How Much Do You Spend On Groceries?

[Nomi]

Hey, this may be a sort of odd question, but as a student just striking out on her own I'm beginning the wonderful adventure that is budgeting (yay). Anyhoo, I was just wondering, how much (roughly) do you spend on groceries in a month, for how many people?

 

[Macca1111]

Too much, now. I used to be able to spend about $80 a month for me to eat well, but it's probably closer to $150-200 now. Good luck starting out!

 

[barkley]

Hey, this may be a sort of odd question, but as a student just striking out on her own I'm beginning the wonderful adventure that is budgeting (yay). Anyhoo, I was just wondering, how much (roughly) do you spend on groceries in a month, for how many people?

hard to say-it keeps going up. also would'nt be a good comparison for a single person cuz i assume you won't be packing multiple lunches daily or cooking up large batches of stuff to ensure left overs.

when you are making your budget take into consideration that your initial costs in setting up your kitchen pantry/fridge will be higher than the on-going costs since you will need to buy staples that while more costly are'nt usualy replenished as frequently as your regular food items-

spices (very expensive unless you go the dollar store route-would'nt advise )

cooking oils (catch olive oil when it's on sale), non stick sprays

condiments (you might want to be selective-it's lousy when you spend a chunk of change on something like tarter sauce use it a couple of times and then go back to it only to find it's been so long it's gone bad)...

when you do your budget also take into consideration that you might not be able to use up items that come in larger packages with better sales prices so unless you can handle tossing out food (i could'nt as a single-my mom drilled it into my head about those starving children) you might have to buy the smaller more expensive packages.

 

[GothTink]

We generally spend about $800 a month for a family of four. One of those four being a teenager, who seems to eat enough for three people.

 

[joviroxx]

Family of 4 here with 2 kids, 7 & 9 . probably spend around $750-$800/month. I save money however by shopping at SuperTarget and Walmarts

 

[Mom2Nick]

Family of 5 we spend $240 - $270 weekly.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

$900 for family of 6 - but the baby doesn't cost anything...yet.

 

[Jennifer S]

You guys are making me feel better. I thought I was the only one who spent so much on groceries. We are a family of 4- kids ages 12 and 8. I spend about $700 a month.

 

[klynn]

We are a family of 4 (2 kids DS15 and DD11). We spend $600/month.

 

[Free4Life11]

I'm a single male and spend about $150 a month on groceries, however, I also eat out quite a bit. Buying in bulk does me NO good! I either end up throwing stuff out because it goes bad or I just get sick of it! The smaller packages ARE more expensive, but I end up wasting a lot less.

 

[Yen Sid]

Not sure how much we spend all together but for family of 6 it is not cheap, we hit all the stores for sales, have BJ's membership and there is a store near us where we get our meats really cheap, the good stuff too, we get delmonico and NY strip steak for the same price as crap steak at the grocery store.

 

[DawnM]

We used to be really frugal and spend about $80-$100/week for groceries, but DH has asked me to increase it as we weren't eating as healthy with that. We now budget about $150-$175/week. That includes toiletries and $25/week for eating out (we sometimes go over, but we aren't on a strict budget as we do have funds.)

We are family of 5. My 2 oldest have started ordering adult meals at places like McDonald's!

Dawn

 

[happygirl]

over 800.00 a month but that includes everything.

 

[just4today]

Family of 3: about $600/month

 

[Momto3Girls&Max]

We're a family of 6 and spend $500-$600 a month on groceries, toiletries, cleaning products, etc.

 

[java]

Family of 6- one teenage son=about $1000 a month.

 

[Mickeyistheman]

Single woman here and I would say that I spend about $300 a month and that does include tolietries as well.

I coupon as much as I can and it really does save and I always make a list, I never used to but I really had to budget, Also you will notice the more healthy the food the more expensive it is and that infuriates me. If we are the fattest country then why isn't the good food affordable?

I mean Whole Foods is great but the prices are insane. Trader Joe's is a little bit better but not by much.

Good Luck to you.

 

[Darcy03231]

You'll find a big range as prices vary all over the country. Some areas also offer double and triple coupons which can really help the budget. I live in the Northeast and there are no stores in my area that offer double and/or triple coupons. I really don't use coupons much as most of the time you have to buy three of four of a brand name item to get $$ and I find the store brands are much less expensive, even with the coupon.

We're a family of 4 (DH & I, DD-17 & DS - 15). I average $130-150/wk at the grocery store. That includes all of our cleaning supplies, paper products, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc. I've found what really helps our budget is meal planning. I look at the flyers, see what's on sale and plan our meals around that. I also have a freezer and stock up on meats when on sale. A couple of weeks ago boneless skinless chicken breasts were $1.89/lb. I bought 40 lbs, brought it home, packaged into meal size packages (we have a food sealer) and froze them. I do the same thing for hamburg, pork, steak, etc. Some weeks I don't buy meat all all if nothing is on sale. I try to spend no more than $2.50/lb on meat and $3.99/lb on fish. I also try to spend no more than $1.50 on fruit. It can be a challenge at times.

 

[Chicago526]

$110 per week for me and DH, who eats enough for two. You could say I'm feeding three. We eat mostly organic and I cook from scratch, very little processed foods. This is food only, no household cleaning supplies or health/beauty products or dog products.

Good luck starting out!

 

[jamimb]

I feel so much better after reading your posts! We are a family of four (two dd 6,13) and we spend somewhere between $400 and 500 on groceries a month. Until reading this I thought that was high. That includes all toiletries, makeup, and cleaning supplies.