Possibly off topic - food budget survey question

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage · April 2016

CrabNebula wrote: »

I stopped buying protein powders and bars once I got my Instant Pot. It makes Greek yogurt for very cheap, much cheaper than powders/supplements/some other forms of protein. I can make a few days worth for $1.70.

I will often buy pork loin instead of BS chicken breast because it is cheaper for basically the same macro profile, though occasionally, they will have split breasts for as low as .89 a lb and I will pick that up and trim, debone, and deskin the meat myself. It has the added advantage that I can boil the bones for broth and additional meat I use for pulled chicken or enchiladas.

@CrabNebula could I have your yogurt recipe please? I have an Instant Pot too and I would love to give it a try for yogurt.

We used to spend much more money on food, around $600/month. Then I determined that doing a big grocery shop once a month was costing me too much in waste, so I now do a smaller shop every week. We now spend about $400-500 a month. We live in Canada (BC) where I understand everything is more expensive. We definitely feel it with groceries.

Lounmoun · April 2016

Soy_K wrote: »

mom22dogs wrote: »

Holy crap people spend a LOT of money on food! I'm single and it kills me to spend about $130 a month on food. I might eat out once or twice a month, but that only adds on about 30 bucks for twice a month eating out.

Children seem very expensive! I have a large elderly dog and cook her food and have to buy her medicine, so I guess I have another "dependent" too. $130/mo seems very reasonable!

I would say my child wasn't a big eater until she hit puberty. Before that her portions were much smaller than an adult portion. A child is another person in the household so not really more expensive than an adult would be... or in your case a large dog.

When our 2 smaller dogs were alive we fed them homemade food and they went through at least 5lbs of chicken per week plus other foods and treats.

CrabNebula · April 2016

You pour a gallon of whatever percentage fat milk you want in the IP, close the lid, hit the "Yogurt" button, hit "Adjust", and it should say "BOIL". Then it beeps to confirm and that's all you have to for 15-30 minutes. Once the milk is sterilized, you can take the inner pot out and put it in an ice bath to cool to 115F or cooler. You can leave the milk in the IP to cool, but be warned, it takes forever. Then put the milk pot back in the IP, add 1-3 tbsp of plain yogurt with live cultures (I started mine just with Costco's Greek yogurt), and put the lid back on. Hit the "Yogurt" button again and set an incubation time. 8 hours is long enough and really, I've left it in there up to a day with no real difference in the end product. Once your yogurt is ready, you can strain it with cheesecloth or I use a nut milk bag hanging from a tripod. Once it is the consistency you like, take it out of the bag/cloth and put it in an airtight container in the fridge. I save some of the whey for making breads and pizza dough and to feed my sourdough starter.

Once you have gotten started, you can reuse your yogurt for bacteria starter culture over and over and over until you manage to destroy it somehow. But the bacteria are pretty hardy creatures. I haven't bought any Greek yogurt period since I started this back in October. It is all self-sustaining.

I've only managed to screw up one batch out of the probably 50 I have done. That was only because I got lazy about time and the milk did not stay properly sterilized. You will know as soon as you open the pot who won the bacteria battle. In that one case, it definitely was not the good kind. YICK. Again though, it took a pretty big leap of laziness on my part to achieve that. Yogurt making in general is pretty forgiving and mostly idiot proof.

tooru · April 2016

I spend about £25-£30 a week on myself only. So £120ish a month. Before I started dieting, I was spending about £250-£300 a month

mjwarbeck · April 2016

A family of 5: 2 adults and 3 boys (12, 7, 2) and we probably spend 1000 a month on food. Food here is more expensive than in the US as a rule.

Pawsforme · April 2016

We don't really have a budget, but I probably spend around $200-$250 a week. That's for two adults, one teenage boy here full time and college boy home occasionally. And it includes household supplies and some pet supplies (two cats and a dog). The dog gets home-cooked food but doesn't eat a lot. But I don't buy things like protein powder or bars since we prefer less processed, more "real" food. IDK which is more expensive.

Machka9 · April 2016

Never really paid much attention ... maybe $200-$250 a week? That's for the two of us, my husband and me here in Tasmania.

And that's not counting eating in restaurants a couple times a month.

EleeseahM · April 2016

$350 a month as of now. I will admit i buy a lot of junk food and freezer meals. Stuff that goes quickly but adds up. I will no longer be buying animal products or junk as of next week. I feel like ill cut that in half.

Kullerva · April 2016

I live blissfully alone and usually spend under $200 on food and necessities (laundry soap, cleaning supplies, etc.) I bought myself a BIG protein powder jar a few months ago and still have over half of it. I only use it if I've had an insanely difficult workout or if I'm in danger of not hitting my protein goal. Even though the only meat I eat now is fish, I never have any problems getting the protein I need. I'd say protein powder is a "nice to have" thing, not a necessity (unless you're bulking heavily--then it probably is.)

Diesyable · April 2016

It does depend mostly on where you live, what you are buying, and what stores you shop at.

Our household spends about $200-$300 a week on food on average for 5 people. This is getting a good portion of our stuff on sale, price-matching when available, and non-organic produce. Living in Canada, a good chunk of our produce is imported, especially during winter and early spring as we typically have a short growing season. A package of frozen fruit is usually about $9-12, for a 1 kg bag. On average we spend about $50-$100 on produce a week which is almost half of our food budget, and it is not a whole lot. Meat is typically what gets us the most, when we find it on sale we buy a lot at once, separate it, and vacuum package it. Pork is one of the cheapest for us we have noticed, with the exception of bacon which is usually around $6 for a single package if it is not on sale. Though we love chicken breast, a package of 4 is usually around $12 which can add up real fast. I was going to buy a whole chicken the other day until I saw they were around $15 depending on the weight, which I thought was absurd, especially considering it wasn't even grass fed or free range

. Turkey is another thrifty one as well if you can get it for under $1 a pound. Usually those sales only happen around Christmas, thanksgiving, and Easter, but if you can spare the freezer space it is worth it. Though if you do live in an area where your hydro is expensive during the day time I don't really know how that factors in with the oven running for that long. I don't know how much of an issue hydro is for other places in the world, I know ours is around $350 per month (with gas heating in the winter time).

Meganthedogmom · April 2016

$600-$800 monthly for me and my boyfriend. However, this also includes toiletries/paper goods and food/litter for 3 large dogs and 3 cats

Rachelmilloy · February 2017

CrabNebula wrote: »

You pour a gallon of whatever percentage fat milk you want in the IP, close the lid, hit the "Yogurt" button, hit "Adjust", and it should say "BOIL". Then it beeps to confirm and that's all you have to for 15-30 minutes. Once the milk is sterilized, you can take the inner pot out and put it in an ice bath to cool to 115F or cooler. You can leave the milk in the IP to cool, but be warned, it takes forever. Then put the milk pot back in the IP, add 1-3 tbsp of plain yogurt with live cultures (I started mine just with Costco's Greek yogurt), and put the lid back on. Hit the "Yogurt" button again and set an incubation time. 8 hours is long enough and really, I've left it in there up to a day with no real difference in the end product. Once your yogurt is ready, you can strain it with cheesecloth or I use a nut milk bag hanging from a tripod. Once it is the consistency you like, take it out of the bag/cloth and put it in an airtight container in the fridge. I save some of the whey for making breads and pizza dough and to feed my sourdough starter.

Once you have gotten started, you can reuse your yogurt for bacteria starter culture over and over and over until you manage to destroy it somehow. But the bacteria are pretty hardy creatures. I haven't bought any Greek yogurt period since I started this back in October. It is all self-sustaining.

I've only managed to screw up one batch out of the probably 50 I have done. That was only because I got lazy about time and the milk did not stay properly sterilized. You will know as soon as you open the pot who won the bacteria battle. In that one case, it definitely was not the good kind. YICK. Again though, it took a pretty big leap of laziness on my part to achieve that. Yogurt making in general is pretty forgiving and mostly idiot proof.

Very encouraging, will try this!

DietPrada · February 2017

We spend about $150 per week for two of us. But about $50 of that would be hubby's cr@p. He buys soft drinks and crisps and lollies and nuts and other rubbish. I wouldn't spend much, I can normally make work lunches for the week for about $10 for 5 days. Our dinners would be $5-10 max per night. We'd eat out once on the weekend. I reckon we'd spend $200 per week all told. But we're DINKS (double income no kids) so we don't stress about it too much.

comptonelizabeth · February 2017

I'm in the UK and we're a family of 4 including 2 kids in their early 20s who eat anything that's not nailed down (they also pay us rent by the way ) And i am trying to gain weight plus my husband is a big eater.
I cook everything from scratch so buy very few convenience foods. Our weekly shopping bill is probably around £100 but that includes non food products.

crzycatlady1 · February 2017

Family of 5 here and our weekly grocery budget is $100 a week. This also includes things like toiletries, paper goods, cleaning supplies etc. I shop at Aldi and Meijer.

kellyjellybellyjelly · February 2017

Soy_K wrote: »

I'm finding that protein powder, supplement, etc can get quite pricy. I'm really trying to keep our household on a budget. About how much do you generally spend on food per month? It's so easy to overspend

The best time to get protein powders/protein bars is during a sale. GNC has lowered their prices on a lot of items & now do a point/reward system like Vitaminshoppe. What I do a lot of the time while shopping in store or online is calculate how much the cost would be per serving.

You can also buy protein powders at Wal-Mart, Target, & I'm sure most grocery stores.

I do the majority of my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, Giant, & the Grocery Outlet (a discount/near expiration store).

Cat3141 · February 2017

Soy_K wrote: »

i'm sure the costs fluctuate based on where you are too. i live in the sf bay area, california so everything here is bank. i cut fancy coffee drinks out and saved an alarming amount of $

The price of food can vary a lot depending on where you live. When my husband and I moved from Los Angeles to Houston our food costs dropped a lot--of course we were eating less fresh produce too, because produce here just isn't what it is in CA. Then I go visit my mother in Alaska and choke at $5+ a pound apples that look like they've been in the back of someones fridge for months. Given where you live, I'd say $300 a month is keeping things pretty low.

Right now we spend roughly $300-350 a month for two active people. I buy protein powder, food bars, some pre-cut veggies, and I don't have access to a Costco or anything like that. I don't buy meat, dairy, or eggs though.

GYATagain · February 2017

My husband and I hit the "moderate" cost according to the chart. We are empty nesters and have totally revamped our eating - hence, the weight loss. I believe our costs have stayed pretty much the same since we have cut out buying groceries AND eating out pretty much everyday. Now we only eat out occasionally but buy fairly large quantities of fresh fruits, veggies and lean meats. I meal prep every weekend. We don't do supplements, we get plenty from all the whole foods we eat now. Easily hit all the macros - even on a 1200 calorie limit (I'm old, short, desk job) Now then, when all the kids come home with their kids - holy moly!! We can roll out an easy grand on food for the time they are in town. Well Worth It!! Feeding 18 people 3 times a day and snacks is wow!

lucys1225 · February 2017

I spend about $250 a week for a family of three plus my dog (I make her food), plus an additional $129 per month on Butcher Box. I don't buy powders or bars and we very rarely eat out.

Chunkahlunkah · February 2017

My food spending usually falls into the Moderate Cost category in the doc Lounmoun linked.

JeromeBarry1 · February 2017

Toilet paper, Paper towels, and Kleenex, along with a variety of sanitary products and for 3 women and OTC meds for 2, are by far the most expensive component of my "grocery" bill. It's not that food is cheap. It's that paper and dope is expensive.

Lounmoun · February 2017

Since this old thread has come back...
We had a very tight month recently where we only bought basics and cut our grocery spending for 2 adults, 1 teenager, 3 pets to around $200 for that month. Usually we would have spent $400-600 for a month.
No eating out. Not as much meat-and chicken thighs or ground turkey only when we had meat. More homemade breads and stuff like that. Lots more eggs, lentils, beans, tuna, oatmeal. Powdered milk, no juice or pop. More frozen vegetables. More canned fruit.
We made it through on $200 but will go back to a more comfortable $400 a month.

cwolfman13 · February 2017

Soy_K wrote: »

I'm finding that protein powder, supplement, etc can get quite pricy. I'm really trying to keep our household on a budget. About how much do you generally spend on food per month? It's so easy to overspend

Supplements are expensive and generally unnecessary.

Family of four...Our cost just depends...if it's a full on run...like we're pretty much out of everything, it can be a solid $300-$400. If we're going primarily to restock on veg, fruit, milk, eggs, and other basic staples it's more like $100-$150 depending. We do most of our shopping at Costco, so we usually end up getting some odd thing that's not really on the list too.

SolotoCEO · February 2017

Wow...I spend about $75 per month on groceries. I'm single and eat well - lean meats, veggies, fruit, coffee, etc. I rarely purchase sea food or processed foods. I do indulge in a diet coke almost daily. I do love Click Espresso Protein Powder but if I have that for breakfast every day it adds another $80 per month...

Emily3907 · February 2017

Just two of us, me and DH. On average, we spend about $550.00 - $650.00 a month. Some months are higher, others are lower. It just depends on what we need to stock up on.

shelleyrhoads · February 2017

Anywhere from $600- $1200 depends on the stores I shop. Money for food is not really a big problem in our home. We eat mostly plant based vegan. If I tried hard I could keep it under $800. I am a sucker for whole foods. Family of 6 with 2 teenaged boys.