Monthly Grocery Bill: What did you used to spend vs what do you spend now?

[englishteacheralex]

My monthly grocery bill for a family of four for February is up 100% over what it was pre-Covid. (Pre-Covid, $750/month. This month: $1500) Some non-inflation reasons for this are:

1. No free meals from daycare anymore; my kids are in elementary school now and we pack home lunch because it's a private school and the school lunch and breakfast combo is $11/day.

2. The kids eat more now. We used to have more leftovers. A Costco frozen lasagna is now just one meal for our family, whereas it used to be two.

3. The four of us all eat home-prepared food for almost all meals, so our grocery spend is almost our entire food spend for the month.

4. We live in Hawaii, so food prices are quite high compared to the mainland. But this was the case pre-Covid, as well.

Still, our grocery bill is consistently quite a bit higher than it used to be. We don't have any special dietary restrictions. I'm actually not really looking to cut down--we can afford the higher bill--but more looking for validation that it's not just us. Are your food costs also higher than they used to be?

Hacks for grocery costs are always fun to read, but I'm quite well-versed in those at this point. Just wondering if despite all your best efforts, you're still spending more...and also seeking validation that the effort we put into planning meals, groceries, and avoiding restaurants/takeout is still worth it. Our spending levels even with all this work just feel so high.

[economista]

seeking validation that the effort we put into planning meals, groceries, and avoiding restaurants/takeout is still worth it. Our spending levels even with all this work just feel so high.

Just think of how high your total food spending would be if you added in more takeout! I was just reminiscing with my husband how nice it was to go get pho pre-covid. Pre-covid we would go every single Sunday after church and for the two of us it was $25 after tip. Now we have 2 toddlers who each eat an entire bowl of pho so doubling the order plus inflation means it is now $75 for us to get pho! We absolutely can't afford to do that on a weekly or even a monthly basis!

[NotJen]

My food costs keep dropping, but I'm a weirdo.

I live walking distance to my grocery store now, and go by almost every day to purchase rescue produce, clearance meats, and whatever deals I can find.

Pre-pandemic I was still working, and eating out a lot more - so not at all comparable to my spending now.

[Sibley]

When eggs cost double what they did a few years ago, if your food costs haven't gone up its because something else changed and the increase was offset by the decrease.

I don't have numbers handy, but yeah, mine is up. Pet food is way up too.

[Catbert]

I looked online at BLS figures for Food at Home.  From January 2020 through December 2023 FAH is up 23%.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/food-inflation-in-the-united-states/

[JLee]

We (2 adults, no kids) started eating down our pantry and haven't gone proper grocery shopping since before Jan 1.  We've allowed exceptions for baking staples and fresh produce, and last week added salad dressing and maple syrup to the list -- but we've made it two months only buying the following:

Aldi sugar/flour/eggs (~$10?)
Trader Joe's maple syrup (~$16)
3x regular supermarket salad dressings (~$14)

We also are allowing fresh produce for the sake of our health, but at Aldi prices it's not much money there either.  I'm not sure when we'll go back to regular shopping but I think we've got another month in us.

When eggs cost double what they did a few years ago, if your food costs haven't gone up its because something else changed and the increase was offset by the decrease.

I don't have numbers handy, but yeah, mine is up. Pet food is way up too.

They're still a lot cheaper than they were during the bird flu days though!

[Paper Chaser]

I looked online at BLS figures for Food at Home.  From January 2020 through December 2023 FAH is up 23%.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/food-inflation-in-the-united-states/

Up to 25% now:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SAF11

[Sibley]

Ok, hard data. Monthly averages for grocery/dining out, this includes anything that I might buy at the grocery store. Pet food/supplies are not included and I don't track those in a way I can get food costs alone, but pet food prices have gone up.

2019: $230
2023: $432
2024 (2 months): $344

[GilesMM]

$3-400/month/pp is fairly typical for most people.

[Omy]

Ours (2 adults no kids) is up by approximately 25%. We could do a better job of optimizing and get that number down a bit, but we spend less than half of what we spent on groceries and takeout when we were working so it really doesn't seem that bad.

In 2015 we spent at least $1000/mo on food. In 2020 we spent about $340/mo and in 2024 we're around $425/mo.

[Sanitary Stache]

These numbers include grocery, restaurant, and farm animals for a family of five.  I am adding $150 a month for a WIC adjustment factor, this is hard to pin down because it is a bunch of things we probably wouldn't buy and the total has varied over pregnancies and kids ages (unfortunately we don't track this because as a consistent group of products I could see a more accurate inflation number, maybe.
 WIC has categories so we often choose the most expensive item in a category.  For instance we can swap tofu for milk to a degree and the exchange ends up being more valuable for tofu). 
2020 and 2021 had SNAP benefits that I didn't track but totaled $2,000 over the two years.  The kids have aged into free lunch at school and also was available last summer. As my interest in the farm animals declines, DW has created a sort of cooperative where neighbors buy animal feed and help take care of the animals and take milk and eggs and sometimes cheese.  So farm animal costs have started to decrease.  Restaurant costs are somewhat steady.

2023 - $7,500/12 = 625 + 150 = $775 ($250/month at restaurants)
2022 - $6,000/12 = 500 + 150 = $650
2021 - $5,000/12 = 416 + 150 = $565
2020 - $6,000/12 =                 = $650
2019 - $7,000/12 = 585 + 150 = $735
2018 - $6,500/12 = 540 + 150 = $690

Since part of our food budget is included in our farm expenses and part is not tracked in WIC and SNAP and free lunch, I am not sure what kind of inflation effects we might see.

This looks a lot like we have a budget we are willing to spend and stick to it.  Some years we have lower restaurant expenses, some years higher.

We pretty much only shop for WIC items at the grocery store.  The rest of our food comes from farms and restaurant scale food purveyors (like Sysco). And DW usually only buys something when it fits her internal cost table. No avocados for more than $1, a 50# bag of flour for not more than X amount.  I have heard from her that this amount has increased, though our source changes as the price changes and we now get flour from a farm that has no idea how to handle flour.  Animal feed has increased also, but I think our cost per egg is in the $0.10 vicinity.  Though sometimes we don't have eggs, or like today, only one egg for breakfast in order to have eggs for challah.

[PoutineLover]

I can't really compare apples to apples because I have a kid who started eating last year and while she doesn't have a huge appetite, it did have an impact on our spending.

According to our card, our average grocery spending is 660/month, which jives pretty well with my impression that we spend about 150/week for two adults and a toddler in Canada.

Certain things have definitely increased, but I tend to shop sales and keep a stocked pantry and freezer so that has insulated us a little bit. I don't have data going far enough back, but I would estimate our pre-child, pre-inflation grocery spending at 500/month.

[Cranky]

Well, in 1977 my grocery budget was $25/week for two adults, which was tight but doable, so there’s definitely been some increases. ;-)

PreCovid I was spending about $750/month for food + wine+ cat supplies for 3 adults and 2 cats, and we did occasionally eat out. Now I’m spending about $900, which is a very generous budget, for the same 3 adults and 2 cats and we very rarely eat out.

I’ve always bought eggs at the Farmers Market and the price of those has not actually increased.

Meat is definitely higher and there are rarely any real sales, so we do eat less beef, but that seems fine. I find chicken on sale for a decent price pretty often.

[kenner]

Food costs are up pretty consistently 25% for me compared to pre-covid unless I'm doing something specific in a month to avoid it (ex. deliberately maximizing eating out of pantry/freezer, although there are staples I prefer to keep so I do then build them back up again).  I lump all food including eating out into a general 'food' category so breaking out just groceries is a little tricky, but per spreadsheets 'food' went from a pretty stable $280/mo pre-covid to ~$350/mo for the last year or so. 

[doneby35]

Food is absolutely much more expensive. We are a 2 person household. Everything is cooked at home and we don’t eat out. Monthly groceries before 2020 was $600. After 2020 it is $800-$900. Most expensive items are the eggs and meat.

[Raenia]

Ours has doubled in the past few years as well. Partly due to inflation, partly with the addition of a child to the family. I track a category of all consumables together, not just food, so that includes formula, diapers, laundry detergent, etc.

I hope I'll be able to pull it back down somewhat, but we'll never be at pre-COVID levels again. Unless we're able to grow a large proportion of our food, but that's not likely with our space and available time to put into it.

[Freedomin5]

Ours stayed about the same. But we changed our diet and eat less meat than before.

[Zikoris]

Our 2019 numbers (household of two) were:

$323 total:

$256 Groceries
$37 Snack foods
$22 Restaurants
$5 Costco membership (1/12 of the annual cost)


Our 2023 numbers were:

$503 total:

$422 Groceries
$27 Snacks
$54 Restaurants
No more Costco membership

I'd say the increase was mostly due to bad shopping habits and lifestyle inflation. Lately we've been working on correcting for some of that at least.

Our groceries also contain more personal care stuff that I used to split out into separate transactions, but I stopped caring in 2020. Our 2023 toiletries spending was $205, compared to $204 in 2019, and the cost of toiletries has absolutely increased in that time period, so a lot of that must now be in groceries.

[Alternatepriorities]

I'm in Alaska and like Hawaii have higher than average food prices. We grocery shop almost exclusively at Costco and buy more vegetables than a mustachian this close to the arctic circle probably should. Our weekly spend is up 33 to 50 percent depending on exactly what we are buying. We don't buy a lot of meat thanks to my harvesting efforts and the three freezers my father left behind (about half frozen produce and half meat)

Some things I know off the top of my head:

25% or less increase
Apples - These were high for a while but recently came down a lot.
Coffee - Probably about to change as they seem to have stopped stocking the locally roasted brand we were buying.
Milk (rarely buy, actually on of the few things that is always cheaper at a regular grocery store here)

33% increase:
Mushrooms
bell peppers
tomatoes
cucumbers
Medium Cheddar
Mayo
Nuts

50% increase
Bacon
cream
raisins
Cream
Eggs

100% increase
Butter - I really don't get why it's gone up so much more than cream, but it is still not expensive enough to buy cream and make my own.

ETA: I forgot the one thing that hasn’t gone up at our Costco! The rotisserie chicken is still the same.

[okits]

The effect of growing children is substantial.  My elementary school aged kids can eat portions as big as an adult's.  It definitely magnifies the effect of higher food prices. 

[NorthernIkigai]

Ours stayed about the same. But we changed our diet and eat less meat than before.

Same here. And in the meantime, the kids have also grown.

I can tell the prices of some staples have gone up (although some only went up for a short time last year, followed by “we have lowered hundreds of our prices!” ads and returns to the old prices…), but the monthly total, while quite variable from month to month, has not gone up. My spouse does eat more restaurant food for lunch because of changing work habits, so that category has gone up a bit.

[Freedomin5]

We also eat very little processed prepared food like frozen lasagne or frozen pizzas. Restaurant prices have gone up, but we don’t eat out often enough to have a significant impact on our food spending.

[Cranky]

Ours stayed about the same. But we changed our diet and eat less meat than before.

Same here. And in the meantime, the kids have also grown.

I can tell the prices of some staples have gone up (although some only went up for a short time last year, followed by “we have lowered hundreds of our prices!” ads and returns to the old prices…), but the monthly total, while quite variable from month to month, has not gone up. My spouse does eat more restaurant food for lunch because of changing work habits, so that category has gone up a bit.

What surprised me recently is the jump in the price of sugar! I do pretty much all of the baking from scratch, but I had bought quite a lot of sugar a year ago at a really good sale price. And then at Christmas I noticed that it had jumped to $3/bag! I’m watching the sales on that one.

[SpinWave0704]

NYT is looking for shoppers to document their habits for a story that will paint a portrait of food purchasing in America today:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/dining/we-want-to-see-your-grocery-shopping-receipts.html

[fireready]

Family of 5, all adults.  My wife and I and three grownish kids in college living at home.  They do buy some of their own food but mostly eat ours.
We spend around $500 per month living in NW Oregon. 
Bulk shopping for INGREDIENTS not meals
Very little prepackaged food.
Lots of veggies
bulk rice
bulk dried beans
a whole chicken which we roast, remove all of the meat, then make bone broth with the carcass
Stuff like that.

We RARELY eat out. 

Food prices have gone up and we then choose what not to buy if it is too expensive. Like when eggs went crazy, we didn't buy eggs for a long time.  Now they are more reasonable so they are back on the menu.
We also have a large veggie garden that we are sorting out now.  Seeds in the dirt in our house to sprout!