How much to budget for food

[Only me]

My dd will be living in an off campus apartment. She will still have a small meal plan of 50 meals that we can buy again if she runs out. I imagine she will be eating on average 2 out of 3 meals in her apartment but it's hard the say since this is her first year in the apartment. She doesn't cook a lot but will have to do this more to save money. I'm sure at least a first she will be cooking mostly convenience foods but I'm hoping she will start to eat somewhat healthier. She will not have a source of income so we will be putting money in her checking account to pay for food. We are hoping to somewhat stock her apartment when she moves in with toiletries etc so I'm hoping that most of the grocery budget will be food. I have no idea how much to give her. Unfortunately she isn't the best at budgeting (something I hope she becomes better at this year) so I'm struggling with an amount that would be appropriate. She is sharing the apartment with one other girl so I'm sure they will split some of the expenses but I really have no idea how much would be a good amount.

[Jenny in Florida]

Well, I'd start by looking at your family's budget and dividing that by the number of people you are feeding to figure out how much you are spending per person. Then, you'll probably need to bump that up a little bit since a single person doesn't have any economy of scale savings. For example, the USDA food plans suggest adjusting upward by 20% for a single person versus one person in a four-person family.

 

By the way, according to those USDA food plans [ http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2014/CostofFoodJun2014.pdf ], a single adult female can be expected to spend between $38 and $75 per week on food. 

[J-rap]

If this is just grocery store shopping money (not eating out for pizza or coffee), maybe you can start small to encourage more careful shopping and budget planning.  But as far as what that would be -- I don't know!  Maybe between $200-$250/month?  Thinking of my own girls, I'm pretty sure they could live on $50/week if they were taking some of their meals on campus.  It would require some planning but I think that would be very doable.

[Luckymama]

We haven't yet settled on the amount we will give ds for groceries, but it will probably be in the $300-$350 range. He eats a lot! He really enjoys food and cooking and eating well. Plus he knows how to shop for deals and to buy in-season produce :D

 

However, he will not have any sort of a meal plan. His pizza/coffee/sandwich spending will come from his own pay checks.

[In The Great White North]

Is there a normal grocery store nearby?  Here, there is only a health food store within walking distance of the college.  Yes, they have everything but if I had to do all my shopping there our grocery bill would go up by 50-75%.

[Lolly]

That first month will cost more. If she is cooking, the staples will add up. Don't try to take the family food budget and divide it out to come up with a per person amount. It costs way more (per person) to cook for one than for 4 or 5. My dd eats almost all meals cooked from scratch (severe allergies) at her apartment. She spends about $80 a week minimum. She cannot just eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, she requires heavy protein at all meals.

[Lori D.]

I recommend making the biggest meal of the day (dinner, or sometimes lunch) what is eaten on the meal-plan to maximize use of the plan and to really fill up -- and then make the other 2 meals per day what is provided from grocery shopping. Also, having the largest meal of the day via the meal plan will help DD maximize her time by NOT having to spend a lot of time preparing foods. 

 

A 50-meal plan would be dinner 5x/week for 10 weeks (about 2/3rd of a semester). A second 50-meal plan would just about work out to dinner 7x/week for the semester. Then DD would only need to provide herself with breakfast and lunch items, which are cheaper foods to buy and often last all week.

 

For example, for breakfast:

- a box of cereal or oatmeal

- bagels and cream cheese

- eggs or cottage cheese and fruit

- yogurt with granola

 

And then for lunch (or, for dinner if the big meal-plan meal was lunch on campus):

- sandwiches: peanut butter, tuna, lunch meat/cheese/bread

- salad with beans or protein, or vegetables/hummus, or salami/cheese/crackers

- can of soup

- baked potato with steamed broccoli and cheddar -- or taco meat and toppings for a "spud-taco"

- ramen with added canned cooked meat/chicken, or drizzled in beaten egg and grated veggies

- omlette with veggies

- homemade burritos or wraps

 

All of those are less expensive types of meals and quick to prepare. She will also need to buy healthy snack items to extend the meals: nuts, dried fruit, protein bars -- those things tend to be more expensive, but are worth it nutritionally. I'd suggest making a mega-list of what DD would want to have/prepare at her apartment, and together go price it out and figure out how many meals those items will provide for DD.

 

That would give you the opportunity to also discuss coupons, sales, preparing ahead and freezing, preparing and taking a sack lunch, etc. And also to compare prices -- bag of chips which provides no nutrition, vs. can of nuts which does.

 

Also, if DD is not likely to make things for herself, then it is REALLY worthwhile to steer her towards going ahead and buying the party tray of veggies already cut up, so she can grab a handful to go with lunch, or stick in a baggie to take as a snack. Or to buy prepared foods, but to look at the labels and buy ones without all the crappy long-word ingredients. Is there a Trader Joe's anywhere nearby? They have quality frozen and refrigerated heat-and-eat meals that are really reasonably priced.

[Only me]

Some good ideas thanks. She doesn't have a car so will need a ride to get groceries. She will probably do this with her roommate or friends and give gas money. It is pretty close by but definitely not walking distance. She can walk to a CVS and the campus store for milk and toiletries. We will have to see how the semester goes. I really want her to get used to the habit of preparing her food rather than eating out all the time. I'm sure she will have breakfast in her apartment and then either lunch or dinner depending on her schedule.

 

This will be a good experience for her as in some areas she is quite mature (gets good grades, leadership roles in her sorority etc) yet tends to go through money quickly buying Starbucks etc. and isn't good at budgeting or being sure to eat healthy all the time.

[Annie G]

Dd started out spending quite a bit on food but by the end of the year she had really learned how to budget and cook well.   When she did eat on campus she ate lunch because she didn't want to come back to campus for dinner even though it was the most expensive meal. 

 

We encouraged her to cluster meals. So one week she had bagels for breakfast and the next week she had yogurt. It worked out better to do that than have several things available because things go bad and wasting food was just not in her budget. 

 

She did the same with dinners. She bought a package of boneless chicken breasts and dinner that week was different chicken dishes. 

 

She learned to choose lunches that were foods she wouldn't make herself. A big salad, a stir fry with a ton of different veggies, etc.  

 

Does your dd like leftovers? That helps a lot, and helped dd because their house would have a leftover swap. There were 13 girls in her house and they would occasionally have a group dinner and put out everyone's leftovers and share.  

 

Dd ate lunch on campus 5 days a week and ate all the rest of her meals at her house. She spent about $30 a week on groceries, and ate pretty well. 

 

I'm guessing your dd will spend more in the beginning as she learns to navigate this new responsibility. But she'll figure it out, and learning to budget and cook is a HUGE skill that a lot of folks never seem to master. 

[Annie G]

PS. Dd doesn't drive and instead of offering gas money, she feeds dinner to the girl who takes her to buy groceries. It's a huge win- dd gets a ride and the friend gets a home cooked meal.  And dd gets company for dinner!   This year her house will have girls on her floor and guys on the floor below- she's looking forward to cooking in exchange for rides. 

[Gwen in VA]

My two sons both say that they cook "healthy" (i.e. a day's meals include plenty of protein, fresh fruits and vegetables) for $30 per week. Obviously they don't buy many prepared items -- one son even cooked his own bread in order to save money!

 

Offhand, I would say $50 per week would be a much more realistic number.

 

1) Do you want the food budget to include pizzas with friends, or would those splurges be on her dime?

2) Do you want the food budget to include ALL her food, no matter how much organic or pre-packaged food she buys?

3) Do you want the food budget to be a motivator towards her cooking more?

4) Does she have her own funds to dip into if she feels like splurging?

 

My kids entered college with a healthy bank balance and then worked during college. When my kids lived off-campus I provided an extremely minimal food budget to encourage cooking from scratch, but if my kids did not have their own funds to dip into, I would have provided a much more generous budget.

[ficbot]

Maybe sit down with her and plan some meals before you start to plan the money?

 

When I was that age, breakfast at home was super-easy, I would just toast something and put peanut butter on it, then have juice or milk to go. Usually once a week I ate out on the campus food court, the rest I packed and brought. I was not always good about including a fruit or vegetable :)

 

Once you know what she plans to be buying every week, it will be easier to price out how much money she needs. Add $10-20 a week to that if you want to subsidize her eating out with friends (she may not be able to afford much else by the way of entertainment; coffee out with friends may be a small price to pay for her mental health and social life!) and you're good to go.

[AngelaNYC]

My dd will be coming up with all her own meals (no college plan).  The main supermarket for her is a Trader Joe's right down the block from her housing.  I got her a TD Go prepaid debit Visa card (which can also be used to take cash out of an ATM) that I can reload anytime.  I plan on loading it with $100 every week.  This is for food plus whatever else.  I know she will cook sometimes in the dorm kitchen (but probably not very often).  She'll be living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, so the options for grabbing something while she's out are endless.   Her room has a mini-fridge and we're getting her a small microwave so at least she'll be able to eat the leftovers, lol.