How much money do you eat a day?

124

Replies

  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    I eat roughly ZERO dollars a day for most of the year.

    No, seriously, Mother Nature is mostly what I need

    Wow, that's awesome! I wouldn't have guessed that you were a gardener.

    I've never known a gardener that spent $0 on the garden.
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
    for my dude and i we average about 170-250 a week for groceries it really depends if we need meat that week. damn whole foods... We also probably spend about 100+ on going out a week... we clearly like the eat/drink.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    segacs wrote: »
    I eat roughly ZERO dollars a day for most of the year.

    No, seriously, Mother Nature is mostly what I need

    Gardening is great. But even that costs money. You have to plant from seeds, pay for fertilizer or plant food, water, and heck, you need access to the land to grow stuff on in the first place, so property ownership or community garden fees or whatnot.

    No such thing as a free lunch.

    Yer doin' it wrong.

    I pay zero for seeds. Zero for fertilizer. Zero for water. The land I had long before gardening. Already a sunk cost.

    Time would be the only valid argument, but I guarantee you I spend less time gardening than you do shopping in your grocery store.

    I'm going to call BS on the zero for water, but you seem to have enough skill that I am guessing the other two are plausible.

    I don't have my own land. I spend $60-80/year for my garden plot, seeds (I do some saving and get many in trade or for free), fish emulsion and other supplies. I make my own compost, which keeps things cheap. I easily get $1000 of value in produce every year. I also grow tons of flowers. Yes, there is some minimal effort involved, but that is exercise and time spent outdoors in the fresh air--BONUS.

    I just had a meal yesterday largely made from produce I canned last summer. It's kind of a feeling of accomplishment as well as being a cost savings. I'm also eating top-quality food that I KNOW is organic and free of additives.
  • rianoel
    rianoel Posts: 22 Member
    $150 a week for a family of 3, including dining out.
  • Clueless_Girl2015
    Clueless_Girl2015 Posts: 10 Member
    In trickier times we could get our weekly shop for between $12-$18; but that meant frozen convenience food.
    Today we did the shop for the week and it cost us $99 (two adults and one child) some of that will last longer than this week.
    Generally we try to average out at $50 a week. So that would be what? $7 a day?
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    segacs wrote: »
    I eat roughly ZERO dollars a day for most of the year.

    No, seriously, Mother Nature is mostly what I need

    Gardening is great. But even that costs money. You have to plant from seeds, pay for fertilizer or plant food, water, and heck, you need access to the land to grow stuff on in the first place, so property ownership or community garden fees or whatnot.

    No such thing as a free lunch.

    Yer doin' it wrong.

    I pay zero for seeds. Zero for fertilizer. Zero for water. The land I had long before gardening. Already a sunk cost.

    Time would be the only valid argument, but I guarantee you I spend less time gardening than you do shopping in your grocery store.

    How do you water your garden? We have a well, but we had to buy the pump and hose, bucket and rope. Even the baskets I bought to carry the produce from the garden to the house cost money. As did the shelves for the root cellar. And, yeah, we had the land before the garden, but that doesn't make the land free. Even if we'd inherited it, there are taxes. Or the roto-tiller free or make it run on air instead of gas. The hoe, shovel and rake cost money, as did the wheel barrow, etc. The material for cold frames cost money.

    Zero $ garden? It would definitely not be the norm.
  • catedesimone
    catedesimone Posts: 25 Member
    I spend anywhere from $50-90 a week for just myself. I could definitely spend less, but I cut other areas of my budget down so I can spend more on food.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    segacs wrote: »
    I eat roughly ZERO dollars a day for most of the year.

    No, seriously, Mother Nature is mostly what I need

    Gardening is great. But even that costs money. You have to plant from seeds, pay for fertilizer or plant food, water, and heck, you need access to the land to grow stuff on in the first place, so property ownership or community garden fees or whatnot.

    No such thing as a free lunch.

    Yer doin' it wrong.

    I pay zero for seeds. Zero for fertilizer. Zero for water. The land I had long before gardening. Already a sunk cost.

    Time would be the only valid argument, but I guarantee you I spend less time gardening than you do shopping in your grocery store.
    Your diary doesn't show home grown foods, unless you grew a Kroger and a Five Guys.

    LOL But to be fair, Spring is often the time a gardener can get the least fresh produce. It varies by location, naturally, but I am also a gardener but right now most of our vegetables come from the grocery. The root cellar is empty and the frost hardy greens are only about 1/2 way to harvest size. We only have frozen and canned stuff left from last year's garden.
  • Hearts_2015
    Hearts_2015 Posts: 12,031 Member
    Laurend224 wrote: »
    Normally about $70-80 for our vegan family of 5. It has been increasing as the kids grow. We are fortunate to have a really nice, well stocked Aldi close by. I do the bulk of my shopping there and only venture to the health food store for the 'weird vegan things' that Aldi doesn't carry.

    Still haven't made it to Aldis! Need to do this, particularly after reading your post.

    I honestly don't know for sure how much I'm spending now. No longer binging and steering clear of binge foods I'm sure it'd gone down a great deal. In time I'll know how much it's changed... but so far A LOT. Dropping fast foods alone has made me rich. ;) Eating out is crazy expensive..in the past I just did it and didn't think much about it.
  • dmt4641
    dmt4641 Posts: 409 Member
    We spend $250+ a week for family of 4 (2 young kids), not including eating out which we do as a family 1-2 times a week and my husband eats out for lunch M-F. I love cooking and end up using expensive meat/seafood and lots of produce.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    segacs wrote: »
    I eat roughly ZERO dollars a day for most of the year.

    No, seriously, Mother Nature is mostly what I need

    Gardening is great. But even that costs money. You have to plant from seeds, pay for fertilizer or plant food, water, and heck, you need access to the land to grow stuff on in the first place, so property ownership or community garden fees or whatnot.

    No such thing as a free lunch.

    Yer doin' it wrong.

    I pay zero for seeds. Zero for fertilizer. Zero for water. The land I had long before gardening. Already a sunk cost.

    Time would be the only valid argument, but I guarantee you I spend less time gardening than you do shopping in your grocery store.

    How do you water your garden? We have a well, but we had to buy the pump and hose, bucket and rope. Even the baskets I bought to carry the produce from the garden to the house cost money. As did the shelves for the root cellar. And, yeah, we had the land before the garden, but that doesn't make the land free. Even if we'd inherited it, there are taxes. Or the roto-tiller free or make it run on air instead of gas. The hoe, shovel and rake cost money, as did the wheel barrow, etc. The material for cold frames cost money.

    Zero $ garden? It would definitely not be the norm.

    It looks like he is using a lot of repurposed containers, starting from cuttings and doing seed saving, so I can see how there would be minimal cost, especially after several years.

    The water thing though...all I can think of is rain catchment, and that's going to involve some upfront costs, even if you are able to find cheap materials.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    segacs wrote: »
    I eat roughly ZERO dollars a day for most of the year.

    No, seriously, Mother Nature is mostly what I need

    Gardening is great. But even that costs money. You have to plant from seeds, pay for fertilizer or plant food, water, and heck, you need access to the land to grow stuff on in the first place, so property ownership or community garden fees or whatnot.

    No such thing as a free lunch.

    Yer doin' it wrong.

    I pay zero for seeds. Zero for fertilizer. Zero for water. The land I had long before gardening. Already a sunk cost.

    Time would be the only valid argument, but I guarantee you I spend less time gardening than you do shopping in your grocery store.

    How do you water your garden? We have a well, but we had to buy the pump and hose, bucket and rope. Even the baskets I bought to carry the produce from the garden to the house cost money. As did the shelves for the root cellar. And, yeah, we had the land before the garden, but that doesn't make the land free. Even if we'd inherited it, there are taxes. Or the roto-tiller free or make it run on air instead of gas. The hoe, shovel and rake cost money, as did the wheel barrow, etc. The material for cold frames cost money.

    Zero $ garden? It would definitely not be the norm.

    It looks like he is using a lot of repurposed containers, starting from cuttings and doing seed saving, so I can see how there would be minimal cost, especially after several years.

    The water thing though...all I can think of is rain catchment, and that's going to involve some upfront costs, even if you are able to find cheap materials.

    Container gardening is often more expensive than in ground gardening. For one thing, the soil is more easily depleted so fertilizer becomes more important. This can be gotten around with home composting, but that usually involves money as well. I'm all for growing your own food. Every year I try to lessen what we have to purchase, but even living out in in the boonies where everyone has a garden, I don't know a single person that spends no money on their garden.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    I would guess I spend about 200 per week on myself. I dine out 4-5 days a week though for dinner.
  • urloved33
    urloved33 Posts: 3,323 Member
    I spend about 5 dollars a day on food...i don't eat out. I make all my meals at home and take them to work w me.
  • alicaramik2
    alicaramik2 Posts: 71 Member
    We spend $120 per week. Family of three, 2 adults and a 16 year old boy. That includes non-food items like soap, paper products, cold meds., etc. We have one night a week to eat out, usually fast food or someplace like Ihop.
  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,082 Member
    $50-60 a week.
  • Fitnin6280
    Fitnin6280 Posts: 618 Member
    We spend about $200 every two weeks for a family of four. However I do not ever have to buy beef... So that does save us quite a bit of money.
  • MyM0wM0w
    MyM0wM0w Posts: 2,008 Member
    I spend about 45.00 (US) a week.
  • deevah62
    deevah62 Posts: 32 Member
    I spend $80 - $85 per week but more than 1/2 of that is eating out - usually twice a week. And it's just me!
  • PermitReply
    PermitReply Posts: 3 Member
    We usually spend between $150-$200 for two weeks of groceries to feed 3 adults. That includes things like soap, foil, sandwich bags, etc. We do have a habit of getting fast food once a week, usually when we're all working until 11pm or midnight and don't feel like having to cook when we get home. So that adds about $30 more every two weeks.
  • mygnsac
    mygnsac Posts: 13,413 Member
    In just weekly food for just myself, I spend about $75 per week.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
    Lately I've been spending more, since I've been getting salads at the work cafe. So @15/day on work days, more on the weekends since I tend to go out. And I pretty much eat yogurt, granola, popcorn and fruit at home so maybe $65-75/week total.
  • xLyric
    xLyric Posts: 840 Member
    Wow, I didn't expect so many responses, thank you all! Glad to see I seem to be somewhat average, though I'm going to try to cut down some still.
  • itschanelle
    itschanelle Posts: 86 Member
    knt217 wrote: »
    Where are you from that groceries cost $300 a week for two people? That seems extraordinarily high to me.

    I probably spend about $150 every 2 weeks for our family of 4. I think I spend even less now that I'm tracking on MFP bc I don't make meals that require as many ingredients.

    We eat a lot and buy pretty much all organic...we could eat for a lot less but would eat less fresh produce and less organic and choose different cuts and types of meat.

    I'm still shocked at that. My family of 4 spends $120 a week and I buy all organic everything. We eat clean for the most part (birthdays, etc not withstanding). I do, however, meal plan according to the ads posted at our market and we use up everything. Do you have a lot of waste?
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member

    knt217 wrote: »
    Where are you from that groceries cost $300 a week for two people? That seems extraordinarily high to me.

    I probably spend about $150 every 2 weeks for our family of 4. I think I spend even less now that I'm tracking on MFP bc I don't make meals that require as many ingredients.

    We eat a lot and buy pretty much all organic...we could eat for a lot less but would eat less fresh produce and less organic and choose different cuts and types of meat.

    I'm still shocked at that. My family of 4 spends $120 a week and I buy all organic everything. We eat clean for the most part (birthdays, etc not withstanding). I do, however, meal plan according to the ads posted at our market and we use up everything. Do you have a lot of waste?

    We stick to a meal plan during the week, which is pretty much the same daily to make prep easier. We are more flexible on weekends. We have very little food waste....

    We're in Australia - it was a lot cheaper and easier to buy organic produce in the US when we holidayed there recently. We made a lot of our own meals, and went to a range of supermarkets and loved how accessible things were.
  • cosmo_momo
    cosmo_momo Posts: 173 Member
    Love me some Aldi!! Around $20-$30 if I don't buy meat or a lot of animal products. More if I do. (also a student here)
  • s2Mango
    s2Mango Posts: 44 Member
    $50-$60 a week for 2 adults. This doesn't include toiletries, paper towels, dishes that the cat might of broken...etc.
  • vgnfarmer
    vgnfarmer Posts: 108 Member
    For two people about $100-$125/week not including eating out about two dinner meals(one pizza, one fancy). We eat all breakfasts, lunches from home and mostly all organic produce. I shop at Trader Joe's a lot and their prices for organic are pretty reasonable. I have been trying to lower our grocery bill(I feel its too high) but don't want to bend on buying organic and the greek yogurt (Fage) I like! oh well
  • vchan000
    vchan000 Posts: 38 Member
    2 30-40ish adults, no kids. I work a desk, he's in a trade. $450-600 a month for groceries over the last year, and another $100 in takeout/restaurant meals. Works out to $125-$150 (Cdn) a week for the two of us. Doesn't include hubby's lunch as he usually eats on site.
  • sandra211061
    sandra211061 Posts: 10 Member
    i spend £180ish a week for 3 of us but that's everything .. 3 x breakfasts, 3 x lunches, 3 dinners, snacks, drinks etc