Grocery Budget

[Anonymous]

Just saw a poll on MSN that said the average American spends $12/day on groceries. I thought this was interesting. So we are a family of 4, so that would be $12 x 4 people x 30 days is $1,440 per month in groceries. My family of 4 struggles to stay within our $1,100/month budget and often go over. In my research to save money at the grocery store, I found websites for $10 meals for 4 people. (These websites don't take into consideration my sons' appetite's! but anyway... I think it's hard to do better than $10 per meal and even this is $10 per meal is...3 meals a day...30 days a month is $900 a month on groceries. Now this doesn't even count....toiletries, medicine, cleaning supplies, and other things we buy at the grocery store, so I'm actually pretty happy with our $1,100/month budget but I remember reading posts in other threads saying their grocery budget was like $800-$850/month. How the heck do you get it that low? No kids?

[Anonymous]

We do around $150/week for four (plus another $50-$100 in takeout/lunches/etc. that I count as food costs). Our kids are elementary-aged, though, so I'm sure that will go up as they get older. I shoot for $5/breakfast, $7/lunch, $15/dinner. (Fancy restaurant meals, which are maybe once a month, aren't counted in this.) A box of cereal plus a gallon of milk will cover breakfast for a week for well under $5/day, as will PB&J sandwiches with pretzels and an apple for lunch. (Obviously we don't eat those things every day, but when balanced with 2-3 other similarly low-cost options, the average works out.) Dinner is where we tend to spend the most--last night was a salmon steak that was $12, for instance (total meal closer to $15 with sides). Tonight will probably be spaghetti, which will come in closer to $8 for everything, leaving some room for something pricier later in the week.

Meal planning is the best way to get the costs low--along with minimal meat, which is where we spend the most. We do fish 1x a week, chicken/turkey/lamb 1-2x a week, and the rest of the week vegetarian. The veggie meals help offset the cost of the meat meals--a pot of lentil soup makes two days of dinner and several lunches for under $10, for instance.

[Anonymous]

Family of 3. Around 250 a week without alchohol. I am lactose intolerant but love yogurts, so I have to buy cashew yogurts for $2 a piece, lactose free milk etc.. We all eat ton of berries, avocados, broccoli. During the week it’s mostly chicken with broccoli, sometimes fajitas, crockpot dishes.. I don’t know how but $250 is the number. We drink expensive coffee though, tea, buy British jams and Lindt chocolate every week.

[Anonymous]

My goal is $200/week for four (tween and a teen, but girls), it is not uncommon to spend between 225-250. This is food only, I track house goods separately. When we serve steak or fish it is about $20 for the protein, less when we do hamburgers or chicken. I meal plan and try and balance it out and make enough extra for a couple of leftover nights or lunches. We pack lunches and have reduced our eating out to once every two weeks so that is for all meals. I shop multiple stores because I have a lot of preferences to manage, so usually Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Safeway/Giant.

A great website I was referenced to on here for recipes is budget bytes, good food and she prices each meal out really well.

Quiche is another good protein that is tasty and cost effective. I will make two at a time.

[Anonymous]

My limit is $160 a week but I really try to keep it under. We are a family of 3 and shop at Whole Foods. Average is more like $120. Thing is my DD is young and eats very little, I eat the same salad almost every day for lunch, and we still have plenty of our food leftover for the next week. Our monthly spending is more like $600/month.

[Anonymous]

Spend about $350 per week for family of 4. Spend a lot on groceries for high quality protein / organic fruits vegetables. Almost never do take out, don’t go out to eat during the week, usually once on weekends. Includes lunches - cook extra and take for lunches. Spend virtually nothing extra on lunch.

[Anonymous]

OP here...thank you for everyone's input. Can you share whether or not you are on a budget or if this is just what you spend. For example, if you have no financial worries, then spending a ton at the grocery store is no big deal, but we are trying to get our spending down. HHI doesn't tell the tale either because you can have a HHI of $350K or something but have a huge mortgage, student loans, car payments, that really keeps the budget tight or you can be a $100K HHI but be debt free, etc. I appreciate all the posts though. We have a $1,100 grocery store/Costco budget and $250 restaurant/entertainment budget...so we mix in anything we need from these stores...like I mentioned, in our $1,100 is paper products, alcohol, snacks, cleaning supplies, etc. Our restaurant budget includes entertainment too...like bowling, movies, whatever. I didn't want to have to really break all this stuff apart into 4 categories as I track everything in Excel and it gets crazy. I am amazed that the one poster with the family of 3 shops at Whole Foods and keeps the costs so low but I guess they did say they didn't eat that much. My 12 year old will each almost a pound of meat himself (plus carbs and veggies)...as he's super active and in sports almost every day and burns the calories. He's in very good shape. My 10 year old eats like a bird though...but is very active so he's like a twig. My wife and I have been trying to cut down on our portion sizes to help out the budget though. Thank you for the suggestion on the website for cheaper meals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here...thank you for everyone's input. Can you share whether or not you are on a budget or if this is just what you spend. For example, if you have no financial worries, then spending a ton at the grocery store is no big deal, but we are trying to get our spending down. HHI doesn't tell the tale either because you can have a HHI of $350K or something but have a huge mortgage, student loans, car payments, that really keeps the budget tight or you can be a $100K HHI but be debt free, etc. I appreciate all the posts though. We have a $1,100 grocery store/Costco budget and $250 restaurant/entertainment budget...so we mix in anything we need from these stores...like I mentioned, in our $1,100 is paper products, alcohol, snacks, cleaning supplies, etc. Our restaurant budget includes entertainment too...like bowling, movies, whatever. I didn't want to have to really break all this stuff apart into 4 categories as I track everything in Excel and it gets crazy. I am amazed that the one poster with the family of 3 shops at Whole Foods and keeps the costs so low but I guess they did say they didn't eat that much. My 12 year old will each almost a pound of meat himself (plus carbs and veggies)...as he's super active and in sports almost every day and burns the calories. He's in very good shape. My 10 year old eats like a bird though...but is very active so he's like a twig. My wife and I have been trying to cut down on our portion sizes to help out the budget though. Thank you for the suggestion on the website for cheaper meals.

No one needs a pound of meat per meal! Once in a while, if you're having a great steak, sure...but on a regular, daily, basis 4-8 oz is MORE than enough. It may be that he is eating that much meat just to fulfill caloric needs, which you could replace with other, cheaper (and healthier!) sources. Whole grains, legumes, cultured dairy products, avocado, coconut, eggs are all nutrient- and calorie-dense.

One of the biggest transformations in our grocery budget was eating less meat. I (the mom) am 95% vegetarian, and the rest of the fmaily also eats vegetarian probably 60-70% of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...thank you for everyone's input. Can you share whether or not you are on a budget or if this is just what you spend. For example, if you have no financial worries, then spending a ton at the grocery store is no big deal, but we are trying to get our spending down. HHI doesn't tell the tale either because you can have a HHI of $350K or something but have a huge mortgage, student loans, car payments, that really keeps the budget tight or you can be a $100K HHI but be debt free, etc. I appreciate all the posts though. We have a $1,100 grocery store/Costco budget and $250 restaurant/entertainment budget...so we mix in anything we need from these stores...like I mentioned, in our $1,100 is paper products, alcohol, snacks, cleaning supplies, etc. Our restaurant budget includes entertainment too...like bowling, movies, whatever. I didn't want to have to really break all this stuff apart into 4 categories as I track everything in Excel and it gets crazy. I am amazed that the one poster with the family of 3 shops at Whole Foods and keeps the costs so low but I guess they did say they didn't eat that much. My 12 year old will each almost a pound of meat himself (plus carbs and veggies)...as he's super active and in sports almost every day and burns the calories. He's in very good shape. My 10 year old eats like a bird though...but is very active so he's like a twig. My wife and I have been trying to cut down on our portion sizes to help out the budget though. Thank you for the suggestion on the website for cheaper meals.

No one needs a pound of meat per meal! Once in a while, if you're having a great steak, sure...but on a regular, daily, basis 4-8 oz is MORE than enough. It may be that he is eating that much meat just to fulfill caloric needs, which you could replace with other, cheaper (and healthier!) sources. Whole grains, legumes, cultured dairy products, avocado, coconut, eggs are all nutrient- and calorie-dense.

One of the biggest transformations in our grocery budget was eating less meat. I (the mom) am 95% vegetarian, and the rest of the fmaily also eats vegetarian probably 60-70% of the time.

Yeah, sorry, that wasn't per meal. That was for dinner, so one meal a day. If I may ask...what are your family's favorite 2/3 vegetarian meals where everyone walks away feeling full. Thank you in advance! Ours is probably no meat burritos.

[Anonymous]

Family of 3. Our grocery budget is 400/ month but we rarely spend that much. We also budget 100 for eating out each month. Meal planning is key. We eat well and don't waste as much food as we would without being very intentional with our purchases.

[Anonymous]

No longer have kids at home although I do feed my adult son once a week or so (sometimes at my house, other times I give him containers of soup or chili). I have started making a point of buying more deliberately. I also decided to start working on reducing pantry/freezer inventory, particularly the things that would be detoured around, and making sure fresh produce gets used up.

Although . . . was gonna make split pea soup. Explain to me why a couple of smoked ham hocks are $5 a pound while actual HAM is way less?

[Anonymous]

We only eat meat a few times a week, and don't buy many prepared foods, but still I spend well over $200 a week for our family of 4 (parents and two late elementary boys with big appetites). Produce is what gets us - I buy a few things organic (would prefer to buy more but don't because of cost) and buy in season/on sale, but we still managed to spend ~$15 on just the veggies/fruit my family had for dinner last night (two bundles of asparagus, salad, mango). Multiply that my 7 and you are already over $100.

[Anonymous]

$98 a week on Hello Fresh, 3 meals for 4, but we turn them into 6 meals total.

I supplement with fruits, veggies, and basics for around $50 a week.

We eat out once a week, $50.

$200 a week, $800 a month. We are a family of 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here...thank you for everyone's input. Can you share whether or not you are on a budget or if this is just what you spend. For example, if you have no financial worries, then spending a ton at the grocery store is no big deal, but we are trying to get our spending down. HHI doesn't tell the tale either because you can have a HHI of $350K or something but have a huge mortgage, student loans, car payments, that really keeps the budget tight or you can be a $100K HHI but be debt free, etc. I appreciate all the posts though. We have a $1,100 grocery store/Costco budget and $250 restaurant/entertainment budget...so we mix in anything we need from these stores...like I mentioned, in our $1,100 is paper products, alcohol, snacks, cleaning supplies, etc. Our restaurant budget includes entertainment too...like bowling, movies, whatever. I didn't want to have to really break all this stuff apart into 4 categories as I track everything in Excel and it gets crazy. I am amazed that the one poster with the family of 3 shops at Whole Foods and keeps the costs so low but I guess they did say they didn't eat that much. My 12 year old will each almost a pound of meat himself (plus carbs and veggies)...as he's super active and in sports almost every day and burns the calories. He's in very good shape. My 10 year old eats like a bird though...but is very active so he's like a twig. My wife and I have been trying to cut down on our portion sizes to help out the budget though. Thank you for the suggestion on the website for cheaper meals.

We have a budget, but not a religious one--basically we map out a meal plan that will land us in the right space but then don't add up every dollar we spend. I check monthly to make sure we're in the zone, and I put all of our grocery shopping on one credit card, which helps hugely. (We use an AmEx Blue Cash Preferred, which is 6% back on groceries up to $6K per year, so that is bonus incentive to make sure it is on that card!) If we are way out of whack on the budget then I'll look more carefully at why and we'll rein it in, but that doesn't happen often.

Our rough weekly meal rotation is:
Eggs: Frittata, fried egg sandwiches, breakfast-at-dinner, quiche when I'm feeling really motivated
Legumes: Bean/cheese/veggie burritos, lentil soup, falafel
Tofu: Rice bowls, tofu sticks (roll in egg and breadcrumbs, then pan fry), noodles with veggies and peanut sauce--can sub chicken in for this one easily if you aren't tofu people
Pasta/Cheese: Spaghetti (sometimes with meatballs), ravioli, lasagna (usually veggie, can be meat), mac & cheese, grilled cheese or other sandwiches
Meat: Sausages, lamb burgers, chicken--all relatively inexpensive as meat goes
Fish: Grilled salmon or other fish steaks, fried fish (roll in flour, egg, breadcrumbs and pan fry)

...plus one floater night that is sometimes leftovers, sometimes takeout, sometimes a party or other meal out. I find it helpful to know that it's egg night (or whatever) to limit my thinking about what to cook (and so that I don't have to think back to figure out if we just had something).

We feed four, including two elementary-aged kids, and it runs around $150/week (a little more if you include the glass of wine with it! )

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 4 and spend about $100-120 a week. This does not include formula or diapers. We spend about $50 eating out a week. It's crazy how much more we spend on groceries once we became a family of 4.