How much do you spend on groceries monthly?

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Replies

  • eat_hike_b33r
    eat_hike_b33r Posts: 82 Member
    I find this thread really interesting to see how different everyone's grocery bills are!

    For just me and my partner (he eats a lot!) --in Vancouver, BC we spend a minimum of $1000, but closer to $1300 a month, buying almost all fresh foods (no pre-packaged type foods and very minimal meat/fish) for home cooking. This is not including eating out 1-3 times a month for around 200$. But we love cooking and food so we splurge a lot...
  • About $150 per week & we eat organic, seasonal, local, including meat supplemented by gardening. A fairly expensive diet, but we feel it's our priority to eat healthy. We eat out once or twice a month.
  • $150 a week for 2.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
    We're 4. Probably $600 for a month, including paper products etc (not including my Quest bars, so I guess you can add $20ish for those, lol). My husband doesn't always pack lunch though, I'd say he buys lunch probably half the time. We're in NJ and the kids are 6 (so they really don't eat that much). I basically only buy things on sale though.
  • Slasher09
    Slasher09 Posts: 316 Member
    We spend about $300-400 a month for me, my fiance and our son. I shop at aldi for pantry/baking supplies, deli meat, cheese, milk and yogurt, and I shop at wegmans for the rest. Most of our veggies are frozen since wegmans 1lb bags are usually $1 so we always keep broccoli, green beans, corn, peas and mixed veg on hand. Frozen berries are about $4.49 for a 4c bag, so we use them less. I buy what produce is cheap (right now apples, naval oranges, red grapefruit, bananas, yams.) I buy 1 club pack of chicken breasts every 4-6 weeks (10 breasts, about $12) and every 2 months or so I need another club pack of boneless pork chops (about $9 for 8) and I buy whole chickens at aldi for about $4.80 a chicken. I make a lot from scratch so that saves us a lot of money and I try to plan meals to get the most use of leftovers. I don't really buy canned goods anymore, I cook with "cream of chicken/mushroom" often so I found a mix recipe on pinterest and keep it in my pantry (ends up costing me about $0.25 a can) and every time I cook a chicken the carcass goes in the crock pot overnight with water and veggies we wont eat that are going to go bad soon and I make about 8 cans worth of chicken stock to cook with. We make cheap meals that stretch meat.

    I'm actually pretty proud of us for getting our costs down so much...before our son was born we used to spend a good $500-700/month just on the two of us and then we would spend another $300 or so on takeout and eating out.

    I am in upstate NY
  • cake_superior
    cake_superior Posts: 7 Member
    edited December 2014
    Some of these numbers are crazy to me. I spend around €60 a month on food (though my mom usually cooks me dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, so that's factored out).

    I usually plan my meals a week or so in advance so nothing is wasted (except some milk occasionally), and I browse my local supermarket's website for any worthwhile deals before making a shopping list.

    Edit: I live in Ireland.
  • Laurochka
    Laurochka Posts: 140 Member
    I live on my own too. I'm in Scotland in the UK but prices are probably comparable.
    I live to quite a tight budget so visit the cheapest food stores like Aldi and Lidl. They don't really sell branded stuff but it's just as good.
    I probably spend about £15 - £20 a week on fresh food and occasionally will have a more expensive shop when I stock up on meat etc for the freezer.

    For me a typical weekly shop would be:
    Milk
    Eggs
    Peppers
    Tomatoes
    Cucumber
    Mushrooms
    Courgettes/Zucchini (sp?)
    Cauliflower
    Brocolli
    Lemons
    Apple Juice
    Soft Cheese
    Ham/Salami
    Sweet Potato
    Onions


    If I need to stock up I'd also buy:
    Tinned Tomatoes
    Kidney Beans
    Coconut Milk
    Chicken Breast
    Pork Loin Steaks
    Mince/Ground Beef
    Salmon Fillets
    Prawns
    Any other meat stuff on special offer that I can freeze for later

    I'd usually then go home and cook up big batches of stuff.
    A couple of big pots of soup. 1 Big pot can usually do me for 6 servings and I freeze and use for lunches throughout the week.
    I'd also maybe cook big pots of:
    Chilli
    Tagine
    Pie - Shepherd's Pie or Fish Pie depending on ingredients I had
    These also do multiple servings and can be frozen then taken out to defrost and heat up if I need a quick dinner.

    I usually cook fresh on nights I don't have other stuff on. I'd cook a piece of meet - Steak/pork/chicken or fish with veggies like broccoli, cauliflower or sweet potato.
    If I'm in a hurry I'll often just have a boiled egg and maybe a biscuit and cheese.

    So I probably spend about £80 - £100 a month on food and sometimes there will be surplus in the freezer for future use.
    Planning and preparation is your friend!
  • loribethrice
    loribethrice Posts: 620 Member
    I spend between $120-$180 a month for groceries. It's just me though.