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How much do you/should you spend on food (US)?
amandaeve
Posts: 723 Member
in Debate Club
How much do you spend on food? Do feel like what you spend is reasonable? Do you feel like you are stuck spending more money than other people, or do you feel thrifty and like you get good food for the cost? I spend 17% of my take-home pay on food (groceries, eating out, everything). This seems like way too much, but my partner disagrees. I searched the internet to get an idea of what "normal" spending is, but I couldn't find anything very current from a reliable source.
This is the best I could come up with, but it's from 2014 and doesn't account for the variety of cost of living in different places. I do live in an expensive city compared to other places in the US.
https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/CostofFoodJul2014.pdf
This is the best I could come up with, but it's from 2014 and doesn't account for the variety of cost of living in different places. I do live in an expensive city compared to other places in the US.
https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/CostofFoodJul2014.pdf
3
Replies
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I'm in the same area you are and we spend about 13% of our take home on food, including groceries, eating out and food for 3 pets. I think we eat pretty well but I do a lot of bulk buying, freezer stocking, etc. and I cook a lot.2
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$550/month family of four. Midwest, low COL. it’s taken work to get my food budget under control and figure out what works for me. I also budget $100/month on eating out.5
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When I had a friend on full food stamps, $200 a month at the time (around 2009), I did an experiment to see if I could live on that. And I can, even though I buy some produce organic, and buy meat and dairy that was more humanely produced, and am otherwise not buying the cheapest options.
Where I save is by not consuming soda or cereal in boxes and other overpriced items like that, and buying things like rice and beans in bulk, and cooking most things from scratch. Oh, and I ate a lot of chicken thighs and very little red meat, which gets pricey when one is sticking to more humanely raised.
I also keep an eye on the sales flyers and stock up and freeze things like meat when it goes on sale.9 -
15% of take-home goes to food for me. I'll admit I do not eat kn a particularly budget friendly manner though and in theory could probably cut that down by almost half of I went full budget conscious.2
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I would estimate we spend about 12-15% of our households takehome income on food. We dont have lavish taste when it comes to food, but we arent very budget conscious either. We could definitely cut it back to around half that if we really needed to. I am in Maryland so its a fairly expensive area to buy food, but incomes are fairly high as well.1
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I'm in Canada so this won't relate to US prices.
I spend about $400/week on groceries for a family of five (two adults, 15, 13, 10 year old boys). I buy only no-name brand packaged foods or food on sale. I buy meat when it's on sale, and usually the cheapest cuts. I even avoid the more expensive fruits and veggies, and try to limit the nuts and dried fruit.
I think the only way we could do it cheaper is if we cut out all flour based items (celiacs so we need to buy gluten free - as it is, I limit the house to 2 loaves a week) , stopped nuts and seeds and really limited meat.
Right now, due to tight finances, food is close to 40% of our income. Pfft.9 -
Put another way my food bill is a little less than half as much as my house payment.3
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »Put another way my food bill is a little less than half as much as my house payment.
Same here. I'm in a fairly expensive area but we spend about $150- $175 a week at the grocery store.
Once in a while we spend closer to $200. I buy what we like or think tastes the best.
My dogs eat a homemade diet and that comes to $70 per week but I didn't include that, I count that separately.
I don't buy the cheapest cuts even for my dogs. I try to look for the best cuts possible.
I could definitely stand to trim down my food budget some though.4 -
This report says those in the US spend 6.4% of their income on food:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/
From the article:
"There are only eight countries in the world that spend less than 10% of their household income on food. Four of these are in Europe: the UK is third at 8.2%, followed by Switzerland at 8.7%; Ireland spends 9.6% and Austria 9.9%.
The remaining four countries are spread across the globe. The US spends the least at 6.4%, Singapore spends the second lowest amount at 6.7%. Canada spends 9.1% on food, while Australia spends 9.8%."
This shows per capital spending on food by country (US was a bit over $2,400 in 2016, # 15 in the world):
https://knoema.com/atlas/topics/Food-Security/Expenditures-Spent-on-Food/Expenditure-on-food-per-capita
Just the wife and I, we probably spend $175-225 on food a week including eating out.1 -
Packerjohn wrote: »This report says those in the US spend 6.4% of their income on food:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/
From the article:
"There are only eight countries in the world that spend less than 10% of their household income on food. Four of these are in Europe: the UK is third at 8.2%, followed by Switzerland at 8.7%; Ireland spends 9.6% and Austria 9.9%.
The remaining four countries are spread across the globe. The US spends the least at 6.4%, Singapore spends the second lowest amount at 6.7%. Canada spends 9.1% on food, while Australia spends 9.8%."
This shows per capital spending on food by country (US was a bit over $2,400 in 2016, # 15 in the world):
https://knoema.com/atlas/topics/Food-Security/Expenditures-Spent-on-Food/Expenditure-on-food-per-capita
Just the wife and I, we probably spend $175-225 on food a week including eating out.
Actually it says "percent of consumer expenditure spent of food that was consumed at home"
which is not the same thing as "percent of take home income spent on food"....although I guess the text of the article claims that which is a bit weird...the chart clearly says something different. Makes me wonder if the person writing the article misrepresented the actual data? Not sure.
Then later in the article it says this
"Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households."
But how can the average be 6.4% if the wealthiest spend 6.5 to 9.2%? Something is fishy with that article.11 -
I always wondered what others spend. I spend about $200 on payday when I buy most of our meat which I divide & freeze. It's just the two of us & our dogs & buy things as we run out like milk, bread, eggs etc, maby another 150? I cook from scratch most days but do buy a few things from constco to keep on hand. I could spend less, but why? We also have 6 dogs & 2 cats, husband gets numerous burritos during the month too2
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I also buy canned food for my dogs. I mix it into the dry once a day for my 4 big dogs & feed canned to my 2 little dogs twice a day, but the little ones are SO picky, most times I have to mix chicken or beef into their food for them to eat it. I also use canned dog food to give them their supplements each day. We had a dog who had liver problems so I cooked for her but I can't afford to do it for my current ones100_PROOF_ wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Put another way my food bill is a little less than half as much as my house payment.
Same here. I'm in a fairly expensive area but we spend about $150- $175 a week at the grocery store.
Once in a while we spend closer to $200. I buy what we like or think tastes the best.
My dogs eat a homemade diet and that comes to $70 per week but I didn't include that, I count that separately.
I don't buy the cheapest cuts even for my dogs. I try to look for the best cuts possible.
I could definitely stand to trim down my food budget some though.
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »This report says those in the US spend 6.4% of their income on food:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/
From the article:
"There are only eight countries in the world that spend less than 10% of their household income on food. Four of these are in Europe: the UK is third at 8.2%, followed by Switzerland at 8.7%; Ireland spends 9.6% and Austria 9.9%.
The remaining four countries are spread across the globe. The US spends the least at 6.4%, Singapore spends the second lowest amount at 6.7%. Canada spends 9.1% on food, while Australia spends 9.8%."
This shows per capital spending on food by country (US was a bit over $2,400 in 2016, # 15 in the world):
https://knoema.com/atlas/topics/Food-Security/Expenditures-Spent-on-Food/Expenditure-on-food-per-capita
Just the wife and I, we probably spend $175-225 on food a week including eating out.
Actually it says "percent of consumer expenditure spent of food that was consumed at home"
which is not the same thing as "percent of consumer take home income spent on food"....although I guess the text of the article claims that which is a bit weird...the chart clearly says something different. Makes me wonder if the person writing the article misrepresented the actual data? Not sure.
Then later in the article it says this
"Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households."
But how can the average be 6.4% if the wealthiest spend 6.5 to 9.2%? Something is fishy with that article.
Talking about % of consumer take home pay means absolutely nothing. This is impacted by the individual's tax situation which really gets skewed when talking about comparisons between different countries let alone just in the US.5 -
Would people find dollar amounts or percentage of income more useful for comparison? Both can get pretty skewed depending on where you live.7
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Packerjohn wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »This report says those in the US spend 6.4% of their income on food:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/
From the article:
"There are only eight countries in the world that spend less than 10% of their household income on food. Four of these are in Europe: the UK is third at 8.2%, followed by Switzerland at 8.7%; Ireland spends 9.6% and Austria 9.9%.
The remaining four countries are spread across the globe. The US spends the least at 6.4%, Singapore spends the second lowest amount at 6.7%. Canada spends 9.1% on food, while Australia spends 9.8%."
This shows per capital spending on food by country (US was a bit over $2,400 in 2016, # 15 in the world):
https://knoema.com/atlas/topics/Food-Security/Expenditures-Spent-on-Food/Expenditure-on-food-per-capita
Just the wife and I, we probably spend $175-225 on food a week including eating out.
Actually it says "percent of consumer expenditure spent of food that was consumed at home"
which is not the same thing as "percent of consumer take home income spent on food"....although I guess the text of the article claims that which is a bit weird...the chart clearly says something different. Makes me wonder if the person writing the article misrepresented the actual data? Not sure.
Then later in the article it says this
"Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households."
But how can the average be 6.4% if the wealthiest spend 6.5 to 9.2%? Something is fishy with that article.
Talking about % of consumer take home pay means absolutely nothing. This is impacted by the individual's tax situation which really gets skewed when talking about comparisons between different countries let alone just in the US.
Well that is what the OP asked about so it seemed relevant on that basis.
How do you explain the discrepancy between the article saying the average in the US is 6.4% and then breaking down the income brackets like this:
"Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households."
How can the average be 6.4% if the top 20% wealthiest ranged from 6.5-9.2%?4 -
It's hard to know how much I spend per week as I often buy things in bulk that adds up quickly, but lasts a while (weeks to months). I'd say $150-200 week for 2 people.
I have tried to decrease that (and that is a lot less than it was) by buying less organics, stocking up on meat when it's on special, eating less variety, eating less volume, being more conscious of cost per kg etc2 -
How much do you spend on food? Do feel like what you spend is reasonable? Do you feel like you are stuck spending more money than other people, or do you feel thrifty and like you get good food for the cost? I spend 17% of my take-home pay on food (groceries, eating out, everything). This seems like way too much, but my partner disagrees. I searched the internet to get an idea of what "normal" spending is, but I couldn't find anything very current from a reliable source.
This is the best I could come up with, but it's from 2014 and doesn't account for the variety of cost of living in different places. I do live in an expensive city compared to other places in the US.
https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/CostofFoodJul2014.pdf
Food for 2 adults and 1 teen in Kansas- It is about $100-150 per week. It is a full cart of stuff every week.
We eat most of our meals from home and one meal out per week usually. We eat meat and meatless meals. We don't have any special diets. We do not do heavy physical labour or are athletes.
It seems reasonable. I think we are on the lower end of what similar people are spending. I think under $100 per week would be possible but not very comfortable.
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We live in a pretty cheap area and spend very little on food at the grocery store. We eat at home about 3 meals per day 6 days per week and spend approximately $50/week, sometimes less but very rarely more. That's about $200 per month for 2 people. It is so low because my husband cooks our meals from scratch, buys in bulk, about 90% meatless, and we plan everything out weekly and have almost 0% food waste.
However we spend ~$50/week dining out too (on Saturdays and maybe 1 other meal through the week). I know that is kind of insane, spending the SAME on 1 day as the rest of each week, but we both like dining out as entertainment and go out for sushi & try new places way too much!
So in total, a bit under $400/month.6 -
We are 4 adults. I spend at least $250/week but that includes toiletries. That's about 16%. Food is the largest category of spending we have.2
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I have a family of four in the midwest. We spend $100 to $150 a week on food, plus eating out. My husband's pay check and hours are variable and some weeks are leaner than others. He also wastes probably $100 a month on snacks and drinks he buys at work. So, $600 in groceries, $100-200 on convenience stores and restaurants.2
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Ours have food allergies .Are you using any special brand of canned dog food? I'm always interested just in case someone found something that I haven't tried yet.
I also buy canned food for my dogs. I mix it into the dry once a day for my 4 big dogs & feed canned to my 2 little dogs twice a day, but the little ones are SO picky, most times I have to mix chicken or beef into their food for them to eat it. I also use canned dog food to give them their supplements each day. We had a dog who had liver problems so I cooked for her but I can't afford to do it for my current ones100_PROOF_ wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Put another way my food bill is a little less than half as much as my house payment.
Same here. I'm in a fairly expensive area but we spend about $150- $175 a week at the grocery store.
Once in a while we spend closer to $200. I buy what we like or think tastes the best.
My dogs eat a homemade diet and that comes to $70 per week but I didn't include that, I count that separately.
I don't buy the cheapest cuts even for my dogs. I try to look for the best cuts possible.
I could definitely stand to trim down my food budget some though.
I have some low cost recipes saved for homemade dog food if you ever want to restart.
I only do it because my rottweiler has food allergies and we couldn't find a brand that she wouldn't react to. We tried even the $80 per bag special brands and she still developed the allergy rash. I would gladly use store bought food for them if I could find one that worked.
( I'm sorry op for not staying on topic!)1 -
Single grad student here who gets paid a bit more than minimum wage, my food budget ends up being 15-20% of my paycheck mostly because I eat so much meat (ground beef and chicken bought in bulk) and fage yogurt with berries.
Also being in NY, there is a massive Wegmans 3miles from my apartment so it is very easy to buy lots of fresh produce.
My roommate who exercises ~1/4 of what I do per week spends much less money than me due to eating a fraction of meat and veggies0 -
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For myself if I don't go out to a restaurant I spend 30 to 40 a week.3
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Do feel like what you spend is reasonable? Do you feel like you are stuck spending more money than other people, or do you feel thrifty and like you get good food for the cost?
Some people are giving amounts they are spending but not really answering these questions from the OP. It'd be kind of nice if in your answer you share some thoughts about your food spending.
Do you feel you are frugal, average or spending more than similar people in your area? Is the amount you are spending getting you what you want or do you feel dissatisfied with the quantity/quality of food you get for your money in your area? Is it difficult to stick to your budgeted amount for food?
For $30-50 per week per adult in my area would probably be on the more frugal end of food spending but still fairly comfortable if they spend the money wisely.
It is a comfortable amount of food and the quality is fine for my family. It takes planning and some effort to stick to our budget but we are not struggling. We don't run out of food. We are not buying expensive brands, tons of meat or eating out frequently.
If we bought expensive brands or did more dining out the amount of food would be less adequate.
I recall some of those SNAP food challenges where the person went to a more expensive store and bought organic everything and pretty much just had food for a couple of days instead of the whole week because they did not plan or shop to fit that budget.
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The OPs premise is interesting, and I like the link she provided with the USDA food cost study. I especially liked that it was broken down by children and adults and gave costs for different meal plan levels (from thrifty to spendy). It would be interesting to see if there is a larger variance of that meal plan budget in different areas of the country.
Unfortunately it's too difficult the question to answer meaningfully by just giving the percentage of take-home pay spent on food. Without the context of the base income, regional food prices, etc, it's pretty meaningless.
For example, if I state that I pay 7% of my take-home pay on food I can be anywhere between these two extremes:
a) A low/moderate income person sharing rent and eating as frugally as possible
b) A higher income person living alone and eating well but not extravagantly
Or if I state I pay 18% of my take-home pay, these extremes could apply:
a) A low/moderate income person supporting multiple dependents on a single salary
b) A mad billionaire eating enough gold-dusted truffled foie gras that my excrement is smelted to recover the gold flakes to be used at the restaurants serving those lesser well-off millionaires
For the record, I spend about 12%. Determining my foie gras budget is left as an exercise for the student.5 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »Would people find dollar amounts or percentage of income more useful for comparison? Both can get pretty skewed depending on where you live.
% of income doesn’t mean anything to me. If I got a raise I wouldn’t start spending more money on groceries.1 -
Okay geez apparently I am doing it wrong. I'm spending about $1300/mo. In my defense I live in one of the most expensive cities and sales tax is around 10%...but still.2
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I have a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 teens 18,15, and 13) and we spend $650/month. We eat out 2x a month which costs an addition $100-$150 depending on where we go. I do not purchase anything processed or with soy do to severe food allergies. We do fresh produce, meat, and some dairy. Everything from scratch. Lots of bulk buying, vacuum seal, and freeze.2
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Alright this thread is kind of humbling for me. I just went to the grocery store at Safeway (so not like it is Whole Foods). Got 1 cantelope, 1 bunch of banannas, 3 oz of green beans, 3 cans of black beans, 1 carton of eggs, 2 gallons of milk, 2 boxes of oatmeal, 2 chocolate bars, 1 pack of cookies, about 15 vegetable purees and a 6 pack of beer. No meat in there and none of that stuff is particularly fancy but it cost about $88.
None of that stuff is for dinners or anything just snacky stuff. If I decided to try to live off that somehow it'd probably last me like 2-3 days for just me if that. It is hard to fathom a multiperson family living off $100-$150 a week in food. Pretty sure I spend more than that on just myself and I rarely eat at restaurants. Clearly don't know what I am doing.
I guess to answer the OP's original question, I feel stuck spending more than everyone else...well I do now.5
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