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Survey: How Much Do You Spend on Food? Print
Friday, 23rd June 2006 (by J.D.)This article is about Administration, Food
What does the average four-person family spend on food in a month? In a year? How much does a two-person household spend on food? How much does your family spend? How much of this is for groceries? How much for dining out? Do you make an effort to control food spending, or do you simply buy what you feel like? Do you use coupons? Do you grow your own food? I’m not so much looking for advice, but gathering anecdotes. I’m curious about general habits.
June 23rd, 2006 at 1:15 pm
I believe my wife and I spend a lot on food. There are only two of us in the household, but we do entertain often. We generally have people over once or twice a week. We throw a large party every couple of months. (For example, we’ll have a fifty-person gathering on Independence Day.) We dine out about once a week. We eat well. Food is important to us.
I just ran some rough numbers, and it appears that we spend about $400/month on groceries (including household supplies like laundry detergent, etc.) and about $200/month dining out. That’s $600/month on food for a two-person household. That’s a lot of money, and obviously an area where we can try to save.
But, as I mentioned: food is important to us, and this is a luxury we’re not willing to forego completely.
June 23rd, 2006 at 2:05 pm
I seem to spend about $400 a month on groceries and it’s just for me!
I make my own bread and pizza dough.
I don’t buy junk food.
I don’t ever use coupons.
I don’t buy in bulk because I walk to the nearest grocery store about once a week (I live downtown in an expensive city).
I spend A LOT of money on steak and lamb and chicken and lots of cheese and fish and crab and lobster and juice and nuts and fresh fruits and vegetables (I drank 8 litres of Tropicana juice this week!)
When I was a broke student I got by eating $0.39 cent packs of Mr. Noodles and drinking tap water and working as a television and film extra for the free meals.
I think it’s time to find a balance somewhere in the middle..or get a raise
Food is one of my only luxery items and I too am not willing to forego it.
ps…I hope you keep this blog up..I am enjoying following along
June 23rd, 2006 at 2:11 pm
My two-person household used to spend $250/month on groceries and $100/month dining out.
My wife is now pregnant and our monthly groceries have increased to about $350/month.
We’re frugal in some ways (comparing prices, buying store brands, looking for good sale prices, cooking most of our food from scratch); but we don’t coupon-clip and we do buy a fair amount of organic produce. We don’t entertain much. We live in Seattle, and do almost all of our shopping at one store.
June 23rd, 2006 at 3:22 pm
My boyfriend and I have been living together over a year now, and I buy all the groceries while he pays for dinners out more often. It used to be the case that I’d buy a ton of food, maybe even expensive organic stuff, and we’d never eat it. We’d eat out probably 7x a week, which of course was very expensive. Now I’m making an effort to learn to cook more, and even when I don’t cook we find stuff around the house to fix for ourselves. I haven’t run the exact numbers yet, but I’m pretty sure we’re saving money on the whole, especially since I pack both our lunches all workweek. I’m focusing on buying more practical items that I know we’ll eat. I’m also making an effort to use coupons and store “value cards” and such, though we don’t get any real food coupons at this point because we don’t get the paper. I’m trying to figure out if it would be worth buying the paper just to be able to clip and use coupons… not sure about the math there.
June 23rd, 2006 at 4:20 pm
In our family of 4 (daughter-2, son-4, me-preggers, and husband), we spend $310 on food a month. That’s our budget, and it includes all toiletries. On top of that, we budget $70 a month for “entertainment” which includes eating out, movies, etc. I’d love to spend more on eating out, but there’s not much wiggle room in our finances.
Nevertheless, this budget allows for a lot of variety at the grocery store, because I can’t stand eating the same things over and over. We have fresh fish, good meats, and especially fresh veggies. No one’s complaining. I mostly buy what I feel like, but I try to watch sales here and there–not always. I don’t use coupons, and there are a few things I buy at the warehouse stores, such as cheese, diapers, soap, etc. These are still factored into the grocery budget.
June 23rd, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Elizabeth again–
I need to add that my husband gets free lunches at work, 6 days a week. I’m sure if that weren’t the case, our grocery bill would be higher. We also do not buy juice, which some parents think of as a necessity. We believe the kids are better off without it.
June 23rd, 2006 at 4:53 pm
I forgot to answer a couple of my own questions.
We do use coupons, and I’ll have a post about that someday. (I’ve been working on it for a month, and it hasn’t appeared, so I’m not promising anything soon.) My wife is a coupon master.
We also grow tons of our own food. That, too, will be the subject of a future entry. We grow fruits and berries and herbs and vegetables and flowers. I suppose we don’t save a ton on food, but we never have to buy strawberries or raspberries or, in the summer, tomoatoes…
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:30 pm
My wife and I spend $150-$200 on groceries each month, $50-$75 on eating out. We have a 10-month old, but I don’t think our numbers have changed drastically since his arrival. The extra grocery expenses probably balance out with eating at home more often.
We cut coupons, wait for sales when buying non-essentials, and stock up a bit when we see bargains. We don’t restrict ourselves, but we don’t go crazy either. Somewhere in between. With the baby, our eating out tends to be driven by convenience and fatigue rather than leisure.
I’m always amazed when I see people walk through grocery stores picking up items without looking at the prices. One friend at work buys the same brand of bread every week, no matter what the price. Even if we won the lottery I think we’d still check the ads every Sunday and buy sale items…
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I just ran a report my finance software for the food category, which has several subcategories. For the last twelve months, our family (me, my wife, and our infant daughter) spent exactly:
1) $7473 on groceries (including toiletries, cleaning supplies, and other stuff bought along with our groceries), or an average of about $620 per month. Our daughter was bottle-fed for a good part of the past year, making our grocery bill a bit higher than usual.
2) $318 on delivery or take-out food, or an average of about $26 per month.
3) $1686 on dining out, or about $140 per month.
4) $629 on snacks (i.e. convenience store purchases, coffee in the mornings, etc.), or an average of $52 per month.
All of these numbers are in Canadian funds, so knock off about 10% to convert them to the USD equivalent.
While these numbers probably seem high, bear in mind that I track my expenses quite closely, so I know that these numbers are accurate and complete. Unless you track all of your spending to the penny, you’ll never know how much things are costing you.
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:38 pm
To make my response a little more complete:
-We don’t grow any of our food
-We rarely use coupons
-We entertain about four times per year
-We purchase generics whenever possible, with a few exceptions (cola, dishwasher detergent, paper towels).
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Family of five, one income. We spend around $350 US / month for groceries.
June 23rd, 2006 at 9:03 pm
I probably spend $30 to $40 CND a week, but this can vary since I don’t buy groceries every week. I buy what I need and always bring a list. I don’t really use coupons but I do check the flyers, mostly just looking for inspiration. I always shop at the same store though, so it’s not like I need to shop around for the best deals (I don’t have a car and I walk to the store closest to me, but I also visit the local farmers market on Saturdays sometimes). I am single and live alone and I only eat fish, so not buying meat helps. I rarely buy pre-packaged or pre-cooked food. I generally don’t buy in bulk or buy something just because it’s on sale, because I don’t have a lot of storage room. I have no problem buying store brand, but I will spend the extra dollar or two on something brandname if I really like it.
I cook a lot, but I do find it hard living alone to buy vegetables, since a lot of them come in large bunches and I find it hard to use them all up. So I don’t eat a lot of fresh vegetables, but I do try and eat a lot of fruit. I also do not buy junk food on a regular basis.
As for eating out, I just say no most of the time, and I almost always bring my own lunch to work. Sometimes at work I’ll go buy a snack if I forgot to bring something, but that’s rare. I bring my own tea bags, or make my own coffee from home most of the time as well.
June 23rd, 2006 at 9:17 pm
my wife and i spend waaaay too much on food and dining out. i struggle with it all of the time. actually i guess we probably spend about $600/month on dining out, sometimes more if there is a big occasion to celebrate, and also we entertain large groups often, especially in the summer. we could probably save $1000 a month if we cut down on entertaining and eating out.
we also spend a little more on groceries than most people, but i feel like you are what you eat and we do try to buy high quality meat fish and produce, not so much junk. that does not stress me as much.
luckily we are mostly debt free besides our mortgage, and put away 15%, or i would really be stressed. i guess we could do even better, but right now we are young and foolish.
im just being honest.
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:06 pm
For two of us (plus nursing baby) I can’t tell exactly how much we spend on food, but I know it’s no more than $120/week. (Even before we moved in with the inlaws.)
We designate $120 cash/week, but $20 each is to keep and personally use however we want, guilt free - so that leaves $80 specifically *meant* for groceries or eating out.
$80/week = $320/month = $4160/yr
We don’t pay any special attention to eating out, buying spendy (usually local and organic) etc. We simply pay attention to how much cash is left. We also grow A LOT of food (and will hopefully have our own small farm one day).
Living with the inlaws means way less of our money goes toward food - so we’re cutting back the weekly cash to $100, and get an extra $20 savings each month.
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Oh yeah, we use coupons probably 1% of the time.
We eat out about once every two weeks. (I love it, my husband could generally care less.)
We also often have extra cash left over, which is either divvied up between us for free spending, or put into a shared pot for fun money, and sometimes thrown into savings if we’re feeling especially conservative.
June 24th, 2006 at 8:28 am
On average, I spend about 160 a month on food, I never go out to eat, and pack all my meals for work.
June 24th, 2006 at 9:29 am
I spend too much, that’s for sure. It’s just me, I’m not good at grocery shopping and then using things before they go bad. I tend to eat out for 2 out of 3 meals in a given day, so I’m paying too much (~$7 per meal) and eating unhealthy to boot. It’s definitely my biggest money sink that needs to be addressed.
I believe I’m in the $4-$500 range per month, just to feed me.
June 24th, 2006 at 10:16 am
I highly recommend checking out the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which breaks down expenses by category and income for average US citizens. I was looking for average food expenditure numbers recently while modifying my own budget and found it a useful starting point.
I’m a single guy in my late-20s in a relatively expensive urban area. (My experience has been that location matters more than anything else in determining a reasonable food budget.) I budget $10 per day for food, including groceries and eating out, and find that a pretty comfortable level. I have a quick light breakfast at home in the mornings (Muesli + Soy Milk = .68/bowl), cook a simple meal with fresh ingredients for lunch or dinner ($2-$4), and cook again or eat out for the other meal ($2-$8). The days that I eat at home all day or skip a meal tend to save enough money to cancel out the times I eat out more, or more expensively.
Cooking at home is not always a great deal for me, because most things go bad before I can use all of them. Where I live, daytime temps this time of year reach 110F regularly, and I don’t cool the house for the 9-12 hours a day I’m at work, so non-fridge items don’t keep well either during the summer.
Given time and space constraints, growing my own food isn’t practical, and I’ve found that the time I spend finding, clipping, organizing, and using coupons generally outweighs the amount of money they save. I tend to select items based on ingredients and nutrition first, taste/asthetics second, and price last. This is all limited by whatever amount I have in the budget for shopping — if there’s $60 available for groceries one week, I try to get the best nutrition I can afford for $60, even though that means less quantity.
It seems like it would be easier to eat for significantly less per person if there were two people in a household, where one had the time/energy to focus on more elaborate cooking than I can manage by myself.
June 25th, 2006 at 6:46 am
We (fiance and myself, late 20’s) used to go to the local grocery store at least 4-6 times a week. Then, a few years ago, we got a Sam’s card and immediately noticed a huge savings. I think we spend about $250 a month in groceries now, and that’s for two people and buying in bulk (replenishing things on a rotation as they run out, such as the bucket of laundry soap or the bag of frozen chicken breasts). My parents used to spend about $400 a month (Sam’s also) when I was a kid (4 person family), so I don’t think we’re doing too terrible.
We only eat out when we work washing cars for cash at the Infiniti dealership on Saturdays, just as a treat. It’s very rare that we go out otherwise to eat.
June 25th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Congrats on the Wall Street Journal story!
June 25th, 2006 at 11:31 am
I track my expenses in all categories each month and spend an average of $120 per MONTH for one late 50’s woman. I bake own bread, each lots of fresh produce, beans, low fat dairy. VERY little junk food. Make own hot chocolate from scratch, bake own brownies.
Not only is the food bill low, I’ve lost 27 pounds slowly over 4 years and keep my blood pressure low enough to avoid meds.
Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin were my starter examples, amplified by Amy Dacyzycn.
June 26th, 2006 at 8:41 am
From 1/17 to 3/27, I spent exactly $707.74 on restaurant food and $240 on groceries. Or roughly $5k on food… wow. Since then has been a *lot* better. $500 total on groceries and $500 on restaurant food - over 3 months.
Single person, no coupons at all. Started visiting the farmers’ market since it restarted, that has helped some.
July 3rd, 2006 at 4:03 pm
We just finally put a budget together, and discovered that our family of four spends about $7-800/mo on food, not including eating out, which varies so wildly as to be untrackable.
July 15th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
I never thought I would be on the high end. Family of three; we cook five nights a week, I eat free two nights while my husband eats frozen dinners, I never pack a lunch, My husband always packs a lunch, and breakfast consists of cereal.
My Grocery bill (food & toiletries), not including eating out, can range from $120-160 per week! That’s more than $500 per month. How Bob eats on $160 a month is beyond me.
August 18th, 2006 at 11:37 am
We are a family of 3 with one more due in January; we strive to spend no more than $100 a week on groceries. Some weeks we do well, others not so well, but it usually balances out to $400 a month.
We cut coupons but use them irregularly, and we do bulk warehouses for diapers, meat, pasta, and other things we use a lot. I find I spend more than necessary when I go there so I try and go rarely!
We almost never eat out, my husband packs a lunch every day, and I do all our cooking. We grow some of our own food but since we just moved to a new area, my garden isn’t quite established … even then it’s mostly just tomatoes, fruit, some peppers.
August 30th, 2006 at 10:50 am
I found this website trying to determine a reasonable amount to spend each month feeding a family of 4 (two growing boys, my husband and myself). Our 1st month of recording all our spending on our budget spreadsheet has been a huge eye opener. This month on groceries and dining out we spent well over $800 w/ a good bulk of that on groceries. I don’t clip coupons (not yet), but I think I’m going to start. I hope to budget around $300 - 350 on groceries and around $200 on dining out per month - starting next month. We’ll see how that goes. I have to STOP the dropping in the supermarket more than once a week - it’s blowing the budget BIG TIME!
September 2nd, 2006 at 5:45 pm
YTD expense for family of six in Northeast metro:
Groceries: $10,741 = $1342/mo
Dining Out: $2,932 = $366/mo
We don’t use coupons, and these totals do not include approximately $2,500 in dining from a family vacation in January.
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:17 am
I tend to be a penny pincher for everything EXCEPT food. My wife and I both love food, we both can/have cooked quite often in the past at home, however with our current (last 2 years) work patterns we have tended to eat out an awful lot. My wife does in-house appointments and tends to find herself out-and-about most of the day form 9am->7pm. I work in downtown and leave around 7 and get home around 7. We both hate getting home, having to cook a meal, and then clean up after it … so we tend to eat out. A lot.
On the average we have spent roughly $51.71/day on eating out or around $1577.29/mo. Because we have eaten out so much, our overall grocery bill is around 185.50/mo. When we end up going to the grocery store I won’t necessarily clip coupons, however I do look for sale items. Still, if it’s something I have a craving for … it’ll end up in the cart.
Now, having said that, we have recently cut back on our expenses again in order to start saving some money. We are down to roughly $10.57/day ($322.43/mo) on eating out. First thing to go were those daily lattes, snacks, and nightly dinners. We didn’t cut the budget down to zero (yet), because we are both fairly honest with ourselves and realize that sometimes it’s still just easier for us to stop someplace and pick up a quick lunch if we are in a hurry. Still, it’s an improvement. Our grocery expenses went up, but not to much considering - around $368.50/mo or so.
Our current 2 person out-of-pocket expenses are now averaging around $690.93/mo or so. Expect in the next month or two after we have gotten a little more use to it again, we’ll be back down around $450/mo or so. Bad habits are hard to break, but once you start looking at the cost of things … you can see a quick return.
September 4th, 2006 at 10:31 am
To be honest we don’t track our grocery/eating out bills. We need too b/c it is a huge amount(>$1k/mo family of 6). My wife is the queen of fast food with the kids. She has her own parking space and is greeted by name at McDonald’s/Wendy’s/Burger King/etc.
I work at a bulk Warehouse so I am always picking up the milk/cheese/meat which is usually less expensive on my way home.
I cut coupons out of the newspaper for items we already use (i.e. Campbells cream of chicken soup) but usually forget to use them by the time I get to the checkout.
I also believe that the region of the USA where you live greatly affects your grocery bill. The cost of 1 gallon 1% milk here is $1.79 and is a staple in our diet. It might be $2.50 in Seattle…?
September 13th, 2006 at 6:24 am
i have a family of five and shop at a commisary so i have the benefit of tax free food and many times the food is greatly reduced in cost. After reading these responses i am wondering how so many of you budget so well. I spend an average of 150 a week on groceries. that includes toiletries, pet food, cleaning supplies and occasional non prescription medicines. I wonder how the lower spending families do it. i know i do buy about 25 dollars each pay day worth of unneccesary items but that is still bringing me to 500 a month.
September 15th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
I don’t have a clue yet (just about to try to reconstruct it by looking at reciepts) what we spend on food but I’m sure it’s way more than I want to, not even counting eating out.
I would not be surprised if the two of us are spending over 1500 per month on food, not counting eating out. Part of that is because we eat mostly organic, but that’s not enough to account for the big bill.
My wife does the shopping and rarely looks at prices. The concept I can’t get across is “sure we have to eat food but we don’t NEED to eat $11/pound smoked salmon, shitake mushrooms…
… you get the point.
We’re being killed by what someone called “the latte factor” — that “how can you make a fuss about a little luxury now and then and anyone this one item doesn’t cost that much.”
September 16th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Well i think my moms spend about $500-$600 on food. There is 6 people that live in my house. Then there are 2 dogs and 1 cat. To me thats not a lot for 8 people!
September 17th, 2006 at 6:47 am
This is a difficult one to answer, for myself at least. I have a family of five {and 40 animals} What we spend on food various from season. on the average we spend $200 every two weeks split between the grocery store, eating out, the farmers market and “pick your own” farms. We raise fruits and vegetables, poultry and eggs. The big ticket items are beef and milk, which we hope to remedy that soon buy purchasing 2 milking cows. I spend at least ½ our food total on butter, milk, meat and cheese. I do not use coupons, and rarely eat out.
September 19th, 2006 at 5:53 am
Spending only for myself, I buy roughly $100-120 of food each month, add another $30-50 or so for dinners and lunches out. This is a very basic diet of sandwiches, fruits & veggies, and I can’t go without cereal! I try to find food for 15 cents/oz or less, and only rarely use coupons.
September 23rd, 2006 at 1:49 pm
I am married and have three kids and tend to spend between $ 800-1000 per month on groceries, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. I buy a lot of fresh veggies and fruit but I also buy too many packaged and/or prepared dinners, including a lot of bottled water and canned soft drinks. Steaks, chicken, and salmon don’t even cost as much as the prepared food sometimes can. I know I need to cut back but I never feel like I have enough time to prepare every breakfast,lunch and dinner. I also spend about $ 200 monthly on take out/dining out.
My husband probably spends an additional $ 200 monthly on groceries and dining.
September 28th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
These are some interesting figures from people, fun to read.
I took a glace at my spending, and lately I have been averaging $250 a month for food, and that includes eating out. Bringing my own lunch to work has saved at least $100 a month. And being single has saved on eating out. : )
September 29th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Two 22 year old college grad students living in CO and we spend ~$800-900/mon on food. That includes EVERYTHING (coffee, dining out, groceries, etc.) We eat out for lunch only when we don’t have time to pack one (once per week). We eat light a breakfast every morning such as cereal or bread (go out for breakfast once per week). Cook dinner at home 5 nights a week (the other two we usually get something quick like sandwiches, Chipotle, Noodles, pizza). So, this is a very honest answer. We never snack, sometimes we have dessert and don’t ever buy junk food. We hardly ever have something in the house that can be eaten without cooking it or making it.
I have a really hard time believing other people can spend so little. What am I doing wrong??? We are hungry and definitely don’t eat too much. And none of our food ever goes to waste so it is all consumed. I am pretty good at figuring out new meals that include ingredients that are on sale too.
October 5th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
My expenditures on food vary greatly throughout the year, depending on my teaching and travel situation. From September through May may monthly expenses probably average $250-$350, with very little of that for restaurants. However, I spend a bit more during breaks in Dec.-Jan. and mid-March (due to restaurants), and a bit less in Sept.-Dec., Feb., Apr., and May (my “frugal” times). I also have an interest in fine wine, and the expenses above reflect that.
My spending on food tends to spike upward in the summer, as I travel a lot, usually for work. My food expenditures for last June, when I was working in Spain, were around $900! (However, I received a food per diem for the job… whew!)
In general, I’m fairly frugal most of the year, and since I’ve been drinking less wine lately (I have lots of project deadlines), I expect expenses to hover around $200/mo. or so during the teaching season.
I should note that I save close to 25% of my middle-class income in tax-deferred savings, and my only debt is a fairly low mortgage. (I bought less house than I could afford.) I also save another 5-10% of my income for stock purchases or other savings. I don’t have television/cable, cell phones, and other such media expenses. (My internet service is free through work.) I take a commuter bus to work, and I don’t buy non-food items or services unless I really have to. In other words, except for food and some travel expenses, I am a cheapskate. I love to cook, so food is a form of entertainment for me, and good food is essential when I travel. During my teaching months, I shop frugally and buy in bulk, but I also treat myself to more expensive things such as protein powder, cheese, fresh berries, etc.
I don’t use coupons, but I do comparison shop. And when I buy in bulk, sometimes I hoard. I have lots of paper towels, dish liquid, and cereal in storage, for example.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:40 am
Household : 2 people
Dining out : $105/month avg (on credit card, cash dining is not tracked)
Groceries : $525/month avg
This is from the past 12 months per quicken tracking. We don’t track cash purchases (we both get a ‘cash allowance’ at the beginning of the month to spend on whatever we want).
October 17th, 2006 at 8:09 am
[...] How much do families spend on food? How much has the average person saved for retirement? Do others balance their checkbooks every month? Every week? Every day? When shopping for homes, how much time do people take? [...]
October 17th, 2006 at 8:34 am
My fiance and I have a budget of $400 a month for all food and household goods. We both love to cook and make almost everything we eat from scratch. I make my own bread and pizza doughs, cakes, muffins, sometimes ground meats, preserve our own salsa and pasta sauces in bulk during times when ingredents are in season and we buy locally from the organic farms. During the summer we typically dont have much of a surplus due to buying lots of fresh fruit.
However, most other months we have about $50 left in our budget so every few months we will take a trip to a warehouse club and buy in bulk (especially for household goods).
If I see a deal for whole chicken at $0.89/lbs, I’ll buy 5 or 6 chickens, debone and fillet a few of them and freeze everything, including bones for soups and stocks, although I dont do any coupon clipping and generally dont compare prices between stores.
October 17th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Because I eat mostly organic and I am gluten-intolerant and have other food allergies, my grocery bills are higher than they would be otherwise. However, I am cooking from scratch and eating at home more than I used to. I’d guess that I pay about $400 per month for food, which includes eating out. For reference, I am single, and I live in one of the most expensive areas in the country.
October 17th, 2006 at 11:29 am
My husband and I have 8 kids, 4 of whom are teens, and we spend $600-700 per month on groceries, including pet food. We eat out rarely, probably spending $50 a month total… We have a huge garden and I can a lot of produce so that helps a lot.
Mary, mom to 8
October 17th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
This is one area that continues to annoy, confuse and interest me.
Family of four (myself, husband, two kids under 5) and we shop at the commissary like another commenter (tax free, food at a lower price, and admitedly the fresh stuff sometimes doesn’t last but a week) and we spend easily $600 a month on food - with eating out once a month, maybe. I’d like us to spend around $400 and the months when we do, we end up spending even more the next month.
I’d like to use coupons, but I don’t. We decided to not eat out at all for a few months and see where that takes us. We are very good about buying on sale and also on stocking up when there is a sale. We don’t mind cooking and use the crockpot a lot.
Right now our pantry, fridge and two freezers are stocked full and we may be able to go a month until needing to really shop (not talking about milk or bread) again.
October 17th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Oh and when we do eat out it ends up costing us anywhere from $50-80. We went to meal planning and for the past few days it’s been going well. LOL
November 14th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
This has been very interesting. I’ve been married 15 years and have 4 kids ages 14, 12, 9 and 6. I’ve always wondered what the average family spends on groceries per month and how we compared. I’ve tried all kinds of things over the years to save money and don’t feel like any of it has been very sucessful. I’ve always felt guilty about what I spend on groceries.
Currently we live in the mid-west. I’m a busy stay at home mom. I make most everything from scratch. We rarely buy soda, we don’t drink coffee or alchohol. We eat out or get take out/fast food mostly when our schedule is really hectic. We’ve tried a garden, but the bugs took it over this year and we didn’t get much out of it. I do clip coupons about 1/2 the time. I mostly shop at Wal-Mart with a monthly visit to Sams Club, and Aldi because they are further from my house.
We track our spending pretty carefully, and my most recent spread sheet for this calendar year shows us spending an average of $927 per month on groceries including all household cleaning, paper, and personal hygiene items. Our average eating out per month is $246 and that includes one month long vacation visiting family and 2 or 3 weekend family trips to visit friends.
I would like to spend less, but don’t want to become a miser. We like to invite people to dinner, and contribute food items generously to school and church functions.
November 14th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
It’s my wife, myself and my 9 month old and we probably spend about $250-$300/month on food. We probably eat out twice a month or so, and we don’t eat much ready-made food. We get bulk food that doesn’t spoil quickly (flour, noodles, frozen meat etc.) from Costco, and do weekly or every-other weekly trips to the grocery store for produce, bread, milk and whatever else we don’t want 50 Lb. packages of.
We did garden this year, but it wasn’t very productive (we forgot to weed most of the time). The fruit trees and neighbors gardens surplus did get bottled or dried.
We don’t use coupons much, but we do try to buy a lot when things are on sale
I pack a lunch to school and work every day.
For the 9 month old, we buy flaked cereals and formula, but cook and/or blend our own potatoes, yams, peas, bananas, pears, apples, and whatever else we think Ryan will like. Baby food is crazy expensive.
–Michael
November 14th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Wow, how does everyone manage to spend so little? I’m a single guy in my late 20’s living and working in SF. I am very conscience of what I eat(No fast food, No processed food, No frying food, no trans fat food). I like to stick to buying real food. I spend about $115 a month on groceries (this includes my breakfast, dinner, snacks, misc household items). I usually go out for lunch which adds up to $120 a month. So a total of $235 but this does not include protein shakes, vitamens, and supplements. Which are over $100. I find it hard to believe that some single people are living off $100 a month. They must be eating off of the $1 McDonald Menu everyday. I’m just thankful that I am not a coffee/soda drinker.
November 19th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Wow! I am absolutley amazed at how little people can spend on food! I have to say that Stuart and Heather sound the most reasonable. I was wondering how much I should be spending on food each month. There is me, my husband, our four kids, ages 6,8,10,12, a handful of cats and a couple of dogs. We don’t use coupons as I think they are a pain. We take the entire family out to eat a couple times a month and it is usually close to $100 a time. My husband and I try to go just the two of us now and then and we usually spend about the same on just the two of us. Then, we eat pizza almost once to twice a week. We rarely eat fast food, though. My husband and I like our occasional alcoholic beverages. And none of us are very overweight. I am the only one, in fact, by about ten pounds. We try to not buy too much junk food, and only drink diet sodas, with no calories. I am not even sure how much we spend on groceries, but I bet I’ve got you all topped. This may sound weird, but thank you for sharing your information. This will be a good starting point for me in devising a family budget. I am trying to figure out how much we should spend and on what. Food is one of the obvious areas that I think a lot of us spend way too much on. I know I certainly do. I hope I can find a good compromise between saving money and not sacrificing too much creature comfort.
November 26th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Another set of 22 yr old grad students, but we live in NY state. I track groceries really well, since I pay for them, but I don’t know how much we spend eating out, since my finace pays for that, among other things. (We go out maybe twice a month and don’t order in delivery, and maybe 3-4 days a week get lunch on campus.)
Groceries for two people:
Aug: $401.95
Sep: $286.63
Oct: $286.81
Nov: $241.41 (as of the 26th)
August is a little higher since that’s when we moved here and needed to stock up on essentials. But I’m not sure how to get the budget any lower. I buy the store brand of nearly everything, and buy extra of things that go on sale if I know we’ll use them. I’m actually now going through our receipts to see what little extras have been adding up. We don’t buy sodas or snack foods for the most part, and while we’re both in decent shape we don’t get any specialty health foods, either.
So far, the best thing by far that we’ve done for the food budget is sign up for the ‘value cards’ at the local grocery stores. By using them, it’s like getting a week’s worth of groceries free every ten weeks. (Or, conversely, it would be throwing away $80 every ten weeks without using the cards.)
December 10th, 2006 at 1:30 am
I’m a single female living in Los Angeles. My bill is about $780
I eat very well and pretty much shop only at whole foods market. I never eat junk food/fast food. But, after looking at my spending at whole foods which is $380 ($90 of that is on supplements) for this past month I’m thinking I should look into online natural food stores to buy dry goods and supplements at discounted prices. My eating-out bill was $400 for the month… I better cut back on the lamb and wine:( I don’t know how people get by on $200 a month. However, I would like to see my food bill down to half.
Knowing what others spend is a good eye-opener. Habits of indulgence are hard to break though.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Living in NYC does not have to be expensive. My fiancee and I spend about $300 on food each month. We rarely eat out, and go to 4 different super markets to make sure to get the best deal.
December 13th, 2006 at 7:43 am
My wife and I spend about $425/month on groceries and probably $150/month going out. That Consumer Expenditure Survey pointed out earlier in this Blog is really interesting and people should check it out.
Also, people on this blog are obvviously interested in analyzing their expenditures so my recommendation is to get Quicken or MS Money asap. We used to track based on receipts which was never accurate. Quicken automatically hooks into your credit card and bank accounts and graphs all expenditures into categories. I find their software really useful and wish someone would have told me about this years ago. Have a good holiday!
December 27th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
I have just started to track my expenses in order to come up with a spending plan and am horrified to realize that this month I have spent over $600 on food so far. And that’s just me… About half of it is eating out, the rest groceries. I do live in an expensive area, and yes, I am also considerably overweight. Well, there is one more reason to go on a diet…
December 29th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
My partner and I pay $150 to $175 a month in groceries, including toiletries and cat supplies, and spend no more than $25 per week to eat out in any way. Usually that’s one sit-down dinner out a week and one trip to Subway for a weekend lunch.
We use no coupons and don’t grow our own food, but we do shop at the super-discount grocery store (WinCo) and budget very carefully to make sure our weekly grocery trip is under $50, which we’ve gotten very good at.
We still consider eating out a sort of luxury and we don’t do it if money is tight, but it works for us.
December 30th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Household: 2 people
Eating out: 2x a month
Don’t use coupons
We spend $400 a month on groceries, $120 on eating out. Most meals are made from scratch, with a few box meals (like tuna helpers and such), and we pack leftovers for lunch. We’re getting our finances in order, and nice meals are our only luxury. My boyfriend and I used to work fast food, and only had time to eat at the place we worked. Once we quit, we had absolutely no desire to ever eat at a hamburger joint again, and found we really enjoy cooking together after work. We buy meat, fresh fruits & veggies, all of which take up the bulk of our budget. We could cut our grocery bill down to $200 a month if we ate less meat and used only canned veggies.
We plan to buy a house within the next year and grow a garden. And since I work for the cattle industry, I know someone who raises animals locally, so I can buy a side of beef for cheap. I expect our grocery bill will be much better once these two things are in place.
December 30th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
I am gladthat I read this. My husband says I could spend less on groceries- but we are about average. We are a family of 5 and I spend about 600 a month on food and cleaning and dog food. I still would like to spend less though. Maybe 400 a month.
January 1st, 2007 at 10:55 am
We are a family of 4 which consists of myself, my husband, a 2-year-old, and a 5-year-old. We don’t grow any food except for a few herbs and we save between 5%-10% in coupons, mainly for diapers and cleaning products. We also check out the ad each week and match coupons to sales. We have budgeted $500 for groceries, cleaning, and personal items(shampoo, toothpaste, etc) and $120 for eating out. We both work. I almost never eat out and my husband eats out about 50% of the time. We do our “splurging” on the groceries because we both love good food and love to cook so we have steaks and seafood regularly. If things were tight we could bring the total down at least an extra $100 a month but for now we are more worried about planning good meals for our children. We take about 30 minutes a week and plan weekly meals for the grocery trip which helps to prevent most of the “nothing to eat, let’s go to McDonalds” outings.
January 3rd, 2007 at 8:30 am
I appreciate this site. I just pulled our end of year numbers together. They are staggering. We have a family of six. My wife, my self and 4 growing boys (ages 14, 12, 9 and 5). We spent $9,403 on groceries last year (this does include everything bought at grocery stores, soap, shampoo, etc.)and we spent $5,106 eating out. We live in the midwest with reasonable cost of living, but I feel my kids are eating us out of house and home as the saying goes. We clip some coupons, but its a challenge.
January 9th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
We spend about $700/month in groceries, which includes toiletries, dog food, cleaning supplies, and diapers for our 5 month old (she’s breastfed… I’ve just started her on some solids that I make at home. I buy rice and oatmeal cereal for her though). We spend probably $100-$200/month eating out a month. I don’t buy processed/frozen foods. We only eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. I do use coupons, but I am very particular about where I shop (Publix). I’m a definite food snob, and know I should spend less, but it’s so hard!
BTW, we are 25 and 27, and my husband is in medical school. We live in Florida, and a gallon of (generic) milk here is $3.59 for comparison…
January 11th, 2007 at 11:08 am
The following is for a household of two people:
My boyfriend and I recently moved in together and we’re currently spending $400 a month on groceries, not including toiletries, etc. I do the grocery shopping, I always prepare a list and I’m a coupon devotee. He is really disciplined about taking his lunch to work each day, while I eat lunch at work at least 3x per week due to a discounted employee meal plan we have in our firm’s cafeteria. I make sure to cook dinner at least six nights a week, and we always eat out on one of the weekend nights as a treat to ourselves.
Once a week is reserved for leftovers, or “hodge podge night” as we jokingly refer to it. The hardest part for me is meal planning because I was so used to living alone and it’s A LOT easier to cook for one vs. two. My boyfriend was raised on dinners prepared by his Mom that included a meat, vegetable and starch, and that’s how I prepare our meals. But I usually run out of meats and ideas mid-week, and resort to a pasta dish. I think a lot of this stems from being a novice cook, I’m really trying to learn and am finding that I enjoy cooking. I’d be interested in hearing how others organize their meal plans. BTW, great thread!!
January 17th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
oh boy…..I found this site after coming home with 6 bags of groceries totalling $300.00 ONE TRIP to the store. yes it was whole foods and yes my bags were stuffed, but there is no way it will feed my family (5) for the month. If we get two weeks out of this trip I’ll be happy. As for meal plans I like going to cooks.com and plugging in what I have at the house and it pulls up a variety of meals to choose from. I have a friend who bought a side of beef and after that she could feed her family on $60 a month. Kudos to those who can do it! And I’m in the ’spend too much’ boat with the over 700 bucks a month club.
February 14th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
My husband and I just crunched our numbers because we couldn’t understand where all our money was going. We knew we spent a lot on eating out, but we didn’t realize the extent to which this habit was hurting us financially. On average over the last year we ate out 4-5 times a week, spent $300 a week on just eating out and $100 on groceries and other household necessities such as detergents. That turns into $1600 a month on food. I thought, how one earth do we spend $300 a week on eating out? Well anytime we go somewhere we spend about $40-$50 on our meal with tip included. Plus my husband works in DC so he gets lunch everyday in the city for $10-$20 a day. This really makes me sick! Growing up, my parents had a budget of $125 a week on groceries for a family of four. We definitely need to make a food budget for ourselves and stop eating out!
March 15th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I always eat my own cooking and I spend $50/week on my food. I work a second shift which means I’m at work for both lunch and dinner. I keep peanut butter and crackers and other quick healthy munchies in my desk drawer. And my best trick is to buy a whole chicken, ($4-$5 on sale) and bake it. I then debone it, throw the bones, skin, drippings from the roasting pan, and the whole onion I stuffed inside of it when baking into a big soup pot. I toss in 4 stalks of celery, vinegar, lemon juice, and salt. Boil for an hour then strain. I then take the broth and add 1.5 cups of cooked rice, carrots, and dice up all the meat I took off the bone and then ladle it into the small round “disposable” ziploc lunch containers and put in the freezer. I get 15 frozen soup lunches out of that. 3 weeks of work lunches out of $8 of original ingredients.
March 18th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
I only have to buy groceries for myself, and I budget for it. Last month I budgeted $100 and made it. This month I’m looking to spend just $90. I don’t use coupons too often, unless it’s for something I buy anyway, because I usually buy store brand and I don’t buy much packaged food anyway. $90/month still allows me to eat very healthy and even munch on a few organics. You just have to spend wisely and be willing to make more food from scratch.
March 19th, 2007 at 6:22 am
OK — I’m curious because I can’t walk out of a grocery store without spending $120/trip minimum anymore. I try to limit myself to two trips a month, and my budget is for $300, but to be honest I find it really hard to stick to it and usually end up spilling over into my spending money for the grocery store.
I shop according to what’s on sale and I don’t buy a lot of processed foods. My big area of expenditure is that I always hit the deli counter for fresh lunchmeat and cheeses for sandwiches. I usually buy at most 2 packages of some meat to cook. I buy a lot of fresh produce, usually around $30 a trip. I mix a lot of beans and pasta into my menus. I only occasionally buy juice or soda.
So what are people who can spend only $100/month actually eating?
March 19th, 2007 at 6:24 am
P.S. — I should add that the eggs I buy alone are $4.29 a pop for a dozen now — I could get cheaper but it’s important to me that these are free range eggs. I don’t buy them every trip but you can imagine how other prices must be if eggs are $4 for me.
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:31 pm
We are a family of 4, (2 adults, 2 kids age 3 and 6) plus we have 2 dogs. We spend $260/month on food and $40/months eating out (1 meal or snack every 2 weeks). We don’t eat meat every day. I am gluten free and my family adheres to this diet as well. So we eat no bread, pasta, cakes, cookies, etc. We do eat beans, rice, fruit, veggies, polenta, salad, chicken, and occasional beef. Breakfast is usually cream of rice with fruit or eggs and grits. We snack on carrots with ranch dressing. We drink soy milk and 100% juice.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:40 am
My mind is boggling at some of the low monthly expenditures here! We are 2 adults and we absolutely spend $600/month on groceries. We out once a month (somewhere nice, almost always around $80-100) and cook for ourselves otherwise. We buy all free-range, organic and non-processed food…eggs, cheese and the occasional specialty meat (quail, pheasant, etc.) For us, it’s important to eat well and feel healthy, and we don’t eat out, so it seems reasonable to us. It seems like we might be nuts, though…
March 31st, 2007 at 8:56 pm
My weekly budget for groceries and toiletries is $250, and I always use the full amount, plus some. This is for myself, my hubby, a 6 year old, a dog, 2 cats, and one guinea pig. We live in the Midwest and I shop at ALDI, Woodman’s, and use store cards for lower prices, and get our toiletries at Walmart or Target. My husband thinks I should be able to save money each week and can’t understand why it’s not happening. I can’t understand it, either! I don’t use many coupons because I have trouble finding them, but I do try to bargain shop as much as possible. I buy generic brands pretty often. We do eat well, meat for almost every dinner, that being chicken breasts (no legs, thighs, or cheaper pieces), pork chops, ground beef, occasionally steak. We go through TONS of pop, mostly by my husband, which is a sore subject. No joke, I buy 1-2 cases of canned pop for him to drink at work, and 12-15 2-liters for the week at home. Even buying generic pop, this costs around $20 or more weekly! I’m trying to cut it out of my diet, but doubt my hubby will. I can’t fathom spending much less and would love to know how others do it!
April 11th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
We don’t eat frugally. We eat *well*. There are only two of us, plus 4 cats. We spend around $500-600/month.
I don’t use coupons. Generally, coupons are only for prepared products that we rarely use. I do comparison shop. Each week, I checkout 3 or 4 advertisements and plan my shopping and menus around what’s on sale at these places. I once calculated that I “earn” approximately $27/hour for the time I spend planning and shopping multiple stores.
I buy very few prepared or packaged products, which is why I find coupons mostly useless. I buy the basics in bulk: soft wheat, hard wheat, cornmeal, oatmeal, brown rice, various dried beans, sugar, etc. I buy a lot of baking supplies in bulk also: herbs & spices, yeast, cocoa, etc. I go to an Aldi’s about every 8 weeks or so and stock up on this sort of thing, as well as dried goods like pasta, cereal and the little junk food we buy (mostly crackers and some chocolate).
I attempt to buy nearly everything when it’s on sale. For instance, this week, I’ll buy a whole beef round (cut up as minute steak, stew meat, london broil-type steaks and a few roasts). We have a half-sized chest freezer that is usually between half and three-quarters full. When coffee is on sale, I buy 8-10 cans. My overall goal is to buy nearly everything when it’s on sale.
We spend WAY too much on dairy; it’s common to buy a gallon of milk, a couple quarts of cream, a quart of yogurt and a couple tubs of cottage cheese each week. I only buy hard cheeses on sale at $3/lb or less and freeze it. I buy butter at $1.50/lb or less and freeze it. But dairy is a HUGE epxenditure for us, probably more than makes up for all the packaged stuff I don’t buy.
I grow a large garden each year, and I’m including costs for seeds and accessories (e.g., plastic to cover the hoophouse) in my food budget here. As well as canning lids. Though probably I should only count 1/3rd as a food cost, 1/3rd as entertainment and 1/3rd as therapy. Gardening is not primarily a frugal thing for me, but a necessity of life!
In winter, my biggest splurge is buying fresh produce. Yes, we have dehydrated, canned, frozen and root-cellared stuff available year round, but I *want* fresh produce. And when nothing is really in season locally, I buy ridiculously expensive stuff shipped from cross-country.
We eat out maybe once or twice a month at an actual sit-down restaurant, and might hit a drive-through joint or grab a pizza another time or two.
We buy very little junk food and almost no prepared foods. We spend *way* to much on soda though, that’s one of our major vices, even though it’s either generic or bought on sale.
We also buy very little cleaning stuff. We use cloth napkins, dish towels, and rags for cleaning, so the only paper product we buy is toilet paper. I regularly buy bleach, ammonia and baking soda and make most of my cleaning supplies from those. We do buy Comet, Ivory dishwashing detergent and a generic brand of laundry detergent. I line my oven with aluminum foil, so I just replace that instead of cleaning the oven. I mostly use reusable tupperware or canning jars for storage and leftovers (and we have 6-gallon buckets for the stuff like grains), but do buy freezer paper to wrap my large meat purchases (like a whole pork loin last week). I buy regular Ivory soap, shampoo and conditioner, peroxide, first aid supplies and over-the-counter medications when they’re on sale.
We buy alcohol maybe twice a year… our consumption is probably about a case of beer, a couple boxes of wine, and a couple bottles of liqueurs. Every couple years, I buy a few bottles of Everclear for making homemade liqueurs.
When we raised chickens, we spent about the same - eggs and chicken meat are cheap so you don’t save much, and we had to buy grain for the chickens, so it came out about equal. Course, we were regular egg-pushers then too, insisting everyone who came near us take a dozen or more eggs.
I think we spend rather a lot, and I could feed us for probably less than half what I do, but we eat *very* well. I am willing to pay for lots of dairy, our soda habit and piles of fresh produce all winter - which are our main splurges.
April 24th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I am from Boston and the cheapest grocery store is Market Basket…and everybody knows it! I have to figure out how my stress level is before I decide to go grocery shopping. The parking lot is always like the last shopping day before Christmas…..When you walk in there, there’s saw dust all over the floor and people with full shopping carts pushing and scratching like you’re in the middle of a cock fighting ring.
I can get away in there with $40.00 a week with fresh vegetables, and meats and enough supplies to make soup out of my left overs. And that includes making my lunch for work every day!
I use a foodsaver for my soup and I make a huge batch of it and it saves for 2 weeks. When items are on sale, I use my foodsaver canisters which keeps them fresh so much longer.
I highly recommed getting a foodsaver. Its a large investment at first, but it pays off in the long run.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Wow, what an eye opener. We are a family of five (me, husband, 8, 6 and 3 year old kids) live in a suburb of Boston and I shop a couple of times a week and we eat out quite a bit. I only looked at last month and we spent $1015 at the grocery store and $473 on take out or restaurants. Nearly $1500! We buy mostly organic, which is so pricey (eggs are $4.29, milk is $4.39/half gallon…) but eat out way too much. I bow to those of you who can feed a family so frugally. I really have my work cut out for me!
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:01 am
We are baby boomers. Husband and wife who demand we eat well and healthy. That means organic as much as possible and fresh as much as possible. We only buy bread from an artisan baker who grinds his own flour in-house. We very rarely eat out and I am struggling with $500 a month on food. It’s an awful lot. it used to be $600!
Ever hear of the word ‘inflation’?. It’s alive and well. Chicken cutlets can go as high as $5.00 a pound. I buy it on sale at $1.99 and stock up.
May 4th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Family of 9 (7 children 14,12,9,7,5,3,9mo)
We spend approx $475-$575 monthly
this includes restaurants (rarely), toiletries, laundry items, diapers, gas money.
easy… NO!
necessary… YES!
We survive on very low quality prepackaged foods. My wife shops mostly at Aldi and Sam’s club.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:14 am
[...] June I asked GRS readers, “How much do you spend on food?” I noted that Kris and I were spending $400/month on groceries and about $200/month dining [...]
May 17th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Family of 5, we spend about $700 a month on groceries. I am a graphic designer for a specialty fresh market and so I am obligated to purchase groceries there. We rarely entertain (once or twice a month) and when we do it is only with a few people.
I certainly agree that you are what you eat. Better to spend more on good healthy food now than spend TONS on medical bills down the road.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:54 am
This is an old blog post, but I will throw in my cents anyway. I spend $140-300 a month on food, and it’s only me. I’m very picky about brands and quality of products, and hate junk food and processed food. I am a minimalist at heart and don’t like having to come up with meal ideas on my own, so I use an online system and just tweak it to my taste. I print out the week’s grocery list (along with any staples I need) and do my shopping once a week. I’m willing to put in extra money for foods I know are excellent quality, healthy, and environmentally-friendly (such as buying straight from organic and local farm).
May 31st, 2007 at 11:11 pm
I am a single male living out side of seattle and for the past five months my food bill has averaged out to 180 month or 5.85 a day
This includes a small amount of fast food and take out for two once and a while.
This is over my budget and i am taking steps to reduce it closer to 150/month mostly by less fast food and buying what i can in larger quantities.
June 3rd, 2007 at 8:19 am
My husband and I are about to buy an expensive (at least for us) home and have been looking very closely at our budget.
We are a family of 4 (two adults and two young children). We spend about $1,100 a month. That figure includes eating out, groceries, and household supplies.
We drink soda and coffee. We eat out about 7 times a week. Mostly due to poor planning at lunch time (leaving the house at 10:30 without a picnic lunch in tow). We also love to eat good food.
I was so glad to see that our budget is much more than other families have listed. Even with our new budget of $800 a month we are still on the high side. This tells me that we just need to start looking at food purchases in a new way. We do need to buy food but we don’t need to buy the best most expensive food available.
Thank you to all of you for your comments they were very enjoyable to read.
June 14th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
I found this site today and it was interesting to look back and see what others spend a week. I am trying to be more aware of what we spend on food and drink. We are in a rural area of northeast GA. My husband and I have 3 children ages 12,10 and 8. Our youngest is a boy and he never stops moving and never stops eating!!! I feel like I do very well if I keep food to under 250 dollars a week. I can relate to those that feel like their kids are eating them out of house and home! I make 90 percent of our things from scratch, grind my own grains for bread, crackers etc. I purchase in season veggies from a co-op delivered twice a month. I also purchase raw organic milk for 4.00 gallon from local dairy averaging 2 gallons per week. I purchase organic cheese and butter in bulk mail order and freeze. I buy fresh eggs locally for 1.50 dozen. We very rarely ever eat out..less than once a month. I live an hour from any type of warehouse club but do purchase bulk from a buying club co op once a month. I spend a lot of time looking through the catalog comparing prices and watching sale trends.Snacks consist of fruit (we easily eat about 10 lbs of apples per week at my house), homemade crackers or bread. with nut butter (cashew or peanut) We eat meat 3 times or less per week in very small portions!! We all eat at home 3 meals a day 7 days a week, hubby comes home for lunch and kids are homeschooled. I avoid additives so prepackaged is very rare for our family. The only additive I get is from my terrible addiction to diet cokes. I am currently trying to put an end to this right now. It is very hard. BTW We don’t drink alcohol or smoke. Life is just expensive! I wish there was a way to know how much I should spend!! It is not easy.
June 16th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
[...] read a post on Survey: How Much Do You Spend on Food? and realized that if only we do not eat (which is impossible) we wouldn’t have to work so [...]
June 18th, 2007 at 7:37 am
We have a family of 4 on one income. budget is approximately $300/month on groceries(food only). We only eat out about 2x per month. On cleaning supplies our budget is about $10 per month and toiletries $20-$30 and things the kids need approx. $40.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:24 am
I’m a single income single mom of 2,ages 7 and 12. I spend about 400.00 per month on groceries including eating out. I shop at Sam’s Club. I find it very helpful to buy thing such as soups, crackers, cheese,bread,bottled water,toilet paper,paper towels,snack foods,gum,pasta. I don’t have time to clip and fiddle with coupons. CVS has the best deal on milk. I wait for the sale 2.49 per gallon and get 2 gallons at a time.I hoard cereal at the grocery store when I can find buy 1 get 1 sales. The Flea Market is the best place to buy fresh fruits and veggies.It cuts the price down by two thirds and the produce is great. We live in Florida and have the best oranges and grapefruit!
June 27th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I have to say I find it baffling how some families with 7 kids spend only 500 dollars a month including eating out, toiletries and gas money. This is impossible. Maybe it’s U.S. prices but there are no stores in Canada (even Costco) that would make that possible.
We have 4 children and a dog. Not including toiletries, diapers or dog food, I still end up spending 800 dollars a month. Yet I buy in bulk, shop for specials, cook a lot of stews and pasta dishes, we eat homemade cookies and oatmeal, and we don’t buy name brands for a lot of items. We don’t buy soda, and our eating/take-out bill amounts to 100$/month (we rarely do this). We work from home so we don’t eat out for lunch or buy stuff from vending machines. And yet it is all I can do to keep that bill down to $800/month no matter how I try to cut costs. The kids can’t go hungry, right? We eat a lot of fruit, drink a lot of milk, but all of us brown-bag it for lunch. Maybe it’s U.S. stores or something but I just can’t believe some of the numbers here.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I can’t figure out how to spend less than $800 a month for our family of 4 - kids are 13 and 2. I am reading some of the above with absolute wonder - how???? After our mortgage, food is our largest expense.
July 7th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
It is interesting to see how much money can be saved on food. And how much can be spend, too!
My budget is $250 per month for a single person. I am a vegetarian, cook everything from scratch, no sodas, no junk food, I don’t eat out.
I think I could do a little better if I lived in a different state. Alaska is not exactly cheap state, and a brief walk through produce aisle can cost you:)! Visiting farmers markets doesn’t help much because they charge even more then a grocery store, claiming that local produce is better, therefore they feel it’s ok to sell 1 cucumber for 3 dollars.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I found this website to help our family adjust & prepare for retirement, or at least cutting back on hours at work and less of an monthly income. We lived in an urban southeastern city after living for over 25 years in a rural community. We have 5 kids, 18, 19, 23, 24 & 26. The 26 yr old is married and out of the house. We support the 24 yr while pursuing grad school, 23, 19, 18 yr sons live at home.
We spent $13,000 for food/supplies/ from 1/1 to 7/20/07 and another $8,000 dining out, which included a week vacation for 8 adults in Florida. Since moving to the city, we have had alot of fun getting take-out for dinners. We eat out often due to busy schedules/night school/exercise, etc. We do purchase organic and local produce; we don’t drink alcohol, but spend easily $250.00 a month on delivery water, gaterade, bottle waters & selzer….some serious athletes live here. Having 6 adults to feed is expensive, but I know we can scale back.
thanks for everyone’s input and honesty.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:14 am
I also appreciate reading everyones comments, particularly the one from Alaska. She’s not kidding? We live in SE Alaska, with 6 of us (4 kids)and only fish for pets. A gal. of milk (at Costco) is $3.89 and no local products (except fish). We rarely buy soda or crackers/cookies. We do buy some alcohol. We pack lunches and eat out only about 4x per yr. Our grocery bill (including houseold items)runs around $1,200 per mo. We can do a bit better, but I’ve never gotten it less than $1000. Looking at this I think I’ll cut out the alcohol and soda for August and see what difference that makes.
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:44 am
I live alone in New York City. I spend about $300/mon on grocery and around $200/mon eating out. This does not include drinks, entertainment or household items.
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:51 am
We have 6 children and of course my hubby and I. We spend $600 US on food a month. That includes all toiletries and paper goods. I am still looking for ways to cut it down.
August 12th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
I just reviewed our very exact records. for the last 12 months, we spent $5332.
that’s a $444 monthly average, and includes alcohol, TP, toothpaste, and does NOT include eating out.
I thought we shopped smart: buying in bulk (25lb bags of rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc), cheap wine, and we have a beginner garden… I’m stunned we spend that much.
I believe that many here spend more than they think. Echoing an earlier comment, you don’t know until you really keep close track.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Three person household. $200 monthly we also don’t eat out. This includes snacks,soda. Not including the extras such as detergents and toiletries
August 18th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
My husband and I were just having a conversation about how much we should spend in groceries and food and found ourselves a little baffled. I came across this blog and I”m a little floored at how much more we seem to spend than the ave childless household. We budget approx $150 a week for groceries (food, personal items, cleaning products, etc), but we tend to eat out or order in at least once or twice a week as well. So this puts us at approx $600 a month in groceries and maybe $200 a month on eating out. I will say that we live in a VERY expensive urban area and all of our living expenses are relatively high, but our food expeditures still strike me as too high now that I can compare. We could clearly economize…
August 21st, 2007 at 5:01 am
[...] about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Last year I asked, “How much do you spend on food?” Answers varied widely. Some commenters couldn’t comprehend that others could spend so [...]
August 21st, 2007 at 1:43 pm
B We have 6 children and of course my hubby and I. We spend $600 B
Some of these numbers are unbelievable, do this people eat only mac and cheese? I don’t understand how they can spend so little. Would be interesting to see a shopping list or a weekly food plan becuase I don’t see how you can spend so little.
Having said that I spend between 60€ (a very good week) and 110€ (very bad week). I live in Spain with my wife and a small dog no kids. I have put alot of effort into keeping our shopping budget down. Since it’s only my wife and I we freeze alot of meals but in single portions so there is always something to eat. 75% of what I buy is generic, 25% brand name, only due to taste (ever tried no name yogurt yuck). I’ve started a price book in excel with all the products I buy in an effort to better plan my shopping. Need dog food this week so will elimnate something expensive (precooked roast chickens 3,50€ * 2)
I have a friend (family of 3) she shops only at Littles (another German chain same idea as Aldis) and spends max 50€ a week. Not quite sure how she does it. I dont’ like littles as it’s only store brands and not all are up to snuff.
My bro in law averages $140 CDN a week for 4 adults and is down quite a bit since he took over the shopping. His wife is very very picky, no store brands in her house! They are very well stocked up so I think that has helped get the weekly down a bit.
Thanks JD for asking this, very interesting
August 21st, 2007 at 11:09 pm
As an afterthought it is possible to eat much cheaper than average but it means skimping on everything. I’ve eaten at a few peoples places who do that and you notice it. Take for example Spaghetti, mine is stuffed to the gills with meat veggies tomato paste etc, theirs, well let’s just say it’s a dusting of tomato paste on noodles, or my chickpea recipe “chick peas, bacon and Spanish sausage” mine is stuffed full. Full pack of bacon sausage etc, theirs maybe 2 slices of bacon and a quarter of a sausage. Nice but almost no meat.
Yes you can eat very cheap but it means being very skimpy.
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:13 am
My family of three, plus the dog, spend $300/month on groceries. This includes all cleaning supplies, chemicals and household stuff. I work for a large supermarket and receive a 10% discount on most products and 20% on fresh produce, this really helps our budget no end!
My wife is a stay at home mom, so she enjoys preparing a meal from scratch for both lunch and supper. I live relatively close to work so I can walk home for lunch and skip on expensive prepared dinners.
As for eating out, we don’t. Maybe on a Friday we’ll pick up hamburgers at dairy queen, but it comes out of our own pocket cash, and is never more than $10 for all of us.
Also working at a grocery store lets me find the bargains, offers and markdowns way before the pack which can pinch a penny or two. On a sidenote milk here (S. Cen. TX) is around $4/gallon, which is down from around $6/gallon not to long ago!
August 27th, 2007 at 3:08 am
There are five of us…myself, my partner, my 8yo son, his 7yo and 10yo daughters…oh, and the cat…in New Zealand.
I spend about NZ$300 (US$216) each fortnight at the supermarket. This includes toiletries and household supplies. Then each week we budget NZ$40 (US$29) at the local market for fruit, vege and eggs. So monthly that’s about NZ$760 (US$550).
I buy as little processed food as possible preferring to make as much as I can from scratch including baking (not bread though anymore). No alchohol (unless needed for a recipe), no cigarettes, no lollies and no fizzy drinks. I write fortnightly menus (I recently subscribed to a 3 month online weekly menu mailing group) and create my grocery lists (’market’ and ’supermarket’) from that. Usually the only thing we need to get outside those particular trips is milk. Alas, I do catch myself putting more and more treat types of foods into my trolley of late!
We grow nothing (although I want to start a small garden). We eat meat every night. We have eggs for breakfast five out of seven days a week. I have shopped at the same supermarket out of town for the last three years, only using the local supermarket to get things like milk or anything we run out of unexpectedly. I don’t use coupons. We rarely dine out - maybe two or three times a year…unless you count McDs maybe once a month and very little takeaways. Oh, Friday - ice-block day…the kids love the once a week treat!
September 6th, 2007 at 5:01 am
[...] budgets vary widely, even for similar families living in the same city. As we’ve discussed in the past, one family of four might budget $800/month for food, while another budgets $300, and a third [...]