Food budget - $35/week per adult; is this reasonable?...

[MIch elle]

...for ALL meals, drinks, and extras (napkins, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc.)?

 

What is a reasonable food budget per person (adult portions)/week?

[mytwomonkeys]

i'm not sure, i guess it depends on your diet. i budge $200 per pay period, so i only shop 2x month with a budget of $400 monthly (including all of our grocery needs, such as cleaning, laundry, etc). we eat mostly vegan & aim for a *somewhat* healthy lifestyle and i find our budget very tight - but doable. what do you eat?

 

ETA - we are a family of 4

[stripe]

Do you really use that much shampoo? Can you cut back on paper products? And drink more water and eliminate sodas and juice drinks? There are lots of cheap, nutritious foods (beans being the most famous!). I am not sure I can suggest a budget as it depends what sorts of stores are available, and the prices in your area.

[Parrothead]

Honestly it is going to depend on where you live and what kind of food you want to eat.

 

There is no way I can feed us on so little since we eat a lot of fresh (organic when possible) produce, grass-fed meats and wild caught fish.

[KS_]

I do think it depends on prices where you're at, but our budget for all that stuff is $470 per month for 4 people. It sometimes includes misc other things that I'd buy at the store. It also allows me to keep the pantry quite stocked with extras. Occasionally, I go over budget, but not out of necessity, just because I see stuff on sale we use and I'm stocking up or something like that. I know I could make do with less than that if I had to.

 

We have recently started buying grass fed beef, and purchased 1/2 a beef, so that didn't come out of my grocery budget.

Edited April 4, 2011 by KH_

[Mejane]

What Chucki said. I am not always picky, and I can feed and clean ;) the four of us on around $100/week.

[QueenCat]

Honestly it is going to depend on where you live and what kind of food you want to eat.

 

There is no way I can feed us on so little since we eat a lot of fresh (organic when possible) produce, grass-fed meats and wild caught fish.

 

:iagree:I couldn't do it on $140 week (all are technically adults in this house). Especially if that amount includes meals out. Not with the choices we make for eating, etc.

[AK_Mom4]

Well, you CAN live on $5 a day here, but you would probably end up losing a lot of weight (and forget about the paper products). Grocery prices are expensive here (think $4-$5 for a gallon of milk).

 

Since the price of groceries varies so much depending on where you live, it's hard to guess whether $5 per day would be reasonable. It wouldn't be a reasonable amount here, even if I already had lots of stuff in the pantry. We would probably use $50 here for a reasonable diet that actually included fresh vegetables and paper products.

[MyFourSons]

How much do you spend now? How often do you eat out? Figure out what you are currently spending and on what, and figure out what you can cut out.

 

It depends on where you live and what you want to eat. If you want some basis for comparisons, we live in a medium sized city where the cost of living is relatively low. We spend about $500 a month for these items for 2 adults and 5 children, one of which is an infant.

[KristinaBreece]

I would say we live in a medium cost of living area, and our food budget for 4-6 is about $575 per month. (Our nuclear family is 2 adults, and 2 littles. Sometimes my brothers are staying with us, and sometimes they aren't, and we feed the little boy I babysit 5-6 meals a week.)

[Susan C.]

If you have a teenage/young adult son, then absolutely not. He can eat that much in one day!

 

No, I don't think we could do it either unless we ate dried beans and rice a lot (and we don't like it!). I'd say it is $10 - $20 per simple dinner to feed 4 of us, more if there are cool ingredients in it. That doesn't count snacks and the two other meals. Napkins, you could buy cheap cloth ones and wash them, drink water (we sprung for a filter), and get large economy shampoo (luckily we all have agreed on one, so a large one in each shower).

[KidsHappen]

Ok, my mothly budget for all food for the last six months is: $950 (holidays) $450. $750, $350, $850, $150. This is for two adult and two children and includes all food, drinks, school lunches and snacks at places like the movies. Obviously I buy a lot one month and then need a little less the next month, but this averages about $400 per month. By the way, this has been cut in half since the teens moved out.

[MamaT]

I couldn't do it for that, but all six people in my house eat like adults (my 17yo eats like TWO adults). I also have extra people all the time, mostly teenage boys. I spend anywhere from $300 to $350 a week.

[happypamama]

If you don't eat out, don't buy expensive drinks, cook from scratch as much as possible, and try to eliminate disposable products like napkins and paper towels, yes, $35 a week for an adult seems fairly doable (assuming you're also not in a high-cost area). It's probably not going to buy all organics, or expensive cuts of meat, or even meat every night, but it should provide reasonably filling and nutritious meals. Although with teenage boys, maybe not (I don't have any of those yet).

[Danestress]

Not the way we live.

 

Even if I am being pretty thrifty, cooking a lot of beans and rice (which we actually like) and trying to be smart about shopping, I would find it hard to feed my teen boys and husband on that if you include all the extras.

 

But that's partly because we do want to eat vegetable and fruits that are fresh. My boys drink milk and orange juice, which are pretty expensive. Cheese is very expensive too.

 

I think it could be done, but it would require SO much commitment of time and energy. I would rather have a slightly more liberal food allowance and cut back somewhere else. I probably could feed myself, my Mom, my sisters on that - and we are women with high metabolisms and can eat a fair amount of food. But my young adult/teen sons and husband? Not likely.

[MIch elle]

That may be a good thing. Here's the link that got me thinking: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/05/09/the-thrifty-food-plan-challenge-eating-well-for-less/

 

I DO NOT think $35/week per person is reasonable for us. I have 2 teenage boys (hollow legs :tongue_smilie:). I'm just trying to figure out what IS reasonable. I'm tracking our food purchases for the FIRST time in my life (never had a need before). I will be finding out what is reasonable for our family in these coming months. I'm couponing, shopping at Aldi's and tracking specials at Couponmom.com.

 

Thanks for your help. :D

[Crissy]

Food budget - $35/week per adult; is this reasonable?...

for ALL meals, drinks, and extras (napkins, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc.)?

 

 

Not in this house. $35 a week wouldn't cover food alone for the boy/men in this house. They would be starving. I am not willing to feed my guys empty calories in order to save money.

[Luckymama]

We average $400/month for the five of us, two being teens who eat, well, a lot. That's $20 per person per week.

 

Dd16 has multiple food allergies which means I make almost everything from scratch. The exceptions are dry pasta, taco shells, flour tortillas (I make corn tortillas), and sandwich bread (whole grain non-HFCS from the Pepperidge Farms outlet). At times I will purchase whole wheat burger rolls at the outlet but I prefer to make my own.

 

I only buy items on sale but I buy a LOT of them. I use coupons and purchase discounted Sunday newspapers the next day on a really good coupon day. I have ordered specific coupons from several clipping services in the past.

 

I will purchase 20 lbs of boneless chicken breast for $1.49/lb or ground turkey for $.99/lb or whole pork loin for $1.29 (typical sale prices). I will buy 20 8oz packages of extra sharp cheddar cheese when on sale for $.99 each. I buy the 12oz steam-in-bag veggies for $.88 or less or I purchase large bags of organic frozen veggies at Costco for $.99/lb (ish). We each only have one 8oz glass of juice per day. No one drinks much milk anymore (3 are lactose intolerant). I only buy dry cereal when I can get it for 10 cents or less per ounce----a few weeks ago I bought 20 boxes of Total Raisin Bran (ds's fav) and 20 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios (a treat). We only have chips and soda for parties. And so on.

 

I garden in the summer. I grow berries. We go to orchards to pick other fruits. I shop at the local natural foods store farmers' market on Sunday afternoons for the things I don't grow or pick. I freeze, can, and dehydrate.

 

For non-foods items, I have a gazillion Rite Aids and Walgreens that I drive by almost every day. I follow coupon websites and blogs during the weeks I don't have enough time to do my own match-ups. Our non-foods spending averages $25/month-----personal hygiene products, feminine products, otc meds, makeup, tp, paper towels, foil, etc.

 

It's a lot of work but it's a priority for our family.

[Ottakee]

I would say it depends on where you live. We are in the midwest and I spend $80-100/week for groceries and that includes paper products, pet food (dog and 3 cats) and the cost of our 1/2 cow (about $10/week when you figure out the cost by how many weeks it lasts).

 

We dont' eat fancy but I think we eat just fine and have good and tasty food. We do though only go through 1 gallon of milk a week and we have our own chickens for eggs.

 

I have 3 adults and 2 teens here. We do though eat what is on sale, buy basics at Aldi's, etc.

[Jen in PA]

We can eat very well (tons of fresh produce, nice cheese, wild caught fish, dark chocolate, whole grains, etc.) for $75 per week for a family of four. Paper products and toiletries would add no more than $5 to that. But this is only because I am starting with a house full of food and supplies, and I only need to add in some fresh produce, dairy, and eggs, then can focus on buying sale items. Plus I make everything from scratch, use cloth napkins, coupon a bit, and bargain shop a lot. I also live in a region with really low food prices. I can't have wheat or soy, but the rest of the family eat pretty much everything. I think that if I stopped making so much from scratch our shopping costs would rise dramatically.

[Jennifer in MI]

I think it's possible. I feed our family of 6 (two teenaged boys, 1 10 yo boy who can really put it away!!! and a tiny dd who doesn't eat much, and two adults who work out like crazy!) on less than $200/week. We eat mostly organic food with LOTS of fresh/frozen veggies and fruit. We eat quite a few vegetarian meals each week (5 or so). I use coupons for ALL our toiletries (meaning they are free). We use cloth napkins.

 

Here's a typical menu:

 

Breakfast:

Eggs (bought locally from a farmer)

Oatmeal (bought from my food coop in 50# bags)

Toast (homemade)

Jelly

Butter

Cream cheese

Hot sauce

Milk (delivered by a local guy who owns cows!)

Honey, brown sugar

 

Snack:

Cottage cheese or yogurt (homemade from the local milk)

fruit

sunflower seeds(from our food coop)

 

Lunch:

Leftovers - always

With fresh fruit - mangoes, pineapples, apples, etc

And fresh veggies - usually peppers

 

Snack:

Nuts (from food coop)

Cheese

apples with peanut butter

Carrots

popcorn with parmesan cheese

 

Dinner:

Mostly vegetarian, some meat from local Amish farmers

LOTS of veggies

Salad every night

 

Snack (yup - the boys snack after dinner too):

Fruit

Cream cheese dip

Bread

Peanut butter

Nuts

Popcorn

Etc.

[mytwomonkeys]

one of the best ways to save money with groceries (at least for me) is to meal plan. since i only shop 2x month, i make weekly menus. for example, dinners will have 14 choices & as we eat them, i simply cross them off (as opposed to saying we must eat something specific on a certain night). for breakfast & lunch, our choices are usually the same thing, including leftovers (ex: breakfast choices consist of muffins, pancakes, toast, cereal, oatmeal or eggs for the kids. my husband & i always have a green smoothie). i also always pack my husband's lunch - which is much healthier for him anyway. meal planning is the number one thing that helps our food budget.

[mytwomonkeys]

jennifer, we do something similar. i have a master list of typical meals, snacks, grocery items, etc. & i create my grocery list from that. it really simplifies the process.

[abbeyej]

Reasonable? Today? In the US? No. Not even remotely.

 

Could I do it if my family's lives depended on it? Sure. We'd eat oatmeal for breakfast, brown rice and dry beans for lunch and dinner, popcorn for snacks, and I'd scrounge for the cheapest produce I could get to round everything out as much as possible. But it would be hard, and it wouldn't be particularly healthy (though better than what a lot of Americans eat -- it's just that that's not saying much).

[Snickerdoodle]

 

Reasonable? Today? In the US? No. Not even remotely.

My thoughts exactly and I do meal plan and I do cook from scratch.

[Jennifer in MI]

jennifer, we do something similar. i have a master list of typical meals, snacks, grocery items, etc. & i create my grocery list from that. it really simplifies the process.

 

Same here. I'm just confused by those who say it's not possible. I live in the Detroit area - so a high COL area. I shop the sales. I coupon for everything - shampoo, toothpaste, paper towels (we use VERY few), dishwasher detergent, etc. I went to Trader Joe's today and bought food for the week for $120. Add to that our food coop and weekly milk and egg deliveries and we're at $155. Our meals for the week are awesome!! Spaghetti with meat sauce, chicken with salsa/mango toppings, veggie tacos, calzones, Italian wedding soup, Tuna/rice, Bool Kogi. Each meal includes 2 pounds of a veggie with a HUGE salad. And, we have leftovers for lunch the next day.

 

I shop with a strict list. Maybe that's key?

[Mommyof4ks]

I think that is reasonable if you shop with coupons and sales for your personal care and paper goods and use what coupons you can on food. We eat mostly organic, and we can easily feed our family on $150 a week, because we don't spend money on personal care or paper products. Look around for local farmers markets too, and see if you can buy 1/4 or 1/2 a cow locally too. Those things have gotten our grocery bill way down!

[Ginny May]

At first glance. $35.00 a person a week sounds small but then you do the math. That is a lot of money. $35.00 x 4 = $140.00 x 4 weeks = is $560.00.

We only eat healthy foods (no boxes/ bags) and lots of fresh produce. Our food, hygiene, cleaners, paper goods, and one small dog is $350.00 a month. So yes very possible. I will tell you when we do not make a meal plan. We are over big time or make lots of little stops at the store. Plus you have to have a small savings set to the side for the big sales. For example our store had a hot April Fools day sale. chicken (on the bone) for 35 cents a lb. I know you had to buy at least 10 lbs. But I bought 30 lbs and put in my freezer. We eat chicken once a week so that will not take very long to eat. Hope this helps. I should add we do not eat out very often so this is in the $350.00 budget but we are thinking of maybe changing it so we can go out more.

[texasmama]

I could make that work, but I am a couponer living in an area with a lot of good, cheap options for food and other items. Currently, our monthly budget for food, paper products, toiletries, and misc like batteries is $550 for 6 people. We eat organic when we can and are also gluten free. There is a salvage store near us which carries a lot of inexpensive food (some organic) at rock bottom prices.

[classics4us]

I don't think it's probable. Jenny from www.southernsavers.com is the coupon queen and she lives on $50.00 per week. $35.00 doesn't seem possible.

Hmm, I am editing to say that I read your post wrong. I thought you meant $35.00 per week for the entire family. $35.00 per adult is abolutely doable.

 

I change my vote to "Yes" you can live off of $35.00 per adult per week quite easily if you coupon. You can even buy soy milk (which I usually get for $1.00 per half gallon!) and organic. :)

Edited April 5, 2011 by classics4us

[Murphy101]

We spend about $300-$350 on groceries ONLY for a family of 11.

Non groceries is an additional $75 -100 a week, tho we only buy once a month.

 

Buying cheap isn't enough.

It has to be food that will be eaten, or it's just wasted.

It has to have enough calories AND nutrition to avoid spending whatever you save on sickness.

 

I know people will say I'm nuts, but I swear if we eat too cheaply for more than a few weeks, it never seems to fail that we start to get sick. As it is a couple kids have horrid allergies, so the last thing we want is MORE tissue issues.

[Abigail4476]

Well, we have a family of 6, two of whom are teenagers who can eat their weight in pot roast, so it would be difficult to feed them on $35/week. We spend $300/week for groceries/misc., although occasionally I'll have a week where I only have to pick up a few things and I may only spend $100. It averages out to about $1000/month no matter what. And we eat dinner out on Sundays after church. We try to eat healthy, too, and that does up the cost.

 

There are also 3 dogs, 2 cats, a lizard and a fish, so dog/cat/fish food, crickets and cat litter are an added expense. :glare:

 

Someday. I want to live in town. In a little 2-bedroom bungalow. With just enough grass to cut with scissors, no pets, and all shopping and eating within walking distance. :tongue_smilie:

[Tutor]

Yes, but it depends on where you live, where you get your food (grocery, box store, farm stand, garden, etc), your diet, and your budget. We spend about $300 for our family of 6, but it is very tight and not our ideal; we garden and barter for a lot of our food and although our diet is healthy (with as much local organic as we can afford and very little meat) it is not very varied. We are content for now but look forward when we don't have to count pennies at the store.

[Joker]

We couldn't do it here. I spend about $200/week for a family of four. My dh and dds are stick thin and eat all.the.time. The more active they are the more they eat so four days a week (YMCA & tennis) they eat non-stop. Tonight I made brown rice, baked chicken and veggies (we always have salad/raw veggies at dinner) and older dd had two helpings. An hour after dinner she asked for a homemade granola bar. An hour after that she asked for yogurt. She doesn't eat just to eat, she has no weight problem and most everything she eats is healthy. Dh eats double what she eats and there is just no way I could feed them all on less than what I do now.

[Tutor]

Our income is very low right now, and we would qualify for food stamps so out of curiosity I looked up what our family was eligible for. $900/ month. We could eat really well on that! I'm not even sure if I could spend it all. :)

[AngieW in Texas]

$35 is my per person per week average for groceries. My dh eats out for lunch every day though, so we actually spend more, but the $35 figure does include all toiletries and paper products.

[Peela]

Our Aussie dollars is equivalent to yours now, and I have $250 for food each week for a family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers. We eat some organic (probably half our fruit and veg would be organic) but we eat mostly fresh food produce and I shop for fresh food at the Farmers Markets which are cheaper than the supermarket.

We don't use paper products (napkins).

I try to buy environmentally friendly/organic (but would rather buy fresh nonetheless so often just buy conventional from local farmers) and feel its more important to eat healthy than perhaps the average person, so I wont skimp on fresh, good food. But we are a mostly vegetarian household so although I ocasionalyl buy some meat or fish, its not a lot.

 

I dont buy much processed food at all- it is falsely economical in so many ways.

 

I think food and health is centrally important to quality of life so although I have a budget, it's sufficient for us to eat well.

[MrsBasil]

I can't say if it's reasonable across the board, but I spend between $50-75 a week for two adults and one child. (Or I was before morning sickness reared it's ugly head.)

 

I live in an area with 5 different grocery store chains, including a Wal-Mart so there's a lot of competition. We also have a Sprouts and I can get fresh produce quite cheaply. It goes bad quicker, but I've found ways around that.

 

It's reasonable for us right now anyway. :)

[MIch elle]

Our income is very low right now, and we would qualify for food stamps so out of curiosity I looked up what our family was eligible for. $900/ month. We could eat really well on that! I'm not even sure if I could spend it all. :)

 

 

It's good to know that people on food stamps can eat well.

[Osmosis Mom]

Well, get food stamps. We were barely eating (barely, but still eating) until we got $400 in food stamps for our family of pregnant me and 7 kids and dh (not US citizens yet all of us). It made the difference between night and day and made me feel humane again.

 

Geez, we are all in this together. We had food stamps for 4-6 months. You can go shopping at places with self-checkout very discreetly if need be!

[Danestress]

I am pretty sure my friend who relies on food stamps told me that it doesn't - that there is no assistance for toiletries. But that might vary by state.

[Luckymama]

I am pretty sure my friend who relies on food stamps told me that it doesn't - that there is no assistance for toiletries. But that might vary by state.

 

That's why I donate non-food items to the food bank. They appreciate soap, shampoo, razors, feminine hygiene products and the like. I'll "buy" these items (free after coupon and/or drugstore discount program) even if it's a brand or item we cannot use. Someone will :001_smile:

[prairiewindmomma]

I think that you could do it, but you would have a tradeoff in time.... For us, our food budget is about $400-450/mo. for 5 of us. 3 of us eat adult portions--my 9 yo eats about 4000 calories a day and is very skinny.

 

We eat a lot of eggs (a cheaper protein than meat) & spinach (a cheap veg if you buy it in the big bags at Costco--we do smoothies). Our budget doesn't really allow us to do any processed foods--no chips, cookies, or sodas. I'm throwing all of our dollars towards nutritious foods.

 

If you have time to make your own bread and granola bars and otherwise cook and you can sale shop (buying chicken when it's under $2/#, etc.) and you're ok using generic household/body products, I think it's reasonable. Otherwise I'd up your budget.