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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
S/O the more money poll: Grocery Budget?
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries?
How many in your household?
How many lunches/dinners out a week?
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc?
I'm trying to determine if our grocery spending is more than it should be.
Re: S/O the more money poll: Grocery Budget?
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries? $450-500
How many in your household? 5
How many lunches/dinners out a week? Dinner out maybe once a week. Lunches- 0 for me and 1-2 for DH, older kids eat at school (additional $120 a month)
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? No. I don't buy them at the grocery store.
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries? $250 to $350
How many in your household? 3
How many lunches/dinners out a week? DH hsa food brought in for lunch and most breakfasts at work for free, I go out for lunch once or twice a week. We go out to dinner one or two times a week.
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? yes
So Tasty, So Yummy
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries? $350-$400
How many in your household? 4 including the baby. 6 if you count the dogs
How many lunches/dinners out a week? DH eats out almost everyday, but he has his own account that he uses to pay for that. It's his fun money, so I have no idea how much he spends. Also, a good chunk is lunch with clients, which is paid for. I rarely eat lunch out. Maybe 1 time per week. We go out to dinner 1-2 times per week on average.
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? Yes. It also includes formula and dog food.
How many in your household? 3 half of the time, 4 the other half of the time.
How many lunches/dinners out a week? I was eating lunch out 5-6 days a week, but I cut that out in November. I probably get one lunch during the work week and we maybe eat lunch out once on the weekend, but not usually. We go out about once a week now.
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? If I buy them at HEB, yes. If I buy them at Target, no.
How many in your household? 2 adults, 1 toddler who refuses most food
How many lunches/dinners out a week? We go out every other week on average
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? Yes, and wine and pet food
I'm trying to determine if our grocery spending is more than it should be. Ours is probably more than it should be, because I tend to buy more gourmet and import items than the average person. I also buy free-range poultry/eggs, grass-fed beef, and hormone-antibiotic dairy which drives the prices up.
$450-$600 - depending on how much booze I buy
2 adults, 2 children
Maybe 1-2 lunches a week and 1-2 dinners a week
This includes everything. Even soon-to-be ex-DH's expensive razors
I do not coupon at all which I need to learn to.
$300- 400 a month. Depending on how much booze I buy as well. This also includes pet food for a 70 lb dog. I use coupons and shop sales. And I also buy tons of cleaning crap. DS has allergies so its a must.
We're a family of 2 adults, 1 toddler and 1 dog.
I probably spend an average of about 400 a month. There's really no way to answer the middle questions because our routine varies so much because our work varies. We rarely cook dinners at home during the holiday season because there's just so much work...lol.
There are a lot of weeks where shopping is just milk, bread, cat litter, and dog food.
Factor in that I often shop for groceries at target and buy other stuff... And I really have very little idea.
my photography blog
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries? I usually spend $700-$750 each month for groceries
How many in your household? 4
How many lunches/dinners out a week?
School Lunch - $40/month, DH lunch - ?
We eat out 3 nights a week - average $450 per month
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? Yes, I buy everything except diapers at the grocery store.
Wow, I never really thought about how much we were spending on food...
BFP #3 -mm/c @ 7wks, discovered at 9wks, D&C 9/28
Current Status: TTA
~~PGAL/PAL Always Welcome!~~
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries? when I coupon I can easily do everything for $280 a month. However, I've been crazy busy with work and have kind of fallen off the band wagon (still looking for deals, but not as diligent about scooping up the good deals), been spending more like $400...
How many in your household? 2 adults, 2 kids, 3 cats
How many lunches/dinners out a week? Usually 1 lunch and 1 dinner. When I'm really busy there may be a few fast food dinners.
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? Yes, but we hardly ever actually pay for these items. They are ultra cheap or free with coupons
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries?
$500-700
How many in your household?
3
How many lunches/dinners out a week?
we both eat out everyday for lunch. Many times we can expense if they are business lunches. We eat dinner out about 2x per week and eat lunch out at least once per weekend
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc?
Not usually
junk food mom blog
This is us too.
If I had to guess, I would say we spend about $700/month. This doesn't count wine and beer. DH usually buys that so I don't keep a tally (luckily)
2 adults/2 kids
DH eats lunch out most days. That can be anything from Subway to Strip House, but some of that (especially the more $$ meals) are usually expensed. This makes it hard for me to even try to calculate how much we spend there.
I eat lunch out 1-2x a week.
We eat dinner out 3-4 nights a week.
No, I usually get my household stuff at Target and from amazon.
If we do as planned and eat out less this year, our grocery spending will go up but we'll save money over all.
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries? $250
How many in your household? 2
How many lunches/dinners out a week? Lunches - 0. Dinners 1-2.
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? Yes.
I'm trying to determine if our grocery spending is more than it should be. Have you considered taking up gardening? When we have a good garden harvest going, I only spend about $50/month on groceries. Basically just meat & beverages.
Well, 2011 was a horrible year for everyone's garden because of the drought. And if 2010 was the first year you did it, then it makes sense that it wasn't the best, you were learning. So try again in 2012 & ask Almond a ton of questions
You can ask me if you want, but Almond is way more an expert than I am.
Another thing that keeps our budget low is repitition. Some people might be bored eating at our house, but it works well for us. I pretty much make the same meal every night grilled chicken or pork chops, a spinach salad, and frozen veggies. Occassionally we'll split a sweet potato.
We also alternate between cold meat & hot meat. For example if I grill chicken for dinner on Monday, I grill 4 breasts, serve them with the salad on the side. The other 2 breasts are refrigerated & served cold on top of a salad on Tuesday.
I'll usually make a pot of soup or chili once a week, then we eat that for lunches as well (with a spinach salad on the side).
And I make breakfast for dinner once a week because eggs are so cheap. A veggie-packed frittata is delicious, really easy, & extremely nutritious. (I used to do spaghetti once a week for the same reasons, but since we've gone low-carb I do this instead.)
Once every couple of weeks I'll throw a pork-loin in the oven, but they're kind of pricy so that doesn't happen more than once or twice a month. I buy a few when I find them on sale & keep them in the freezer. They're such a ridiculously easy meal too, I wish they weren't so pricey.
Roasted chicken is also super cheap and easy, so I like to do one of those every weekend. It's an ideal Saturday lunch or dinner because the leftovers are perfect when we get home from church on Sunday.
Like I said, a lot of people might get bored eating at our house. But this is a really easy & efficient way for us to operate, and we're content with it because it makes our life so much better in other ways. We never throw away any food because without having to even think about it I know how much to buy of everything. And I don't have to spend $5 on a special ingredient that I will only use to cook one meal.
I highly recommend How to Cook Without a Book by Pam Anderson. It teaches you how to cook using methods instead of recipes. Completely changed how I cooked, made dinner-time much less stressful, and saved us a lot of money.
But it's great advice!
What is your monthly budget or average amount spent for groceries? for food groceries, we spend about $75 a week (but sometimes when there's a big sale and I stockpile, it can go over $100 that week). So I think on avg month, it's about $400.
How many in your household? 4 plus a dog
How many lunches/dinners out a week? 1-2 lunches and about 2 dinners out a week
Does this include toiletries, household cleaners, etc? The above was just for food, for the non-food items that I get most from Target with coupons and sales, I spend about $100 a month. If there's a big sale on toilet paper, paper towels and diapers, it can sometimes be $200 a month.