Just printed out my 2015 credit card statement

[Anonymous]

Family of three and our food costs are about $2000 per month. I cook almost all meals.

I think it is outrageously high and have stared monitoring how the money is spent and how. I can cut 20% by shopping smarter and having less waste.

We do eat organic. Frankly, it is cheaper to have Cava or Chipotle for dinner than to cook.

I am going to start going to Whole Food only rarely and try to get most of my produce at trader Joe's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4 - we easily spend 12-15k on groceries / yr. frustrating, but it's hard to cut down.

I'm confused by this...that is what we spend as a family of 4 and it covers all of our food, meaning we don't do take out, lunches out, etc.
I think we're doing great and eating well. Why is $250/week for 4 people too much? That's 21 meals!

[Anonymous]

2015 Expenses
Food and Dining-$15,419
Groceries- $6428

I was pregnant with hyperemseis for the first half of 2015, so there was not much cooking going on. We had a subway in our building, and jimmy johns was across the street. Poor DH. And the groceries are probably $1000 worth of saltines and ginger ale, plus all my prescriptions! And then the diapers. So many diapers. Sam's club gave out free memberships to new and expecting mothers in September, and I signed up just for the diapers and wipes alone!

[Anonymous]

Our biggest expense was Shopping - Dicks. Single biggest purchase was a sports related piece of equipment. Grocery total low but "restaurant" (and it was mostly fast food) was second after shopping.

Time to pull my kids out of travel sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2015 Expenses
Food and Dining-$15,419
Groceries- $6428

I was pregnant with hyperemseis for the first half of 2015, so there was not much cooking going on. We had a subway in our building, and jimmy johns was across the street. Poor DH. And the groceries are probably $1000 worth of saltines and ginger ale, plus all my prescriptions! And then the diapers. So many diapers. Sam's club gave out free memberships to new and expecting mothers in September, and I signed up just for the diapers and wipes alone!

It's been a few years but we have twins and went through tons of diapers. We belong to a warehouse club but diapers were way cheaper thru an Amazon Mom subscription. I think the discount has changed but it's worth looking into. Your next box is set to ship on a schedule but you can always get the shipment earlier if needed or delay it or cancel altogether. We loved it and saved a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

$12000/yr on groceries is not unusual. $25,000 on restaurants --- THAT is unusual! That's a lot of eating out.

I wonder if you now wish you could do something different with that $25,000. I know if I saw that number, I would be wishing I went on a trip or bought a car.... or saved it for college or private school tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4 - we easily spend 12-15k on groceries / yr. frustrating, but it's hard to cut down.

I'm confused by this...that is what we spend as a family of 4 and it covers all of our food, meaning we don't do take out, lunches out, etc.
I think we're doing great and eating well. Why is $250/week for 4 people too much? That's 21 meals!

It's actually 28 meals!

My DH and I spend very little on eating out and our grocery bill is about $200 a week. There are only three of us. But $250 for 4 people seems really good to me.

[Anonymous]

I checked mine:

$7k groceries
$6k eating out

This is for a family of 3. The grocery bill was less than expected but the eating out more.

[Anonymous]

Does everyone put all of their groceries and restaurant meals on your credit cards?

Do you keep track of your cash purchases, too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of three and our food costs are about $2000 per month. I cook almost all meals.

I think it is outrageously high and have stared monitoring how the money is spent and how. I can cut 20% by shopping smarter and having less waste.

We do eat organic. Frankly, it is cheaper to have Cava or Chipotle for dinner than to cook.

I am going to start going to Whole Food only rarely and try to get most of my produce at trader Joe's.

That grocery bill is quite high. Are you cooking elaborate/expensive meals? Suggestions: more leftover nights, do more spaghetti or soup/sandwich nights, and make use of your freezer to cut down on number of shopping trips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone put all of their groceries and restaurant meals on your credit cards?

Do you keep track of your cash purchases, too?

We put everything on the card and pay it off each month. It helps us track expenditures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Start cooking your own food, people.
Your kids need to see how to do that.

She had $1k in take-out...for the whole year... that's quite low!! Seems like she spends her money on groceries so she can...cook for her family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$12000/yr on groceries is not unusual. $25,000 on restaurants --- THAT is unusual! That's a lot of eating out.

I wonder if you now wish you could do something different with that $25,000. I know if I saw that number, I would be wishing I went on a trip or bought a car.... or saved it for college or private school tuition.

Would not do anything different. Took multiple trips: FL, NO, Grand Cayman, Charleston, Alaska. Bought a new car. Saved for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$12000/yr on groceries is not unusual. $25,000 on restaurants --- THAT is unusual! That's a lot of eating out.

I wonder if you now wish you could do something different with that $25,000. I know if I saw that number, I would be wishing I went on a trip or bought a car.... or saved it for college or private school tuition.

Would not do anything different. Took multiple trips: FL, NO, Grand Cayman, Charleston, Alaska. Bought a new car. Saved for college.

$25k on eating out it a lot but it sounds like you can afford it, so why not?

[Anonymous]

The thought of printing out my credit card statements is mind boggling to me. Why do you guys not use Mint?