Food Budget?

lifeonthehill · June 2014

School is out! We are officially off of dining hall food until the last week of August. This is the first year that we are dealing with this while I am only working part time and I don't have our budgets from last summer so I have no idea what we spent last year. I am thinking $200 and H is saying $150 is plenty. We have been buying food for one meal once a month over the last nine months and that is it. I am clueless on what to expect when we head to the grocery store Tuesday night.

What do you spend?

Sisugal · June 2014

per week or per month?
If you meal plan, and don't add liquor or junk food, you can keep your weekly budget to about $!00. More if you add extras or are not interested in a low budget food plan.

hoffse · June 2014

Sisugal said:

per week or per month?
If you meal plan, and don't add liquor or junk food, you can keep your weekly budget to about $!00. More if you add extras or are not interested in a low budget food plan.

I agree with this. We plan ahead and can stick to about $100/week. Any given week we will usually buy one or two "large" items - this week it was a bag of frozen chicken breasts from Costco ($17), along with a 6-pack of Costco canned chicken ($12). Together they will help us make something like 25 meals (we use the canned chicken for burritos). Next week we have no meat to buy... so we'll probably buy some tequila. We can budget in liquor now and then, but we don't always keep it stocked. It's a low-priority item for us. We usually buy a gallon of milk ($3.50), a pound of fresh spinach ($4.50), and 2 loaves of bread ($5 for 2) from Costco each week. We fill in other stuff as needed, and we use Target for smaller items. The Cartwheel app, their coupons, and the redcard make the Target brand stuff cheaper than shopping at Walmart overall. BUT if it's something we can buy at Costco, we have found that Costco often beats Target.

Honestly - I think the only way we can do it for just under $100/week and still buy snacks and alcohol is through our Costco membership. We make a point to stock up on the expensive items we like when Costco has them on sale. Their sales run for an entire month, and they rotate. I've gotten a feel for the rotation schedule, so we can get some really great deals if we just plan ahead.

For the record - Costco had their in-house brand of zyrtec on sale last month. H was running low, so we bought some. It was 365 tablets for $12. Given that Costco was selling Zyrtec name brand right next to the off brand at $37 for 100... we realized that our annual membership was more than paid for by that single purchase. It's a great value for us.

KatieCutie05 · June 2014

For just my husband and I we are at about 360 per month for all our groceries, cleaning supplies and pretty much everything ud buy at the grocery store. We have a separate alcohol budget tho. I do this with shopping sales, buying in bulk and couponing. We arent too big on buying organic except maybe two or three things, if you are that will run you a bit more. I get all my meat on sale and in bulk. And most veggies are bought frozen. I also get a lot of store brand. Every dollar adds up quickly. But you probably aren't stocked up on basics so ur first trip will be more but it should get cheaper.

Wulfgar · June 2014

I just upped my food budget for the three of us to $520 but I label shop for items without high frutose corn syrup and a lot of extra sugar. Also, growing up eating a lot of farm fresh food and growing, canning our own food I tend to be more picky then my wife's family. I am moving more towards organic mainly because they are less processed then other items.

I also have tried the Save-a-lot and other cheaper food stores and some of the food doesn't taste right to me so I tend to buy more named brand.

MrsAshleyH10 · June 2014

I budget $100/week (average). This includes alcohol, pet food, paper products, etc. for two people, two dogs and two cats.

ta78 · June 2014

We spend about $500 a month for the 4 of us. I include all household besides diapers and wipes in our grocery budget though.

lifeonthehill · June 2014

Thanks for the responses!

I was thinking $200 for the month! Wow. Tuesday is going to probably give me a heart attack. I guess rather than setting a budget this week we need to just get in there and see what we need/want and then have a budget from there.

hoffse · June 2014

I forgot to add that our $100/week budget does include paper products, cleaning products, shampoo, OTC meds, pet stuff, etc. We just use all that stuff so slowly that we rarely have to buy it.

This first trip will probably cost a lot, especially if you have to stock up on things like condiments, salad dressing, peanut butter, coffee, etc. That stuff takes a long time to eat, but it's kind of $$ when you do have to buy it.

I suggest going off brand for most things with a few exceptions. I don't buy off-brand ketchup, peanut butter, or salad dressing. I've tried it before, and it just tastes super wrong to me. I think mustard, mayo, jelly/jam, canned goods, etc. are all fine though.

Sisugal · June 2014

I highly encourage you to think of what you need before you get to the store. Make a list. Preplan at least 3-4 meals and what ingredients will be needed.
Breakfast - Quaker Rolled Oats is healthy and cheap
Milk
Fruit
Lunch - what do you usually like to eat (also a good way to use any left overs)
Dinner - have the ingredients on hand for a few favorites

You can buy many of the non food items at your local dollar store (dish detergent, deoderent, toothpaste, paper products etc.

CuriousKiddosMama · June 2014

We spend about $300 a month for the 2 of us. It may be hard for you to keep your budget down because you will be buying what you need- as opposed to stocking up when stuff is cheap and using it until it's on sale again. When you see a good deal, I guess try to get enough for a week or two. But as somebody said- meal plan before you go into the grocery store. That way you don't impulse buy a cart full, and then get home and not know what you are cooking for the week- or have the ingredients that you need.

cbee817 · June 2014

We average $170/week for a family of 4. We go on Sundays for the bulk of our groceries (Usually $150) and DH ends up picking up some odds and ends on Wednesday or Thursday (usually $20). We buy organic for the most part, don't eat out, pack our breakfast and lunches for work, so our groceries get used and we don't have much waste.. by Saturday afternoon, our fridge is very empty.

mc0113 · June 2014

I agree with everyone else. We plan on $100/week for the two of us (and pet food). Some times we're a little under, but most times we're pretty close to that each week.

Xstatic3333 · June 2014

We are at $75 a week-however, I'm vegetarian and H is mostly okay with eating what I cook. This doesn't count our CSA ($600 for the year, paid out of a different budget line item) or alcohol (fun budget, unless we come in way under on groceries). Some individual weeks I can keep it to $50, but H always goes over when he shops so it's kind of a wash.

Ditto PPs-make a list and meal plan!

jessica490 · June 2014

For the 2 of us we spend about $400 per month. It's about $100 a week but sometimes we spend $70, and sometimes we spend $110 so it varies. We only go once a week and we get all our food and paper products at the store. Once every 3 months or so we will go to BJ's and stock up on meat

KatieCutie05 · June 2014

The trick that i learned is that store sales usually rotate every 6 weeks... so if you see a good sale on items that will last - then buy enough to last you for 6 weeks. We get the organic chicken breasts from our grocery store and about every 6 weeks or so it will be on sale 25% off so i stock up and then we use our foodsaver to vaccum seal and freeze it. Which is awesome because it keeps it fresh and without freezer burn. That alone probably saves us 20 dollars a month.

Xstatic3333 · June 2014

KatieCutie05 said:
The trick that i learned is that store sales usually rotate every 6 weeks... so if you see a good sale on items that will last - then buy enough to last you for 6 weeks. We get the organic chicken breasts from our grocery store and about every 6 weeks or so it will be on sale 25% off so i stock up and then we use our foodsaver to vaccum seal and freeze it. Which is awesome because it keeps it fresh and without freezer burn. That alone probably saves us 20 dollars a month.

Great tip!

smbenevides1989 · June 2014

Between the three of us, I spend usually less $120/biweek. This does not include alcohol (which comes out of DH's fun money) and does not include toiletries. What helps is that I meal plan for 2 weeks and only buy what I need for those two weeks. The only thing I will buy in between is milk and fruits (if needed). Everything else can pretty much wait. We also don't really eat red meat, and if we do, it's when we eat at my parent's on Sunday's or if its a special treat. I usually just stick with chicken, fish, and turkey meat. We also do a non-meat plate once a week like breakfast for dinner, soup, or rice and bean buritos. Saves on costs.

Also, my budget includes some junk foods like cookies and chips (maybe like $10-$15 of the budget), but we mostly eat well in our household.

vlagrl29 · June 2014

we spend $400/month for the 3 of us. I only go to the grocery store every 2 weeks mainly because I don't like to go. It's such a huge hassle with a kid. We just started going to the farmers market for friuts/veggies last week and I plan to keep doing that all summer.

IAmSherlocked · June 2014

PPs have given some good tips. DH and I tend to spend a lot on groceries, but that is because like some others we buy as much as we can organic, and avoid certain ingredients. I could probably keep our budget down around $250-300 a month, but DH can't seem to give up his "convenience" snack foods, and those things tend to add a lot to our overall bill (I made the mistake of letting him do the grocery shopping this weekend--he spent about $70 on just snack foods at Kroger!)

Costco is also a great resource if you have one in your area. It's really easy to spend a few hundred dollars there though, so just me mindful of what you're putting in your cart! On the rare occasion that we buy meat for DH, we buy it at Costco and it lasts us a long time. If you use paper products Costco is great for those too. We tend to use more cloth than paper products, but I can buy a package of paper towels and TP at Costco and I don't have to worry about buying more for a couple of months.

When we were going through a lean time financially I started teaching myself how to make things from scratch and it's saved us a ton of money (not to mention, homemade food is delicious and better for you!). If you really want to cut your grocery bill, you may want to look into making things like your own bread, tortillas, granola bars, etc...trust me, it's pretty easy and doesn't take nearly as much time as you would think (for bread, I don't use a bread machine, and it's still super easy and fast). You can also make your own cleaners, laundry detergent, etc. Those are really easy to make, clean just as well as the name brand stuff, and you get the added benefit of not having all those chemicals around.

Good luck!

vlagrl29 · June 2014

When I was single and buying for just me I spent $240/month.

I make my list of the food that we need and then I find as many coupons as I can for the brand name stuff. I buy a majority of store brand name because it is cheaper. Then I check my receipts with checkout 51 each week to see if I can get more cash back, but that cash goes into DD's savings account.

HoneyBee973 · June 2014

We spend around $350-$400 per month for 2 adults.

I know we can spend a bit less if I took more time meal planning, but for what ever reason that's one budget category I have a hard time. I tried multiple times meal planning and failed each time. Think I will make it my goal this summer, meal plan and stick to it!

KTdidit · June 2014

We budget about $400/mo for 2 adults a toddler and a baby, that includes paper products, formula, cleaning products, etc. Walmart has the best deal on chicken breasts...$1.98/lb for the large packages. That helps a lot since chicken is expensive! We have a "standard" grocery list of stuff we have all the time (chicken/ground beef/pork chops, rice/pasta, milk/eggs/butter, shredded cheese, bread, fruit, cereal) then we buy other stuff depending on what we plan to make for sides or any special dinners.

theholmanherd · June 2014

My husband and I have kept our food budget at $200/month and we've been able to stockpile bulk amounts of rice and canned goods. We're not eating lavishly, and it's just the two of us, but we're buying 85% organic and doing just fine. In fact, we're saving for a vacation, so I have only been spending $40/week. That way, I'm saving $10/week towards grocery money for our vacation. We have a lot of rice and canned goods stockpiled, so we just don't need to spend as much. We live in a rural area, though, so it's probably a lot cheaper out here than a city like L.A. or NYC.

holleysgirl · June 2014

I have just slashed our food budget to $120 per week. We're a family if two adults and a 4 year old. In the fall/winter/spring I 'm part of an organic veggie share. Someone in our community connected with the local organic food distributor and about 15 families chip in to buy bulk weekly. It costs me about $15-20 per week and I get an assortment of organic fruits and veggies. It's worth looking into. Usually a brown paper bag filled to the brim. In the summer I do farmers markets. I also started making our own snacks weekly which helps. I pop a big pot of popcorn and package it in baggies for lunches. I do power bars, muffins, smoothies to go, and plan to try granola. I also tried my own bread a few weeks ago and it was amazing, although time consuming.

blondie42107 · June 2014

We average $100/week for a family of four (3.5 yr old and 1.5 yr old). I use the app called Out of Milk to make my grocery list and stay in budget. I also do some meal planning based on the sale add for that week. We also tend to purchase whole foods and aim for organic when possible.

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