What do you spend on groceries

[laterbloomer]

I know this has been done a lot but I haven't seen one in a while and I know the cost of groceries has gone up a lot around here in the last couple of years. And I like these threads

We spend about $700 month $Cdn on all food and household items. 4 adults, 2 dogs and a cat in the house but the girls tend to buy take out or eat out at least 3 or 4 times a week. My guess is they spend another $800 a month on delivery between them. More food goes to waste than I like. If I had total control over the other 3 adults in this house we would all be well fed on $700/month but that would involve meal planning and eating left overs. Somehow I ended up with girls that can't meal plan because they "don't know what they will be in the mood for that day" and one of them has some kind of moral objection to left overs.

The only thing that keeps peace in the house is that ISO buys the groceries and the girls pay their own take out. When it becomes just ISO and I we will eat really well on $400/month for all food and household.


Oh ya, another big waste is the Keurig machine. It made sense for me cause I only have maybe a cup a day at home, but ISO drinks a pot of coffee a day easy. It would save us a lot of money to have the old school Mr. Coffee.

[Blonde Granny]

I budget $250/mo for me. I have no pets or kids. Even $250 is on the high side each month, it usually comes in about $180/mo. Personal products and household goods each have their own category budgeted at $25/mo. but I seldom spend that much (if anything at all).

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Two adults, one teenager. $900 average per month for groceries and household items. We could lower that if we needed to, but we choose to have higher quality and fresh food. We average about $350 per month on eating out. That's with me mildly trying to keep it low. It could easily be $500/month if DH and DD#2 had their way. 

[wvugurl26]

Could you get the other Keurig that can make a whole pot? Or get the reusable pods?

I really have no dang clue. I don't buy everything and our finances aren't combined. I would say easily $400-500 for two.

We have cut back a lot on eating out in 2019.

[TheOtherMe]

I only eat out at Dairy Queen these days.  I only eat out if I am out of town.  

I used to budget $100 per month for groceries.  I have upped that to $200 because since the gallbladder surgery, dairy does not agree with me.  I spend about $30 a week on my non-dairy milk but it is worth it to me.  

That is mostly food as I get most supplies from Amazon.

[cronewitch]

Feb 16, 2019 13:03:59 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

I know this has been done a lot but I haven't seen one in a while and I know the cost of groceries has gone up a lot around here in the last couple of years. And I like these threads

We spend about $700 month $Cdn on all food and household items. 4 adults, 2 dogs and a cat in the house but the girls tend to buy take out or eat out at least 3 or 4 times a week. My guess is they spend another $800 a month on delivery between them. More food goes to waste than I like. If I had total control over the other 3 adults in this house we would all be well fed on $700/month but that would involve meal planning and eating left overs. Somehow I ended up with girls that can't meal plan because they "don't know what they will be in the mood for that day" and one of them has some kind of moral objection to left overs.

The only thing that keeps peace in the house is that ISO buys the groceries and the girls pay their own take out. When it becomes just ISO and I we will eat really well on $400/month for all food and household.


Oh ya, another big waste is the Keurig machine. It made sense for me cause I only have maybe a cup a day at home, but ISO drinks a pot of coffee a day easy. It would save us a lot of money to have the old school Mr. Coffee.

I love that you got an ISO too, I was the only one that had one before. I don't have a food budget. I buy one shopping trip a month for ISOs house and one for mine so maybe 150 total but pay for most of his food since I can afford it and eat at his house about a week a month.

[laterbloomer]

B

Feb 16, 2019 13:57:40 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

Feb 16, 2019 13:03:59 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

I know this has been done a lot but I haven't seen one in a while and I know the cost of groceries has gone up a lot around here in the last couple of years. And I like these threads

We spend about $700 month $Cdn on all food and household items. 4 adults, 2 dogs and a cat in the house but the girls tend to buy take out or eat out at least 3 or 4 times a week. My guess is they spend another $800 a month on delivery between them. More food goes to waste than I like. If I had total control over the other 3 adults in this house we would all be well fed on $700/month but that would involve meal planning and eating left overs. Somehow I ended up with girls that can't meal plan because they "don't know what they will be in the mood for that day" and one of them has some kind of moral objection to left overs.

The only thing that keeps peace in the house is that ISO buys the groceries and the girls pay their own take out. When it becomes just ISO and I we will eat really well on $400/month for all food and household.


Oh ya, another big waste is the Keurig machine. It made sense for me cause I only have maybe a cup a day at home, but ISO drinks a pot of coffee a day easy. It would save us a lot of money to have the old school Mr. Coffee.

I love that you got an ISO too, I was the only one that had one before. I don't have a food budget. I buy one shopping trip a month for ISOs house and one for mine so maybe 150 total but pay for most of his food since I can afford it and eat at his house about a week a month.

I copied you, it's the best description. It's my house not our house, we keep our money very separate and we are never getting married. But he does live here and shovels the driveway.

[Gardening Grandma]

I budget $650/ for two adults. Food only. I have a separate category for household items. Sometimes I can spend less without cutting out anything, but $650 is a pretty good average.
Pacific Northwest area

[Deleted]

Looking through the numbers, it looks like we spend about $750 a month on groceries and household items for 2 adults and 1 teenage girl.  Groceries are high here, so our bill really increased when we moved.  Eating out is a black hole.  It looks like we spent $90 in just the last week.  And that is probably a pretty normal amount for us.  

[andi9899]

I spend about $150/month on groceries for 2 of us.

ETA: That's for food only.

[Deleted]

$100 a week for just me, I eat a lot of sushi and fresh fruits/vegetables.

I get 6% cash back with AMEX blue preferred for groceries.

[laterbloomer]

Feb 16, 2019 17:25:56 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

I spend about $150/month on groceries for 2 of us.

ETA: That's for food only.

How the heck do you manage that?

[andi9899]

Feb 16, 2019 17:48:51 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

Feb 16, 2019 17:25:56 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

I spend about $150/month on groceries for 2 of us.

ETA: That's for food only.

How the heck do you manage that?

We eat a lot of produce which is cheap. When meat is on sale, I stock up. For example, chicken thighs were on sale a couple of weeks ago for $0.68/pound so I bought 20 pounds which will last a long time. I separate it into packages of a few pieces and freeze. I shop at Aldi for everything but meat. I can fill a whole cart for $150, which I hardly ever do. I cook from scratch.

ETA: We don't eat red meat and white meat is way cheaper.

[countrygirl2]

I kept track last month and spent $900 plus or minus, said no way is this necessary.  I am wasting to much also I believe. There are 3 of us.

So this month I have and am keeping track.  So far about $450, but I think I can do the rest of the month for less then another $450.  We have quite a bit in the freezers, lots of home canned and other canned goods.  I'm going to work down to just the large freezer, when I get room, everything from the small will go into it.  I buy and keep to much and it gets old, will still have a supply, but leaner supply.  I cleaned out some things and pitched them today out of the fridge, we also have 2 fridges.  

[msventoux]

No idea really. I have a household expenses category that covers food for me and the dog, food for three cats and their litter, and all cleaning and personal care supplies. That’s usually around $500-$700 per month. I used to break things out into very specific categories, but as I’m getting older and my income keeps going up I’m getting lazier about things like that. I know how to trim those expenses if I feel the need to and don’t need the detailed breakdown.

[buystoys]

I budget $750 per month but we've only spent about $400 per month the last couple of months.  We're running down the freezer so haven't really bought much meat the last two months.  My grocery budget covers all our personal hygiene items and anything else we would buy from Walmart, Aldi, or Super 1, so there are some clothes that get thrown in there once in a while.  All our alcohol also goes into the grocery budget, but I  haven't been drinking much wine lately due to the medications I'm on.  I used to drink a glass a night.

We could spend less, but we are trying to incorporate more fresh fruit and vegetables into our diets.  DH likes some of the veggies that aren't really cheap, so he buys them.  Since we have money in our budget for them, I don't mind.

[gracendignity]

I spend between $200 and $225 per month. This includes non-food items such as toiletries, cleaning supplies, and basically anything I can buy at a grocery/big box type store.   I sometimes end up wasting food and my goal in 2019 is stop that bad habit. Last month and this month my spending has been closer to the $200 end of things.

I budget $60 per month for eating out, most of which is done in weekly lunches with my sister.  I rarely eat all my meal at the restaurant, so a doggie bag comes home with me and I get another meal from it.   

I'm single, have no pets, and live in a fairly LCOL area.

[sesfw]

I think we spend about $150 at a grocery each month and another $200 at Costco each month.  We eat a lot of fresh fruit and for quality we can't beat Costco around here.

Just DH, Hunter-kitty and myself ….. and household stuff is separate.

We hit Costco once a week, gasoline and just to look if for no other reason.

We don't eat out a lot because of DH and his low sodium. 

[weltschmerz]

I don't know. I don't budget.
It varies. Depends on what I feel like eating, I guess.
I do look for sales.

[flamingo]

I budget $500* each month. I'd say that pretty much covers it most months. Some months it's more. I double check all the transactions a couple times a year and if we are routinely going over $500, I'll up what I put in each month. In theory I'd like to spend less, but we can afford to spend more, so I'm not too stressed about it.

*This $500 includes paper products, laundry products, and most health items (ie tylenol, cold meds, etc). We buy our own personal health and beauty products out of other money most months.

[countrygirl2]

I never have budgeted but I wanted to know what I spent, yes that includes toiletries, laundry detergent, etc. and so I did.  It was a shock.  I know I waste a lot and I need to change that, its foolish.  Today I bought no groceries. I am going to get some zucchini tomorrow and make a vegetarian type dish we like.  Bouillion  in with zucchini, fry it, then melt cheese over it, its really good.  Will have some other kind of veggy with it.  Maybe fried cabbage with some kielbasa so hubs gets something more filling.

[Timberwolf]

I've been keeping close track of my grocery expenditures for about 3 years now.  There are 2 adults and we eat plenty of meat, red and otherwise.  This also includes a very few non-grocery items but it doesn't include eating out.

2016:  $281/mo.
2017:  $260/mo.
2018:  $244/mo.

I try to make a game out of keeping my bill low so I  hit many of the sales and I found a good discount grocery store, too.  I live in Minneapolis.

[Happy prose]

I think I spend about $200 a month for 2 adults. We don't buy meat too often. I don't really keep track, but I will for the month of March, because now I'm curious. Mine would include breakfast, lunch, dinner, toiletries, cleaning products, but probably not my cat food.

[TheOtherMe]

I spent $60 on cat food and litter today but it's about an 8 week supply.  

[chapeau]

It's about $200 for 2 adults and one 6 year old who goes from eating everything in sight to not wanting to eat anything at all. That doesn't include most household stuff, although if I stop at a discount store and the majority of my purchase is grocery items, the dish detergent is being counted as grocery because I'm not doing the math to separate it.

It also does not include the very rare (maybe once a quarter?) trip to Sam's with my mom where she picks up a double box of Cheerios and maybe some flour or seafood for me and I just transfer the money to her checking account instead of giving her cash. It's maybe $25 or $30 per quarter.

[wvugurl26]

I added up all the charges I could find for February. $330 so far. Household and groceries only in that total no eating out. And there was at least one round of lunch meat not included as DH typically does that shopping. I think my wild guess was $500? I was also away on vacation for a week.

[NastyWoman]

far too much if the numbers here are anything to go by. But I buy what I want when I want w.r.t. food, wine*, supplies, etc (they are mostly on the same bills) and don't intend to change that unless I have to if money gets tight(er)

ETA: *I rarely buy wine but when I do it is on my grocery/TJs bill

[countrygirl2]

Now up to $600 for the month, I bought a large quantity of keenex, napkins, things like bouillon, base and cubes, Mrs Dash, cherry peppers, good in salads, lettuce, macaroni, lot of things.  Got 50 pounds of popcorn, I use it for cornbread and popcorn too. pickles, barbecue sauce, spaghetti sauce, macaroni.  Got sushi, bell peppers, vitamin B complex, zucchini, no meats.  Everything but syrup, have to go to Krogers or someplace similar to get.

I bought no soda and we still have 2 12 packs, I'm working to try an stop drinking it, DD brought that home.

[toomuchreality]

I think this month I have spent about $300.00  so far. But That is not all on strictly food items either. 



Like Weltz said-  
I don't know. I don't budget.

It varies. Depends on what I feel like eating, I guess.

I do look for sales.

[Deleted]

About $400/month for just me.  That includes cleaning products and nutritional supplements, OTC meds (rarely) nut not alcohol.  Mostly it's from Costco and a local grocery chain that has a really good selection including bulk foods.  I almost never eat out so that's pretty much what I spend on food.  I rarely buy meat and I waste very little food.  Very little processed food or snack-type things (chips, cookies, etc.).  I don't buy makeup and I pick whatever toothpaste, shampoo, etc, is on sale when I'm not using soap and shampoo brought home from my travels.

Things that add up- Costco protein bars, nuts, fresh veggies.  I don't make an effort to look for sales but I do look in the "reduced for quick sale" section and pick up things I might like.