USDA Report on cost of food--grocery budgeting

[amylynne01]

This makes me go ! We are a family of 4, so according to the chart at thrifty prices, we should be spending 510.10 per month. I have been averaging 320 a month for food, beverages, toiletries, paper, diapers, etc (not formula since that's covered by insurance). I coupon, shop sales, meal plan, and stock pile. By meal planning, I make sure that we eat fairly balanced meals. We don't eat a ton of frozen meals or boxed stuff. Now I couldn't IMAGINE spending 500 a month!

 

[sherry7]

Wow, what an eye opener! We're a family of 4 (me, DH, 20 year old DS, and newborn DD). Our "thrifty" total is $575 and the "liberal" total is $1127. In actuality, we average about $300 to $350 a month...toward the higher end of that now since I had to start buying baby formula.

I'm not counting toiletries, diapers, pet food, etc.

 

[neatokimmo]

I should be spending $56 a week on us for the thrifty plan but I spend $40. Our normal shopping trip is milk, bread, eggs, juice, yogurt, whichever fruit is on sale, whichever veggie is on sale, whatever meat is on sale. We never eat out of season.

 

[disykat]

Family of four with two teenage boys and we fall in the "low cost" category if I include toiletries, entertaining and eating out. If I separated toiletries and entertainment (hosting people and/or eating out) I could fall in the thrifty catagory but I'd have to watch pretty carefully.

I notice their family of four didn't include teens and it's amazing how much our grocery tab has increased in the last few years since I've started having to basically buy double the amount of food I did when they were younger. (Since they've hit their teens I literally have to double almost every meal I make.)

My 17 year old has two friends coming over tomorrow and my first thoughts waffled between "hide the food!" and "what should I feed them?"

 

[SDSorority]

Wow that is really interesting.

We spend about $80-95 or so a week for DH and I (depending on how much we're out of or if we're hosting a party... you know). We're vegetarian, boarderline vegan, and this has helped our costs drop dramatically. I also make a LOT from scratch, which takes up my time, but if it saves money, I'm all for it.

 

[Colleen27]

I've been trying to figure out what we spend and my best guess is about $500/mo on average for our family of 5.

We don't really do much of our total shopping at the grocery store, because we get meat in bulk from a nearby farm and I preserve my own harvest and what I buy from the farmer's market and u-picks, so our costs are very uneven. We might spend $1000 in August when there is so much in season that I can freeze or can, but then spend $200 in January when we've got a freezer full of meat & veggies and are only buying dairy products and extras. And I've gotten really, really good (thanks largely to the budget board and other sites that BBers have recommended) at taking advantage of coupons and CVS extrabucks promos to get toiletries and such very cheaply.

ETA: Those figures were interesting. According to the USDA the thrifty plan for our family should cost $683, which I know is more than we spend. I always feel like we're spending more to eat the way we do, because I buy so much locally, but maybe we really wouldn't save by just getting everything at the supermarket.

 

[Ava]

This is really interesting. I wonder if those numbers include toiletries, paper products, pet food, etc. (i.e. everything that can be purchased at your average supermarket) or just food for human consumption. We're a family of 3 - 2 females 19-50 & a 1-year-old - and our grocery spending for last month was only $317. If I include our eating out in that total it brings it to $458. So for all the food we consumed, we're between the "thrifty" & "low-cost" plans according to that chart. That makes me feel a lot better about what we spend on food! This month we've spent a good bit more, too much eating out, ugh. Next month it should go down though; we joined a CSA for the season so we shouldn't have to buy hardly any veggies or fruits for the next 5 months. Woohoo!!

 

[vicki_c]

I agree - very interesting. We are a family of 4 and are on the high end of the low-cost number. We spend about $800/month (including toiletries and cleaning products), but we're aiming for $700.

We are big Grocery Gamers though, if we weren't our bill would easily be 40-50% higher.

It makes me feel a little better about what we do spend, though.

 

[deerhart]

pure food, I spend about $500 a month at the grocery store (this includes lots and lots of soda because well dh and I drink lots and lots of soda).

With all food and all other weekly shopping I spend on average between $600-$750 (depends on the month).

Lately, I have been averaging about $75 a week at the grocery store (just picking up staples and using my stock for everything else).

 

[blanq]

I usually spend about $150 per week for my family of three (two adults and one 17 year old son). Per the table, a family of my size/age spends $145.50 per week on the "low cost" plan, so I would say it appears to be pretty accurate. I personally think we eat quite well, and get all the food groups in; I do not feel we do without anything.

 

[mello]

This makes me feel better. We're a family of 5 with 2 teenage boys. I used to grocery game and only spent around $300 or so a month before we went organic for health reasons. Since then our grocery budget has doubled. But I don't think $600 a month is bad for organic, especially after reading that report! We eat lots of fresh produce in season and I make almost everything from scratch. I still use what coupons I can and stock up when I can but it's much harder to find healthy stuff dirt cheap. Costco is getting more and more natural and organic things lately, which helps. The boys have been living off our large snack stockpile for awhile, but it has almost run out, so I've been spending more lately to fill them up, and expect that to increase, unless I start couponing again just for their bad-for-you snacks lol. I really struggle with tha now though, when I read the labels on that junk!

 

[figment3258]

For us I used to spend 120$ a week including toiletries and that was 3 adults and 2 kids. But my bill has gone up s ton now because we eat only organic fruits and veggies, also we eat only organic meet after seeing all the antibiotic they pump animals with just to make them bigger. Its twice as much but a so worth it . We also eat less meet now but we do feel better. I would guess that we spend about 150 or so on just food.

 

[DawnM]

I typically budget $600 for our family of 5, but that includes all cleaning supplies, toiletries, and eating out. So groceries really only are about $475 at most.

I love this e-book:

http://www.budget101.com/budget101-free-ebook/free-ebook-groceries-200-month-2547.html

 

[WDWFWfan]

Seems high to me, we are a family of four and our weekly budget for groceries is $100 including household items.