Food Budget

One of my biggest struggles in my role as wife/mother/general-picker-upper is sticking to a budget. Sometimes it's my impulsiveness that gets in the way, sometimes I don't keep track of what I'm spending, but more and more often, it's simply the cost of groceries that causes me problems.

Our big grocery expenses this time last year were formula and diapers. Wendy's off formula now, and we use cloth diapers, so both of those items are gone. Wendy doesn't eat much; I think her diet is responsible for about $30 per month of our overall grocery expenditures. (That's a big word.)

Even with those significant savings, our monthly grocery spending is more than last year. And it seems like it's creeping up all the time. I try to make a trip to the store once a week, and alternate a big trip with a small trip, since usually every other week we only need the perishable stuff.

I know I could probably save more if I shopped around, but with gas prices being what they are, I don't really feel free to drive around a bunch looking for deals. We used coupons a lot for a while, but decided that we were pretty much breaking even after figuring the cost of the newspaper. I haven't been using my Sam's Club membership, and that's something I'm going to start again, to hopefully save money on things we can buy in bulk.

I guess all this rambling is my way of asking you for help. What do you do to help keep grocery costs down? Are you happy with your grocery budget? Are there cheap sources of healthy food that I'm overlooking?