How much do you spend per meal?

[MittensKittens]

Just curious. I see thread about monthly grocery spending sometimes, but I'm wondering whether you know how much you spend on a typical meal? And what do you eat? If you think you overspend, where do you think you can cut down?

I'll start. We are vegetarian, and I cook mostly from scratch. I like organic ingredients and things like quinoa, chickpeas and brown rice. I also spend a lot on spices. As expats, I think we spend more than local people because we like different foods. I have no idea how much average people spend here, but I think I spend about $5 per meal.

You?

[yeahwhat]

Most of our suppers are $4-$7 to feed 2 adults and 4 kids, and usually have at least 1 serving of leftovers. Lunches, breakfasts, and snacks are much cheaper.

[caiesmommy]

I think my average would be between $2-$7 like pp said. I'm feeding myself, dh, ds(3) and dd(12 m). We're vegan though ds,dd, and dh eat eggs, I do not so most meals don't contain them

I made slowcooker red lentil soup the other day and the whole batch cost me MAYBE $6.00! That would be stretching it...and it was dinner, lunch the next day and then some in the freezer. So less then 2.00 per meal. We rounded it out w homeade flat bread that prob cost 1.00 to make.

I think my meals are cheap b/c I buy whats in season for produce and beans ect in bulk, and stock up when canned stuff is on sale

[tinuviel_k]

Goodness, it really varies. i don't think I could find an average cost per meal that we spend.

Breakfast is usually pretty low. My husband has granola and yogurt. Probably costs $1.00-$2.00. My daughter has oatmeal. We'll say $1.00 because we use cream and real maple syrup. I usually have Greek egg-lemon soup: $2.50. So maybe breakfast costs us $5 a day. On the weekends we go more elaborate and have pancakes, breakfast meat, breakfast burritos, or something like that. We probably spend more like $10 for a meal like that.

Dinner is what really varies. If we are having lentils and rice, bean soup, or some other cheap meal it probably only costs $5. But if we're having eggplant parmesan, lasagna, salmon, a pot roast, chicken, sablefish, or something more elaborate we can spend $15+ per meal, sometimes more.

[Norasmomma]

Probably $2-7 depending on the meal I mean the other night I made coconut tofu curry and it was cheap-cheap. I got the tofu through my WIC, grew the onions and paid .95 for the coconut milk on sale w/ coupons. The rice was from a huge bag of jasmine rice I bought for $6. Pushing it I'd say $2, tonight we're having beef stew, which again is pretty inexpensive, I but my own roasts and cut them(stew meat at the store is pricey), the veggies were bought on sale.

Most of our meals would total $10 a day with snacks. That's about what we spend on groceries a month $300. We are omni, we'll eat pretty much anything.

[StephandOwen]

I've never really thought about this or broken it down.

For today's dinner we're having pepper steak. $4 for the steak, about $1.50 for the peppers and onion, $.50 for the canned tomato, maybe $.20 worth of seasonings and cornstarch, maybe $.30 worth of rice. Less than $7 for two adults and there will probably be at least 1 lunch meal leftover.

[Drummer's Wife]

I would say our dinners range from $10-15, but we are a family of six and eat a lot of fresh produce (2 veggie dishes per dinner most nights), plus we do have meat as a main dish 9 times out of 10. I want to be able to feed my family for less each night, but don't want to sacrifice, either. I know meat-less meals even a couple times per week would help out.

Lunch - myself and the youngest two kids usually have leftovers, or something fairly cheap (I like to make things like nachos by toasting tortillas, adding cheese, black beans, green chiles and sour cream). DH, however, eats out most days so I would say he averages about $7 per day, my older two kids eat at school for about $4 per day - so lunch is probably $15 for our family (which I'd love to cut down a bit).

Breakfast is the cheapest - oatmeal, bagels, breakfast burritos, pancakes/waffles from scratch, yogurt, etc. Probably $5 or under on average.

Meals equal about $30-35 per day, I'd guess (and that doesn't include alcohol, of course - I have to budget, at the very least, a little beer for DH).

See, I read/hear others say they feed their family on $10 per day, or whatever, and I think gosh, I spend that much or more per meal. I'm at a point where I do want to get it down lower, but w/o giving up things like organic fresh fruit and veggies and good cheese. I think the fact that I have four decent eaters plus DH and I, contributes to the cost a lot.

[caiesmommy]

I agree totally with Drummer's wife..I could never imagine the cost of our meals if we added meat/cheese into our diets! OH MY GOSH!!

I will say that my meals aren't as great this time of year as the spring/summer/fall..we do live in Canada and well...the local produce does lack sometimes
BUT we do eat A LOT of fresh produce. Average 2-3 veggies w each meal, and fruit for snacks. And organic/local whenever available.

[BetsyS]

I average about $6 for suppers. That makes enough for the 4 of us (2 are wee littles), plus at least one, sometimes two lunches. So, it's servings for 4-5 (my kids eat about half a serving each).

Tonight's meal is chicken cacciatore. One chicken breast, three thighs. A package of mushrooms, frozen bell peppers, an onion, a quart of tomatoes, some seasoning, and some pasta. So, right at $6.

Breakfast is cheaper, of course, and lunches are usually leftovers, but if we eat something else, probably in the $4-$5 range. I like convenience. Peanut butter and honey is a staple at my house.

[zebra15]

I dont want to think about it.... I like to budget $200 a month for DS 9 and myself... sometimes that works, sometimes it doesnt... We eatout as well but I have alot of 2 for 1 coupons and such.... it just varies...

Like tonight, I have leftovers but we will be doing errands and such so I will probably stop off and get us dinner with a coupon (total cost, $10 or so, not that much more than eating at home but still....)....

I pack my lunch and breakfast so it just an unknown that I really cant figure.

[bobandjess99]

it depends totally on the meal.
Tonight, I'm making our big "meat" meal of the week, thereis about $10 worth of meat alone, plus veggies, noodles, etc...it's probably almost $20 worth of food (for 7 people, 3 of whom are teen boys, nuff said, lol)
Sometimes we're so lazy we have cold cereal for bfast..an entire box of cereal plus a half gallon milk is like $3, lol.
spaghetti is common here, and it depends a lot..sometimes, I'm using cheap sale pasta that i paid maybe 50 cents for, and a cheap sale sauce i paid a buck for....and other time I'm using organic pasta and sauce, and it could have cost as much as $6-7.
Heck, bread alone is so variable..a healthy loaf from the bread store, made traditionally with only healthy ingredients is like $5.....the cheap white stuff from the day old store is like $0.60.
We're trying to move into a TF/whole foods/organic when possible diet...it's hard and expensive, lol.

[JamieCatheryn]

For 3-4 servings: $1 for breakfast, $5 for lunch and snack, $5 for dinner
Totally omnivore, very little organic, all from scratch, very little grains and carbs.

[SunshineJ]

LOL some days I feel like it doesn't matter, it's all too expensive! For breakfast the kids usually have some type of breakfast meat, toast or eggs and fruit. When you break that down it runs about 50 - 75 cents per kid (1 piece toast, 1 slice bacon, 1 part of grapes for example). Lunches are just hit or miss as we have left overs, DH and I will often skip and the kids either buy theirs or we send them (and what's sent varies as well). Dinners just depend. If we're having steaks (rarely) the meat alone will run about $10 for a family of 4 with minimal if any left over. On average though I'd say $5-$7 for the family for dinner would be about right. We can feed our family on about $10 a day I guess, so that's not too terrible (of course that's not including juice, soda, and other "extras" that add up!).