Five years ago, I posted the first-ever “Ask the Readers” question here at Get Rich Slowly. “How much do you spend on food?” I asked in a short post (the likes of which one never sees around here anymore). For five years, people have been posting their food budgets for others to see.
Shauna wrote earlier this week asking for an update:
Would you consider doing an update to the “How much does your household spend on food?” post from 2006? This is a constant point of contention in our household budget.
- On the one hand, my husband and I are sort of “foodies”: We love to cook, experiment with new ingredients and recipes, share that food with others, etc.
- On the other hand, it’s a significant part of our budget and I feel like the general theme of most of the food-related posts on GRS is on how to spend the absolute minimum on food.
Many of our friends have cut back in other areas of their life (cheaper housing, cars, etc) in order to be able to spend more on food. They budget for eating out at new restaurants once a month, shop at the farmers market because they enjoy the experience, etc. None of those things are possible for us, even though we are supposedly spending more on groceries than most of the other folks on GRS, if the comments from your 2006 posts are right.
Our “groceries” budget is $750 per month, but that includes food, household items like paper towels and laundry detergent, personal hygiene items, etc. Basically everything we would buy at a grocery store. We live in the inner downtown core of a medium-sized city. We both work, and we take our lunches with us every day. We cut coupons where we can. We maybe eat out once or twice a month at low-cost places (pizza, happy hour, etc). We do grow some of our own produce (lettuce, tomatoes, etc) but there’s really only a four-month window when we harvest significant amounts.
My question is: Are we really spending a lot more on food than most people? Or are we just using a budget that doesn’t tell the true story? I’d love to hear what number others come up with, and the factors that influence it (eating at home vs. eating out, living in a city vs. a rural area, both partners working vs. one staying at home, buying organic vs. regular, etc) so we can actually compare apples to apples.
If I weren’t vacationing in Alberta with Kris’ family, I’d share our food numbers too. Looking at the most recent summaries of my discretionary spending (2008 and 2009), I’d guess we spend about $500/month on groceries and $300/month on dining out. That’s for two “foodie” adults in Portland, Oregon. These numbers are both about $100/month more than what we were spending five years ago.
The restaurant dining is an ongoing issue, and one that I’ve tried unsuccessfully to address. On paper, we can afford to spend that much dining out, but I don’t like it. It feels wrong. I’d rather use that money for something else. On the other hand, I’m okay with our grocery budget. Like Shauna, that number includes various household goods. It also reflects an increased focus on healthy foods in the past eighteen months. I used to buy junk food from Safeway. Now I buy things like organic chicken sausage from the local health-food store.
So, five years farther on — and facing ongoing price pressure at the supermarket — let’s look at the same questions I asked in 2006.
What does your family spend on food in a month? 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? Is eating organic important to you? What other considerations do you make when spending on food?
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I live in Astoria, Queens. I spend about $200-$225 per month on groceries/going out/drinks. I don’t eat meat, which allows me to buy a few luxury few items per month. I usually make my own breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the week so when I do go out on the weekend it is an enjoyable meal, and not just something to feed me. My monthly spending shrinks in the winter because I end up using a lot more dry goods than fresh ones.
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My family of four, (which included two teenage boys) spends around $450 a month on food, which includes eating out. However, this month we’re trying to spend to spend the amount that an average food stamp recipient would get in the state of Oregon, which is $101 per person.
This is because we’re doing a food stamp challenge on The Non-Consumer Advocate, where participants donate any money saved at the end of the month to their local food bank. So far, we’re at $321.73 for the month, which includes having eaten out once.
This is the second time we’ve done this, and it’s always an eye opener.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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How in the world do all of you do it? We spend $275 a week so it’s $1,100 – $1,375 in a month. This includes toiletries. Lots of produce, dairy. No junk food. We do our own cooking. Includes perhaps 3 very small meals out a month. Nearly all shopping is done at Meijer and Target with coupon use. Family of 2 adults, a 3 year old and an infant (but she only drinks breastmilk). MOney wise you would think we gigantic people who buy a mountain of food, but we’re healthy active folks. What the heck are we buying that you guys aren’t?
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In our case, we shop mainly at ethnic grocery stores (for food items), and we buy household items mainly at Giant with coupon use (they double coupons up to 0.99 in our area) and sale combined… we stock when double coupons + sale offers great bargains.
Me thinks we buy things you buy, we also love cooking and cook from scratch, but one of the big things for us is shopping at ethnic grocery stores (Indian, Korean, and sometimes Chinese). I know food item prices there and Giant, and the differences are quite significant.
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Well, we spend about $900 on our family of 7. I think part of it has to do with being able to shop at BJ’s and Costco for produce since we can easily finish their sizes before it goes bad.
But I would guess the main reason we don’t spend as much would be we now have a stockpile of pretty much everything that doesn’t go bad quickly so I no longer buy anything like toothpaste, deodorant, sugar, flour, tin foil, canola oil, etc. unless it’s on sale and I have a coupon. I also don’t buy meat unless it’s on sale or if I have a coupon (like Perdue, which are sometimes available). I freeze meat and it’s rare that we don’t have at least some meat during the day. Chicken and pork, including bacon, freeze great and really should only be purchased on sale.
Even eggs and yogurt can be stockpiled and are good for two weeks or more past their stamped dates – don’t be foolish, make them pass a smell test – but these are items which can be somewhat stocked up on when there’s a sale and/or a coupon (Eggland’s Best and Land o’ Lakes have egg coupons at least every other month).
As far as fresh produce in the house, we pretty much only get what’s on sale with exceptions for apples, bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, and celery – all of which we always have in the house.
We also eat a good bit of frozen veggies which are purchased on sale with a coupon.
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We have four teens, two dogs, two cats, and two adults in our family, plus sometimes feed our kids’ friends. We spend around $900/mo on food and household stuff – toiletries, cleaning supplies, pet food/litter, supplements and OTCs. It’s our single largest family expense.
I could get the expense down if our sons weren’t autistics with food related sensory issues. The only way I’ve found that keeps the rest of the family from dying of lack of variety or me cooking multiple meals is to keep things in the house that the boys can pepare for themselves while the rest of us eat sort of like normal people. I have become a competent cook over the years, but I don’t enjoy cooking.
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I guess I do not fit into the GRS average. We spend a lot on food every month, approximately $1,000-$1,200. That includes nearly all household items and occasional take-out, but we buy many foods that are not cheap — like prime-grade steaks and fresh fish. We buy a lot of different fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and wines. Every week I go to Costco, I spend about $200, and we also spend $50 here and there at the grocery store. We like to try new recipes, which often involves new ingredients. We could probably save a lot of money by eating less expensive foods, but it’s something we enjoy. We use coupons and try to find good deals, but we like food.
Food is one area that I never feel bad about spending money on. I don’t buy more than I can eat or store for later use, and I have never eaten my way into budgetary problems. It’s also a great way to strenthen social connections by having people over for dinner, or brunch, or whatever. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are some of my favorite parts of the day, not only because of the company, but because I enjoy eating.
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Two adults, two cats- we clock in at about $800/month. This is all human food, cat food & litter, paper products, toiletries.
Sometimes it feels like a high number, but we live in a dessert so 95% of our food must be shipped in, and the price reflects it. I remember when we lived in the Willamette Valley and I couldn’t believe how inexpensive (and fresh) food seemed.
We eat out around three times a week, take dinners to friends and family who are ill, bring baked goods and snacks to work to share (we work at a university and have poor college students working in our department), and will have a dinner party at least once a month for friends.
Personally, I’d rather cut back on other expenses than touch the food budget. We stopped cable and reduced our cellphones so we wouldn’t have to alter our food habits as the prices have been going up.
Sometimes we have rice and beans or homemade soup for lunch for a week. Other times we’ll go out.
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You live in a dessert? Yum! That must help keep chocolate costs down.
(I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
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i’ve been tracking my food expenses from the beginning of this year. wanted some accurate figures to see how much my grocery spending varies. sorted the data by week, because a month would have been too long a time, i’d need to wait too long to get enough data, and an arbitrary amount of days like five or ten seemed inaccurate because spending might concentrate on some specific weekdays.
Now i have 29 weeks worth of data. on average i spent (single person household) 28.85 EUR on groceries a week. by todays exchange rate that equals 41.46 USD a week or 180.28 USD a month.
Spending has varied. at lowest i spent nothing in one week and at highest i spent 73.07 USD one week. when i plotted the data (how many weeks i spent an amount that fell within sequential intervals, (think 0-4.99 ; 5-9.99 ; 10-14.99 and so on)) i got a curve with a concentration of weeks in the middle range, as would be expected. looking at this plot i seem to spend most weeks about the same amount on groceries, between about 25 and 55 USD.
To be exact, i spent 62% of the time between 23.07 and 59.85 USD a week, which feels like fairly variable, but i don’t really have any data to compare this result to.
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I average about $275 each month for “things I eat and drink,” which includes trips to the often-pricey Whole Foods, a subscription to our local Farm Share, a visit to the farmers market every once and awhile, and eating out. I feel like I spend less than most because I rarely buy alcohol when I’m dining out. Doesn’t mean I don’t splurge on a good bottle of wine at home every now and then!
One interesting website I’ve started exploring is Bundle.com. It lets you see how others in your demographic are spending their money(for example, a single female age 25-35 making $50k-$75k per year in Washington D.C.).
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That’s fun! According to them we’re about average for our demographic group for groceries and lower than average for eating out.
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I spend about $250/mo on restaurants (including semi-frequent nights out at bars, and occasionally purchasing overpriced beer at sporting events and concerts) and another $200 on groceries. My grocery shopping is balanced between coupon savings and some very low cost basics, and more expensive organic and/or local items.
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We spend about $600/month on groceries/household items and eating out for a family of 4 (2 toddlers). Probably $400 on groceries & $200 on eating out. We’re eating a lot less meat these days but we’re buying mostly organic or more “natural” brands. Every so often Whole Foods has a 1 day sale on some meat item at a pretty good discount, like today I purchased ~4 meals worth of wild Coho salmon for $8.99 lb. I’ve also stocked up on whole organic chickens, free range ground beef, etc. We stockpile, shop almost exclusively sales and use coupons. I also can fruits and vegetables in the summer to get us through the fresh veggie drought of New England winters. Most importantly, I know the “good” prices of the items I buy and when I know something is a good price I buy it. If not, I wait.
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One mostly-vegetarian, gluten free adult shopping in San Francisco from a co-op, including all organic fruit and vegetables = a rough average of $240/month. I do not eat out or drink. I DO buy things in bulk, in cases, in season, and so on. I’m also in my first year of canning. (Expenses for me rise in the summer/fall when I’m buying plenty of fresh produce.)
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I spend about $500 a month on groceries for two adults and two preschool children in central Seattle.
I’ve experimented with many ways to get that number down — CSA box, grocery outlet store, coupons, etc. I stockpile and freeze when things are on sale, make my own pickles and jam, trade homemade foods with friends, and am getting into cheesemaking. I garden too, but the amount of food we get out of that is trivial.
I pack my own lunch almost every day and cook almost every night; a restaurant is a very rare thing for us.
Still, $500 a month on food only seems to be going up as the children get older and hungrier. :-/ I wish I could get it lower, but we keep needing to eat!
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1 adult, 1 preschooler. $225/month on groceries, by which I mean short-term consumables.
I shop at Costco mostly and don’t pay attention to what things cost (I don’t use coupons, for example). I find this fairly cheap. We waste very little and almost all of it is unprocessed food.
I bulk cook and freeze most of the food for me, which I think reduces the cost a lot.
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In our household of two adults we try, but don’t always succeed, to stay within:
$120/week for groceries/household items – $40-50 in produce, $20-30 in meat (though sometimes we buy fish so it’s a bit more), $50 for everything else. We only occasionally use coupons, but we are price conscious and buy the sale/in season produce, choose meats based on what’s on special and stock up on non-perishables when they go on sale.
$20/week convenience food (sandwich for lunch, coffee, etc.)
Plus dinner out 3-4 times per month, low end sit down restaurants – $120-$150/month.
So $600/month groceries plus household items. Eating out brings us to $700-800/month on food. This is a huge part of our budget, but we’d rather cut out other things than the $200 or so we could cut from our food expenses if we really needed to.
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Some of these numbers are . . . wow! It must vary wildly by location. In downtown Toronto we’re currently spending $1250 for staples for a family of four. We’re sort of foodies. We buy good quality fresh ingredients including a few organics. We get take out out four times a month or less. Never dine-in. When we aren’t budgeting carefully the number can reach $1700 like it did in April when we had a family emergency and I couldn’t cook most of our meals from scratch.
I find our bill is slightly higher in summer because the kids take seconds when they’re home. This month we’ll hit $1400 with careful planning.
Five years ago I would estimate it was $200 less per month, but I’ve also made changes to offset inflation. Less meat mostly. More rice.
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A family of 2 adults, 2 dogs and 2 guinea pigs we spend about $300 on groceries a month that inc, pet food cleaners etc. Eating out comes out of our entertainment budget so we tend to make eating out an experience instead of a I can’t be bothered to cook event.
In times when moneys been tight I’ve gotten that down to $200.00. I do a bit of couponing and stockpile basics, beans, rice, meat, frozen veg so when times have been super tight I’ve managed to go 6 weeks with no shopping for anything but basic produce, bread and milk.
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We spend $160 a month for food, toiletries, and cleaning products. We are a 2 adult family living in the suburbs of Atlanta. I shop at 3 grocery stores (Kroger, Ingles and Publix) as well as CVS, Walgreen’s and Target.
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I hope you make us a pretty pie chart or something! Look at all these answers!
I eat out 12 meals per month on average; the rest of my meals are from the grocery store (meals I cook or prepared meals I nuke all fall under that category, though the cost per meal can vary widely).
I’ve been tracking my spending since the middle of 2007 and have seen my spending in each category creep up from 358/month (2007) to 480/month (2011). Of course I was paying down debt them so was a little more frugal!
Jul-Dec 2007
eating out: 163/month; groceries 195/month
Jul-Dec 2010
eating out: 218/month; groceries 206/month
Jan-Jun 2011 was even worse
eating out: 237/month; groceries 243/month
My household is just me; I am a decent cook; I live alone in the bay area, with ten billion awesome food choices and amazing fresh ingredients year round!
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I just buy groceries for me, but I find that every other week I buy a lot more than the week before, just because of how long certain perishable foods last. Also, I have a huge dog who needs a huge bag of food every other week, so that adds a good $20 to the bill. I also don’t cook… ever. So I guess all of the pre-cut organic veggies and nice little packages of things I buy really add up. I think, though, as long as you cut back elsewhere, like this post was saying, you can spend more on food. And who doesn’t love food? If you have products you just love and must have (I do– I have an addiction to those little frapuccino bottles), just make sure you’re getting the best deal on them. It’s amazing how much prices can vary for the very same products, just between neighborhood grocery stores. I work for Mango Money’s blog and we have some great (and healthy!) ideas for all of you foodies out there. Check it out: http://www.mangomoney.com/blog/how-to/healthy-waist-healthy-wallet-12-good-for-you-meals-under-5
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Family of 6, suburban Atlanta: $1100/month.
This includes food, eating out, and all toiletries and cleaning products. I coupon a little bit, but not much.
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DINKs (dual income, no kids)
We strive for $400 (necessity) and $200 (luxury) each month, $600 total on food/alcohol only. We are usually a bit over, but not too egregious.
I track using Google Docs Spreadsheet so that I have access to the figures at any time, as I try to enter all receipts at the time of purchase.
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What does your family spend on food in a month? $560. This is everything/anything I get at the grocery store as I budget for “groceries” and not “food”.
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? I control what I buy, the what is more important than the cost as I have a strict high/protein low carb/low sugar diet. But I spend the least amount possible to meet this requirement.
Do you use coupons? When possible, yes.
Do you grow your own food? No.
Is eating organic important to you? No.
What other considerations do you make when spending on food? Since I don’t eat that much, I worry about how long the food will last before it will spoil. Because of that, I focus on items that either freeze well or have a long shelf life. Take milk for example. I love it but whenever I buy it I end up dumping it because it went bad, so I buy Soy milk instead since it lasts longer.
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ps I’m overseas and at the mercy of whatever the commissary carries. Local cuisine is primarily items outside of my diet and cost 3 times as much as their US equivalents.
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Mint tells me that my husband and I have spent a average of $666/month on groceries over the past year. This category includes food for a 55-lb dog, food and litter for two cats, plus everything we buy at the grocery store – beer and wine (about $50/month including supplies to brew our own), paper products, trash bags, etc. We live in rural New England. We buy bulk staples (brown rice, nuts) from a co-op. In the summer we spend $30/week on a CSA. We buy a 1/2 grass-fed lamb for the deep freeze every fall from a friend, and buy some organic food when it has a good price. All the above factors into the average.
We eat meat or fish sometimes (once or twice a week), and a whole lot of vegetables. It’s important to us to only buy humanely raised hormone/antibiotic-free meat and dairy products. We have chickens (their food not included in the grocery total), and buy free-range eggs in the winter when they stop laying. When my income went up recently we started buying much more fruit, which I sorely missed when money was tight. We collect wild berries, fiddleheads, sea vegetables, and apples in season to freeze, dry, and preserve. I have a small vegetable garden this summer (the first opportunity we’ve had to garden for a while) and plan to expand it next year.
When I was struggling to save money on food, eating a lot of starchy stuff, we were averaging $561/month. Now that I have relaxed and we buy as much fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy as we are hungry for (and feel MUCH better) we average $714/month.
We’re both good cooks and make most things from scratch, except that sometimes we buy our bread and crackers. We don’t buy soda; I drink lots of tea and he drinks some coffee, I average one beer or glass of wine a day and he has a glass of wine maybe once a week.
Our separate restaurant budget (now that we have one) is $45/month. We haven’t gone over that yet.
I don’t coupon. Maybe I should, but have always felt that since I mostly buy scratch ingredients it would be a lot of looking for little gain.
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I forgot – about $60/month of that amount is laundry – we get cash for the laundromat at the grocery store.
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We budget $350/month, but I’m guessing this year we’ll be at $400/month once we add it all up. We’ve blown our budget the last two months in a row. That budget covers two very active adults, a 3-yr old and a 1-yr old. We are medium couponers, do some shopping at Costco, and our budget includes health & beauty, paper products, basically anything disposable or edible.
We do buy 95% of our produce, dairy, meat and beans organic, and buy conventional for the few processed foods that we eat regularly (pasta, pasta sauce, pretzels). I think this is largely why the budget had been blown the last couple of months–food prices have just started noticeably rising, particularly on organics.
We live in the heart of a medium/large city.
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My husband and I (no kids)spend on average %500-550 per month on groceries. We live in a major city on the East Coast. We live in the city, not the suburbs. So, no garden and no stockpiling for us. The $500 includes paper products, and some health and beauty items.
This time of year, I spend about $60-$80 per week at the farmers market. I get all of our produce, eggs, milk, meats and seafood at the farmers market from May to the end of September. I do not use coupons, since most of our groceries are purchased at the farmers market. We don’t eat processed foods. (I will admit to purchasing ice cream!) Quality food is a priority for me, and I’m willing to spend what I need to on good produce, dairy and meats.
Lately, we haven’t been eating out that much. We spend about $75 per month on meals out. After my vacation in September, we plan on eating out at good restaurants about 1-2 times per month. There are lots of great restaurants in our neighborhood, and its important to us to support them. It contributes to our quality of life!
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A family of 2 adults living in an urban area of the Mid-Atlantic region, we spend on average $ 200ish per month on groceries (food), and $30 to $50 on dining out. Non-food items like cleaning supplies, toilet paper etc are about $30-40/mo. It fluctuates month to month but we adjust along the way so it in the end averages out within these ranges at the end of the year.
Essentially maintain the same lifestyle as we had as grad students.
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I honestly don’t know how two people can spend less than $500/mo on groceries. Some people say “I think we spend about…” and so I take their number with a huge grain of salt. I know what we spend because we track our spending. I’m rather amused that as a household (two adults, one infant) living also in Portland, OR. Our target is $500/mo on groceries and $300/mo on dining out. Just like JD! Heh.
In truth, since baby came along spending has gotten out of control. Mostly because our schedule is erratic and we are harried and sleep deprived. However, the last time I was at the store stocking up on regular stuff, I noticed that prices have gone up, discounts are meager and lots of packaged items are getting “right sized.” Anyone notice that their Tom’s of Main toothpaste is in a different type of tube and now about an ounce less? Thanks, Colgate-Palmolive! Same great price, less great product!
So far this year, we are about on target with dining out. $300/month. Groceries, however, have gone insane. $700/mo. Last fall, staying at or under $500 was not too difficult. Life is conspiring against us.
For the data: typically shop at Fred Meyer. Sometimes at New Seasons or Whole Foods. Trying to get all my produce at the farmer’s markets and plan meals around that.
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Not only is it a plastic tube, and less toothpaste, but they stopped making Tom’s fennel with fluoride and it was the only fennel flavor with fluoride available in North America.
That was the only kind of toothpaste I’ve ever liked. So now we’re back to trying random flavors/brands and I am the one who gets stuck using up the flavors the kid won’t use (we have the same problem with intense flavors but I suck it up and deal since I’m the grownup.)
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Maybe it’s a Portland thing. The folks who’ve identified as Portlanders all seem to be in the same range we are. And yes, I’ve lately noticed stuff seems much more expensive. Two years ago we were spending $500 a month and buying way more “gourmet” stuff, eating out 1-2 times per week. Now that $750 barely covers basics with no eating out.
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portland is more expensive from what i’ve seen just having moved into the gorge. but check out winco. you’ll save quite a bit over fred meyers and safeway. i only go to freddies for things that winco doesn’t carry.
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We are vegan and eat all organic with two kids who eat dairy and cheese. We spend at least $1,400 a month on food even buying bulk. We eat sprouted, whole grain bread, tofu ravioli, assorted soy/grain burgers and nuggets. Organic everything. We buy lots of fresh organic fruit for the kids in a wide variety. We belong to a CSA which runs about $25/week over the season, though we supplement with prewashed lettuce and spinach and a few other veggies. We shop at local farmers markets and buy certain items at the local health food store even though we could get them cheaper at shop-rite, just because we like supporting a local business and we want him to survive so we don’t have to drive 60 minutes round trip to get specialty items. We buy organic brown rice and lentils in bulk and store them in basement bins. The kids go through milk, yogurt and cheese sticks like crazy. We have a large pantry and do most of our cooking at home. Every few months we’ll road trip to Trader Joes to restock our pantry with loads of whole wheat pasta, salsa, olives, etc. We try to keep a deep pantry in case there is ever an emergency. We’d love to cut down on expenses, but most of the above factors are important to us. If we hit a financial rough patch there are lots of things we could trim, but for now it works.
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“The restaurant dining is an ongoing issue, and one that I’ve tried unsuccessfully to address. On paper, we can afford to spend that much dining out, but I don’t like it. It feels wrong. I’d rather use that money for something else.”
This rings really true to me. 2 vegetarian adults, we shop for organic more than “foodie” items, trying to by lots of organic and fresh food through local markets and avoiding lots of boxed and premade foods. In the last 12 months, we spent $300/month on groceries and $200 on restaurants.
Our grocery costs definitely go down in the summer when our garden is in full swing. It’s amazing what a bunch of lettuce and spinach, etc. will do for the food costs of 2 vegetarians. Cost was maybe $20 for seeds. It goes a long way, and it’s way healthier and tasty.
We try to mitigate the restaurant costs via groupon and splitting plates or appetizers. Not sure if that helps.
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For two adults + 1 toddler, living in Berkeley, CA, we spend about $500-600/month. That includes eating out (which we hardly ever do), entertaining guests (4-5x/month), and our gourmet coffee habit. We love cooking & good food. I don’t go out of my way to buy organic but I will if it’s priced similarly to conventional produce. Fortunately there’s a lot of good, cheap local produce in CA for us to choose from. We eat meat at dinner more often than not, and leftovers for lunch.
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2 grownups in Albuquerque, $700/mo., including wine and beer but not including toiletries, home supplies, etc.
We no longer eat in restaurants, as they are not worth the money– I can cook almost anything better at home, so we “splurge” (so to speak) on nice things to eat at home.
This $700 is after curbing myself– I can in fact spend an unlimited amount of money on groceries, just drop me into a Whole Foods and watch the money burn.
I shop at Costco, Walmart, Sunflower Market (a regional chain) and every once in a while the local food CoOp (used to be my main supplier, not anymore). I used to do farmer’s markets but they are too expensive as well.
I’ve tried more “frugal” ways to eat, from buying lower quality to eating vegan to cooking weekly batches in advance, but such reheating and deprivation only bring me ill feelings and sadness. LIfe is meant to be enjoyed. To quote the ever-popular Olaf, there is some #$@# I will not eat.
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We are a family of 2 adults and a 5 year old who live in suburban Philadelphia. We spend about $500 a month on groceries and about $50 a month on eating out. We spent $400 a month on groceries when I worked only 15 hours a week and was diligent about planning our meals, but now I work 30 hours and rely on some prepared meat items from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. I would call us foodies only that we don’t eat many processed foods and buy organic and local when available which can really bloat your budget.
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First of all: YAY! Alberta! (I’m about 4 hours north of you
)
But on topic:
My “Grocery” category in quicken tells me that my daughter and I spent $3,360.14CDN on groceries year to date, plus another $1563.37 dining out and having coffee.
But in there is a fair bit of wine… like the entire year’s worth, and a fair bit of coffee. So it is probably closer to $2200 of groceries and $1,000 dining out. Still a lot of money!
Groceries for us include a number of the “dinner assembly” type services, so while high, so I justify this as being not as bad as it would have been if we were eating out all those meals…
I really need to get back in the kitchen!
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Shauna’s Husband here.
I think the real question is not so much how much you spend, but what influences how much you spend on groceries. Such as:
Demographics, location, organic/non-organic, non-food groceries such as alcohol, bath products, etc. (Perhaps JD could run a more formal survey) Another issue is the concept of local sustainability. Living in inner Portland, OR we are blessed with locally sourced choices, which tend to come with a higher price tag since it is not coming from a factory farm. The concept of buying local is something that has a lot of influence over our food purchases, and when given the choice we will buy local and organic. I liked the comments about what % of your income is spent on groceries; this was a little more helpful in comparing our situation to others. We spend approximately 7-9% of our gross income on “groceries.” One thing that is lumped into that figure is “adult beverages” at about $100-150 month. It doesn’t help that we live in wine, Micro-brew, and now a distillery region.
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Over the last year my fiance and I have averaged $308 per month on just food and $121 per on dining out. I track household consumables and toiletries separately. They account for about another $100 per month.
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we just moved to a rural area after living in Boise, ID and having grown up in a suburb outside of Seattle. i have been very disappointed in rural living. the farmers markets around here are pathetic. like someone else said i would need to go into “town” portland or vancouver which is an hour away or more. i’ve heard beaverton has an awesome farmer’s market. i drive into town once a week to grocery shop and spend about $400/mo for our family of 3 (one teenage boy with an appetite to match!) we do have a local store that we go to in a pinch, but its very expensive. we do spend more than we did in boise, but some of that is we are making a bit more now and are splurging on beer, wine and ice cream =) we do spend more on meat now too. but i have noticed that food prices in general have risen over the last few years. our grocery budget includes toiletries, cleaning products, misc items that can be found at the grocery store. no pets tho. we also go out to eat weekly and spend probably 200-250/mo on that. that is where i’d like to trim the fat from our budget and put it in our vacation acct instead. love this conversation …. good comments
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Sorry for the comment logjam today, folks. Kris and I left Banff at 8:30am Pacific, and I haven’t had internet access again until now. In the meantime, there were nearly 100 comments stuck in moderation. Oops. Yet another reason I’m in the process of bringing on an assistant editor around here.
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# People: 2 adults, 1 baby
Grocery Budget (everything included): $100
Eating out Budget: $40 (we rarely max this)
What I’d spend if I had my way, for both Grocery and Eating out: $75
Location: Suburban Utah
Common breakfast: Oatmeal
Common dinners: Spaghetti. Rice and Beans and Cheese. Taco Soup.
Reason for being cheapskates: If we spend this little and save it up (not even factoring in other areas of savings), eventually we can buy a $20,000 tiny house and never have a mortgage. If the average for a family of three is $500 per month, then we’ll be able to buy our home outright in less than 5 years with these savings, and then neither of us will have to work full-time but can spend more time with our family.
My wife and I have debated for the last couple years about whether our grocery budget should be $100 or $150 per month. Either is doable for us (even with a 1.5 year old daughter), but at $100 my wife feels she doesn’t get enough of what she wants. We cloth diaper, so diapers aren’t the monthly expense they could be. But we do buy baby food still.
Our grocery bill for June was $146, and for July it is so far $98.
We live in suburban Utah, and we mostly shop at Smiths, and Buy Low for produce.
The trick, for us, is to get comfortable with a few low-cost meals, and then eat them all the time (neither of us likes to cook, so experimentation is not high on our priority list). If I had my way, we’d eat maybe a total of 5 different dinner options, and just rotate them. My wife demands at least double or triple that. I do know other people who experiment a lot more (and eat a lot better) on an even smaller budget than ours, but they are really aggressive with following local coupon shoppers and such. I don’t clip any coupons, I’m just careful to buy things at a good price.
It’s important to realize that even when something is on sale, it may not be a good deal. For instance, I know that cold cereal at my Smiths sometimes goes on sale for $1.00 per box, even for name-brands. So when a box of cold cereal drops from 3.19 to 2.19, I don’t buy it. I wait until the price hits what I’m hoping for, and then I buy in bulk. Or, take milk (a frequent purchase). At our Smiths, it usually costs between 2.49-3.19. So when it goes on sale for 2.19, or even 1.99, that’s not bad, but I know another store ALWAYS has it on sale for 1.66. When you buy about 4 gallons of milk per week, knowing the right place to buy it and the best price you’ve seen it reach routinely makes a real difference by the end of the month.
I have to admit, though, that a lot of people would be bored by our daily cuisine. If we were rich, we’d eat a lot better (not in terms of health, just in terms of enjoyment). But I’m a bit of a mountain man/survivalist, and I like to think that we eat a lot better now than almost anyone did a couple hundred years ago. I’d like to think that if I got somehow transported to the American frontier, I’d not die after a few days because I couldn’t have my Starbucks.
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On average I spend $285/month on groceries (including alcohol and cat food, but not toiletries), $111/month on restaurants, and $35/month on eating out for lunch during the week.
This is for a single woman in Oakland, California.
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I’ve got a handful of cheap recipes under my belt, many using the crock pot or marinades to soften tougher cuts of meat, which I try to work into our rotation. I implemented some great ideas from frugal websites, such as batch cooking beans and freezing portions (cheaper, healthier, more flavorful than canned), using powdered chicken/beef/tomato broths over canned, trying to get into baking my own breads, homemade pizza, making gourmet Starbucks imitation drinks at home, etc. We love cooking and eating, and can afford to spend $750 or so, but I think the cheap meals keep us closer to $400-$500.
I think it makes a huge difference to include razors, toilet paper, toiletries, lightbulbs, household goods (which sometimes also include garden and pet items), etc. along with the food budget. I would be closer to the $750 mark if my “food budget” were more of a “food and all other misc.” budget.
No matter what I spend on food at home, it’s always cheaper than eating out. Therefore, I allow us some grocery splurging (and we’re still saving over $3k monthly so I can, in good conscience, afford it).
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We’re at about $600/month for two adults and an infant who’s still nursing. We eat organic fruits & veggies and free-range, organic, grass-fed, Montessori-educated meat & dairy. Almost no processed foods, and very little wheat. (My husband doesn’t eat it.) I wish we could get these things more inexpensively, but I can’t see how.
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We are a family of two “foodies” and spend about $600 a month on food – that includes eating out (not often) and all the other household supplies we would typically buy at a grocery store or Target.
Instead of eating out, we end up spending a little more to get high quality, fresh ingredients. We also buy organic if the price is somewhat comparable to conventional, but we are lucky to have natural food stores other than Whole Foods that do not gouge you on produce prices (Henry’s or Sprouts are great!)
We are willing to spend more for fresh, homemade pasta at the farmer’s market than we would have in the past. But we also used to go out to eat 3-4 times per week and also eat out often at lunch during the workday. I consider this a reasonable tradeoff and really enjoy all the fresh ingredients we use.
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I just ran my exact same report for 2006 that I ran for 2011. I spent $872 TOTAL from Jan 1 – July 27 on groceries and dining out. This year I spent $4923 in the same period. That is almost SIX times as much.
Given some of that is simple inflation – which is projected to continue to hit food prices hard – but the rest of it is “lifestyle inflation”. And THAT is NOT acceptable.
Imagine where that $4000 could be taking me on vacation this summer??!!
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We’re a family of 5, and in 2010 we spent $300/mo on groceries (defined as things I buy at Kroger + CSA membership–which does NOT include paper products, personal care, cat food, etc) and about the same on eating out (but that’s harder to define; my husband travels a lot for work and is reimbursed for meals). We also spent $150/mo on paper products, personal care, cat food, etc at Walmart and CVS.
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Using our 2010 numbers, for a family of five:
–$325/mo groceries (includes CSA membership)
–$300/mo eating out (not including DH’s eating out for work when he travels)
–$200/mo paper goods, personal care, etc.
–$150/mo DH’s wine budget
–$50/mo school lunch during school year
We eat well but live in a low COLA area. I coupon and play the CVS game.
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I’m a frugal guy, except when it comes to food. Me and my wife love to go out and eat a lot, I maintain a food blog, is active on Yelp, and we splurge like crazy on food. I guess I’m not really frugal then. I would love to clamp down on our expenses for food though like I do with other stuff.
So far, we spend well over $1000/month on food for both of us. That includes going out and groceries. Our goal, for the short term, is to get below $1000/month consistently.
I feel ashamed and in awe at some of the comments I read and their food budgets. I would love to get below $800/month for food for both of us.
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You’re not alone JWC. My husband and I spend an average of $1000 a month on food (combined out and in, for all of 2010). We work long hours and tend to meet for dinner out several nights a week, and when we are home, I like cooking with quality ingredients. We also have a Starbucks habit, which I could give up if I HAD to, but it is a nice luxury.
Unfortunately since we don’t cook at home as often, the pantry is sparser than I would prefer and getting ingredients for one dinner is always more than if you can shop in bulk. We live in Seattle and shop Whole Foods, Farmer’s Markets and the local organic grocery shop just down the street (prices are high there, but it is so nice to support the local guy).
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We rarely eat out (once a quarter?), minimize convenience food, and still we spend over $1000/month on food. We have 5 kids though, and they go through more than a gallon of milk a day. That adds up!
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I spend ~$300 a month for myself. Includes eating out, groceries. I tend to eat healthier, and I enjoy splurging on tasty fruits, berries, better tasting meats, etc.
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I’m more of a foodie than I thought I was! I am not strictly organic-only, but I won’t buy conventionally raised chicken or regular ground beef, for example. I actively work to eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup in our diet. Feeding my family food that is hormone-, antibiotic-, dye-, and MSG-free is a big priority for me.
I feed 11 people (2 adults, 9 children aged baby-13) on $800 a month (including incidentals like TP, soap, diapers, etc.)
I actually wrote a post detailing HOW I do it here:
http://www.milehimama.com/pinching-pennies/real-food-frugal-food-working-the-budget/
And I’m going to be blogging my food shopping again starting this week for another “food stamp challenge”, where I feed my family for less than our food stamp allotment. I did this (and blogged it) for 40 weeks a couple of years ago but food prices have risen since then so I’m going to go at it again!
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What does your family spend on food in a month? 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? Is eating organic important to you? What other considerations do you make when spending on food?
My girlfriend and I spent $180 this month for groceries (in Seattle). We make an effort to control food spending and I think we do a good job. We don’t use coupons and don’t yet grow our own food, but we do make a lot of our food ourselves. Homemade feta, hummus, pita all cheaper than the grocery store equivalent. We don’t bother much with organic unless its cheaper. We’ve found ourselves eating a lot more vegetables as they are much cheaper than meat. Veggie soup and grilled feta cheese sandwiches are delicious.
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