How much is your monthly grocery budget?

[kmc]

I'm just curious how much other people are able to get by on. Two years ago our budget was $500 and it's up to $800 now (and I'm thinking about increasing it because we keep going over!). Part of it is the cost of living and part is my two growing boys ages 5 and 2. We're a family of five, but my five-month-old daughter is nursing exclusively.

I spend about $300 at Costco and $500 at our local HEB supermarket. Also, I try to buy organic when it's available, but would love to do even more. It's just so costly!

[Vancouver Mommy]

I've been thinking of tracking our grocery spending again to get a more realistic picture. I did it a couple of years ago, but I'm sure we've gone up considerably since then. I expect we spend about $600, but I fear it's more like $750.

[Scribe]

$400-$500 for two people.

[hanno]

About $400 for 2 adults and 1 toddler who all eat organic and vegan.

[DisplacedYooper]

$75/week for food = $250/month for food
$50/month for alcohol
$70/month for eating out

So our total budget is $370/month. We are myself, my husband, and a 19 month old. We cook almost entirely from scratch (well, we buy dried pasta and such and some canned foods like tomatoes) Meat is often an ingredient rather than the main focus of the meal.

We are flexible about this and will spend more if there is a good sale on freezable/storable stuff. Also, we'll probably spend a little more in the winter, since we're doing pretty well out of our garden right now (although I'm getting a little sick of green beans *every day*) but we try to eat seasonally so it shouldn't be too much more. We are trying to rein back our food expenses too!

Note: The above is our reined back budget! I don't think we could go much lower without going onto beans and rice full time....

[mar123]

$800 a month for a family of 5- includes a 12 y.o. ds, 10 y.o. dd, and 8 y.o. dd. That also includes laundry items, cleaning supplies, pet food.

[phathui5]

$600 a month for six people.

[rainbowmoon]

$500+ for 3.

(this includes dog food, trash bags and laundry soap)


what are you guys eating with larger families/lower budget?

[lunamama]

TOO MUCH!!!!
I would say we average around $1000 a month for food. We do eat about 90% organic and I do stock up when there are sales BUT...I need to figure this out this winter and fall. I need to figure it out soon! I would like to get the average down to about $600 because then we would be within our budget but, it is really difficult with 3 growing kids.

[Alyantavid]

It was $500 but I've got back around $400 now. There's 4 of us, me, dh, 6 year old boy and 2 year old boy. That includes household things as well.

[Sharlla]

I try to keep it under $250 a month (food only)

[Caneel]

Food only - $750 to $800 for me, DH and a nearly 3 year old.

I buy some organics (both meat and produce), stuff from the local farm stands, no junk or snack food and almost no packaged food.

DH is a bottomless pit at home as he generally doesn't eat during the day.

We certainly could spend less but attempts (mine) at doing so were squashed.

[llamalluv]

2 people, including all the 'grocery store stuff' (tp, shampoo, etc) $200/month, or about $50/week.

That does not include our $100/month on dining out.

We do not eat organic, and we (read, I) eat too much chocolate.

[1growingsprout]

Dont ask....

[dancebaraka]

Between 400-600 a month for us 3. A bit spendy but we love wine and buy local and organics. This also includes eating out which is fairly reasonable around here. We got lunch today for 6.50 for two and it was lovely

[Jilian]

Holy moly! Ours is $400 and that is for 2 adults, a 5 yr old and a 15 month old. I'm still nursing. I use coupons as much as possible (I research AFullCup and print out the internet printable coupons that are matched up with our local grocery store's ads). We only eat organic for the dirty dozen items. We do organic milk and sometimes meats too. This also includes cat food, paper towels, and toilitries for the house. I rarely go over but we do a lot of cooking from scratch so that helps. This includes stocking up on sale items.

[MtBikeLover]

We track our expenditures and every month the total food budget ends up around $1,100. This includes snacks, groceries, restaurants, etc.

This is for a family of 4.

[CameronsMama]

We spend $400/mo for 2 adults and 1 toddler. This includes dog food, toiletries, etc.

[beachmommy5]

My budget is $70 per week for groceries which includes pet food and toiletries. We eat out maybe once or twice a month. We are a family of 4, me, dh, ds who is 4yrs and dd who is 1 month (she is ebf). We don't eat all organic but I severly limit processed foods and cook most stuff from scratch.

[4evermom]

$600/month for family of 3 is a comfortable yet mindful amount for us (it's really easy to spend much more and hard to spend much less) for everything we get from the grocery store (toiletries, etc). We get the dirty dozen organics. We don't eat out but might order pizza once a month.