your food budget-just curious

I'm unemployed so my food budget is EXTREMELY tight especially with the high cost of gas. I shop weekly which helps with meal planning. Since it's just my daughter and myself I spend around $250-300 a month. I plan my meals around sales and coupons (which helps). Luckily the warm weather months are coming and I can buy my fruits and veggies from one of the many farmer's markets in the area.

I have the exact same size family as you! And, we spend about exactly what you spend monthly! We rarely go out to eat so we can afford to buy super high quality local foods including pastured chickens, grass-fed beef, raw milk, etc. $8.00 a week on a gallon of raw milk sends our budget high! But, it is a bizarre culture that would blow all their money on an expensive car or house and neglect to nourish their own bodies with the proper food. I used to be turned off by the price of organic, but after seeing that little girls organic potato experiment Youtube video, I don't feel bad about shelling out at all! I order $5.70 jars of peanut butter (pure REAL peanut butter) and I just ordered 5 lbs of organic peanuts for the kids to snack on for $30.99!! These prices are crazy high, but I won't feed my family junk. Period. But I try to stay within a reasonable range for my family so we don't break the bank. I'm not sure how we are going to afford this lifestyle as my family grows bigger and my children get older??? Maybe we will have to buy some land and grow our own!!

I buy just for me. I spend £30 a week, which is for meals, snacks and drinks.

My fiance spends £10 a week on his groceries.

I buy just for me. I spend £30 a week, which is for meals, snacks and drinks.

My fiance spends £10 a week on his groceries.

Wow! that is good going!! can i ask what you have on an average day please? i find eating clean/healthy is really expensive but i'm doing it anyway because my health is important to me and i am determined to shift the rest of my weight.

I spend about $100-150 a week for two adults, a preschooler and a toddler. It seems to alternate a $100 week followed by a $150 week. Both kids eat like teenagers, lol, they eat constantly! I buy organic as much as our budget allows - milks, eggs, chicken, selected produce. We also bought 1/6 of a grass fed cow, so I don't need to buy meat. We rarely eat out (mostly because eating out with a toddler sucks :P ). I find with menu planning there is very little waste.

It is just me and my husband and we spend 100-150 a euros on groceries to eat healthy. It i so expensive, and we can barely handle that much, but it is important.

I have £100 a month for food- absolutely cannot afford any more than that, but I usually manage to stick to it, I try to buy meat when it's on offer, buy reduced items etc. I can't afford to buy organic.

Mine is no more than $160 every two weeks for me and my fiancee. I eat a lot of eggs and protein shakes toward the end of the two- week cycle! Hopefully we are both going to be seeing our paychecks go up and be able to spend more. I love having fresh produce for each week but if i buy too much it goes bad I make the budget work by couponing (no, i'm not crazy about it!), as there are sites online where you can print out coupons for free. We also shop for certain things at certain places. We use Winn-Dixie (like Kroger's, Publix, etc) or Wal-Mart for most things. However, to keep the cost of meat down we shop at a sort of market-style store called Penn Dutch and that has cut our meat and produce bill at least by a 1/3-1/2. Then, we visit the Dollar Tree and Big Lots for snacks, frozen dinners (when you're waiting for the next paycheck, these come in handy, whether or not they're great for you!), lots of frozen veggies, etc. Also, all products like toiletries and household items are bought at the $1 store or big lots which saves sooo much money. For example, I buy my fiancee basically the same thing as Axe body spray for $1. I stock up on them for $5 and he doesn't run out for weeks. I do the same with my shampoos, toothpaste, deodorant, hair and makeup products, and many cleaning products too.

lol sorry for the ramble but i've been shopping on a tight tight budget for about 2 years now so i've gotten pretty good. Good luck! :flowerforyou:

I feed a family of 4, plus our numerous pets, on $250 a month groceries plus an extra $100 we consider our "junk food and restaurant" budget and a separate $30 a month I spend on a local farmer who delivers raw milk.

We grow our own sprouts and greens in the house. We get our eggs from family chickens. I grow vegetables all summer. I buy flour/sugar/herbs/whole grains in bulk and bake all breads and such myself.

It's not easy being poor, but we manage. The hardest part is cooking for our different needs. One of us is a vegetarian. One of us can't eat greasy food without stomach pain. One of us has a soy allergy.

family of 5: me and hubby, 7 year old boy, 5 year old girl, 4 year old girl
I try and stay as close to $200 every other week as I can. I shop for two weeks at a time on payday, and usually average about $180/trip. No ready-to-eat convenience foods, very few "snack" foods (the kids looove their fruit roll ups), we basically eat "clean". Mostly organic fruits and veggies, etc. This is a big change from a few years ago when I was spending upwards of $300/trip.

We are a family of 5 and my kids eat the same amount (if not more) as the adults. I spend about $250 a week including household supplies and beer/wine. I do meal plan and shop around sales and weekly flyers. I cook most of our meals. I try and buy organic as much as possible for meats/fruits/veggies.

It is the snacking that gets expensive for our family. My kids are hungry all the time and they love nuts and string cheese and dried fruits other wonderful foods that also cost a lot.

I have a family of 4 (myself, hubby, and two sons who are 15 and 12) and spent $400-$450 each month. I don't buy organic but we do buy 1/2 beef from a farmer friend that lasts us 2 years, and we just bought a hog and it'll probably last two years also. I like knowing where the bulk of my meat comes from, and that it is antibiotic/hormone free.

OP, I think you're doing great and have the right to be proud of your grocery savings.