Yeah, when I pushed my budget down to $150/month (living in Boston with fairly high food prices) that usually broke down to $50/month in eating out and $100/month in really cheap grocery staples. Lots of rice, beans, pasta, ramen, and the like. And as my job took up most of my energy I’d usually try to cook over the weekend and freeze lots and lots of leftovers so I’d have something easy to eat during the week. Lots of stew-like things as well – a stock-pot sized batch of three-bean chili is pretty cheap goes a very long way for one person. I ate some fresh, stored a week’s worth in tupperware, and froze the rest in one-quart aliquots. Do that every weekend for a month and you can build up a decent selection of pretty tasty food that’s ready after a few minutes in the microwave.
Going by my credit card statements, I’d say I spend between $300 and $400 a month on groceries, plus 1 or 2 carry-out restaurant visits.
Don’t have a budget per se, but Mint tells me that in the past year I spent about $400/month on food, which includes groceries, restaurants, and bars. That’s split about 50% for groceries and 50% for everything else.
That’s a probably slightly undercounted, since I do buy things for cash sometimes (but rarely).
I eat out 2-3 times a week (usually one lunch and one dinner, and sometimes one other time).
Too bad there’s no way to make a scatter-plot poll.
Looking at the expenditures for the past few months, $200-300 per month. That includes eating out 3-4 times a week, cooking for the Fella one or two meals a week (to be fair, when I’m at his house, he buys/cooks the meals), entertaining 3-4 times a month, a couple of bottles of wine or liquor a month, softdrinks, tea coffee, paper supplies (I don’t require that many) and cleaning stuff. Laundry soap, OTC meds and toiletries are not included.
Frankly, I can’t imagine only spending $150 a month and actually eating anything but Banquet dinners and Ramen noodles or having a huge garden and raising livestock/hunting.
On average, over $300. Certain months probably push $500. I generally live on the cheap, but eating at restaurants is my one vice. (I do drink once or twice a week, but if it’s just me and friends, we drink Skol vodka, which at $12.75 for 1.75 liters hardly breaks the bank.)
Then there was that month where my best friend and I got addicted to the $50-a-plate Japanese steak joint, and ate there 2-3 times a week. Yeah. Neither of us bothered to add up the exact figure — too humiliating for guys who otherwise pride themselves on frugality — but we agreed to put the kibosh on that one in short order.
No budget, but at least $300/month just on groceries, and this does not include alcohol or any eating out. I cook at home almost every day, and I don’t usually shop at Whole Foods or places like that. But, honestly, if I want to make a decent meal, it will be at least $10/day on ingredients, if I want to keep it balanced and varied. Can I do it on $150 or even $100/month? I’m sure I could–meat gets absurdly cheap in my neighborhood–you can find chicken quarters at $0.49/lb sometimes, pork shoulder at $0.89/lb, etc., but when you want to add in your vegetables and herbs (and during the summer I grow them–except for cilantro and parsley, herbs are absurdly priced everywhere I go), that can add up very quickly, unless you’re just eating potatoes and cabbage. I shop almost daily for my food (I live within walking distance of a large grocery), and it’s rare that I get out at under $10 for the day’s food.
This pretty much sums up my situation as well.
Where in God’s name can one person survive on a food budget
of less than $150 per month?
For the first time in my life I have been tracking all expenses,
and the biggest shock has been the amount I spend on grocery
store food for consumption at home. It is close to $50 per week,
and I hardly ever treat myself to anything fancy.
It does depends on how much you eat. I eat about 3000 calories per day, so obviously I’m going to be spending more money per month than people who are dieting or naturally eat lightly and are eating like 1800 per day.
~300$ a month, back when I was single.
Way under $50 each month, single bachelor. I have a shit large ton of pantry that I’ve collected, though, and a lot of nice toys like stand mixers, food processors, spice grinders, and a bunch of nice pans. I also hang my meat up for a week.
Well, there you go.
My husband’s deployed right now, and I’m spending probably about $250 a month on food for myself. That’s eating out almost never (once every 2 months or so), but I buy a lot of organic veggies and dairy, and grass-fed beef.