What's your budget?

My husband and I operate on $50 - $60 a week.. it's a struggle at times. We have to do meal planning to stay in line.. we plan 5 meals and count on leftovers or occassional meals with in-laws to make it last. Junk food is actually quite expensive, so it has been somewhat easy to cut back on that. We also use produce stands, which is a huge money saver. If meat is on sale we get extra and freeze. My husband actually uses $15 - 20 of the budget on things that he eats that I'm not (junk, cereal, juice). We also try to freeze soup if we make it, since there is always extra of that. It's just a matter of making it work. It's certainly not easy, but you do what you got to do

I just had this same conversation a few weeks ago w/a co-worker. I feed a family of four on about $500 per month. A majority of what we eat is fresh veggies and fruits. We only eat beef once a week, chicken and fish is our majority. I get legs and thighs and then skin them, more bang for the buck. As for our fish, we eat alot of it. Shrimp, yellow fin-tuna (seconds are less than half he market price of steaks), salmon and/or steel head trout. I try and base our dinner plates on ruffage of some-sort, such as romaine, spinach, and/or iceberg. Almost none of our veggies food is frozen, unless its popsicles or skinny cow. We drink crystal light, water, or milk. I allow my kids to pick out one box of cereal per/grocery visit, so of course it's usually sugar loaded. I feel that it costs more to buy processed foods, such as chips, chicken nuggets, soda, lean cuisine meals, kraft macaroni and cheese, etc. We replaced those expensive and space consuming foods w/fresh and I am glad. It makes me smile to see my kids run to the kitchen excited to eat fresh apples, bananas, and peaches, rather than cookies, crackers, or pretzels. Don't get me wrong, we have some snack stuff, but because our main focus is fresh, we eat fresh first and don't blow through the processed treats.

family of 4 two adults and two small kids ( age 6 and 4 ) I spend between 200-250 every other week on average

ETA-- about 20.ish of that cost go`s to my older daughters pediasure drinks she is underweight and needs the extra and those little drinks are pricie I try to get them at sams club when I can but she only like the strawberry flavor so sometimes I have to spend alittle more and get it at a regular store

i try to keep it under $125 a week for my boyfriend and I. That is what it was this week but that included $20 in steaks and $10 for beef jerkey which we normally wouldn't buy. Food is very!!! expensive in Alaska. A 8 oz thing of organic blueberries was $7 bucks!

We buy all of our groceries on our Visa card (to get 2% cash back) and in July, we spend $615 for our family of three (ten year old boy). This includes all household items, too, like laundry soap, so food is probably $550 a month.

We ate out once in July, and I take my lunch to work every day, so that covers all meals for us all month. Works out to 270 meals, or about $2 each meal, plus all our snacks. Not bad.

Healthy eating is expensive, though. Box of Kraft Dinner is 99 cents. Proper salad, lean protein and some fruit or veg costs more, but it so much better tasting, too!

Grocery shopping is so depressing for me. It's just me and my boyfriend, but I swear we spend about $400-ish a month. Thankfully we split that! We don't even eat a lot of processed foods (usually cereal, yogurt, granola bars). We just eat a lot of healthy food (1300 & 1800 calories respectively)....and it's so expensive.

$300 a month for my husband and I and our college age daughter and our pets (2 dogs & 3 cats). About $50 of that is spent on the pets!! (4 of them are old so when they are gone we are staying with 1 pet)

For meat: I buy chicken when on sale and freeze it. We buy our beef 1/4 a cow at a time. We get venison from my brother in law, usually one or two deer a year. My father in law gives us fish a few times a year and we sometimes go fishing. (But I hate cleaning them!) Anything else is purchased on sale. I am lucky I have a large upright freezer to store it all in.

I buy veggies, fruit, and dairy each week at whichever store has them on sale. I also am not picky on type or brands - I get the sale kind. I also garden, and can all of the tasty treats I grow. I have raspberries in the freezer already to use the rest of the year. Green beans are just starting and I will freeze those. Peas should be up next.

I buy rice, cereals, baking stuff only on sale with a coupon and try to hit double coupon days if I can. My goal is to save at least 20% of the total with sale/coupon. Some weeks I hit up 3 stores, but they are all in a 2 block radius so I don't feel too bad driving there. If it is a really good sale I go a few times that week on my way home - usually do this when chicken is on sale due to a one package per person limit.

I make most food from scratch and bake my own bread. I also work full time, take care of the house and weed the gardens and flowerbeds every week. I am a busy person, but I find that it is very rewarding to eat the stuff that I made rather than something from a box or a freezer bag.

For our family of 4, we spend at least $800 per month (includes paper products, soap etc).

I whine and gripe about it every month. I know that we could eat cheaper, but I don't want to sacrifice the healthier stuff. I tend to buy the better cuts of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit even when not in season.

I notice with a lot of healthier food, ie Peanut butter, bread, cereals etc... the more fiber, less sugar or fat, is more expensive and in a smaller package.

Interestingly, when in Washington last month (we are in BC, Canada) stuff like granola bars, jam, condiments, cheese were way cheaper especially when on sale. I came back with about 8 boxes of granola bars and a bunch of mustard!

Honestly, I don't know. I bet if I did the math I would be shocked. We try to shop for the best bargains, but also aim for the highest quality food. I'm sure food is the biggest expense after the mortgage payment. It's worth it.

Sheesh, yeah I know we spend a lot but I haven't added it up. We bought a 1/4 cow from a neighbor a few months ago so we haven't been buying red meat lately. My husband goes deer hunting and fishing when he has time. I've been trying to cut back on our expenses but it still seems like we spend a lot. I have a vegetable garden and try to can/preserve/freeze as much as possible. I've been trying to make bread and other stuff homemade more often. We have our own chickens for eggs. But we live in a rural area and the other food costs are $$$$. Just under $5 for a gallon of milk. We're a family of 5 with three kids who seem to eat a TON lately. If I had to guess, I'd say we spend about $500 per month and that includes stuff like toilet paper, etc. It is worth it that my kids eat well though so we sacrifice in other areas.