We really don’t track. Yesterday, I went to Costco and spent >$200 on food plus a pair of shoes for D and 2 packs of socks, also for D. Also bought D a box of Godiva chocolates and holiday treats—pantone bread and 4+ pound tin of Walkers shortbread. I had gone there for fruit, which I got, as well as cereal, almond milk, local veggies, rotisserie chicken and much more.
There are 2 of us living at home but D also comes for visits of a month at a time and S pops by for visits when his schedule permits. Visitors always increase our food and dining out budget as we do more dining out and nice takeouts when we have visitors.
Pre-pandemic we ate out a lot more. These days, not as much. We may spend up to $2000 some months and $400 in other months—when we eat at home we tend to spend a lot less.
My frugal son would say we spend way more than we should on groceries, now that we are a household of 2.
I definitely pay attn to sales where we shop (Harris Teeter and Costco), and our weekly grocery order starts with selecting stuff that’s on sale at HT. Costco is sometimes a painful experience, and I usually only go there if there is enough stuff in their deals catalog to warrant a trip.
Best guess is we spend well over $150 a week at grocery store, and every several weeks/couple of months we spend at least a couple hundred at Costco.
Going out is unpredictable. Now that we are retired we probably don’t go out as much as we used to. During holidays/birthday times we may wind up with multiple pretty expensive meals in a month, but other months it’s cheaper places or carry out pizza/Asian food which tends to be cheaper. We usually do drink alcohol when we go out, which of course adds to the cost.
We don’t skimp on groceries. Having good food around makes it easier to resist temptation to eat out more (which we usually do a few times a week, dinner with Friday beer gang plus one or two breakfast/lunch).
I buy a lot of organic chicken and top quality steaks. Organic chicken is expensive so I usually get a 40% discount by buying in the reduced price area of the meat counter. Everything that I buy is cooked and devoured that day as I have several carnivorous dogs who think that I am the world’s greatest cook.
I made a quick stop at the store to pick up yogurt. Ended up bringing home salmon too… probably because of this thread - made the $9.99 cost seem reasonable compared to $12
I buy all our groceries with my credit card, so I know that we average $650/month for the past six months. That includes everything purchased from the grocery store, but I do get dry goods delivered (soaps, detergents, etc) bc we are un-plasticking he household.
We are a household of 2; holidays skew the bill since we have so much company. DH and S2 are celiac so while a loaf of their bread is $8 and a frozen pizza $13, it also means we almost never eat out. I do nearly all of the baking and cooking, even when we travel. We don’t eat a lot of meat and no red meat (except DH is on this bison binge thing). Not sure if that helps since produce is so amazingly expensive these days.
During covid I had to start picking up the groceries, and having to make an actual order really cuts down on the random purchases! No fun at all! But I am still doing it since it saves so much time
I shop the sales, and especially for things like meat. Today, I was at the local store, and chicken breasts boneless were $1.99 a pound…so I bought them. I do this type of shopping often. We have a freezer (for things that can be frozen like meats), and a large utility room (to store on sale items like TP, paper towels and other non-food items, as well as food items like jarred and canned things (like PB and J, olives, etc.).
I don’t really keep track specifically but I would guess we spend about $150 a week…just two of us…averaged out. Some weeks a lot less.
We eat out for dinner every six weeks or so. I have lunch with friends maybe twice a month. That adds up.
We do almost all our shopping at Walmart so it’s pretty hard to separate everything like H’s toys, light bulbs, H’s toys, clothes, H’s toys, etc. but we spend roughly $1000/month there for a family of 2.
Eating out is roughly $25/week for fast food and $40-50/week for our nicer dinner - though sometimes our nicer dinner is chick fila or long John silvers. So $300 in eating out per month
I don’t have budget type rules about how much I am allowed to spend in a particular category per month. Instead I spend responsibly based on the dynamically changing costs, personal preference, and financial situation. I do track spending in Mint.
My average grocery spending on food (not including paper products and such) during 2023 was ~$210/month. This is for an average of ~3000 cal/day of mostly healthy food from groceries. I primarily go to 3 groceries – Walmart, Costco, and my local supermarket. I go to Walmart/Costco each ~3 weeks, and go to my local supermarket when I happen to be in the plaza, which is ~once per week. During these trips, I stock up on the specific items that are lowest price at each location.
For example, I get my frozen vegetables at my local supermarket. I stock up during their ~once per 1-2 month $1 per frozen vegetable package sale. This is a lower price or comparable price to Walmart/Costco, and I prefer the quality/taste over Costco/Walmart. I usually get rotisserie chicken at Costco. It’s hard to beat Costco’s $5 price per oversize chicken (or ~$4 for regular sized). I also get Quaker Oats and some frozen items at Costco. Walmart is my default for most packaged items when my local supermarket does not have a good sale, and I do not want to buy at Costco. An example is milk. Walmart consistently has a lower price than my local supermarket on milk, and I don’t want to buy at Coscto, with the large sizes and limited selection options. I get lactose free milk, which has a ~2 month after purchase expiration, so it lasts the 3 weeks between Walmart trips.
We spend a lot on food. It’s the one area that we don’t skimp. I will look to see what’s on sale and use my loyalty card at our market, but I also shop our local butcher and farmer’s market. If it’s just H and I, we usually spend $250/week. But, we entertain frequently and have family regularly staying at our house. It’s not unusual for us to spend $400/week at least once if not twice/month.
We typically go out to eat once/month but we have a separate dining out line item on our budget. Same for household goods and alcohol.
I also picked up salmon this afternoon after complaining about the $12 price here. It was $11.60 per pound, so of course I had to get some! And – BONUS – they didn’t have enough, so she just gave me some of the center cut that was supposed to be a couple dollars more per pound. I felt like a rich woman.
How much money do you spend weekly or monthly on groceries? So far this year, monthly average is $845.*
How many people are in your household? 2
How often to you dine out? About twice a week, socially only (rarely just the two of us) as we prefer to cook at home. So far this year, monthly average is about $1,100.
Do you pay attention to prices when you shop and make purchasing decisions accordingly, or do you buy what you want and need, regardless of the cost? We pay no attention to food costs (grocery or restaurant) as cooking and dining out with friends are the primary pleasures in our lives.
Groceries (inc TP, laundry stuff, etc.) run about $550/mo. I do way too much drive-through. We probably do about $450 between that and restaurants (still mostly takeout). I tracked to the penny on Quicken for almost 20 years, but I just can’t justify the time of entering every single credit card transaction into it any more. I’m the one who pays the bills, though, so I have a good handle on what we spend regardless.
I spend about $200 a week at the grocery store. My big shop is usually $150 but then I always need to pick up dog food & treats & miscellaneous last minute items as well most weeks. I’ve been people food shopping at Lidl, which really does have great prices especially on vegetables which are the bulk of our diet. I eat meat, but DH only eats fish. I buy mostly cheese, crackers, and nuts for snacks. I’ve been doing a lot of sheet pan roasted veg that we just eat over rice or quinoa with a sauce. We both like it! I was probably spending $400 per week when D23 was home because of snacks and drinks and treats.
Eating out is tough to figure. A nice meal out here would be about $150, takeout $80. But neither are regular spends. Maybe take out once a month, dinner out once per month.
My grocery bills were getting crazy but I have a list, casually shop the sales and it feels under control now.
Assuming you meant “Aldi” in your post? I was just going to put in a plug for Aldi for those wanting to investigate some lower costs. Don’t go in looking to buy your whole grocery list the first couple of time. Focus on the following categories (IMO):
Dairy
Fresh meat
Canned goods (if you don’t buy in bulk at Costco)
Baking supplies (sugar, choc chips, etc)
Produce? (I say with a ? because I feel ours can vary in terms of quality - but many swear by their produce)
Is New Jersey the only state with a bag ban? I was bringing my own even before the ban, but it is nice to see everyone with their reuseables now.
Looks like we spend about 850 a month for groceries. We often have visitors for a week or more, so that ups it some. Very little eating out. Pizza takeout every week or two, and occasional meals out with family that we pick up tabs for. Maybe averages 100 a month.
Edit: We buy organic/free range etc for meats, dairy, veggies, etc (well, the veggies aren’t free range) so that definitely ups the budget.
All told, it’s $400 a month tops for a family of four/five. My 91YO father lives with us and has several dietary demands that have increased our costs in the last year.
I shop the loss leaders at the grocery store - 99-cent chicken thighs, $7.99 salmon filets (the non-cut-up ones, big slabs), $2.49 ground beef, $1.99 ribs, $8.99 for 2lbs frozen shrimp are my usual stock-up-and-freeze price points.
I have a big garden so almost all vegs & herbs are from it; I will not buy grocery tomatoes as they taste like disappointment (a saying from a favorite gardening YouTuber). We do a lot of canning and freezing and drying of herbs.
I do buy during the 99-cent frozen veg sales for corn and a few others. Corn is such a space-intensive crop and you can’t beat the taste and price of fresh Jersey corn in season anyway, so I don’t grow it.
Dairy/pantry - we do pickup orders at Walmart once every two weeks and I buy Great Value brand stuff. We will spring for quality cheeses (not from Walmart) for a charcuterie now and then, but generally, Walmart brand pantry basics are fine.
I never pay actual money for toiletries or paper goods as I’m a couponer and use drugstore play money for that stuff. Haven’t paid cash for toothpaste, e.g., since 2009 - in fact I’m dropping off two bags of toothpaste at the food pantry today.
Drugstores also run sales on food items that can be pretty competitive if you watch for them and don’t mind dealing with drugstore bonus money like Extra Bucks or Register Rewards or Bonus Cash: my dad’s Raisin Bran was 2/$5 this week; Starbucks coffee was $7.99 last week, soda was actually free before Black Friday, etc …
We’ll do takeout a couple times of month but that’s it. We can’t leave my dad alone, so that limits us.
I don’t think Jersey is the only state with a bag ban, but Aldis everywhere don’t have bags - you can pay for them in-store, and they do have random stockroom cardboard boxes available to stack up your groceries if you want. And you have to put a quarter in a slot to get one of their carts (it is returned to you when you return the cart to the store).
