I’m not entirely sure what I spend just on food. Anywhere from $70-$100 a week goes toward grocery/toiletries/makeup/sundries between the grocery store/farmer’s market/Target/CVS, and twice a month delivery of a couple meals worth from a restaurant. Probably a little more than that when you add in occasional purchases of craft beers/ciders, and bourbon plus splurges at local chocolate and tea stores.
I’m sure I could spend a lot less if I put my mind to it. Now I have some chicken thighs to roast, this thread is making me hungry.
My weekly grocery budget is $125. That’s for my husband, myself, and two teenage daughters. One has subsequently gone to college, but I do still buy her snacks occasionally. I know we buy a 40-pound bag of dog food for around 25 about every 6 weeks or so. The dog food bumps the monthly total up to about 587 from 562. I have no idea what our dining-out expenses would be, though we typically eat restaurant food no more than once per week for supper. Lunches vary - I brown bag 3 of the 5, and who knows what DH does. :rolleyes:
$1100-$1500. Two adults, a 65lb dog, a two year old and a three month old. This excludes dining out/takeout/whatever, as that’s a separate budget category.
I am glad some higher numbers are coming in because I was starting to feel self-conscious. According to Mint.com, my grocery average over the past year has been $807 a month. That is just for me during the work week but add two kids on the weekend. It includes everything I buy at supermarkets and convenience stores but does not include eating out in sit-down restaurants. I cook for myself most nights but I don’t skimp on any ingredients. I might have swordfish one night, lobster the next and steak the night after that but I never thought I was spending an unusually high amount on food until this thread.
I’m thinking that geographic location might have something to do with price disparity? I live in a very low cost-of-living part of the country and apart from grocery stores, do monthly shopping at a Middle Eastern store that is insanely cheap for a lot of things I like.
But as I said in the OP - I don’t make a big effort to be thrifty, and I buy plenty of high-end (deli, name-brand, organic,) items, I think. I am pretty sure I couldn’t even manage to eat over $800 worth of food every week, though! Well on reflection - maybe. When I was still with the ex and we had his kids for weekends, it was like a swarm of locusts descending on the house and eating everything in their path.
That said, while I love me a ribeye steak or shrimp or heritage pork steaks, a lot of my meals are vegetarian and sort of hippy-granola.
We spend in the neighborhood of $200 a week for two adults, one 16-year-old son, two 60 pound dogs, and two cats. That includes food for all 7 of us, other household goods (cleaning supplies and whatnot), and the occasional dinner out or take-home meal (pizza, burgers, ice cream, etc.)
$200 a week is an insane amount of money for one plus two more on weekends… Food in the US is way cheaper than here in Canada and I get by on about $50. I can’t imagine spending $200. Even when all four of us lived here 24/7 $200 would be a major re-stalking bill with paper towels and toilet paper and laundry detergent, etc.
Different strokes for different folks. I try really hard to keep my expenses down. I am affluent but not even close to the top of the scale in this area (suburban Boston). I can live on $50 worth of food for a month if I have to but it isn’t necessary these days. $800 a month is still only $9600 a year so it is still an insignificant portion of all expenses.
We just have two people, and I’d say $400-$500 a month. It might be lower - we go grocery shopping weekly and try to keep it around $100 or under, but we do go for small things during the week.
We stock up in bulk with some things at the wholesale club, so that’s extra, but not a lot.
We aren’t really too stingy with our groceries. If we wanted to, we could get that down a lot.