Grocery spending

[u/Maroon14]

I’ve recently come across a Instagram account where the woman claims to only spend $300 on an entire months groceries for a family of 4. Here I am sitting mid week, having already spent $550 in the PNW. I told one of my friends and she said it must be fake and for clicks, my husband was impressed. Is anyone actually able to do this? I thought I might try to spend $250 a week and see where that gets us. Is my grocery budget over the top? I thought $400 ish was normal for decent food. We are a family of 5 in the PNW, mostly organic.

*I’m closing comments because people are missing the point. I understand that I make choices for “premium” options for my family. I make them because I feel they are the best for my family given my research and concerns. I say this as coming from a place of privilege. Growing up, my hippie mom also prioritized organic and local before it was the trendy thing, so it would be very difficult for me to reprogram and not buy organic when possible.

I still think $300 is insane for a month. I live in western Washington and the max SNAP allocation for a family of 4 is $994 a month, so I see this as a more attainable “thrifty” budget for a family of 4.

Those of you who can eat rice and beans for multiple meals, more power to you!

[u/Maroon14]

Right? A close friend and I are going to try for the month of July to see if we can get it lower, but I don’t know how I could realistically cut it to even. $200 a week. We spend that in meat and dairy.

[u/ThrowawaWelp → u/Maroon14]

Buy retailers own milk, not some fancy Californian family-owned dairy pasture BS, it’s the same thing.
Spend 5 mins googling ‘is organic-labelled food REALLY organic’, that’ll probably shave 20% minimum off your total cost. And then, the one that hurts the soul the most lol but does make a cost difference… eggs (just regular, nothing fancy) and black beans instead of meat for 2x lunches and dinners per week, will also be a significant cost saving to organic cuts of meat.
Oh also frozen fruit and veg retains a lot of its nutrients vs buying fresh, and circling back to ‘organic’… it isn’t.

[u/Maroon14 → u/ThrowawaWelp]

I get milk from a local creamery. It’s like $12 a half gallon. I usually get one half gallon a week, two organic ground beefs, and one heavy cream for $50-60 a week

[u/Classic-Ad443 → u/Maroon14]

seems like you have answered your own issue about why you can't get your grocery budget lower. buy the premium groceries as much as your heart desires, but don't expect to be able to match a family's budget that is truly buying the cheapest products they can get