How much do you spend on groceries monthly?

Chandler330
Chandler330 Posts: 378 Member
edited November 8 in Food and Nutrition
Hi everybody :) I'm trying to sort out a food budget and was wondering what other people spend on food every month. Thank you!
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Replies

  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    Where are you? That will make a huge difference!
  • 970Mikaela1
    970Mikaela1 Posts: 2,013 Member
    6 or 7 hundred a month for my daughter and I.
  • Chandler330
    Chandler330 Posts: 378 Member
    I live about an hour north of Boston. I'm also only buying for me if that helps :smile:
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    $400-$500/month for me.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    $350 last month, but that's because we don't buy meat at the store, and beer intake is down.
  • Chandler330
    Chandler330 Posts: 378 Member
    Thank you for your quick responses :smile:
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    I live about an hour north of Boston. I'm also only buying for me if that helps :smile:

    Go to market basket, the produce there is top notch. If you can afford making large meat purchases, call up blood farm, over by erg... groton I think. Liquor is what NH was made for. However, you already know that. ;)
  • Jennloella
    Jennloella Posts: 2,286 Member
    average 1500 a month for my husband and I, and four kids including one on formula. This doesn't include toiletries, diapers, pet food, or cleaning supplies this is just straight up food. We're in northern cali
  • craftymommy
    craftymommy Posts: 57 Member
    Around $350 for two. That's just groceries (this includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks). We eat out once a week, once in awhile twice in that week (but this is rare as I try to cook everything from home), and spend about $150 per month for eating out. Also, twice per week I don't pay for or cook dinner because we eat at my mom's. Considering what I spend on dinner, if I didn't have the mom's night, it would add another 60-80 $$s per month if I were to have to cook those nights.

    Total would be just under $600 for two per month.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    My grocery budget is $200, plus another $150 for restaurants. (Hey, I like to socialize!) I always stay under budget.

    When I was on a tighter budget I limited myself to $150 on groceries and $50 on restaurants, and managed fine. These days I am lucky enough to be able to splurge a bit more on the farmer's market, cheese shop, produce and occasional treats, so I do.

    (That's Canadian dollars, by the way. Groceries are a bit more expensive here, and restaurant meals are quite a bit more thanks to higher taxes.)
  • mike_ny
    mike_ny Posts: 351 Member
    Two of us spend an average of $300-400 a month and we eat really well and healthy. I mostly cook from scratch using what's in season or on sale and also cook large batches we reheat and eat all week. This time of year I make a lot of soups. Soups are great because you use most of the vegetables and animal bones and connective tissue and you don't need first rate quality of either. You still need quality ingredients, but still fresh veggies with blemishes and tougher and bony cuts of meat get marked down all the time.
    I also make my own yogurt and fresh cheeses. Even buying organic whole milk at about $4 a half gallon, still comes to about half or less of what store bought yogurt and cheeses cost and aren't anywhere as fresh and good.

    If we ate processed foods, a couple quarts per week of plain yogurt, a pint or so a week of good ricotta, out of season fruits and vegetables, and top cuts of meats, it would easily be about twice as much.

    A lot of your costs are based on how much you're willing to pay for convenience and packaging.

    I see people in front of me in the grocery store all the time spending $200-300 with carts filled with snacks, soft drinks, and lots of other junk, and probably only about 3-4 days of actual food. I don't know if they eat out the other days or what I'm seeing is just a partial week's shopping trip.
  • sexy48
    sexy48 Posts: 16 Member
    I'm in Florida and my cost is about $190 a month and that's just for me. I don't eat out at all. I cook all my meals:)
  • lsgibbs83
    lsgibbs83 Posts: 254 Member
    I spend about $250-$300 for my daughter and myself. We rarely dine out and this includes the food for my lunches. We don't keep a lot of junk food in the house any longer so the grocery budget has decreased. You always hear how expensive it is to eat healthy. Yes healthy food may cost a bit more, but if you're not buying chips, cookies, and a lot of prepared/packaged convenience foods you more than make up for that.
  • zilannoj
    zilannoj Posts: 138 Member
    $400.00 a month for two. We're usually under budget.
  • radiatingkayla
    radiatingkayla Posts: 37 Member
    about $120 a month, buffalo NY, just me (poor college kid ha) lots of oats, rice, beans, bananas, and potatoes!
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    If you can get in to Boston and hit Quincy's market about an hour prior to closing you can usually get produce very cheap; otherwise they toss it. Then again, is Quincy's market still there?
  • zeal26
    zeal26 Posts: 602 Member
    edited December 2014
    I try to stay at around 1200 Norwegian Krone, which is about €140 ($170). Not sure I could afford to live in this country if I wasn't eating at a deficit! I never go out to eat, but sometimes I go over budget if I'm being lazy.
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
    I spend about $300 on myself in NYC plus eating out.
  • muah3iluvzu06
    muah3iluvzu06 Posts: 79 Member
    For two adults (no children), we spend about $500 per month on groceries. We live on the west coast & eat out about once per week (usually Chipotle, Subway, Sushi), etc.
  • mistikal13
    mistikal13 Posts: 1,457 Member
    We spend $250-$300/month for two adults in NYC. I make all our meals, snacks, breads, yogurt, etc from scratch and we don't eat out. Hope this helps =)
  • JoKnowsJo
    JoKnowsJo Posts: 257 Member
    Spend about $ 500.00 a month buying healthy stuff plus eating out
  • Silverdracos
    Silverdracos Posts: 110 Member
    $300-400 on all food for a family of 4. We live in California's central valley.
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
    about $120 a month, buffalo NY, just me (poor college kid ha) lots of oats, rice, beans, bananas, and potatoes!

    Not a poor college kid, but poor still. Eats similarly. Plus bagels.
  • IronBelote
    IronBelote Posts: 14 Member
    $540 for a family of 2 adults and 3 toddlers. We are on a very strict budget, but I make it work and hit all of my nutritional goals constantly. It can be done, you just have to be smart about it. if money is not an issue, then enjoy scallops and crab everynight and let me sip my haterade hehe
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
    we spent about $360/month for a family of 5 in the past year (yes, I track it and I added up what I spent and divided by 11)

    we spent about $190/month on eating out, which for a family of 5 is good in my opinion!

    my husband travels for quite a bit so that reduces the food budget. I have 3 young kids, but they eat a surprising amount of food for their size so I don't discount them - esp. the 2 year old, still can't fathom where she puts all that food :)

    I cook from scratch quite a bit and make homemade bread for the husband and kids (I'm not much of a bread eater). I have a deep freezer in the garage so I can stock up when I find a good deal. We grow a decent size garden in the spring/summer. I also coupon to keep costs down. Oh my food budget includes toiletries, baby food (when I was buying it earlier this year for the sitter), and cleaning/paper products.
  • lmr0528
    lmr0528 Posts: 427 Member
    I spend about $120 every other week for my husband and I. I try to stick to my budget and don't buy anything in between unless we run out of something that we really need.
  • allieallieoxenfree
    allieallieoxenfree Posts: 114 Member
    $600 for my husband and me in NYC!
  • gossett331
    gossett331 Posts: 88 Member
    I feed three adults and two kids on 511 dollars a month. If you can shop month to month it really is cheaper than buying day to day or week to week. I also buy a lot of the meat whole and cut it myself.
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
    $1500-$2000 a month.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    $500/month for my husband and me.
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