How much do you spend on groceries?

[neatokimmo]

i have a friend who was wigging out because her grocery budget needed to be trimmed. The new number is $25 higher than our budget for the same number of people.

So that got me curious (ok nosey), how much do you spend per week, per person?

I’ll start, I am a couponing, loss leader buying, woohoo sticker hunting shopper at Kroger. It’s a game. Occasionally I will branch out to Priceless. They have weird stuff sometimes dirt cheap, but I can’t meal plan around them (unreliable quality and pricing). I no longer shop at Aldi, their produce goes bad too quickly and their greens prices are really bad.

I spend $25 pp per week or less. Our half cow does add about $15 a week average to our costs. But for the last several weeks I’ve been doing $17-18 pp because of stellar deals.

I could still do better, I throw away food and that kills me. I often wonder how much money we throw away.

 

[DLgal]

Define groceries.

I buy a lot of household items along with food at Target, so I don't separate out the food costs. I spend about $1200/month for a family of 4 on everything...food, cleaning supplies, toiletries, paper products.

I don't coupon. I buy what we need when we need it. I care more about quality than value.

 

[neatokimmo]

Define groceries.

I buy a lot of household items along with food at Target, so I don't separate out the food costs. I spend about $1200/month for a family of 4 on everything...food, cleaning supplies, toiletries, paper products.

I don't coupon. I buy what we need when we need it. I care more about quality than value.

Our grocery column is only for food items humans eat. Pets, cleaners, and bath items are in a different category.

Quality means different things to different people. We eat a lot of fresh produce and grass fed beef.

 

[WDW Traveler]

Now that my daughter is in college I spend an average of about $100 a week for just my husband and I. And that is cooking meals on average about 5/6 nights a week and work lunches for 4 days. I never skimp and buy what I buy, some weeks it's $80 some weeks it's $120. When DD is home I average about $150 a week.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Probably $225 a week for two of us. We buy some prepared foods which can add up, along with fruits, veggies and meat.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

Around $150-$200 weekly for my DW, DD, and I.

"Groceries" for us includes cleaning supplies, paper supplies (TP and paper towels), laundry supplies, etc... not just food.

 

[BLAZEY]

About $120/ week for 3 of us. Includes pets (2 cats) paper and household stuff. We all take our lunch to work/school each day. We eat dinner at home most nights. Sometimes it's $95 sometimes $150. depends on what on sale. I do stock up on stuff we use regularly if its on sale.

 

[HeatherC]

Family of 5 with grown kids ages 17,20 and 23. Spend about $175 a week including household supplies like soap, toilet paper, etc..

Lately, I have been doing really good with the food budget and it also helps that the kids are not home for dinners every night...either at school or work.

 

[ShayBells]

Sometimes I do good. Sometimes like the other day I went for iced tea and a couple snacks and spent $130

I’m going to say for me and my son about $100 -$150 a week but that’s food and household items. Probably under $100 separating it out. Maybe.

 

[tvguy]

$41 last week per person after subtracting things like the $16 bottle of eye drops, cat food, etc.
We hit the Neighborhood Walmart and the local chain once a week, and looking at my receipts it looks at about a third of my typical bill is for non food items like paper towels, laundry soap, deodorant, etc.

 

[dosekies]

I try to keep my trip each week to about $80 for the two of us.

 

[tasha99]

It's changed a lot for us as my kids moved out last year (but still come home frequently for meals and my husband is cutting drinking. Our wine bill used to be outrageous. I'm sure it's still over $50/pp though.

 

[neatokimmo]

The reason for us that food is separate from things like shampoo, is I don’t pay a whole lot for those items so I don’t really have a limit $$ wise. Example, kroger keeps running mega sales on Pantene and they will have a $5 off three digital. So you get three bottles for $4. Or they do fructis (sp?) mega for 2.39 and there are $4 off two coupons. Both of those brands work great with my kid’s curly hair so I make an effort to stockpile them.

Two tubes of Colgate toothpaste were free just last week with the digital coupon. Laundry detergent is usually a buck.

 

[dylans mommy]

We are at about $45 per person a week and have a family of 4. Our grocery bill includes toiletries, household cleaning products, medicine (over the counter) and dog food/treats. We live in a very expensive area so when we moved here our budget went up over $200 a month.

 

[Klayfish]

Anywhere between $180-$240/week for 5 of us. Depends on if something is really on sale, etc...

 

[barkley]

The reason for us that food is separate from things like shampoo, is I don’t pay a whole lot for those items so I don’t really have a limit $$ wise.

that's the same reason i don't separate food out as an individual budget item. i don't really have a $ limit just a set dollar amount i like to keep all our 'household' expenses at per month. my 'household budget' is a fairly broad category and includes groceries, prescriptions/otc meds, pet supplies, toiletries, gasoline/minor car servicing, minor yard/house upkeep (wasp traps, weed spray, lite bulbs, batteries...), entertainment and to some extent clothing.

what i spend in one category one month may not occur in the next or i may have much higher spending in one area so i may curtail spending in another.

groceries on their own greatly change from month to month b/c i will take advantage of sales and stock up such that i won't have to buy a particular item or category of items for several months. i posted on another thread about taking advantage of a ground beef sale last month and buying over 40 pounds-that will last us a good while but we don't eat ground beef exclusively (though my son wouldn't mind it a bit) so yesterday i found smaller rump roasts for $2.98 per pound and large pork tenderloins for $1.99 per pound so i got 6 of the roasts (about 2 pounds each) and a 6 pound tenderloin (the roasts will be cut up for soup/stews/chili...tenderloin will make several pork chops and packages of sausage). i stocked up on all things chicken earlier in the month when it was going for less than a dollar a pound so i'm set with meat for months. last month target had a great deal on paper goods so i'm stocked up with tp/paper towels and puffs. the next few months when my grocery spending is lower i'll earmark those funds to take advantage of future needs/sales.

 

[tzolkin]

My oldest is out of the house, but I have left my budget at $600/month. However, I just went through the last few months and found we spent an average of $471/month for 4 people.

One thing to take into consideration with grocery budgets is that for many there is a big difference between "grocery" and "food". Most people I know eat out multiple times per week so even if their grocery bill were lower than mine, their total "food" bill for the month is significantly more. (We hardly ever go out to eat unless we are traveling.)

As others have mentioned, some include other household items with their groceries. I do try to separate mine out for the most part when keeping track.

One thing we do buy a ton of is craft beer. That is actually a significant percentage of our "grocery" budget. DH and I do drink it ourselves, but we also host groups at our house weekly where much of it is consumed. So, someone else may consider something like that to be "Hospitality" or another category rather than groceries.

i have a friend who was wigging out because her grocery budget needed to be trimmed. The new number is $25 higher than our budget for the same number of people.

I know someone who was teaching a Dave Ramsay class who mentioned that they cut their food bill by OVER $1200 per month. I was absolutely shocked that a family could even spend $1200 on food in a month so the concept of cutting the expense by that much was mind-blowing to me.

 

[morgan98]

I have a general budget while shopping at the two groceries stores I go to. However, sometimes due to good sales on household products, etc, some of my grocery bill is things I would normally buy at Target. So, my grocery bill may be a bit higher, the longer I can go between Target runs the better.

Anyway, I spend probably $70 or so on actual food per person per week. However, I really like to cook and I do buy expensive food for our weekend meals. We do not eat out much - food is better at home. But I will buy a pound of restaurant quality dry scallops that are HUGE and fresh for $20 or a pound of jumbo lump crab meat for $20. This also includes our breakfasts, lunches, snacks and we (especially my husband) do not really eat anything pre-prepared, etc. Some weeks are more like $130, some are $160. I also buy an insane amount of produce and fruit. I also prefer to eat fish and meat that has never been frozen. Every once in awhile, I will buy an extra fresh piece of salmon and freeze it, or maybe an extra pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs if they are on sale, but this is not normal. This also includes a good quality coffee for the French press, etc.

We have the money and this is not an area I skimp on.

Most things that are on big sales at grocery stores, we really do not use.

 

[lovin'fl]

I think the poll numbers are super low and I can't see how anyone could do it for $20pp per week. That's $80/week for a family of 4. I spend about $80-100 per trip to store and there are just two of us now. I go about once a week now but when two college DDs are home on break, I go twice a week at least. I also get two meals week delivered in meal delivery kits and we eat out about twice a week.

**but I am including all products such as laundry detergent, cleaners, toiletries, dog food and paper products.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I think the poll numbers are super low and I can't see how anyone could do it for $20pp per week. That's $80/week for a family of 4. I spend about $80-100 per trip to store and there are just two of us now. I go about once a week now but when two college DDs are home on break, I go twice a week at least. I also get two meals week delivered in meal delivery kits and we eat out about twice a week.

The bigger the family, the easier it usually is to have a lower per person number. Also, those that garden a lot or those that eat out a lot (to include subsidized things like school lunches or paid work lunches) would both be able to be very low. Also, those that are vegetarian or keep meat proteins very low (say $2/lb or less) would be better able to be low, since that's a big per meal difference...

I mean, if I and my family were vegetarian, I could easily go that low with the stores around me that go so low on produce loss leaders...with tofu, beans, pasta, rices, and nuts cheap and some Aldi's loss leaders for dairy/milk/eggs, and I could probably swing it...but we're not vegetarian (and nowhere close b/c my family inhales lunch meat and does meat/fish proteins at dinner)...so, we spend more...