Talk to me about your grocery budget

Fullcircle06

What would you say you spend monthly on groceries (roughly)? And if you meal plan, does it help? I feel like we spend a TON of money at the grocery store, and I'm just looking for ways to get a handle on it, but I'd also like to have a realistic expectation. Any tips you'd like to share would be much appreciated. 

skibunny59

We spend between $120 and $150 per week.  I feel like this is expensive but the majority of what we buy is organic fresh fruits and veggies and organic dairy.  We don't buy meat at the grocery store but from a local organic farm. 

In the spring and summer when the organic produce farm from our house is open, our grocery bill is actually a little less.  Organic produce from the local farm is always way cheaper than from the grocery store.

We do meal plan by the way.

Samiantha101

We probably spend $400 a month for the three of us. We don't meal plan. When I use to, our grocery cost was roughly the same. I don't have any real good suggestions that aren't super obviois: generic brands, coupons, etc

jf198400

Family of 4- We spend about $800 per month on groceries- this includes toiletries, paper products, laundry detergent, etc. (everything except diapers). I think this is a lot. I don't coupon or meal plan though. Trying to figure out how to cut back.

CarrieB.

I spend about $500- $600 a month for a family of four and one cat. The baby is not on solids yet though. I buy a mixture of organic, non organic, do farmers markets in the summer and freeze fruits and vegis to get some savings. We don't eat a lot of meat and I buy all our chicken from a farm which also helps. This budget doesn't count diapers and target stuff though.

Meal planning helps a lot, not necessarily on spending less at the store, but I spend less on going out for meals when there isn't anything to eat in the house.

mexicolombiana

Mint.com tells me we've spent $1057 on food and dining (including eating out) and 

$145.52 in other misc. food shopping. 

But we were on vacation a few days this month.  I'd say about $800-900 for a family of 4

vvvvvfee

probably about $500 a month-- but that includes personal care products, household products, and cat food/litter for 3 cats. i generally spend about $80/week at the regular grocery store (in the spring/summer, it's more like $50 at the grocery store + $30 at the local farmer's market), and generally make one trip per month each to costco and trader joe's. and we get the occasional random thing from amazon.

i do coupon, but i also buy kind of expensive stuff-- all organic dairy, lots of fruits and vegetables (organic when possible), organic poultry (i don't buy much red meat), and hardly any processed food. and we rarely eat out.

i don't strictly meal plan, but i try to have a few dishes in mind to cook over the weekend. i don't have time to make anything complicated during the week, so i mostly cook over the weekend and rely on leftovers.

i do think couponing helps- you can get a lot of commonly used items for free (particularly personal care products like toothbrushes/paste and deodorant, but you can get great deals on all kinds of things). the site i use is living rich with coupons, but there are lots of couponing sites out there. they match up what's on sale at your store with available coupons and highlight the best deals.

i know i could cut back more, but i consider good food to be an investment in our health, so i think it is worth it.

Soon2BMrsN

Probably about $500/month. We shop mostly at Trader Joe's. This amount does not include toiletries/TP/etc.

traveltheworld

For the 3 of us, we spend about $700/month - that includes household stuff like shampoos, toilet paper etc.  We try to buy organic when we can, but in the winter months it's really expensive.  We also eat out on average 2 nights a week.

shannm

Not counting paper goods and cleaning supplies, we are probably around 800/mo.
But honestly, I don't try very hard to get it down and we do spend quite a bit on quality meats and fish.
I do meal plan and that helps me cut down on waste.

ccam

Lately, we've been spending about $800 a month for a family of 3. I do meal plan and I think it definitely helps but we also buy some organic (all organic for DS), lots of produce, quality meat and fish. We don't eat much processed food. This includes paper goods, occasional diapers, cleaning products, shampoo and stuff like that. It also includes breakfast, lunch and dinner for all 3 of us at least 6 days a week. I feel like we spend way too much but not sure how to save. I think the fact that its winter and produce is more expensive puts a big dent in our budget.

dizzycooks

$400or less, I do meal plan and I buy into a Csa during the spring, summer and fall. Our budget allows a little more than this, but we don't eat out. I cook from scratch most all the time and it's what I work with. I can't imagine $800-$1000 for groceries.

UnexpectedlyExpected

We spend $300 a month; $75 a week but not including personal care products. I feel like it's too much and am wondering how these extreme coupon people save, lol.

nosoup4u

I spend $175-200 weekly, on average. That includes meat I buy monthly from a farmer and weekly grocery shopping. I buy primarily organic and local, we meal plan, but I don't use coupons or anything. Besides our mortgage, groceries are our biggest expense.

Kbrittonhart

$600 per month for two adults and a toddler (that includes eating out). We don't meal plan but we do create a list before leaving home so we only buy what we need instead of what looks good.

jess9802

We're probably spending about $700 a month for a family of four (including a teenage boy!). That includes all paper products, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.

We do most of our grocery shopping at WinCo - it is a West Coast chain that has pretty low prices, doesn't take credit cards, you have to bag your own groceries, etc. It is a significant savings over the major grocery chains.

I plan meals for the entire month and try to cook from scratch. Meals are either crockpot easy or something I can stretch over two meals (meatloaf: make two loaves, serve one and freeze the other for later. Roast a whole chicken, then use the carcass and leftover meat to make chicken noodle soup, chicken and dumplings, etc.). Every two weeks I put together a grocery list based on the meal plan and whatever staples we go through (bread, milk, etc.), and that's what we buy. We've stopped eating out, brown bag our lunches, etc.

The meal planning has been the biggest factor in reducing our food expenditures each month.

jennyelf

Mint tells me $8,000 in the past year so $666/ month, but that includes the Costco trips which includes electronics and all eating out. Weekly grocery bill tops out at $80 but is often closer to $60, so I'd guess closer to $400 month total for a family of 2 adults and 1 toddler.

I do a lot of meal planning, get my veggies from a CSA in the summer, and a lot of my meat from a local farmer. We also have a pretty low cost grocery store that is not too far out of the way of my evening commute.

mexicolombiana

Wow I can't believe some families can live off $400 a month or so that is impressive. I know we spend a lot on food but now that I'm going PT at my job I'll have to be more frugal.  

jlaOK

We budget $600 per month but usually go over.  This includes formula, diapers, and household/personal items.  I do meal plan but don't feel like it saves me any money.  I always want to cut back on our grocery bill but honestly part of what motivates me to cook on a regular basis is the ability to cook what I want and not to have to scrimp.  I do minimal couponing.  I'm just counting down until DD is off formula.

Fullcircle06

Thanks, ladies! I was working on a budget yesterday and realized I didn't know what to list for this. I think I budgeted us for 400-500 for the 3 of us, which may actually be just a little conservative. 

jf198400

Fullcircle06 said:

Thanks, ladies! I was working on a budget yesterday and realized I didn't know what to list for this. I think I budgeted us for 400-500 for the 3 of us, which may actually be just a little conservative. 

I would highly recommend you try tracking your spending using mint.com for a few months. I find it really helpful to see where all of our money goes, and track spending over time.

DTNZ4Ever

We spend $450 per month that includes cleaning supplies, household items (paper towels, TP etc), personal care items for DS and I. I meal plan for 2 weeks with a trip in between week for milk or anything we may have run out of. We typically eat left overs for lunch the next day. We eat home most days we probably eat out once or twice a month,

emberlee3

I spend $150/week at the grocery store, but this usually includes some toiletries, paper products, OTC meds, etc, because I try to avoid going to Target and Costco.  I figure we probably blow more money on unnecessary items than what we would end up saving at those stores (especially if DH goes!)

I hate that we spend so much money on groceries.  I meal plan, but I don't do coupons.  I try to buy mostly organic produce and meats.  DH is a snack addict, and I feel like we could save money if we bought fewer snack foods.  We get takeout about once a month, we only eat out when traveling, and we bring our lunches every day.  We brew coffee at home.  So, maybe our overall food budget is pretty reasonable.

snicksnack

I use to spend on average $150.00 and want to aim for 100.  I still budget 150 as 100 is hard given we eat fresh and mostly organic but aiming for 100, looking for sales has really helped I also switched to Amazon subscribe and save for paper products.  Anything I save less then the 150 a week goes into our savings account so i see it like a game to try and save. 

MommaP12

We spend $500/month on groceries and $100/month at target on diapers and household items for a family of 4 in downtown Chicago.

I do 2 big grocery trips a month and spend about $250 per trip.   I don't buy a ton of organic.  Really only our milk and if anything is on sale.  I do try to shop the sales and I do use coupons.  I meal plan as well.  We eat out once a week and that comes out of our spending budget for the month.  I bring my lunch 99% of the time, so the only real eating out is the one time per week.   If I had a deep freeze I would stock up on sales more/make more freezer meals but we just don't have the space right now.

I need to check out mint.com.  Do you enter in everything you spend or link it to your checking account?  The former sounds too high maintenance. 

jf198400

MommaP12 said:

We spend $500/month on groceries and $100/month at target on diapers and household items for a family of 4 in downtown Chicago.

I do 2 big grocery trips a month and spend about $250 per trip.   I don't buy a ton of organic.  Really only our milk and if anything is on sale.  I do try to shop the sales and I do use coupons.  I meal plan as well.  We eat out once a week and that comes out of our spending budget for the month.  I bring my lunch 99% of the time, so the only real eating out is the one time per week.   If I had a deep freeze I would stock up on sales more/make more freezer meals but we just don't have the space right now.

I need to check out mint.com.  Do you enter in everything you spend or link it to your checking account?  The former sounds too high maintenance. 

Mint is super easy you just link it to your bank accounts and credit cards, it will auto categorize everything for you, and you can organize it however you like. I highly recommend it!

MommaP12

thanks @jf198400  I'm going to talk to DH about it tonight and likely sign up!

rubber_chicken

we spend $100/week on groceries (I sort-of meal plan), $100/month on diapers/wipes, and I have no idea what we spend at CVS on toiletries.  probably too much. 

mexicolombiana

I also recommend mint.com although it's pretty depressing to check in on how much you spend each month on stuff.  

jennyelf

mexicolombiana said:

I also recommend mint.com although it's pretty depressing to check in on how much you spend each month on stuff.  

Especially when you compare the housing (mortgage or rent) to the daycare tab...

cecilyandgautam

We get most of our produce and all of our meat through a farm share that averages $53/week. We get an additional $30-60/week worth of groceries (excluding household cleaning & paper products) - dairy , out of season fruits, nuts, etc. So our actual grocery bill is very low. 

However, cooking from scratch with vegetables pulled directly from the earth - unwashed, not pre-cut, etc - is very time consuming and we both work full time. So our take-out budget is larger than it should be. If we were more organized, or if I worked an earlier shift and therefore got home well before dinner time, we could make better use of our share. That's one of my ambitions actually and I hope to be much better at that by the end of the year. 

Bella427

Our budget is $150 per week (~$600 per month) for our family of 4 and $250 per month eating out.  Every month my goal is to keep all food consumption under 1K.  Some months that's easier than others.  I'm still doing all organic meat and dairy but have had to do quite a bit of conventional produce lately to stay within budget.  Meal planning helps tremendously.  So does eating a lot of breakfast for dinner and soup with sandwiches.  Honestly, the more time I spend on dinner the less likely the kids are to eat it, anyway!

rodiesmum

going to the grocery is my guilty pleasure, my therapy, if not one of the highlights of my weekend. having said that we sometimes go a little overboard. to prevent going over the budget i meal plan and then i come up with a grocery list that is based on my meal plan. i try to include 2-3 meals that week that use poantry and freezer stocks to prevent spoilage and save money. but yes, it is  a challenge to stay within budget in the grocery

rodiesmum

oh and btw we spend around 500$ a month including toiletries for me, DH and our toddler

cecilyandgautam

I think the cost of food varies a lot by region. There was a great article in the Times last year comparing two mid-20 year olds living on the same income in NYC and in a small town in Texas. Obviously you expect rent and commute costs to vary greatly, but I was surprised how different their food budgets were and the cost of eating out.