How much do you spend on groceries monthly?
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This study might also be interesting to some of you:
theweek.com/article/index/262049/why-americans-spend-less-of-their-income-on-food-than-any-other-country
A little perspective for those of you who find food extremely expensive. Imagine living in Pakistan, where people spend almost half their income on food!
I'm Canadian and on average, we spend 9.6% of our income on food, vs. the 6.6% that Americans spend. That's 'cause we can't grow as much in our colder climate and shorter growing season, so we have to import more. It's also 'cause our taxes are higher, so food is a higher percentage of take-home pay (but things like childcare and medical expenses are a much lower percentage).0 -
Thank you for sharing!For those of you with a budget of less than $150 a month....please share? Is it because you only by the staples like rice, potatoes, onions, meat, eggs, bread...etc?
I shop the sales. I plan my weekly shopping the day the ads come out (usually on a Thursday) and plan the main meals around what meat is on sale. I buy produce based on what is on sale and stock up when frozen veggies are $1 a bag. I get my bread at the day old bread outlet and my pantry staples at Aldi. I buy my spices and seasonings at Penzeys (which is, on average 1/2 the price of grocery store stuff). I make my own mixes for things like like Taco seasoning, etc. from spices and herbs. I get my milk, eggs, and butter from the local gas station/convenience store because they are always fresher and cheaper.
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Jennloella wrote: »RllyGudTweetr wrote: »If I've gone over $120/month, it's a special occasion and I've had to allocate from other funds. I wonder how many of the folks with expenses over $500/month are in the 'eating healthy isn't more expensive' camp.
I don't think eating healthy is expensive, I know it's my shopping habits - I shop where is convenient to my home, I don't shop sales or cut coupons, I like brand name stuff and not store brands, some things I just like and that's that, organic milk is over 5 bucks a gallon and we go through 3 gallons a week easily, the yogurt we prefer is suaully about 4.45 for a container that lasts us about 3 or 4 days..... I usually hit costco, safeway, farmer's market in that order and I get what we want regardless of it being in season or whatever. we had a baby in 2013 and one in 2014 so our bill has gone up a lot with the addition of the extra formula, milk, cheese, just food in general as the one year old eats more and more of what we're having. I also think my 12 year old has a hallow leg. As for baby food I make it all so my veggie/fruit cost is about doubled.
I seriously can't believe how little some of you manage to get food on! I'm impressed and it almost makes me want to get a sunday paper to look at ads.......almost.
I think it's a mix of my shopping habits (we go to three stores a week, the farmer's market, a deli and a health food store) and some of it is just that there's no real way to get the cost per serving down. I'm really impressed with Yoovie's average of $1.63 per meal.
I thought about it, in a month we eat ~168 servings of vegetables, 8 servings of meat, 56 servings of grains, 48 servings of eggs (When this is lower the grain servings go up because of oatmeal) 16 servings of milk/30 servings of almond milk, then there's the pricer things like snacks, coffee, teas, chocolate.
I think it would be worth a shot to see where I could pare down, but then I think about how much better we are doing now that we no longer spend over 1k a month dining out. Baby steps
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Okkkk gotcha. That is what I was thinking. I think my 13 year old son would eat me out of my house if he could.For those of you with a budget of less than $150 a month....please share? Is it because you only by the staples like rice, potatoes, onions, meat, eggs, bread...etc?
I think it's cause we probably always have large quantities of the staples on hand and only buy the perishables or the 'stars of the meal' at the beginning of the week.
This week I got:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts for $5.50 - that's for 4 meals.
can of chickpeas - $.85
baby spinach - $2
frozen brussels sprouts $1.89
I already have rice, seasonings, potatoes and feta cheese leftover from week before last. I still have eggs and coffee too.
So Im good for the week and will probably have left over spinach to roll over to next weeks foods.
Same here with mine.. but if I were single, this would be the way I would go.0 -
$700 for me, my husband, and my son. We eat a TON of food though. I eat healthy and my husband eats like crap, so we have a good mix lol0
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Growing kids! She still makes me want to budget better.
Okkkk gotcha. That is what I was thinking. I think my 13 year old son would eat me out of my house if he could.For those of you with a budget of less than $150 a month....please share? Is it because you only by the staples like rice, potatoes, onions, meat, eggs, bread...etc?
I think it's cause we probably always have large quantities of the staples on hand and only buy the perishables or the 'stars of the meal' at the beginning of the week.
This week I got:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts for $5.50 - that's for 4 meals.
can of chickpeas - $.85
baby spinach - $2
frozen brussels sprouts $1.89
I already have rice, seasonings, potatoes and feta cheese leftover from week before last. I still have eggs and coffee too.
So Im good for the week and will probably have left over spinach to roll over to next weeks foods.
Same here with mine.. but if I were single, this would be the way I would go.
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For me and my husband and a dog, I spend on average $200 every two weeks, including household items like dog food, toilet paper, soap or shampoo, etc. Some weeks are higher, some are lower, depending on if I go to Costco (higher) or if I've just been to Costco (lower). Also, if I'm making a new or complicated recipe, that can bring up my cost as I may need a different ingredient I don't usually have.
I like to buy chicken and pork in bulk, don't buy red meat because we hunt and eat deer, and I buy vegetables weekly to stay fresh. If it's a good deal, I'll get toiletries in bulk sometimes as well.
I'm a list shopper, try to only buy what I will need for the next two weeks, that helps keep costs down.0 -
I spend about $75/week, or $300 month...just for me. I'm looking around this thread and that seems crazy high! I'm a Whole Foods/Trader Joe's kind of girl though.
I should probably do a better job of budgeting.0 -
$400-$500 a month for myself, my wife and my daughter. We eat out every Friday night and kick it at someone's house (family) usually on the weekends.
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$700 for a family of 8
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My fiance and I are at about $500 a month. That's shopping around the outside of the store (all fresh) with spices, boxed pasta, oats, etc. as exceptions.
Trying to get it down a little though. I have a secret life goal of being one of those extreme coupon ladies.
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TOO MUCH!! But I love food!!
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Right now it's about $400 for me and the hubby. He hunts so we don't purchase any red meat or pork only chicken. I live in Amish country in PA and I shop at a lot of farmers markets and mom & pop shops. That makes things a little more expensive but the quality is unbelievable!0
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Approx 300 a month. For a family of 5. Beans, rice, oats, veggies and fruits are our staples. We are vegan and I shop @ Aldi. Since we live in Alabama (not vegan friendly) we very rarely go out to eat. It's either Mellow Mushroom for pizza or bean curd at the local Chinese restaurant. So, maybe $30 a month.0
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Approximately $150 a week for my husband and I. We eat out a couple of times a week and have a well stocked pantry and freezer. That's in AB.0
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800 maybe for a family of four. I don't pay attention. I just swipe the card and go.
Also, my husband and I eat out a lot for lunch. Probably another $400 per month in restuarants.0 -
600ish for me and my son. Most of it is me...0
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Around 800. This is my husband and myself and one nineteen year old. It includes, food, bathroom stuff, dog food etc. We live on the eastern side of Washington state.0
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we try to average $100 bucks a week, its not easy math to factor in planned costo trips. But spending a little less in groceries has helped reduce waste.
Edit: forgot to mention, we're two adults, and two younger kids.0 -
I find this thread really interesting to see how different everyone's grocery bills are!
For just me and my partner (he eats a lot!) --in Vancouver, BC we spend a minimum of $1000, but closer to $1300 a month, buying almost all fresh foods (no pre-packaged type foods and very minimal meat/fish) for home cooking. This is not including eating out 1-3 times a month for around 200$. But we love cooking and food so we splurge a lot...0 -
About $150 per week & we eat organic, seasonal, local, including meat supplemented by gardening. A fairly expensive diet, but we feel it's our priority to eat healthy. We eat out once or twice a month.0
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$150 a week for 2.0
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We're 4. Probably $600 for a month, including paper products etc (not including my Quest bars, so I guess you can add $20ish for those, lol). My husband doesn't always pack lunch though, I'd say he buys lunch probably half the time. We're in NJ and the kids are 6 (so they really don't eat that much). I basically only buy things on sale though.0
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We spend about $300-400 a month for me, my fiance and our son. I shop at aldi for pantry/baking supplies, deli meat, cheese, milk and yogurt, and I shop at wegmans for the rest. Most of our veggies are frozen since wegmans 1lb bags are usually $1 so we always keep broccoli, green beans, corn, peas and mixed veg on hand. Frozen berries are about $4.49 for a 4c bag, so we use them less. I buy what produce is cheap (right now apples, naval oranges, red grapefruit, bananas, yams.) I buy 1 club pack of chicken breasts every 4-6 weeks (10 breasts, about $12) and every 2 months or so I need another club pack of boneless pork chops (about $9 for 8) and I buy whole chickens at aldi for about $4.80 a chicken. I make a lot from scratch so that saves us a lot of money and I try to plan meals to get the most use of leftovers. I don't really buy canned goods anymore, I cook with "cream of chicken/mushroom" often so I found a mix recipe on pinterest and keep it in my pantry (ends up costing me about $0.25 a can) and every time I cook a chicken the carcass goes in the crock pot overnight with water and veggies we wont eat that are going to go bad soon and I make about 8 cans worth of chicken stock to cook with. We make cheap meals that stretch meat.
I'm actually pretty proud of us for getting our costs down so much...before our son was born we used to spend a good $500-700/month just on the two of us and then we would spend another $300 or so on takeout and eating out.
I am in upstate NY0 -
Some of these numbers are crazy to me. I spend around €60 a month on food (though my mom usually cooks me dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, so that's factored out).
I usually plan my meals a week or so in advance so nothing is wasted (except some milk occasionally), and I browse my local supermarket's website for any worthwhile deals before making a shopping list.
Edit: I live in Ireland.0 -
I live on my own too. I'm in Scotland in the UK but prices are probably comparable.
I live to quite a tight budget so visit the cheapest food stores like Aldi and Lidl. They don't really sell branded stuff but it's just as good.
I probably spend about £15 - £20 a week on fresh food and occasionally will have a more expensive shop when I stock up on meat etc for the freezer.
For me a typical weekly shop would be:
Milk
Eggs
Peppers
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Mushrooms
Courgettes/Zucchini (sp?)
Cauliflower
Brocolli
Lemons
Apple Juice
Soft Cheese
Ham/Salami
Sweet Potato
Onions
If I need to stock up I'd also buy:
Tinned Tomatoes
Kidney Beans
Coconut Milk
Chicken Breast
Pork Loin Steaks
Mince/Ground Beef
Salmon Fillets
Prawns
Any other meat stuff on special offer that I can freeze for later
I'd usually then go home and cook up big batches of stuff.
A couple of big pots of soup. 1 Big pot can usually do me for 6 servings and I freeze and use for lunches throughout the week.
I'd also maybe cook big pots of:
Chilli
Tagine
Pie - Shepherd's Pie or Fish Pie depending on ingredients I had
These also do multiple servings and can be frozen then taken out to defrost and heat up if I need a quick dinner.
I usually cook fresh on nights I don't have other stuff on. I'd cook a piece of meet - Steak/pork/chicken or fish with veggies like broccoli, cauliflower or sweet potato.
If I'm in a hurry I'll often just have a boiled egg and maybe a biscuit and cheese.
So I probably spend about £80 - £100 a month on food and sometimes there will be surplus in the freezer for future use.
Planning and preparation is your friend!0 -
I spend between $120-$180 a month for groceries. It's just me though.0
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