Grocery spending

[freeazabird]

If you have a family of 4 how much do you spend monthly on groceries? Are you a healthy eater? What kinds of dishes do you eat regularly?

[asauer]

We have a family of 4, 2 adults, 2 eleven year old kids.  We spend $350/ month in NC.  Yes, we eat as healthy as possible.  We:
1. Have a CSA subscription for organic meat and veggies which keeps me out of the grocery store and unintended purchases
2. I buy bulk beans/ grains
We eat very little flour or sugar

Every week I have a soup night and a 'taco' night with either lettuce cups or corn torillas- these are good bases for using whatever is to hand or on sale which helps to not waste food, help with planning and keep variety.  Here are the last few routine nights:
1. white bean, rosemary and chicken soup
2. Sopa de lima (using leftover chicken)
2. sweet potato/ poblano tacos
3. carnitas

Food planning and prep really helps keep cost down.  Additionally, I like looking at sites like Once A Month Meals (to reuse bulk items) and Budget Bytes (low cost recipes)

I hope this helps.

[Laserjet3051]

We have a family of 4, 2 adults, 2 eleven year old kids.  We spend $350/ month in NC.  Yes, we eat as healthy as possible.  We:
1. Have a CSA subscription for organic meat and veggies which keeps me out of the grocery store and unintended purchases
2. I buy bulk beans/ grains
We eat very little flour or sugar

Every week I have a soup night and a 'taco' night with either lettuce cups or corn torillas- these are good bases for using whatever is to hand or on sale which helps to not waste food, help with planning and keep variety.  Here are the last few routine nights:
1. white bean, rosemary and chicken soup
2. Sopa de lima (using leftover chicken)
2. sweet potato/ poblano tacos
3. carnitas

Food planning and prep really helps keep cost down.  Additionally, I like looking at sites like Once A Month Meals (to reuse bulk items) and Budget Bytes (low cost recipes)

I hope this helps.

Spectacular! At a self-reported average of $0.97 per meal per person, may I ask how you are able to consume fish/seafood in your diet?

We are a family of 4 extremely conscious, careful shoppers  who do not buy organic but do buy lots of fresh fruit and veggies as well as meat and wild fish (from only select countries) and yet we still spend $900 - $1000 / month. However, this value does include all of our cleaning supplies we buy at the market as I dont break that category out from our total, so the food portion is likely somewhat lower.

[kanga1622]

$500 a month for our family of four: 2 adults, 2 kids (aged 4 & 8). We pack all snack and lunches for the kids to take to school/daycare.
I am gluten and dairy free and the youngest has texture issues which cause a limited diet. DH also has cholesterol issues that affect what we prepare.
We eat relatively healthy but due to food intolerances, we typically have 3 different meal plans going on.

The oldest and DH eat tacos, spaghetti, salads, homemade pizza, beef & noodles, enchilada pasta, and some casseroles on a regular basis. The youngest goes through at least a dozen single-serve containers of yogurt a week (no dice on buying a big container - if we add flavors it changes the texture and his preferred flavor/texture does not come in a large tub), lots of cheese, plus the apples and frozen fruit (for smoothies). The rest of his diet is a lot less expensive. I eat a lot of chicken based dishes, salads, and soups.

We could shave our bill down a bit but I enjoy a few luxuries (like dairy free chocolate chips) that are 5 times as expensive as mainstream options. We also make sure to always have fresh fruit and veggies in the house. We also go through a LOT of lettuce each week.

[Khaetra]

A family of two and I still manage to spend too much (around $600/month).  I do meal planning and watch for sales, which does help.  We eat a lot of chicken, fish and veggie dishes.  We're both on restrictive diets (not by choice) so it limits the options.

[mm1970]

Family of 4, two boys, last year we came in just under $7000, or $583/month.

I live in a fairly HCOL area (So Cal).

We eat a pretty healthy diet - a lot of fruit and vegetables.  Basically, I aim for 5-9 servings a day (about 1.5 to 2 lbs a person), which means I'm prepping more than 30 lbs a week.

We used to have a CSA that closed due to the drought, so we switched over to produce delivery from the farmer's market.  A bit more expensive, but I don't care.  That is $40-45 a week, but is only part of our produce budget.

I could cut that in half by going to the market myself AND buying produce only at Sprouts, Costco, and the 99 cent store.  But honestly, we grow the stuff here, it's fresh, usually organic, tastes better, and lasts a lot longer.  So, why wouldn't I buy local?  Also, the box is much less wasteful from an environmental standpoint - no plastic, the produce comes in a cardboard box that is reused.  We store our produce in reused plastic bread bags.

Aside from produce, I make 2-3 big meals a week.  Usually one of them has beans and/ or rice.  About 2x a month pasta with sauce, veggies, and meatballs.  Usually one of the meals each week has meat sometimes two.  We make beans & rice, fried rice with stir fry, roast chicken, chicken curry, lentil or bean curry, chili, spaghetti and meatballs, soups.  Our emergency meals are frozen pizza or veggie burgers.  About 2x a month we have wild salmon.  I'd like to have it more often, but eh.

Shopping-wise
- I supplement our produce box with loss leaders from Sprouts
- I buy oats, brown rice, barley, dried beans in the bulk bins when they go on sale (Sprouts, Smart and Final)
- I make my own muffins, and found that one of our stores with bulk bins has gluten free Bob's Red mill mix for $2/ lb.  I can't eat wheat.
- Usually I make bread for the rest of the family
- I know where to get eggs, because we eat a lot of them
- I have a "price book", but it's in my head now, so I know when things are on sale and when to buy them.
- The above means I do shop at about 7 different stores, but certainly not every week. 
  -- For example, gluten free pasta is cheapest at Smart and Final, same with rice.  But honey - I will only buy local honey, and that I get at the farmer's market.

Also important to note: starting last September, both my kids get free lunch at school.  That helps the budget a bit.  They are 12 and 5.

It's a lot of work to keep the budget this low, considering the amount of produce we eat and dietary restrictions (no wheat for me, also cannot eat many carbs at my age and maintain weight).  A couple of years ago, I came in under $6000, but that was shopping for produce almost exclusively at 99 cent store.  I'd rather get the local stuff.

[Trifle]

Family of 4 in the southeast US, 12 and 15 year old kids.  We average about $550/month.  We buy all organic fruit and vegetables (the ones we don't grow ourselves), and eat beef a couple times a week, and pork or fish maybe once per week.  No chicken.  We buy bread and pasta, but rarely other prepared foods.  We are heavy fruit and vegetable eaters -- we average 5 pounds of apples a week per person, for example, when we don't have our own apples.  (Apples are actually our highest spend grocery item by a wide margin.  We have an orchard, and are currently planting more apple trees for that reason.)   I try to make at least 2 big meals per week that will leave leftovers. 

We track food spending carefully, and have a price book which is updated periodically. This enables us to make decisions on whether X or Y is worth to us what we are spending on it. 

[Simpleton]

I'm interested in hearing some Canadian numbers.

I have a family of 6 (kids are young - 5,4,2,1)

We spend about 800 per month on food.

This includes our meals out or ordering from restaurants (about once a month), as well as booze.

We eat a lot of meat which does not help (our chest freezer is currently stuffed with steaks,prime ribs, and atlantic salmon), but I still feel we are doing okay.

[MrsPB]

I'm interested in hearing some Canadian numbers.

I have a family of 6 (kids are young - 5,4,2,1)

We spend about 800 per month on food.

This includes our meals out or ordering from restaurants (about once a month), as well as booze.

We eat a lot of meat which does not help (our chest freezer is currently stuffed with steaks,prime ribs, and atlantic salmon), but I still feel we are doing okay.

Canadian here! You are doing well! We are a family of 4 with two young children in full time daycare  and spend around $750-$800  a month at the grocery store. This excludes non-food items, eating out (we rarely eat out but we do get snacks from Tim’s about once a week totalling under $10) etc.

I do one big shop at Costco per month, then Superstore once a week or so. We do buy some convenience foods like some portable snacks for the kids, but I make a decent amount from scratch too (pizza dough, muffins, chili, etc) considering both parents work full-time out of the home.

I am sensitive (not allergic) to wheat so we all eat rice pasta and use spelt flour for pizza dough which does up the cost ($23 for a 5lb bag of spelt flour!). But a bag of spelt flour will last a month as I try to
choose alternate dishes such as rice or potato based to reduce the need to sub the spelt flour in.

We do eat lots of fresh fruit and veg, berries kill the budget out of season but I like the convenience and nutrition of them for the whole family so I try to buy them mainly from Costco out of season.

We also eat a lot of meat and accept that it is a more costly diet. I have tried various ways of reducing our food bill but without drastically altering how we actually eat, the bill doesn’t get impacted that much. Most of our meat comes from Costco but I do watch flyers and know when there’s a good deal at superstore. I don’t  have the time to shop around a bunch of different stores for deals every week. We are in Atlantic Canada.

[Imma]

We don't have kids, so I can't help you with the spending part, but I grew up in a family of 5 that had people over for dinner nearly every day. This is what we used to eat all the time: 
- Nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice). It's extremely quick to make, you can throw in any kind of veggies you like and you can also add any meat/fish or egg/peanut for a vegetarian option. The basic recipe has a lot of flavour in it, but it's not necessarily spicy.
- Minestrone soup and bread
- Tomato - bacon - lentil soup and/or pasta sauce.
- Lasagne, sometimes two or three different ones with different sauces.
- Chili, sin or con carne
- Lots of fresh salad, bread and homemade soup with every meal so us hungry teenagers could fill up on it

[sjc0816]

Family of four...two boys (one is a tween and eats like a horse). We spend between $800-$1000 per month. I eat a Whole 30 diet and we are all athletic and live in a city with high food costs. I stopped killing myself trying to get this down. We rarely eat out and this includes all household items as well.

[Johnez]

Family of 3 and a half (#4 still a bun in the oven, heheb), and we do 2 trips, the main run and then a supplementing run when we run out of meat or milk.

We bulk cook, shop sales, bulk up when something goes on clearance and still have a tough time spending less than $140 a week. No extra crap since we're on the diabetes diet-no chips, soda, candy, etc. Dairy eats the most out of the budget, since it is a simple high protein/low carb option. Honestly amazed at the families that get below $100....

[Raenia]

We're only a family of 2 right now, but everything I do is scaleable (I usually make enough for at least lunches the next day).  Last week's menu looked like this:

Mon: Rice, beans (crockpot from dry), and peas (frozen)
Tues: Pasta, turkey meatballs (from scratch), and spinach
Wed: Salmon, rosemary roast potatoes, and more spinach
Thurs: Teriyaki chicken stir-fry over rice (homemade teriyaki sauce, veggies from frozen)
Fri: Homemade pizza
Sat: Leftovers
Sun: Undecided, but probably more leftovers plus some soup (made in big batches and frozen).  I'll probably also cook something to ensure leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Breakfasts: Oatmeal or toast (homemade bread) with a banana and tea
Lunch: Leftovers from the night before or PB&J sandwich with homemade bread, plus a piece of fruit
Snacks: Toast, crackers and cheese, chips and salsa, carrots and hummus, fruit
Dessert: Most days we don't have dessert, but occasionally I'll make cookies, or we'll pick up a tub of ice cream when we have a coupon.

I aim to have fish once a week, but it ends up being more like every other week.  Generally whitefish or salmon - I miss getting shrimp on occasion, but my partner doesn't like shellfish.  We do at least 2-3 vegetarian meals per week as well.  Mostly chicken and ground turkey.  We don't eat pork or beef at all.

As far as grocery shopping, we spend about $200-250 per month for the two of us.  Weekly runs to the local bulk produce market for fruit (usually apples and bananas, or what's on sale that week), veggies (usually just one or two veggies per week, since they're in bulk), and eggs, plus monthly or bi-monthly runs to BJ's for dry, canned, and paper goods, milk, and meat.  Occasional trips to Giant for specialty things like miso and unusual spices, or just to hold over until the next BJs run.  I used to do most of my shopping at Aldi, but they closed down my local Aldi store, so BJs and Giant will be picking up the slack.

ETA: That grocery spend number includes some household goods (paper towels, toothpaste, etc) but does not include alcohol.  Booze is maybe another 20-30/month, as we don't drink all that much.

[SwitchActiveDWG]

Family of 3, average spend for 2017 was about $500 / month. Alcohol is included in groceries and I have a bit of a craft beer hobby so it tacks on a bit each month...

Breakfast is often oats, cereals, eggs, fruits, pancakes, or dinner leftovers
Lunches we meal prep on Sunday evenings cooking chicken, rice, green beans, and black beans or potatoes in bulk and preparing salads
Dinners are regularly turkey spaghetti, tika masala, tilapia fish tacos, homemade pizzas, steak and potatoes with carrots or other veggie

Sunday evenings also involve random snack prep of fruit and veggies.I buy Greek yogurt in bulk and put it Tupperware cups for myself, my wife and son eat  the Greek yogurt that comes in single servings  from Aldi.

I consume two scoops of protein powder per day as well which I buy in bulk 10-20 lb bags or the 6 lb bags from Costco when they’re on sale.

I drink a couple of craft beers a week and those run anywhere from $2-$11 per beer.

[des999]

we (family of 3) average about 650/month, but that includes alcohol and house hold items (pet food, paper towels, cleaning supplies, etc..)  I like craft beer and my wife likes wine, so that adds up.

We eat pretty healthy, lots of organic.  I have gotten better at making many of the things I used to buy (salsa, hummus, spaghetti sauce, pizzas)

I never knew if those items are included when people talk about their grocery bills?

[AMandM]

We spent an average of $904 per month in 2017.
I'm just here to make y'all feel good about yourselves ;-)

My husband wants me to point out some mitigating factors. We had three teenagers at home till August, when one went to college. We have married kids and grandkids over to eat with us every week. We had two milestone parties (graduation) that cost about $1000 total. And the grocery number includes alcohol and household items (cleaning, toothpaste, etc.).
 

[Mikila]

Family of 4, includes one teenager and one almost-teen.

Spending: This year we have averaged $555/ month on groceries & $56/mo on restaurants.  If these local restaurants depended on us to keep their doors open, they would all be out of business, ha!
We eat healthy in a traditional way without being on any trendy diets- whole grains, fruits, and vegetables constitute the bulk of our diet.
And we're not fat!  So there, protein-rich trendy diets that can give people kidney disease!  lol    Actually I could stand to gain 10 lbs. 
We could spend less, but enjoy the luxury of delicious food.

Each day each person eats 2 fresh fruits, on average.

Meals: Oatmeal, pancakes (from scratch, 1/2 whole wheat and with blackstrap molasses on top are VERY healthy), cereals such as Mini-Wheats and Raisen Bran
Lunches- leftovers, egg salad sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, bologna & cheddar, ramen with eggs & peas on weekends
Dinner- Burritos/tacos (meat-less), spaghetti (meatless with chunky vegetables in the homemade sauce), homemade pizza (crust and all and very little cheese), microwaved potatoes with frozen mixed veggies atop, Asian rice & veggies, enormous salad with every possible veggie and egg.  We eat these 85% of the time.

More rarely we eat barbequed hamburgers, hot dogs with tater tots, soup, casseroles, etc. 
I also bake W.W. bread, pretzels, pumpkin bread, banana muffins, you get the picture.  We always have a delicious home-baked snack available. 

[mm1970]

We spent an average of $904 per month in 2017.
I'm just here to make y'all feel good about yourselves ;-)

My husband wants me to point out some mitigating factors. We had three teenagers at home till August, when one went to college. We have married kids and grandkids over to eat with us every week. We had two milestone parties (graduation) that cost about $1000 total. And the grocery number includes alcohol and household items (cleaning, toothpaste, etc.).

all important things

household items and alcohol are separate categories for me

[wenchsenior]

We spent an average of $904 per month in 2017.
I'm just here to make y'all feel good about yourselves ;-)

My husband wants me to point out some mitigating factors. We had three teenagers at home till August, when one went to college. We have married kids and grandkids over to eat with us every week. We had two milestone parties (graduation) that cost about $1000 total. And the grocery number includes alcohol and household items (cleaning, toothpaste, etc.).

Yup...we spent 789$/month (includes household items and alcohol) on only two adults in 2017.  And one of us only eats twice a day.  And...that's down about 50$/month from previous years, because I finally started shopping meat sales and make a few more stews, etc.  I'm expecting it to drop a bit more going forward, but not much. :shrug:

[Awesomeness]

When I was a family a four I spent 700$ a month at Costco and about 100$ at the commissary. That included all toiletries.  Kids were teens then. We ate decently healthy, no one was overweight.  Maybe one night a week was meat free.