Survey: How Much Do You Spend on Food?
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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…
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.
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).
Family of five, one income. We spend around $350 US / month for groceries.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On average, I spend about 160 a month on food, I never go out to eat, and pack all my meals for work.
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.
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.
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.
Congrats on the Wall Street Journal story!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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…?
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.
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.”
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!
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.
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.
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.
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. : )
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.
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.
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).
[...] 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? [...]
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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!
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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!!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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…
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
[...] 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 [...]
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
[...] 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 [...]
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. $40.
I’m a single income single mom of 2,ages 7 and 12. I spend about 400.00 per month on groceries including eating out. I shop at Sam’s Club. I find it very helpful to buy thing such as soups, crackers, cheese,bread,bottled water,toilet paper,paper towels,snack foods,gum,pasta. I don’t have time to clip and fiddle with coupons. CVS has the best deal on milk. I wait for the sale 2.49 per gallon and get 2 gallons at a time.I hoard cereal at the grocery store when I can find buy 1 get 1 sales. The Flea Market is the best place to buy fresh fruits and veggies.It cuts the price down by two thirds and the produce is great. We live in Florida and have the best oranges and grapefruit!
I have to say I find it baffling how some families with 7 kids spend only 500 dollars a month including eating out, toiletries and gas money. This is impossible. Maybe it’s U.S. prices but there are no stores in Canada (even Costco) that would make that possible.
We have 4 children and a dog. Not including toiletries, diapers or dog food, I still end up spending 800 dollars a month. Yet I buy in bulk, shop for specials, cook a lot of stews and pasta dishes, we eat homemade cookies and oatmeal, and we don’t buy name brands for a lot of items. We don’t buy soda, and our eating/take-out bill amounts to 100$/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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Three person household. $200 monthly we also don’t eat out. This includes snacks,soda. Not including the extras such as detergents and toiletries
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…
[...] 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 [...]
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
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.
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!
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!
[...] 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 [...]
Just me! I’m a household. For one grad student:
I spend about $100 a month on groceries. Eating out– probably about fifty dollars a month. I
I don’t pay for the little meat I eat (probably a couple of times a month)– my dad gives it to me. But besides that… yup. Lots of staples type foods– rice, beans, canned and frozen veggies, fresh when they’re on sale– very little processed. When it is processed, it’s usually candy or snack foods that I buy once in a while.
Yes, yes, I know that my eating out budget is half my grocery budget– but I’m fine with making the sacrifices in eating in to be able to eat out when I’m working on my thesis or to get away from stuff with the boyfriend.
[...] Survey: How Much Do You Spend on Food?, from Get Rich Slowly [...]
My husband and two very young children (2) and (1)..spend at least $900.00 per month on food, i just pie charted my expenses!! whoa i knew we spent alot on food but wow..i never realized how much. Looks like we buy more groceries and diapers and milk but eating out we at least spend $100.00 per month. But yes, we do love our food and drinks and i just cannot believe how much we spend.lol
I just added up, and I spent $160.00 on groceries last month. (single, mid-20’s) I eat a lot of chicken, shrimp, rice, and vegetables, and buy large bags of things that don’t go bad quickly such as potatoes, onions, and pasta. I would say probably 1/4 of what I spent was on wine, (can’t skimp on everything and who wants to). Of course, i eat out 2-3 times a week, but have started packing lunch to save money. I don’t clip coupons, but I watch the flyers to see when the large bags of chicken breast and shrimp are buy one get one. I buy the cheap house brands on things that don’t really matter to me, such as soup stock, canned vegetables and various spices. I tend to splurge on cheese. Also, I live in the south, so perhaps prices are a bit lower than other areas of the country.
[...] I found it interesting to read through the comments on the following link: How Much Do You Spend on Food. [...]
I am trying in vain to get statistical information on how much canadians spend on eating out. Can anyone help?
I clip coupons, watch the store ads. Shop for the best prices. We are a family of 3!I still spend 600.00 a month after coupons mail in rebates, free food coupons. Nothing is wasted very few scraps are throwed out. No we are not fat! That don’t include we do splurge and eat out 2 to 4 times a month and only 1 of them will be a big meal. This includes soaps, and tissues and things in that area that are a must in a home!
ouch ouch ouch
this is what happens when you start keeping a price book. I’ve read alot about how the price of food is going up but it’s not till you actually keep a price book that you really notice it. Milk bread, meat, coffee, cereal etc all have jumped in price. Milk in particular took a big jump!
On the other hand when things go on sale you notice right away
1 person, me, 21, student college athlete..
I spend $100 easy per week on good things like bottled water, milk, flax seed oil, protein drinks, whole grains, peanut butter, pasta, fruits and veggies, pomegranate juice, yknow all the good healthy stuff! Hardly any junk food or alchohol.
As far as eating out, throw another 40 bux a week we’ll say for a couple nights and say $150 month.. I could go right around 600/month for food alone!
How does a girl spend a minimal 150 TOTAL a month on food? You must be stick thin or your stomach must be growling when you go to bed. And what about folks with these big families of 5,6, or 7 and spend less than I do for just 1? You must buy bottom of the barrel foods and will certainly have health problems if you continue skimping on buying good healthy food to put in your body. Dinner must be awful at those houses.
BTW, I live in Boston, MASS
I have a family of 4. Me, hubby and 2 little ones under 5 (one of which is in diapers) and we spend an average of $60/week. I am a couponer and buy 95% of everything on sale and with a coupon. I stockpile when I can so I don’t have to pay full price. For instance, when milk goes on sale, I buy a few gallons and freeze them. I take advantage of rebates and refunds offered by drug stores such as Walgreens. I get most of my HBA items for pennies on the dollar, usually just paying tax for them.
I track my spending on a spreadsheet and so far this year (42 weeks into the year) I have spent $2,543 on groceries and HBA items. For a family of 4 that is phenomenal! LOL That’s around $240/month.
Trina, $240/month?! What the hell do you and your husband eat? I mean, I can the little kids eating barely anything cuz y’know, they’re small.. but c’mon you guys must be starving people or at least lacking nutritious foods in your diets.
Wow, I can’t fathom $240 a month! I know people on the WIC program that still spend $300+ a month on food and household items. I posted earlier in the string that my husband and I (we’re childless) spent almost $600 a month on groceries (about $150 a week). Since then I have made a concerted effort (sucessfully) to spend $100 a week or less. I have been able to accomplish this by carefully planning out my shopping and bringing a calculator with me to the store and buying whatever I can on sale. Still, $400 seems to be the bare minimum that I can spend to feed two adults a nutritious diet (fresh veggies, whole grains, fish, chicken, etc.) If people out there are managing to spend only $60 a week on 4 people (approx $2.14 a day???)…I need to know your secret.
Happy shopping
As she mentioned she lives in one of this “let me pay you to shop here” coupon places. I’ve seen articles where people get negative balances on purchases, not enough to give it away they pay you money to buy it. If you don’t live in one of those areas than you have to pay full price.
I average about 80€ a week. I’ve talked to people who claim to spend as little as 50€ and I always show them my price book and ask what they wouldn’t buy. Trina since you track your spending I would expect you’d be seeing a trending upwards as inflation starts to take hold. I noticed milk and bread products took a big jump recently (50% just for my fav cookies for example)
I spend around $350 a month for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids that are 4 and 6). Each person eats for less than $3.25/day. We eat very healthy - there’s no skimping going on here! Seems to be a lot of questions about what exactly these low budgets consist of. I plan a month’s menu at a time. Here are some of the dinners (and no, these aren’t just the good ones!): Enchiladas, Lasagna and
Salad, Cheesy Polenta and Steamed Broccoli, Pasta with Pesto Sauce (Homemade and EASY), Broccoli and Rice in Peanut Sauce, Vegetable Fajitas, Egg/Broccoli Quiche and Rice Pudding, Vegetable Lo Mein, Pizza (Homemade), Avocado Soup and Rolls, Pork Ragu and Salad, and Curry.
Our breakfast is oatmeal or non-sugary cereal and we add nuts, raisins, coconut, etc. to it.
The kids lunches usually include 3-5 of the following: 1/2 bagel or toast (whole grain) with cream cheese or peanut butter, applesauce or banana, goldfish crackers, hard-boiled egg, nuts, fish sandwich, leftovers from dinner, cheese quesadilla. Adult lunches are leftovers, soup, sandwiches (cream cheese, vegetables, BBQ chicken - no deli meat).
I live in the Midwest and shop at a discount grocer and a whole foods store. Our “eating out” budget is about $5 when we treat the kids to french fries. I don’t buy anything with trans-fats or high-fructose corn syrup. I buy very little processed food. We don’t eat red meat, and only scant amounts of chicken, pork, and turkey that we get from a local butcher shop. Most of our protein comes from beans, eggs and nuts. I can’t buy all organic so I choose what will (in my opinion) make the most difference in our health/diet. For example, I purchase organic milk, lettuce, and apples because those are so contaminated. I don’t buy organic bananas because the pesticides don’t affect fruits with thick skin as much - plus you don’t eat the skin. There’s a “dirty dozen” list of which fruits/vegetables to buy organic or avoid. I never buy grapes because the pesticide level is so high on them. I pick my own bluberries in the summer and freeze them. I buy organic oats because we eat so much of them.
We don’t drink pop. Several years ago we purchased a Soda Stream to carbonate our water. We add organic lemon juice and stevia to it for a great soda! We splurge on a couple of inexpensive bottles of wine each month. We also drink vegetable juice (not organic, wish it was), and tea.
I never use coupons - they are always for things I don’t use. Snacks are usually fresh salsas, or organic popcorn, celery, goldfish crackers, toast with preserves, homemade cookies, etc. This afternoon we made soft pretzels and honey mustard sauce for dipping.
The only thing we grew this year was 2 tomato plants - but next year I want to do lots more! I would like to get the grocery bill down to $250/mo. Maybe with a garden, more homemade bread, and a little less wine. LOL
Hope this sheds some light on the subject!
I live in New York city down in the financial district. I spend roughly 40-50 dollars per day on take out just for myself. About 20 bucks for lunch and 20-30 for dinner.
On the weekends I spend about 75 dollars per day average cause I take my girlfriend out to dinner sometimes and sometimes I get breakfast.
Unless its a special dinner occasion then can spend 250 dollars on one meal for two at a nice restaurant with wine.
We never cook in. On average I spend about 1200 dollars a month for myself on food and sometimes go to the grocery store to load up on snacks and fruit and drinks. Whole foods in the city is really expensive. I can easily spend 100 dollars on just drinks and snacks.
The city is insanely expensive.
I sometimes wonder how much money I would save if I just learned to cook.
Wow Art.. you don’t hold back and I like it! Well, since I’m almost the same way. $1,200 benjamins a month is pretty good, you must be eating like royalty, either that or NYC is raping people, figuratively speaking of course. You spending nearly 40-50 bux a day is pretty high, I thought I was bad with going up to like 20-30 a day haa. But you’re right, learnin to cook would help me out also but… if I got the cash who wants to cook and brown bag it ?
I spend about $600/month on groceries just for me. I go to Whole Foods, farmer’s markets, and asian markets in the south San Francisco bay area.
I spend $1,300 a month and I have one child. That is for 2 people. $1,100 on groceries and 200 eating out. Do you people eat? I mean do you have your children’s friends over ever? My sons teenage friends eat alot.
We (myself, my wife, and our 3-year-old daughter) spend between $550 and $600/month on grocery, which includes cleaning supplies and other random household items. That total usually includes an inexpensive bottle of wine or two. We also spend $150 on eating out. My wife is gluten intolerant and also allergic to dairy, our daughter is allergic to dairy also. Any milk or cheese they eat is goat’s milk or cheese. No wheat products. Specific items, such as apples, lettuce, and other fuits and veggies, are organic, as are all of our meat purchases. The result is we eat a healthy diet, but it is expensive. We’ve come to the conclusion that eating a healthy diet costs more- shure you can buy white bread for 1$ a loaf, and you can fill up on cheap, processed food items and meat that has a whole lot more in it than meat, but I don’t think you’re doing yourself a favor long-term. I’d be interested to hear any ideas on cutting grocery expenses within the above parameters. Good quality food isn’t cheap!
Family of 4 with 1 large dog and 2 cats - I’ve been spending between $150 and $175 each week. I ebb and flow with coupon use, but have learned a lot about saving and know what to do to make it better.
1) Use the flyers on Sunday and pay attention to the front page. Those are the ‘come and get it’ ads that are the best deals.
Guard your coupons like money. To some people, they are worth just as much. I’ve known people who have had them stolen right out of their carts.
2) Plan your menu for the week around the flyer.
3) Clip and USE coupons.
4) Good scenario is to buy a b1g1 item on WITH a coupon (every store is different, but some stores will accept 2 coupons if each item’s cost is split in half on the receipt. So instead of two cans of tomatoes coming up as 2.00 and the other as zero, they may each come up as $1.00. Two coupons may be usable in that circumstance. You have to check.)
5) Regardless. If you have a coupon, buy the smallest size you can WITH that coupon.
6) Some stores will double the worth of your coupon up to $1.00.
7) Sometimes it’s worth buying more than 1 Sunday paper for the coupons alone. Just make sure the coupons are in there. Sometimes they get stolen.
9) Go meatless 1 day a week.
10) Buy marked down produce - dice it up and freeze it.
11) Save left overs and make soup at the end of the week if possible.
12) Watch expiration dates. I will not buy milk that has less than 1 week of shelf life left to it, and stores can stock anything right up to that expiration date.
13) Buy your staples in double so you don’t have to run to the store in the middle of the week. I usually buy 2 dozen eggs, a whole gallon of milk, whole gallon of orange juice, 2 loaves of bread, and 2 pounds of butter each week to prevent me from having to run for staples. I find that with those items in stock, I can make a meal of scrambled eggs and toast if I have to.
I’m so happy to have found this section on the blog - I’ve been wondering what other people spend on groceries because our grocery bill (2 people, 3 cats, and one dog) seems (or seemed) crazy high. I spend about $500 for my husband and my and our pets. This includes some household items but I buy those in bulk. I shop at Whole Foods maily but have cut back on meat since it’s getting so expensive. I LOVE cooking and we take lunches to work every day. I’ve gotten good at making lunches that aren’t leftovers and aren’t salads (at least in the traditional sense). We only really eat out for sushi or go to a local brew pub for beer - but often we buy the growlers and come home. After reading the other posts, I’m feeling much better about the grocery bill.
We have a 15 and 13 y.o. We spend $600/mo on groceries, we juice fruits and veggies, grind wheat, bake 2/3 or so of our bread. We buy very litte processed, boxed, bagged stuff. We don’t believe in going meatless. It’s very tricky to get sufficient minerals and proteins from legumes and not as satisfying (to our palates).
We live like no one else we know of in our cohort. They seem to eat out more than us, or eat more processed foods. We budget restaurants to $125/mo. We don’t buy soda and candy ussually. We don’t even make many deserts, but we keep the ingredients and recipes around for the teens. They get receptive to learning how to make a chocolate cream pie, or cookies when the ingredients are available and they get a sweet tooth.
I’m in the service in a little rinky-dink branch that can’t do a good job at armed service benefits, but luckily there is a great big Navy base commisary within 50 miles, and we save money by making a big shopping trip there about once a month. Either $600/mo wouldn’t cover us at Food Lions, and Farm Fresh or we would have to drop organics and some stuff like that if it weren’t for the commisary priviledge.
[...] which includes Dining out (2005: $1648.63, 2006: $2018.81, 2007: $2051.93) Kris and I worked hard to reduce our grocery bill last year, often putting to use the techniques I describe at Get Rich Slowly. We know that we spend a lot of money on food, especially for a two-person household, but we’re trying to improve. We actually dined out less last year than in 2006, but we were undone by our new favorite restaurant. An evening at Gino’s costs us $60, and we go there once a month. As usual, this category needs some work. (See also: How much do you spend on food?) [...]
Unlike most people who’ve commented here, I am surprised by how much people spend particularly when eating out. I checked my data from Quicken and determined for 2007 I spent about $232 per month including alcohol, eating out, vitamins and supplements, and household supplies–paper products, cleaning and laundry items. Granted, I live in a rural area, have access to garden vegetables in the summer and rarely eat out. I shop at a “bent and dent” store, Wal-Mart, and use coupons (especially for meals out), and buy largely when items are on sale if I shop at a regular grocery store. Meats are rarely purchased and when they are, they must be sale priced. Reduced for quick sale is a great way to get decent meat that you can quickly freeze and use later.
I am amazed at how little people spend on food. We spend more on food than our mortgage; Family of 4 (not including our dog and cat) about 1000 a month, which includes eating out and household supplies. I used to stress about eating out, but when we reduced our eating out expenses our groceries went up about the same amount; most places we eat at are inexpensive like burrito joints, chinese restaurant lunch specials, and pizza with friends. It seems like reducing our food expenses is an easy target, but we have run into some barriers. We like good beer (one of life’s pleasures) we buy our meat and most of our produce from whole foods, and my husband enjoys trying out new recipes (it’s not just about sustenance). We have done things like buy house supplies in bulk, eat less meat, brown bag lunches, but unfortunately for both my husband and I we share the “value” of enjoying eating well and as long as we can afford it we are loathe to give it up.
At around $300/month for all groceries (including household supplies like soap), my husband and I don’t feel like we’re skimping at all. We live in a very expensive metro area and eat till we’re full without exception. I think we have pretty good appetites; we go back for seconds at most meals.
We eat meat at virtually every meal, generally fill our plates with 1/3 meat, 1/3 starches, 1/3 veggies. Nutritionally, I think we get *too much* meat. Everything is homemade, even our bread. (We buy unmilled wheat in bulk and mill it.) We only buy expensive unprocessed sugar.
When meat goes on sale, I stock up. I generally won’t buy any meat for more than $2.50/lb. Over the summer we did catch a T-Bone steak deal ($5/lb) and splurged on a few of those. We probably eat a ground beef dish several times a month, and a roast beef dish every other month. Mostly it’s chicken, though.
We tend to use chicken breasts, but we also eat a lot of dishes that use a whole chicken (usually a roast chicken, but we have some other stand-by’s). We make stock out of the bones afterwards.
If I can get a good enough price (around $1.30/lb), I like that to be an organic chicken. I only buy organic chicken breasts if they’re at the $2.50/lb price (i.e. it happened once). We always buy organic bacon, milk, eggs, and yogurt.
We use fresh vegetables for cooking but are considering switching to frozen because of the cost.
We eat a lot of fresh fruit (usually around 2 or 3 servings a day), and lunch is leftovers with a lettuce and carrot salad. None of this is organic.
There don’t tend to be coupons for the things we buy, so we don’t use them.
We have friends over for a meal every few weeks, but we tend to feed fairly frugal (and filling) meals like spaghetti and meat sauce or roast chicken with mashed potatoes.
We budget $100/month for eating out but don’t always spend it. (We almost never eat out more than once a week and often go a week without eating out.) Since my husband doesn’t like fish, I try to order if I can it when we eat out, so that drives the cost up a bit.
I was just thinking the other day about how much I’d like to compare with other families/couples how much they spend on food! So thanks.
Between two people, we spend a total of $462 a month on food, or $5,550 a year.
We’re going to bring this down in 2007 by shopping at Costco more, buying fresher food, and not having junk snacks in the house.
Along with the food changes comes a responsibility to change food behavior. We were originally afraid to do the Costco thing because we didn’t want to consume more. So we ration each week and store the extras away. Buying fresh foods limits purchasing big sizes and dining out, because you have to eat it that week. And we have nuts and such for snacks; we snack smaller, and overall appetites start consuming only what a stomach needs.
My wife and I budget $400 a month for groceries which includes pet food, and $200 a month for liquor. Eating out is trickier as we each have a $750 allowance to pay for other stuff.
We are new to this budgeting thing and starting slow. I think we spend too much but time will tell how best to revise our habits. For starters we are setting goals and reconciling the budget monthly, and seeing what that shakes out.
I went back and calculated and yes, average about 740 a month groceries, and $260 a month restaurants/drinks. Reading these posts we do many of the things suggested (but not coupons or keeping meat under 2.50 a pound) so not sure what’s going on. As my husband does the shopping we have agreed to save all receipts for a month so we can do a more detailed breakdown where we are spending our money.
And yes, I do know from experience that organic milk is expensive and we go through alot of it!
My husband and I budget $100 a week for food, toiletries, cleaning supplies and food for Maxine the cat. This includes all meals and snacks. Eating out and alcohol are covered our separate discretionary funds but are modest- less than $40/month. I am fairly pleased with this as we have maintained the same budget for 8 years despite a dramatic increase in dairy the past year. My husband became a long distance runner (100 miles a week) and we include his power bars and energy drinks in this budget. Our budget could be curbed but there are certain foods- expensive breakfast cereals, lemon ices, a variety of fresh fruit,deli meat for lunches, that we enjoy.
This saves me.
I follow a basic food plan for dinner: Mon-pasta dish,Tues-fish, Weds-Stir fry, Thurs-Beef, Fri-chef’s choice, Sat-empty the fridge night. The plan is flexible, ensures we eat a variety of foods, helps me plan the shopping and week’s menu based on what is on sale. It helped us cut way back on eating out on nights when we were tired or in a hurry to eat.
I am amazed how little others spend.
Unbelievable.
I love this topic. Last year I started tracking all my spending. Seeing where the money goes was a huge shock for me. We were spending way too much money on eating out. We still have lots of room for improvement but we are doing much better. For 2 adults and a teenage boy I spent $430 on groceries and $200 on eating out for January. I’d be happy to get the eating out budget down to $100. I use coupons sometimes, comparison shop, brown bag lunches,shop at Costco and cook meatless meals at least once a week.
I am single and eat out all the time. I live in an area in California where food is not cheap. However, I have a budget of $6 or less per meal. So I spend about $18 a day or $540 a month.
If you were to add the cost of the electricity needed to cook the meals and the time saved by not having to cook them, I am wondering if I am breaking even with those that eat at home and bring home-cooked meals to work.
My husband and I budget $200/month for groceries and $40/month for eating out. We’re expecting a little one in May, but I plan to nurse, so that won’t make a difference for a little while.
Oh, and I don’t buy organic usually.
I don’t clip coupons.
But, I do buy raw cows milk for $6/gal.
My husband and I spend about $300 - $350 on groceries (only food items) each month, and about $50 - $75 on eating out which includes coffee, vending machine visits etc. as well. So we spend about $400 on food alone each month - about $6.50 per person each day.
We try to purchase items on sale, but usually don’t skimp if something we need is not on sale. We also don’t use coupons. We plan meals on a weekly basis. In fact, each weekend, we try to cook our lunches and dinners for the whole week. We generally purchase a lot of fresh products, and try to limit packaged items to snack type products.
Reading how some on this forum spend much less than us, I think I’ll check out Sam’s club this weekend, and start clipping coupons. I think ideal amount for us to spend each month would be around $300 total on groceries and eating out.
I pay very close attention to prices and I can tell you food inflation real and it hurts
Here a few examples
Just Right cereal 1.95€ to 3.05€
Shaved Turkey 1.89 to 2.99
Milk up 25% to a euro a litre or 3.80 a gallon
Yogurt up 25%
Gum 1.40€ to 1.75€ although if I shop around I can find it on sale.
Inspite of that I’ve reduced our shopping budget by about 10% since starting a price book. I also use store coupons, the best ones are the “save 3€ when you spend more than 40€”
I also shop the sales, currently I have enough dog food to last several months and way overstocked on toliet paper.
I spend consistently 70€ a week. I also shop at 3 or 4 different stores, I tie my shopping in with my teaching (free lance English teacher) to avoid unnecessary driving. The biggest trick to be discipline about buying on what is on your list. Last week it was 1 yellow pepper and a bag of yellow ones and 3 packs of gum.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Consumer Expenditures
Look it up
My husband and I live in South Florida (assumedly on the “most expensive” in the country list).
We spend about $400-450/month on groceries, including cleaning products and most toiletries
I could probably spend less, but I think we eat very well, and we only spend about 75-100/month eating out. My justification is that my local Publix is only 2 blocks from my house, so in a world where gas prices are above $3.00/gallon (3.30 currently), I’d rather not drive the 10 miles to Costco.
I’d really like to start going to the weekly produce market, but again, the gas is a killer!
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I spend an average of about $55 a week on food. I’m just me, and I don’t buy much junk food. I usually go for store brands of commodities and stock up during sales.
Our family of two spends an average of $350 on food a month and about $250 eating out. We have a goal of reaching $400 total by the end of this year.
I have a live-in boyfriend and we spend about $125 a month to feed the two of us and our pets. Add perhaps $25 to eat at a restaurant once a month, and we average about $150.
My household of 6 - myself (pregnant) and another adult, and my 4 children, ages 6, 5, 3, and 2 - spend approximately $1400 a month. That covers all food, toiletries and diapers. My kids and I don’t eat out, but the other adult buys lunch about 3 or 4 times a week. I don’t use coupons, and I don’t try to stick to a budget. We’re vegan so we don’t eat any meat, dairy, or eggs, among other things. I avoid processed foods when I can and I buy organic food at every opportunity. I cook every night. We go through A LOT of fresh organic fruit and vegetables, and nut milks can be expensive compared to cow’s milk. For now I don’t grow any of our food, but we’re moving within the next few months and I’d like to focus on growing what we can and sticking to farmer’s markets for fresh organic seasonal produce once we’re settled in. I would like to dramatically reduce the amount spent on food, but I won’t sacrifice my organic produce and love of cooking great food to do that.
For comparison purposes, it would be great if you state in your comments the area of the country where you live.
My previous comment is related to living in Seattle.
I live with my husband and daughter, who’s 2.5. We budget $150/week on all food. Some weeks we are under, some weeks we barely make it, but it averages out all right. We live in Northern California. I plan a menu every week on Sunday and purchase all the groceries. About $80/week is spent at Trader Joes, $30/week is spent at a local fruit stand (where I buy 3-4 bags of produce), and the rest is spent eating out, hosting potlucks, or buying specialty ingredients. I should mention we have a pretty large reserve of food in our pantry at all times.
I’ve been scanning all the replies to this post from the beginning. It would be interesting to hear from some of the early posters to see how their food costs have changed.
For example, I noticed somebody early on mentioned milk at $1.79/gal. Now, the rock bottom price I can find in my area (San Antonio) for any brand, at any store, is $2.98 - $3.09. Name brands like Bordens are a dollar more.
I started keeping a price book in Jan. Since that time, bananas (a daily staple in our house) have increased from 34 cents a pound to about 54 cents. That’s just an example — everything is going up.
Since I started obsessively shopping sales and counting every penny, we have been spending around $800 a month for groceries and another couple hundred for eating out. This is for a family of 4: me, husband, 2 teens age 15 and 19. I hate to think what our cost was before I was keeping track. In the past, if I wanted to serve chicken, I went out and bought the chicken at whatever price it was offered. Now, I only buy chicken (and stock up) when it is on sale at a deep discount. I’m planning our meals around what is on sale. Having a big freezer and storage space helps.
Other changes we are making this year: planted a vegetable garden which is looking pretty good so far, we hope for some fresh veggies in a few more weeks even though we have black thumbs. Planted several herbs which have been doing well and saving me from buying the grossly overpriced ones at the store. Coupons: only occasionally, I buy mostly generics which are cheaper even after name brand coupons are figured in. Shopping for marked down items: one store near me regularly puts out day-old bakery items which I bring home and put in the freezer if not using immediately. My husband and I take our lunch to work at least 90% of the time. I’m making it a mission to avoid throwing out food — working hard to use up leftovers and produce before they go bad. Still having to toss items occasionally, but getting better.
Bottom line is, it’s getting harder in these economic times to be frugal. Just when I was getting smart about shopping sales and tracking spending, the bottom falls out of the economy.
How is the economic downturn affecting you and your spending/eating habits?
I live over here in Spain and started keeping a price book just before inflation took a big bite out of food prices. Milk jumped 25% to almost a 1€ a litre (3,80 a gallon) I can find it for 75 cents (store brand) if I shop around. My wife’s cereal took a huge jump (almost up 50%), Bananas used to be a euro a kilo know it’s closer to 1,40.
Gas has also jumped almost 20%
Generally I spend for 2 of us 80 euros a week. Some weeks a bit less and others, like when we have company will be a 100 euros.
My niece in Canada spends about $80 a week for two people which is quite good.
My husband and I live in Southern California. We try to budget $450/month for groceries but generally spend around $700 or more - this includes all toiletries and sundries as well as food for our two cats. It’s just the two of us plus the cats. We spend less than $100/month eating out.
I don’t even wanna talk about the price of gas here. Yikes!
HELP!!! I spend so much money on groceries, its crazy. I have a lot of allergies to foods, i can’t eat wheat, or wheat gluten of any sorts, I am lactose intolerant(which means i cant drink milk), I can’t eat shell fish, my stomach cant digest beef and i simply dont like pork.
I buy fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables, usually the freshest I can get or frozen. I shop at Ada’s health food store so I can get my pastas and breads and crackers, so i can get my grain intake. But my grocery bill is rediculous. We (my fiance and I) spend about $80 bucks at walmart, thats JUST food, no toiletries, no detergents, no shampoos, … No just FOOD ALONE. Then go to Adas Health Food Store to get the specialty items that I can eat, that won’t Kill me, lol… and thats about $30-60.00 bucks.. and this is only in a week…
But in just food we spend about $100-150.00 a week, thats $400.00 - 600.00 dollars a week on just food, and its not really including dinner foods, only for a couple of days… HELP…. I don’t know what to do, but we can’t keep spending like this, it is taking us under.
if you have any suggestions, please comment me back, or send me an email at BeautifulNatural@yahoo.com..
Thanks.
soon to be mother in distress………
We have a household with four adults. We spend about $200/month in cash on food, and $200/month in foodstamps. About a year ago we used to spend only the foodstamps, and get the rest of our food out of the dumpster. We eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, some meat, and almost no grains.
Two adult household, we spend about $400/mo on groceries and $100-200/mo on eating out. Almost all the food we buy is organic, free-range, and/or local. I know it’s a lot more expensive, but I also think it’s a more realistic price for food. As long as we can afford it, it will be a priority to buy this kind of food.
We also don’t buy expensive out-of-season produce, drink milk, or eat meat every day. I do garden and we buy as much in bulk as possible.
BeautifulNatural - can you wean yourself off the expensive no-gluten “substitute” foods like rice pastas and gluten-free bread and start developing a taste for potatoes, quinoa, and other non-gluten unprocessed starches? Around us, a box of no-gluten noodles (that would make one meal for two) costs $3-4; an equivalent quantity of potatoes would probably cost 50 cents. Do others in the family also eat the “specialty” foods? Sometimes it’s not too hard to do a meal with a non-gluten and a (cheaper) regular version of a side dish, which would stretch the expensive ingredients.
We’re a family of 2. We spend 300.00 a month on groceries, and about 100.00 a month eating out. (usually sushi or Thai at $30-$35 a meal)
Our dinners have become very basic- vegetables (grilled, sauteed or steamed)and some sort of protein (I eat 4 oz of Salmon every night, my husband’s vegan and eats processed vegan protein sources).
Limiting our choices for dinner has saved us some money, and it helped my cholesterol drop 36 points in 6 months.
My husband, my mom (who lives with us), my pre-schooler daughter and I spend about $800/month on groceries. We have recently completely cut out dining out in order to try to live within our means. Grocery-wise, we spend a LOT on organic produce and dairy, although we’ve been trying to find ways to cut the costs, somewhat successfully. We do live in NYC, but shop primarily at places like Trader Joe’s, our local food coop, and Costco. We buy very little meat- only my husband eats it- but we do tend to eat some expensive meat substitutes that counter the “cheap” factor of vegetarian eating. We do not buy much in the way of snacks, and don’t generally shop sales or use coupons- those aren’t usually available where we shop.
My husband and I spend $300-$350 per month on food, and that includes toiletries and cleaning supplies, and alcohol.
We have a veggie and herb garden, and we enjoy fine foods. We live in a small town with only one grocery store, so our options aren’t always great in terms of selection and price.
$20 a week for a family of 3. (Well, 2 since our daughter is only 6 months.) This includes groceries and toiletries. And diapers (using CVS and Walgreens, I’ve never needed to spend $ on diapers!). An occasional splurge if we’ve saved in previous months. It can be done. We’ve done this for over 6 months now.
My family of six (two overweight parents in our 40s, 19yo daughter, 17yo son, 15yo daughter, and 10yo son) spent $1000/mo. on grocery items (including non-food items) and $100/mo. on eating out (not counting a week-long vacation at one point) from August 2007 through July 2008. It’s not as frugal as some budgets but feels pretty tight compared to a lot!
I buy a lot of fresh produce and more soda and cookies and crackers and ice cream than we need. Coupons are not a viable option in our area, really, and there is little competition among grocery stores.
In my new budget, necessitated by a big car repair this week, we will spend $800/mo. on groceries and $50/mo. on eating out. Whew.
We have cut down on grocery bills by eating less. We are getting rail thin ( which I like since my waist size is down to 32 inches ).
For 2 adults food bill $220.00. I shop at
” Mexican stores” they are way cheaper than name brand stores.
It’s just me and my husband for our family. Our food bills vary, but on average we spend about $1200 on food each month. Acutally in June we spent about $1700! This is a combination of dining out and grocery shopping. On average we spend about $800 dining out and about $200-$400 in groceries. This month, I’ve cooked a lot more and it looks like our total food bill is closer to $800. About $400 dining out and $400 for groceries.
My husband has a job at the mall and his store does not have a fridge or microwave. It’s difficult for him to have leftovers. I used to go out to lunch with coworkers for the break away from work, but that’s when we were spending so much. I think in the future, our monthly food bill will be closer to $800-$900 for an average. Plus, by cooking at home, I’m able to control portions and ingredients. I’ve lost a number of pounds by not eating out.
Also, I usually try to buy organic whenever possible. I try to avoid the cheap processed box items in the middle of the store and only shop around the perimeter.
I love using microsoft money. It’s able to show our monthly spending habits over the past 12 months and then I export that to excel to find the averages.
Today I just ate a small portion of food and drank simple tap water for lunch.
I donot drink these sugary drinks completely cut down on those expenses.
Once a week I go out and eat at a cheap Thai food place. Its OK to be thin for the moment. I like it… its me real me coming out..
Mela, thanks for putting this into some perspective. My husband and I spend about $600 a month on food and I know we can cut back but hell, at least we have $600 a month we can spend, unlike some.
We don’t buy processed food and buy mostly organic. I’m going to try taking $100 in cash each week and making that our budget. Why am I complaining about how much we spend on food? We can spend less AND give something each month to the food bank. No one should have to go to the dumpster for their food - not in a country where we’re so spoiled with our food. Might I suggest that we all cut our budgets and do something good with what we save?
Hi, I think it does depend on your food philosophy.
I tend to spend a bit more on healthy groceries as an investment towards better health and lower health care premiums/costs in the long run. (I also work out for this reasons, but also for enjoyment/entertainment.)
So, right now it’s a 2 person household. My daughter and I spend about $200 on food. We don’t eat a lot of meat (seafood primarily) and a good bit of our budget goes towards fresh bread, fruits and veggies, then dairy products and eggs. I do buy organic and grassfed, so I will spend more on an item to eat less of it.
But generally, we are frugal in all other respects. We buy in bulk where practical, use the farmer’s market and don’t eat out much(if at all) and take lunches to school/work, so this food lifestyle works for us.
Overall, we spend about $200/mo on food. I make it a ‘rule’ not to shop more than 1x a week; it helps avoid unnecessary spending.
There are five in our family. My kids are 5,4 and almost 2. My husband works from home most days so we eat all three meals together. We also live in a rural community so groceries are expensive (one trip to a major grocery store costs us $20 just in gas). Our average monthly grocery bill, which includes all household items: personal items, candles, cleaning supplies, computer/office equipment, school supplies; is between $480 - $520 a month This has not increased with the rise in gas and food costs, so if food goes up, our pickings get slimmer. I use grocery coupons. I feel sorry for anyone who stands behind me in lines. I do not have a dishwasher so I tend to buy boxed foods, and not make food from scratch, which means we pay more. Organic? Forget it!
I hate that we spend so little, I feel like our kids get too much junk food because it is cheap, but that’s the life when you’re a one income family.
We do spend more on eating out because we take one whole day as our shopping trip. It averages between $90-120 a month. And that is our splurge, we don’t spend much on anything else.
I live in Eastern Idaho
I feel compelled to note that we live in FL, and so seafood is pretty inexpensive. I bought 1lb of shrimp (2 stir fries) fresh for $4.99/lb.
Also, we can get a lot of our own seafood with little effort. I’ve been scalloping, crabbing and fishing and I enjoy it.
We do grow some of our own veggies (not nearly enough) but I’m expanding my garden next year to be larger. We also get local produce of all kinds 10 out of 12 months of the year. I am joining an organic co op to learn gardening skills and for the price of two weekend mornings a month, I’ll take home a boatload of organic produce free of charge.
Frugal green lifestyle is the goal, for me.
So, if I were to pay for all of that in another area of the country, I suspect my bill would be much, much higher.
My Mother and Father in law spend about $350 CDN a month for 2 seniors. He, being German, plans his monthly shopping out with military precision. I find dairy products in Ontario to be very very expensive, 4L (bit over a gallon) of milk is 4.69 (currently about 5US) butter cheese tends to be very pricey as well.
They tend to make most meals from scratch and are very very picky about not wasting anything. I learned that it’s best to let him cut the tomatoes I waste too much:)
I’m a college student and spend around $100 a month in groceries and about $300 or so eating out. When eating out, it almost always includes my girlfriend, but it doesn’t include the 2 or 3 $5-7 meals she buys for me during the week and she usually cooks a pretty expensive dinner for me (20-30 for dinner and lunch the following day) once a week as well. I have NO idea how people are forced to be so frugral with their eating habbits. I spend nearly 33% of my monthly budget on food, 33% on rent, and the rest to entertainment/bills. I still manage to save a few hundred a month. I believe I live VERY modestly compared to most people, but reading this blog is making me think otherwise.
P.S. I grow none of my own food, rarely use cupons, don’t buy organic, ( I can’t taste the difference except in certain fruits like peaches), and don’t shop for bargains. Gas will eat up the pennies I save.
In the last month, we (my fiance and I) have spent $168.33 at the grocery store and Sam’s. We also spent 179.77 at restaurants.
We eat at a sit-down restaurant about once a week, this usually comes to about $30. He sometimes picks up lunch at school, and 1-2 times each week we will get fast food.
We pick up a few items at Sams (frozen veggies and chicken, rice, whole grain bread, milk, juice). The rest is purchased at the grocery store down the street. I don’t clip coupons, but I rarely buy foods that are not on sale. I nearly always purchase store brands if they are available. I will buy organic if the price isn’t too much more.
We have family over for supper every Sunday. Sometimes it’s just one person, other times it is 6 extra people.
I tend to cook big meals on Sunday and Tuesday, then we have leftovers for lunch the rest of the week.
He often takes a lunchbox with icepacks to school.
I find it really easy to spend less than $50/week on food–and everything I eat is organic. That includes eating out once a week at a good organic restaurant. I buy the majority of my grocieries at the local farmer’s market, with supplements from the bulk aisle of the food co-op. Perhaps my biggest money-saver is that I don’t eat meat (though I do eat eggs and dairy). Granted, free-range organic eggs are twice as much as conventional ones, but I just don’t eat them as often. And, get this, free-range eggs have HALF the cholesterol of eggs produced in a factory farm. The best part about eating this way is that I produce ZERO waste. No packaged foods, and most containers can be returned to be used at the market. Food scraps go in the compost. Easy.
I find when the wife is on the road my shopping goes way down as I tend to eat out alot. In the end it balances itself out. Less on shopping more on eating out and visa versa when she’s home
I’m a college student on co-op, so my meal plan for my dining hall is really small. I end up making myself breakfast and lunch most of the time, as well as dinner sometimes. I usually eat dinner at my dining hall (so, free…until the tuition bill comes) or grab dinner in town somewhere.
I do my weekly grocery shopping and spend between $30-$50. I’ve noticed that I buy a lot of unnecessary foods - usually ingredients for recipes that I want to try that I think my friends will like. Once I went shopping, and 11 of my 15 items I wouldn’t have gotten just for myself.
So, cutting down on my eating out and excessive ingredients would save me a lot of money, but I enjoy cooking for people and I hate my dining hall, so I am content with my spending.
PS The meal plan for my dining hall equates to about $25/meal…I usually end up eating a bowl of cereal because its the only decent food there. If I honestly wanted to save money, I would not be attending a ~$50,000/semester institution…
We’re new empty nesters, trying to adjust the amounts of food we buy and cook to 2 people instead of 4. We tend to eat out a lot and pay for our relatives’ meals as well. When I cook at home, since I tend to make too much of a dish, we set aside half to bring to my 90 year old mother-in-law. We use organic produce as much as possible and buy lean cuts of beef, good quality fish and chicken breast. We’re in Manila, by the way. In equivalent US currency, we spend $700/month on food. A third of that is on groceries and the rest on eating out.
I just rang up the month’s food - this includes anything delivered or bought from a vending machine (sodas, trail mix, etc.): $235.50. That’s about average for the month for me. That’s a U.S./Northeastern City price.
How do I do it? Not any way anyone would want to emulate. Food is one of the areas where I cut my costs. Let’s hear it for vitamin pills.
It is my husband, myself, and our 3 year old daughter and we live in the mountains in Colorado which is very expensive. We spend at least $600 a month just on groceries!! I can’t believe how we spend compared to the rest of you! Oh well, I am not willing to skimp on healthy foods, I buy organic meats, dairy, and produce when possible. I am signing up to receive some organic produce door to door which I think will actually save me some $ in the long run.
Single Man ,early 50’s,live alone,no pets.
About $400/month including personal hygiene products,cleaning supplies,etc…in Miami,Fla.
Absolutely no junk food(Unless “natural” nuts can be considered as such);no eating out,take-out or delivery or cooked food bought at the store.
Tend to follow low-carb lifestyle,so no foods with high hypogycemic content(potatoes,bread,white rice,regular pasta,etc),…No processed foods which makes the use of coupons almost irrelevant.
Lots of protein…high quality Boar’s Head deli products(EXPENSIVE!) and appx 3-4 gallons of green tea a week($2.99/gallon at the Publix store)
Plus another $100-$150 monthly in nutritional supplements as I try to combat the side effects of diabetes and smoking too much(Quit 4 years ago).
I just can’t believe how little some people here claim to spend….($220/month for 2 ?!!)
Either you are starving yourselves in some form
of ascetic aspirations,or are borderline malnourished.
my bf and i spend around $460 a month.(we don’t actually live together, but might as well with as much time as we spend together) this is higher then it needs to be, mostly because our university requires that i have a meal plan as part of my housing contract. ($8 per meal at the cafateria every day)
Our family of twelve- not a typo- has a food budget of $1000 per month. This does not include the natural side of beef we purchase annually (another $700?/12=$60 per month). I do not buy things with coupons anymore as those items are usually “convenience foods”… To quote Michelle in #165 “This has not increased with the rise in gas and food costs, so if food goes up, our pickings get slimmer.”
$1000/month DOES include all toiletries, paper goods, chicken feed for 24 chickens, cleaners, whole grains, and kitchen implements… I shop the farmers market wholesalers, thrift bread store, co-op with others for bulk buys, watch unit pricing and AVOID prepacked foods. I also bake much bread and cook from scratch with rice, potatoes, and pasta-based meals, soups, fresh fruits and veggies… and we have a gluten intolerant daughter and a diabetic daughter who is low carb.
And I’m always fishing for new ideas to trim back and stay healthy! Thanks to everyone who shared.
(We eat out as a family maybe ONCE a year, but each child gets a restaurant breakfast with Dad on their birthday)
I usually spend about $800/month for food for a family of 5 (me, husband and kids ages 18,15,12). Oldest just started college but the grocery bill is still the same here. ?? I have always tried to cut this down and don’t know what to cut. I buy some prepackaged things like cookies, chips, crackers but cook homemade dinners every night. I bake from scratch and we do not use a lot of frozen food such as pizza, dinners, etc. If they are on sale I will buy some but only then. I have a freezer chest (got them to knock off $150 cause it was a scratch and dent sample at Sears) and when chicken, pork, beef goes on sale I stock up. My monthly bill includes cleaning supplies, paper products, etc. I buy generic for things like bread, milk, butter, frozen veggies. I always see whats on sale and will not buy certain things - like ice cream - unless its on sale. I’m always looking for ways to cut this bill. I cut coupons but often find the generic brand - like sandwich baggies - is cheaper than the name brand, even with a coupon. We don’t eat out often. Sometimes we’ll order a pizza or cheesesteaks. Once every three months or so we’ll go to an Applebees or something similar. But it’s rare. I ‘add as I go’ when I shop — this helps me stick to my list and not be tempted to impulse buy. Still, I think I spend too much. If I could cut the bill by $25 per week even, it sure would help. I’m always amazed how much can get spent on very little items. Oy.
I usaually spent around 15 euro’s a day. Which would be 450 euro’s or 575 USD a month.
I’m a 22 year old single student from Amsterdam.
Seems life over here is quit expensive.
G
my husband and I spend at least $500/mth on groceries (an it is just the two of us) and $200/mth on eating out. At the grocery store, we buy organic diary products and organic meat, sometimes organic produce. We buy only good healthy food, no junks. aside from ice cream and chocolate that my husband loves. we buy imported cheese and olive oil. When we eat out, we do not go to expensive places, it is usually noodles, pizza or a sandwich. I really do not know how to cut on our grocery bill because for health reasons i can only eat organic meats and diary products. I say “GOOD JOB” for the moms who can control their bills. I just buy what I like… i never thought of buying only what is on sale… I will try that next time…
Well, my husband and I are trying to budget $300 a month on groceries. However, we tend to go over sometimes. I always want to spend more because I like a lot of fresh veggies and fruit. Here in Wyoming that can be expensive. Also, milk here is 3.79 a gallon and seems to be getting higher.
In order to keep the budget low, I cook with a lot of rice, legumes and potatoes. I also garden in the summer and will can some of my own food this year.
Did I mention that I am pregnant with twins? I think that contributes to our escalating grocery bill. We eat out once or twice month too. Since the pregnanacy our monthly grocery bill seems to be just under $400. After reading about half the entries here I think we aren’t doing to bad.
With a family of six, our budget for weekly groceries is $100. We spend about $400 in a month. Three kids are 5 and under and one is 10. So the only ones that consumes more food are just me, the husband, and 10 yr old. I try buying in bulk as much as possible for toilet, milk, eggs, rice, etc… Every meal is eaten with rice to help the kids feel more full during meals, unless they are eating food consisting of pasta,noodles, or bread. I shop for food maybe 2x a week dividing my amount spend on food about $50 each visit–if I spend $100 in one visit then that would be the only visit of the week for grocery shopping. We eat alot of home-cooked meals and rarely eat take-outs (maybe 1x a week).
Wow! I’m amazed at what some of you spend. It makes me jealous and makes me want to give second thought to my budget.
We’re a family of four and I budget $200 every 2 weeks, so $400/month. However, we do eat out 2 or 3 times per week, but that is usually fast food and we maybe spend total $500/mo on food. Our kids are 4 and 2. I think it’s crazy how much we spend and apparently it isn’t a lot!
What bothers me is that my sister is on food stamps (and doesn’t need them…she just won’t work!) and the max for food stamps is almost $600/mo for a family of four. WHAT!??? What the hell are they eating?????? STEAKS? I hate that every year their benefits go up, yet my husband’s paycheck doesn’t.
My two roommates and I are twenty-somethings living in the Midwest.
We spend about $250 per month on groceries. This doesn’t include cleaning supplies or toilitries. Plus we go out about once per week.
However, my two roommates eat a lot so it’s almost like there are five mouths to feed!! And we do entertain guests about once per week.
Between my wife and I, we average $800 a month between groceries and eating out.
We are a family of five in the Midwest, and we eat almost every meal at home (we eat out about three times a month). Our budget is $700/month for food and toiletries, diapers (two in diapers, three if you count the older one’s bedtime diaper), cleaning products, etc. About $600 is for groceries and $100 for other stuff.
I routinely spend less than our food budget on groceries–closer to $450-$500/month. I buy only organic milk (three gallons/week = $20) and organic produce, and I buy as much unprocessed food as I can. I also buy some organic meat and cleaning products.
I bake and cook from scratch every day. I grocery shop only once a week on double coupon day. We also shop locally at our farmers’ markets on Saturdays during the summer.
DH takes leftovers for lunch. The kids take snacks and treats to school from our stockpile and whatever I make at home. If we go to the park, we take our own treats/lunches/snacks.
We waste very little food, and we compost what we don’t eat. Our new expanded garden is huge and will hopefully offset some of our produce costs when we start harvesting.
I coupon like crazy and use the local thrift bakery store. I also stockpile when the savings are exceptional. This is essential to my savings strategy! I buy a lot when it’s on sale and I have coupons, which saves me money in the long term. If I didn’t stockpile, my grocery bill would be cut in half. But I like making sure we always have what we need at a price that’s lower than normal. My stockpile gives me the flexibility to skip a week or two if I need that money for other things.
Overall, I’m really happy with how we spend our money on food. I think we have an amazing diet at a pretty good price. We might spend more than others do, but I think we get a lot of really high-quality food for our money.
I live alone with the bf visiting on weekends, I spend 100.00 a week unless it is for enttaining. I am relearning to cook for one and it is hard. Very rarely eat out, brown bag at work. I need more fruit and veggies, but the stores I have available the produce section is pretty but tasteless. I grow blueberries raid the wild blackberry vines, buy from local farmers and freeze. I am in a very rural area and wish we had a farmers market close, by the time I drive to the closes one, I have spent more in gas than making a saving. The growing season in NE Florida is not long too hot. So I try to adjust and have learned to do without
There are 7 of us. I would have to say on average we spend 1,200 on food a month; single income, midwest(USA), 2 adults and the rest are teens. This also includes papers stuff, cleaning stuff, pet food, and eating in/out. This doesn’t include gas to get to the store, that’s 20 miles away. I try to shop bi-monthly but some how it never quite works out that way. Oh and I gave up paper towels 3 years back. They’re to shake dry or use a hand towel. I’m now on the verge of cutting out all toilet paper and switching to cut wash clothes. And ouch the price of aluminum foil, even generic is expensive. This will be the first year we grow a large garden, now that I have willing participants, so perhaps we will save money there. I saw milk go over $4 a gallon last summer and it will be the first thing to be cut out if it heads back in that direction. Cheese is still considered a luxury to us, I view it to expensive. I say throw spinach leaves on those sandwiches in place of it. I can’t imagine what some are eating with 7 or greater on a less than $400 budget.
Hi I’m from Manila, Philippines and my family belong to a middle income group. Salaries in the Philippines are low compared to 1st world countries such as the US. My answer to your question about food expenses is about $280 per month this includes a bi-monthly grocery and eating out. $280 here is already big; it’s like 9% of our total household income already; and yeah food is expensive here. Most salaries of Filipino’s here in the Philippines goes to basic needs such as food.
Tips to lower food expenses:
1.) Do not buy snacks (e.g. chocolates and chips)
2.) Just buy the essentials (e.g. chicken, fish, and vegetables
I would love some receipes from the Philippines! I had some friends from the Philippines way back in the 70’s and the food they cooked was wonderful. I learned to properly cook rice from them and learned to make eggrolls and puncit(sp?) very good and healthy food!
I have a family of 7. We have an 18, 16, 13, 11, and 9 year old so I have 3 teens that are very big eaters. We also have extra kids friends over a lot that we feed. I budget $500 but have been really spending about $600- $650 because we are in baseball season and end up doing more quick Hot Pocket meals or picking up fast food. This includes toiletries, medicine, and cleaning products. I can do much better, but fall during hectic seasons.
Bewildered… $500 a month for a family of seven? Is this a bread and water diet?
We live in an expensive area (Wash DC suburbs), but our two teens and two parents easily burn $500 a week on food and household supplies not including eating out!
We don’t use coupons, but that’s because we buy zero processed food. lots of fresh veggies and organics, but I don’t feel we’re extravagant by any means. Rarely do we have steak… more often vegetarian meals or something with chicken. Our big variable is that I work from home and we homeschool, so we’re all home, all the time. Still… I feel very disconnected from the rest of you.
Ross,
I am with you. We are a family of 5 in the Boston burbs and our food costs are exorbitant.
Ross,
I am with you. We are a family of 5 in the Boston burbs and our food costs are exorbitant. We spend about $1200 - $1300 a month on groceries and supplies and anywhere between $250 - $400 eating out. We also eat organically and avoid processed foods. In the summer it’s much more because we go away often and eat out much more frequently.
An informal survey of friends tells me that we are spending the same as many families in our area. I know there are food costs I could cut back on, but I could never feed my family for some of the amounts quoted here. Maybe food costs are higher in some parts of the country?
We are a family of 6 in the midwest. Food costs here are close to half of what I’ve seen on the east coast for similar shopping habits.
I spend $75/wk on groceries(an avg of our monthly grocery budget). I do have 4 younger children. 1 still in diapers. I coupon for things we buy on a regular basis and we have double coupons here every day.
I also spend $30 a month on eating out, obviously we don’t eat out much. And $70/mth on household items.
We don’t eat a bunch of processed junk. I buy fresh fruit almost every day. Yogurt and fresh veggies several times a week. I have to pass the grocery store parking lot to get to the main street so it’s not any extra gas or time for us to stop all the time and I don’t buy extra things when I there.
If we lived on the East Coast our grocery budget would be impossible.
Currently, we spend about $85-90 a week on food for our family of 2 people and 2 dogs. This is after I put us on a strict grocery budget after years of spending blindly. I used to spend about $120 per trip, with little trips in between, so probably about $160 per week. I had no plan then, and could kick myself for all the money we had wasted over the years! Now I shop the sales, plan meals, and only go to the grocery once a week on pay day. I add up what I am buying as I go so I don’t go over budget. We cook more and eat frozen meals never, and maybe go out to eat once or twice a month.
I initially did this drastic change out of necessity, but will continue these habits even if our income goes back to normal.
We are a family of 4 (two boys age 8 and almost 5). I spend about $600 on groceries each month – that is only groceries and not toiletries or other household items. I cook at least 6 nights per week. I get free meals during the week at work; my husband takes leftovers or picks up a salad at the grocery store over his lunch hour. This is included in my grocery bill. We eat out less than $100/month – maybe pizza or Chipotle a time or two and my husband grabs lunch with the office gang once or twice a week. I look for sales, stock up at CostCo, use coupons if possible, buy store brand on some things, but buy name brand soda, crackers, bread, etc. I make a menu for each week and purchase items for those specific meals along with our regular staple of snacks and on-hand fruits and such. I grow tomatoes and other veggies in the summer, but just enough for some yummy additions to our meals and not to subsidize our grocery bills. We entertain often, eat meat at each meal and buy tons of fresh fruits and vegetables and very few convenience items. It seems like a high cost, but we eat well, we eat healthier options at home versus restaurants and we spend more time with family and friends. We try to have dinner at the table every night together as a family. That’s what is important to us.
Wow, I thought my grocery bills would be a lot cheaper. When I crunched the numbers, I found out that for a household of 2 people, I spend:
$523 a month on groceries
$68 a month on restaurants
$326 a month on toiletries and household items
Clearly there is a black hole hiding in my food budget. Thanks for posting the survey, I’m definitely giving my food budget a closer look.
My husband and I are in our early twenties, spend about $350-400 a month on groceries (toiletries and such included), and between $250-300 a month on eating out. Food is very important to us, we like to feel that we are eating well, and that we are healthy. But, I believe we still spend wayyy too much. The biggest problem for me is- how to balance eating healthy and saving money. Additionally, we like other posters, work from around 7-5:30 and do NOT always have the motivation to cook (but do pack our lunches) and typically eat out for dinner 3 times a week. I have the feeling we would save a good deal of money at Sam’s.. and that our food budget needs a closer discerning eye. We also do not use coupons (don’t get the paper), and don’t really compare store to store. We just know that WalMart has cheaper toiletries and big items, but typically we find it more worthwhile to shop Kroger for meat- we live in an area that is EXTREMELY limited in grocery stores. We have no discount groceries, no whole food markets, no organic food suppliers, and the only farmer’s market is 20 miles away during the time that we work. We do, however, grow some of our own food- our first year growing, next year we will probably grow more.
I am 25 years old and I spend about $365 per month on food. That’s both eating in and out. I also eat out at lunch every work day, spending between $7-$12 for lunch. It is nice to get out of the office and walk around and eat at different places.
My weekday dinners usually consist of fast meals or tv dinners, so that is where I try to cut back. Food is definitely my biggest expense, and don’t even get me started on the bars