Grocery Budget

[Audrey]

Whats yours and for how many people. Do you try to be frugal or is this amount just buying what you want?

 

I dont have a budget and Im not sure how much we spend. I do know its a lot and I do know it might be a good place for me to cut back. We live so frugal in so many ways. Food and kid stuff is really the only areas we splurge in and could cut back on.

 

 

Can I suggest something?  Before you compare other people's budgets, it would be a good idea to track your own grocery expenses for at least a full month (or more).  Keep receipts and note what you buy.  You may find some expenditures that you didn't realize, or that could be cut or reduced straight away.  You can then start looking at how you might source your most common grocery purchases for less, or look at replacing brand names with cheaper brands, or even look at changing your diet to accommodate lower cost foods, or... other strategies that fit your needs and resources better.

 

I've seen lots of these grocery budget expenses throughout the many years I've been on here, and it's rarely helpful to compare what people all across the country are spending per month per family for a few reasons:

1) the varying definitions of "groceries" -- some people include only food, other may include anything bought at a store that week.

2) family preferences and lifestyles vary widely -- some families may not want or be able to eat what another family buys

3) cost of goods varies widely from one place to another.  $100 in NYC will not buy you the same amount of groceries as in Wichita.

4) these threads tend to become a pissing contest of who can be most frugally draconian, and a shame-fest upon those who spend more or have special needs or are unable to reduce costs, etc.

[bethben]

$850 for almost 3 teen boys,a 10 year old girl, DH and I. It includes paper products. I go to Costco 2x a month and grocery for incidentals. We do not have a cow in the backyard to butcher, my husband doesn't hunt, and I have no garden because the climate where we live is harsh at times. Sometimes people look to the family of 10 that only spends $100 a week and spreads that pride everywhere and everyone asks how?!? Sometimes that same family has Hunters in the family, while raising cows, while raising chickens, while farming a 1 acre garden that they can and freeze. Also, I am gluten free which doesn't mean I try to substitute for gluten items, it just means I avoid them.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited July 21, 2017 by bethben

[mommyoffive]

Totally agree on the last two posts

 

Forgot to add that my $150 -250 a week is with everything for a family of 7.  Oldest is 11.  Oldest 4 are swimmers.   They eat more than I do. 

All diapers, toilet paper , bathroom products.   

 

It feeds us all for all meals everyday.  We don't eat out. 

 

 

Yes could we spend less.  

I could coupon.

Garden

hunt

make things myself.

Not use paper products

But I don't

 

 

Make sure we don't waste is my biggest goal right now. 

 

 

 

Could we spend more?  Sure.  

 

Funny to think we spent the same when it was just the 2 of us. 

[desertstrawberry5]

we hang out between $400 ans $800 a month. We do bulk buys at irregular intervals.

 

I'm spending a little over $100 this week. I hit up the asian market today for $50, I'm placing an amazon order for $50ish for 54 packets of soup and a couple of boxes of broth, and we will need 3 dozen eggs and a carton of almond milk.

 

I have the bread machine out to bake our bread. 

 

Everything else, we already have. 

Edited July 22, 2017 by desertstrawberry5