How much money do you spend on food?

PiSquared

I'm trying to figure out how my grocery budget compares with other people's. I spend around $150 per week. This is for a family of 2 adults, living in the northeastern US. We almost never eat out. Breakfast and dinner are eaten at home, and lunches are packed and taken to work. We eat a lot of fresh veggies, and I try to stick to high quality meats. I feel like I'm spending a lot of money on food, but I'm not entirely sure how to start reigning the cost back in, nor am I sure what an average grocery budget looks like.

nortonsmom

I would be afraid to add up what we spend on food...we are like you ( 2 adults) We seldom go out and cook real food, nothing that is prepared from a box/frozen etc. If you are doing it for 150 I would like to see your menu!! Food is just expensive!

melimomTARDIS

We eat vegetarian (with some fish added recently... unsure if that is permanent thing.) and have a family of 4 in the midwest. we spend around 150, including dogfood, and a once a week trip to a fast food/casual dining restaurant.

we eat alot of dry staples, rice, pasta, cereal, potatoes, beans, oats...

jkwolly

My husband I spend about $300-$400 every two weeks. I find I'd rather pay more for stuff I like, so I really don't focus on trying to cut back too much. Plus, fresh food is just costly, especially in the winter since most of our stuff is imported (we live in Western Canada).

Good ways to save is to buy in bulk - Costco is great for this. Costco can be harder with things that can spoil quicker and can't be frozen, but we just focus on eating those things sooner and making meals around them!

When my husband is working out of town, then man is that grocery bill nice and small haha!

Lasmartchika

It really depends where you live and where you shop... we (2 adults) usually spend about an average of $50 weekly just on food at the supermarket.

dirtyflirty30

Eeek. Not counting meals out, coffee, etc., probably $75-$100 per week for just me.

Lounmoun

It depends on where you live and what you buy a bit.
For my household, we spend $100 a week for 2 adults, 1 teenage girl, midwest USA, everyone eating almost all meals prepared from home, eating some meat but also some meatless meals regularly, not eating any special diets or all organic.

Recent thread on this topic-
community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10108987/monthly-grocery-budget/p1

LolBroScience

about $500 a month for me

PiSquared

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like we're in a pretty normal range in our grocery budget. We're currently apartment dwellers, in the process of trying to purchase our first home, and I've been looking for every place in our budget to pinch those pennies just a bit tighter. I think I'm going to leave the grocery budget as is, and just live with the reality that food is expensive, and good food is worth the price.

Need2Exerc1se

That sounds pretty average to me. We grow a lot of our produce, which isn't free but is definitely cheaper. But in months when we buy most of our food, that's about what we spend on food (not including beer and wine) for 2 adults.

Acg67

$750ish a month for one, not including meals out

hesn92

$300 or so per month for 2 adults 1 child. That doesn't include eating out though. We eat out probably once or twice a week. I pack my lunches every day for work.

PiSquared

nortonsmom wrote: »

I would be afraid to add up what we spend on food...we are like you ( 2 adults) We seldom go out and cook real food, nothing that is prepared from a box/frozen etc. If you are doing it for 150 I would like to see your menu!! Food is just expensive!

My grocery bill this past weekend (should carry me through the entire week) came to about $120. It's a bit lower because I didn't have to restock things like rice (restocked a few weeks ago, tend to buy in bulk) and I'll be using some chicken from the freezer. It's a pretty varied menu, includes a vegetarian dinner, some red meat, and even tuna steaks. If you're interested, I've started posting my menus on a blog here (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/PiSquared)

RosieWest8

I probably spend around $50-$70/wk. It's kind of hard because I don't go shopping every week. I usually go for the main things once/month and then I'll stop and get things like lunch meat or produce (the stuff that doesn't last too long). It's just me, though. Doesn't include meals out (which isn't that often) and I'm in the Midwest.

nortonsmom

[My grocery bill this past weekend (should carry me through the entire week) came to about $120. It's a bit lower because I didn't have to restock things like rice (restocked a few weeks ago, tend to buy in bulk) and I'll be using some chicken from the freezer. It's a pretty varied menu, includes a vegetarian dinner, some red meat, and even tuna steaks. If you're interested, I've started posting my menus on a blog here (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/PiSquared)[/quote]

Wow! thats an impressive menu! I think Im gonna follow you around!!

Josalinn

I spend on average $50 a week. This is just for me. I live in the Mid-Atlantic area. I get a lot of frozen veg from Wegman's because 1 bag is $1. I will eat a bag of veggies a day. I get the family packs of <insert meat here> and freeze them in portions. I do cereal and milk, and I make my own frozen meals. My BF does yogurt and cereal bars for lunch--this doesn't work for me.

heritagemom

We're a Midwest family of six (four sons ages 18-26, then hubs and myself), and we spend about $30-40 per person per week. We rarely eat out, and I make most everything from scratch (meaning, I have nothing in my home with a Campbell's, Kellogg's or Kraft label, lol). We purchase mostly organic meats and produce. I purchase from a local farmer, plus my grains, dry beans, etc. from a bulk supplier via a food-buying co-op. The make-from scratch lifestyle takes more effort, but totally worth it if you can swing it.

Jruzer

We spend roughly $1k per month for 6 of us:me, Mrs Jruzer, and 4 sons ages 6, 8, 14, and 16.

rejectedprincesssupportgroup

It's just me, and I spend about 30 dollars a week. That's all I can afford right now, so unfortunately I don't get to buy the foods I would like.

Terpnista84

If I'm really careful I can do $40 a week.

jkwolly

rejectedprincesssupportgroup wrote: »

It's just me, and I spend about 30 dollars a week. That's all I can afford right now, so unfortunately I don't get to buy the foods I would like.

Honestly, I'd love to just know what you eat daily for $30 a week.

Seriously just curious.

NewMeSM75

Around $150 a week. We rarely eat out.

cwolfman13

Around $800/month for two adults and two young kids...maybe a little less...it's hard to say because our "pot" is commingled with other things, we don't have a straight up food budget.

This also doesn't include any eating out that we do which is pretty minimal...but that comes out of our entertainment budget.

kamakazeekim

I spend about $130 a week on groceries for a family of 4. I live in the middle of nowhere in MN and our local grocery story rapes you. I try to do the bulk of my shopping once a month at Cub Foods or Walmart but they're both over an hour away from where I live.

kaseyr1505

$150/week for a family of 2, we rarely eat out so we make all meals at home. I live in Southern CA. Hopefully it will go down in a few months when we finally get to leave this place!

monkeystikx

Between me and my wife, about $100-$125 dollars a week.
Though in the summer, we use our garden to full advantage and don't bother to buy veggies from our supermarket. We just pick them from our garden. We home can tomatoes for winter, dry peppers, blanch and freeze peas. Pickle beets, etc anything to stretch our garden. Not as much for price, but our garden veggies taste 10x better than the stores version.

callsitlikeiseeit

family of 5. if i added it up, id have a heart attack. it aint pretty, im sure! LOL!

(my guess, minus the eating out for lunch hubby and i frequently do.... $150ish a week. )

Lourdesong

$600/mo for 2 adults, almost entirely at Costco, maybe $50-100 of that at WalMart. This includes pet food and boring household necessities like paper products, detergent, etc.

Serah87

nortonsmom wrote: »

I would be afraid to add up what we spend on food...we are like you ( 2 adults) We seldom go out and cook real food , nothing that is prepared from a box/frozen etc. If you are doing it for 150 I would like to see your menu!! Food is just expensive!

I eat real food, I don't know anyone who eats plastic food.

We spend about $600 a month on food, hubby and I, 20 year old son and 16 year old son, not including going out to eat. Florida here.

allie_00p

LastMinuteMama

We're at about $150 a week for a family of 4 in the Northeast. We have a Market Basket nearby which has lower prices...although lately I feel like that's not the case. And, then there are the incidentals during the week, which would probably spike that number. I seem to be spending more and more. My boys just won't stop eating!
We eat out about one meal a week, maybe...