Comments on: You Tell Me: The Grocery Budget

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:13:09 +0000

Help southern seven! Ok I have a family of 7, my wife home schools or has home schooled all of them (just 3 left in school now) Anyways we have been married for 21 year also this Dec. 17th and we have alway eaten out a lot. We now are at the point of spending about $4,000 a month between eating out and groceries! It is killing us! Can you give me a list of what you guys eat? I know it’s mostly that we need to quit eating out so much but even when we go to the grocery store we spend $400 for a weeks worth of grocery’s and still eat dinner out 4 days a week. My wife says its impossible to spend $500 a month on groceries and I know that it is more expensive where we live (Disneyword) but there has got to be a better way! Thanks, Eric exceleric1@yahoo.com

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:33:02 +0000

I spend $1000 per month on groceries for a family of 6. I buy alot of generic stuff but healthy food. We eat breakfast, lunch & dinner at home always.

By: kena

kena — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:57:10 +0000

i spend 1000.00 a month on food only for a family of 5. we all eat breakfast lunch and dinner at home and rarely eat out or order in. i cook almost everything from scratch. i do a lot of shopping at aldi, and my moms garden in the summer

By: BJK

BJK — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:35:25 +0000

Sam,

I can (if I think really hard) remember back to collage… ok It was not that long ago but some of the things I did was getting together with a few friends and trading nights for dinner. Making a meal for three or four cost the same as one and sometimes canbe cheaper. If you only make one meal and then have left overs for the next night it is not bad. We would have dinner together three nights a week and have leftovers alone. But you are only cooking two meals a week. One for the group and one for yourself.

Another thing I would do was cook a meal and put 1/2 in the freezer and the other 1/2 in the freg for left overs. That way I have three to four meals. Two for this week and two for next week.

Good luck.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:09:41 +0000

I’m a single college student spending about $350 per month on food and non-alcoholic drinks…and I don’t eat breakfast or drink milk.

To break it down, $225 goes to groceries of which about $10 relates to non-food items such as TP and paper plates. $100 goes to eating out whether it’s fast food (very rare) or a nice restaurant dinner for myself and someone special, and $25 goes to soda from vending machines. Of the grocery amount I probably spend $50/month on beef & chicken which are the only meats I eat.

I’m going to be continuing my education and I’d really like to get those numbers down. My current goal is to get my spending under $250 monthly, if I do this I could set another goal. Trouble is I don’t know where to start. I read stories about families with kids spending less than what I do, so there must be some way to spend far less money; from reading the other posts it seems 95% of you are miles ahead of me. I’ve been reading alot about cutting food costs, but it seems most ideas i’ve read are 1)not suited to a college student with no storage space, one mouth to feed, and little free time, or 2)very complex and geared toward people who have mastered cost-saving techniques which I have not. Can anyone help me?

By: Jerry Fox

Jerry Fox — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:47:39 +0000

Budget for 3 on groceries

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:13:00 +0000

Lora, I’m no where near as frugal as I ought to be in this area, but everything I learned, I learned from The Tightwad Gazette books — they are just awesome! Doing some “long-distance short-knowledge diagnosing,” I’d suggest you look at what you purchase from Sam’s — a lot of foods they offer are highly processed, and you can make it cheaper from scratch, or you can choose different foods entirely (it’s no fun trying to make homemade breakfast cereal, but you can microwave quick-cooking oatmeal almost as fast as you can pour a bowl of cereal, and for a *lot* cheaper). Also, since you “save so much money” buying in bulk, you’re probably eating/using more than you think, and probably buying a bunch of junk you didn’t mean to. Get a price list of food items you normally buy there and see how good a deal they really are. I don’t shop at Sam’s any more (too far away, and not enough deals for me to justify the annual fee), but my memory is that they stock one or two different kinds of items (like just Ragu and Classico spaghetti sauce), and while their price may be better on those brands than your local supermarket, I’d bet that grocery store generic foods will beat the Sam’s price on brand name. You may also be able to find and use coupons in stores, but usually not at Sam’s.

The people with the lowest grocery bills probably have the highest “nutrition per dollar” ratio — little or no junk foods and empty calories like soft drinks, potato chips, bought desserts, etc. I’m guilty of this myself, but a bag of potato chips costs $2-3 most times, and you get, what, 8-10 oz? I can frequently get a 20-lb bag of potatoes for $4, which is much better value for the money. My family can eat a bag of potato chips in one sitting, but can barely use a bag of potatoes before they go bad.

Just the tip of the iceberg — check out the book I mentioned for tons more tips!

By: Lora Wright

Lora Wright — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:34:57 +0000

I need help desperately! I live in Florida. There are four in my family, an 18 year old daughter and a 7 year old son. On an average, we spend $1000.00 a month on groceries! I try to shop once a month at Sam’s Club, but after seeing what all of you spend . . . there’s something seriously wrong with my shopping habits! If anyone can help!

By: Chiara

Chiara — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:33:18 +0000

Awesome! I love thegrocerygame and I just came across your site from Blisfully Domestic. Great site :)

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:03:54 +0000

Over the past two years, I averaged $16 per month food only (actual numbers). That’s a single adult vegetarian (not a health freak, just habit) with a small garden who cans, bakes, and makes everything from scratch.

Also looks like I will be buying my next house cash at the age of 25 :-) Great blog!