How much do you spend on groceries a month?

[JanaDee]

$300 per month and it includes paper products. 3 adults and we eat breakfast at home, pack lunches, and dinner at home. We eat out about twice a month. I cook from scratch 95 percent of the time and have been doing it so long it is old hat. Most months are actually under budget. We eat very well. I do use coupons but not excessively. Besides coffee, tp, foil, etc it is rare we step into any of the middle aisles of the grocery. I shop at Kroger but get a lot of my,meat from a local grocery chain called Remke's, I like their meat a little better.

If you are making 84 meals a month for 3 adults for $300, you really need to share how that is possible.

 

[JanaDee]

Hmm, I thought I was way too extravagant with my food budget, but after reading some of these posts, I think I'm doing okay?

2 adults and 17 yo boy

I budget $800/month for food = $400 groceries and $400 eating out

Basically it's $100 per week for my weekly grocery trip and $100 for weekend "fun" money because I don't like cooking on the weekends...

That is probably pretty close to ours, too.

 

[stsomewhere]

this does not include meals out/take out, it does include paper products and HBA. It also does not include vacation weeks. I used to be able to keep to $600-$800, but prices have gone up and I have increased our organics. We buy a lot of organic and have been using local supermarkets, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Aldi, BJ's, and Costco, mainly. I try to find what we buy for the lowest cost at one of the many stores I go to. Luckily where we live there are a lot of grocery chains close by, but the running to 5 stores in one day gets exhausting some weeks.....

Same here. 2 adults and 2 teens

 

[Liberty Belle]

I guess we're not doing too bad, especially considering we hardly ever eat out. I think this month I've gotten lunch out once and we ate out as a family once, but some months we don't even do that.

 

[AileenGP]

I spend about $300 a month for groceries (and even that makes me cringe) for our family of 2 adults and 2 kids (ages 6/2.5) and sometimes an additional adult (DH's cousin is living with us while she's in college but she only eats dinner with us 50% of the time.) We also spend another 100 or so for eating out. I do not include DH's random impulse buys like chips or Gatorade on his way home from work/gym.

DH eats at work for free so he usually only eats one meal at home 5-6 days a week. I pack lunch and 2 snacks for DD6 every school day and I feel like the kids eat all the time.

The only time we exceed that amount is when DH (a chef) gets inspired and goes grocery shopping and spends $50+ in groceries for one meal (if anyone is married to a chef, they know what I'm talking about).

I primarily shop at Target (with RedCard/Cartwheel) with trips to the 99 cent store. I also do a monthly trip to the asian grocery store for meats and weekly trips to the Farmer's Market for produce. I do not meal plan ahead, I do not coupon, but I do allow sales to drive my shopping list. It's not unheard of for me to make meals that cost around $2.50 for the 4/5 of us.

 

[kathy884]

We are a family of three -- two 50 something adults and DS 19 who is attending our local community college. Our grocery bills typically range between $100 and $130 a week, so lets say 4 1/2 weeks are in a month so $450 to $555 a month. All breakfasts in, six dinners a week in, and most lunches out.

Note: When I say we eat lunches out (for me that's company cafeteria, for DS community college cafeteria, and for DH two lunches our per week with three with food brought from home). We also typically all have one nice meal out a week, usually Saturday night which can range from moderately priced places like Steak n Shake, Sweet Tomatoes, Olive Garden to higher end dining (usually only about six to eight higher end dining meals per year, though, and that's usually when we are already a little bit dressed up to go to the theatre. We have season tickets to the rep and occasionally go see a traveling broadway show.) When I say higher end dining I'm talking about a place where you don't wear jeans, and where a meal for two runs between $50 to $85 including tax and tip. We don't usually order alcoholic drinks, so that just includes coffee for DH.

 

[superme80]

If I am completely honest we spend about $700-$800 a month in groceries, paper products, and diapers and pull ups. The kids rarely go to eat out. I have a once a month dinner date with a friend. DH will get something for lunch a few times a week, but it is less than $20 for the week. I cook from scratch most of the time. I shop at the local butcher when I can and the Farmer's Market. I blame Pintrest for a lot of my cooking expenses.

 

[aprilchem]

Our family of 5 (two adults, three children) spends about $200-$225 a week. That's right at the USDA's "low cost" food plan amount for 2014 (which is where I try to keep my budget - we used to use the "thrifty" numbers but decided to bump it up a bit).

We rarely use processed foods (meaning no cookies, crackers, frozen meals, snack foods, etc) , and I cook most everything (including all of our bread products) from scratch. We spend about $60-$80 a week on fresh fruits and veggies. The $200 figure includes bulk purchases of coconut oil, wheat berries, flaxseed, etc. on a periodic basis, a quarter cow once a year, a pig once a year, and dog food and all our personal care items.

 

[NokOnHarts]

I am also really disheartened by our food bills. I coupon like crazy and do all my grocery shopping at Super Target (which is cheaper than our local grocery stores), but we still end up spending about 700 a month (me, DH, and two boys aged 1 and 4). I've been trying to keep it under $600 with no success.

I meal plan and we have virtually no food waste, I've also stopped buying organic fruits/veggies and meats. The only organic I still buy is milk, and that is only for the kids.

I think I'm just going to have to find cheaper recipes, or maybe start shopping at Aldi?

I get really disheartened too with the food budget if i feel it's too high. We are also a family of 4 (2 adults, two kids (6) and (2)) and we average around $400 a month including most paper goods. The tips I have used that really have helped is limiting myself to only shopping 1 time per week. No matter what, every time I break that rule I end up buying things I didn't really need. I plan weekly meals around what is already in the pantry and fridge so my list of things to buy is smaller for the week. We plan 2 meals per week that are "leftover" meals, so we only plan 3-5 dinners per week instead of 7. I don't buy junk food or soda and we make our own desserts. I only buy things if they are on sale at the grocery store and buy what is on sale at costco whenever possible. We eat all our meals at home (except for occasional eating out on the weekends) and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Less processed food, more homemade definitely helps the budget, too. I think the hardest discipline is eating what is already in the house and getting creative with what you have, but it does help the budget.

I saw someone else mention the site www.5dollardinners.com on another thread. She has some great recipes on there that are simple, only a few ingredients, which is helpful. Not sure if they're truly $5 but they're cheap and pretty healthy. I've really enjoyed the ones I've tried.

 

[nancycg56]

Another couple of sites that are great are www.budgetbytes.com and www.goodcheapeats.com. I especially love Budget Bytes ~ everything I have made from there has been delicious!

 

[NokOnHarts]

Another couple of sites that are great are www.budgetbytes.com and www.goodcheapeats.com. I especially love Budget Bytes ~ everything I have made from there has been delicious!

Thanks! Bookmarking these.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

We have myself & my boyfriend and my 7yr old daughter. We budget (and stick to) $300 a month in groceries and only eat out once per week (at additional cost).

 

[Richard M Nixon]

Everyone who has posted their super low budgets, you are absolutely impressive. I don't know how you manage to save so much, but hats off to you for your incredible sense of budgeting. My eyes widen every time I see a poster managing $100 a week on food, I don't think I could force spending that low no matter how hard I try.

 

[threeboysmom]

To me, I'm seeing a lot of people that spend around $800/month REGARDLESS of whether they make everything from scratch and never eat out or whether they eat out a lot (like me)!

So apparently, it's not much difference price wise eating at home or eating out. If that's the case, I'm eating out MORE OFTEN!!

 

[KKB]

To me, I'm seeing a lot of people that spend around $800/month REGARDLESS of whether they make everything from scratch and never eat out or whether they eat out a lot (like me)!

So apparently, it's not much difference price wise eating at home or eating out. If that's the case, I'm eating out MORE OFTEN!!

For us I think it is about $800/month--in ADDITION to eating out once a week or so!!

 

[threeboysmom]

Everyone who has posted their super low budgets, you are absolutely impressive. I don't know how you manage to save so much, but hats off to you for your incredible sense of budgeting. My eyes widen every time I see a poster managing $100 a week on food, I don't think I could force spending that low no matter how hard I try.

$100/week might sound impressive, but I seriously doubt anyone is getting 7 breakfasts/lunches/dinners out of that.

My budget is $100 for groceries only (and another $100 for eating out). However, that only includes:

Breakfast
2x a week (Saturday and Sunday)
DH and I skip breakfast M-F
Son eats a box of cereal during week. Minimal cost.

Lunch
I don't even know how to factor in lunches. If there's leftovers, I'll bring them to work; otherwise DH and I buy lunch at work
Son eats Ramen or makes a sandwich at home. Minimal cost.

Dinner
I cook 4x a week. This is where the bulk of my $100 goes. Probably $70ish is dinner cost. The rest is staples/snacks/paper products.

Like I said, I may only budget $100 for GROCERIES, but I also easily spend $100 eating out per week also.

 

[threeboysmom]

For us I think it is about $800/month--in ADDITION to eating out once a week or so!!

Holy crappola!!! I feel REALLY good about my food budget now!

 

[kmb584]

We're a household of 2: myself and 5-year-old daughter. I spend on average $350-$400 per month, but right now that's closer to $500 as I've been buying all of our meats at the farmer's market. The quality far surpasses that of the grocery store but it comes at a higher cost (which I don't mind paying).

 

[NokOnHarts]

$100/week might sound impressive, but I seriously doubt anyone is getting 7 breakfasts/lunches/dinners out of that.

It's actually quite possible! We spend about $50-75 per month eating out, that's it. The rest is in our $400 for food for the whole month, including paper products (TP, paper towels, etc). We eat breakfast, lunch and dinners from food at home (minus the $50-75 we do per month for eating out). We eat well and buy organic where we can (mostly fruits, veggies). It's work to make it possible but it sure is being done. We are 2 adults, 2 kids. And no, we do NOT live in an "affordable" area. Our taxes more than reflect that! Don't get me started on that...

 

[weeniecat2442]

im impressed with people who are feeding families of four on 150-200 a week!
its myself and boyfriend and we were eating out A LOT. I recently went through my bank account and realized I, alone was spending over $400 a month eating meals out and getting coffees...adding in what he is spending too and we were almost spending another months worth of rent on going out for meals.
what a waste!
ive been doing weekly meal plans for the past few weeks and we have treated ourselves to order a pizza one nite.
im averaging about 130 at the grocery store per week and that includes TP, PT and usually some sort of cleaning product.