Weekly/monthly grocery budget?

[usnuzuloose]

Just for two of us, adults. Our budget is around 80 a week. I find a lot of clearance for our meat. It includes all kinds of meat. We don't eat big meals. We even have breakfast for dinner. So when we buy it lasts a long time, outside of milk , bread and some fresh veggies.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Wow I sure feel like we get by cheap, I spend about $400/month for just DH & I and we don't eat out. I get about 30% of our food at Costco and the rest at a small local grocery store. We usually have shrimp of some sort once a week, tenderloin stir fry once a week, something with ground beef maybe 2x a week, chicken once a week, some other type of beef once a week (ribeye on grill, round steak, etc), then usually fish once a week. We have pork maybe every other week, I get the pork, round steak and ground beef at Costco. Our grocery store routinely has tenderloin on sale for $5.99/lb so that is a nice deal. We don't use much for canned goods or frozen. To supplement our main protein, I buy fresh fruits and veggies at our local grocery store or get in bulk at Costco if I know I'll use up before they go bad. Our prices must just be low (midwest), as our main meat is usually 1.5 lbs then 2 sides. We eat big dinners. But we don't have snack food in the house. Usually just a bag of pretzels, maybe a couple cartons of ice cream.

 

[powellrj]

We have 3 adults here now, but will have 4 soon when DD comes home from college. We spend way too much on food, we also have a unique situation. I am in a wheelchair and don't drive so I have to rely on others to get groceries which is usually on line. I can no longer lift food in and out of the oven, so oven meals are out. I do use the crockpot and dh will pressure cook things for me. We eat too much meat, but it's easy. We usually have a meat and 2 or 3 every night and DS takes leftovers to work for his lunch. We usually spend $175-200 every week.

 

[angierae]

$100/week for two adults. Sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. Lately I've been picking up cat food in the grocery order to save a stop so when we need that, that'll make that week a bit more expensive, etc.

DH and I only eat dinner together 3-4 nights a week due to his job, so it's a lot of stuff for quick one person meals - sandwich fixings, eggs, etc. Not always a full dinner since neither of us wants to cook for one person, and when he works nights they feed him at work.

 

[oldtink]

DH and I retired to a townhouse rental and thus have no lawn. As a result, I have planters all over that allow me to grow much produce through out spring, summer, and fall. Our grocery bill varies dramatically based on when I have available produce. On other factor is that we are also in many evening organizations that involve concerts, so we find around the holidays and in the spring, we are needing to go out to dinner more often. That also affects the over all cost. Highest monthly bill is around $400-500 for 2, and can drop to $300-400 for "produced supplemented" months.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I cut $200 a month off my grocery bill by shopping at Aldi almost exclusively now. They are carrying more and more products and rarely do I need to go elsewhere. The prices of their produce and meat can't be beat in our area.

Good to know that Aldi continues to improve their selection. I used to shop there, but when I moved to NC, they weren't in our area. Now, we have one opening "this spring"--which must mean June 19th, by the looks of the construction! It's literally walking distance from my house. I'm very excited--I love shopping there.

I have found that, when you move to a new area, it's takes a year or so to really find the spots for the great deals (day-old bakeries, good markdowns, etc.) We've been here almost 2 years, and I'm still finding new sources here and there.

One thing I don't do is gardening. I've tried, and I always start with the best of intentions, but I lack follow-through. So, I content myself with U-pick places of finding other cheap sources for produce. I do have a couple containers of fresh herbs, though.

 

[verleniahall]

$400-$500 depending on the month for a family of 2 adults - little/no processed foods at home (we do eat out a couple times per payday)

I am on weight watchers, so TONS of fruits and veggies - plus once a month DH has drill and he brings his own food to eat - espically if they are in the field

 

[verleniahall]

We have 3 adults here now, but will have 4 soon when DD comes home from college. We spend way too much on food, we also have a unique situation. I am in a wheelchair and don't drive so I have to rely on others to get groceries which is usually on line. I can no longer lift food in and out of the oven, so oven meals are out. I do use the crockpot and dh will pressure cook things for me. We eat too much meat, but it's easy. We usually have a meat and 2 or 3 every night and DS takes leftovers to work for his lunch. We usually spend $175-200 every week.

Can you send one of the kids or the husband to the store - that seems really high to be spending per week

 

[Burgundy Rose]

$300 a month for just me! That means $75 a week (including one meal that I eat out, and a new wine every other week). I don't eat processed foods. My boyfriend (with whom I live, but we don't eat the same things and shop separately, everyone tells us it's weird but I don't see why). I have vegetarian phases when I just can't stomach meat or fish (I can feel one's coming) for several months (the longest lasted 2 years) and my budget is reduced by half, which is insane. I feel like 75 is a lot but I don't see what I could cut. I suppose I could do without my obligatory fancy cheese every week (I try a new cheese every week) but what would life be?

 

[Judique]

I have no idea what we are spending. I am now inspired to track it starting tomorrow.

 

[lorac4disney]

Three adults here. We budget $200 per month for groceries, but we rarely spend that much. DH works for a food manufacturing company so we get a lot of meat (mostly chicken and some pork) and frozen food for free. Additionally, he gets a $100 perfect attendance coupon every three months which we use at the steeply discounted company store. I can fill an entire deep freezer off of just one $100 coupon.

We also have a small grocery store that sells whole bulk beef for less than $2 per pound. It costs extra to have them slice it up into steaks or roasts. Fortunately, I have a meat slicer and a vacuum packer so I slice them up myself while freezing them into one meal portions. Their sales are infrequent so I try to stock up when I can. DH hunts so we usually have a full supply of venison. I fish (and we live by a lake) so we have plenty of fish. DH even gets free fish bait from his work place (liver for catfishing). We also have chickens for eggs, goats for milk and meat, and grass fed beef that we raise ourselves. Between the meat slicer, meat grinder, and vacuum packer, we are able to handle a wide variety of our own processing.

On top of that, we grow most of our own vegetables. I do have to work on producing more fruit because we are having to buy it while we wait for our fruit trees to start producing.

Most of our food budget is spent on sugar, coffee, tea, spices, and condiments, but we do spend some on lunch foods, snacks, and drinks for DH to take to work with him for his lunches. We splurge on his take from home lunches a bit because he is the worst about wanting to eat out if he doesn't have enough junk food to satisfy him. He has pledged to get it together on this part of it, but we will see. If he does, we could easily cut our food budget in half just off of him and his lunches alone.

 

[Sagginit]

We spend about $1000 per month. There are two of us at home full time and a daughter in college - most of her groceries are bought by me and are included in that.

I think it is too high, but my husband has a fruit, nut and wine problem. Fruit problem goes like this - he is in a store. Sees cherries. They are $10 a pound. He says ,"Cherries!" Buys two pounds. Eats half a pound before they go soft. Tosses the rest. Grrr. Nut problem goes like this - he is in a store. Sees exotic nut blend. They are $15 a pound. Buys two pounds. Eats a few. Decides the mango/wasabi spice mixture is not for him. Tosses the rest. Grrr. Wine problem goes like this - he is online. Reads about some wine. Hunts it down in a store. It is $25 a bottle. Buys it and three other "interesting" bottles. Drinks all of each of them - because he's not tossing the wine if he doesn't like it.

My husband has a hot sauce (thankfully they last long), coffee, chip, and nut problem too. At one point I took all his bags of flavored chips that were stale and piled them up in front of him at once and he realized how much he was actually wasting. Now he let's me pick out the chips as I pick flavors both of us will eat. I put all his hot sauces together in one compartment on the door, and when he can't fit anymore in its a hint he has to use up what he has before buying more. All his coffees get stored together in a produce drawer. I am somewhat able to keep that moving with the oldest ones being used up as he lets me make his coffee 50% of the time. Overall he thinks I buy too much on sale but he spends just as much on a few impulse items he might not really need. Oh and the fruit.... he has been known to take a piece of fruit to and from work for days at a time. I now try to cut up the fruit and give it to him post meals to make sure it gets used and only buy hearty fruit that can last longer such as apples, pears, or bananas if its for him. I buy myself berries and tropical fruits as I make sure to eat them

My motto to him is it's not wasted when you finally throw it out, its wasted when you let it sit there (because yes he lets things go stale and them refuses to let me thrown them out for weeks).

 

[TwoMisfits]

Mine has the "open the new shiny stuff" problem. If we have an open bag and a closed bag, of course you have to open the new bag b/c it's somehow better EVEN IF IT'S THE SAME THING!

Comment of this weekend. I asked him to make my son a PBJ and I tell him to use the "old" bread, b/c I had just bought a new loaf from the store that day. He goes to the old bag and says "well, it's sure great we saved this loaf" (it had 2 slices and an end piece in it) and I said "it sure is b/c if I'd have thrown it out every time it gets that low, we'd be spending 10% more just on bread b/c there are only about 20 slices to start with"...and I didn't hear another word about it...

 

[barkley]

Between the meat slicer, meat grinder, and vacuum packer, we are able to handle a wide variety of our own processing.

we have all 3 as well and use them frequently to take advantage of sales on meat which we batch up to suit our likes. i watch the sales and if there's a great deal on a cut of beef we can cut or grind into another we stock up. just a couple of weeks ago one store had beautiful boneless cross rib roasts on sale for less than $2.50 per pound. I grabbed several-a few of which i froze whole (after putting them into vacuum seal bags to better protect than the thin cling wrap the grocery store uses) but we took some and made sliced meat (for stroganoffs, fajitas and such) and ground the rest (i can't get decent ground beef for less than well over $3.50 per pound).

with the vacuum sealer i can take advantage of 'value pack' sales and batch them into individual premeasured bags that are ideal for meal planning. dh thought i was nuts when i came home with 40 POUNDS of chicken thighs and drumsticks last week-but when i told him it was on sale for .67 cents a pound, and we netted just shy of 30 vacuum bags-well he agreed that around .95 cents per meal was a very good deal.

for those that don't want to deal with slicing or grinding their own meat-i'll just mention that I've yet to ever encounter a grocery store with a butcher that won't cut or grind one cut of meat into another for a customer (free of charge). I've had them do roasts into ground beef, stew meats, strips, slices...

 

[LovesTimone]

I find that grocery shopping is so different, some people just pickup whatever they need in the grocery store which makes the grocery bill a lot higher, you know including paper, cleaning, laundry products, OTC medicine, foil/baggies.

So for DH and I on food we spend around 450.00 a month, then at the warehouse store which we go every couple of months normally 8 to 10 weeks, its about 300.00 to 400.00 depending on time of the year and what we have coming up, At places like Wal'mart or Target about 50 bucks a month if we need something, and its on sale.

 

[froggibabey]

There's 5 of us, my husband and I, 12 year old girl (who eats more than a HS quarterback, I swear), 9 year old and 4 year old, plus my two nieces on the weekend who are 12 and 10. We spent about $500-600 a month on groceries. That being said, we do have a good garden in the summer, we'll use maybe 1 chicken breast for meal, eat a lot of rice, grains, pasta etc.

We do eat a LOT of fruit and veggies, thankfully the garden helps with that in the summer, and we freeze/can basically whatever we can otherwise.

I thought we were kind of high on groceries, until I saw this thread. Now I'm wondering how the heck I do it LOL

 

[MomToOne]

$60 per week for one adult female and one teenage female, so $240 or 300 per month depending on whether there are 4 or 5 weekends in the month.

That amount covers almost all dinners (we eat out maybe 1 dinner every 2 weeks), plus breakfast and lunch for us both. We're not perfect by any means, but we eat reasonably healthy. DD17 is an aspiring vegetarian - she eats what I cook for dinner (which is usually meat/fish) because I'm not cooking two different meals, but she almost always eats vegetarian for breakfast and lunch. So lots of fruits, vegetables and tofu!

We usually come in a bit under the $60, and I could actually go a bit tighter - but I don't have to these days, so I don't. Meat is bought on sale and frozen, vegetables and fruits are bought mostly in season. That really keeps the cost down. It means lots of oranges and squash during the winter, but it makes us appreciate summer all the more!

That budget is strictly for food. I pick up paper product, cleaning supplies, pet food, etc. elsewhere and it's not accounted for in that budget.

I've found one of the biggest things that influences your costs is where you shop. I do most of my shopping at a store 8 miles away because it's 20-30% cheaper than the stores closer to my house. It's not as fancy, but it's clean and I'll take a good bargain over fancy any day. I also shop regularly at an Asian market - some (but not all) fruits and vegetables are better prices there, and the tofu is dramatically cheaper! I also really, really like the refridgerated noodle isle...

 

[goodeats]

HCOL (Southern California) - 2 adults, 2 kids . We average $900/month for food and alcohol (no paper or grooming products). Actually, that's lower then I thought it would be. We don't eat out a ton and eat pretty healthfully. I'm not inclined to try to reduce it unless we were in a financial hardship.

 

[Sundowner2]

Wow...I would LOVE to have the grocery budget some of you guys have! We are 2 adults, 2 kids and I shop weekly with $65. I've got $280 a month allotted, in case I go over a tiny bit. That includes some, but not most household goods, like TP and shampoo. I've got an extra $50 a month just in case for that.I cook 7 dinners a week, lunches are leftover or what nots, and breakfast is cereal, eggs, pancakes or cereal bars sorts of things. Its hard, but we manage. I just start trimming back when I know a holiday is coming. My husband's a teacher in a rural area, and until I get back to work more than a few hours a week, that's what we've got! Works good though, I am mindful of stocking up on sales, and try to do meals that are inexpensive, but still enjoyable.

 

[bdcp]

DH and I and occasional visits from our grown sons and DIL, I spend $140/week at the store and DH goes to Costco about once every 6 weeks for paper products and a few odds and ends and usually spends another $150. DH has a banana everyday on his cereal (he eats Kashi and Nature's Path) and takes an orange most days to work with his lunch so I buy those every week. I buy what we want, not what's on sale including wine. I did that when I was a SAHM and I refuse to do it again. We live in a high COL area and we eat out dinner at least once a week and lunch a couple of times. Heck, my parents who are 79 and retired spend almost as much as I do. I knew a family of 4 back in about 1994 that spent $1000/month on groceries. They ate seafood, bought only sirloin and other expensive cuts of meat, but that was their choice and they could afford to but I don't know what 23 years ago translates to today. My point is grocery costs vary so much from family to family and by location that there's no way to really compare it without doing a true study.