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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Make $220K per year or about 11,000 per month after taxes etc.

Mortgage  2500
Childcare/kids activity  2500
Utilities/phone etc 500
Food 1500
gas, shopping etc. 1-2K
try to save 3K but at average we save about 2K per month

Guess we are spending too much on food??
[/quote]

1500 on food is a lot, that's about how much I earn every month (graduate student here lol). How many people in your family?

Buying coffee every morning, lunch everyday, eating out for dinner, drinking bottled water, etc can really wrack up your food expenses. It's much cheaper bring coffee, to pack leftovers for lunch, used filtered water in reusable water bottles etc. You can try it for a couple of weeks and figure how much your saving.[/quote]

Do you have kids?

I agree with PP--most people don't really track all of their food spending.  I thought we were spending around $115/week for a family of 3--and we were, on our weekly grocery trip.  Once I started adding in all of the mid-week trips to pick up this or that, and the 1-2 times/week we eat out, plus the 1-2/week we each eat lunch out, I realized we were spending a lot more than that.  Including everything, we spend $1000-1200/month on food.  I almost never buy coffee out, and need to keep eating lunch out 1-2/week to maintain my professional network.  I buy the "dirty dozen," dairy, and eggs all organic, but not a lot else.  I don't think we're particularly extreme in our food spending.  Maybe I'm totally out of touch.[/quote]

1000 seems expensive to me, but if your income is agreeable it's probably fair for a family of 3-5 depending, especially if your eating out up to 4 times a week (that could add a couple hundred a month or more). That's why I asked how many in her family.

I think your right though, Little trips add up. I fell into that trap a while ago where I needed cheese so I'd run to the store, then walk out with 40 dollars of crap I really didn't need.

My parents were minimalists with food shopping, and with the two of them plus three kids we spent maybe 300-400 a month on food? We had a garden with fresh tomatoes and herbs and only bought name brands. We never ate boxed foods, only foods from scratch and my Mom knew how to make one meal into 3 or 4 using leftovers. This was a while ago and granted food costs have been going up since then.

I'm a family of two, and we spend about 300 a month on food. I grocery shop about twice a month and average about 130-140 or so a shop (but that includes things like toilet paper and shampoo, cleaning supplies when needed so sometimes it's a little more). But we're on a very strict budget and there was a learning curve. For example prepackaged snacks (like mini bags of goldfish) are very expensive, it's cheaper to buy a bigger bag and put into containers. It's amazing how you buy things without recognizing how much they're adding to your grocery bill, like snacks, instant frozen meals, and soda. I buy snacks (who doesn't), but recognize it as a treat rather than a need and try to keep it at a minimum. Frozen veggies as well as fresh fruits and veggies can be cheap, so we cook from scratch a lot and use leftovers for lunches. If meat's on sale I'll stock up and throw it in the freezer but I also try to use cheaper options for protein. I mostly drink water, so I don't buy juice or soda so that saves a lot of money. I also clip coupons and buy in bulk when possible. We eat out maybe once a month.

Maybe I'm crazy, lol. But eating on the cheap is kind of a necessary evil right now. I learned a lot from my parents on how to be frugal and get by with next to nothing, so despite the ups and downs of my childhood I still have a lot to be thankful for.[/quote]

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