The $1800 Grocery Bill

Darren writes:

Hi Gary,

I am at a loss. My wife and I both work and we have 4 kids. We make good money between us but are always living paycheck to paycheck. One big problem is our grocery spending. I was looking at last month's expenses and saw that we spent over $1800 in groceries over the month at one grocery store (that is not a typo). There were a few other stops in there as well at some convenience stores. The really sad thing is we aren't eating steak and lobster - we eat frozen burgers 3-4 times a week and tacos.

As mentioned we both work and although I appreciate suggestions about making everything from scratch, that is not feasible for us. Most times during the week we are not eating dinner until 8pm. We try to shop at Costco (Sam's Club, etc.) but all that does is rack up a huge $400-600 bill there and then we still "run to the store" 3-4 times a week.

I am at the point of seriously considering paying someone to help us plan our grocery spending and meal planning. Anything I can try first?

Read the response from Gary Foreman (aka The Dollar Stretcher") and get tips for slashing your own grocery bill here:
http://www.momscape.com/articles/grocery-bill.htm