What do you spend on groceries.

[walking burp cloth]

For those of you with a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children).... how much do you spend on groceries each month? By groceries, I mean, anything you get from the grocery store or health food store. (food, cleaning supplies, TP, suppliments, etc). Also, what do you spend eating out?

I have just added up our last few months.... and it seems like too much.

[my2girlz]

I currently spend close to $600/month on everything (groceries, household stuff, beauty, and pet). If I'm really careful I can easily do it under $400. This is for a family of 5 plus 3 pets.

ETA: Eating out is probably $100-$200 on the high end.

[Grace and Granola]

Food: 400
Household supplies: 50
Pet: 30
Eating out: 60


I should say that I don't buy organic. We are on a super tight budget right now, and I'm trying to add in some organic staples, but cannot afford organic meat/dairy like I wish I could! We do eat very mindfully and try to be as healthy and whole foods as possible. We also only eat out when we have a great coupon or we go to "kids eat free" places and stay under $20/trip about once per week or less.

[tjlucca]

I would estimate around 800 per month for two adults, one child and one cat. And I work part time at our Co-op, so I get a 20% discount on groceries and supplements at whole-sale. We still spend allot to eat healthy. Probably 200-250 per month eating out.

[Alyantavid]

I just added up December's groceries for dh, who thought we'd spent $700 at least and the total for us was $350. 2 adults and 2 kids who eat a ton, one of whom is allergic to dairy. That's for everything household related. Dog food runs about $30 a month.

We rarely eat out, so it's definitely under $100 a month. I cook from scratch almost completely, ds2 eats breakfast and lunch at daycare, ds1 eats breakfast at school and some lunches at school.

[dachshundqueen]

378.66 avg over 06/09-12/09, includes household (det, soap)

Family 4 2adults 2 kids

Liz

ETA: This is for 3 meals cooked at home (then some taken for lunch by DH) per day plus 2 snacks per day.

[Hannah32]

Anywhere from $35-80 per week for two adults. We are expecting, so will be expanding the food budget in the near future, I'm sure.

[Porcelain Interior]

$450 for 4 people, 2 dogs, 6 chickens in a moderate COL area. (This includes cold lunches for one child and hot lunches at full price for our teen daughter- full price because we don't qualify for reduced.)

Eating out would come straight out of the grocery money, and we don't do that very often. I eat out once a month at my book club meeting, but drink water and keep the meal under $9- usually around $5. I split with a friend if the entrees are huge or expensive. We go to a different restaurant each month. My husband occasionally buys a burger when he's on the run. My kids never eat their entrees in restaurants so we rarely go as a family. We sometimes do take out Mexican because everyone enjoys it, but have in the past year grown tired of the inferior quality of the "cooking" and can make tastier healthier replicas at home.

Dog and chicken food, toiletries and household stuff like laundry soap also comes out of the above budget.

Occasionally I go over it by $100 or so, and some months I spend less by about $100 or so. $450 is my yearly average.

I'm feeding a 1 highly allergic person (me!) and 3 picky eaters- and my DH is a meat freak. So it could be a lot cheaper if I had more support for a beans and rice style diet.

ETA: We're a family of 2 grownups and one teen, and one 8 year old, one small dog, one large dog and 6 hungry chickens.

[Jenn_M]

Our grocery/household budget is $600/month and I struggle to keep it at that. 2 adults and 2 kids (ages 6 and 2)

[lotus.blossom]

I'd say around $600/month for everything. We rarely eat out. Maybe $80 a month for extras like coffee and bagels or the occasional fast food ( ) Thats for four people, one being a baby who eats what we eat ground up.

I remember when I could get out of the grocery store for $60/week but we both worked and bought breakfast/lunch out and ate out regularly. So it wasn't really a savings.

[walking burp cloth]

I think we are spending waaaay too much. We have averaged $1000/mo for the past 4 months. My daughter has many food sensitivities, so I do tend to get a lot of specialty foods for her (snacks and quick food, for lunches etc.) We have also been sick a lot this winter so far, so been buying a lot of suppliments, and I am trying to buy more healthy/organic foods and cook healthier so as to avoid sickness. But I still think this is too much. I go in and out of being able to meal plan successfully, and I have been successfull the past couple of weeks. We don't buy a huge amount of beauty supplies, and I am working toward making my own creams and laundry soap.

How do you keep your groceries so low?
(we also have a dog and a cat, but that can't run us more than $50/mo)

[BetsyS]

Ours is $75/week, so $325/month for 4 people. 1 pregnant mama, dh, a 3 year old, and a 1 year old (who eats more than the 3 year old, but they both eat like little kids).

It's hard for me to keep it to that, and I wish it was more like $100/week. At the holidays/birthdays, I budget part of our holiday money towards extra food.

[caiesmommy]

I think we're at about $75.00 a week. That's for me, dh, ds(3.5) dd who just turned one and a cat. Usually a lot less though

Some weeks it is more(weeks that we run out of cat food/litter/toilet paper all at once)

We are mostly vegan though...no meat, no dairy, but ds and dh eat eggs which I buy by the flat to save costs. Almond milk can be costly. And dd is part time soy organic formula which costs $23.00 bi weekly(no horribly expensive but still peeves me off...i wish I didnt have to buy the milk when she's got me as her own cow, but she just won't bf as much anymore..but thats a whole other thing)

[sanguine_speed]

About $800 for a family of 2 adults, and 3 kids (ages in siggy).

[Grace and Granola]

Originally Posted by walking burp cloth

How do you keep your groceries so low?
(we also have a dog and a cat, but that can't run us more than $50/mo)

Where do you live? That could make a big difference! I am from the midwest and have been schocked at the difference in food prices, like in California. That could be a small factor. I have also had to learn how to cook really nutritious food on a small budget--more bang for your buck! Check out this blog for some interesting ideas www.thenourishinggourmet.com I am not as traditional as the writer of this blog, but she has really made me see that you can make some really yummy and original meals on a tight budget.

[AustinMom]

Originally Posted by Hannah32

Anywhere from $35-80 per week for two adults. We are expecting, so will be expanding the food budget in the near future, I'm sure.

I think food was the least I spent on my baby, we home made our food, due to allergies, cost, and nutritional value. It was SOOOO simple. www.wholesomebabyfood.com is great help.

Not considering that commercial baby food is watered down, and there for less filling for a baby, we compared ounce to ounce of store bought and homemade. We bought 25$ worth of baby food a month, organic by the way, and compared to non-organic baby food, it would have been over 180$ a month. Organic store bought is OUTRAGEOUS to me. just a tip....

[walking burp cloth]

Originally Posted by Heatherb917

Where do you live?

We are in a ski town in Colorado. The cost of living is pretty high here, but last year we were averaging $700 - $800 / month. I am not sure what we are doing differently.

Thanks for the link. I will check it out.

[Hannah32]

I'm planning on avoiding commercial baby food, mostly due to cost issues. My friend already has given us a food mill that she didn't really use. I also plan to EBF for about six months and start intergrating basic foods thereafter, give or take.

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

We have been $250-260 for 2 adults and 2 kids but we're reducing it to $200 right now. Basically, we make everything we can and avoid convenience foods. That includes everything household-related, except pets as they have their own tab in the budget. We probably spend an average of $20 a month on the dogs based on the yearly totals.

[Porcelain Interior]

One thing (being an allergic person) I don't buy pre-packaged snack foods for myself because the prices are OUTRAGEOUS. $7 for a package of 5 tiny nutrigrain like bars for wheat allergic people, that's insanity.

Every once in a while I'll buy one of those items as a treat, but not as a daily food item.

Allergic people don't need packaged foods any more than non allergic people do.

One thing I do is settle on 8-10 dinner plans that are quick and easy to make from fresh ingredients without spending tons of money, and then I have 2-3 lunch or breakfast options that I keep on hand at all times. If one gets old I get rid of it and switch to something else.

Novelty and variety are budget killers. A person can eat oatmeal 5-6 days a week and switch it up on the weekend with something a little more frisky or time consuming. Needing a different cereal, or packaged yogurt etc that just gets really expensive.

We have available at all times:

Breakfast:

Cereal (I buy ONE type of whole grain no sugar cereal for times when we're rushed)

Eggs with fruit or toast (we have chickens.)

Yogurt with fruit or toast

Lunch:

Sandwich pb and J or meat/cheese/lettuce/tomato on whole wheat bread

Leftovers from dinner and either option of course is flanked with fresh fruit or veggies

Dinner: (not necessarily in this order)

Spaghetti night

Pizza night

Roast chicken mashed potato night

Fish night

Soup night

Fajita night (homemade tortillas are so multi-purpose, like lunch the next day)

Mom's lazy night (pick through the fridge and throw something together)

etc

Each of my dinners generally has a green salad and bread added to it. I am allergic to bread so I don't eat it.

Anyway that's how I do it. I limit what comes into our house. That helps a lot with waste, or things going bad. Snacks are fresh fruits and veggies, homemade bread, popcorn, cheese...leftovers.

Oh almost forgot, we don't really buy beverages. Milk for the milk drinkers (I don't let my kids drink it like water though) and we drink water. Special occasions I get cider. We 50% of the time have OJ, though we try not to drink our calories. Bad for teeth and your wallet.