Average Monthly Groceries

I was using the Suze Orman budgeting tool on the Oprah website (yeah, you can pause here to chuckle at my dorkiness)
and it said that I was more than 20% outside the national average for groceries. The National average is $371 per month.
I spend about $500 for two of us, but we pack breakfast and dinner and go out to eat less than twice a month...
so my question is, if you feel comfortable sharing...
1. What is your usual weekly grocery budget? How many people are you feeding?
2. Do you pack breakfast or lunch?
3. Do you dine out often?
4. Has your grocery bill increased or decreased since MFP?

Just thought it may be an interesting conversation! And if there is some super secret to getting my budget smaller, I want to know what it is

1. we usually spend about 100 a week on groceries. Feeding 4 people. One baby so that includes formula and baby food as well.
2. I am a SAHM so i eat at home every day for breakfast and lunch. I usually make extra for dinner so my husband has leftovers to take for lunch every day to work. He never buys a lunch.
3. We dine out MAYBE once a week. Going out to a sit down dinner, probably every other week.
4. Yes, because im buying more fruits and healthy foods in general. Its worth it though!!

I spend $200 per month, one person, I shop at Whole Foods alot. Food budget could go down dramatically if I went back to shopping in the supermarket. Budget would have gone down, I eat way less food dollars since I went to eating healthy and cut way down on processed foods.

I work from home and my husband packs lunch almost everyday. We go out to eat way way to much lol and probably spend like $300 a month on groceries. We have 1 daughter, and then my step daughter comes and stays with us every other weekend. When we have here, we do buy more food. Its hard to keep track because sometimes we will decide to make a certain meal and run to the store for a few items, and that probably adds more to our monthly total. I have been trying to use more coupons, buy sale items, and plan meals instead of just buying items it helps a little.

1. What is your usual weekly grocery budget? How many people are you feeding? Average (because I do one huge trip at the beginning of the month) $150-200 per week. Feeding 5 people, 3 are vegetarians, 1 is a teenager!! And, I try to buy mostly organic.
2. Do you pack breakfast or lunch? Everyone packs lunches and all eat breakfast at home.
3. Do you dine out often? Depends on the month, but maybe once a week.
4. Has your grocery bill increased or decreased since MFP? It is the same, I just eat less .

Mine is hard to figure out sometimes but I believe I'm somewhere around $300-$350 per month. This is for me and the dog and 4 cats. But since I go to the Farmer's Market, to the grocery store and to Wal-Mart, depending on what I need, I lose track of a budget.
Yes, my groceries are always more expensive when trying to eat healthy. Fresh fruit, fresh meat, fresh veggies... they're all more expensive than the preservative-laden canned and jarred items that you can buy and eat 10 years later.
Of course, because I shop at the Wal-Mart super center, dog food, a new frying pan, a garbage can for the downstairs bathroom all seem to get added into the overall "food" bill. And I refuse to make more than one trip there or to make my time there any longer than it already is by possibly separating my items... nope, I'll just rough calculate thank you very much!

Edit: I pack almost every meal. Every other week or so I eat out with my friends. If I'm running late for work due to an appointment I have stopped at Taco Bell but that was under $3.00.

We spend a ton of groceries, but we are in a very very expensive area. (Northern B.C. Canada, everything is shipped in, nothing is local)

We spend around $800 a month for 5 people. 2 adults, 3 kids. I pack hubbys lunch every day for work, as well as my daughters for school. The rest of us eat at home. We probably eat out, or order in, once a week.

Our bill has actually gone down a little bit because we aren't buying the junk we were buying before. It costs us more to buy candy, pop and chips then it does to buy fruits and veggies.

I spend between $200-$300 for groceries each month for two people depending on what sorts of things we decide we want to eat. It's barely enough food each month, but lack of money dictates what we can purchase. Things are far more expensive now that I am eating healthier, but it really is worth it in the end.

Edit: Forgot to mention that we don't go out that much and all meals are eaten at home.

we are limited currently to a budget of $400/mo for 2 adults & 2 teens. Thankfully (well, kinda) the teens are only here 2 wks of the month... We eat out/order in only once every 2 - 3 months, when someone treats us. No one in our house is working, so there is no money for extras like eating out.

When we were both working, we ordered in or went out maybe once every two weeks.

Budget is kept by matching coupons with sales, buying meats only when they are BOGO, and using BJs club membership for bulk items. It is amazing how you can budget when you are poor and at the mercy of the stupid government for a few months!

1. What is your usual weekly grocery budget? How many people are you feeding?

I average about $100 per month for bulk meat (chicken, salmon, cod, halibut, shrimp) at Costco. When I buy a New York strip and/or Tri Tip, I trim and cut it up, vacuum pack it and freeze it, but that usually lasts for several months (Friday night is steak night). I average about $80 per week at the Farmers Market for organic fruits and veggies and eggs . I haven’t purchased any processed food at the store in over three months. So I guess that adds up to $420 per month. This is for two. My 23 year old son lives with us but he seldom eats what we eat so he buys his own junk food.

2. Do you pack breakfast or lunch?

I’m retired and my wife still works. I make breakfast for us every morning. She packs a salad and fruit for lunch. I make my salad for lunch daily.

3. Do you dine out often?

We dine out at a minimum of once per week, about $50 at our favorite Mexican restaurant on Saturdays. On special occasions we will go to a more upscale restaurant and spend $100-150.

4. Has your grocery bill increased or decreased since MFP?

We started eating healthy about three months before I joined MFP. Since then we spend a lot less since we no longer buy processed foods.

I spend about $200-250 per week on groceries. That is 2 adults & 4 kids.

We very rarely eat out. Every couple of weeks or so I will get mcds for dinner but thats about it

I am finding it has gone up a bit because I am buying sooo much more fresh vege and fruit as I have also started meal planning and trying lots of new recipes.

Hubby just comes home for lunch & the oldest takes her lunch to school. They other 3 are not at school yet.
That also includes nappies for the 6 month old too.

We are in New Zealand too.