How much do you spend on food each month?

[Anonymous]

After reading a post from someone working on a budget, I am curious what other people in the DC area find they are spending on food/drink per month. I'm not counting things like household, cleaning, personal items like shampoo etc. Just stuff you eat and drink.

We have 2 adults and 2 kids under 7. I find I'm spending on average $600/month on groceries. DH spends at least $150 on lunches (plus tip), coffee and muffins, etc. at work. We eat out or do takeout for lunch or dinner (or pick up bagels, etc.) typically 12 times a month; I'd say that is another $300 (have to check that out... but I think a meal for 4 at a fast food place is almost $20). School lunches 8 times a month are $32. There's also the cost of alcohol, probably $50 monthly. It all adds up to a LOT. $1132 for a family of 4?

I'm wondering if other people mind sharing what they are budgeting... or actually spending. I want to make some changes, and even just listing all this, I guess I can see some places to start!

[Anonymous]

Actually - we are very similary..
Groceries: $600.00 per month, more if DH goes shopping. We also are buying diapers once a month.
Lunches: this is the first time in a loooong time that I do not have compilmentary cafeteria at work. I very very quickly learned to pack my lunch. It isn't elegant, not my favorite, reminds me of being eight, but it is entirely too expensive and unhealthy to not pack my own lunches
Eatign out: unfortunately, we are at about $250.00 per month also and none of it is memorable! We are definitely working on this....

[Anonymous]

Family of 3, probably about $800 a month. That does not include my buying lunch at work, however. I think our cost is higher than it needs to be because I try to buy organic milk, meat, and some veggies.

[Anonymous]

One adult and two kids: I'm having a hard time sticking to $600 per month for 'groceries' (including bottled water, soap, etc.). No eating out, not even pizza anymore.

[Anonymous]

Family of 3 and we're at about $700 on groceries, plus eating out once/wk, plus occassional lunches out at the office, plus pizza once/week. It's a lot. Need a new budget.

[Anonymous]

Family of 3 and PROBABLY spend an average of $600-700, and that includes carry-out. I guess closer to $700. I tend to buy organic too which adds up. We eat out, but to places like the Austin Grill or Primo Pizza, because of the child.

[Anonymous]

I spend about $500 per month for two adults and 1 baby. This includes baby "solids" but not formula. We don't eat out at all and we've pretty much cut out alcohol. I have to write out a very detailed menu every week then I buy all my groceries for the week on Monday.

[Anonymous]

Family of four: approximately $1200-1300/month total on all food: groceries, eating out, lunches, etc.

[Anonymous]

Family of four, sounds about the same -- $1200/month.

[Anonymous]

We're a family of four with our kids being 2 and 6, and we spend on average $450 a month at the grocery store (including diapers....still working on the potty training!) and an additional $50 on DH's lunches at work. Some days he takes leftovers or a packed lunch and other days he buys at the cafeteria. We, unfortunately, never go out to eat. It's just not in the budget right now so I've managed to try to make the things we would want to go out for, at home. (Things like gyros, Chinese food, pad thai, pizza, etc) It's amazing how much my culinary skills have improved, thanks to necessity! I do shop mainly by the store's sale ads and I also use quite a few coupons and tend to stock up on something whenever I hit a really good sale. I second the poster who mentioned having a detailed menu. That was key in getting, and keeping, our grocery bill down.

[Anonymous]

The USDA does a cost of food analysis each month. The latest available info is from October 2008.

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2008/CostofFoodOct08.pdf


The food plans are listed as "Thrifty, Low, Medium amd Liberal" and I think they assume all meals and snacks are cooked at home.

For my family (dad, mom, child 3 and child 7) the plan works out this way:

Low Cost plan: $553/month
Medium plan: $712/month
Moderate Plan: $871/month
Liberal Plan: $1,023/month


I am not sure what exactly the difference is between the different plans, though. I assume to get the low-cost results, you need to be cooking all your meals from scratch, soaking dried beans overnight and making a lot of stews and such. The liberal plan I guess means more prepared foods from the deli counter, maybe, or more meat.

[Anonymous]

Family of three -- two adults and one 2 y.o. All told, I think we spend about $100/wk on groceries, with occasional trips to Costco or Trader Joe's to pad out the pantry and freezer.

We almost never eat out, I cook from scratch a lot (pizza is homemade dough and mozz I grate from a big block), and DH takes leftovers for lunch.

[Anonymous]

With two adults and a 10 month old, we spend about $250-300/month. I shop sales at the grocery store, buy in bulk (buy fresh bulk packs of chicken breasts on sale, and freeze the ones we don't use immediately, etc.) plan out all of our meals, and eat out once a month. We also aim for two meatless nights/week which keeps cost down. I buy mostly organic for the baby and make all of his food at home or make adult meals that he can eat (or can be blended). We cut out soda. I also make larger meals so that leftovers can be used for lunch the next day. Set the 'auto brew' feature on the coffee pot so we wake up to fresh coffee in the AM and take thermos of coffee to work instead of starbucks.

Using cash instead of credit cards at the grocery store helped us stick to a budget and prioritize what we needed vs. what we wanted. I do the self check-out, and always ring up the necessary items first. If we don't have enough cash to buy the chips or cookies that week, they are left behind.