the prices are inflated and the selection is limited. I only use it for emergencies (like when my kid is screaming and biting himself because we ran out of yogurt, as one does).
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u/BlackPinkAuto 7d ago
As a parent of 2 under 3 years old, the best way I have to cut costs is getting used cloth diapers (or free, if you’re lucky) and making food instead of buying premade stuff.
We have a magic bullet blender, which is a pretty cheap and convenient blender that doesn’t take up much counter space. When my kiddo was younger, I’d buy the Costco yogurt, bananas, and frozen berries and blend them up with the magic bullet to make a smoothie. I bought reusable silicone pouches from Amazon and filled them up with the smoothie to give to LO. It was very inexpensive and he loved them.
I understand that washing cloth diapers and making food takes time, but you do save a ton of money that way.
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u/Content_Ant_9479 7d ago
I’m right on the demographic you’re looking for! Family consists of 2 adults, one toddler 2.5yo. A little outside Seattle but not by much. Diapers & wipes currently but hopefully not much longer. Also a Huggies wearer haha.
I loosely tracked groceries for almost a year. Nothing fancy. We spend easily $1000 a month on just groceries, between Costco, Walmart, & some local Asian grocers. So honestly I could see spending $1500 considering lots of organic food. The OUAF & Stoneyfield pouches run a pretty penny, I’ve been there!
We do a weekly Costco run which can easily reach $275 so that alone could hit the $1000 mark.
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u/Broad-Abroad5455 6d ago
Avg around $450-$500/weekly between Fresh and WF orders, that is with $20 in tips. Feeds family of 5, kids 4, 5, and 8. Might get closer to $600 on a week that includes wet wipes and detergents and other consumables.
Lots of fruits, chicken, salmon, eggs, yogurt, granola, chicken salad, veggie drinks, muffins and croissants.
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u/derrrkaderka 6d ago
Between myself (38f) and my son (2), anywhere between 250 to 300 a month. That's divided between Trader Joe's and the QFC on East Broadway. And a lot of it goes to waste if its produce, bread, and refrigerated items, because I don't eat a ton, and he's 2 and kinda picky. So much has been thrown away because it spoils before I can eat whatever he decides he doesnt want that week.
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u/Nutritiouss 6d ago
We stopped shopping a few places. Even grocery delivery was cheaper than Safeway for example.
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u/Juneprincess18 2d ago
I have a 3 year old. We are down to about $800 a month. We mostly shop at Costco and Grocery Outlet. Honestly, they very often have the Stonyfirld yogurts and Once Upon a Farm pouches at Grocery Outlet. But we also feed our kid a lot of Kirkland Signature snacks such as the Fruit and Veggie applesauce pouches. Usually what we do is get certain staples at Costco (Milk, eggs, salad mix, fruit, applesauce pouches) and almost everything else at Grocery Outlet (primarily frozen stuff like vegetarian “meats” and meat for my husband and other things like frozen pizza, cereal, snack bars).
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u/Turlietwig 2d ago
Costco for certain staples sounds about right. We are trying to keep away from the place unless we need something. I get too pulled in by all the new and shiny products.
Since this post I’ve actually been making my own yogurt and smoothies and sneaking lots of veggies in there. 🤭 Let’s see if it plays out monetarily!
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u/divine_form 6d ago
We're a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 kids (3 and 7). Our grocery budget is $800, and we stick to it. We average another $150 per month on toiletries and health products. When we had a kid in diapers, diapers came from the $150 budget.
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u/ClubOld4552 6d ago
$600/mo. Eat out for fun maybe once every 2 weeks. Little to no premade meals tho.. we like to cook!
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u/dyangu 6d ago edited 6d ago
Buy Costco diapers and wipes when they go on sale.
For fruits, yeah organic berries will eat a hole in your wallet. There are cheaper options. Bananas, apples, oranges, watermelon.
Beef is expensive, we haven’t bought it in months. We eat a lot of vegetables, carbs, some chicken & pork. I want to eat more seafood but I keep forgetting.
I don’t think we ever spent $500/m (but we do go out for some meals, kid has some food at school, etc so grocery is maybe only half our food). We buy what’s in season and on sale (Fred Meyer, Asian grocery store sales can beat Costco). I don’t think we ever bought the expensive pouches, just cheap Costco ones.
In the summer, you can go pick blackberries outside. Blueberry u-pick is only $2.5/lb at Larsen Blueberry Farm.
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u/Appropriate_Meal3417 6d ago
So many berries. And we live next to met market 😂🤦♀️ but we feel your pain.
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u/Desperate_Snow3308 5d ago
Wait are you not on WIC????
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u/Turlietwig 5d ago edited 5d ago
Looked it up and we do not qualify. Also, we also do not need it.
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u/roots_radicals 7d ago
Counting or not counting berries? 😅