I was watching One Day At A Time and Ann is bemoaning the cost of a sack of groceries. She spent $25.00 on one bag. Seeing this was 1975 it seem a bit much for one sack but anyway…
I thought I’d ask you all what is the most you ever spent on groceries in one shopping trip.
Obviously this referrs to a shopping trip where you were shopping for yourself and/or your family. If you’re buying groceries so you can make a thousand cupcakes for your girl scout troop that doesn’t count.
And to be fair we’d have to divide by the number of people you were shopping for.
So if you spent $400 for a family of four that’d be $100/person.
I am a single guy and I think the most I ever spent on groceries at one time was about $40.00
Yes, I realize there’s no way to do an actual comparison as some people have lots of room and can buy in bulk, but I thought it might be interesting to see a maximum one time amout
I’ve spent $200 or so when we were really low on food. I’d say I typically spend about $100 for a normal trip. There’s 2 of us, but cooking is my hobby, so I definitely spend more than I strictly need to.
Our normal shopping trip usually runs about $130. We’ve topped $200 when we were in “stock-up” mode, but it is rare that it ever gets below $100. the only time that happens is when we have made a seperate trip to Target or Costco for cat food and litter.
This is probably unfair, but I desperately want to win the thread: the Foreign Service allows you to purchase and ship a “consumables” shipment when posting overseas. They don’t want diplomats freaking out because they can’t buy grape Kool-Aid in Abu Dhabi, I guess. Anyway, you’re looking at two years worth of groceries and paper products. I think we wrote the check for close to $2,000 at one of those bulk sales stores in Virginia.
I’m a single guy, and I know I’ve spent close to $200 once or twice, and several times over $100.
How you managed to never be over $40 is baffling to me…even my regular trips often go over $50.
But the biggest one, probably around $180-$190, was when I got my first job and apartment after college. I had absolutely nothing for food. So I had to buy all the staples that normally you don’t have to purchase all at once, like flour, sugar, oil, spices, milk, eggs, cheese, bread, basic fruits and veggies, some canned goods, condiments, etc…
There are three of us, and we generally spend $150 or so a week on groceries. It may seem a little high, but I also buy most of our beer and wine at the same time. Our grocery store has a well stocked liquor department.
Food in Norway is expensive, so this might be unfair - but I know I’ve spent more than US$500 for one trip :eek: Four people, including two growing boys, for about ten days, at Christmastime. Christmas week is definitely the most expensive week for groceries!
We don’t go to the supermarket for groceries. We go for groceries and vitamins and toothbrushes and toilet paper and shower cleaner and light bulbs and a thousand other non-food items, most of which seem to have high price tags.
I have no idea what fraction just the food costs. Has anyone been making that calculation?
I lived with an alcoholic for a while and we would go to Trader Joe’s once a month to restock the freezer and his liquor cabinet. $1,100 every month; probably $400 of which was food.
Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks are often the most expensive for us - for one thing, we’re home more so I cook more, and we also buy some things we ordinarily wouldn’t (more expensive meats and wine, desserts, etc.). So those weeks can sometimes hit $200 for the two of us.
Doesn’t seem high at all to me. There’s one of me, although I usually cook for two, and my weekly bill, if you include beer and such, easily averages around $200. About $150 in groceries and $50 in alcohol. Decent wine and beer aren’t cheap, unfortunately.
Sorry… $150 a week, three people… is high? I spend like $200 a week on food, and I’m a single guy. Then again, I live in a country where $7/gallon for gas is considered a reasonable price.
I think you have to factor in not just the number of people but the amount of time between trips.
Marxx, I know you live in the city - do you drive? If I had to walk/bus to the store, I wouldn’t buy more than one bag at a time.
I live in the suburbs, by myself, and usually spend about $130 every time I go shopping. But that is like 4 bags of groceries every 3-4 weeks. I also buy a ton of non-food items, and stuff I can stow away in my modest-sized home (TP, soap, soda) that you wouldn’t really have room for in an apartment.
I guarantee you that is not the same frequency and shopping list as Athena, who gave her stat as $100 for two people. She’s definitely buying fresh produce, high quality meats and fancy cheeses for a week, maybe two.
That’s insane…and impressive. I could do that on a bet, but I wouldn’t want to. Even when I was at my brokest living in Eastern Europe, I don’t ever got it down to less than $3/day.
OK, to break it down, here’s a typical dinner for two that I might buy in my near daily shopping trips. This is for chicken parmesan with a pasta sauce (from an actual receipt I was able to dig up.)
Chicken breast: $4 (about 1.3 pounds)
1 lb linguine: $2
1 28 oz. can tomatoes: $2 (on sale from $3)
1/2 lb mild provolone: $2.70
That’s $10.70, not counting the garlic, onions, and other basic stuff I have lying around the house. I added leftover roasted bell peppers and eggplants to the sauce from the night before. Add a bottle of wine to that, and there’s my $20. This also does not include any salad or soup or lots of fresh vegetables, the last item being the most typical additional purchase for me. For two people it lasts two meals. Back when I didn’t watch my weight, it would last me alone for two meals. There was a good bit of leftover cheese from this dish–I only used maybe 2 oz.
We’re a family of 5 - the wife and I, and 3 kids. We’ve hit $500 at Costco before, but I’m pretty sure there were at least $150 or more in non-grocery items in there - so call it $300. That’s usually when we’re stocking up for the holidays.
Our average trip to Fred Meyer, we’ll usually hit $125 - occasionally $200 or so.
