We probably spend about $7-800 a week for two adults, 3 kids and one dog. We generally go out to eat twice a week and have people over once or twice a week.

I try very hard to stay under $70 a week and shop exclusively at aldi. 2 adults and one child. breakfast and dinner at home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how does one spend $10/week for dining out for two adults and 1 child??

One week it might be Chipolte for lunch for one person. Another week it might be Panera for dinner for 2 people. It is almost never all 3 of us at the same time unless we are on vacation and that would be a different budget line item.

2 adults cannot eat at Panera for dinner for $10-15.
Why is it with these threads that people always underestimate??

I think our last visit was $14 and change. One soup, one salad. Water. That was it. Actually I got the $8 for my salad back because there was a foreign body in it and I nearly broke a tooth. But I don't think you can budget for that!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how does one spend $10/week for dining out for two adults and 1 child??

One week it might be Chipolte for lunch for one person. Another week it might be Panera for dinner for 2 people. It is almost never all 3 of us at the same time unless we are on vacation and that would be a different budget line item.

2 adults cannot eat at Panera for dinner for $10-15.
Why is it with these threads that people always underestimate??

Anonymous wrote:$100 a week for 2 adults, 1 grade school aged child who eats more than the adults.

Does not include: coffee or dining out. We spend $10-$15 on dining out a week. Also does not include DH's random trips to TJs for larabars.

All meat and eggs are from the farmers market, most veg and fruit are too. Pantry staples are TJs and MOMs.

how do you dine out for $10-15/week? What are you buying?

i definitely spend a lot on green produce - we juice a lot (carrots, celery, kale, etc), and eat a lot of veggies/fruits. that is probably at least $100 a week for veggies/fruits only. i guess if I limited that and shopped with cash only, i would be able to save.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$100 a week for 2 adults, 1 grade school aged child who eats more than the adults.

Does not include: coffee or dining out. We spend $10-$15 on dining out a week. Also does not include DH's random trips to TJs for larabars.

All meat and eggs are from the farmers market, most veg and fruit are too. Pantry staples are TJs and MOMs.

do you mind sharing what you buy/what you cook? $100 includes farmers market? i must be doing something wrong I am the OP from another thread - my food bill is $1500 a months for 4 adults/1 toddler. Cooking from scratch. Making home made kefir/yogurt, baking our own bread. We are a lot of fruits/veggies - i mean a lot we never cook steaks, really. use 1 or 2 pounds of ground beef a week, perhaps one chicken a week - making broth and such. I don't get it - please share

I miss steak. A lot.

Eggs, whole chickens every two weeks ($15 for a 5 to 6 pound bird), tongue, liver, heart, ground beef, canned tuna or salmon once a week. I buy whatever veg is on sale or cheapest at the market.

I write up a menu plan and stick it on the fridge. Saturday night is finish up the odds and ends or freeze them night.

I do a cash system so when there is no more cash, there is no more food shopping and we have to get creative with the pantry staples. I actually take $200 out for 2 weeks because that is how I get paid. We are down to $13 until Friday but I can't see anything we really need. If it lasts, I'll probably go to Penzey's and buy paprika, which we are out of, and then save the rest for stockpiling the pantry as needed.

Anonymous wrote:how does one spend $10/week for dining out for two adults and 1 child??

One week it might be Chipolte for lunch for one person. Another week it might be Panera for dinner for 2 people. It is almost never all 3 of us at the same time unless we are on vacation and that would be a different budget line item.

how does one spend $10/week for dining out for two adults and 1 child??

Anonymous wrote:$100 a week for 2 adults, 1 grade school aged child who eats more than the adults.

Does not include: coffee or dining out. We spend $10-$15 on dining out a week. Also does not include DH's random trips to TJs for larabars.

All meat and eggs are from the farmers market, most veg and fruit are too. Pantry staples are TJs and MOMs.

do you mind sharing what you buy/what you cook? $100 includes farmers market? i must be doing something wrong I am the OP from another thread - my food bill is $1500 a months for 4 adults/1 toddler. Cooking from scratch. Making home made kefir/yogurt, baking our own bread. We are a lot of fruits/veggies - i mean a lot we never cook steaks, really. use 1 or 2 pounds of ground beef a week, perhaps one chicken a week - making broth and such. I don't get it - please share

$100 a week for 2 adults, 1 grade school aged child who eats more than the adults.

Does not include: coffee or dining out. We spend $10-$15 on dining out a week. Also does not include DH's random trips to TJs for larabars.

All meat and eggs are from the farmers market, most veg and fruit are too. Pantry staples are TJs and MOMs.

We're closer to $800/month for a family of 5. We eat out maybe 1-2x/month, and bring our lunches to work every day. We eat a lot of fresh produce, and a fair amount of "convenience" foods.

About $1200 a month, including diapers and paper goods. Meat 5-6 nights a week for a family of seven.

About $175 a week. Family of four, including two teenage boy athletes.

Anonymous wrote:these numbers are CRAZY low. have you accounted for ALL expenses?

We only shop 1x per week for groceries. We are 2 adults and a toddler. We spend $100/week on groceries and $300/week on work lunches and weeeknd meals (brunch or dinner). Our $100/week is 70% food for the toddler and snacks.

We shop mostly at Safeway. Before baby, we shopped mostly at WF but it is too expensive now because my son eats/snacks a lot and we are eating at home a lot more.

I think people are just talking about the food-based grocery bill. Most are not including lunches out, ordering in, lattes at work, or accounting for the fact that lunch & snacks are covered in daycare fees. Food-based groceries only for our family of 3: $600/month. Groceries+home items+eating out+cafes+the portion of our daycare fee that goes towards food is approx $1200+/month but we're working on that and have been cooking more at home in the past month - I'm hoping we come in $200 less this month compared to last. I have brought my cafe budget down to $5/week by having a kettle at my desk, so now I only buy coffee if a supervisor asks me to "coffee" and I feel like I shouldn't say no. Getting DH not to buy lunch at work, or not to go buy a second lunch even when I've packed him a decent sized serving of leftovers, is a challenge and part of his larger food control issues so some of that "eating out" budget is unfortunately not very predictable right now.