How much do you spend on groceries monthly?

135

Replies

  • blink1021
    blink1021 Posts: 1,115 Member
    I spend around 480 per month for 4 people. That doesn't include paper products, toiletries, diapers, wipes, pet food, or cleaning supplies that is just food and meat. One of the people is a 2 year old so she doesn't eat too much. That food includes breakfast, lunch and dinner for us all I pack for work so does my husband and my son packs lunch for school. We rarely eat out unless its for someones birthday.

    We live in upstate New York and I do most of my shopping at Aldis they are great if you have one. You can't get everything there and some of it really isn't that great but it has great prices on eggs, milk, cheese, bread, toilet paper, yogurt, rice. To name a few I even get their meat on occasion. I do have an issue with their produce most of the time it goes bad within a day or two so I try to stay clear of it. The apples and oranges I have had great luck with though. I also go to Walmart for whatever I cannot get or will not buy there.
  • KGRebelRanch
    KGRebelRanch Posts: 109 Member
    edited December 2014
    three adults,and for groceries we run around $40-60 a month if we don't need laundry detergent and such. the months we need hygiene products, etc it goes up to about $70.

    ETA- if we count feeding the animals that feed us, it's round about $200-$300 a month.
  • CamilleNoemi
    CamilleNoemi Posts: 28 Member
    About 110€ per month. I eat vegetarian and cook only for myself. Lots of beans, frozen vegetables, oats, rice, eggs, bread and tofu.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    dbmata wrote: »
    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    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?

    You mean haymarket? I stopped buying there when I noticed a trend of where everything I bought went bad within 3 days. Not just bad, but horrifically bad, as in mold everywhere, like I was making antibiotics for TEOTWAWKI

    Well making your own antibiotics is one way to save money.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    I will add too, that I've noticed that the smaller the city, or the less food is celebrated in a region the more expensive the grocery bill is.

    When I lived in SF, we were easily at $200 a month or less for food, including meat. Using farmer's markets and little neighborhood markets. Then we had a $100 a week cheese and wine budget.

    When I lived in Boston, costs were a bit higher, but no need to hit farmer's markets (no hipster sweetheart, I'm not spending $25 for your frozen chicken, are you daft?), Market Basket and a decent market in Watertown.

    Here in Eastern WA, where it's both small, and Applebees is considered exotic gourmet. Well. It hurts, it hurts when $2 a pound for navel oranges is considered "decently priced". We spend more for lower quality produce, and we've resorted to buying whole animals to make our meat investment as efficient as possible. If we were buying meat at the store, we'd probably be around $600 a month without luxuries or many boxed/package/premades.

    /ramble
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »
    dbmata wrote: »
    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    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?

    You mean haymarket? I stopped buying there when I noticed a trend of where everything I bought went bad within 3 days. Not just bad, but horrifically bad, as in mold everywhere, like I was making antibiotics for TEOTWAWKI

    Well making your own antibiotics is one way to save money.

    Eat the white mold, feed the green mold to friends and neighbors, right? lol.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    dbmata wrote: »
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »
    dbmata wrote: »
    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    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?

    You mean haymarket? I stopped buying there when I noticed a trend of where everything I bought went bad within 3 days. Not just bad, but horrifically bad, as in mold everywhere, like I was making antibiotics for TEOTWAWKI

    Well making your own antibiotics is one way to save money.

    Eat the white mold, feed the green mold to friends and neighbors, right? lol.

    :laugh:
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    About $800/month for family of 4. This doesn't include incidentals like alcohol, supplements, diapers, etc...just food.
  • gwb77
    gwb77 Posts: 46 Member
    $300 - $500
  • tracie_minus100
    tracie_minus100 Posts: 465 Member
    2 adults, a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old = $500 per month. I'm in Alberta, Canada.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    edited December 2014
    I excluded non-food items and pet food and it is about $132 to $200 for the month on food per person in my household. That doesn't mean that all the food items will be used up in one month or that we all eat an equal amount in a month. We eat almost all of our meals prepared from home. We are not vegetarian but eat some meatless meals every week. We do not buy everything organic. We are in Kansas.
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  • Beploveshomer
    Beploveshomer Posts: 283 Member
    $400 for a family of five, we eat a LOT of dried beans and peas (soups and chili) and shoot deer for venison and raise hens for eggs.
  • chesnity3
    chesnity3 Posts: 960 Member
    $500-$600 dollars a month for two adults and 3 kids, one who is just getting off formula and baby food. Household items and going out to eat makes it cost even more. So we hardly eat out and I buy in bundles.
  • Jennloella
    Jennloella Posts: 2,286 Member
    wow we spend a lot. I need to cut coupons or something. I've often toyed with buying meat in bulk, but we'd have to get a freezer and we just....haven't. I guess we're lazy when it comes to this.
  • Lisajohnston
    Lisajohnston Posts: 79 Member
    I live in Nova Scotia so prices are likely somewhat different but for 2 we spend between 400-600 including toiletries and household items like laundry detergent. We watch for sales, we shop for produce at a local farmers market in the fall when we can and we eat well, good cuts of meat, some junk food as my partner doesn't eat overly healthy. When I lived on my own it was less around 300 I would guess. Some months it's more some it's less but if you plan carefully you can do it fairly economically and eat well.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    edited December 2014
    I averaged $200 for each month for the last 6 months for me (100% of the food) and my boyfriend (maybe 25 - 33% of the food). Then that plus about $70/mo. for eating/drinking out.

    I have to admit that $200 does include everything from toilet paper to tin foil to fruit, but I don't think I've had to buy too much of that lately. I buy a lot of that stuff in bulk. In terms of eating out, my bf usually covers those costs so the $70 is like lunches with coworkers, and coffees and things.
  • SuggaD
    SuggaD Posts: 1,369 Member
    A lot! I've never added it up, but its at least $700 per month for 3 of us. That may or may not include eating out, probably not. I buy a lot of expensive items and we eat really healthy.
  • draco25000
    draco25000 Posts: 28 Member
    I spend £100 a month just including me
  • consideritdonemi
    consideritdonemi Posts: 88 Member
    edited December 2014
    $500-$600 on average for 2 adults, a 4 y/o, and 3 dogs. That includes food, non-food items, and take out pizza on lazy cooking days. I use coupons and grocery loyalty club offers. That's what I spend and am shelling out more in past years for some of the basics than I used to. BF may kick in about $100-$200 extra (he takes care of the major bills otherwise). We eat out 0-2× a month (extra) and my alcohol consumption (and related costs) has gone down naturally since I've gone the healthier route. Fast food runs run me an extra $20-$50 a month.

    When I was single with no kid and times were rough, I could get by (not happily) on $200-$250 a month for myself and 2 dogs for everything at the grocery store.
  • consideritdonemi
    consideritdonemi Posts: 88 Member
    We're in the suburbs of Detroit.
  • court_alacarte
    court_alacarte Posts: 219 Member
    dallas, tx; i spend maybe around $300/mo. on my single self, including eating out. give or take since i like sushi...
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
    Jennloella wrote: »
    wow we spend a lot. I need to cut coupons or something. I've often toyed with buying meat in bulk, but we'd have to get a freezer and we just....haven't. I guess we're lazy when it comes to this.

    We bought a small chest freezer for $150 a few years ago. I've saved that money dozens of times over by being able to buy in bulk, or freeze things so they don't go bad before we can get to it.

  • SLOW_N_Steady_Joanie
    SLOW_N_Steady_Joanie Posts: 60 Member
    EWG (Environmental Working Group) has a free publication called "Good Food on a Tight Budget". It includes recipes. I find it helpful. You might get a few ideas. Try this link: http://www.ewg.org/goodfood/
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    $50
  • lmr0528
    lmr0528 Posts: 427 Member
    Jennloella wrote: »
    wow we spend a lot. I need to cut coupons or something. I've often toyed with buying meat in bulk, but we'd have to get a freezer and we just....haven't. I guess we're lazy when it comes to this.

    I shop at Wegmans and they sell family packs of all their meats, its about 10 pieces all individually wrapped. I love the chicken because it's about $12 total, instead of spending $4-$5 for 2 pieces of chicken breast. We want to buy the steaks but that would be about $25-$30, that's a lot to spend all at once, but I know it's very worth it because it will last a long time. It takes up a lot of space but it's worth it in the long run.

  • Swiftlet66
    Swiftlet66 Posts: 729 Member
    About $40 per week so $160 per month for just me. I live in Sacramento, CA and I usually cook for myself and only treat myself out once a week.
  • Braincatcher
    Braincatcher Posts: 66 Member
    $410 per month, or $1.50 per meal per person for three big eaters. I did the "food stamp challenge" and found the budget to be totally reasonable, so I went with it. I can usually get any paper or cleaning products on that budget too. This means a lot of bulk buying, coupons, meatless meals, and strategic use of leftovers.
  • Braincatcher
    Braincatcher Posts: 66 Member
    SLOW_N_Steady_Joanie wrote: »
    EWG (Environmental Working Group) has a free publication called "Good Food on a Tight Budget". It includes recipes. I find it helpful. You might get a few ideas. Try this link: http://www.ewg.org/goodfood/
    Thanks for posting! Love this!
  • TheCrawlingChaos
    TheCrawlingChaos Posts: 462 Member
    My roommate and I spend about $500 a month split 50/50... even though he eats at least 2/3rd of the food we get.
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