What's your food budget?

Barneystinson

I was having a convo over the weekend with a group of friends about groceries and spending. A lot of people would like to cut back but interesting enough, they already spend less on their groceries than I do! I don't really know (honestly) where my own budget falls in the scope of things. So now I'm curious...

How much do you spend monthly (roughly)?
How many are in your household?
What region / area are you from?
Do you think that's high / low / average ?
Does anything affect that total? - Buying organic, couponing, etc...

I'll start...

I spend around $400 / month
I buy for 2 adults
Southeastern PA
I think my habits are average, maybe a little bit high.
I buy some organic, don't generally coupon - but do follow sales, buy meats and other ingredients in bulk and store them. I buy from farmers markets in the summer time.

LindseyC87

My budget is $400 we feed 2 adults and 1 child... I coupon when there's things I buy but I for the most part only buy meat, produce, and dairy products. I live in utah and I think my budget is pretty good. I buy bulk in things like rice, oatmeal, spices, and meats.

momma3sweetgirls

I probably spend $800 a month. We're 2 adults, and 4 kids - 6,5,3,7mos. S. Central PA. No organic, rarely coupon, mostly fresh veggies, fruit, meat and dairy. This also includes the household things like paper towel, toilet paper, tissues, cleaning supplies, etc. I've never broken it down to just food.

jraps17

I think it depends on your income and the types of foods you are buying, you'll obviously pay more for organics and also buying from local farmers but i think that is great. If you have the funds in your budget go for it. My wife and I coupon as much as we can but now we buy less with coupons because what we have coupons for isn't always the healthiest of stuff with some exceptions. I think as long as you live within your means don't worry about what others spend and keep supporting your local farmers if you can.

hush7hush

I give myself $50 a week to spend.
I usually only spend $30.

krislshoe

Family of 5 (3 boys ages 12, 9, and 8) plus I babysit.....I spend about $125 a week on groceries and yes I am very health conscious and dont buy a lot of pre packaged foods....we live in PA.

kimmerroze

I spend anywhere from 200-300 a month for 2 adults. I use coupons when I have them, but I am not religious about it. The times that my grocery bill are higher is when there was a sale on meat or frozen veggies or pasta sauce, or canned veggies and bean or something like that and I stock up big time. My grocery bill is also higher when we need shower supplies like shampoo and conditioner body wash toilet paper deoderant toothpaste but this is only about every 6 weeks.

I shop twice a month, I try to stay away from the temptation of the grocery store as much as possible.

HeidiMightyRawr

I spend about £400 (~$600?) in England, that's on household stuff as well as food though, maybe £350 food? That's for me and my partner. I think it's quite high from what I've heard, but we get alot of fresh meats and fruits/veg's. I try to get stuff that's on offer as much as possible, don't go for organic or anything like that though as it's all the same to me!

sarah_ep

I would say 250-300 for two adults. We buy half of our produce from farmers markets and the rest from the grocery store (not organic). We also only eat meat on the weekends (which has really cut down our food bill).

JDMPWR

600 a month, I only eat out one meal a week. This includes my bi monthly casein and protein powders.

dls06

I too am from Southeastern Pa. Phila.
I live alone and spend about $300.00 a month Not including eating out once or twice a week.
I do not buy organic. Only because the selection is not great where I shop. Food Basics for Fruit and Veggies, Milk, Cheese, Frozen Veggies, Breads and Pasta. Shop Rite for my meats and other things they have on a sale that week.
Sometimes do Sam's Club for meats if I need to get something else or go with a friend or having a party.
My biggest problem is shopping for one. I was so use to shopping for 7 for 30 years and now it's just me. It is taking a while to shop for only what I need. I have a pantry so full I could probably eat from it for 3 months.

electricnarwhal

Hm, I'd say about $400 a month or so. There's just the two of us in the house and we live in WV. I think it's pretty average for the most part. Nothing organic and no coupons. We stock up on a lot of meats when they're on sale, and generally everything else is dairy, veggies, fruit, a few canned things, dog food, and house stuff.

tararocks

I spend about $450-$500 a month for two adults and two kids (13, 5). My youngest daughter eats almost exclusively fresh fruit and veggies (I am happy that she does this but we don't make her, it's just what she prefers) so i spend most of my budget on fresh fruit and veggies, I can't get away with just the lower cost bag of apples, we eat all kinds, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, oranges, melons, etc. and veggies, we eat them all and i prefer the fresh, carrots, peppers, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, lettuce, green beans...so this all adds up. the otehr thing we spend a lot of money on is meat and cereal. I wish i could get my budget down but doing so would mean eating a lot of processed boxed high calorie/sodium food (don't get me wrong, i eat my fair share of that too, that's why I don't need anymore). I'm in southern Illinois.

Sam899

I spend 400-600 / month on food alone. It's just for 2 adults. I'd say it's average to high I'd guess and I also live in south eastern PA. I try to buy whats in season to keep it more reasonable. I read a book once that talked about how people in European countries spend much larger portions of their income on food every month but in turn, they buy and eat healthier. Since then I make it a point to spend a little more and get good food because it should be more important to eat good then to have extra money to go shopping for nonsense I don't need. I'm trying to spend money where it counts i.e. my food and exercise lifestyle.

hush7hush

Wow.
I feel cheap now.

BeckyKSmith

I probably spend $800 a month. We're 2 adults, and 4 kids - 6,5,3,7mos. S. Central PA. No organic, rarely coupon, mostly fresh veggies, fruit, meat and dairy. This also includes the household things like paper towel, toilet paper, tissues, cleaning supplies, etc. I've never broken it down to just food.

Same here, but it is getting tough to stay in the $800 with grocery prices going up....diapers don't help either.

ladybg81

$400 per month for 2 adults and 1 child. I live in South AL and feel my budget is pretty average. We buy lots of fresh meats, fresh veggies and fresh fruits. I do not coupon and sometimes will buy organic if I can find it. I shop at a local farmer's market for a lot of my veggies and some fruits. I try to buy some things in bulk that we eat a lot of, like chicken, cheese sticks things like that. I make a menu for 2 weeks and buy everything I need for those meals on one big trip. I still go to the Farmer's market weekly to restock my veggies and sometimes I have to get more milk. The menu option really helps me to stay within my budget but I do go over by a little usually. Of course, if my DH is there, he seems to "need" everything under the sun so I've started trying to go by myself because I can stick to a list better than he can. This does include all household items, not just food.

eryn415

We live in San Francisco and spend about $500 per month on groceries. I coupon for my big Safeway trip about every three weeks. I hit Trader Joe's about twice a month, plus trips to the produce market about twice a week. We eat lots of fruits and veggies. There are 2 adults and 2 kids (7 and 5) in our household.

hbrekkaas

We spend around $800 to feed 2 adults and 3 kids (8, 3, 1) I am in a little town in Northern BC, Canada. We have 3 grocery stores and every single thing is shipped in, nothing is grown here, with the exception of meat if I want to double my meat budget and buy local. (I don't) We can also get some veggies during the summer from the farmers market: lettuce, cucumber, carrots and potatoes. I don't think our budget is actually that high for our town.

bmmarti3

I target about $80 per week (~$350 per month); we switched over to the health food store recently and are running between $80-100 week now (~$350-435 per month).

2 adults and 1 toddler in central Florida

*edit* Food and drinks only (diapers and the like don't go in the grocery budget)

milaxx

I was having a convo over the weekend with a group of friends about groceries and spending. A lot of people would like to cut back but interesting enough, they already spend less on their groceries than I do! I don't really know (honestly) where my own budget falls in the scope of things. So now I'm curious...

How much do you spend monthly (roughly)?
How many are in your household?
What region / area are you from?
Do you think that's high / low / average ?
Does anything affect that total? - Buying organic, couponing, etc...

I'll start...

I spend around $400 / month
I buy for 2 adults
Southeastern PA
I think my habits are average, maybe a little bit high.
I buy some organic, don't generally coupon - but do follow sales, buy meats and other ingredients in bulk and store them. I buy from farmers markets in the summer time.

I think you are a little high. I buy for 1 adult and 2 cats and spend anywhere from $100 - $150 a month. I clip coupons (seriously I have a binder and everything). I also shop sales and make as much food from scratch as possible. I also buy some organics items and buy from local farmers. This includes cat food, and household items.

I shop different markets. I buy only needed things from Whole Foods. I then hit up the local produce market which has many bargains including 3 dozen eggs for $4. I then go to whatever supermarket is having the best deals. Last summer I did a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for 8 weeks. It was $30 a week and I received so much food I split it with a friend so $15 gave me all my produce except lettuce and eggs. In fact I had so much that I blanched and froze a lot of it. I just finished the last of that in January.

I joined recyclebank and use the point to get coupons and free cat food.

I'm ovo- vegetarian, eat limited gluten and soy.

I live in Philadelphia.