Grocery budget- family of 5

[Anonymous]

I am trying to get our finances in order and curious what a family of 5 ( 3 kids 5 years and under ) should be spending on groceries. Perhaps I am spending too much and should really focus on cutting back. Any insight is helpful thanks very much

[Anonymous]

Family of 1, 3, 5, 7 yr olds and we spend $220ish/week on groceries. Sometimes a bit more if DH is buying wine/beer.
95% of it is fresh produce, fish, dairy, eggs, etc. at Costco.

Then I check the sales flyers, stack coupons on sales, and use Just4U at Safeway/Wegmans/Giant (depending on who has better sales) to back fill what I didn't get at Costco...so maybe another $25.

I'm a SAHM, DH takes salads + fruit to work (never eats out for lunch), and kids take lunch to school + snack. One year old has definitely embraced more solids so we def. have a lot of mouths to feed.

[Anonymous]

I spend about $130/week at the grocery and $200/month at Costco. This includes household products like soap, TP, paper towels, etc.

[Anonymous]

We spend $350 - $400 but entertain a lot. We think nothing of having two families and their kids stay for dinner on a school night or something.

[Anonymous]

$1100/mo. on groceries for a family of 5. This is not particularly lavish (usually Giant not Whole Foods), but OTOH we're not eating rice and beans or clipping coupons either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We spend $350 - $400 but entertain a lot. We think nothing of having two families and their kids stay for dinner on a school night or something.

Per week or per month?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$1100/mo. on groceries for a family of 5. This is not particularly lavish (usually Giant not Whole Foods), but OTOH we're not eating rice and beans or clipping coupons either.

+1, though this is the upper end for us. Nearly everything cooked from scratch at home. All lunches bright from home.

[Anonymous]

We spend $250/week for family of four plus an au pair. Almost all of the au pair's meals are at home, and we both bring our lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We spend $350 - $400 but entertain a lot. We think nothing of having two families and their kids stay for dinner on a school night or something.

Per week or per month?

Per week.

[Anonymous]

We spend about $200-$220 per week for our family of five (kids are 11 months, 5 and 7). It feels like quite a bit to me, but we do buy a fair amount of organic and lots of produce/dairy/meat. This also includes normal household items like paper towels, toilet paper, etc. I make all of the baby's food and take lunch to work some days. My husband and older two children take lunch daily. We eat most meals at home; I would say we go out for dinner maybe two to three times per month.

[Anonymous]

On groceries alone? $300/week family of 5. I cook all breakfasts and (pack) lunches for kids, and dinnners during the week- we eat out a lot on weekends. SAHM with wah dad

[Anonymous]

Between $150 and $175 a week. I could trim a few things here and there to lower it, but this is about as good as it gets without cutting avocados and a weekly bottle of wine.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks for the posts... It actually looks like my weekly budget of about $300 for groceries/ monthly supplies ie TP and Paper Towels is pretty on point. Which is good and bad I suppose.. I was hoping that I could spend less but also seems like with 5 mouths to feed I am going to be in the $1100 a month range regardless if I want to keep buying high quality foods that we are used to.. I would like to be able to not waste produce so much. I feel like every Sunday we "clean out" the fridge and there is food that was perfectly good that has spoiled cause we didn't use it .. it is a terrible waste. Any food storage ideas out there!? thanks for all the info

[Anonymous]

Check out the blog Frugal Girl. She has a family of 5 (maybe 6) and posts her budget and recipe suggestions.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]OP here - thanks for the posts... It actually looks like my weekly budget of about $300 for groceries/ monthly supplies ie TP and Paper Towels is pretty on point. Which is good and bad I suppose.. I was hoping that I could spend less but also seems like with 5 mouths to feed I am going to be in the $1100 a month range regardless if I want to keep buying high quality foods that we are used to.. I would like to be able to not waste produce so much. I feel like every Sunday we "clean out" the fridge and there is food that was perfectly good that has spoiled cause we didn't use it .. it is a terrible waste. Any food storage ideas out there!? thanks for all the info[/quote]

It sounds like you just need to meal plan more specifically and shop from a list. I write down what veggies/sides we are having with each entree for the week. I don't buy random produce unless I know exactly when we are going to have it. It's rare I throw something out.