- HOW MUCH DO YOU SPEND PER WEEK ON GROCERIES?
- HOW MANY MOUTHS ARE YOU FEEDING?
- HOW OFTEN ARE YOU EATING OUT? (i.e., is that grocery money paying for 3 meals a day for each of those mouths or are you also going out to lunch/dinner on top of that?)
I am in the process of reworking our budget and am always curious to know if my spending in this area is comparable to other families. I want to set some boundaries for myself (in case you haven't noticed, I love food and could easily spend a LOT of money on it each week), but I also know that if those boundaries are not realistic I won't stick to them.
So if you are willing to break the "You're not supposed to talk to people about money" rule, please share!
21 comments:
I am spending at $150 a week on grocerys. There are 5 of us in the family. But before I got shopping I sit down and make a weeks worth or sometimes 2 weeks of menus and try to base it off of what is on sale that week. That way I don't over spend too much..I do buy things that are not on the list but not too much. We only eat out 1 night a week if we do.... with a 16, 7 & 5 year olds it gets expensive. That is usually Friday nights and it is pizza. I hope that helps!!
We (my husband and I) have $130 budgetted for groceries per week. And we rarely ever go over that amount. It is just the two of us (and a dog) and I try to make out a menu before I go shopping so I know exactly what to get (yes, apples...no, cupcakes!). We usually go out to lunch (either together or apart) once a week and then once on the weekends and probably 1 night of going out to eat on the weekend. Hope that helps ya!
I spend approximately $15 a week on groceries, and an additional $20 a week on fast food. I so wish I was kidding. Ok I might be kidding. :) Once we are back together and I have given the frozen food section the boot, I'll let you know.
We spend about $150 on groceries (including diapers-so about $10/week for those) a week for the four of us. I love to cook and it's SOOO hard to not want to cook every night. I'm always finding new things to make, but I have to pace myself and actually eat leftovers. When we lived on a military base, we'd have international night once a week where I'd get some weirdo thing from that aisle in the commissary (I once bought octopus in a can--we never ate it) When it was just the two of us, $60/week!!!
We only eat out maybe once or twice a week and occasionally not at all.
I think we average around 125 a week. 3 eaters, 2 kids in diapers. We eat out probably twice a week.
Our budget is $300 per month for the two of us and three pups. We usually cook about 4 meals at home a week, eat leftovers a few nights/lunches, and then we'll occasionally eat out at a restaurant...but not very often. I like to cook, but the husband is away at work a few nights a week and cooking for one is not worth the time. Thus, leftovers! ;)
Good luck with the budget!
My fiance and I just started a joint budget. We have two separate food budgets. One for food, and one for weekends (eating out). FOod for two weeks right now is $75.00, and then for each weekend it is $50.00. So I guess it's $175 for two weeks, but weekend budget also includes entertainment. Basically, any money spent during the weekend is weekend budget, so special drinks, ice cream, events, etc. yay budgets!
I usually spend about $150 every other week, and about $70 a week on the non $150 weeks. Sometimes I can make it without having to go to the store in the in between weeks. H-E-B is really inexpensive, but they have SOOOO many great things that I always get more than what's on my list. Plus, I'm addicted to grocery shopping, so I really have to watch myself.
And we love to eat out, so half the time, I have to toss the fresh stuff before I use it because I forget about it.
Do NOT follow in my footsteps! LOL! :)
Oh yeah, and its just Nathan and I and the 2 dogs.
It's just my husband and I and we spend about $250-275 a month on groceries- which includes non-food items like toilet paper and so forth. I buy a lot of the basics at Walmart once a month (which saves over the grocery store) and go about once a week to the grocery for produce, most dairy products, and whatever basics I can't find at Walmart. I often check the flyer for the grocery before I go to make sure I hit the good sales on "regular" items. We rarely go out to eat and if we do it's normally for lunch, not dinner. I agree with others that planning dinners definitely helps, though I haven't been great about doing it lately.
My husband and I spend about $100-$150 every two weeks (or so) on groceries. We usually map out the dinners we are going to have before we go. It helps us not buy food that will end up going to waste before we can use it. He eats lunch at home (I do not) and we both get breakfast stuff.
It never fails that dinners/lunches out with friends and family pop up so if something we bought for dinner on the last grocery run can be frozen to make it last longer we definitely pop it in the freezer...then that is one less dinner we buy on our next grocery trip.
Oh how I would love to live next to an outdoor market! I would pop in on my way home from work everyday to pick up the goods for dinner that night. I don't think my bank account would like that though!
Crap. I feel like I totally spend too much money after reading those comments!
It's just the two of us, and we spent about $100-$125/week at the grocery store. That includes 4 or 5 dinners, all breakfast and all lunches. We'll have leftovers one night and then go out to dinner one night.
I think maybe the reason it is so high is because I usually like to try something new at least once a week, so I end up having to buy random things that I may not already have in the pantry...
The husband and I spend between $130-$150 every two weeks. I write out what meals I want to make, take inventory, and try to make meals where I can use up ingredients that were partially used in other meals. If there are items on sale that we know we use but weren't on the list we often throw them in the cart. This includes all things bought for the house (tp, soap, etc)
The food we buy is for:
A) breakfast (cereal duing the week and eggs and bacon on sunday)
B) lunch (salad)
C) dinner (decent meal)
Saturday we usually go out for dinner and drinks. When money's tight we eat in but almost ALWAYS got out to a bar or to a friends house. I'd say we spend around $50 every weekend on food & fun. Sunday we eat dinner at his Mom's.
I LOVE food and cooking so I could easily go crazy if I didn't watch where the money was going.
Also I tend to buy big. Like I get the 24pack of cheese instead of the 12pack because I know we'll us it and it saves in the long run.
I usually do between $80-$100 a week for 4 of us. We have a separate entertainment envelope that we use for eating out...maybe once or twice a week.
this is fun to see where we compare!
we have a budget for "walmart" which includes no food stuff and food and it's $400/month. I see now that's pretty low! It used to be more but we wanted to see if we could lower it for 3 months before we go on vacation.
On top of that, we have $80/month/a piece to spend however we want (set up for lunches, but we'll skip lunch or bring somehting from home sometimes and save lunch money for shopping or something else).
We've really cut going out to eat, and if we do, it comes from our lunch money or walmart money. but we for some reason have a huge accumulation of gift cards to restaraunts which has been GREAT!
Also, my parents cook at least 2 nights a week and invite us over. :)
And i also put on walmart gas cards, $100/month a piece on two gas cards for us, so that doesn't come out of other money.
It's us, Lincoln, and the two labs. But Lincoln eats formula and blended up veggies...yum. And he gets free food at his daycare place.
- 3 mouths to feed
- $120 groceries (food only, not household items)
- $20 wk/school lunches
- $20 wk. avg. fast food
- $50 to $70 wk. avg. Sunday lunch out to eat at a decent place
we spend $60 a week for 2 people. this amount includes detergent, toothpaste, etc. however we spend $30 a week for "entertainment"... that may end up being fast food & a movie, one decently nice dinner or three runs for fast food. sometimes we even spend the $30 on "fun" groceries.
(this sort of isn't fair because i coupon. i rarely pay for toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.)
Wow, I'm in awe! Josh and I just sat down tonight and looked over the "food" part of our budget. All I know is that we eat out too much! When we are good and disciplined, groceries usually cost around $90 a week for the two of us, plus one night to eat out (the date night). I try to buy stuff I can use twice ... if I make fajitas, I save the seasoning and peppers and rice, beans, etc. that I have leftover and make nachos or burritos the next night. Yes, it's Mexican twice in a row, but we both love it so it works!
(Caleb is now on formula, but that money is allotted to the "Caleb" part of our budget, along with diapers, butt paste, clothes, etc.). Just so you know. :)
I love reading everyone's budget info. We just recently started doing Dave Ramsey's plan. If you haven't read any of his books, he is awesome. I didn't even have to buy them, I went to the library. There are 4 mouths to feed and have $500 a month for our grocery envelope. This includes diapers and formula. I am trying to stick to the $500, but it is very hard. Reading all of the post is new motivation for me to keep trying.
I have a blog for my classroom so that is why mine posted as Mrs. Carter.
Before we both lost out jobs, I spent $30 a week on food. Things like paper towels or household cleaners which are still bought from a grocery store came out of another budget, named Household Goods. So, for 2 people $30 a week on food. We had an alloted $50 per month for resteraunts, be it one nice-ish dinner at a sit down place, or a few pizzas here and there.
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