People need to learn how to be more discerning about what they put in their bodies, they will be more healthy, the food is more tastie and the dollar amount is much more reasonable.

Wow, I should be so lucky as to be able to spend that much for food. I live on a VA disability pension of $985 per month and qualify for $71 per month in SNAP benefits. Now I realize that SNAP benefits are supposed to *supplement* food costs, not be the entire amount you spend. But after paying $325 for my mortgage (how many people think $325 is an excessive amount to spend on housing for one month?), utilities, home and car insurance, vehicle maintenance (for my 1988 Olds which I can’t afford to upgrade, but I have to have a car to get to the nearest VA hospital for my doctor’s appointments), I simply don’t have $225 left over to buy food.

And those of you talking about spending $XXX feeding a family of 3 or 4, etc. DO realize, don’t you, that the higher number of people you’re feeding, the less expensive it gets *per person*. For example, a gallon of milk costs less than four quarts. But, as a single person, most of that gallon would get poured down the sink when it spoiled. The grocery store where I shop frequently offers significant specials on rolls of 10-pounds of ground beef. What would I do with 10 pounds of ground beef? Yes, I could separate it out into 20 packages of 0.5 pounds each, and then my freezer would be totally taken up with packages of ground beef.

Yes, I can make a huge pot of soup, but then I either eat that same soup for three weeks straight, or my freezer gets entirely filled up with soup. No room for anything else.

Don’t suggest I buy a separate freezer. Stores don’t give those away for nothing. And how often do you *think* somebody posts freezers in good working condition on Craigs List for free?

Yes, it is possible to eat healthy on a very small shoestring, but it takes a LOT of thought, creativity and time. And, sometimes, I don’t want to spend 2 hours in the kitchen for one meal. I’m not a great, creative cook and — frankly — I don’t like cooking. Sometimes I wish I could just go to the store, buy a quarter of a pound of ground beef and just make a hamburger out of it, instead of figuring out a way to make it stretch for 4 meals.

Since the beginning of spring/summer, our monthly average grocery bill has gone up approximately $150 per month (up from $450/550, now its at $650/700). So now, my husband is looking forward to more (not all) vegetarian dishes. We rarely eat out unless we get a gift card for a gift or something like that. I cook mostly from scratch, which is oddly expensive.

Eating healthy now and later can contribute to future health care savings and possibly nix the need for medications, not always though. I have friends who struggle financially a lot worse than we do and they are unable to afford the simple luxury of fresh produce or good meats. They live on hot dogs and hamburgers and boxed side dishes. It’s truly terrible.

Who knows, one day all of us may end up having to share living space with neighbors just to stay afloat financially.

[...] The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s information on the cost of food. [...]

[...] The thrifty food plan challenge: Eating well for less [...]

You do NOT need meat. Get over to it.

Cook 2-3 times a week, alternate between leftovers.

Learn to ‘convert’ leftovers into a completely new dish. Pinto beans become ‘refritos con chile y queso). Cold mashed potatoes with an egg squeezed into them become potato pancakes … ‘gourmet’ if you add some dried dill, parsley or other favored seasoning … and on and on.

An egg and some lame-looking cooked veggies become an omelet.

$5 per person per day is plenty. And then some.

[...] But it isn’t — especially if you bend the rules to follow the rules. For a great overview of the whole situation, check out Get Rich Slowly’s post on the matter. [...]

[...] much closer to the USDA’s “thrifty food plan”, a topic that’s been popular recently (the comments are especially interesting on that last link). Knowing that $300/month for two people [...]

http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=88

I live in Michigan, and my wife and I (no kids) budget $350 a month for groceries, including toiletries and non-food consumables in that figure (soap, laundry detergent, dishsoap, toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags, cleaning supplies, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, etc). We only buy meat on sale, and buy enough to last for 6-8 weeks, keeping it frozen. If it runs out before it’s on sale again, we don’t have that kind of meat for awhile, but we’re both okay with eating most meat, so it hasn’t ever been a problem to not have something for a few weeks.

We often come in under budget. Our eating out at restaurants budget is not included in that, but we only allow ourselves $100 a month of “fun money”, which is used for eating out, movies, bowling, roller-skating, or anything of the entertainment variety.

Our diet includes shrimp, steak, fish, chicken, beef; frozen vegetables; rice, noodles, potatoes. Most dinners are made of a mix of those three things: steak, baked potato and veggies, or shrimp mixed with noodles and veggies and stir-fry sauce, or spaghetti and chicken with vegetables on the side. Lunches are usually leftovers or sandwich or soup/salad and fruit; breakfast is cereal/fruit/toast or eggs/fruit/toast; occasionally bacon or pancakes. We eat really well as far as I’m concerned.

When you first start your store purchases, you will have to buy some items that are not on sale. After all, if you are out of corn and corn is not on sale, you will have to pay full price. But, most of your purchases should be only the sale items. Buy enough to last until that item is on sale again. If that means you have to buy 12 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts at $1.79 a pound, then you won’t need to pay $2.99-$3.99 a pound when it is not on sale. Same thing for other meats. Frozen veggies also hold up well and I stock up when they are $1 for a 1 lb bag or less. Leftovers can still be nuked the next day.

As far as the size of the meal, I bang my head everyday. If I cook for just my spouse and I, her son and girlfriend come home hungry. If I cook for all 4, they come home and have already eaten or are going out to eat…..I just can’t win.

I tried the “save the leftovers in the fridge” bit, but it just turned out to be a temporary garbage can.

That leads to the last part, and plan for leftovers. I now immediately freeze “home tv dinners” with leftovers. You can use freezer safe plastic containers, foil pans, or anything you have available. I used to collect the “Stouffer’s” pans from friends who eat that high sodium stuff, put my meals in them, then cover with heavy foil and freeze. On weekends when spouse works, or when she is working late, I just take one out and nuke it. Also helps with portion control.

Love your articles, JD. Keep up the excellent work!!!

We’re in the UK where prices are quite a lot higher than the US
We eat organic fruit and vegetables (although it’s not much more expensive because we tend to throw away less and I’ve noticed we’re also eating less meat and a lot more fruit and veg, which is obviously good for our health and our finances)
We get most of our groceries delivered so we aren’t able to pick up deals in the store
We have three adults who all work from home so we’re eating all our meals and snacks here, plus we have a teenage boy and you know how they eat!
Although we usually eat very healthy home-made food, we’re all dealing with chronic illness and if everyone is ill at once we tend to resort to takeaways out of desperation
Our health issues mean that we can’t eat a lot of ‘normal’ food – my partner can’t eat potatoes or tomatoes, which cuts out a lot of cheap standards. I can’t eat gluten and gluten-free foods are a lot more expensive than versions containing gluten. We also tend to avoid dairy and sugar and we do quite a bit of our shopping at health food stores.

Obviously some of this is choice but other things, like the potatoes and gluten, really aren’t (believe me, I would love to be able to eat ordinary bread again but it really isn’t pretty when I do). I’m not trying to make excuses here, just wanted to point out that there can be valid reasons for higher food bills that don’t include eating champagne and lobster every night.

I’m not so sure about what we spend on groceries – hubby does most of that, and a lot of what he buys depends on what’s cheap that week. So one month we’ll have one grocery run of $150 or so plus $20-40 at farmer’s markets. Around Thanksgiving / Xmas (lots of specials) we might spend $300 or $400 filling the freezer and pantry, and every few years we get a side of organic grass-fed beef. So the best measure would be to average it out.

I am single, and spend $30.00 a week on food. That includes breakfast, lunch (brown bag), and dinner, and enough chicken broth and canned tomatoes to make soup out of leftover veges and meats. I also foodsaver leftovers and make a large batch of soup each week. I eat meat at every lunch and dinner accompanied by fresh steamed veggies. I never buy brand names. The secret is to know where to shop. In Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, theres a chain of supermarkets called Market Basket….cheap cheap cheap!

We probably spend another $50 per month eating out/buying coffee, though we have been trying to eliminate this spending by putting more effort into planning meals at home.

It is easy to imagine some of the low-income members of our community foregoing the expense of fruits and vegetables, since these are either not in the neighborhood (farmer’s market) or do not accept credit cards or food stamps (corner stores.) On top of that add the convenience of a bodega (most do accept food stamps) on every corner selling chips, soda, and candy bars for cheap, and it’s hard not to understand the source of the childhood obesity rampant in our area.

Mike Finch, I too struggle with finding recipes scaled for 1 or 2 servings. You might want to try checking out some cookbooks from the library; I found one that had a section devoted to cooking for one or two people.

We spend about $500 per month for a family of four, and that includes at least one trip to Whole Foods and a lot of organic produce & dairy.

Our budget does include cleaning supplies, but I very rarely buy anything other than dishsoap & laundry detergent because I make my own, using castile soap, vinegar, baking soda & borax (or washing soda) for the most part. Additionally, we don’t buy paper products other than toilet paper. We use only the basic toiletries (e.g. shampoo, conditioner, soap, & a good moisturizer with sunscreen because we live in the mile-high city, after all).

I do keep a price book, but I rarely use coupons because they’re almost always for processed foods, which as a rule we try not to eat. (Cheerios are the biggest exception to that rule.) I make my own bread and sweets, but not to save money. I just enjoy baking. We do not drink soda or coffee.

Generally, I think and that our budget, if anything, is probably a bit too generous. We could get along fine spending less.

So $275/3 people/2 meals per day x 30 days = $1.53 per person per meal per day.

(I only include breakfast and supper since my wife runs a daycare with its own food budget that cover our lunches).

It’s not like I’m being cheap either here. I eat roasts, steak, chicken, pork. I have a big breakfast every Sunday. Yet I should point out I avoid prefabricated food. Is that really that much of a cost savings?

CD