Author Topic: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?  (Read 27863 times)

SingleMomDebt

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What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« on: February 01, 2017, 09:45:16 PM »
After reading Root of Good's One Month of Groceries post, I was curious about how much everyone budgets and/or spends each month on food (all) and household supplies.


How many people and/or animals fall under this budget? 
Monthly Food Budget*? 
Monthly Household Supplies Budget?

Comments:

*includes groceries, eating out, coffee, bars/alcohol, etc... All food.

SingleMomDebt

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2017, 09:45:30 PM »

How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 ppl + 1 cat
Monthly Food Budget?  $600
Monthly Household Supplies Budget?  inc. in food budget

Comments: I find my monthly budget doable. Little restricted since I include household and other in this category. I work full-time, but have adequate hours after work to cook up a good meal. I am utilizing weekends to batch cook lunches and/or prep for meals and shop with a grocery list in hand. But if that doesn't happen, the spending tends to increase to supplement small sides or cups of coffee from my work. I would like to increase my budget approx $50-$100.

Laserjet3051

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2017, 09:25:47 AM »
4 people plus 1 large breed dog

$1150 per month average

includes cleaning & kitchen supplies

this includes eating out which we do only 1 time per week at a cheap cost

dont buy much processed food; we do buy a lot of fresh produce, meat and seafood

Kiwi Fuzz

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2017, 09:43:09 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget? 2 adults (with wildly different diets due to medical and preference reasons)
Monthly Food Budget? Goal: $300 ($200 grocery + $100 take out) Reality: $600 grocery spending + $100 take out budget
Monthly Household Supplies Budget? Included in food budget

Comments: I hoard way too much food. I love cooking and I'm always too excited at the start of the month get more ingredients for dishes I've missed during the month (or new ones I want to try) while trying to eat down my pantry stocks. The new rule I'm trying for this is to ask: will I die if you don't buy this? Unless I have zero food in the house (has never happened and I don't expect it ever will) then this should help cut my spending. I try to use what I have but I need to force myself to do so more. I should probably break the household supplies into another budget category but I'll have to look into it.

Retire-Canada

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2017, 09:51:36 AM »
$600CDN/month

- all food for 2 adults
- house supplies
- cat food + litter
- not incl booze

Eating out = $200/month budgeted [not including vacations or holidays], but we often don't use up that full amount

We both work a lot and live in a HCOl area. Once I downshift/FIRE I plan to spend time optimizing our grocery cost. I currently go to 1 store and just do the best I can there vs. going to multiple shops which are each better/cheaper for specific items.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2017, 10:24:38 AM by Retire-Canada »

SKL-HOU

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2017, 09:51:50 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget? 1 adult+1 5-year old+2 large dogs+1 cat
Monthly Food Budget? I estimate spending around $550-600 (No set budget on food. I don't restrict any food based on cost including meat but we don't typically eat much junk food)
Monthly Household Supplies Budget? Included in food budget

ETA: Above numbers do not include eating out. That's maybe another 150-200/mo.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2017, 01:57:33 PM by SKL-HOU »

Fire2025

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2017, 10:04:02 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 ppl 1 small dog
Monthly Food Budget*?  January $356.00 in groceries - $56.10 restaurant
Monthly Household Supplies Budget? we didn't spend anything on household goods last month, but we budget $15.00 per month.  Somehow we have a huge stockpile of cleaning supplies so we only really need toilet paper for the next year or more.

MandalayVA

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2017, 10:10:09 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  Two humans, one cat
Monthly Food Budget*?  $400--we rarely eat out but Mr. Mandalay has developed a 7/11 coffee habit :(
Monthly Household Supplies Budget?  $200--includes Poe's food and litter

SilveradoBojangles

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2017, 10:11:34 AM »
2 people

Last year we spent 661/month on food, alcohol, restaurants, household stuff.

Only about 75$ per month was restaurants, and ~$100/month was household stuff (this may be a bit high - I classify anything bought for the house in this category, from toilet paper to furniture). Rest (~486) was food and booze, including a CSA box, costco stock ups, etc.

CmFtns

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #9 on: February 02, 2017, 10:16:42 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 adults male & female mid 20s
Monthly Food, Household Supplies, Eat Out Budget?  Goal: $200 Actual: $206.35 (20 month average)


Comments:
We almost never and I mean really almost never eat out and we shop and batch cook for the week on Sundays. For our shopping we first go to wholesale club (Sam's Club) and get things like meats, milk, stuff for salads, eggs, fruits/veggies and other stuff which we can use a larger quantity of. We then go to grocery store and shop for things I only need small quantities of and shop for sales and BOGO items. I have learned which shelf stable items have become staples of our diet and recipes and will stock up when they go BOGO at our local grocery store (Publix). Therefore, I will basically always pay half price for things like cereals/granola/oats, peanuts, pasta & red sauces, diced tomatoes, canned soup, bread, coffee, snacks & chips, and beer & soda (for the rare occasions we drink those). I also as a general rule don't buy liquid calories except milk and this cuts a surprising amount from a normal grocery budget. Our food budget is something I work hard to keep very low while also trying to stay reasonably healthy and tasty.

Jun-15   $232.71
Jul-15   $209.43
Aug-15   $197.68
Sep-15   $228.58
Oct-15   $197.01
Nov-15   $206.42
Dec-15   $81.64
Jan-16   $229.00
Feb-16   $201.48
Mar-16   $91.70
Apr-16   $279.45
May-16   $265.80
Jun-16   $206.57
Jul-16   $240.09
Aug-16   $189.84
Sep-16   $164.80
Oct-16   $318.06
Nov-16   $190.56
Dec-16   $188.54
Jan-17   $207.65
« Last Edit: February 02, 2017, 10:36:42 AM by CmFtns »

boarder42

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2017, 10:21:12 AM »
i dont budget ut we ride around 300 when not drinking ... go up to 550 if we're drinking.  we drink too much.

jeninco

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2017, 10:38:36 AM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

boarder42

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2017, 10:57:57 AM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

Zero Degrees

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2017, 11:03:39 AM »
One adult female
Two older teen males
One large breed dog

$420 budget: includes food for all, school lunches, and cleaning supplies.

$100 for entertainment, so eating out falls in this category.

This is a new budget the past two months after realizing I was spending too much on food. I tried packing their lunches, but it was not cost effective as they were eating the school stuff before it could make it to school. The kids eat non stop. One of them is very active, and I don't food shame them.

I would sometimes go over. Bringing cash in my budget, and leaving bank card at home solved that.

I've also put every dollar in a category and put it where it needs to go automatically, so it cannot be misused. All my bills are on auto and I don't even know when it's pay day anymore now that I use cash for food, fuel, and entertainment.

brian313313

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2017, 11:06:21 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 ppl + 1 cat
Monthly Food Budget?  $500 - Actual $800
Monthly Household Supplies Budget?  $100

Comments: This does not include eating out. We are happy with what we spend there. We tracked every single item in the month of January and thought that we could find some glaring holes. We could not. We actually spent over $1100 but some of that was stocking up on paper towels, tp, & meat. Food just costs a lot for us. I could quit eating vegetables...they don't have many calories. lol. Health may suffer for it though. I can't eat bread or many carb based foods. Most of the groceries are meat & vegetables.

brian313313

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #15 on: February 02, 2017, 11:12:10 AM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

The question I have is how everyone else gets this so low. Our spending is about the same. We live in a higher cost of living area but that shouldn't account for that much. We tracked every single item last month and didn't see any particular item that stood out. Overall, we could maybe find $100 we could have trimmed such as skipping seafood (2 meals). We also cook from base ingredients. Not organic or anything special. I don't eat many carbs though. Especially breads & fruits which can be cheaper sources of calories & nutrition.

SpareChange

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2017, 11:34:27 AM »
Just me...$350 a month for both. Includes coffee and alcohol. Does not include sit down restaurants, which I don't frequent on a monthly basis. Does include hospital cafeteria runs and the occasional Starbucks. 

Cassie

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2017, 11:51:57 AM »
2 people, one large dog and 3 small dogs. Our food only for people is 400. Our dog food is 150. This does not include eating out which we usually do about 1x/week and spend about 60 each time.

Fire2025

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2017, 11:52:07 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 adults male & female mid 20s
Monthly Food, Household Supplies, Eat Out Budget?  Goal: $200 Actual: $206.35 (20 month average)


Comments:
We almost never and I mean really almost never eat out and we shop and batch cook for the week on Sundays. For our shopping we first go to wholesale club (Sam's Club) and get things like meats, milk, stuff for salads, eggs, fruits/veggies and other stuff which we can use a larger quantity of. We then go to grocery store and shop for things I only need small quantities of and shop for sales and BOGO items. I have learned which shelf stable items have become staples of our diet and recipes and will stock up when they go BOGO at our local grocery store (Publix). Therefore, I will basically always pay half price for things like cereals/granola/oats, peanuts, pasta & red sauces, diced tomatoes, canned soup, bread, coffee, snacks & chips, and beer & soda (for the rare occasions we drink those). I also as a general rule don't buy liquid calories except milk and this cuts a surprising amount from a normal grocery budget. Our food budget is something I work hard to keep very low while also trying to stay reasonably healthy and tasty.

This is very inspirational.  I really want to start getting our groceries down to south of $300/month  This helps me put my feet to the fire.  I'm going look into costco for meats and cheeses that may really help.  Thanks for sharing.

HPstache

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #19 on: February 02, 2017, 11:55:07 AM »
Family of 3, one of which is a 2 year old that eats a lot and drinks a ton of milk.  Our budget is $600 and it includes everything mentioned.

boarder42

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #20 on: February 02, 2017, 11:57:41 AM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

The question I have is how everyone else gets this so low. Our spending is about the same. We live in a higher cost of living area but that shouldn't account for that much. We tracked every single item last month and didn't see any particular item that stood out. Overall, we could maybe find $100 we could have trimmed such as skipping seafood (2 meals). We also cook from base ingredients. Not organic or anything special. I don't eat many carbs though. Especially breads & fruits which can be cheaper sources of calories & nutrition.

we're a family of 2 and run around 300 including tons of packaged foods but for the most part we eat meat beans and veggies - packaged foods are for the weekends.  if we only ate meat beans and veggies i think we could make it work for around 200 or so...

Keys for us
We only buy most things on sale and if its a good sale and can be stocked up in a freezer like meat we buy a lot
We shop at aldi for almost all produce. unless its cheaper at the local grocery store.

Pricing
Chicken breasts - sub 1.49 per lb aldi runs this special or cheaper for fresh that you can individually freeze 1 time a month
bought half a cow for around 3 bucks per pound
Aldi Milk - 1.98
Aldi OJ - 1.69
Aldi fresh green beans 99c/lb
Aldi Dry Beans 99c/lb
Aldi goat cheese 1.99
Aldi brick cheese 1.49
Aldi cauliflower - 1.19
Aldi Roma's - 99/lb
Aldi Brussels - 2.19/lb
Aldi Pork butt - 1.49 or less per pound
Aldi Pork loin - 1.49/lb or less
Ground turkey - 2/1.2 lbs
Aldi boneless skinless chx thighs 99c/lb

its all pretty cheap but aldi is a big player if you dont have one near by the grocery store produce isnt nearly as cost effective

i know 2 growing teenage boys can eat alot but i just have a hard time believing its 500 more in food per month than 2 grown adults.

caracarn

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #21 on: February 02, 2017, 11:58:59 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  7 ppl + 2 cats + 1 dog
Monthly Food Budget*?  $900
Monthly Household Supplies Budget? $750

Comments: We are a blended family so the kids are at exes houses for about 30% of the time as well and we still go through that much.  Usually things like 3-4 gallons of milk a week, 3-4 lbs of meat every two or three days in our Instant Pot.

Cranky

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #22 on: February 02, 2017, 12:07:06 PM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

Have you ever fed teenaged boys??

boarder42

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #23 on: February 02, 2017, 12:13:15 PM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

Have you ever fed teenaged boys??

i was a teenage boy i still stand by the fact that based on what the poster said they eat their budget should be much lower. 

to me this is a classifier people hide behind to not optimize.

caracarn

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #24 on: February 02, 2017, 12:32:54 PM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

Have you ever fed teenaged boys??

i was a teenage boy i still stand by the fact that based on what the poster said they eat their budget should be much lower. 

to me this is a classifier people hide behind to not optimize.

boarder I'd agree this is a decision to "not optimize" in our case.  At some point not having arguments about eating the same bowl of beans again is worth the extra money.  Certainly our tune would change if we needed to tighten up but we look for sales, buy in bulk and have cut the spending from about $2,000/month or more in the last year.  If you are going full MMM we are doing poorly but we still manage to save 15-20% of our income (and funneling another 10% to college savings) buy choosing not to optimize.

brian313313

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #25 on: February 02, 2017, 12:39:28 PM »

we're a family of 2 and run around 300 including tons of packaged foods but for the most part we eat meat beans and veggies - packaged foods are for the weekends.  if we only ate meat beans and veggies i think we could make it work for around 200 or so...

Keys for us
We only buy most things on sale and if its a good sale and can be stocked up in a freezer like meat we buy a lot
We shop at aldi for almost all produce. unless its cheaper at the local grocery store.

Pricing
Chicken breasts - sub 1.49 per lb aldi runs this special or cheaper for fresh that you can individually freeze 1 time a month
bought half a cow for around 3 bucks per pound
Aldi Milk - 1.98
Aldi OJ - 1.69
Aldi fresh green beans 99c/lb
Aldi Dry Beans 99c/lb
Aldi goat cheese 1.99
Aldi brick cheese 1.49
Aldi cauliflower - 1.19
Aldi Roma's - 99/lb
Aldi Brussels - 2.19/lb
Aldi Pork butt - 1.49 or less per pound
Aldi Pork loin - 1.49/lb or less
Ground turkey - 2/1.2 lbs
Aldi boneless skinless chx thighs 99c/lb

its all pretty cheap but aldi is a big player if you dont have one near by the grocery store produce isnt nearly as cost effective

i know 2 growing teenage boys can eat alot but i just have a hard time believing its 500 more in food per month than 2 grown adults.

Thank you. We are about 10 miles from an Aldi. Never been there but will check it out. We are walking distance to a Costco. The prices are good but still usually in the $4/lb range for meat. Veggies are a great price when we can buy the quantity but some of those still come from Target. I have found bone-in chicken thighs for 99c/lb.

dreams_and_discoveries

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #26 on: February 02, 2017, 12:44:54 PM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  1 human and 1 cat
Monthly Food Budget*?  I'm at £75 a month in groceries. About the same eating/drinking out
Monthly Household Supplies Budget?  Included in above, I favour reusable cloths and tupperware rather than consumables


Overall it helps I'm a veggie, and I naturally like cheaper meals. I could get it cheaper if I wanted to, but I think I'm doing well.

I also eat out say twice a month, and have drinks out maybe few times which is the same again. Again, this could be cut back, but is mainly socialising.

boarder42

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #27 on: February 02, 2017, 12:45:25 PM »

we're a family of 2 and run around 300 including tons of packaged foods but for the most part we eat meat beans and veggies - packaged foods are for the weekends.  if we only ate meat beans and veggies i think we could make it work for around 200 or so...

Keys for us
We only buy most things on sale and if its a good sale and can be stocked up in a freezer like meat we buy a lot
We shop at aldi for almost all produce. unless its cheaper at the local grocery store.

Pricing
Chicken breasts - sub 1.49 per lb aldi runs this special or cheaper for fresh that you can individually freeze 1 time a month
bought half a cow for around 3 bucks per pound
Aldi Milk - 1.98
Aldi OJ - 1.69
Aldi fresh green beans 99c/lb
Aldi Dry Beans 99c/lb
Aldi goat cheese 1.99
Aldi brick cheese 1.49
Aldi cauliflower - 1.19
Aldi Roma's - 99/lb
Aldi Brussels - 2.19/lb
Aldi Pork butt - 1.49 or less per pound
Aldi Pork loin - 1.49/lb or less
Ground turkey - 2/1.2 lbs
Aldi boneless skinless chx thighs 99c/lb

its all pretty cheap but aldi is a big player if you dont have one near by the grocery store produce isnt nearly as cost effective

i know 2 growing teenage boys can eat alot but i just have a hard time believing its 500 more in food per month than 2 grown adults.

Thank you. We are about 10 miles from an Aldi. Never been there but will check it out. We are walking distance to a Costco. The prices are good but still usually in the $4/lb range for meat. Veggies are a great price when we can buy the quantity but some of those still come from Target. I have found bone-in chicken thighs for 99c/lb.

aldi will run bone in for as low as 29c per pound.  here their ads run wednesday to wednesday.  You can use their website to see the ad.  so you can see what produce is on sale that week.  You will be able to see the fresh meat special buy sales 1 week in advance on the website.

you're likely going to save much more money than costco i think they are way overrated ... Aldi FTW for all food would likely cut most peoples budgets by 50% if they didnt even look at the local grocery ad to shop loss leaders.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2017, 12:50:40 PM by boarder42 »

Philociraptor

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #28 on: February 02, 2017, 12:47:00 PM »
 - Feeding/supplying 2 people, wife (120 lb female) and myself (175 lb male).
 - Monthly GROCERY budget: $500
 - Monthly grocery budget includes household supplies, coffee, and beer bought at a grocery store. Liquor stores, coffee shops, fast food, restaurants, and bars go into our "Everything Else" budget item.

We eat about 2 lbs of meat (6 oz cooked for her and 8 oz cooked for me for each lunch and dinner) per day, mostly in the form of chicken thighs, pork shoulder, and ground beef; we also eat 5 eggs (2 for her, 3 for me) each day for breakfast, plus a bit of bacon, spam, or bacon added in. We go through a similar weight in vegetables each week. We each do strength training 3-5 days per week, and a 3+ mile run or 5+ mile bike ride probably once a week.

For reference: our total "Food & Dining" (which includes the separated out items above) in 2016 was $10,816, or $902 per month. We do enjoy restaurants and alcohol; spending on those categories has gone down every year and likely will go down more this year.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2017, 12:55:05 PM by Philociraptor »

SilveradoBojangles

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #29 on: February 02, 2017, 01:14:36 PM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

The question I have is how everyone else gets this so low. Our spending is about the same. We live in a higher cost of living area but that shouldn't account for that much. We tracked every single item last month and didn't see any particular item that stood out. Overall, we could maybe find $100 we could have trimmed such as skipping seafood (2 meals). We also cook from base ingredients. Not organic or anything special. I don't eat many carbs though. Especially breads & fruits which can be cheaper sources of calories & nutrition.

I suspect that the reason your spending is higher is some combo of teenagers, HCOL, and meat. We live in the highest of HCOLs, and I love to cook, and we also eat very well. We are only 2 people (and not teenagers), and when I remove alcohol we spend $112 a month on a CSA + eggs, and ~$275 on other food (so just under half what you spend). We actually don't eat much meat (maybe 2x a week?), but we like to have dinner parties and make fancy things, and I'm constantly trying new recipes that call for specialty items (I try to keep it to a dull roar). The occasional splurges add up.

I went back and looked at the Root of Good post about groceries, and i was struck by how much packages food and out of season fruits and veggies they purchase. We make our own bread and baked goods and salad dressings and granola and hummus and salsa, and so my purchases are usually dried beans/grains/flour, nuts, canned goods, dairy, oils, occasional meat/seafood/tofu, and the aforementioned weekly CSA.

MrsPB

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #30 on: February 02, 2017, 01:22:27 PM »
2 adults, 2 kids (1 and 3 in full time daycare where lunch and two snacks are provided by daycare M-F)
1 large breed dog
Monthly grocery spend around $700 excluding dog food and household supplies and booze (We don't drink any more and the drinks in our groceries are club soda, tea, coffee, milk and alcohol free beer)
Dog food is $40/month
Eating out/coffee $20-40 per month plus $20-100 meal expenses for DH when he travels for work. Mostly we manage with packed meals but that doesn't work for 3 day trips so sometimes he does have to buy restaurant/hotel bar meals but he does get per diems so I don't usually include the expense. I have noted it here though a of course that brings our grocery bill down a little bit if he's not eating home food a few days a month.
I do have a few dietary restrictions, no wheat, eggs, corn and minimal dairy. as I do most of the cooking, we all have rice pasta, spelt pizza dough etc. I make most things from scratch like pasta sauces, pizza dough, muffins, hummus , etc. A few convenience foods as we are both working full time. Lunch is always leftovers, buying lunch out for me is a rarity.
Oh, and we're in 🇨🇦
« Last Edit: February 02, 2017, 01:52:29 PM by MrsPB »

NotJen

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #31 on: February 02, 2017, 01:54:35 PM »
I don't budget.  But these are my 2016 averages per month:

How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?   1 human adult (cat expenses are tracked separately)
Monthly Food Budget?  $778 for ONE person!
Monthly Household Supplies Budget?  Hard to tell - not tracked separately.  Some is included in grocery, some isn't.

One note is that my state/city taxes all goods at 9%, so my total is closer to $714/month before tax (which isn't really that much better).  I eat out a fair amount, and I drink alcohol.  Groceries are $370/mo.  I eat simply and make most things from scratch, but I like quality ingredients and spend more to buy expensive dried beans, CSA fruits and veggies, and local meat because they taste better to me.  I don't do organic.

Also, I'm cool with spending this much, and not really trying to improve right now (2016 was actually a big improvement over 2015 and 2014).

Raenia

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #32 on: February 02, 2017, 06:08:32 PM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  1 adult, no pets
Monthly Food Budget?  $120*
Monthly Household Supplies Budget? Included in food budget

Comments:  I don't budget for eating out, I prefer to think of any time eating out as coming directly out of my monthly savings.  That helps me decide if it's really worth it or not.  Last year before instituting this policy, I was at ~$100/mo eating out, so far this year it is much lower (~$25/mo).  Hopefully I can keep it there!

jeninco

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #33 on: February 02, 2017, 07:18:35 PM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

It's high. But we eat out approximately never, we buy almost no convenience  or pre-prepared food, and we cook about everything from fundamental parts: Meat, dried beans, vegetables.  The older kid looked at a completely full fridge last week and said "why isn't there anything to eat in here", meaning "it's all basic components that require assembly, there's nothing I can grab and eat." My goal is to have an empty refrigerator on Friday evening/Sat morning before we go grocery shopping. We eat very, very well, but haven't thrown out food in a while.

We also have 2 cats, but their stuff is calculated elsewhere.

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  this should equate to a very low budget if you dont bbuy packaged food.  dry beans are cheap.  meat and veggies bought on sale are cheap. so how do you get to 800? does it inolve the buzzword organic which makes food cost 2x what it should for no added value?

Have you ever fed teenaged boys??

Aww, thanks for defending me!

Very high COL area, no Aldi or other discount grocer, a fair amount of gourmet ingredients (although we buy them at Trader Joe's, so they're ... less outrageously expensive), and we try to buy responsibly raised meat, but not too much of it. We're totally not optimizing on the food -- I decided I could bash it back to $100-$150/week (the rest is delivered milk and that half steer, which I've split into a monthly amount).

Interesting that the responses seem to be bimodal -- lots of folks with "high" grocery budgets up around mine (per person), some folks striving for and/or achieving half that.

From memory, our menu this past week:
Breakfasts: coffee, milk, cereal (from TJ, so $2-$3/box), granola (which I make), soaked oats, pancakes, all with fruit
Breakfast fruit this week was two $1 pineapples and a $2 box of blueberries

Lunches: sandwiches, leftovers, bean cheese & spicy pico quesadillas for lunches, with oranges/apples. Big salad for me of celery, apples, blue cheese, walnuts, and dried cranberries (chopped salads last several days).

Dinners: tonight was a pasta carbonara baked in a springform (smitten kitchen), salad. This was an experiment, and contained some fancy-pants ingredients.
tomorrow: sausage, lentil, (frozen)kale soup with croutons made of the leftover bread from this week
red curry beef and cabbage, steamed rice
pozole (chicken & hominy stew), cabbage and carrot salad
burgers, sweet potatoes, green beans, salad
peanut noodles (tofu, veg)
tuna steaks (we try to have fish once per week, these were on sale for $5 or $6/lb), potatoes & greens & garlic, some cooked vegetable. Upside-down orange cake.

Looking this over (and comparing to boarder's list), I see a couple of things:
1. We try to eat fish once or so per week. We never find OK fish for under $5 or $6/lb. We live in the center of the country, and I'm the creepy lady who asks to smell the fish if I think it looks questionable.
2. Our vegetables (especially in the winter) are more like $3 - $4/lb, and we eat a pound to a pound and a half per dinner, typically. I do look at the sales flyers before I head out, and I do plan ahead of time to have meals based around whatever's on sale.
3. We're all absurdly active. We eat a lot. Side effect of not driving during the week, possibly.
4. I'm a bread snob. We buy a loaf per week, and it's freakin' expensive at $6 per largish round loaf. I've spent entire winters working on mastering bread baking, and mine is decent, but not as good. I've decided the stuff I buy is worth it to me. (Bring on the catheter and the motorized armchair, please.)
5. That half steer? Grass-fed, grass-finished, I've met the ranchers and had a friend who's a grassland ecologist look at the ranch. I've also walked through the "processing" facility, and am happy with the way the animals AND the people are treated. We're willing to put our money where our mouths (literally) are, in this instance. Basically, same story for the milk, which arrives in glass bottles like we're totally fancy people (or regular people 40 years ago), then the glass bottles go away again, courtesy of the milk fairies who come and go in the dark. Those two are probably $40/week, right there. I am not unaware of this, and we could cut it if necessary, but right now we can afford it, and it's part of how we support our community and put our money where our values are.

This is a cool thread -- thanks!





2Birds1Stone

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #34 on: February 02, 2017, 07:50:50 PM »
~$200 on groceries
~$25 household supplies
~$250 going out/alcohol (100% discretionary)

2Birds1Stone

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #35 on: February 02, 2017, 07:51:20 PM »
^Total's between SO and I, no childmonsters.

Zikoris

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #36 on: February 02, 2017, 08:04:11 PM »
Our total costs for groceries, restaurants, and household supplies averaged out to $305/month last year. Two adults. The breakdown:

Groceries + household(toilet paper,etc) - $226/month
Snacks, treats, soda - $44/month
Restaurants - $22/month
Grain CSA - $8/month
Costco membership - $5/month

I see some people including pet supplies also - we keep that separate. Last year Anthony (the cat) cost us $336, or $28/month.


Rural

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #37 on: February 03, 2017, 05:25:47 AM »
We're up from a few years ago, honestly because of increasing prices. Averaging ~$320-350 a month for all home-cooked food, household supplies, coffee,  alcohol, and pet food for two adults, two giant breed dogs, and three cats.


That amount does not include eating out (or getting a takeout $5 pizza from Little Caesars). That happens about once a week.


We don't buy beef because of the cost (I just quit buying when it went over $2 a pound) and don't buy pork because it sets off my husband's gout. So that saves a lot, actually. Our meals are veggie or vegan when that seems to occur naturally, and the rest feature poultry or venison when we have it. I'd say 3-4 meals a week feature meat in some form. That's suppers only; breakfast is invariably PB on toasted homemade bread and lunches are leftovers for me and a much-loved homemade trail mix for him.


boarder42

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #38 on: February 03, 2017, 05:29:07 AM »
Pork is the price of chicken or cheaper on sale. And ground beef is sub 2/lb alot now. I'm not sure why steaks and other whole cuts haven't fallen though. The price of cattle indicates they should have.

Rural

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #39 on: February 03, 2017, 06:15:01 AM »
Pork is the price of chicken or cheaper on sale. And ground beef is sub 2/lb alot now. I'm not sure why steaks and other whole cuts haven't fallen though. The price of cattle indicates they should have.


I may look back at ground beef, then, thanks, though we've been enough years without we don't really miss it other than in better cholesterol numbers. But decent ground beef is probably better for us than the occasional ground turkey I buy (usually use TVP instead of ground meat, or use ground venison if I have it).


I know pork is the price of chicken, and it was a real dietary/budget loss for us when we figured out it was a significant gout trigger for my husband, but one meal isn't worth a week and a half of near-crippling pain for him (and I've never much liked most pork myself).


I do wish whole cuts would drop! A venison roast with root veggies is arguably better than the same beef roast, but there's just no steak substitute.

boarder42

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #40 on: February 03, 2017, 06:25:16 AM »
Pork is the price of chicken or cheaper on sale. And ground beef is sub 2/lb alot now. I'm not sure why steaks and other whole cuts haven't fallen though. The price of cattle indicates they should have.


I may look back at ground beef, then, thanks, though we've been enough years without we don't really miss it other than in better cholesterol numbers. But decent ground beef is probably better for us than the occasional ground turkey I buy (usually use TVP instead of ground meat, or use ground venison if I have it).


I know pork is the price of chicken, and it was a real dietary/budget loss for us when we figured out it was a significant gout trigger for my husband, but one meal isn't worth a week and a half of near-crippling pain for him (and I've never much liked most pork myself).


I do wish whole cuts would drop! A venison roast with root veggies is arguably better than the same beef roast, but there's just no steak substitute.

thats why we buy half cows.  my uncle is a farmer in northern kansas.  says you can get a half a cow for 2.50/lb in the freezer right now.

meandmyfamily

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #41 on: February 03, 2017, 07:01:56 AM »
Last year we averaged $960 a month on all food and drinks including dog food and $300 on household.

Plus we averaged $245 on eating out which includes any birthday meals, any corner stores, anything not eaten at home.

This is for a family of 6 plus two big lab dogs.

We are on a mission to lower this and last month we did substantially.  We will see what we average out at the end of the year.

stashgrower

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #42 on: February 03, 2017, 07:14:41 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget? - 1 adult

Monthly Food Budget*?  - ~$200

Monthly Household Supplies Budget? - less than $10

Rural

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #43 on: February 03, 2017, 07:59:06 AM »
Pork is the price of chicken or cheaper on sale. And ground beef is sub 2/lb alot now. I'm not sure why steaks and other whole cuts haven't fallen though. The price of cattle indicates they should have.


I may look back at ground beef, then, thanks, though we've been enough years without we don't really miss it other than in better cholesterol numbers. But decent ground beef is probably better for us than the occasional ground turkey I buy (usually use TVP instead of ground meat, or use ground venison if I have it).


I know pork is the price of chicken, and it was a real dietary/budget loss for us when we figured out it was a significant gout trigger for my husband, but one meal isn't worth a week and a half of near-crippling pain for him (and I've never much liked most pork myself).


I do wish whole cuts would drop! A venison roast with root veggies is arguably better than the same beef roast, but there's just no steak substitute.

thats why we buy half cows.  my uncle is a farmer in northern kansas.  says you can get a half a cow for 2.50/lb in the freezer right now.


Yes, but I won't pay $2.50 a pound for a rare splurge, so I certainly wouldn't buy a half cow's worth of it at that price.

Vibrissae

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #44 on: February 03, 2017, 09:23:41 AM »

My housemate just moved out last month, and I'm in the process of trimming my budget, so here's my before and (theoretical at the moment) after:

How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?
Before: 2 adult females, 4 cats
After: 1 adult female, 3 cats

Monthly Food Budget*? 
Groceries:
- Before: averaged around US$600
- After: I've put $375 in the budget but am actually aiming for $300. All cat expenses have been separated out. This month I'll be researching more frugal food shopping options (checking out Aldi's, Costco, etc.), so by the end of the month I should have a better idea of what I can really achieve.

Eating out:
- Before: averaged about $222 (madness!)
- After: aiming for $50
(I also have a category for "spending money," which is weekly cash in hand for whatever miscellaneous little thing I might need to grab. Mostly it tends to go for food and drink, though, so I should probably just roll these two categories together. "Spending money" for this month is $60. Previously: $100.)

Monthly Household Supplies Budget?
- Before and after: included in groceries.

Comments:
We used to eat a lot of take-out--like seriously, at least twice a week. There was a whole tangle of anxiety, depression, assorted health issues, and interpersonal dynamic that's not worth getting into but that kept us from doing much cooking, so we bought a lot of prepackaged food--or, when we did cook, we didn't tend to make the smartest choices, and often there was a lot of waste. My housemate chipped in some toward groceries and eating out, but I paid the lion's share of it (...more like the whole pride's :P ). Anyway, I'm excited to be on my own and making new habits. I actually *do* like to cook, when I'm not navigating around someone else, so I'm looking forward to it!




nobody123

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #45 on: February 03, 2017, 10:09:19 AM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 adults, 2 boys under 10, 0 animals
Monthly Food Budget*?  $840 (includes beer & wine)
Monthly Household Supplies Budget? included in food budget
We also budget $130 for eating out (covers one restaurant trip per month -- wife and I order alcohol, we all like multiple appetizers, etc.)

We hadn't really looked closely at grocery spending in a few years (groceries / clothes / gasoline were lumped together in the budget as necessities) but at the end of December I noticed that we had spent about $6300 on restaurants (that's not a typo) last year but didn't have a ~$5K surplus in the bucket we included groceries in.  We decided to track our grocery bills again in 2017 and we spent $798 in January and $120 for a restaurant trip.  We agreed that January would be a baseline grocery spend, and we'd try to improve on that going forward.  I *think* that a lot of the "missing" money was just food we'd throw away (wife would still grocery shop to cook 21 meals per week, but in actuality she would only be making 15 because of the restaurant spend).  I went through our deep freeze the first week of January to take an inventory and threw out a full garbage bag full of old meat -- I stopped tallying up the price tags once I hit $300.  My wife is actually excited about meal planning again, and it turns out none of us miss the bi-weekly restaurant trips or fast food.  I'd like to see us get to $700 month for our grocery bill.

Kiwi Fuzz

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #46 on: February 03, 2017, 10:50:42 AM »
2 adults, 2 teenage boys. About $800/month, including milk delivery and the half steer we buy each year. And cleaning supplies.

...

this begs the question of how do you spend that much money then?  ...

Have you ever fed teenaged boys??

...

Interesting that the responses seem to be bimodal -- lots of folks with "high" grocery budgets up around mine (per person), some folks striving for and/or achieving half that.
...

This is sorcery. Your grocery spending is 50% lower than mine, you're at $200 per person and I'm at $300 per person (+$50 per person for take out), and you have teenagers in the house. Also, we're not active at all (I aim to fix that but I am from the southern hemisphere so that's not going to start during New England winter). Plus we mostly shop at Walmart so I really have no excuse...I have to get my spending under control.

Cassie

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #47 on: February 03, 2017, 11:49:48 AM »
My kids are long grown but when they were teenagers 3 boys can eat a lot of food. It is amazing. I never bought less then 3 gallons of milk at a time.

notactiveanymore

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #48 on: February 03, 2017, 12:01:16 PM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 adults

Monthly Food Budget*?  $340 groceries - $70 date activities including non-food stuff - we don't track any eating out numbers paid for by our spending cash ($80/each) but we mostly use that for hobbies

Monthly Household Supplies Budget? household supplies included above, but we have another $20 for toiletries

Comments: medium cost of living, protein at 1-2 meals/day for me 2-3 meals a day for him, limited processed food but not cooking from absolute scratch, infrequent alcohol purchases, frequent social potluck meals.

jdhansen

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Re: What's your Monthly Grocery & Household Supplies Budget?
« Reply #49 on: February 03, 2017, 12:12:29 PM »
How many people and/or animals fall under this budget?  2 adults 3 kids ages 9,4,1 + 1 dog and 12 chickens
Monthly Food Budget*?  $540
Monthly Household Supplies Budget? Included in Food Budget


To be honest, not sure how my DW does it, but we always seem to eat so good at home and still have money left over for eating out twice a month.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!