What percentage of your income do you spend on food?

[Ann.without.an.e]

I was looking at a budget website that suggested 9% of net income should go to food.  That seems ridiculously low to me.  The grocery thread has me thinking... since we all live in different COL areas and have different incomes, etc it isn't really quite fair to say I spend _____ on food.  If you actually budget and track what you spend and make, what percentage of your income goes to food (groceries + meals out + school lunch, etc)?  I know that some amounts are higher because of personal preferences and that's ok.  No worries.  

 

I think income amount can dramatically change how we shop.  Are we pinching pennies to spend only 30% of our income on food or are we splurging and only spending 10%.

 

When I take all things into account I would say we spend about 20-25% on food any given month.  We do have dietary restrictions and we eat pretty healthy though.  This includes DS nutrition based supplement for his health issues as well.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Attolia

[QueenCat]

It's hard for me to separate toiletries/paper products/Cleaning supplies but making a guess with what portion that is of what I call groceries and adding in dining out, we come right in at 10%. This is based on gross income.

Edited June 2, 2016 by QueenCat

[hornblower]

gross or net? & do you include eating out? 

[Ann.without.an.e]

gross or net? & do you include eating out? 

 

 

Since the recommendation of 9% was on gross, let's go with that and include all food. Eating out and eating in both are eating.

[Mom22ns]

Maybe 7-8%. Eating out is a separate budget item for me and varies a lot more widely. I spend about 5% of our income on groceries. We typically eat out once a week and it doesn't add up to much, but if we're traveling that number skyrockets.

[hornblower]

nm

Edited June 2, 2016 by hornblower

[LisaKinVA]

About 10% gross. If I'm really watching everything, I can get it to 7%. But that is everything from scratch (except pasta or rice). Big limits on milk and meat as well.

[Amira]

About 7% right now. The highest we've ever gone was 20% when we had a low income and a high COL. It was hard work to keep it that low. The lowest we've gone is about 6% when we had a small family in a low COL area and a decent job. These are all US numbers. Overseas numbers are different and not necessarily comparable, at least in some of the places we've been.

[Arcadia]

6% of gross including eating out. When we eat out a few times a week, it is about $15 per meal at cafe or fast food. Occasionally we spend close to $100 on eating out. We eat a mix of organic and inorganic. My kids aren't into meat or seafood and they are pre-teens so they still don't cost much to feed yet.

 

Grocery is relatively cheap here as there is plenty of local produce. It is the housing and gasoline that is crazy high.

[MrsWeasley]

10.5% of our gross income went to food. This includes the food that went to hosting parties. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

About 7% right now. The highest we've ever gone was 20% when we had a low income and a high COL. It was hard work to keep it that low. The lowest we've gone is about 6% when we had a small family in a low COL area and a decent job. These are all US numbers. Overseas numbers are different and not necessarily comparable, at least in some of the places we've been.

 

 

I love that I am not the only person who actually tracks all of these crazy numbers  :lol:

[pinkmint]

About 35%.

 

Our income is below average so I guess that's why the percentage is relatively high. It is what it is. That's life in the poor lane.

 

And I use an app called Spending Tracker pretty meticulously so I know this is correct.

[Ann.without.an.e]

About 35%.

 

Our income is below average so I guess that's why the percentage is relatively high. It is what it is. That's life in the poor lane.

 

And I use an app called Spending Tracker pretty meticulously so I know this is correct.

 

 

Thank you - seriously if everyone here claimed 10% or less I was going to feel ridiculous, haha  :lol:

[Ausmumof3]

I remember seeing a country by country comparison once and us was one of the lowest at 10pc.

[Ethel Mertz]

We spend between 20 and 25%  per month. We are in a high cost of living area and eat as organically/whole foods as possible. That figure includes pet food, paper goods, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and eating out. 

[Arcadia]

This chart might be more useful as it takes into account how many young kids and teens you have. For example I have two preteen boys and my food expense puts me at the thrifty plan. I'm not thrifty, my kids just don't care for beef or fish so cost is lower.

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/CostofFoodJul2014.pdf

 

I don't know if this is particularly helpful, because some of us have rather high incomes and some of us have rather low incomes. So if two families with different incomes are each spending $2000/mo on food... well, that could be 1% of income for a family making $200,000/yr, but it would be 10% for a family making $20,000/yr.

Your math is off by a factor of 12.

[pinkmint]

I don't know if this is particularly helpful, because some of us have rather high incomes and some of us have rather low incomes. So if two families with different incomes are each spending $2000/mo on food... well, that could be 1% of income for a family making $200,000/yr, but it would be 10% for a family making $20,000/yr. Not sure what's to be gained by knowing?

A family making $20k a year has a total of $1666 per month so if they spent $2000/ month on food they'd be spending over 100% of their income on food.

 

But I know what you mean. The actual dollar amount people spend on food is informative but this just tells us basically how rich or poor one is.

[gypsymama]

Low COL area. Low income. We spend approx. 30% of our income on food. I could lower this to about 20% but it would reduce the quality of our diet by quite a bit. Currently dairy free, some organic but not much. I do lots of things to stretch the budget but I do focus on healthier, home cooked meals. Groceries are our largest expense by far. In fact I spend more on groceries than we do all other expenses combined. Luckily our bills are quite low so I don't feel too bad about that but it is scary seeing that percentage! If dh were to his previous job then this amount would be closer to 10% of his income. We chose to have him home and be a low income family so I'll say it's worth the trade off. :)  

 

Also the household items are *sort of* included in the budget. That budget doesn't include things like tp or soap but it does sometimes include things like vinegar and baking soda which are used for cleaning and many other uses. Too low to really affect it though ... $5 or less/mo.

[eternalsummer]

I'd say we spend 15% on food but after taxes are taken out, it's more like 20%

 

And to be perfectly honest, I'm probably underestimating our food expenditures and overestimating income.  So maybe I'd say a quarter.

 

 

We spend a lot on food.

[*lifeoftheparty*]

....

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by *lifeoftheparty*

[creekland]

I don't have that or any other potentially variable item in our budget exactly since our income is not stable.  We eat out more and eat "better" more when our income is higher.  It also changes by the season though too.  When we are in summer/fall (aka garden season) we spend far less because there's so much tasty bounty right outside.

 

When our boys are home from college we spend far more - generally due to the eating out budget being higher.

 

With just hubby and I and we're not traveling or are traveling with my mom (since she pays more than half the expenses), then we're probably around 5%.

 

When the boys are/were home it's likely closer to 10%.  If we're really splurging, then it's probably closer to 15 or 20%, but that really only happens on trips without my mom - esp if we take friends along with my boys.

[Mergath]

A family making $20k a year has a total of $1666 per month so if they spent $2000/ month on food they'd be spending over 100% of their income on food.

 

But I know what you mean. The actual dollar amount people spend on food is informative but this just tells us basically how rich or poor one is.

 

:iagree: I've never really understood the point of threads like this one, because they basically just end up being a way for the wealthier boardies to show off a bit. And it's not an accurate overall assessment because I'm guessing most of the people who spend forty or fifty percent of their income on food don't feel like publicly broadcasting that tidbit, so you end up with a thread that makes it look like spending five percent of your income on food is the norm.

 

For the record, I don't think it's common to spend only nine percent of one's income on food. That seems very low for most average people in the US.

 

But carry on if you must, all.  :001_rolleyes:

[jeremmy]

About 13% net. Not including paper products. We very rarely go out to eat, so it wouldn't include that either. We eat pretty healthy. Whole foods, some organic, most meals from scratch. 1 egg allergy and we are peanut free (so no cheap pb&j sandwiches [emoji53]).

[importswim]

14% of our gross income goes to Food (eating out AND groceries - we have a budget so I know exacts).

 

ETA: 20% of net income. 

Edited June 2, 2016 by importswim

[StephanieZ]

I really think this is a silly way to look at spending on food.

 

In my experience, my spending on food varies minimally with income shifts. Now, we've never been truly poor, even though we lived on very little income for many years, because during those years, we were students and were living "beyond our means" knowing we'd earn more someday and be able to repay loans. Obviously, if we were truly poor and not able to comfortably borrow for living expenses, then, sure we could have and would have spent less. 

 

My spending on food has varied by maybe 50-100% adjusted for inflation and kids' ages (on a per capita basis) between the years when we had an income under the poverty line (grad school, living mostly on student loans) to the years when our income is in the top few percent. So, it was probably 40-50% of our taxable income in those lean years and is probably <5% of our income now, even though we spend lavishly on food now and were pretty frugal back in the lean years.

 

I mean, for a typical family of 4, to me, 1000/mo is pretty comfortable for food, but under $7-800 or so would mean serious thriftiness and over 2000/mo would require serious waste. . .  That's not a huge variation, so I'd think the % spent would really vary based on your income, with poor folks needing to spend a much higher percentage . . . I do spend more lavishly on food now than I once did, but I think most of that variation is some more expensive wines/meats and excess junk food to comfortably feed whatever kids my kids invite over, etc. 700-1000/mo was comfortable long term for us, but I can't imagine how I could spend more than 2000/mo (I don't count, but I'm guessing) without really trying and/or feeding the neighborhood on a weekly basis. And our income has varied by a factor of 10 over the years, not a factor of 2. 

 

IME, wealthier families don't routinely eat super expensive foods at home. I mean, I've been to lots of meals at homes with incomes 150-250k/yr, and I've never been served caviar and only very rarely a particularly expensive steak. Maybe we have $10-$15 bottles of wine with dinner instead of $8 bottles, but that's the only real difference. The meals made at home by my friends hasn't really varied much with incomes ranging from the grad-student-poor to middle to upper income brackets. Everyone still eats hummus and veggies or lasagna or cheeseburgers or pasta with pesto or whatever . . . I know plenty of 200k income families that serve hamburger helper at dinner . . . Honestly, though, many of the wealthier families I know tend to cook from scratch healthy meals that are fairly cheap to make . . . It's the convenience foods that kill the food budget IME. That's certainly what drives most of our variability in food costs. When we were thriftier, we still ate good quality foods for meals and had ice cream, etc., but I bought fewer junk and convenience foods . . . And I didn't let things go to waste nearly as much as I do now (my kids waste stuff . . . and if the extra $ in wasted food was really a huge deal to us, I'd be a lot tougher on the kids about it . . . Now I gripe but don't actually stop buying stuff . . .)

 

 

(FWIW, I wouldn't include dining out in a food budget, but obviously that totally changes things.)

[SparklyUnicorn]

Nm. Edited because I can't think. (LOL)

 

I was thinking about you the other day when watching my 14 year old boy eat.  I thought OMG...Kinsa must spend $10,000 a month on food.  :laugh:

[Guest]

We are probably at 15-20% net on groceries and paper goods. But our income isn't particularly high for the number of people we support. 40% goes to mortgage and insurance, about another 20% to the other fixed expenses like retirement and monthly bills, and we have about 20% for clothes, books, music lessons, school stuff, and fun.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[MeghansMom]

Hmm...gross would be around 5250 a month....that would mean 525 a month on food...

 

A financial person told us that they count 300 to 400 per person for a month. We are a family of three with pets.

We spend 800-900 a month for food, household and toiletries and a couple hundred eating out.

[Annie G]

I really think this is a silly way to look at spending on food.

 

In my experience, my spending on food varies minimally with income shifts. Now, we've never been truly poor, even though we lived on very little income for many years, because during those years, we were students and were living "beyond our means" knowing we'd earn more someday and be able to repay loans. Obviously, if we were truly poor and not able to comfortably borrow for living expenses, then, sure we could have and would have spent less. 

 

My spending on food has varied by maybe 50-100% adjusted for inflation and kids' ages (on a per capita basis) between the years when we had an income under the poverty line (grad school, living mostly on student loans) to the years when our income is in the top few percent. So, it was probably 40-50% of our taxable income in those lean years and is probably <5% of our income now, even though we spend lavishly on food now and were pretty frugal back in the lean years.

 

I mean, for a typical family of 4, to me, 1000/mo is pretty comfortable for food, but under $7-800 or so would mean serious thriftiness and over 2000/mo would require serious waste. . .  That's not a huge variation, so I'd think the % spent would really vary based on your income, with poor folks needing to spend a much higher percentage . . . I do spend more lavishly on food now than I once did, but I think most of that variation is some more expensive wines/meats and excess junk food to comfortably feed whatever kids my kids invite over, etc. 700-1000/mo was comfortable long term for us, but I can't imagine how I could spend more than 2000/mo (I don't count, but I'm guessing) without really trying and/or feeding the neighborhood on a weekly basis. And our income has varied by a factor of 10 over the years, not a factor of 2. 

 

IME, wealthier families don't routinely eat super expensive foods at home. I mean, I've been to lots of meals at homes with incomes 150-250k/yr, and I've never been served caviar and only very rarely a particularly expensive steak. Maybe we have $10-$15 bottles of wine with dinner instead of $8 bottles, but that's the only real difference. The meals made at home by my friends hasn't really varied much with incomes ranging from the grad-student-poor to middle to upper income brackets. Everyone still eats hummus and veggies or lasagna or cheeseburgers or pasta with pesto or whatever . . . I know plenty of 200k income families that serve hamburger helper at dinner . . . Honestly, though, many of the wealthier families I know tend to cook from scratch healthy meals that are fairly cheap to make . . . It's the convenience foods that kill the food budget IME. That's certainly what drives most of our variability in food costs. When we were thriftier, we still ate good quality foods for meals and had ice cream, etc., but I bought fewer junk and convenience foods . . . And I didn't let things go to waste nearly as much as I do now (my kids waste stuff . . . and if the extra $ in wasted food was really a huge deal to us, I'd be a lot tougher on the kids about it . . . Now I gripe but don't actually stop buying stuff . . .)

 

 

(FWIW, I wouldn't include dining out in a food budget, but obviously that totally changes things.)

 

What's your thought behind not counting dining out in the food budget? That always throws me off because I know some people who say they only spend like $70 a week to feed a family of six but that's because they eat a lot of meals out. I just assumed when we talk about how much people spend on food it means all food- not just food you fix at home.  Because where would you draw the line? Rotisserie chicken is groceries but is the pizza you have delivered? It's not technically 'dining out'. 

 

I can easily see a family of four spending $2000 a month.  I know a lot of folks who eat at a sit down place every Sunday after church and often one other full dinner out each week.  That can easily add up to $200 for those two meals.  Not for us, as we don't order appetizers or pay for drinks. Rarely desserts. But a lot of folks do.   And then it's not uncommon at all for both working parents to eat lunch out every day. It's easy to spend $10 on a lunch out. Let's not even talk about the Starbucks they might have.   

 

The wealthier families I know...like the ones I tutor for...eat more organics, grass fed beef, artisan cheese,  free range eggs. So their plates might look like mine but their costs are significantly higher.   

[eternalsummer]

:iagree: I've never really understood the point of threads like this one, because they basically just end up being a way for the wealthier boardies to show off a bit. And it's not an accurate overall assessment because I'm guessing most of the people who spend forty or fifty percent of their income on food don't feel like publicly broadcasting that tidbit, so you end up with a thread that makes it look like spending five percent of your income on food is the norm.

 

For the record, I don't think it's common to spend only nine percent of one's income on food. That seems very low for most average people in the US.

 

But carry on if you must, all.  :001_rolleyes:

 

I dunno, when we were quite poor we still spent around 20% on food.

When we have extra $, food is what we spend it on, I guess.

 

The real difference (for us) is on percentage of income spent on rent and utilities.

 

But at any rate the percentage might vary regardless of income level; it just depends on what a family values.

 

For instance, we spend $0 on entertainment, and we have always spent $0 on entertainment.

 

We spend almost nothing on electronics (we have a landline and a basic cable internet connection).  We don't really spend on travel, except for family emergencies.

 

 

But we do spend a lot on food :)

[TravelingChris]

We spend less than 9% but for most of the year there is only two of us eating.  I am still thrifty even with a rise in income.  We  have had some small changes like occasionally buying more expensive cheeses or getting a more expensive fish for dinner (around here all seafood is expensive). HOwever the biggest change in our expenditures is that we don't have three or two or even one child at home most of the time.  Our son comes about once a week to eat and our daughter is home for school breaks and our daughter and son in law come about once every two months for a weekend visit/  Then we spend the bucks taking family out for a meal. But for us two. we aren't spending that much.

[foxbridgeacademy]

Gross? we spend right at 10%.  Net it's closer to 14 or 15 percent. We spend less than the thrifty plan. DH just got a 10% raise and I'm considering adding around $100 to our grocery budget, especially since we're really (finally, only half a$$ed it in the past) trying to get DD off gluten and dairy because of migraines and tummy problems.

 

 

Now if you want to talk cost (%) of housing? 

[SamanthaCarter]

I'm not sure you can compare by percentage either. ;) Isn't food budget a little regressive (I'm not sure if I'm using the right term). Meaning, the higher your income, the less total % you tend to spend on food. For instance, if you made 30K per year and spent only 6K on groceries, you'd be spending 20%. If you spend double that but make 120K per year, you spend 10%. You (presumably) eat better/more extravagant with out digging very deeply into your income. 

 

So for what it's worth, ours is 15% of gross. 

 

ETA: Okay, sorry, someone already addressed this. I should read before responding. <sheepish>

Edited June 3, 2016 by SamanthaCarter

[The Girls' Mom]

Probably 20-30% for a family of 5 adultish people, including eating out.  We eat out more than I would like...but it is a busy season of our lives.  

 

[StephanieZ]

What's your thought behind not counting dining out in the food budget? That always throws me off because I know some people who say they only spend like $70 a week to feed a family of six but that's because they eat a lot of meals out. I just assumed when we talk about how much people spend on food it means all food- not just food you fix at home.  Because where would you draw the line? Rotisserie chicken is groceries but is the pizza you have delivered? It's not technically 'dining out'. 

 

I can easily see a family of four spending $2000 a month.  I know a lot of folks who eat at a sit down place every Sunday after church and often one other full dinner out each week.  That can easily add up to $200 for those two meals.  Not for us, as we don't order appetizers or pay for drinks. Rarely desserts. But a lot of folks do.   And then it's not uncommon at all for both working parents to eat lunch out every day. It's easy to spend $10 on a lunch out. Let's not even talk about the Starbucks they might have.   

 

The wealthier families I know...like the ones I tutor for...eat more organics, grass fed beef, artisan cheese,  free range eggs. So their plates might look like mine but their costs are significantly higher.   

 

I guess my thought is that dining out is "entertainment", not food. :) Since a dining out meal can be made at home for MUCH less than eating out, I just never think of dining out as "food". I guess it's because I consider "food" a necessity and a "good" but I consider dining out a treat/entertainment and generally a "bad" (since it's typically MUCH less healthy than home prepared meals and also because it's frivolous). 

 

If you consider dining out as part of the food budget, then it'd be easy to spend 2000 or more a month. Very easy! I know families that eat out several times a week at pretty nice places (so probably 150+ for a family of 7). That sort of spending just throws everything out of whack, lol. 

 

I would never combine dining out and "food"/groceries/meats/produce/etc in the same budget category, because to me, the purpose of budgeting is to make good decisions financially. And, to me, I think spending $1000 on a year's worth of grass fed beef for the freezer is "good spending" but spending 1000 in a month dining out is just a luxury. I'm not saying I don't spend money dining out -- just that I think of that money as the money that can be easily budgeted. When we had a lean year around 2008, we dined out maybe twice that year . . . But when we're flush, we've been known to eat out twice in a week (or a dozen times in a week when on vacation) . . . To me, it's not helpful to mentally combine those sorts of spending. 

 

That said, if dining out is something a family does frequently, then obviously they should spend something less on in-home food and (lots)  more on the entertainment/dining category. 

 

I suppose if a family was very small (single person, maybe a couple) and they ate out really frugally (coupons, shared meals, budget specials, no beverages, etc) then dining out could be a somewhat comparable cost to in home dining, since in home dining can get tricky when cooking for one (more waste, more spoilage, etc.), but for a family, I just think it's much more likely to dramatically increase "food" costs by combining the dining out in with food budgets. And, frankly, if people are dining out routinely, then it's unlikely they are super into budgeting. 

[VeteranMom]

20% of our income goes toward food.  I have 3 teens- 2 of those boys.  They eat a lot.

[VeteranMom]

20% of our income goes toward food.  I have 3 teens- 2 of those boys.  They eat a lot.

[Guest]

That would be too much math for me. ;) Our income is not that standardized.

[Excelsior! Academy]

20-25%  Eating out lots and holidays can easily tip us into the 30% range.  We have a larger than average family so the numbers are actually pretty low per person.

[Ann.without.an.e]

A family making $20k a year has a total of $1666 per month so if they spent $2000/ month on food they'd be spending over 100% of their income on food.

 

But I know what you mean. The actual dollar amount people spend on food is informative but this just tells us basically how rich or poor one is.

 

 

:iagree: I've never really understood the point of threads like this one, because they basically just end up being a way for the wealthier boardies to show off a bit. And it's not an accurate overall assessment because I'm guessing most of the people who spend forty or fifty percent of their income on food don't feel like publicly broadcasting that tidbit, so you end up with a thread that makes it look like spending five percent of your income on food is the norm.

 

For the record, I don't think it's common to spend only nine percent of one's income on food. That seems very low for most average people in the US.

 

But carry on if you must, all.  :001_rolleyes:

 

 

I really think this is a silly way to look at spending on food.

 

In my experience, my spending on food varies minimally with income shifts. Now, we've never been truly poor, even though we lived on very little income for many years, because during those years, we were students and were living "beyond our means" knowing we'd earn more someday and be able to repay loans. Obviously, if we were truly poor and not able to comfortably borrow for living expenses, then, sure we could have and would have spent less. 

 

My spending on food has varied by maybe 50-100% adjusted for inflation and kids' ages (on a per capita basis) between the years when we had an income under the poverty line (grad school, living mostly on student loans) to the years when our income is in the top few percent. So, it was probably 40-50% of our taxable income in those lean years and is probably <5% of our income now, even though we spend lavishly on food now and were pretty frugal back in the lean years.

 

I mean, for a typical family of 4, to me, 1000/mo is pretty comfortable for food, but under $7-800 or so would mean serious thriftiness and over 2000/mo would require serious waste. . .  That's not a huge variation, so I'd think the % spent would really vary based on your income, with poor folks needing to spend a much higher percentage . . . I do spend more lavishly on food now than I once did, but I think most of that variation is some more expensive wines/meats and excess junk food to comfortably feed whatever kids my kids invite over, etc. 700-1000/mo was comfortable long term for us, but I can't imagine how I could spend more than 2000/mo (I don't count, but I'm guessing) without really trying and/or feeding the neighborhood on a weekly basis. And our income has varied by a factor of 10 over the years, not a factor of 2. 

 

IME, wealthier families don't routinely eat super expensive foods at home. I mean, I've been to lots of meals at homes with incomes 150-250k/yr, and I've never been served caviar and only very rarely a particularly expensive steak. Maybe we have $10-$15 bottles of wine with dinner instead of $8 bottles, but that's the only real difference. The meals made at home by my friends hasn't really varied much with incomes ranging from the grad-student-poor to middle to upper income brackets. Everyone still eats hummus and veggies or lasagna or cheeseburgers or pasta with pesto or whatever . . . I know plenty of 200k income families that serve hamburger helper at dinner . . . Honestly, though, many of the wealthier families I know tend to cook from scratch healthy meals that are fairly cheap to make . . . It's the convenience foods that kill the food budget IME. That's certainly what drives most of our variability in food costs. When we were thriftier, we still ate good quality foods for meals and had ice cream, etc., but I bought fewer junk and convenience foods . . . And I didn't let things go to waste nearly as much as I do now (my kids waste stuff . . . and if the extra $ in wasted food was really a huge deal to us, I'd be a lot tougher on the kids about it . . . Now I gripe but don't actually stop buying stuff . . .)

 

 

(FWIW, I wouldn't include dining out in a food budget, but obviously that totally changes things.)

 

 

I'm not sure you can compare by percentage either. ;) Isn't food budget a little regressive (I'm not sure if I'm using the right term). Meaning, the higher your income, the less total % you tend to spend on food. For instance, if you made 30K per year and spent only 6K on groceries, you'd be spending 20%. If you spend double that but make 120K per year, you spend 10%. You (presumably) eat better/more extravagant with out digging very deeply into your income. 

 

So for what it's worth, ours is 15% of gross. 

 

ETA: Okay, sorry, someone already addressed this. I should read before responding. <sheepish>

 

 

 

I totally and completely agree with what ya'll are saying.  I have just been thinking on this a lot lately.  It is one of the only flexible areas in our budget.  When I see figures like 9% on food, it simply makes me wonder if I should/could somehow cut somewhere since ours is so much higher than that.  To see that we are not the only family who makes it into the 20-30%+ for food is helpful.  

Edited June 3, 2016 by Attolia

[Arcadia]

When I see figures like 9% on food, it simply makes me wonder if I should somehow be cutting more somehow since ours is so much higher than that.

When we were tighter on budget, we cut down first on beef and mutton, then pork and fish, then chicken.

 

If I have to feed two of my beef loving nephews instead of my two almost vegetarian boys, my food expense would be very high.

[Guest]

I guess my thought is that dining out is "entertainment", not food. :) Since a dining out meal can be made at home for MUCH less than eating out, I just never think of dining out as "food". I guess it's because I consider "food" a necessity and a "good" but I consider dining out a treat/entertainment and generally a "bad" (since it's typically MUCH less healthy than home prepared meals and also because it's frivolous).

 

If you consider dining out as part of the food budget, then it'd be easy to spend 2000 or more a month. Very easy! I know families that eat out several times a week at pretty nice places (so probably 150+ for a family of 7). That sort of spending just throws everything out of whack, lol.

 

I would never combine dining out and "food"/groceries/meats/produce/etc in the same budget category, because to me, the purpose of budgeting is to make good decisions financially. And, to me, I think spending $1000 on a year's worth of grass fed beef for the freezer is "good spending" but spending 1000 in a month dining out is just a luxury. I'm not saying I don't spend money dining out -- just that I think of that money as the money that can be easily budgeted. When we had a lean year around 2008, we dined out maybe twice that year . . . But when we're flush, we've been known to eat out twice in a week (or a dozen times in a week when on vacation) . . . To me, it's not helpful to mentally combine those sorts of spending.

 

That said, if dining out is something a family does frequently, then obviously they should spend something less on in-home food and (lots) more on the entertainment/dining category.

 

I suppose if a family was very small (single person, maybe a couple) and they ate out really frugally (coupons, shared meals, budget specials, no beverages, etc) then dining out could be a somewhat comparable cost to in home dining, since in home dining can get tricky when cooking for one (more waste, more spoilage, etc.), but for a family, I just think it's much more likely to dramatically increase "food" costs by combining the dining out in with food budgets. And, frankly, if people are dining out routinely, then it's unlikely they are super into budgeting.

I do not combine eating out and food groceries as a budget category, but I DO absolutely know people who lie to themselves about their true food costs because they eat out a LOT, but have small food grocery spending. (Run-on sentence alert!) one friend said buying groceries was so depressing to her because she ends up spending so much money. Yet, her normal self-described eating habit was to "just sort of rotate through pizza, subs, chicken, burgers, and back to pizza again." I pointed out that she probably spent a lot more money in dining out than in groceries and why did it not bother her to keep dropping twenties for take out? She looked thinderstruck as if she never realized this before!

 

I do keep separate budget categories of eating out and food groceries (and non-food household goods), but I eat out infrequently; my whole family together eats out hardly ever unless we are traveling. I don't think we have ever, not one time, been at home at dinner time, then all jumped in the car and gone to Chik-Fil-a or whatever (although we have had carry out pizza, chinese or chicken this way.)

[AHASRADA]

About 30%. My grocery budget is equal to the cost of our rent.

 

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

[teachermom2834]

15-20% for groceries + eating out. Super depressing. That is a lot of money for something that just keeps disappearing 😧

[SamanthaCarter]

About 30%. My grocery budget is equal to the cost of our rent.

 

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

This is an interesting way to look at it. 

 

-=-=-=-=-=-

Muddying the waters a bit, even when you give a percent of gross - what is gross? Because some people have benefits that others have to pay out of pocket. (evil trouble-making snicker). Still apples and oranges. 

[6packofun]

I've never calculated, so I did it quickly and it came to 28%.  Our housing costs with utilities are over 40%, maybe over 45%, I think.  Again, lower income for a family our size makes fewer overall spending categories (no "official" budget for clothing, for example) with higher percentages each.  I still think we're doing OK for what we make; it probably sounds more stressful to those who aren't living it.  :)

[gypsymama]

Hmm...gross would be around 5250 a month....that would mean 525 a month on food...

 

A financial person told us that they count 300 to 400 per person for a month. We are a family of three with pets.

We spend 800-900 a month for food, household and toiletries and a couple hundred eating out.

 

I wonder if the 9% of income figure was meaning for one person?? That would be nearly in line. Because (different #s for the sake of easy math) $4000 a mo comes to $400 mo if using 10% of income on food. That would be close to what the financial person gave you. When feeding a family, if one person can live on $400 each additional person wouldn't add a full $400 more but it would go up maybe $100-200 per person? I wonder if the 9% figure wasn't counting in additional people. Hmm...

 

 

I dunno, when we were quite poor we still spent around 20% on food.

When we have extra $, food is what we spend it on, I guess.

 

The real difference (for us) is on percentage of income spent on rent and utilities.

 

But at any rate the percentage might vary regardless of income level; it just depends on what a family values.

 

For instance, we spend $0 on entertainment, and we have always spent $0 on entertainment.

 

We spend almost nothing on electronics (we have a landline and a basic cable internet connection).  We don't really spend on travel, except for family emergencies.

 

 

But we do spend a lot on food :)

 

This is us. This is one of the few areas that I splurge. 

 

 

I'm not sure you can compare by percentage either. ;) Isn't food budget a little regressive (I'm not sure if I'm using the right term). Meaning, the higher your income, the less total % you tend to spend on food. For instance, if you made 30K per year and spent only 6K on groceries, you'd be spending 20%. If you spend double that but make 120K per year, you spend 10%. You (presumably) eat better/more extravagant with out digging very deeply into your income. 

 

So for what it's worth, ours is 15% of gross. 

 

ETA: Okay, sorry, someone already addressed this. I should read before responding. <sheepish>

 

This! We have had a large range of income over the years but our grocery budget has always (or could have) remained the same. The only way I see a real increase in grocery costs by income would be if you started making more organic, specialty purchases with the higher income than were available on a lower income. (So same foods and amount of food but much higher since organic, free range eggs might be $4/dz instead of $2/dz and so on)

[mamiof5]

No idea. We don't keep track

[Ann.without.an.e]

This is an interesting way to look at it. 

 

-=-=-=-=-=-

Muddying the waters a bit, even when you give a percent of gross - what is gross? Because some people have benefits that others have to pay out of pocket. (evil trouble-making snicker). Still apples and oranges. 

 

 

Nothing is ever perfect  :lol:   It has to be more accurate than net though since some people have retirement, health insurance, HSA accounts, etc deducted directly.  Again, still not perfect but closer, imho

[QueenCat]

What's your thought behind not counting dining out in the food budget? That always throws me off because I know some people who say they only spend like $70 a week to feed a family of six but that's because they eat a lot of meals out. I just assumed when we talk about how much people spend on food it means all food- not just food you fix at home.  Because where would you draw the line? Rotisserie chicken is groceries but is the pizza you have delivered? It's not technically 'dining out'. 

 

I can easily see a family of four spending $2000 a month.  I know a lot of folks who eat at a sit down place every Sunday after church and often one other full dinner out each week.  That can easily add up to $200 for those two meals.  Not for us, as we don't order appetizers or pay for drinks. Rarely desserts. But a lot of folks do.   And then it's not uncommon at all for both working parents to eat lunch out every day. It's easy to spend $10 on a lunch out. Let's not even talk about the Starbucks they might have.   

 

The wealthier families I know...like the ones I tutor for...eat more organics, grass fed beef, artisan cheese,  free range eggs. So their plates might look like mine but their costs are significantly higher.   

 

For us, I just find it easier to have dining out as a separate line in the budget. If they were mixed, I'd have a harder time keeping track of things. We do eat out often and it is usually planned. Having it in a separate place in the budget is just easier.