What's your budget?

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.

I guess I should feel guilty for the amount we spend on food each month; but I don't. We struggled for many years. In the 70's I lived on Turkey Pot pies, because they were17 cent apiece and I was saving up to buy a house. We are now no longer struggling. We are comfortable and properous, because we put in the hard work in the beginning. We have no budget for food. If we want it, we get it. I love to cook and that can get expensive.

I spend around $100 a week on myself, my daughter, and 3 dogs. I buy local, fresh, and do not buy more than we can eat. This also includes any paper products, cleaning supplies, dog food...ect. I love the farmers market and I use coupons as often as I can. If possible grow as much produce as you can, become friends with a local farm for eggs, fresh dairy, and meat (thankfully I am a vegetarian so I can save that money). Also...start keeping a log of what you consume daily, weekly, monthly and it will let you know what you need to keep in stock and use coupons for or if it truly is an every once in a while item that you can splurge on.

I saw you live in Eureka, CA...go to the Winco there! It's inexpensive compared to other grocery chains and you can buy large quantities of poultry for inexpensive prices and freeze them. The produce there is decent but I'd rather spend $20-$40 on produce than unhealthy junk food. I've bought plenty of healthy food from there that can feed a family and be used for left overs.

Just curious why you have no choice in the shopping??? Maybe you guys can make it to the store as a family and set an example for your child.

I spend about £150 every fortnight on the big shop that we get delivered and probably around another £30 a week to top up on milk, bread etc; probably another £30 a week on takeaways. That covers me, hubby, 2 boys - 10 and 12 who have packed lunches for school, 3 cats and a dog. I don't buy processed or boxed food. My family are my guinea pigs and I experiment on them with my random concoctions regularly lol.

My biggest problem is that the fresh stuff is all gone or goes off before we can get another shop in but I can't justify doing another big shop (and paying a fiver for delivery!) any more often than that. I spend a depressing amount of the month living off the credit card and so frequently can't take advantage of the weekly farmers' markets here. Then I totally shoot myself in the foot by buying takeaways when I'm not able to make it home at a decent time lol. I work full time, hubby is at college and we're currently renovating a house that's falling apart. The kids have been great at pitching in and helping but it leaves us with little time in the evenings. They still need to eat at a normal time and when we all get home they just head off to bed.

Argh! This is why I'm broke and fat!!! lol