<p>So I'm sitting down and working out my budget for my second year, my first living off campus. The biggest expense (besides rent and tuition) I plan on incurring is groceries, but I really don't have any solid numbers to give myself a good estimate on what I can expect to spend on it monthly. I spent two months this summer subletting a house and feeding myself, so I've got a really rough idea on what to expect, but I'd like to hear what others find themselves spending.</p>
<pre><code> Let me first say that Mint.com, a financial planning website, is great for tracking and categorizing your spending if you're putting your expenses on a credit or debit card. That being said, I checked what I spent those two months and it was about $250 each. It's a painful number to look at knowing it is all coming out of my own wallet, and I'm wondering how much of this I can attribute to building up a pantry from scratch and how I can save in the future.
I should mention that I'm a 6'4" and 165 lb guy who can put away far more than 3 meals a day, just to give you an idea of who I'm feeding. I do my best to eat somewhat healthy, so breakfast is usually granola from the bulk bins while lunch and dinner are usually a grain or pasta w/ a chicken breast. I stay away from most packaged food and only do delivery or eat out once every couple of weeks.
So if anyone can shed any light on what they find to be helpful when budgeting food and cutting down on their costs, that would be awesome. Thanks!
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<p>To be honest, you’re spending habits seem perfectly reasonable, and $250/month for groceries is a good amount to be spending. If you have the money (i.e. you can afford to spend this amount, you have a job during the year or you’ve saved up enough money, etc), this seems reasonable.</p>
<p>Some things you can try are to determine what you make each week based on what is on sale or has coupons. Cook your food rather than buying pre-packaged foods. Shop around for the best prices, and (if it’s all the same to you) buy the generic versions rather than the brand names. If you’re comfortable sharing with roommates, this may also be a way to cut down on the costs of stocking a pantry. Things like spices, sugar, flour, salt/pepper, condiments, etc, that you don’t use very often can be split among roommates and that may help bring down the costs. You could also share things like milk, bread, or eggs–perishables that you need to finish quickly. </p>
<p>If you’re already doing all of those things, the amount you’re spending will probably stay around the same, unless you either change what you’re eating entirely or eat less (and I really would NOT recommend doing either of these, unless you really can’t afford groceries). If you just want to bring the cost down because you’re having a bit of sticker shock now that you’re paying your own bills, your grocery costs seem very reasonable to me, especially if you’re a big guy who likes to eat healthy, which can be a little more costly.</p>
<p>I found that to lower my food cost and still eat healthy is to have a big Breakfast in the morning, a lite Lunch and a lite Dinner, with vegetable and cheese snacks during the day. When I cook i bulk freeze for the week and package them in daily servings.
Once a week I let myself go and eat and drink with friends and splurge. Your allocation of $8/day for food is reasonble in most campuses</p>