Informal Poll - spending more or less on food?

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Replies

  • allisonl6
    allisonl6 Posts: 37 Member
    Significantly more. I live in a northern climate so it is quite expensive to buy fruit and veg in the winter. I maximize our short growing season with colder climate variety plants, so my garden is quite fruitful. As a family of 6 though, it goes quickly :)
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    More/less?:
    Definitely less. About $100 a month less, for two people.

    Why?:
    - almost zero $ on fast food, eating out, junk food, pre-packaged junk, etc.
    - cooking LOTS more at home from scratch, with plant-based whole foods
    - am a master at where/how to store veggies & fruits best and plan meals based on what will spoil first
    - buy meat 1-2 times a month, max; use it as a flavoring/condiment, not a main dish when we have it
    - cook enough for 8-10 people then freeze meal-size leftovers

    Am saving at least that much on medication and doctor visits, too. On zero medications now.
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    ridiculous59 wrote: »
    I spend about the same. I don't buy any processed foods and cook everything from scratch. We eat way less (Ice cream most evenings is a thing of the past!) and eating out is a treat, definitely not a weekly occurrence. But the food that I buy is better quality......farmers market veggies in the summer and I buy local beef, pork, chicken, and eggs from people I know in my comunity. I even have fish in the freezer that I caught :)

    Eating out is a real treat again because we do it so rarely. Heck, eating a meat meal like a big steak is a rare treat for hubby anymore. It's nice, actually, that things like that are a treat again. As a kid, my parents so rarely took us out to eat that it was a huge event. Simple things can be a real treat again. That's nice.
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    andrea4736 wrote: »
    More. Buying fresh food means I buy more often and I waste a lot more. Ugh.

    Vegetarian Times has a great link on their website about how to effectively store your fresh fruits and veggies so they last as long as possible. It turned things around for me and now I am pretty darn good at it. We eat lots of fresh whole foods like that so it was a good lesson for me. I plan meals based on what will go bad first.
  • Theo166
    Theo166 Posts: 2,564 Member
    lisabinco wrote: »
    andrea4736 wrote: »
    More. Buying fresh food means I buy more often and I waste a lot more. Ugh.

    Vegetarian Times has a great link on their website about how to effectively store your fresh fruits and veggies so they last as long as possible. It turned things around for me and now I am pretty darn good at it. We eat lots of fresh whole foods like that so it was a good lesson for me. I plan meals based on what will go bad first.

    I need to get better at storing fresh veggies. Is this the article you were thinking of?
    http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/spoiled-rotten-how-to-store-fruits-and-vegetables
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
    edited March 2017
    More on groceries, but almost nothing on eating out. Also, cooking is more of a hobby so I spend less on other kinds of entertainment. Overall, I spend less and am eating better tasting food. :)

    My grocery purchases include a lot of stuff I'm trying for fun and variety. If I really needed to reduce my grocery budget, I could trim it way down pretty easily.
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
    Way less on myself:

    I cook and bake a lot from scratch using basic items like flour, eggs, almond milk etc.

    On a typical week, I only go out to eat once. When I was overweight it was practically once a day.

    I get the majority of my food from the farmer's market now which is less expensive then the grocery stores. It took me some time to figure out the proper amount to buy so items didn't go to waste however.

    I don't spend money on juices, soda, alcohol or meat anymore.

    Freezing things save me lots money.

    I know my prices, I pay attention to and shop around the sales, plus I price match.

    I maintain my own little garden for a short time in the late spring - early fall.

    Yes, I'm saving so much more money on food now.
  • MissMaggieMuffin
    MissMaggieMuffin Posts: 444 Member
    Much less. Mostly because I am eating the same food as before but a lot less.
    Also have chosen to cut out the wine that had become an evening habit - rather shocking to realize how much I was spending on that.
    However, totally offset by the amount I am spending on new workout clothes, equipment, etc. :wink:
  • Scorpiotwin
    Scorpiotwin Posts: 124 Member
    I would say maybe slightly more. I don't eat out hardly at all anymore, but since I'm doing low carb I do spend money on good quality meat. I buy bacon from the meat counter, bison, lamb and sausages. I started off with eating a lot of deli meat and beef, but since I started eating more of a variety of meat my cost has gone up. I'm single so I try to buy just what I need, if I have to buy bulk then I portion out and freeze.
  • Macy9336
    Macy9336 Posts: 694 Member
    Buying about the same amount of food. Didn't eat out much before so that's unchanged. Spending a little more because prices have gone up the past few months. I think what me and hubby have cut back, our growing teenagers are compensating for as they are sprouting like weeds and eat a little more than before.

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