I am kind of setting up a budget so I can try to save more and see exactly where my money is going. In this process I am trying to see how much I should be spending on food. I really can’t use my own historical data because, well, I am too lazy to go back through all my credit card statements and determine whether things were for food or clothes, etc. I was just kind of curious what other people (particularly singles) are spending.
So how much do you spend each month, week, or day?
I estimate mine to be around $400 - $500 per month because I eat out a lot.
Interesting question. I have no idea.
When I eat out, it tends to be “nice places” and includes a bottle or so of wine. I would estimate my monthly spending as “embarrasing” for that reason.
Much smaller than most, because working in a restaurant gives me access to plenty of free food. I’m trying to eat at work less, cause it’s not terribly healthy (well, it could be if I just had a simple chicken breast or what not, but I eat steak, burgers, and fried food. :smack: )
I started the other thread, but I did want to comment that if you use American Express, it’s really easy with their online interface to break down what you are spending for restaurants/gas/utilities/etc. They automatically categorize everything you charge, so it’s simple to just filter it.
If you work it like me and my roommates do, using forks to eat cereal out of cups, naturally, it works out to be probably more expensive than real food. But you can get ten packs of Ramen Noodles for a buck! Once my heart collapses I’ll leave my family to pick up the pieces for a good class action lawsuit. I’m investing in my future today.
It’s well accepted that college undergraduates secrete a complex mix of enzymes that makes them able to consume almost anything and remain reasonably healthy. This declines after graduation (or age 24) as they gradually become subject to normal dietary principles.
Hmmm…well, since the thread’s not been closed, I just want to say that I’ve saved a ton of money on food by shopping with a list.
Wait, don’t go! I know it sounds dull, but it’s actually kind of cool. My husband and I can buy a week’s food for our family of four in less than half an hour and most of the time for about a hundred bucks. I think we eat better now, too.
Saturday mornings, I look around to see what food is in the house, then I check the internet to see what’s on sale at the local store. I plan what we’ll have for dinner for the week and list the ingredients, plus the staples (milk, bread, cat food). I write it down in the order I’ll encounter it in the store.
We do get off the list a little bit, but it’s nothing like the old days, when I’d wander around going, “Oh, that looks good…but then I’m going to need some of these back on aisle seven…Okay, that’s dinner for tonight, what can we eat tomorrow? Hey, do we have cheese at home?” Plus, it’s pretty cool to have the weekly menu written up, so you can see at a glance what your choices are instead of trying to put something together at the end of each day.
Don’t know if this thread is going to get locked down, but I’ll throw in a UK data point.
I live with my GF and we spend about £65-£70 a week on grocery shopping, plus maybe £100 a month between us on eating out, and I spend maybe £15-£20 a week on lunch and dinner at work.
So I guess that’s about £250 a month down my gullet.
I can usually feed myself (I live alone) for about $20 per week for dinner. Add another $5-8 per workday for breakfast and lunch, and maybe $2 per day on weekends. I usually go out once during the week, that’s maybe $30.
That comes out to about $356 per month, if the month is February.
It isn’t hard to eat very cheaply if you shop with a list and you stick to sale items. You don’t spend all week eating ramen noodles either.
I live in Manhattan, and counting the money I spend eating out I spend probably $100 per week on just myself. If I stopped eating out completely and brought my lunch to work everyday instead of buying it I would probably eat very well for $40 a week. I can easily see feeding a family of 4 for $100-$150 a week anywhere in the country as long as you pay attention to what is on sale and you don’t eat out too often.
I can feed my sister, brother-in-law, and myself for about a hundred and fifty dollars a week. Our eating is weird, though. He eats graham crackers, peanut butter, and a small box of raisins every morning for breakfast and eats out on his own dime for lunch. My sister usually skips breakfast and lunch (and is cranky in the evenings!). I drink good, freshly ground coffee every morning and alternate between cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Working with second graders, I get snack at ten each morning, usually a small handful of dry roasted peanuts. Lunch is a sandwich and a piece of fruit. Dinners alternate between me cooking for all three of us or the BIL taking us to a chain sit-down restaurant (no, I don’t know why they don’t seem to like local places…). So, uh, yeah…$150 a week for three people, but that doesn’t go into three meals a day. I buy a lot of fresh produce and things like organic milk, which is probably what runs the bill up.
Well, they eat lunch at school, we eat fast food one night (neglected to account for that), and leftovers another night. There’s not a whole lot of snacking going on either. If I buy something they like that takes no preparation, like cookies, the whole bag’s gone the next day. So I’m mainly buying ingredients to make five meals.
Do you pay for the school lunches? And you and hubby forego lunch? And no one eats breakfast?
Just curious, because I could imagine our family of 5 easily spends $250-300 at the grocery store a week, but that would include pretty much 21 meals a week for all 5, plus toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. I’ll ask the boss/shopper/accountant for a more precise accounting.
I didn’t account for lunch payments because I was thinking grocery bills only, but then the grocery bill includes stuff like cat food and laundry detergent. Let me see if I can work this out again.
One pound of deli meat and a tub of potato salad = about $10, 2 adults lunches for a week. Included in the grocery bill.
Two kids’ school lunches times five days = $20
Fast food night = About fifteen bucks for three of us, the boy eats elsewhere.
Breakfasts are cereal, oatmeal, leftovers, or cream of wheat…that is, if the kids even bother to eat it!
Also, the goal is $100. I frequently exceed it, especially if I stock up on something on sale, but it is possible to do. I enjoy the challenge. My husband makes a lot more money than I do, so I consider keeping a tight rein on the budget part of my contribution.
We do eat well, though. We buy nice coffee beans and wine; if anyone wants something specific, they can add it to the list and I’ll get it (within reason). I have a file of popular recipes printed from the internet, so I pull out five dinners, write down the ingredients, write down the staples, and I’m ready to shop. I spend a lot more in the store if I just bumble around looking at the pretty packages.
Actually, our “food budget” is pretty artificially inflated, and essentially represents large part of our entertainment/discretionary spending. It even includes “cash over” that we get at the check out. The kind of money that just seems to disappear.
We don’t go out to eat much, but if we do, it is accounted as part of the food budget. Same as when we entertain. And if we want to splurge on ice cream or whatever at the store, well, that’s fine, but it just means we should be a little careful elsewhere - at least that week/month.
And then there’s another amount of discretionary money in our budget that we can tap into. In theory I guess it is supposed to go towards saving, but we don’t worry at all if it goes to purchasing a large item, or entertainment.
Shit, I asked my wife, and now I’m almost sorry I did! :eek:
She says it made a huge difference when the kids reached 11 or so. Younger than that, they were way cheap to feed. But in their teens, they are quite expensive. Especially the boy.
And she says it makes a noticeable difference when our oldest is home from school, as she is now.
Damn, I shoulda invested in food, or grocery stores, or something!
