How much do you spend on food weekly?

[LoveWDW]

I am amazed at $40 a week for a family of 4! $40 wouldn't cover produce and milk for me. I'd say for my husband and myself I spend $120 a week, including cleaning supplies and paper goods. We don't eat out much, once every few months, maybe. Now that we are eating reduced carb, the price has risen- no bread, potatoes, rice, noodles.

 

[QueenT]

OP here - Thanks for all the great responses, this is so helpful. What I have found is that I do a pretty good job in my initial grocery shopping, but then I go back to the store almost daily, by the end of 2 wks I have spent quite a bit. Right now we are spending about 200$ a week, so there is a lot of room for improvement.

I can see, like DisneySteve & others have mentioned, that it is difficult to make comparisons, since preferences, lifestyle, family size, and geography all play a part. I am fortunate to live in a metro area w/ several stores nearby, so I can shop sales.

We do a lot of cooking, but also seem to grab fast food often enough, I am the biggest culprit for that with work lunches.

I think I will plan a few changes & see how they work out:

1) I will include all food, including school lunches, work lunches, restaurant food, etc in my budget. That way I can adjust my choices & see the impact on my budget.

2) Make 1 week menus based on sales. DH is pretty choosy about quality ingredients so sales are important. I can do w/o meat but he can't.

3) Bring my lunch at work 3/4 days, or at least buy in bulk diet coke etc instead of getting it out of the vending machine

4) Use coupons. I may try the Grocery Game thing, not sure what it is but sounds interesting.

I am shooting for 150$ a week first go-round. I just paid for my plane tickets so I need to get thrifty!!

 

[nbodyhome]

I agree that it is hard to judge based on others. I used to spend less, now I'm sometimes as high as $100.00 a week for the two of us including pet food and household supplies (I try to budget $80 though). Though really, I could stop buying for a couple of weeks and we'd have plenty to eat. I am looking forward to buying a house next year and having a freezer to put larger items in.

On the average week, we really don't eat out at all - maybe we can average once a week, which might include a slice of pizza at the Boardwalk for me when I go down to GKTW to volunteer and stop on Disney property. But I don't buy lattes, coffee, rarely fast food, etc. I make my own smoothies, and have plenty of produce and such for myself on hand, as well as snacks for my husband. I do pay a little more for some items - like pistachios in a large box of 24, instead of just a canister, but I think it saves money (and calories) in the end.

Actually, I could probably go 3 weeks and not have to buy anything, though I'd run out of smoothie stuff pretty quickly. And I'm stocked on feminine products with all the great deals I got at BJ's until 2007! And I do use the food budget sometimes for other items like cards and a shirt or something if it's on a very, very deep clearance - so $80 might be about right per week. Not bad for essentially 42 meals and snacks, drinks, and such (though I actually eat 6 times or so per day). I do shop the warehouse clubs and sales (like buy 1 get 1) at the store, so I get great deals on lots of what I buy.

 

[nbodyhome]

Oh...I forgot to mention that there are things I do, like buying enriched breads that do cost more as well. I could certainly get cheap bread, but I'd rather get it with more fiber and such.

Eating healthier may cost a little more, but should save lots of money in the long run.

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

I spend about $450 a month on food and cleaning supplies. I buy most stuff on sale and stock up. (if cereal or toliet paper is on sale I will be 3 or 4 and stock up) We go to BJ's where I buy all my meats and cleaning supplies/tissues etc.

I have been using a monthly budget for 15 years and it works really great for me. One thing you need to remember is that if you go grocery shopping every week- Every 3rd month there is an extra week. For example Jan has 4 Fridays, Feb has 4 Fridays, but March will have 5 Fridays, so your budget for that month will be $125 higher just because of the extra month so instead of spending $450 that month I will be spending $525 to make up for the extra week. Also when you think of July (31 days) & August (31 days) you have 9 weeks. ( but also remember that you get an extra payday every 3rd month too (or every 6 months if you get paid bi weekly).

I also spend $175 on dinners out and me and DH get $100 each of whatever money that we spend on "whatever" we want-- DH usually buys lunch with his. The $450 doesn't include school lunches which will be about $80 a month next year.

The best advice I can give anyone about a budget is to use it as a GUIDE. Some months you will be under /some over. You need to have a realistic amount- if you can't do groceries for $100 a week increase it to $110 or $120. Use an average. If more of the things I buy are on sale in any given week I will be spending more at the market, but it tends to even out over the month so I wont be buying alot of stuff the following weeks! I find working with a monthly budget is easier for me. However, there are times when I do overspend-- but I brush myself off and restart.

Good luck. It doesn't come over night!!