How much do you spend on groceries per week?

FL_Hiker

me3332 wrote: »

You guys need to teach me. I only buy for myself and I’m around $700 a month for food only.. 😔

Do your grocery stores have buy one get one deals? You could try shopping by the sales and stocking up on foods you know you eat consistently. I always try to buy in bulk, especially proteins when they're on sale since they are usually the most expensive! I feel my budget suffers the most when I walk into the store without a list or if I'm just shopping by recipe. I try to overlap my common ingredients for each meal . Ex. Sunday night is lentil soup and quesadillas, I'll take those tortias, sour cream, cilantro and Mexican cheese and use them for burritos on Monday :-).

RaeBeeBaby

I'm going to guesstimate about $400 a month for two people which includes paper products and wine/beer but not pet food. I get the high-end pet food at our local farm store, so not included in the grocery budget. I probably spent twice that when my sons were still living at home - consuming a gallon of milk and two boxes of cereal a day (just for breakfast).

I feel like I do pretty well now at keeping it around $80-$100 a week by shopping sale items and hitting the discount grocery once a month. I live in a smallish town with 2 stores. Shopping the sale items only at one and the club discount (Safeway) at the other saves me quite a bit of money. There's a great discount grocery about 30 miles away, so it's not terribly convenient but I'll incorporate it into other errands if I'm going there anyway. I used to grow a garden, but stopped doing that this year for the first time in 25 years. Truly, it wasn't that cost effective if you consider soil, fertilizer, seeds/plants then canning jars, lids, etc. Not to mention all the time spent weeding and watering. It saved money when kids were home but as empty-nesters we were giving away over half the produce or spending time preserving and canning then giving a lot of that away, too.

I certainly had sticker shock last weekend when I went to the big town (Portland, OR) for a visit with a friend. We shopped at New Seasons and I spent as much in one grocery bag for a few items as I do for an entire week at home. I'm sure if I lived in a big city I'd have to budget a bit tighter.

IGbnat24

For my husband and myself, about $300. I cook 90% of our food fresh. We use very little boxe or canned food.

nickssweetheart

For just me, it's usually about 40-45 dollars per week, but I've been splurging lately on pricey condiments, spices, and meat substitutes and the last couple of weeks have spent 180 altogether. I need to rein myself back in before my budget takes too much of a beating. At least my meals today are super cheap (split peas and lentils, ftw.)

happytree923

I’m single, and spend about $400 a month on groceries and all household items except cat supplies. The first two weeks of the month I spend a LOT more because I’ll go to Costco to get meat, alcohol, bread, etc., and go to Kroger for things I don’t want in bulk, the rest of the month I spend less than $40 a week at Kroger. I could definitely cut back but I enjoy cooking at home, so I think of it as part of my entertainment spending as well.

Hamsibian

me3332 wrote: »

You guys need to teach me. I only buy for myself and I’m around $700 a month for food only.. 😔

I spent about that much for a while. Trying to gain weight on an autoimmune diet for Crohn's disease made grocery shopping a bit tough on the budget. Now I am in maintenance and have reintroduced some food. This month I spent close to 400, but each week is a bit cheaper than the last as I'm finding more ways to save. Farmer's market season, eating more offal meat, discounted meat section, sales, shopping at 3 different places close to home (including working at a co-op). Hopefully I can get under 300 in July!

Edit: I bought more stuff than usual for my parents and other visiting family members. Plus went through a rough patch, and bought prepared snacks a lot more often. So looking back, I spent more than if it were just me.

lucerorojo

I spend about $400-500 for one, in a city. I'm going to try and get down to $75 per week for food, bringing that down to $300 per month. That is the lowest I can do and still eat well I think. I don't eat out much--I used to, and probably spent about double, about $30 per day.