How much do you spend on groceries?

stephanj

ummm where does everyone live?

Over $200 per week just to feed me and my wife. I'm in Philadelphia.

Yah, I live on an island, so it's $250 a week for me, hubby and 2 growing girls. I spend millions on yogurt and produce. That's only $9 a day. We never eat out, so that covers every single meal for everyone.

cutchro

for a single person... tooooooo much!! :sick:

cmstirp

My boyfriend and I spend 309 each month on groceries. We also spend about 300 each month on "entertainment", which includes eating out, alcohol, and any type of outing or event, so it's hard to say how much is just for food.

ldrosophila

We do spend more probably $500 a month. However, I dont consider it blowing money away. We have to eat so where do we want to spend that money. this is my thought on why it seems to cost more. First you are buying more groceries than before. Second you are spending less going out to eat which once again will drive up your apparent grocery costs. Last, if you normally spend $30-$40 going out to eat on one meal in the past I bet you are going out to eat less now so that $30-40 that you wouldnt have noticed because it was spent at a restaurant is now being used at a grocery store. Try this exercise go look at your bank account from 6 months ago add up how much you spent on going out to eat, fast foods, extras like coffee, ice cream, and your grocery bill look at all food and beverages. I bet if you look at the raw numbers it is very close to what you were spending it's just now most of it is going to groceries now instead of all those little extras we forgot about when we werent taking care of our bodies

BhanGoes

I spend $300 per month for two adults. I shop at a more expensive grocery store because I value the quality of their produce.

$300/2 = $150/month/person
$150/30 = $5/day/person

In addition to considering your monthly budget allocation for food, do a meal-by-meal breakdown to validate that the total end-of-month amount is really justified.

ChristyP0303

We spend about $800 a month. Family of 4 including 2 preteens eating me out of house and home!

Confuzzled4ever

My money map thing says I spend an average of 6% of my income on food.

I wonder if that's high or not?

I'd say around $300 per month for 2..although that will go up as I just switched to organic.

(my son ate an entire crock pot full of chili last night for dinner.. just shoot me now.. LOL)

I live in Colorado

ZombieSlayer

Budget is $250 ($100 one week, $50 all other weeks) per month. This includes toilet paper, cat food, diapers, cat litter, etc.

Currently a family of 3 (one guy, one pregnant gal, one 3-1/2 year old, and four cats).

Bountiful Baskets + Gardening + pressure cooker & deep freezer = lots of healthy fruits & veggies. Beans are cheap and really good for you. Healthy does not have to be expensive.

edit to add: Live on the top of the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington.

BrieLP

I live in Austin, Texas and we budget about $600/month for groceries ($300 twice a month). But I have made it my mission to stay WAY under budget so I tend to not go over $250/twice a month; so $500/month. This includes non food products such as hair and body products etc.

This is for 2 adults, 2 children under 5 and a medium size dog. I shop at the local H-E-B with as many coupons as possible, and buying the generic "H-E-B" brand items.

lina1131

About $200 per week give or take for a family of 4 (me, husband, 6 year old, 1 year old)

BUT, we hardly ever eat out. We make all our meals at home.

KCGettinFit2014

We spend about $1000 a month for myself, my husband and three sons with occasional meals out. I WISH we could get by with $500 a month!

sportzmom23

I don't separate out incidentals, such as food for my 120 pound lab or other 4 animals...I stocked up for 2 weeks yesterday, spent close to $600. Will spend about $100 next week on fillers like bread, milk, fresh produce.

I am in upstate NY. Family of 5, 2 adults, one teen boy, two girls. It also doesn't count the $50-75 a month that goes on the school lunch account for my three darlings, or money on account at gymnastics, or sports...

mrstravisjones

For my husband and me, we spend about $60-90 a week on groceries. The price fluctuates based on if we choose to get seafood, or splurge at the farmer's market, or have to re-stock on some bulk items. We also eat out about 5 meals a week: friday lunch, lunch and dinner on saturday, breakfast and lunch on sunday.

This week, we spent $72. And that got us: 4 giant chicken breasts, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, potatoes, onions, lettuce, soy nuts, dressing, eggs, 4 frozen meals, 2 soups, crackers, pretzels, english muffins, cheese, 2-4 packs of greek yogurt, and beans

Espressocycle

ummm where does everyone live?

Over $200 per week just to feed me and my wife. I'm in Philadelphia.

I'm in Philly too. Shop Rite is my usual store.

mkstirp

Wow I feel awful now. I just went and checked my spreadsheet ( I've been keeping track of all my expenditures for 6 years - I'm a geek) and we average $1000 a month at the grocery store and $800 a month eating out. Thats just me n hubby and 1 or 2 (away at college kids). Oh it does include holidays and parties and such, but not alcohol. But it shows I gues why I need MFP! I need to put my budget on a diet along with me.

AprilMae1975

My husband and me + 3 teenagers, we spend $600/month and eat out about five times a month. That amount includes cleaning and household supplies. I get most produce and meat at Sam's club. I also don't buy a lot of snacks for the kids. If I don go over I only allow $50 extra just in case.

magerum

$200 / wk - Two adults and a 3 year old

Acg67

Apparently a lot

badtastebetty

Depending on how well I shop, and how stocked my fridge is, between $50 to $100 for myself. SOMETIMES as low as $30.00.

I actually want to set a healthy eating on a budget challenge, and blog about it. I think that could be an interesting experiment.

Dogwalkingirl

I typically go groceries once a week for my boyfriend and I. I usually spend 80-100 week. I am in Ontario.

MsBobLoblaw

About $1200 a month for 1 adult & 2 teenagers in the Midwest. That also includes toiletries; I don't separate that out from the food.

peleroja

I spend between $400-$500 a month for my boyfriend and I. He generally only eats one meal a day at home except on weekends, I eat all meals at home. He eats a ton of lean protein (fish and chicken) and I mostly stick to fish., but we both eat piles of fresh vegetables and very little bread and pasta. We also eat some pretty expensive stuff because he won't eat meat that's been processed, I insist on fair-trade quinoa and pricey artisan cereal, and we both like organic locally farmed products whenever possible. We're horrible pain-in-the-butt hipster eaters and no fun at dinner parties.

ZombieSlayer

Budget is $250 ($100 one week, $50 all other weeks) per month. This includes toilet paper, cat food, diapers, cat litter, etc.

Currently a family of 3 (one guy, one pregnant gal, one 3-1/2 year old, and four cats).

edit to add: Live on the top of the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington.

Another metric, brought up on my feed... percentage of income spent on groceries. My grocery budget is almost exactly 10% of my take home pay or just over 8% of my gross pay.

LainMac

300 plus at week. Family of 6. 4- kids - 3 teenagers and one almost teenager. 3 EW boys. Two celiac - one of whom is a vegetarian. (Now that's fun trying to eat out with.) Gluten free bread, frozen pizza, sweets, and oatmeal are EXPENSIVE.

1 teen son goes to a tech H.S. with a culinary program so lunches are .made fresh eat day at the school. He get 3 dollars for his lunch. Everyone else brown bags.

Two of the boys are athletes and one of them is doing two sports. The double sport guy eats an extra meal when he has played a game or gone to a track meet.

Out of the 130 meals a week served to the 6 of us, about 120 of them are at home. We are in New England and one of the teens works at the local grocery store where all the men have to wear ties.

lbdc05

I spend around 100 a week.

victoriavoodoo

My boyfriend and I probably spend 200-250 a month for the two of us.

Granted, we are poor college kids, so this is more out of necessity than any secret knowledge or skill lol.

He eats some kind of meat that he cooks with almost every meal, but we only buy whatever meat Albertson's currently has "buy 1 get 3 free" so we save alot by not getting to choose what kind of meat we bring home. They change it up a lot though. This past week it was chicken breasts in packs of two so we bought 2 packs(4) and got 12 more breasts free. That lasts a while and is under 20 bucks.

For other things, we only buy things if they're on sale/whatever brand is on sale. There is always a brand of greek yogurt on sale, for example, I just don't get to pick which brand. Our methods seem to work well; we hit up albertsons and winn dixie for more chances of things being on sale.


EDIT we're in louisiana, and if you do buy 1 get 3 free you have to freeze most of it; things in that deal are usually close to expiration date. He takes out what he needs for the next day each night so it can defrost =] just a tip

LustyLowCarb

Depending on how well I shop, and how stocked my fridge is, between $50 to $100 for myself. SOMETIMES as low as $30.00.

I actually want to set a healthy eating on a budget challenge, and blog about it. I think that could be an interesting experiment.

I would be so interested in a challenge like that!

I spend $70 to $100 a week for 2 adults, a 9 year old and 2 dogs. For the last 2 months I have been writing out a meal plan for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and I have been shopping every day vs. once a week. This has brought my spending down to the $70.00 side from the $100 side.

Hubby's beer is not included, but hard alcohol is.

Graelwyn75

Far too much. Things like free range chicken breasts, wild alaskan salmon, fage greek yoghurt, tuna steaks, avocado and duck eggs really add up here in the uk. I ended up spending about £50 today for my staples for the coming week(though the chicken breasts, duck eggs and the veggie burgers and tofu will last longer than that)

LainMac

Far too much. Things like free range chicken breasts, wild alaskan salmon, fage greek yoghurt, tuna steaks, avocado and duck eggs really add up here in the uk. I ended up spending about £50 today for my staples for the coming week(though the chicken breasts, duck eggs and the veggie burgers and tofu will last longer than that)

I'm coming to your house. {looks for passport ~ finds it - damn it is expired.}

Lynn_babcock

From the 31st to today I've spent $149 on groceries.. and that includes a $15 box of wine we're not done and grocery shopping today that will last until after the 14th. That's probably a normal 2 week period. So about $75 a week for a family of 4, myself and hubby (eating healthy), and our 2 sons ages 5 and 3. The kids are still small.. but they are pretty good eaters. I'm sure nothing compared to teenagers.. but they probably together eat the average between me and my husband. We don't eat out hardly ever, don't drink much.. $30 a month (1 box of wine, 1 box of beer). We haven't bought store bread in 3 weeks, I've made all our bread at home. We have chickens (the grocery bill reflects that in old produce we buy from the store for them) that give us eggs, and we have a garden every year.. nothing yet this year but I freeze and dehydrate a lot for eating throughout the year. I also raise meat rabbits.. they probably represent another 100#'s in dressed meat which cost us about $200 last year in feed. This year should be cheaper because I now have a kennel for pasturing the young before butcher.. which should help a lot. -- Wyoming, USA