BlsdMama Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 (edited) First post of the morning - my request for better food budgeting... Followed by reading the post on budgeted categories... Followed by opening up Microsoft Money and peeking at my pie charts. :001_huh: Just over 27% of our income goes to Food. That's an improvement lately. :glare: Sigh. ETA: (Blush) Okay, I was off on this. It's 27% of our take-home. However, that doesn't include our medical insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, 401K plan, or health medical savings account. I knew that figure was outrageously high! (Blush) Anyone care to add theirs? (That is an average of 22-23% groceries and 2-4% dining out.) Edited July 31, 2012 by BlsdMama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 That's a very good question. I asked DH because he can usually rattle off things like that off the top of his head but even he was stumped. We used to budget everything and then we just stopped and I couldn't even tell you why. We shop at least a couple of times a week rather than one big trip like we used to do. All this budgeting talk is making me feel guilty that we stopped watching our money so carefully though. Thanks for the nudge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delirium Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 15% on a good month. Excluding any eating out, because that's reserved for traveling/special occasions so I don't budget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Ours is about 13-15%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 As I posted in the other thread ours is about 15-18% of take home pay currently. FWIW though I don't think getting it down as low as possible is our goal but how to eat the best we can reasonably as we can. I think food is a good investment in health and if you can afford it I think good food is a great thing to spend your money on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Interestingly, in the 1950s it was estimated that a family of three or more spent 1/3 of its after-tax income on food. This statistic is what was used to determine the poverty threshold. The amount it would cost to feed a family of a particular size was multiplied by three--with the basic assumption is that the average family spent 1/3 of its money on food, 1/3 on housing, and 1/3 on "other" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 (edited) According to Quicken, 7% of our spending is on groceries. But the report doesn't know our income............... Going to crunch some numbers. It's really closer to 10% of our gross. Does not count eating out, as that is not part of my grocery budget. Separate line item in the budget. Edited July 31, 2012 by CathieC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl h Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 As I posted in the other thread ours is about 15-18% of take home pay currently. FWIW though I don't think getting it down as low as possible is our goal but how to eat the best we can reasonably as we can. I think food is a good investment in health and if you can afford it I think good food is a great thing to spend your money on. I agree. I have been told it is reasonable to have a grocery bill of 15% or lower. Our's is higher, but I could make it lower if I made less healthy choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 (edited) This is groceries only, not any restaurant eating. But a quick calculation says we spend just under 12% of our take-home pay on food. My husband eats lunch in the cafeteria or does fast food with friends from work two or three times per week. Otherwise, we might eat out as a family once a month, and I might grab french fries and a soda for myself and the kids once or twice a month. So, the restaurant portion wouldn't add a tremendous amount to the total. It might push us to a little over 13%. Edited July 31, 2012 by Jenny in Florida Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I missed the other threads but... I think percentages for food are dumb. :leaving: I have 5 kids and one income. Some have 1 kid and 2 incomes. Being frugal can be a choice or necessity. People have to eat, period. My percentage seems to be around 17%. If dh doubles our income, I am not about to buy twice the food!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I missed the other threads but... I think percentages for food are dumb. :leaving: I have 5 kids and one income. Some have 1 kid and 2 incomes. Being frugal can be a choice or necessity. People have to eat, period. My percentage seems to be around 17%. If dh doubles our income, I am not about to buy twice the food!!! Very true, lots of variables if you make 200,000 vs 20,000 those percentages are going to be vastly different. There is also large variance in family size, col, and other things as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I just looked at my Mint.com pie chart and the percentage wasn't bad (15% of gross) but the actual dollar figure was shockingly high. I will be looking at a food budget ASAP. We are self-employed and the numbers are gross and include business and personal expenses so if I considered personal "take home" pay to compare apples to apples it would be more like 30%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlmiraGulch Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I missed the other threads but... I think percentages for food are dumb. :leaving: I have 5 kids and one income. Some have 1 kid and 2 incomes. Being frugal can be a choice or necessity. People have to eat, period. My percentage seems to be around 17%. If dh doubles our income, I am not about to buy twice the food!!! That's an excellent point! I don't know why I've never thought of it that way before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyMSews Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Ours is 23%, but we are a big family with a small-ish income. I could probably trim it down a bit, but we like to eat healthy, fresh food, and that costs more. :shrug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 We're closer to the OP's percentage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 We're at 8% for groceries, 10% with dining out. Of course, we are a small family of 4, but I actually feel much better about our budget after looking that up. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2abcd Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I missed the other threads but... I think percentages for food are dumb. :leaving: I have 5 kids and one income. Some have 1 kid and 2 incomes. Being frugal can be a choice or necessity. People have to eat, period. My percentage seems to be around 17%. If dh doubles our income, I am not about to buy twice the food!!! :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted July 31, 2012 Author Share Posted July 31, 2012 Hmmm. This is interesting to me because we have an above average income and I wonder what is "normal" for a large family? If the average here is spending 15%, then with nine kiddos am I doing great budgeting at 25% or horrible? :confused: Hmmm..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakersDozen Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Ours is 22.5% and we do not eat out unless we are stranded on I-40 waiting for a tow truck and there is no other option (that was a fun trip :glare:). No way, no how can we afford to go out to eat with our family size! Friends from church took our entire family out one Sunday afternoon and the total bill made me :blink:. I could have fed our family for 5 days!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama_Rana Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 (edited) Ours is between 12-15% of take-home pay. That is groceries and other consumables [paper products, cleaning products, etc.]. Our income is generous, and there are only the 4 of us. I subscribe to the belief that I'd rather pay the grocer/farmer now than the doctor later, so I do spend on CSA subscription year-round, get good meats at our local organic market, and buy few packaged foods and mostly gluten-free when I do. Edited July 31, 2012 by Mama_Rana Ack, no, restaurant eating is a separate category!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Condessa Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Are you all calculating from gross income or take-home income? Ours comes to somewhere between 12% and 40% (ouch!), depending on whether I use gross or net income, and whether I include just the grocery/homegoods budget, or also add in eating out and my husband's food during work budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisbeth Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I coupon with the coupon notebook, stocking up, and the like (serious couponer), and DH has gotten a big boost in salary. Our percentage spent on food and groceries has fallen quite a bit per month over the last few years. I now spend 6% on groceries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 This map claims the average is about 7% in the US. http://civileats.com/2011/03/29/mapping-global-food-spending-infographic/ It's slightly dated, but not too bad. I find it really hard to believe. I don't know exactly how much I spend on food because I also buy non food items on my shopping trips and all of that kind of gets lumped together. Doing a very quick calculation I come to around 10%, but I doubt that is all that accurate. Yes, 7% seems unbelievably low to me, unless you're talking about a 1-person family. I read some of the comments below the article and a couple of them point out that the calculations seem to be misleading. Quote: by Jim Brandle On April 1, 2011 at 12:45 pm As many of the comments state, using averages is very misleading. Data from The Consumer Expenditure Survey (2004-2005), Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates the percent spent on food by income level in the US. Those making over $70,000 are the only ones really spending less than 10% of their income on food. For those between $50,000 and $69,999 it is about 14%; for those between $40,000 and $49,999, it is about 15%, for those between $30,000 and $39,999 it is about 18%; for those between $20,000 and $29,999 it is about 22%; for those between $15,000 and $19,999 it is about 30%; and for those between $10,000 and $14,999 is about 36%. See: http://yy9g.info/publications/eib29/eib29-4/eib29-4.pdf for a good explanation) Unfortunately about 47% of us fall below an average income of $25,000. This means that many of us are devoting 20% or more of our income on food. Other easily available data indicate that there are 47 million Americans who don’t get enough food, 16 million of these are children. This is the real story. Quote: by jpeckjr On April 1, 2011 at 6:37 pm Interesting information that, I imagine, points to real differences in the proportion of income spent on food. But I think it is flawed statistically. When you click on a country for more information, you get two figures. Total Household Expenditures and Per Person Food Expenditures. I cannot tell the size of the household. In the US, the Total is 32051 and the per person is 2208. That calculates to 6.9% ONLY if it is a one-person household. The proportion of income spent on food will increase as the size of the household increases if the household total stays the same. In the US, a 4 person household will spend 27.56% of income on food. Household size needs to be taken into account, for both figures. In the US, is the average total household expenditure for a one-person household really over 32000 dollars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d.g. Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Lately, we've been at around 14-15% of our take-home for groceries and ALL household goods. That doesn't include my two-to-three-times-a-year pantry-stocking trips, which I only budget in when DH has enough overtime or an "extra" check in a month. Even adding in and averaging out our stocking trips over the year, we are still under the USDA's Thrifty Plan for our family size and composition. The latest cost-of-food plan data is here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 we are still under the USDA's Thrifty Plan for our family size and composition. The latest cost-of-food plan data is here. I just checked and we are as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Lately, we've been at around 14-15% of our take-home for groceries and ALL household goods. That doesn't include my two-to-three-times-a-year pantry-stocking trips, which I only budget in when DH has enough overtime or an "extra" check in a month. Even adding in and averaging out our stocking trips over the year, we are still under the USDA's Thrifty Plan for our family size and composition. The latest cost-of-food plan data is here. We're below the thrifty plan too. Probably because we eat very little meat, for one thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flux Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 45% of net income. We can't seem to manage to eat for less than $250 a week, but we are dealing with multiple allergies etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 We're below the thrifty plan - but interestingly, I make most meals from scratch and we have a high income. I think nationwide, it's probably fairly unusual to be part of all three groups. I have friends who make meals from scratch and spend a lot for quality ingredients, but I have more friends who spend twice what we do because they eat out and eat convenience food all the time. There are so many factors that play into how much a family spends- cost of food where they live, time/desire to make meals from scratch, desire to implement specific diets, such as using more organics, gluten free, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Ours is 22.5% and we do not eat out unless we are stranded on I-40 waiting for a tow truck and there is no other option (that was a fun trip :glare:). No way, no how can we afford to go out to eat with our family size! Friends from church took our entire family out one Sunday afternoon and the total bill made me :blink:. I could have fed our family for 5 days!! Ha! I've been stranded on I40 with my family, too. :D I'm not sure how useful the information is, but I spend about 25-28% of take home pay on food each month. Just groceries, not household stuff...that's extra. We have a really low income, but I don't feel poor. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted July 31, 2012 Author Share Posted July 31, 2012 We fall above Thrifty but below Low when I add it all up... We're just under the Low Budget. But I also know it has a lot to do with where you live as well. Is anyone in the PNW at the "Thrifty" level? Oh, and actually eating meat and produce? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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