OT-grocery budget?

[Brandi]

I will sometimes categorize wine separately in Quicken when we do a large purchase of just wine at a wine distributor or something, but ordinarily I'd count wine and beer as "groceries".

So Brandi your numbers may be going up!

Yes. a bit.

[Brandi]

We just blew $300 at Sam's Club this weekend on "the basics"....won't go back for another 6 months, if all goes according to plan. But that ... and those periodic trips to the wine and beer store ... certainly blow any consistent spending plan out of the water. The rest of it is maybe $400 or so a month. DH eats lunch out each day. We eat a lot of pasta. I buy what's on sale if I can help it. Rabbits get 2 salads a day - their our biggest consumers of fresh perishable stuff - organic spring mix mostly, the spoiled brats! Our weekly splurge may be $18-20 on pizza or Chinese food. Delivery, of course! Once a month to a "real" restaurant, which may set us back $60.

You sound a bit like us. Take out maybe once a week. Our cats get better food then us sometimes!
We had to go to a birthday this past week to a resturant we would never go to. It was a MEAT type place. Dead stuffed animals all over the place! hated that but kept my mouth shut. We spent a little over $50.00. We had the pork chops. But we really want to go out for sushi on Valentines' day so we went with the cheaper meals on the menu. Nothing good was under $20.00. I whispered to my dh to try and eat cheap so we could spend more on sushi! We haven't really been out much since the new year. MAybe 3 times.

[singletrackmind]

On a serious budget right now so 400 for the three of us plus two teens a third of the time.
Summer and those teens half the time gets spendy, but the garden helps a lot.

[sundial]

We spend about $75 every 1 1/2 weeks, so that is about $300 or so a month--give or take. That is based on 2 people. That does not include eating out which is maybe one day a week.

[Tuckervill]

We eat out way too much. I have $140 a week set aside for groceries and eating out, for three people, which pretty much comes to $600 a month. We blow that regularly when we're too busy to cook.

When my older kids were still here, we spent less on eating out and more on groceries, and we cooked more, for about the same money. While our budget hasn't grown any, with fewer mouths to feed, I don't clip coupons anymore and I don't try new things. I pretty much buy what I want, name brands, and I hardly ever look at prices. I figure I've done my due diligence when I had a houseful of kids, and since it's not my favorite thing to do, someone else in the house can worry about it, if that's what they want to do. I just don't care anymore. I save money in other ways, though, like using a credit card that gets me airline tickets and paying it off every month. I also try to drive as little as possible, especially since I got the Element which gets half the mileage as my Beetle did (still put 42,000 miles on it in the first year of owning it, though!)

Of course, if we were in a financial crunch, we'd be eating beans and hamburger again in a heartbeat.

Karen

[Dianyla]

OMG, I don't even want to think about how much we spend on food every month. Most grocery food is a combination of Trader Joe's, farmer's market in summer, the local food co-op, and Whole Paycheck. That part's bad enough. Add in the eating out, and that probably doubles our food budget right there. We both easily spend 80 hours a week at work or school, so we end up eating out like 4-5 times a week. But, because we're picky about food quality, when we do eat out it's rarely fast food (Chipotle is the minimum standard, I'll put it that way). It would be much cheaper if we cooked at home more, but it is really hard to find the time.

I'd hazard a guess that we're easily over $400 per person per month, excluding the sushi budget.

I dunno. I'm generally of the mind that spending money on good quality food is always worth it. But, it's easy to have that attitude now because I have a relatively nice amount of disposable income every month. If I get accepted to med school in a few years, I'll have to be on a serious food budget for the next decade. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

[surgtech1956]

For two of us, we spend about $300 a month - the only meat we buy is maybe lunch meat about twice a month. We cut down eating out from once a week to once or twice a month. I don't even want to figure our cat and dog food bill.

[Crankin]

I didn't include the wine or beer in my estimate. We usually go a couple of times a year and buy a lot.
We got out a lot, too.

[short cut sally]

I tried to come up with an exact but can only esimate how much it might cost for buying groceries for 2 in our household. I average 75-100.00 each week..I don't buy prepared items-frozen dinners. I do a lot of baking for home and for work..I attempt to cook big meals for supper. The only time we eat out is if we go away for the day to the mall or get parts for his business, lately that seems like a weekly event but usually it might be once a month. I am sure I could cut back if need be though. I do tend to overspend at times at the stores. We buy no pops, i might buy junk food for dh such as chips or ice cream if he deserves it

[Brandi]

This is all very interesting. Hmmmmm? nice to know I am normal.

[shootingstar]

For 2 cycling adults: just around $280.00CAN per month.

Plus eating out for dinner once a wk. about $30.00 for 2. We tend to choose cheap places and snacks throughout the week --add another $25.00CAN.

For home, we don't buy junk food. We do shop in Chinatown several times per month, where you can get ordinary plus Asian ingredients for competitive prices. We don't shop at Costco's even though there is one right beside Chinatown..not cost-effective for us to make annual membership worthwhile nor has the range of stuff we want. We do focus heavily on fresh veggies and fruits instead of canned substitutes...neither of us are keen on canned veggies/fruits.

Budget even includes a box of phyllo dough...it's only under $3.00CAN to make several large strudels --savoury or sweet. Budget does include occasional whole fresh salmon, which I cut up and freeze... a nice meal of mussels, even a cup of smoked salmon. We only eat certain meats, 1-2 times per week.

Both of us were raised by immigrant mothers in poor families while growing up and so we each witnessed how to stretch food...German style and Chinese style.

For inexplicable reasons, right now he's really into pumping out gourmet dishes that he creates out of his own imagination...an elegant, healthy dish doesn't require a ton of money.

Plus 2 bottles of wine every 4 months..no more than $40.00CAN or less.

[KnottedYet]

For SKnot and I, about $60 a week. So about $240/month for the two of us.

We don't eat out much at all, maybe once every 2 or 3 months. I buy huge amounts of fruit and veges at Costco, which really saves us a bundle. (and keeps SKnot eating good stuff, cuz it's always around)

Costco is mighty nice when there's a teenager to feed!

[kelownagirl]

I think we probably spend $400-500 a month for the 3 of us. (2 adults 1 10 yo boy). Not including beer or wine. We go out for dinner about 3 times a month.

[rocknrollgirl]

We spend about 500-600 a month for the two of us, not including the wine budget. We do not go out to dinner. That includes the regular shop at the grocery store, and Trader Joe's.

I will admit, this is the one part of the budget that I do not skimp on. Because we do not go out to eat and we like to cook, I do not look at prices when I shop.

[Brandi]

You know I didn't think this post would go this far. I am glad everyone is putting their two cents in.
It's funny to look at what the average family should be spending according to the govermant. If I spent $30.00 amonth on personal care i would look much better then I do. I understand the personel is a broad range of stuff. I will count it for getting my hair done every 3 months then. Oh I have spare change from that then cool!