Reasonable grocery budget for 1 person?

[barkley]

Realistically, it will depend on what part of Texas she is in. The larger cities have more stores and thus competition. I would say $35 to $45 for the types of food you are listing. It is often more expensive to cook for one since food isn't prepped that way, or if it is, it is more expensive. You face the dilemma of buying too much and having it spoil to save some money. This sounds counter-intuitive for one, but cost-wise, it is often better to get some fruit items at places like Costco or Sams, knowing they can't eat it all, but it is still cheaper than a regular grocery store. You can get about 10-12 bananas for $1.49 at Costco. Even if you only manage to eat 8, it is often less expensive than regular stores.

dang-you could make a good living exporting those Costco bananas our way! one of the local stores was selling bananas (ON SALE) for 75 cents EACH, and the college kids were grabbing them up b/c they go for over 1.50 on campus. a small (pathetically small-maybe 2 servings) cantaloupe is on sale this week for $2.50, microscopic 'mini seedless' watermelons are on sale for $3.99 each, and strawberries are a STEAL at $4.00 per pound. none of these prices are for the organic options which go for a much higher price (and sadly go bad if not consumed w/in about 48-72 hours so there's allot of waste unless the kids who buy them go to the store every couple of days).

 

[kollerbear]

Thank you for the advice. I do not see her cooking a lot. She loves toast or eggos and peanut butter for breakfast. She likes fresh fruit. She'll make a turkey sandwich or grilled cheese for lunch or dinner. She likes yogurt and cereal when she gets home late and is too tired to fix something. She can make a meal out of hummus, pretzels, and grapes. So really thinking easy to grab things that are still healthier than easy mac or ramen.

Would $25 a week be enough to cover those types of things with a visit home or a parent visit about once a month for a restocking shopping trip?

I don't think so-- that sounds really stressful to me unless she is going to stick to a very rigid shopping list and the cheapest brands. Let's say that she gets a container of hummus (est. around $3), a box of cereal (also, without a sale, probably around $3), sliced cheese (sake of argument, not under $3), sliced turkey (probably also more than $3), a loaf of bread (let's say $2.50), 4-5 yogurts (not on sale, probably not less than $3), a bag of pretzels (probably around $2), a pound of grapes (argument's sake, let's say $2), and five apples (argument's sake, $3) each week. You've hit $25 there easily. No veggies, not a super rounded or sustainable diet week after week. Could she get any of these items individually for less on a sale? Probably. I probably overestimated some and underestimated some. But if she is going to try making, say, chili one night, that would require some canned tomatoes, canned beans, maybe an onion or bell pepper or some ground beef. The quantity of food she'd get out of it would be high, but the expense would completely make that unobtainable for her.

Edit: I'm a HUGE food planner--every meal and every recipe chosen two weeks in advance. I know if I decided to make chili then it would cut down on my staples, but college kids, when they decide to cook something, don't necessarily think or plan like that--and it can be hard to estimate what you'll eat, esp. when only shopping for one--before it goes bad.

Start her at $40 or $45 a week. Give her a chance to cook a couple meals at home before going off to college so she knows how to make herself a couple big pots of food that she can live off for a week or two. If she ends up using less than that it won't be that much less, and she won't be able to go too far with the overages eating out.

 

[kollerbear]

Another strategy could be buying her a gift card for the grocery store that she'll be shopping at. Every grocery store I've been to sells them. Put enough on it for a couple of months. She'll only be able to use it there. If there is more money left on it when you come to visit than you'd budgeted, then that overage will just count towards next month and get her a smaller denomination for the next month. You want to make sure she's not overspending, but I don't get the sense you want her to be stressed about her grocery budget.

If she's going over budget, ask her to save her receipts over the course of the month so you guys can look at what she's buying and make sure she's making wise choices.

 

[powellrj]

We tried this with my DS and to be honest it didn't work out like either one of us thought it would. I love to shop and find bargains so I knew the year before he was getting the apartment and bought every cooking gadget known to man. I sent him with a rice cooker, a crock-pot, a small george foremon, a blender, pots and pans, a coffee maker.

I had this wonderful plan. He could make a big pot of rice on the weekend and then eat it the first part of the week by adding a protein he had cooked in the george foreman. I envisioned him making big pots of soups and sauces and eating them over a few days. He really enjoys cooking and has worked in restaurants over the years.

The reality was coffee in the morning with a protein bar on his way to class. I thought he would take his lunch and eat on campus, he would usually just pick something up. He would get home late so dinner was either Jimmy Johns, a bowl of cereal or a sandwich while he studied. Not at all what I had hoped for. I would take him shopping every 2 weeks and he could take the bus for free to get groceries, but most of them were easy to grab and go things.

 

[sk!mom]

Our original plan was that she was going to cover groceries out of her spending money. She's going back to school with around $1500 saved from her summer job. While at school, she works 12 hours a week @ $10 and hour so $480 a month. Last year, we paid everything except for her gas and spending money.

This year she is going to an apartment and the rent is pricey for her to live just across the street from campus so she had said that she would cover food.

I'm starting to get concerned though that she will live on crap if we don't give her anything for fresh food. As I said, I love to send care packages but can't send fresh things. I will see her once a month this fall and will stock her up.

I was trying to get a feel for how much is a reasonable amount for 1 person so I would know if it's going to take too big a chunck of her spending money. I'm no doubt being a paranoid mom but have decided that we will give her some amount twice a month to restock fresh items.

I'm trying to find the line between her having "enough" to eat well but still get used to managing and budgeting.

 

[poohfriend77]

Will she have roommates? I just thought I'd mention she will probably want to talk to them to make sure everyone is on the same page about food. When I was in college, we split costs for things like milk, oil, household/cleaning supplies, and ingredients for any shared meals (didn't happen very often due to different schedules). It really didn't make sense to have three bottles of garlic powder and cinnamon, etc. so we'd share the cost or take turns buying. Other things were our own personal food (yogurt, cereal, pasta sauces, soda) that we bought and kept separately. There are different ways to do it, but it's best to make sure everyone in the apartment knows the "rules" ahead of time!

 

[barkley]

just for the heck of it I googled the usda's most recent stats on the average costs for food (groceries) required on a monthly basis. take into consideration that it's a national average (so some places are higher, some are lower), this is for a female (younger vs. older) who is a single person purchasing for just themselves (they take into consideration smaller portion purchasing vs. larger portion purchasing power) and it's the AVERAGE-not 'thrifty' (as in just beans and rice) nor the high end. $339.93 per month.

our dd was over last night and we were discussing how much it costs to make some items vs. others-as she pointed out, it was cheaper one night for her to make a burger than get one at the local fastfood, but that was only because she already had the condiments, buns, an onion and part of a tomato on hand. if she'd had to go out and buy everything (esp. buns which can't be bought individually) she would have spent more-and likely had some waste (she doesn't use onions much day to day). same goes for her w/a deli sandwich, and to some extent some hot items (hot soups in particular-no way she is going to make a whole pot of clam chowder and pay for all that goes into it when she can get a cup to go w/a baguette on campus). so totally eliminating eating out can cost more in the long run.

 

[FINFAN]

my advice is a crock pot and a $50-75 monthly "buffer" over your intended total. My DD used to cook a roast or 3lbs of chicken etc in the crock pot, and then get a good 3-4 days out of it for a main diner or lunch dish. She had to follow gluten free and didn't have a car so it could get challenging at times , finding a way to go when a friend was driving etc. She would also get a lot of lunchmeat at the deli as you can freeze it. Eggs are pricey these days, and paper products add up too.

 

[kollerbear]

Our original plan was that she was going to cover groceries out of her spending money. She's going back to school with around $1500 saved from her summer job. While at school, she works 12 hours a week @ $10 and hour so $480 a month. Last year, we paid everything except for her gas and spending money.

This year she is going to an apartment and the rent is pricey for her to live just across the street from campus so she had said that she would cover food.

I'm starting to get concerned though that she will live on crap if we don't give her anything for fresh food. As I said, I love to send care packages but can't send fresh things. I will see her once a month this fall and will stock her up.

I was trying to get a feel for how much is a reasonable amount for 1 person so I would know if it's going to take too big a chunck of her spending money. I'm no doubt being a paranoid mom but have decided that we will give her some amount twice a month to restock fresh items.

I'm trying to find the line between her having "enough" to eat well but still get used to managing and budgeting.

I understand it's pricey to support a kid in college, I think a lot of us are just responding to your question and saying that, given that you're not expecting her to eat Ramen noodles and don't want her to be very stressed, the suggestion of $25 is really very, very low. If she was cooking for herself and meal planned exquisitely then possibly she could get by on that if you were coming by and restocking large containers of rice, canned beans, canned tomatoes, and the other non-perishables that most of us who manage a household know to stock up on. But the foods you describe her eating--and the fact that she's a college student sharing a kitchen--really don't put her in that category. Why not buy her a gift card to the grocery store so that you know your money is being used there? If she can get her budget to be $40-$45 a week and be eating healthfully, honestly that still reflects very good managing, budgeting, and food usage skills, especially at that age and level of "home ec" experience. (Even as a very experienced meal planner and cook I don't think I could feed my husband and I for $6.43 each a day!) Maybe you could require her to buy half of the gift card from her spending money-- if she buys a $100 gift card for the month, for example, you'll give her an $80 card on top of it. (This is like the extra bucks that NYC gives to food stamp recipients-- if they spend something like $5 on fresh fruits and vegetables at a farmer's market they get an extra $2 from the city to also spend on fresh fruits and vegetables.)

 

[barkley]

Our original plan was that she was going to cover groceries out of her spending money. She's going back to school with around $1500 saved from her summer job. While at school, she works 12 hours a week @ $10 and hour so $480 a month. Last year, we paid everything except for her gas and spending money.

This year she is going to an apartment and the rent is pricey for her to live just across the street from campus so she had said that she would cover food.

I'm starting to get concerned though that she will live on crap if we don't give her anything for fresh food. As I said, I love to send care packages but can't send fresh things. I will see her once a month this fall and will stock her up.

I was trying to get a feel for how much is a reasonable amount for 1 person so I would know if it's going to take too big a chunck of her spending money. I'm no doubt being a paranoid mom but have decided that we will give her some amount twice a month to restock fresh items.

I'm trying to find the line between her having "enough" to eat well but still get used to managing and budgeting.

check and see if there's a bountiful baskets location near where she is-they are a produce (and a few other items) co-op where you sign up and do a pick-up every 2 weeks. $15 per pickup for standard/$25 for organic. you generally get 6 fruit items and 6 vegetables with each pickup. it was honestly enough produce to last more than 2 weeks. just google search them and you can get info/find out if they have a location near where she will be living.

 

[hj0519]

I spend about $50-$60 per week. That's breakfast (I eat the same thing all week, either waffles, yogurt, fruit, or muffins), lunch (sandwich stuff and snack-y type stuff like chips and mini oreos), dinner (a mix of frozen food like chicken nuggets, fries, and pizza and a few nights of easy cooking, like pasta, chicken stir fry, sausage and peppers, tacos, etc.), dessert (frozen greek yogurt bars), and sometimes snacks (fruit, raw veggies and dip, microwave popcorn).

 

[sk!mom]

I spend about $50-$60 per week. That's breakfast (I eat the same thing all week, either waffles, yogurt, fruit, or muffins), lunch (sandwich stuff and snack-y type stuff like chips and mini oreos), dinner (a mix of frozen food like chicken nuggets, fries, and pizza and a few nights of easy cooking, like pasta, chicken stir fry, sausage and peppers, tacos, etc.), dessert (frozen greek yogurt bars), and sometimes snacks (fruit, raw veggies and dip, microwave popcorn).

Good to know! Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

 

[barkley]

Good to know! Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

not judging the post you quoted, but I thought your goal was for her to eat healthy

with the exception of a meager breakfast of JUST (not combined) fruit or yogurt (which many of us have pointed out can cost a few dollars per meal), 'sandwich stuff' (is that a healthy sandwich or just white bread, lunch meat and mayo, or the more common lunch meat with mayo roll up that my dd's college peers eat at the end of the month when their money runs out?) for lunch, the few nights of 'easy cooking' pasta, chicken stir fry or sausage and peppers or tacos, and 'sometimes snacks' of fruit and raw veggies (not an integrated part of the meals-a 'sometimes'/I suspect 'when I can afford it snack')-I personally wouldn't want my college student to be budgeted (on a financial or health basis) such that they had to rely on high fat and calorie waffles, muffins, chips, mini oreos (crazy expensive as well), chicken nuggets, fries and pizza. these (in our experience) are neither healthy NOR cost effective. maybe if someone is doing the 20 piece $5 chicken nuggets from mcdonalds (loaded w/fat) or the low end net 30% actual chicken grocery nuggets (other 70% is breading and injected fluids) they can keep within a 50-60 dollar per week budget w/this kind of stuff but it will be absent any significant fruits, vegetables, healthy grains, drinks, calcium and other protean products.

I know you've spoken to not wanting her to resort to ramen noodles to keep within her budget-but my college student has learned that with the addition of an egg, some inexpensive fresh or frozen veggies and a bit of the left over grilled chicken breast she cooked the night before-she can make a stir fry out of a single pack of ramen that will feed her for dinner as well as lunch the next day. in the last year she's learned through experience how to cook more and more-and it's largely been by virtue of trial and error of her controlling her own food budget. we provide some items-but we leave it to her to spend what's budgeted. just like her parents before her she's learned that if she overspends on eating out and is short on funds before she has her next month's funds available-she has to get creative with what is in her pantry/fridge/feezer.

 

[gwynne]

I would have the student start the work on the budget. She can make a few trips to the store, estimate (on the higher side) costs, then adjust if needed over time. See how she would plan with around $200.00-$250.00 a month. That seems like a reasonable starting place.

I wouldn't want my student to be spending time driving out to Costco and getting way too much food for her needs. I'd include paper and personal products in the budget. Breaking things out too much gets complicated.
I'd also encourage roll over of $$, if you have extra from one week or month, great.

 

[hj0519]

not judging the post you quoted, but I thought your goal was for her to eat healthy

with the exception of a meager breakfast of JUST (not combined) fruit or yogurt (which many of us have pointed out can cost a few dollars per meal), 'sandwich stuff' (is that a healthy sandwich or just white bread, lunch meat and mayo, or the more common lunch meat with mayo roll up that my dd's college peers eat at the end of the month when their money runs out?) for lunch, the few nights of 'easy cooking' pasta, chicken stir fry or sausage and peppers or tacos, and 'sometimes snacks' of fruit and raw veggies (not an integrated part of the meals-a 'sometimes'/I suspect 'when I can afford it snack')-I personally wouldn't want my college student to be budgeted (on a financial or health basis) such that they had to rely on high fat and calorie waffles, muffins, chips, mini oreos (crazy expensive as well), chicken nuggets, fries and pizza. these (in our experience) are neither healthy NOR cost effective. maybe if someone is doing the 20 piece $5 chicken nuggets from mcdonalds (loaded w/fat) or the low end net 30% actual chicken grocery nuggets (other 70% is breading and injected fluids) they can keep within a 50-60 dollar per week budget w/this kind of stuff but it will be absent any significant fruits, vegetables, healthy grains, drinks, calcium and other protean products.

I know you've spoken to not wanting her to resort to ramen noodles to keep within her budget-but my college student has learned that with the addition of an egg, some inexpensive fresh or frozen veggies and a bit of the left over grilled chicken breast she cooked the night before-she can make a stir fry out of a single pack of ramen that will feed her for dinner as well as lunch the next day. in the last year she's learned through experience how to cook more and more-and it's largely been by virtue of trial and error of her controlling her own food budget. we provide some items-but we leave it to her to spend what's budgeted. just like her parents before her she's learned that if she overspends on eating out and is short on funds before she has her next month's funds available-she has to get creative with what is in her pantry/fridge/feezer.

You are judging, actually, but it's fine - I'm well aware that I don't eat healthy every day. From the way the poster has talked about her daughter's eating habits, it didn't sound like the daughter was much of a cook or would be interested in much cooking (she typically eats waffles, toast, turkey sandwiches, grilled cheeses, and veggies with hummus, cereal, and yogurt, per one of the OP's posts) so I figured my budget would be a somewhat fair comparison, since I eat quick things, don't cook every night, and don't always feel like cooking every night after work.

Wanting your kid to eat healthy is all well and good, but you do have to be realistic about what they're actually going to do. I don't have the time or energy to cook every night, so I don't. Based on the fact that the OP's daughter likes to eat cereal or yogurt for dinner when she gets back late, I don't know that she's going to be all over meal planning and cooking every night of the week.

The stuff I listed was just examples of what I eat, not necessarily the full spectrum of what's on my plate week in and week out. I wasn't necessarily saying that this is what the OP wants her daughter to buy, but as a young adult who doesn't always feel like cooking, this is the kind of stuff that she may be eating and that's how much I spend.

By sometimes snacks, I meant more by whether I'm even going to be home to snack, not whether I can afford to snack. I can afford to buy more food than I do. I usually bring raw veggies to eat with my sandwich for lunch, and my easy meals almost always involve veggies as well (pasta with veggies and chicken, stir fry with chicken and lots of veggies, etc.).

I don't care that you ripped apart my menu, just don't say that you're not judging when you clearly are.

Edited to add in some more points, since this morning I was rushing to get to work.

 

[scrapquitler]

Thank you for the advice. I do not see her cooking a lot. She loves toast or eggos and peanut butter for breakfast. She likes fresh fruit. She'll make a turkey sandwich or grilled cheese for lunch or dinner. She likes yogurt and cereal when she gets home late and is too tired to fix something. She can make a meal out of hummus, pretzels, and grapes. So really thinking easy to grab things that are still healthier than easy mac or ramen.

Would $25 a week be enough to cover those types of things with a visit home or a parent visit about once a month for a restocking shopping trip?

I don't see $25 covering those types of things, but it might depend where you are. Here, a pound of turkey in the grocery store deli is around $9, so that would add up pretty fast right there.

I think you need to keep in mind that even if a family of 4 can eat groceries all week for $200, it doesn't necessarily mean that one person could eat that same menu for a week and get away with spending $50 because of the way foods are packaged....you're going to be a buying a gallon of milk for $4, but a quart is a lot more than $1 because of package sizes. She might be able to stock up and save if she buys a big package of something, but with fresh foods, she might end up wasting if the package sizes are too big, and that will play into her budgeting.

 

[HM]

I gave my son $75 a week (added to his bank account on Sundays) for food. (This was two years ago, so I might make it higher now that meat and eggs and other things have gone up in price). He cooked for himself. He supplimented it a lot with fast food on his own dime.

 

[morgan98]

I don't see $25 covering those types of things, but it might depend where you are. Here, a pound of turkey in the grocery store deli is around $9, so that would add up pretty fast right there.

I think you need to keep in mind that even if a family of 4 can eat groceries all week for $200, it doesn't necessarily mean that one person could eat that same menu for a week and get away with spending $50 because of the way foods are packaged....you're going to be a buying a gallon of milk for $4, but a quart is a lot more than $1 because of package sizes. She might be able to stock up and save if she buys a big package of something, but with fresh foods, she might end up wasting if the package sizes are too big, and that will play into her budgeting.

This is exactly how I think of it as well. Plus the OP, said she wanted her daughter to have some healthier choices. If that is the case, she is going to want the higher end deli sliced turkey with fewer additives, less sodium, etc. rather than the cheap pseudo-meat you can buy for very cheap prepackage in the cheese aisle.

Even on this thread, people have listed a few examples for close to $25/week, but listed buying cereal, but not mentioning milk. Or saying you can buy turkey for $3.00. I don't think it is possible to buy enough turkey for a week's worth of sandwiches for that amount.

 

[barkley]

This is exactly how I think of it as well. Plus the OP, said she wanted her daughter to have some healthier choices. If that is the case, she is going to want the higher end deli sliced turkey with fewer additives, less sodium, etc. rather than the cheap pseudo-meat you can buy for very cheap prepackage in the cheese aisle.

Even on this thread, people have listed a few examples for close to $25/week, but listed buying cereal, but not mentioning milk. Or saying you can buy turkey for $3.00. I don't think it is possible to buy enough turkey for a week's worth of sandwiches for that amount.

exactly-cereal takes milk, sandwiches take at minimum bread and generally a condiment, pasta (most often) takes oil....it's all those things that most of us who purchase for a family tend to already have on hand that add up when you're single. also as someone mentioned above-it's more expensive to buy the smaller sizes of things (by unit price). my college student wouldn't think of buying a gallon of milk b/c she doesn't use it that often so it's bought when needed by the quart at a much higher cost. same w/condiments-she won't use a big jar of pickles before they go bad so it's the smaller jar that costs more. if someone eats something like hummus on a regular basis and will use up the larger sized containers that's great-but OY, the cost of those mini ones (I finally convinced dd how easy it is to make stuff like hummus and pesto after I saw how much she was spending on it-when she saw that she could make either in 5 minutes w/the little 2 cup $15 food processer she ran the numbers and realized how much she could save-and eliminate all kinds of unnecessary fats and fillers).

it's amazing (and enjoyable) to watch the progress shopping and cooking wise w/a college student-sure, some will through choice, habit or necessity always opt for the to-go, prepackaged stuff but others (like my dd) get to a point where they tire of it, tire of the cost and start budgeting their time to do a little more experimentation w/cooking. heck-dh is going to be in town today to see dd and one of her requests was to borrow my crockpot so she could start experimenting with it. no problem-if she can start learning to throw together her own small batches of soup and beans and such it will be much healthier for her vs. the 'pub grub' at the college-and help her budget immensely.