# U.S. Dopers, what's your grocery bill like? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 20, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852 "2004-11-20T19:09:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![EnginNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@EnginNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnginNerd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/41 "2004-11-22T06:07:38Z")
Wow, I guess I eat a lot more than I thought… I live alone and spend about $300+ per month at the grocery store. I don’t usually buy prepared foods, and I buy store brands or stock up on sale items whenever possible. But I guess I probably eat as much as 2 or 3 ‘normal’ people… Probably because I’m very active and have a very high metabolism (it’s not unusual for me to run up and down 14,000 foot mountains and then play hockey for three hours the next day…) I guess my healthy habits cost me a lot more in food than most people pay - kind of ironic, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/42 "2004-11-22T07:12:13Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I drink a gallon [of milk] a week…by myself, is this normal? Gods, yes. I’m a pretty small female who doesn’t eat much, but last year when I lived in an apartment, I used at least a gallon and a half of 2% every week by myself. That’s both drinking and baking/cooking. I probably drank 1 gallon and cooked with the half. It really isn’t all that unusual for me to have two glasses of milk and half an apple as a snack. Heck, during finals last spring, I drank 3/4 of a gallon one night while studying. My family probably goes through 2 gallons of milk a week when I’m not there. When I’m home from college, that jumps to at least 3 gallons a week. I \ milk. > [@gfloyd](#): > > I no longer have a food bill, as I live on campus. I wish I did have one. I’m sick of campus food. _Amen._ I can’t wait to get home to real food. If I eat any more processed cheese or dried out meat, I’m going to have a breakdown in the middle of the dining hall. I wish I was back to the days of spending $50/month on groceries and another $25 on takeout and chai lattes. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/43 "2004-11-22T07:23:10Z")
I know my exact bill every month. It’s around $178 give or take a dollar or two depending on sales every month. I also know almost exactly what I consume every month. 160 oz. chicken, 20 cans tuna, 28 baked potatoes, 64 oz. turkey, I can pretty much itemize it down to vitamins and nutritional supplements if need be ;). ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/44 "2004-11-22T19:08:33Z")
NW Suburbs of Chicago, me (38), husband (45), son (14), dog (8) - around $400 a month. If we have extra money that month, I do a “monster shop” (stuff for freezing, boxed stuff, cereal, stuff like that) which can double that figure. ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/45 "2004-11-22T19:27:52Z")
> [@gfloyd](#): > > Granted, she also insisted on buying only brown rice, whole wheat flour, all natural peanut butter. . . I could never convince her that a calorie from sugar was a calorie just the same as a calorie from her sacrisanct brown rice. But like I said, she was nuts. She wasn’t nuts (well, based on the preceeding sentence, anyway). Any diabetic will tell you that whole wheat flour and brown rice have a lower glycemic index. Anything with a high glycemic index will cause your blood sugar to spike, which causes your insulin to spike. Since insulin production usually overshoots need anyway, this causes a sugar low, which makes you crave more high-glycemic index foods to get your blood sugar back up. I struggle with my blood sugar (I’m pre-diabetic), and switching to no-sugar peanut butter, whole wheat bread products, and brown sugar has made a huge difference. As I understand it, this is also the basis for the South Beach diet (any SBers out there that can confirm?) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/46 "2004-11-22T19:41:59Z")
I think, here in L.A., we’re spending at least 500 a month. I think prices are going up noticeably; in particular, I'm seeing that many items that used to be deeply discounted off the shelf price, when the store card was used, are no longer being discounted or the discount isn't as good. For instance, my local store often used to have our cat food discounted to .25 a can, but I haven’t seen that for a long while. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/47 "2004-11-22T19:56:57Z")
I spend about $30.00 a week on staples like bread, milk, cheese and cereal. Every two weeks I do a big shop where I buy meats and stuff, which could run me a couple hundred dollars if there’s a sale on meat and I stock up, otherwise around $50.00. That’s for me, but I tend to have people over for dinner several times a month. Also, right now I am seeing somebody and he is usually over for dinner a couple nights. So, I don’t think that’s too bad. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852/48 "2004-11-22T21:51:36Z")
Bay Area, and probably about $500 - $600 a month for two adults and one 18 year old daughter. Higher now that everyone is on a diet, and we buy better, less fattening foods. Lower in the summer when we eat out of my garden - my squash plant produced 100 pounds easily, and I also had plenty of tomatoes and eggplants. We’re still getting green and red peppers. We also go to the farmers market, and we stock up on and freeze corn for the winter. A good chunk of the bill is non-food items like cleaners, medicine, contact lens solution, etc. We don’t eat out much, and I always bring my lunch to work, which adds to the grocery bill but saves a lot in the long run. I also go to the Entenmann’s outlet store near work for bread, rolls, cake, and breakfast carbs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-whats-your-grocery-bill-like/275852.md?page=2)