The Best food for your dollar?

I've posted several versions of this on other chambers but no matter where I go I get a ton of info. I'm 25 with a wife and 4 kids and a dog. We used to qualify for food stamps (which we used almost exclusively at Aldi) and my food bill was about $300 a month. I got a new job and my income went way up but my food bill has hovered around $800 / month on average. I live in Ohio and had 3 grocery stores in my town with walmart being one of them. I became extremely busy with my new job (34 hours a week) and also had to care for a newborn. With the expense of formula we just assumed that what we were doing was enough. We recently moved to a different part of the state and there is a Meijer in town and several other establishments that weren't available to us. Price is a huge concern as I need to feed 6 people, we also had to switch from Aldi dog food to performatrin (which was triple the price) due to our dog having health issues. <br><br>So I've tried to make adjustments to save money but every change I make seems to only save 20 here 20 there. I've never really tracked my expenses (being a grocery manager I always assumed I was good at budgeting) and so trying to trim fat has been extremely difficult. Between the dog food, formula, and the transition to buying higher quality meat I feel like I've just gone with the flow. Moving to this town I found the best deal for milk was gallon jugs of 2% at Costco for $2.99, Meijer had strips of sirloin for $6.99 a pound, Aldi still had their staple items for cheap. The combination of all this has still kept my budget high and I still work a lot so I've been trying to "future proof" our meals by cooking huge batches of things that keep in the fridge for a few days. I've also been trying to learn the art of "pantry cooking" to keep things fresh and new enough to not get tired of leftovers. I'm still spending over $600 a month, and with my job slowing down I know that's going to be unsustainable. <br><br>Previously on Aldi we did a lot of noodles, rice, beans, chicken breasts, and frozen veggies, with some occasional Omaha steak meat. What are some staples you don't go without? How do you shop "on sale" when your grocery bill is for 6 people? We don't necessarily need to save money for anything but I just feel if I'm going to be successful financially, I need to be able to make a few changes and save some money.