Grocery shopping

I hate going to the store.. Before you leave you ask everyone in the house what they need or want and everyone says, Oh it doesn't matter.. I don't care.. Your gone for and hour and a half struggling with decisions and prices to come home to.. I can't believe you didn't get this, why didn't you get that.. yang yang.. To make room for the groceries you bought you have to throw out the crap load that's gone bad. Dollar here a dollar there and before you know it you realize you just threw 20 or more bucks in the trash of wasted or spoiled food. Is there a rule that people aren't allowed to eat the last serving of chips? The last drink? Or left overs? As the prices rise at the store I'm noticing even more how much we waste. We are a family of 5.. the age range in the house is between an almost 2 year old to 40 years old. 40, 36, 19, 8, 2.... Our groceries total over 1000 a month. That's not including the Zaxbys or McDonalds we may pick up during the week, or on a lazy weekend. It's out of control. I seriously want to find a way to cut that in half. It may take me a while to learn but I think it can be done. We eat pretty good around here, but the snacking is our biggest issue. Teenagers snack, toddlers snack, Hubby snacks, and I'd rather snack then eat a meal. I think I'm going to try my hardest to try to find cheap somewhat healthy meals for this family... We need to venture out. I want my family to eat healthy but I know in reality unless you grow it yourself or trust that everything that says it's organic really is then you just have to go with it and hope for the best. I've cut out the juice. Yes, I watched Dr. Oz and haven't bought juice since. We've survived! I buy fruit and veggies.... I do have to resort to some canned foods.. I hate boxed food. No one will eat hamburger helper. I don't even know if we've ever tried it. Frozen foods creep me out, other then pizza rolls and bagel bites. I could probably live off of those. I don't buy them often because I will eat them ALL... I'm on a mission to cheapen our grocery bill and find or make my own recipes that don't cost an arm and a leg. I've noticed some things at the store have even doubled in price. The store brand milk is at the same price I used to purchase organic milk for. Green tea added 45 cents per bottle! String cheese is over 5 bucks. Hamburger meat is up a dollar... it's everywhere. I can't believe the rise in prices. What a great time to do this to customers. I used to never buy off brands but lately I've tried a few things. Some aren't any different while others just need to stop being made. But you never know unless you give it a shot. We drink instant coffee, both my husband and myself would rather have that then brewed (weird huh?) I decided to try the store brand because it was 3 dollars cheaper then the kind we typically purchase. I didn't tell my husband and when I brought him that first cup I knew he was going to ask me what kind of shit is this? BUT he didn't say a word. He didn't see the container until after he'd been drinking it for 3 weeks. He gave me an odd look when he seen it and asked me if this is what I got instead of our norm and then said he didn't even notice.. yay 3 bucks saved!! Milk store brand 2 bucks saved!! Doesn't sound like much but add that up and that's a total of 20 bucks a month. I also decided to try out a different laundry detergent.. We have for the past 20 years switched between Gain and Tide. I couldn't imagine using anything different until now. I've been using Purex.. And I really do like it. I tried Arm and Hammer and it just didn't cut it. My husband gets pretty dirty at work and that wasn't strong enough. We've also been using cheaper shampoo. My husband still likes our old kind so I get that for him. But even the shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and mouth wash adds up in this house. The baby uses baby product, she has her own shampoo, soap, toothpaste, lotion... Our 8 year old, has her own tooth paste mouth wash and deodorant, me and the teen use the same... then my husband uses all his products. I'm going to start couponing for ALL of that stuff... It's too costly and somethings got to give. There are so many ways to cut corners I've just been blind to it for all these years. Sometimes letting go of what your used to is hard, but giving other things a try could lead to something you like even better or something you could learn to like.. I'll start this week.... HOPEFULLY!!