What's your grocery bill per month?

So, tonight I broke a sacred vow...

I once vowed that I will never, ever tally how much I spend on bodybuilding each month. I wish I kept that vow.

As it turns out, my grocery bill (which includes supplements, muscle building food and the regular house crap) came to R11,666 this month! Now, bear in mind that my wife and I have no children.

This got me thinking. How much do other fitness/bodybuilding folks budget monthly for food and supplements?

I'm consuming roughly 2500 calories per day (Three protein and carb meals and three protein and fat meals) and am using the following supplements:

SSN Cytoguard (three times daily)
SSN Cytomaize (Pre workout)
Nutritech Amino Boost (Pre workout)
Nutritech Whey
Nutritech HCL creatine

There are a lot of ways to save money on your food and supp bill and i can tell you now you can do so by dropping all supps listed except the whey.

Not sure what you using as protein, carb and fat sources but the following are cheap

Protein:
Chicken Breast
Eggs
Roast beef (make your own mince)

Carbs:
Rice
Oats
Potatoes
Fibrous veggies

Fats:
Oils
Nuts
Peanut Butter

Yeah i know that doesn't leave a lot of variety but if your on a budget or trying to cut down on cost then worrying about the palate should be last priority.

Is your wife a bodybuilder too? Do you exclusively shop at Woolworths?

Add: I wrote this in March 2013 so disregard the exact price amounts.

Pyroclasm wrote: To add to the cheaper shopping...

FIND places that have good discounts every while and when things go on discount buy in bulk. For example I buy all my veg, carbs, eggs, cold meats and sometimes meat at Food Lovers Market, but only when they are on sale.

I buy most of my meat at Super Servings, and again only when on special but then I buy enough for about three months. That way I get chicken breasts at R39/kg, lean mince at R39/kg, biltong at R129/kg, fillet steak at R99/kg, etc. It's top quality meat as well.

Then buy all the non-perishables at Makro.

It makes a huge difference shopping this way! Forget woolies!

Have a look here too

Using the food sources i provided and working on a 2500 cal diet with the following macros

Pro - 275g
Carbs - 162g
Fats - 74g

Your shouldn't be paying more then 1800 a month.

In all honesty, this past month may have been a bit over the top because both my wife and I have been seriously short on time. The most convenient places for us have been Woolies and Spar.

I generally buy my chicken directly from the same abattoir that supplies Woolies- at a fraction of the price. I mostly buy red meat from Meat World. Their "fat free mince" is R65 per kilo. I prefer their mince because I know what parts of the animal they're grinding to make it...

I've looked at my diet and supplementation plan and can confirm that my nutrition should not exceed R5000 per month- the extra supplements included.

The reason I take the supps I take is simple:

I work very long and strange hours and I have found that adding in the extra aminos helps with my endurance and muscle preservation. If I could ever pick one supplement to use it would be Cytoguard. That stuff works really well with my body. In the past, when times were tough, I've dropped whey protein altogether with no negative side effects to my training.

Fakey_AK wrote: Using the food sources i provided and working on a 2500 cal diet with the following macros

Pro - 275g
Carbs - 162g
Fats - 74g

Your shouldn't be paying more then 1800 a month.

According to my rough calculations, it's closer to R2600 just for food. Then you need to add in the supps...

XyGorf wrote:

Fakey_AK wrote: Using the food sources i provided and working on a 2500 cal diet with the following macros

Pro - 275g
Carbs - 162g
Fats - 74g

Your shouldn't be paying more then 1800 a month.

According to my rough calculations, it's closer to R2600 just for food. Then you need to add in the supps...

I worked that out with only buying the following

Mince
Rice
Eggs
Chicken
whey
oats
peanuts
mixed veggies

And monthly i would pay roughly 1800 for all that dieting 6 days a week on 2500 cals roughly
Not sure what you paying then but shop around and make deals with your local butcher or spar to buy bulk meat at the time. I promise you, you can save a lot like that.

And the only supplement i worked in was the whey as i feel it is all that is needed.

Hi guys,

As I mentioned elsewhere on the forum, if you are in the middle of a serious cycle, and eating to bulk, and taking all the supplements recommended, and going to a good gym, you are averaging about 12 000 a month on your body.
That's my experience this year. Not for the faint hearted.

Nate

You must have plenty money to waist then..

I fail to see how beneficial it is spending that money a month as a beginner recreational lifter getting into shape.

Im Spending around 2k a month, eating 5-6 meals a day and 6 days a week.. its all thats needed with a good whey and multivit.

if your an elite athlete prepping for a show then I would understand 12k a month.

Sups around 2k & food around 2k

I have no idea what I spend on food as I just buy as needed or when I see a good special. One thing I don't scimp on is eggs! I either get them straight from a farm stall or woolies. I've had to many bad ones from spar and the likes.

You can find a diet within your means.

Remember that includes my cycle costs at about 4 a month and my gym fees as well.
And lots of multivitamins in addition to the whey, glutamine, BCAA's, pre-workout, etc, etc.
I'm at 8 or more before I even look at groceries.

Hope you well otherwise PP. Haven't seen you in a while bro.

Nate40 wrote: Remember that includes my cycle costs at about 4 a month and my gym fees as well.
And lots of multivitamins in addition to the whey, glutamine, BCAA's, pre-workout, etc, etc.
I'm at 8 or more before I even look at groceries.

Hope you well otherwise PP. Haven't seen you in a while bro.

Yeah, in my case it's the supplements that are nailing me. Vitamins, whey, etc set me back around 2k a month...

You guys are nuts paying all that money for supplements and vitamins!

Pyroclasm wrote: You guys are nuts paying all that money for supplements and vitamins!

Yes but we dont add makeup, facials and acrylic nails :kiss:

Nate40 wrote: Remember that includes my cycle costs at about 4 a month and my gym fees as well.
And lots of multivitamins in addition to the whey, glutamine, BCAA's, pre-workout, etc, etc.
I'm at 8 or more before I even look at groceries.

Hope you well otherwise PP. Haven't seen you in a while bro.

Understandable then, a decent supp stack of pre, post, bcaa. Glutamine. Whey. Vits is an easy 2k.. but Iv learnt. Most are a load of shit and just not needed haha... vitamins and whey set me back around 500-600 a month. And thats me. Sometimes ill buy a pre tho depending how im feeling energy wise and whats instore with life at the time.

Im here everyday dont comment tho, trust after some time on here nothing new ever comes up.. same threads month in and month out.. so im happy to let you new guys explain :lol:

Didn't realise zero percent body fat = general cynicism. Hahaha.
I count on you for motivation bru. Don't ignore us lesser mortals bru.

Oupa must have got it all this morning, because he is very funny on almost every thread today.
Hope you enjoyed it Oupa!

XyGorf wrote: If I could ever pick one supplement to use it would be Cytoguard. That stuff works really well with my body.

Glad to read some real-life feedback about this product, I saw DJ recommending it to somebody a couple of months ago and I've been wondering about it ever since. Hardly use whey myself - there are far more satisfying protein sources Only when schedule demands do I use whey.

What I do beyond the obvious look out for savings ect is being part of loyalty programs. Discovery Vitality seems expensive on the surface, but it cuts gym fees and works well in synergy with Pick n Pay Healthy Foods - which I eat mostly. ABSA also has a deal with Checkers if I have it correctly, and I'm sure there are other rewards programs. But ja, buy bulk and freeze/ store as much as I can.

I spend about 2k every month on food and 3k some other months to top up whey, BCAA's etc.

Furk wrote:

XyGorf wrote: If I could ever pick one supplement to use it would be Cytoguard. That stuff works really well with my body.

Glad to read some real-life feedback about this product, I saw DJ recommending it to somebody a couple of months ago and I've been wondering about it ever since. Hardly use whey myself - there are far more satisfying protein sources Only when schedule demands do I use whey.

What I do beyond the obvious look out for savings ect is being part of loyalty programs. Discovery Vitality seems expensive on the surface, but it cuts gym fees and works well in synergy with Pick n Pay Healthy Foods - which I eat mostly. ABSA also has a deal with Checkers if I have it correctly, and I'm sure there are other rewards programs. But ja, buy bulk and freeze/ store as much as I can.

Yeah bro, Cytoguard is a great product. I highly recommend it. My problem is time. I've worked days, nights and weekends for pretty much the entire month. So getting to Pick 'n Pay has been a bit hard.

This is just a thought, but wouldn't it work if all the bodybuilders in an area placed their monthly chicken/beef order from the same place together? I reckon that a bulk order like that should yield quite a nice discount... The only problem with that is some guys are super unreliable.

And another problem with that is that 98% of guys who train's diets are up to shit. So finding a group of guys at my gym wanting to buy meat in bulk wouldn't happen.
Even the guys who train all the time regard chicken licken as a protien source :lol:

Family of 3.5 (Myself - 113 Kg, My wife, 2 Sons - 3 years & 2 months)
***2.5 year old eats the most

Fruit & Veg City: R900 - R1200 P/W (Meat & Veg)
Woolworths: R200 - R400 P/W (Healthy Carbs & 1 Box Salmon)
Dischem: R2000 P/month (Multi Vit, SSN Whey, MR1 pre workout, EVOX Mono Creatine, SSN BCAA'S)

Exculdes nappies, cleaning stuff and toiletries

A diet really does not have be be that expensive! And with sups, stick to the basics is what I have learned!

I get my skinless chicken breast and hake both at R33 per kg. Not sure how much Woolies asks, but i am sure it is much cheaper!

Flex wrote: A diet really does not have be be that expensive! And with sups, stick to the basics is what I have learned!

I get my skinless chicken breast and hake both at R33 per kg. Not sure how much Woolies asks, but i am sure it is much cheaper!

Where do you shop?