How much do you spend on food?

PiSquared · January 2016

I know this will vary greatly depending on lifestyle, household size, and where you live, but I'm curious to see how much other people are spending on food. Really, I'm trying to figure out if I'm spending a ridiculous amount of money. I'm trying to reel in our budget in other areas, and I'm wondering if I should start slashing the food budget as well.

I live in New England and am feeding just myself and my husband. At this point, we would be considered middle aged. I cook nearly every night, so we don't eat out too much. Breakfasts are eaten at home before work, and lunch is packed and taken to work, generally left overs from the previous night's dinner. We do occasionally buy lunch instead of brown bagging it, and order the occasional take out, but it's pretty minimal.

Since I do the majority of the cooking, I'm also doing the food planning and grocery shopping. I spend, on average, about $150 - $175/week. This comes out to $600 - $700/month. I have on occasion gone over $200 for a week's grocery trip. Likewise, I sometimes come in at the low $100's, and one miraculous week I managed to keep us just below $100 (I think it was something like $98 and change, so not much below). This cost does include toiletries and other non-food stuff I pick up at the supermarket.

Does this sound normal? What are others spending?

Need2Exerc1se · January 2016

I think it sounds normal. This is close to what we spend in Winter for myself and my husband. We grow a lot of our food so in summer our grocery budget goes down in months when it's producing.

peleroja · January 2016

We also average about $150/week at the grocery store on food/toiletries/cleaning stuff/etc.

2 person household in a major Canadian city, late 20s, no kids. We shop at the cheap grocery store and I stock up on sale stuff/buy in bulk when possible, but we eat a lot of fresh vegetables/meat/etc and don't make any other real attempts to limit spending. We eat dinners at home and all weekend meals, but not weekday breakfasts or lunch.

Ninkyou · January 2016

$100-$150 a week for family of 5. I do alot of couponing and sales matching to keep costs down.

strong_curves · January 2016

Family of 4, we spend between $200-$250 a week including toiletries/cleaning stuff. About 90% of our meals are home cooked, we all pack lunch and breakfast. The majority of the foods we buy are fresh, we don't do a lot of canned and frozen. The foods that cost the most for us are the meats/fish. We like good steaks, salmon & shrimp. We do eat a lot of chicken, good thing chicken is cheap. I feel like we spend a lot but I have no idea how to lower our food bill and still eat the foods we like to eat.

ASKyle · January 2016

$50-$70ish a week for myself and a Costco trip 3x/year that gets me veggie sausages, chicken thighs and salmon filets. This number also includes soap/other non-food items I buy at the store.

To answer your question, seems like your spending is much more than mine, and I live in a major metro area on the west coast. Where are you shopping? Your bill is probably what mine would be too if I shopped at New Seasons/Whole Foods, but I generally stick to Fred Meyer (Kroger).

Calimama123 · January 2016

$200-$250/wk for family of 4 in CA. That includes toiletries and misc household items

AmazonMayan · January 2016

I spend around 300 a month for 2 people full time, 1 home weekends, and I make my dog's food (allergies). I am really thrifty and buy in bulk cheap when we can hit up sales. I get different things at different stores and am lucky to have choices of stores. I don't use many coupons at all unless it's like 5 off whole shopping trip because we don't eat many items that have coupons. Eta: I have all the store discount cards and that's usually how we save a lot.

I just got ground beef for 1.89lb woohoo lol.

wearmi1 · January 2016

I'm in about the same situation.... just me and my fiancé. I cook most nights during the week and I spend maybe a $125 dollars every other week. I make a lot of chicken, for example one large chicken breast shredded up will make us Enchiladas for 2 days or go into a chicken and rice casserole that usually take 2-3 days to finish. I don't really buy beef unless it's on sale cheap because I refuse to pay 12.99lb for steak or even 5.99lb for pot roast. Are you buying high end things like that? I live just North of Seattle so things aren't very cheap here either.

kami3006 · January 2016

We spend around $120/week for three of us. A teenager, me on a bulk, and my husband who maintains on 3000 calories a day. We all enjoy leftovers so I make a lot of meals that allow for several days of eating. Breakfasts are simple - peanut butter and banana sandwich or eggs and bacon. And usually packed lunches. I like to buy short dated meat at half price and freeze it. We're also simple eaters so many of the meals I make don't involve a ton of ingredients (meatloaf, baked chicken, enchiladas, biscuits and gravy, etc) with potatoes and another vegetable or two.

nvmomketo · January 2016

I'm in western Canada. The cost of living is a bit ridiculous up here right now. Groceries for me, my husband, two 90lb boys and one 70lb son (2 adults, 3 children) are usually around $300 or more (up to $500) per week excluding any vitamins, personal care products, and supplements like protein powder.

That's about $1400 to $2000 per month. I buy mainly generic, non organic food, and very infrequently buy pre-made foods except gluten free bread or noodles, processed dairy (yoghurt or cheese), and some lunch meats.

the cost of living up here is horrible. The fact that are dollar has tanked out along with the oil industry doesn't help.

RoseTheWarrior · January 2016

I'm also in Western Canada. Between myself and hubby we're at $700-$800 per month. We eat meat (maybe 2% red meat, the rest poultry/pork). Not big into organic. Stuff is expensive.

Steve_ApexNC · January 2016

250ish per week, family of 4 in NC if I am in non-save mode. I cook mostly from scratch, but I do splurge on some things. For example, if I have cheese in a dish, I get a darn good aged cheddar. If I am going to get ice cream, I get premium ice cream and not the generic crap. I only get a little bit of those types of things so I get big flavor (which satisfies me more anyway). My kids like their quick to make snacks and their occasional treats...they are active and eat well so I try to find a balance for them. Alas, those are the things that run a bill up quick. I have cut this bill way back in the past and could easily do so again through better planning. For example, whole roaster chicken on Sunday dinner...leftovers become things like soup or chicken salad sandwiches or pot pies later in the week. Bread is dirt cheap to make. I will buy some bulk items from certain places and store. For example, I buy meat at the warehouse club in large chunks (have knife, have grinder, have sausage stuffer...will process myself) or rice in huge bags at the Asian market. The times I use stuff out of the freezer or bulk stores, my bill is much cheaper overall.

krithsai · January 2016

Sounds about right. I live in CT and we're at about $500-700 per month for my family of 3 (me, hubs and toddler). We eat mostly home cooked and some lunches at work. Breakfast is at work almost everyday(that's $40 for me per month).

Noreenmarie1234 · January 2016

I spend 225 a week for my boyfriend and me with MAJOR couponing. The stuff we like is so expensive and I have allergies which make me have to buy specifiic brands that are more expensive. We never eat out though

eddiesmith1 · January 2016

my budget for the last couple of years for two adults two cats and a dog (all food, cleaning supplies, pet food and supplies has been $160 Canadian a week. used to be easy to hit this number now I go over by up to $40 regularly because the drop in value of our dollar has raised prices dramatically ($7 cauliflower anyone) . At certain Times I will just spend (if i'm not dieting and we are entertaining or it's Christmas etc I will blow almost the whole budget just at the cheese store lol, but that is not the norm) I collect points that get be discounts on my bill, i use coupons for items i use and I shop the sale items (I should add that in canning season I will go over to buy bushels of items I can and use all year, I buy very little prepared food at all - we do get some Williams sonoma braising sauces because my wife works there and grabs them when they mark down to clear and then get her 40% as well because that is handy to have (a little high ion the sodium though)

PiSquared · January 2016

OK. I feel a little better about my food budget, but I think I'll wait to get some more replies. To answer a few questions, I'm not shopping at any 'fancy' stores. I usually shop at Hannaford, a local chain in the northeast. We also have a PriceChopper and a Shaw's, but they often don't have the stuff I'm looking for, despite being physically larger stores. If I need something obscure, I'll have to go to one of the gourmet/organic stores, or order off of Amazon if it's non-perishable. I don't usually buy organic due to the price, and I usually buy the generic store brand when given the choice, with a few exceptions. I tried couponing, but honestly, I couldn't find coupons for most of the stuff I was planning on buying. I refuse to buy something simply because I have a coupon, so the more expensive brand with a coupon would need to be cheaper than the store brand to be worth my while.

JediMasterNaw · January 2016

I basically spend about $200 per month on me and my cat. I shop primarily at Price Chopper and Walmart. I'm very picky and basically buy all the same things every couple of months or so. I'm also on a fairly strict budget, so I can't afford to spend more than that.

Rachel0778 · January 2016

That's not uncommon at all. My significant other and I spend a similar amount. Since we don't eat out frequently, I don't feel guilty spending more on pleasurable items at the grocery store (brie cheese wheel, I'm looking at you!)