OT: What is your grocery/household budget a month?

fletcherfam

Including toiletries (toothpaste, etc.) we try and keep to around $400, it is tough to stick in that budget with a family of 5.

How about you?

jrf316

we do about 130 / week.  theres 4 of us

fishlessman

since the beginning of this year ive been keeping it below 20 dollars a week for the most part, that includes eating out. it also helps to be on a diet
)

Eggcelsior

200/week

FanOfFanboys

I need to reevaluate. There are 3 of us with one being 3 years old. We spend $90-120 week in food. Never eat out.
Probably another $150-200 in other stuff. So I guess average $650-750?

henapple

I'd have to ask the boss... Since buying the egg I don't want to know. I will say we never eat out but she's warned me about another $70 prime rib roast.

Village Idiot

Wow.  I did a Quicken report from last year.  Came out to about $550/month for the two of us.  Of course, in that figure is non food items from the grocery store.

Still ......... no wonder I'm fat.  

:@)

Chubbs

I am with Fan.... I need to seriously rethink mine. I would venture to say I am around $800 a month. Just me, SWMBO, and a 9.5 month old. I eat lunch out with clients most days though, and SWMBO gets egged leftovers. 8-|

MrCookingNurse

Our Walmart/Kroger bills run around 500$ a month. But that includes some gas and other house hold stuff.

Prolly 75$ a week on food for 2 adults, 1 one year old

We prolly eat out 2 meals a week, I take my lunch every day from leftovers. You wanna save some money, PACK YOUR LUNCH!!!

Little Steven

I go to a store or market pretty much every day. I'm a sucker for the specials and my freezers are full. Never seem to defrost anything though. I would guess all of 500/week including sundries

biznork

About $900 a month for a family of four. This includes household goods. Even being really careful it's hard to go much lower than this living in SoCal.

FanOfFanboys

MrCookingNurse said:

Our Walmart/Kroger bills run around 500$ a month. But that includes some gas and other house hold stuff.

Prolly 75$ a week on food for 2 adults, 1 one year old

We prolly eat out 2 meals a week, I take my lunch every day from leftovers. You wanna save some money, PACK YOUR LUNCH!!!

Sadly I do pack my lunch everyday unless traveling for work. And in that situation I get reimbursed so I didn't count that towards total.

henapple

Chubbs said:

I am with Fan.... I need to seriously rethink mine. I would venture to say I am around $800 a month. Just me, SWMBO, and a 9.5 month old. I eat lunch out with clients most days though, and SWMBO gets egged leftovers. 8-|

She's the lucky one then...

MrCookingNurse

Since my food saver I've started buying a lot more special meat sales and freezing stuff.

Skiddymarker

Village Idiot said:

Wow.  I did a Quicken report from last year.  Came out to about $550/month for the two of us.  Of course, in that figure is non food items from the grocery store.

Still ......... no wonder I'm fat.  

:@)

I keep mine in Numbers, but like VI for the two of us, $465/month for 2012 and that excludes non-food. I agree, no wonder I'm fat!

johnkitchens

You guys are making me feel bad. My wife makes the list, but I go to the store. There are 4 of us, and we never eat out. 4 of us eat breakfast and dinner at home everyday. My wife and I eat lunch at home everyday and my kids take their lunch to school. 

I spend around $275 to $300 every week at the store. That usually includes paper towels, cleaning products etc. 

It always seemed high to me. Sounds like it really is. :(  

tyenic1

It's not very cheap at my house right now. There is the wife and I along with 5 kids ages 16(boy), 14(girl), 12(girl), 7(girl), 4(boy). The oldest two train for cross country and track year round so their appetites are through the roof! We try to keep it at $350 per week, but usually spend around $450 per week. That is just groceries not including tolietries. We rarely go out to eat because it costs me at least a $50 bill just to eat at McDonalds. They all are in love with anything that comes off the egg anyway.

chainsaw19

roughly 1200 per month, feeding 5 kids isnt cheap, but thankfully if I do a big cook over the weekend they will eat it up throughout the week. 

henapple

Does this budget include beer?

fletcherfam

@henapple, yep

henapple

Dammit.... I thought the $200 a week was just beer.

Eggcelsior

Crap. I need to rework mine then.

hapster

There are 3 of us here...

My weekly shopping at Wegmans runs about $150 to $200 depending if I throwing the bulk paper goods in there.

Eating low carb most of the time tends to run it higher. I have to bypass the canned raviolis at $.50 a can, no big bowls of cheap pasta... buying fresh or cryo meats, fish, etc costs a little more

This doesn't count for beer and liquor, or cigars if you're counting )

double

With these budgets are you buying organic, grassfed etc etc? Very interesting to see this.

fletcherfam

We buy organic fruits and veggies for the most part, we shop very seasonally and when things are on sale we stock up (chickens on sale we buy 4-6 of them), We also do can about 160 lbs of produce a summer, we freeze probably another 40 - 50lbs. This year we are hoping to try pickling!

Our meat we buy from the local butcher, it is not organic, nor grass fed, but much much better quality than I get in the stores, I trust um.

Eggcelsior

double said:

With these budgets are you buying organic, grassfed etc etc? Very interesting to see this.

I buy as local as possible and as organic as possible. Being on a first name basis with the butcher/farmer/etc. is much better than grabbing stuff out of a refrigerated case for me. I prefer rolling farmland to strip malls, anyway. I can afford it so I do my part.

biznork

Mine is buying the crappy great value brand at Walmart and not buying any organic food at all.

travisstrick

About $200 a week. That excludes booze and eating out. We don't eat out much.

henapple

@travisstrick... So with booze you're at $400 a week?

travisstrick

henapple said:

@travisstrick... So with booze you're at $400 a week?

At least.

STANGOJE

We are about $200 a week, that includes unlimited feeding to my 13 year old boy that runs track..