What's your budget?

Ashonym

...and I'm not talking about calories. :P I was looking at a food picture thread and it really made me curious. I mean, I know there is a lot of diversity here, and it would seem in today's society your wealth equates to your food's health factors. So, what's your monthly food budget? How do you shop so that you can eat healthily enough, if your budget is on the low side?

I live off of foodstamps with my daughter and her father, and he inputs his money as well. But he also does all of the shopping, so I get zero say/ability in choosing what I have in the kitchen, since I'm totally dependent at this point in my life. It's a struggle. I am guessing about 300.00 is what goes into our food buying, per month, including stamps, for all three of us.

outersoul

Now that I think about it, my budget is pretty big for food. However, it doesn't mean that I spend a ton on it either. I always watch for sales and even do some coupon clipping for things I need. It can be done on a budget.

mp09aap

im a student and i try to stick to £25 a week or $40. it dosent mean that i eat rubbish. its about finding the weekly deels expecily meat and then freeze it. also frozen vegtables are very cheep. £1 per kg

cabul3

thankfully, my boyfriend buys the majority of our groceries!
i probably spend up to an extra $100 on food that i want but he won't eat (i.e. tomatoes, ice cream, frozen meals for work, etc.)
one thing i promised myself was that i would never skimp on healthy food for myself or my gym membership, even if i'm close to broke. i'd rather bike instead of drive and cut my cell plan down than cheat my body out of Healthy options!
but like i said, i'm lucky that my bf foots the food bill )

calliope_music

ours (my husband and i) is maybe around 350. however, we do buy quite a few brand name things as well, and use coupons when i remember to bring them with me.

we tend to buy things on sale, go to farmer's markets (there's a few near us that take food stamps which is awesome, even though we don't receive them) and buy in bulk when there's something we want/have space for it.

Rworthy

I try to stay under $150 every week and a half or so. I'm sure it's way over. Food is expensive in Colorado!

yeabby

I feed the two of us for about $200-$250 and we eat primarily local (dairy and meat) and organic produce.

There are some easy ways to save money. Go to farmer's markets at around closing time. Befriend your local produce stand owner. Convince them to make you deals on the produce that needs to be used within the next few days. Look into organic produce delivery programs. I pay $33/delivery, every other week, for 15-20 lb of organic produce that magically shows up on my doorstep.

I also believe firmly in saving money in other places so I can spend extra to eat local and organic. Make your own hand soap (about $3/gallon) and laundry or dish soap (both about 3cents/load). Dry your clothes on a rack instead of in the dryer.

Keegansmum6

I have foodstamps I only get 180 a month and my sons father pays for the rest,I also have wic for our son and that helps I would say about 300 a month on food I shop at aldi a lot

MrsRobertson1005

Me and my bf use between $500-$650 a month but thats a lot that we don't need. Chicken breasts are great because they are pretty cheep and you can make stir fry with brown rice and frozen veggies, cook the breasts with spices or sauce in the oven, make stips and bread them with non sugared corn flakes, or put them in whole wheat pasta. All pretty cheap stuff to buy

kittycat613

I'm on a low budget. I get paid every 2 weeks and use $100.00 from each check for food. So I use about $200.00 a month on food. It's pretty expensive here in IL.

juliapurpletoes

I buy foods in their unprocessed, natural form. Like potatoes, rice, veggies, fruits, meats, fish, etc. I keep costs down buy thinking of how to cook them interestingly.......

It's the processed foods that i believe kill a budget. (chips, premade anything like salsas, protein bars, frozen diet meals, etc.)

Cooking is fun :bigsmile: - finding new spices to flavor something, etc. has been my biggest trick to stay in a budget.

elbandito

Mine, for a family of four in New Zealand, is about $250.00 a week (so about $1,000NZ a month... which is I think about $800US a month). For me this seems like an awful lot, and the majority of it goes into making sure the children (aged 7 and 12) have enough cereal, muesli bars, snacks and sandwiches for their school lunches.

For me, as I'm trying to lose weight, choosing healthy can be really hard. Especially on those Friday nights when you're home from work, tired, feel like getting drunk of just falling into a coma and you STILL have people relying on you to cook. It has less to do with the budget, and more to do with the 'imma just gonna make THIS because it's easy'.

One life saver is the humble omlette. Two eggs, a little cheese and some herbs and you've got a healthy meal right there. I fall back on this so much I'm about to start clucking.

Lleldiranne

We are in a similar boat, financially. We spend about $600 (including all sources) a month, I think. That is for me, my husband, and 3 kids (8, 10, 12) who eat like they have hollow legs (growing kids!)

During the school year, it's probably a bit less since they get free lunch at school, but I guess that would go into the food budget otherwise, too.

kayler00

I get foodstamps as well for me & my boyfriend. We get $280 a month - but we end up putting money in like the last week of the month. Now that I am eating healthy and well - my boyfriend isn't (he doesn't really HAVE to though, he's tiny and could gain some lbs haha) it's going to be a struggle now divding up healthy between not so healthy.

But I am a coupon queen! COUPONS are amazing, so I sometimes get $200 worth of groceries for about $60.

Izable2011

I try and spend no more than $400 a month for my husband and I. We get most of our red meat free but I usually cook with chicken or fish.

dayzeerock

Less than $100 a month. All organic, processed food-free!

Mybetterme

4 of us in california and we eat cheap stuff like hamburger helper and pasta we spend 1000 a month at the grocery store abot 80 on fastfood. we r all average size. but I buy a lot of conveince food. smart ones and banquet meals. I work full time so dont have a lots of time for planning or I might be able to spend less I do use coupons.

poesch77

We live paycheck to paycheck .....food is not a top spender in my house!! I usually spend $50-75 per week on groceries.....family of 4 , one being a baby! I clip coupons and go to the Dollar Tree (the have food items there) often! We eat pretty healthy....so I guess, you don't need to spend a lot to do so!

regina_mundi

$83.33 monthly ($1000 yearly): this figure includes paper products, cleaners, hygiene stuff, etc. I'm not on foodstamps, just frugal. I haven't paid for toothpaste, shampoo, washing-up liquid, or "feminine products" for years.

countrygirl_717

I spend about 120 a week, including my husband and I and feeding all the children in my childcare center. (8)

CakeFit21

Lol, I don't even know. I think it's quite a bit but I tend to impulse buy. For instance, $20 on halibut because it was beautiful. (I'm eating it right this second, it's delicious) Plus, I buy expensive meat and produce and that's all we eat.

We are looking into getting a freezer so we can buy local meat in large quantity.

jessdeweerdt

My husband and I operate on $50 - $60 a week.. it's a struggle at times. We have to do meal planning to stay in line.. we plan 5 meals and count on leftovers or occassional meals with in-laws to make it last. Junk food is actually quite expensive, so it has been somewhat easy to cut back on that. We also use produce stands, which is a huge money saver. If meat is on sale we get extra and freeze. My husband actually uses $15 - 20 of the budget on things that he eats that I'm not (junk, cereal, juice). We also try to freeze soup if we make it, since there is always extra of that. It's just a matter of making it work. It's certainly not easy, but you do what you got to do

taso42_DELETED

Honestly, I don't know. I bet if I did the math I would be shocked. We try to shop for the best bargains, but also aim for the highest quality food. I'm sure food is the biggest expense after the mortgage payment. It's worth it.

sakus32

I just had this same conversation a few weeks ago w/a co-worker. I feed a family of four on about $500 per month. A majority of what we eat is fresh veggies and fruits. We only eat beef once a week, chicken and fish is our majority. I get legs and thighs and then skin them, more bang for the buck. As for our fish, we eat alot of it. Shrimp, yellow fin-tuna (seconds are less than half he market price of steaks), salmon and/or steel head trout. I try and base our dinner plates on ruffage of some-sort, such as romaine, spinach, and/or iceberg. Almost none of our veggies food is frozen, unless its popsicles or skinny cow. We drink crystal light, water, or milk. I allow my kids to pick out one box of cereal per/grocery visit, so of course it's usually sugar loaded. I feel that it costs more to buy processed foods, such as chips, chicken nuggets, soda, lean cuisine meals, kraft macaroni and cheese, etc. We replaced those expensive and space consuming foods w/fresh and I am glad. It makes me smile to see my kids run to the kitchen excited to eat fresh apples, bananas, and peaches, rather than cookies, crackers, or pretzels. Don't get me wrong, we have some snack stuff, but because our main focus is fresh, we eat fresh first and don't blow through the processed treats.

Sh1tsRainbows

$400 a month for food, household items, dog food, and 4 people

Ashonym

Wow, thanks for the replies everyone! Hey I'd love to know WHERE the hell produce delivery programs are. We have a lot of farmers markets but like I said I have no control. He doesn't carry cash and as far as we know farmers markets don't take ebt cards. I will pass on the tips though - much appreciated.

Dtho5159

We spend between $50-100 a week for a family of 4 and 3 kitties. Some weeks we spend less, some more. Just depends on the sales. Last week was a really good stock up week for me and hubby had a little overtime so I really stocked up. I think I spent $115 total. We typically live paycheck to paycheck and I do coupon and stockpile non perishables so if we did have an emergency week, we COULD survive without spending a dime on food one week.

stephyy4632

family of 4 two adults and two small kids ( age 6 and 4 ) I spend between 200-250 every other week on average

ETA-- about 20.ish of that cost go`s to my older daughters pediasure drinks she is underweight and needs the extra and those little drinks are pricie I try to get them at sams club when I can but she only like the strawberry flavor so sometimes I have to spend alittle more and get it at a regular store

hush7hush

I average like $30-50 a week, depending on how much I actually buy, and what I plan to cook for the week.

I think I could afford more, that's just what I end up needing.

It's just me, so I never expect to spend much.

ak_in_ak

i try to keep it under $125 a week for my boyfriend and I. That is what it was this week but that included $20 in steaks and $10 for beef jerkey which we normally wouldn't buy. Food is very!!! expensive in Alaska. A 8 oz thing of organic blueberries was $7 bucks!

christy_frank

OMG that is really low budget. I wish!!! We spend about $1000/ month on food. Of course I am a family of 6 but my 4 kids don't eat much and 5 days/ week I don't feed them lunch. We don't eat packaged foods. Our meat is $$$ because 1# of hamburger 95% lean is $5/ pound and I won't buy chicken with rib meat so that's $$$ too. I guess with a budget like that I would just watch portions, no junk food and make sure you buy frozen veggies, not canned. One good thing.... Water is free. Refill your bottle.