I’m setting up a budget and am curious how much you spend (honestly) on food every month… restaurants, groceries, coffees, everything together.
I’m looking at around $300/mo, which seems really high. I’d like it to be <$250. When I buy food, I am shopping for both the BF and myself (of course, he is also buying some of our food separately, not included in the $300). We always eat dinner together and then take leftovers for lunch. Whenever we’re low on food, I will grab lunch at Whole Foods, which adds up fast. The BF and I are both on rather specific (read: more costly) diets due to a lot of food allergies.
$300 seems low. I would love to only spend that much. I almost never eat out (take my lunch to work everyday and have breakfast/dinner at home), but I spend $100+ a week. I buy for my son and myself and I am currently IM training, so I do eat a lot though. I eat a lot of healthier and therefore more expensive foods (ie lots of veggies and fruit, organic whole grains ect), so it is more expensive
I think if you can pull off $300/month and are eating well (ie - more expensive fruits and veggies as opposed to fast food) you’re doing really well. Assuming that you pay for 4 days worth of meals every week and your boyfriend pays for the other 3 days, that $300/month means you spend $9.37 a day for each of you. That’s not an easy feat! I picked up a tea and cookie from a coffee shop today during a meeting and that alone ran $4.
Don’t know for sure (though if my better half were home he could pull up the comprehensive spreadsheet and tell you to the penny) but my guess is we probably spend $150/week on food. That would be all meals except for his lunch while at work. We could likely cut $$$ from there if needed but we like to eat organic foods and choose “locavore” options as much as possible which makes it more expensive. We also have a wine habit. So until we need to cut from the food bucket we won’t. Food is one of the great joys in life!
I take out $240 cash every 2 weeks. That doesn’t include restaurants but we only go out 1x a week (if that). I think with a lot of pre-planning, watching sales, etc., you can easily do $300 a month. AND if you coupon you can even do better than that. I currently have about 15 boxes of oatmeal (one of my daughters favorite meals) that I got on sale and maybe paid $5.00 for all of them (between a sale & coupons). Also have about 6 ‘cases’ of laundry detergent that I paid maybe $20.00. I find saving $$ on groceries a challenge and love it!
I’m not the type that has dedicated an entire room to bulking up on sales, but there are a few things I will over purchase on just because the sale is SO good (and usually only happens 1x a year). I have a friend that had a total bill at Albertsons for $65.00. After coupons (and her Albertsons card) the cost was $5.00.
The last ime I calculated my food cost were in 2006. Both me and my live in BF were training for IM. I have a no holds barred approach to grocery shopping, I buy what I want and I want organic/fresh, gluten free food. When we tallied up a month’s receipts I about choked as we were spending >$900 a month. Bear in mind this included non-grocery items like soap, TP, cleaning supplies, contact solution, razors etc. Still, that’s a lot of $. We didn’t eat out much at all then. $300/month seems reasonable, especially if you’re buying quality food.
So $250-300 given some shared expenses with your boyfriend seems a decent range.
My wife and I are at $300 for groceries and $150 for restaurants, which we’ll never ever hit (but during the summer there are more than a few bar nights). We also have a $85 entertainment line item which includes having friends over for stuff.
I am pushing $400 a month right now since I am back in full swing with training. That is with no alcohol, no coffee shop, no eating out. It adds up frustratingly fast, just eating well from the grocery store.
I think that US$300 is too low. My husband and I spend together around US$1000 a month but we do lead odd lives with me travelling a lot and spending time between London and NYC. And also food is probably one thing that we do not like to save on. We like to eat nice food; not necessarily expensive restaurant food but good quality stuff form supermarkets.
On average? I’d say $500 a month, at least, for groceries. This doesn’t count alcohol (which we buy a lot of) or eating out at all (which we do almost never).
I just set up a budget for $800/month for family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children ages 13 and 9). We spent more than that last year, but I’m going to try to be thriftier this year without having to eat Kraft dinner all the time. That budget includes everything I would buy at a grocery store, but does not include dining out.
It varies for my husband and I. Some weeks we are out of the store with $40, some it’s $80, once in a great while it’s $100. But the 100 is really only seen when we are having people over, or buying some wine or beer, or some other fancy stuff we usually don’t eat.
Eating out is in a totally separate category - we eat out about 1x per week for dinner and 1x per week for lunch on the weekend.
We spend $100 every other week at the regular grocery store. Specialty markets (like whole foods, farmer markets, or fruit/vegetable specialty stores) are about $75 per week. And once a month we go to Costco for about $200. So that’s $700/month. What’s up with that! We go out maybe once a week and it’s usually $60 or so. There are three of us in our family. I eat organic/clean. Husband and kid eat whatever.
That is too low! Just like the calorie calculations… I look back and estimate 2400-2500 calories I eat regularly. When I write down everything it turns out 3200 to 3500. Same with the groceries and food. 300 a month is 75 per week, can be doable but very tight specially if you want to get quality foods.
Look at obesity, lower the income higher the obesity. It is not related with gym membership prices. More like cheap foods vs. quality foods.
Look at your grocery sale flyer… They always make the bad foods cheap, even if you buy same food, you have to check the labels to make sure they have the same nutrition etc.
$75 per week certainly doable, but for training and racing nutrition no way.
These people are crazy with their spending! First of all, fruits and vegetables don’t make you go any faster - so stop buying them. They cost way too much. With a little planning, here is how I see a typical day for you:
Breakfast : 2 eggs (~30 cents) and a packet of salt that you can steal from a fast food joint.
Lunch: 2 packs of Ramen Pride noodles (~40 cents)
Dinner: 1 Tostino’s Pizza ($1.25)
That’s about $2 per day
times 30 = $60.
Now if you are training for an Ironman, you will need a multi vitamin. Those get pricey at about $6 for 300. So if you are training you need to add another 2 cents per day. And if you are like me, you spend about $500 -$800 per month eating out and about $300 just in beer (from the grocery store)!
Wow. I’m really surprised by everyone’s answers and by the fact that most people don’t hold back or sacrifice at all when buying food. I think $300 is still the most that I can spend on food with the amt of money that I make - provided I still want to drive my car, cut my hair once in a while, and refill my birth control pills. I hear kids are really expensive!
So given that most of you are spending $600+ on food, can I ask how much you spend on other discressionary items (not shelter, utilites, taxes or insurance)? I’m talking movies, entertainment, travel, socializing, clothes, sports, gifts, etc.
I think maybe I’m just talking to a group of people who are waaay beyond my tax bracket.
can I ask how much you spend on other discressionary items (not shelter, utilites, taxes or insurance)? I’m talking movies, entertainment, travel, socializing, clothes, sports, gifts, etc.
Movies : $0
Entertainment : By this I assume you mean a good bag of weed. I’ve been paying about $100 for a half oz. of some pretty good stuff, but that can vary. I would think being as close to Mexico as you are, you can get some much better deals.
Travel : $0 - $2000 - depending if I have a race and where it is.
Socializing: $0 - talk is cheap. Plus I don’t have many friends.
Clothes: $0 Maybe this is why I don’t have many friends
Sports: $100 - $1000 (see travel)
Gifts: $0 - (see socializing)
We spend over $300 a month easily on groceries for two. We buy our eggs and vegetables(when in season) from local organic farmers and split a side of beef for the freezer from a local farmer also. My wife is a gourmet cook and I’m not bad either, so we tend to view restaurant meals as a bit of a waste of money, although we will indulge once in a blue moon. Our home cooking is healthier than most restaurants. I don’t drink coffee (prefer green tea) but my wife drinks it regularly. About 50% of our meals are vegetarian.
So until we need to cut from the food bucket we won’t. Food is one of the great joys in life!