USDA Thrifty Food Plan - How do you compare?

[ABK]

Even though it's been around for a while, I just found the USDA's Thrifty Food Plan: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodPlansCostofFood

At first I was pleased to see that our household is right on target for the "thrifty" level (as opposed to their other levels: "low-cost," "moderate-cost," and "liberal")...then I remembered, hey, this *is* the USDA, who for years told us to cut most fats out of our diet and load up on plenty of simple carbs instead, so I'm not sure I trust their guidelines completely.

So I'm taking this as a challenge to cut our grocery budget to 75% of the USDA's thrifty level.

How does your household compare?

[chesebert]

On target for the Thrifty Plan. We are in a HCOL so we should be below the adjusted number.

[DTaggart]

That thing has always cracked me up. We're at 78% of the thrifty plan, but our grocery spending also includes cleaning and personal care/toiletries... I'm too lazy to split out just the food costs. I can't even imagine how someone would spend the "liberal" amount!

[Zikoris]

Wow! $382 for a couple is the lowest they get? If we spent anywhere even close to that, I would assume someone must have stolen my credit card and gone caviar shopping. Crazy land.

We've been spending around $230/month for the last five-ish years, though like DTaggart I couldn't be bothered to split the cleaning stuff and toilet paper out of that. Maybe $200-$210 of actual food?

[wenchsenior]

LOL, whereas I have no trouble whatsoever seeing how people spend at the upper limit, but I still have trouble understanding how people spend at the thrifty end, even after reading endless threads and working to reduce our bill.

We are 2 adults and 3 cats (if I broke the pet stuff out of groceries, we'd probably shave a bit off). NOT including booze, we have no trouble whatsoever spending between the Low/Mod category (averaging 550$/month for the past few years). And that is down a bit from previous years, because I finally started tracking costs/price book/and buying meat on sale.

And that's with my husband (usually) eating lunches out, and me eating only twice per day!

Some of the cost is probably because I tend to buy greener, more expensive cleaning products, etc. But I think it's mostly diet choices. We eat a lot of salmon (which is essentially $10/meal), a lot of nuts and nut butters, not a lot of cheap fatty meat (I haven't had hamburger in years), lots of fruit, tons of fresh produce, not a lot of filler carbs. We ate very differently when we were young...lots of cheap carbs, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc, when we were in college and our food bill was definitely at the thrifty end then.

But, I am still working to bring costs down. It's an ongoing project. I've been buying the bigger, cheaper cuts of fattier meat (beef roasts, pork shoulder, etc) on sale, and it definitely saves money. The problem is, I find fatty meats pretty gross. I grew up eating game and free range chicken, so I like lean meat. Hell, I only just in the past couple years trained myself to like dark meat chicken in stews! Plus, with cholesterol issues, fatty meat isn't optimal anyway.

I think we're just going to transition to vegetarian 2 to 3 days per week, which will fix this problem.

[DTaggart]

But, I am still working to bring costs down. It's an ongoing project. I've been buying the bigger, cheaper cuts of fattier meat (beef roasts, pork shoulder, etc) on sale, and it definitely saves money. The problem is, I find fatty meats pretty gross. I grew up eating game and free range chicken, so I like lean meat. Hell, I only just in the past couple years trained myself to like dark meat chicken in stews! Plus, with cholesterol issues, fatty meat isn't optimal anyway.

As far as meat goes, we eat mostly chicken. In my area, boneless/skinless breasts are on sale for $1.99/lb at least every other week, and frequently its $1.69/lb.  Every month or two, I catch it on sale for $1.49/lb and stock up when that happens. Our 2nd most frequent meat is lean ground turkey, it is regularly on sale for $2.50/lb and I can pretty regularly find it for about $2/lb. Shopping around at different stores and stocking up when its on sale is key. We probably eat beef or pork about once every 4-6 weeks.

We like to eat salmon about 1x per week - its outrageously priced at the butcher's counter, but I can often find it in the freezer section for about $8 for a bag with 6 servings (the package at least claims its wild-caught).

[mm1970]

We are thrifty.  Looks like family of 4 is either $558 or $640 per month, depending on age of kids (I have one of each).  Either way, so far we are on track at about $525/month.

Last year I came in at $5300 for the year, but that was super hard and I spent a LOT of time on that (the year before I was still in the throes of losing baby weight and dealing with a young toddler, so our grocery bill had ballooned to $10,200).

My husband has been instructed to cut carbs to lose about 10-15 pounds, so we shall see how the rest of the year pans out.  Less rice, more nuts...

[HPstache]

We are about halfway between 'thrifty' and 'low cost'

[JoJo]

I'm normally around 75% of Thrifty, but in the last 2 months I've been using up what's in my fridge, freezer, and cupboards and only buying fresh veg, eggs, and chicken so I've been at 28% of Thrifty!  Still lots to use up so will be staying low until at least the end of the year.

[Bruinguy]

Am I reading that right, the thrifty food basket doesn't provide for any cheese?  That would be my fail for sure.

It is an interesting report though, thanks for the link.

[Zoot]

Great stuff--fun to see how our budget shakes out.  DH and I are a household of two adults in the 19-50 range; we're generally somewhere in the vicinity of the low-cost plan (plus more restaurant meals than I would like), but that includes some cleaning/household products as well--so we're probably somewhere in between thrifty and low-cost if you take that out.  Still, the restaurant meals bug me--this chart could be a good impetus to try to reduce that.

Amy Dacyczyn (of Tightwad Gazette fame) did an article on this back in the early 90s; it was eventually included in the compilation book.  Her write-up about the food budget for her family (two adults, six young children) at that time is pretty funny:  "I sat down with my calculator and was stunned to find our family was not in the 'thrifty' plan but in the 'low-cost' plan.  After I moped around for several days, an employee double-checked my math and started laughing.  The USDA chart, he said, 'doesn't list the monthly budget, it lists the weekly budget!'  Oops."

More from her write-up:  "According to the 'thrifty' plan, my family could be spending $149.40 per week.  We spend $41.53--just 28 percent of that.  For laughs, we computed that under the 'liberal' plan we could spend $262.10 per week!  I absolutely do not expect all my readers to duplicate what our family does, although some have reported they spend less than we do.  But this chart does offer some way for you to compare.  You should easily spend less than the 'thrifty' plan.  This chart also shows us one of two things: either the federal government is totally inept at gathering numbers to make charts, or Americans are totally clueless at the supermarket.  Or both."

[Philociraptor]

We are somewhere between thrifty and low cost. Workday food as such:

Him:
Breakfast: 3 eggs + 2 oz meat (bacon, chorizo, or spam)
Lunch: 8 oz cooked meat + 1 serving starch + 1 serving vegetables
Snack: 1/2 c rolled oats and 1 scoop whey protein
Dinner: 8 oz cooked meat + 1 serving starch + 1 serving vegetables

Her:
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs or tuna packet
Lunch: 6 oz cooked meat + 1 serving starch + 1 serving vegetables
Snack: some kind of packaged snack like an Epic bar (meat-based protein bar)
Dinner: 6 oz cooked meat + 1 serving starch + 1 serving vegetables

On weekends we often skip breakfast and snacks since we don't workout as hard.

[wenchsenior]

But, I am still working to bring costs down. It's an ongoing project. I've been buying the bigger, cheaper cuts of fattier meat (beef roasts, pork shoulder, etc) on sale, and it definitely saves money. The problem is, I find fatty meats pretty gross. I grew up eating game and free range chicken, so I like lean meat. Hell, I only just in the past couple years trained myself to like dark meat chicken in stews! Plus, with cholesterol issues, fatty meat isn't optimal anyway.

As far as meat goes, we eat mostly chicken. In my area, boneless/skinless breasts are on sale for $1.99/lb at least every other week, and frequently its $1.69/lb.  Every month or two, I catch it on sale for $1.49/lb and stock up when that happens. Our 2nd most frequent meat is lean ground turkey, it is regularly on sale for $2.50/lb and I can pretty regularly find it for about $2/lb. Shopping around at different stores and stocking up when its on sale is key. We probably eat beef or pork about once every 4-6 weeks.

We like to eat salmon about 1x per week - its outrageously priced at the butcher's counter, but I can often find it in the freezer section for about $8 for a bag with 6 servings (the package at least claims its wild-caught).

Yes, this revelation that chicken breasts can be bought for <@2/lb has been very helpful to me! I watch for those sales now (until 2 years ago, I don't think I had ever even glanced at the loss leader grocery store mailings...I literally didn't even know what those were for). In fact, there is a good sale on chicken breasts running at an otherwise overpriced Whole Foods type store this week, which I plan to hit. I'm picky about my salmon though...it has to be wild-caught and sustainably sourced. I only buy frozen, because the fresh salmon here is usually not either one (it's Atlantic or it's farm-raised) and when it is, the price is crazy.  So there isn't a lot of wiggle room for me in terms of cutting the cost on salmon. It's usually 5$/fillet. So at least 40$/month of our budget is fish LOL! Target sells considerably cheaper bulk packages of the 'junkier' salmon (Keta...aka Dog Salmon because the Alaskan locals feed it to their dogs). I like it fine, and eat it sometimes if we are mixing the fish with other flavors, but I don't think it is sustainably sourced.

[seattlecyclone]

Last year my wife and I spent just shy of $3,000 on groceries ($250/month). That includes booze and any non-edible items we purchased from grocery stores or Costco. It does not include money spent eating out (of which there was about $1,500 around town and $1,000 while traveling). Even if you throw in what we spent on meals out, we're still in between "thrifty" and "low cost." My wife was pregnant for most of the year as well.

[cj25]

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

[dougules]

Holy crap.  We're slightly under "low-cost."  How is that?  Food is the one place I don't even try to be frugal.  We make it rain at the grocery store and the farmer's market.  Endless pounds of high end produce like peaches and blueberries.  Organic Virgin Coconut Oil and $25/bottle premium olive oil.  Local cream butter for $6/lb, $4/dozen free range eggs, and organic yogurt.  Stuffed bell peppers and fancy pizza. We eat out occasionally, too.  Our food habits are face-punch worthy, so these guidelines must be way high.   

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

You must be in a HCOL area.  We eat like kings for $400-$500/month, but we're in a pretty LCOL area for being in the US.  It may also be that I have a garden and make a lot of vegetarian meals.  I always forget how expensive meat is. 

[LivlongnProsper]

We are at 80% of the thrifty plan for a family of 5 and that includes cleaners, toilet paper and such.

[woodnut]

ABK, thanks for the reminder.  I've done a lot of work cutting expenses in other areas and the grocery bill line item definitely sticks out on the budget in flashing red lights now.  We are at the moderate cost level according to the chart.  Groceries are the next thing I tackle, but I think to solve it I'll have to diplomatically relieve my wife of her grocery shopping duties.

[seattlecyclone]

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

You must be in a HCOL area.  We eat like kings for $400-$500/month, but we're in a pretty LCOL area for being in the US.  It may also be that I have a garden and make a lot of vegetarian meals.  I always forget how expensive meat is. 

Meat is a big factor. We don't generally buy it at home because my wife is vegetarian.

We spend $250/month on groceries in Seattle and I think most of our meals are far from "total crap." Right now is CSA season so we always have a bunch of fruits and veggies to eat up. Many of our breakfasts lately have been pancakes or muffins with fruit from the CSA chopped up in there. For lunch today we had some pasta with green beans, carrots, vegetarian sausage, and cheese. Dinner last night was zucchini and green beans scrambled together with some eggs and cheese, served with toast. Kinda breakfasty, but quick and easy counts for a lot when you have a baby to take care of. We made a big pan of pluot crisp a few days ago and have been eating that for dessert since.

[dougules]

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

You must be in a HCOL area.  We eat like kings for $400-$500/month, but we're in a pretty LCOL area for being in the US.  It may also be that I have a garden and make a lot of vegetarian meals.  I always forget how expensive meat is. 

Meat is a big factor. We don't generally buy it at home because my wife is vegetarian.

We spend $250/month on groceries in Seattle and I think most of our meals are far from "total crap." Right now is CSA season so we always have a bunch of fruits and veggies to eat up. Many of our breakfasts lately have been pancakes or muffins with fruit from the CSA chopped up in there. For lunch today we had some pasta with green beans, carrots, vegetarian sausage, and cheese. Dinner last night was zucchini and green beans scrambled together with some eggs and cheese, served with toast. Kinda breakfasty, but quick and easy counts for a lot when you have a baby to take care of. We made a big pan of pluot crisp a few days ago and have been eating that for dessert since.

This summer I've been cooking green beans in tomato, basil, garlic, and olive oil.  Then I mix bow tie pasta into it.  My husband only eats my vegetable heavy cooking begrudgingly, but he actually asks for this one.  The basil is surprisingly good in it. 

[With This Herring]

Well, this was a surprise.  Our grocery + restaurant spending (but no booze or cleaning supplies) is at 63% of the thrifty plan, though I suspect DBF has some weekday restaurant spending that isn't in my numbers, but it wouldn't be enough to push us past 70%.

I really thought we would end up closer to the "moderate" plan, as I pretty frequently go "oh, that looks tasty!  I will buy it" and grab a lot of fancy juices.

DBF is a vegetarian, so I eat meat at restaurants and occasionally buy frozen stuff that I eat when I want a quick meal and he isn't around.  We cook most food from scratch.  We don't make the expensive fake meats a large part of our diet.

Starting a price book has REALLY helped me figure out when to stock up.  I can hold a lot of prices in my head, but having the others written down means that I have become better at determining what is actually an excellent price.

[Monkey Uncle]

ABK, thanks for the reminder.  I've done a lot of work cutting expenses in other areas and the grocery bill line item definitely sticks out on the budget in flashing red lights now.  We are at the moderate cost level according to the chart.  Groceries are the next thing I tackle, but I think to solve it I'll have to diplomatically relieve my wife of her grocery shopping duties.

I feel your pain.  Food is our second-largest after tax expense category, right behind housing.  I, too, think the only solution is to relieve DW of grocery shopping duties.  But I haven't figured out a way to approach that subject that isn't likely to lead to a major shit storm.

We are big-time foodies, so I don't see us ever getting down to the thrifty level.  That likely would require either subsisting on USDA's cheap starch food pyramid, or becoming vegetarian, neither of which will fly in our household.  But we're currently solidly in the moderate category, and that's only if I subtract out restaurants and beer.  There's gotta be a way to do better than that without eating cheap crap.  But I think I need to take over the shopping so I can apply my optimization skills to the task. ;)

[RobFIRE]

(I looked at the first linked PDF, so July 2016 US average)

So for a couple the thrifty plan is US $382.80 a month. In short I'd say girlfriend and I are a bit under US $200 a month (£150). So that's a big difference.

We're in the UK, though I thought food was typically a bit cheaper in the US. Our cost does include basic household cleaning items. One reason for difference may be that we don't eat that much meat, and when we do it's smaller portions not whole steaks.

And no, I don't feel like we miss out on much or eat badly. We just make most things ourselves from ingredients, buy in bulk & take advantage of sales and avoid the branded stuff when it's not worth the extra cost. And finally we eat everything we buy and very rarely throw much away.

[ender]

Wow! $382 for a couple is the lowest they get? If we spent anywhere even close to that, I would assume someone must have stolen my credit card and gone caviar shopping. Crazy land.

We've been spending around $230/month for the last five-ish years, though like DTaggart I couldn't be bothered to split the cleaning stuff and toilet paper out of that. Maybe $200-$210 of actual food?

We sometimes hit closer to $382 a month but that normally means we stocked up on something that was on sale.

Our average since we got married is about $250 a month. Considering we often we buy fresh stuff...  we eat like kings.

[Bucksandreds]

But, I am still working to bring costs down. It's an ongoing project. I've been buying the bigger, cheaper cuts of fattier meat (beef roasts, pork shoulder, etc) on sale, and it definitely saves money. The problem is, I find fatty meats pretty gross. I grew up eating game and free range chicken, so I like lean meat. Hell, I only just in the past couple years trained myself to like dark meat chicken in stews! Plus, with cholesterol issues, fatty meat isn't optimal anyway.

As far as meat goes, we eat mostly chicken. In my area, boneless/skinless breasts are on sale for $1.99/lb at least every other week, and frequently its $1.69/lb.  Every month or two, I catch it on sale for $1.49/lb and stock up when that happens. Our 2nd most frequent meat is lean ground turkey, it is regularly on sale for $2.50/lb and I can pretty regularly find it for about $2/lb. Shopping around at different stores and stocking up when its on sale is key. We probably eat beef or pork about once every 4-6 weeks.

We like to eat salmon about 1x per week - its outrageously priced at the butcher's counter, but I can often find it in the freezer section for about $8 for a bag with 6 servings (the package at least claims its wild-caught).

Not saying it will kill you but do you know the conditions of those birds that are sold cheaply?

[seattlecyclone]

Wow! $382 for a couple is the lowest they get? If we spent anywhere even close to that, I would assume someone must have stolen my credit card and gone caviar shopping. Crazy land.

We've been spending around $230/month for the last five-ish years, though like DTaggart I couldn't be bothered to split the cleaning stuff and toilet paper out of that. Maybe $200-$210 of actual food?

We sometimes hit closer to $382 a month but that normally means we stocked up on something that was on sale.

Our average since we got married is about $250 a month. Considering we often we buy fresh stuff...  we eat like kings.

Looking at just one month usually doesn't make much sense for us. We spend $100-200 in a typical month at the local grocery stores. Once a year we spend a few hundred dollars on a CSA membership that provides our produce for about half the year. A few times a year we spend a few hundred dollars at Costco stocking up on mostly non-perishables. There's really no "typical" monthly spend for that reason.

[Cranky]

I've tracked grocery spending for many years, and we've always come in right at the "thrifty" level. We eat tons of fresh produce, and very little in the way of pre-prepared foods, and we don't often eat out. Also, I (luckily) don't care for salmon. ;-)

I will say that you have to shop the specials and eat what's seasonal and on sale. We eat blueberries in June and July, and I freeze some when they are .99/pint, but I don't buy fresh blueberries in January.

Also, it's easier to do this when you have more people in a household, because there really are economies of scale in food. Per/person spending is usually higher in a 1 or 2 person household than in a household of 7.

[wenchsenior]

Ok, guys, this was a bit of a revelation. I dug out some grocery receipts and looked at them.

I said above that not including booze (or eating out, which is a whole separate issue we're trying to address) we spent solidly between the Low/Moderate category...~550/month.

Well in addition to the 40-50$ worth of salmon per month, I just realized another thing I was overlooking that runs our bill up: 130-150$/month for cat food and litter. The bulk of this is for our one ancient cat, who really only likes to eat good quality wet food with real meat. So we've been feeding her the more expensive canned food, or people food like canned chicken, turkey, and occasionally fish. Turns out her food bill ALONE is almost 100/month.

So...yeah. When she shuffles off the mortal coil, we will magically drop to halfway between 'thrifty' and 'low'.

[DTaggart]

As far as meat goes, we eat mostly chicken. In my area, boneless/skinless breasts are on sale for $1.99/lb at least every other week, and frequently its $1.69/lb.  Every month or two, I catch it on sale for $1.49/lb and stock up when that happens. Our 2nd most frequent meat is lean ground turkey, it is regularly on sale for $2.50/lb and I can pretty regularly find it for about $2/lb. Shopping around at different stores and stocking up when its on sale is key. We probably eat beef or pork about once every 4-6 weeks.

We like to eat salmon about 1x per week - its outrageously priced at the butcher's counter, but I can often find it in the freezer section for about $8 for a bag with 6 servings (the package at least claims its wild-caught).

Not saying it will kill you but do you know the conditions of those birds that are sold cheaply?

Yes

[mohawkbrah]

i've transcended humanity i guess

weekly food cost $26 (£20) that exchange rate tho :(

[dreams_and_discoveries]

Yeah, I'm well under the thrifty, £100 a month including cleaning & pet food. I'm veggie, have pet chickens and grow my own in summer.

i've transcended humanity i guess

weekly food cost $26 (£20) that exchange rate tho :(

Which seems to be *only * $127 nowadays......

[Socmonkey]

We are at $250.67 a month averaged out the past year, includes alcohol and cleaning supplies. We also eat out, but maybe 2-3 times a month. That is for a couple with a 1 year old.

All three of us love pasta, so that might explain things a bit. We also live in a low COL area where on the weekends we can grab a box of 40+lbs of veggies for $10.

[sis]

Yeah, we're at way more than all of that.  In August we went "low spend" on groceries/eating out (for us) and that wound up being around $450 not including any meals comped by my husband's work.  The comped meals were somewhere around another $300.  Granted, we wouldn't have eaten out that much had he not been working so late.  On months where we don't keep track at all it is much higher.  We will bring it down once we move from our extremely high cost of living area to a slightly better one.  Our local grocery store is more expensive than whole foods.  I make trips to trader joe's using back packs to help me carry stuff home (no car).

[startswithhome]

We're in Canada, adult male, adult female, two kids 6 and 3.
We're in between the thrifty and the low cost. That's with an autistic child who eats minimal gluten (I swear I see a difference and I'm pretty cheap/skeptical/lazy). And the diapers 3 yo wears overnight, and the cleaning stuff too.
I found a cheap butcher place that brings in lots of local produce and sells it for super cheap. Bags of rice. Dry beans and lentil. Costco for staples (besides beans and lentils because our Costco doesn't carry them. :( ). Making my own gf flour blend, but trying to make most baked good "low flour" options like banana bread, corn bread, etc.
I think I'll see if we can get it down to the thrifty (for our family) at $587.70. Especially now that it's cooling down and I'm not just throwing cheese and fruit at the kids.

[boarder42]

including booze we are between thrifty and low cost. and we eat and drink like kings.

[Scandium]

Wow! $382 for a couple is the lowest they get? If we spent anywhere even close to that, I would assume someone must have stolen my credit card and gone caviar shopping. Crazy land.

We've been spending around $230/month for the last five-ish years, though like DTaggart I couldn't be bothered to split the cleaning stuff and toilet paper out of that. Maybe $200-$210 of actual food?

Depends on what you eat. We buy no red meat and hardly every processed stuff. But usually spend $150/week, sometimes $200. Lots and lots of fresh fruits and veggies, wild caught fish once per week and try to buy food with little crap added (i.e. $3 peanut butter rather than $1). I mean just the fresh spinach for my wife's salad is $4 for a box. And I don't even buy organic (I think it's nonsense) or whole foods. We are in one of the more/most affluent and expensive counties in the country though.

I've looked hard at our grocery spending multiple times and not found a good way to lower it without compromising our health, which I'm not willing to do. Fresh and healthy food is expensive.

[Captain and Mrs Slow]

I live in Munich Germany and for two us My spend averages 75€ a week. Probably a bit higher as I don't work so I go shopping way too often.

[boarder42]

Wow! $382 for a couple is the lowest they get? If we spent anywhere even close to that, I would assume someone must have stolen my credit card and gone caviar shopping. Crazy land.

We've been spending around $230/month for the last five-ish years, though like DTaggart I couldn't be bothered to split the cleaning stuff and toilet paper out of that. Maybe $200-$210 of actual food?

Depends on what you eat. We buy no red meat and hardly every processed stuff. But usually spend $150/week, sometimes $200. Lots and lots of fresh fruits and veggies, wild caught fish once per week and try to buy food with little crap added (i.e. $3 peanut butter rather than $1). I mean just the fresh spinach for my wife's salad is $4 for a box. And I don't even buy organic (I think it's nonsense) or whole foods. We are in one of the more/most affluent and expensive counties in the country though.

I've looked hard at our grocery spending multiple times and not found a good way to lower it without compromising our health, which I'm not willing to do. Fresh and healthy food is expensive.

do you not have an aldi? their spinach is cheap.

[honeybbq]

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

Us, too. Plus we do free range eggs, grass fed meat, organic, blah blah, plus alcohol. And we are in a HCOLA. Though we don't eat a LOT of meat. Maybe 1-2 x a week.

[honeybbq]

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

You must be in a HCOL area.  We eat like kings for $400-$500/month, but we're in a pretty LCOL area for being in the US.  It may also be that I have a garden and make a lot of vegetarian meals.  I always forget how expensive meat is. 

Meat is a big factor. We don't generally buy it at home because my wife is vegetarian.

We spend $250/month on groceries in Seattle and I think most of our meals are far from "total crap." Right now is CSA season so we always have a bunch of fruits and veggies to eat up. Many of our breakfasts lately have been pancakes or muffins with fruit from the CSA chopped up in there. For lunch today we had some pasta with green beans, carrots, vegetarian sausage, and cheese. Dinner last night was zucchini and green beans scrambled together with some eggs and cheese, served with toast. Kinda breakfasty, but quick and easy counts for a lot when you have a baby to take care of. We made a big pan of pluot crisp a few days ago and have been eating that for dessert since.

What farmer's market in Seattle is cheap? I went to get pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market on Friday and they were $2.50/lb. PCC has organic ones for $1.99/lb! I have always found our market more expensive (though better quality) than our regular grocery store. A bunch of carrots is $5!

[ABK]

ABK, thanks for the reminder.  I've done a lot of work cutting expenses in other areas and the grocery bill line item definitely sticks out on the budget in flashing red lights now.  We are at the moderate cost level according to the chart.  Groceries are the next thing I tackle, but I think to solve it I'll have to diplomatically relieve my wife of her grocery shopping duties.

OP here.

We live in Hawai'i, so we have to use the other USDA document, the one for Alaska and Hawaii. To tell the truth, I was relieved to see the prices they predict, since the amount we spend on groceries would make most MMM forum readers choke: $900/month. That's right, you read that correctly. And we consistently buy in bulk, eat a lot of dried beans, cook in large quantities, everything that the rest of you do in order to slash the grocery bill. We simply can't get it any lower than that, no matter how hard we try.

We are two adults, plus two kids who are with us half of every week, so really our $900/month bill puts us right where we should be for a thrifty plan: squarely in between the USDA rate for a couple and a family of four. I'd like to try to get our bill a bit lower if possible, but frankly it's a relief to know that we are actually doing fairly well for where we live. We forget how insanely expensive groceries are here compared to the rest of the US, especially when I read the forum regularly and see figures like $200/month for a family of 3.

[seattlecyclone]

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

You must be in a HCOL area.  We eat like kings for $400-$500/month, but we're in a pretty LCOL area for being in the US.  It may also be that I have a garden and make a lot of vegetarian meals.  I always forget how expensive meat is. 

Meat is a big factor. We don't generally buy it at home because my wife is vegetarian.

We spend $250/month on groceries in Seattle and I think most of our meals are far from "total crap." Right now is CSA season so we always have a bunch of fruits and veggies to eat up. Many of our breakfasts lately have been pancakes or muffins with fruit from the CSA chopped up in there. For lunch today we had some pasta with green beans, carrots, vegetarian sausage, and cheese. Dinner last night was zucchini and green beans scrambled together with some eggs and cheese, served with toast. Kinda breakfasty, but quick and easy counts for a lot when you have a baby to take care of. We made a big pan of pluot crisp a few days ago and have been eating that for dessert since.

What farmer's market in Seattle is cheap? I went to get pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market on Friday and they were $2.50/lb. PCC has organic ones for $1.99/lb! I have always found our market more expensive (though better quality) than our regular grocery store. A bunch of carrots is $5!

Not sure about farmer's markets. We subscribe to the Growing Washington "Farmer's Choice Mini" box at $18/week for 20 weeks out of the year. That basically covers our fresh produce usage for that part of the year.

[fattest_foot]

Holy crap.  We're slightly under "low-cost."  How is that?  Food is the one place I don't even try to be frugal.  We make it rain at the grocery store and the farmer's market.  Endless pounds of high end produce like peaches and blueberries.  Organic Virgin Coconut Oil and $25/bottle premium olive oil.  Local cream butter for $6/lb, $4/dozen free range eggs, and organic yogurt.  Stuffed bell peppers and fancy pizza. We eat out occasionally, too.  Our food habits are face-punch worthy, so these guidelines must be way high.   

Yeah, I was kind of surprised here too. We're between thrifty and low-cost (although closer to low-cost) and we absolutely spare nothing when it comes to groceries. It's the one area where I'm basically like screw it. I our health is worth splurging in a bit.

I guess if we ate significantly more red meat we might be in the moderate plan, but I'm not sure how you even get to liberal without throwing massive quantities of food away every month.

[runningthroughFIRE]

Average monthly grocery cost of $94.83/month over the past 6 months according to Mint, which is 42.8% of the Thrifty Plan. 
Including eating out I spent an average of 205.74/month for 92.8% of the Thrifty Plan.  Non-food items such as toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc. were not broken out and are included in the spending numbers.


I spend more on the 5% of meals I eat out than I do for the other 95% of my diet lol.  Looking at the spending over time this is pretty heavily weighed down by months when I travel interstate to visit friends.

[Goldielocks]

Canada -- Market Basket Measure

The 2008 Food component (for Vancouver) MBM was $8275/year, extrapolating to 2016 that is $9400/yr.  $783/month.
I think that is pretty accurate for the foods listed, although more fresh fruit / veg in the summer and less in the winter to keep to that number.  Note that an adjustment of +5% for more fresh foods was made in 2008 versus 2000, plus inclusion of spices, tea, coffee.

For a reference family of one male and one female adult aged 25-49 with two children (a girl aged 9 and a boy aged 13)

That's $783/month.  ($550/mo for couple)

This link has the breakdown, including a detailed list of the foods that are included on page 66.
http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2011/rhdcc-hrsdc/HS28-178-2010-eng.pdf

The following is a description of how the Food basket used for monthly amounts was calculated:


The 2008 National Nutritious Food Basket -
The new basket contains more raw foods and foods less generally consumed among the
low income population. On the other hand the new basket does acknowledge that a
growing immigrant population is affecting what nutritious foods people actually eat.
On balance the shift to the new basket was recognized as having a solid scientific basis as
representing nutritious foods that people actually eat.

[Zikoris]

Wow! $382 for a couple is the lowest they get? If we spent anywhere even close to that, I would assume someone must have stolen my credit card and gone caviar shopping. Crazy land.

We've been spending around $230/month for the last five-ish years, though like DTaggart I couldn't be bothered to split the cleaning stuff and toilet paper out of that. Maybe $200-$210 of actual food?

Depends on what you eat. We buy no red meat and hardly every processed stuff. But usually spend $150/week, sometimes $200. Lots and lots of fresh fruits and veggies, wild caught fish once per week and try to buy food with little crap added (i.e. $3 peanut butter rather than $1). I mean just the fresh spinach for my wife's salad is $4 for a box. And I don't even buy organic (I think it's nonsense) or whole foods. We are in one of the more/most affluent and expensive counties in the country though.

I've looked hard at our grocery spending multiple times and not found a good way to lower it without compromising our health, which I'm not willing to do. Fresh and healthy food is expensive.

Fresh caviar, maybe. You can't possibly have looked very hard if you're spending $600-$800/month. "Healthy eating is just expensive, my health is on the line here people!" is a massive cop-out. If you (and all the posters saying the same thing) changed your mindset from that to "Hey, these Mustachian people are all kicking my ass, I should learn from them", you'd see that number cut by 50% at least.

[honeybbq]

We're definitely on the liberal plan.  I don't get how people can eat that cheap unless they are eating total crap.

You must be in a HCOL area.  We eat like kings for $400-$500/month, but we're in a pretty LCOL area for being in the US.  It may also be that I have a garden and make a lot of vegetarian meals.  I always forget how expensive meat is. 

Meat is a big factor. We don't generally buy it at home because my wife is vegetarian.

We spend $250/month on groceries in Seattle and I think most of our meals are far from "total crap." Right now is CSA season so we always have a bunch of fruits and veggies to eat up. Many of our breakfasts lately have been pancakes or muffins with fruit from the CSA chopped up in there. For lunch today we had some pasta with green beans, carrots, vegetarian sausage, and cheese. Dinner last night was zucchini and green beans scrambled together with some eggs and cheese, served with toast. Kinda breakfasty, but quick and easy counts for a lot when you have a baby to take care of. We made a big pan of pluot crisp a few days ago and have been eating that for dessert since.

What farmer's market in Seattle is cheap? I went to get pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market on Friday and they were $2.50/lb. PCC has organic ones for $1.99/lb! I have always found our market more expensive (though better quality) than our regular grocery store. A bunch of carrots is $5!

Not sure about farmer's markets. We subscribe to the Growing Washington "Farmer's Choice Mini" box at $18/week for 20 weeks out of the year. That basically covers our fresh produce usage for that part of the year.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[BORN SAVER]

I'm at about 48% the cost of thrifty and I feel like I eat like a king

[dougules]

ABK, thanks for the reminder.  I've done a lot of work cutting expenses in other areas and the grocery bill line item definitely sticks out on the budget in flashing red lights now.  We are at the moderate cost level according to the chart.  Groceries are the next thing I tackle, but I think to solve it I'll have to diplomatically relieve my wife of her grocery shopping duties.

OP here.

We live in Hawai'i, so we have to use the other USDA document, the one for Alaska and Hawaii. To tell the truth, I was relieved to see the prices they predict, since the amount we spend on groceries would make most MMM forum readers choke: $900/month. That's right, you read that correctly. And we consistently buy in bulk, eat a lot of dried beans, cook in large quantities, everything that the rest of you do in order to slash the grocery bill. We simply can't get it any lower than that, no matter how hard we try.

We are two adults, plus two kids who are with us half of every week, so really our $900/month bill puts us right where we should be for a thrifty plan: squarely in between the USDA rate for a couple and a family of four. I'd like to try to get our bill a bit lower if possible, but frankly it's a relief to know that we are actually doing fairly well for where we live. We forget how insanely expensive groceries are here compared to the rest of the US, especially when I read the forum regularly and see figures like $200/month for a family of 3.

I'm curious, are there things that are cheaper in Hawaii or at least less relative to other food than on the mainland?  Maybe like fish or pineapple or something?  There must be some things that get produced and sold locally. 

[kitkat]

I'm exactly at the Thrifty rate. SF Bay Area is interesting in that we are HCOL but have a ton of access to cheap, fresh, local produce. After all, CA produces almost half of all the country's fruits and nuts and veggies.

We have a weekly Imperfect Produce subscription where we get ~10 lbs of mostly organic produce for <$2/lb (shared between me and my SO). Then we buy rice/pasta/quinoa/polenta, canned beans, pasture raised eggs, and dairy staples about every week. I buy a pack of bagels and a giant hummus tub to keep at work for my breakfast every day, and usually ~1 frozen meal/week for when I forget a lunch (~$3 vs spending $7-8 at the cafeteria). On top of this, we generally have seafood (salmon, snapper, scallops) once or twice a week.

All the comments about $2/lb chicken are hard for me to read. Just thinking about what that price means for the quality of the product (and the animal who gave its life) is...... upsetting. I would encourage meat-eaters to consider rotating in more vegetarian meals and using the savings to buy higher quality meat items.