Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4, around $1100/month. No idea how some people only spend $600.

I would guess limited meats, plus couponing and/or actively buying sales.

We're a family of four who budgets $150/week, and yes, we eat meat 1x a week at most (usually sausage or chicken) and fish 1x a week, so that helps enormously. Most other meals are based around pretty inexpensive proteins (e.g., just bought a bag of lentils for soup tomorrow for $2, and that was at a speciality market, so double what I would have paid if I'd remembered to get them at Safeway!) We also only eat out once a week at most (though that cost has been creeping up as our kids get older and eat more, so we probably have to bump the budget up there if we want to continue that). And probably most significantly, our kids are four and seven. I am sure that by the time they're teenagers, we'll be spending double!

(Also, that budget does not include any household goods or alcohol--just food. We probably spend another $20-$30 on wine/beer over the course of a week.)

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4, around $1100/month. No idea how some people only spend $600.

I would guess limited meats, plus couponing and/or actively buying sales.

Family of 2 adults and one preschooler in Arlington. We spend about $500 on groceries. And probably about $300 to $400 eating out. This includes all alcohol and stuff like toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc because I buy that at the grocery store.

$800 a month for 2 people. $300 or so on groceries and $500 on eating out. We live in NOVA.

Family of 4, around $1100/month. No idea how some people only spend $600.

Family of four (two teenage boys) in NOVA. Groceries around $800-$900. Eating out probably $150 a month.

Family of 3 (2 adults, 1 elementary-aged kid) and we do 300/month at grocery store and then about another 300/month eating out (mostly that's spent on lunches and maybe 1 dinner out) so $600/month total. We don't eat a lot of meat which i think helps keep costs lower. Also we are fairly strict on sticking to our meal planning so we don't buy much that we don't have an actual planned use for. That's probably the biggest factor keeping our grocery bills in line.

$1200 for groceries for family of 4 (two young kids), and another 800ish on restaurants, so 2K a month total. That's when I'm trying to be conservative and save money; when I've stopped paying attention it has climbed to 3K total a month!

We live in DC. We also eat mostly gluten free and organic.

Two adults in Queens, NYC: month to date total is at $710; month before was $802. I have $1000 plugged into my budget spreadsheet for all food, including dining out.
I try to limit bought lunches, we mostly stick to less expensive ethnic restaurants for meals out, and we barely drink.

Anonymous wrote:My budget for food for me and 2 (young) kids is $600/month. We don't go out for fancy dinners very often, but will do takeout or a casual restaurant once or twice a week.

Same, except two adults and two young kids. Will probably need to up it as kids hit the tween years.

My budget for food for me and 2 (young) kids is $600/month. We don't go out for fancy dinners very often, but will do takeout or a casual restaurant once or twice a week.

$1300-1500, but we buy in bulk and a lot of meat, fresh vegetables, wine, and eat out at a nice restaurant 1-2 times/ week at least. 2 adults.

This question comes up every few months and it's meaningless if people don't also say what part of the country they live.

$600 for a family of three.

Just curious how much your average food/grocery costs are per month. We are a family of 5 and spend approximately $900 per month on groceries and maybe another $100 on takeout (chipotle, pizza, etc). My goal this year is to save more money so I know with more planning I'll be able to cut back on our grocery bills while still making healthy, well balanced meals for my family.