I was reading an article that the average American family of 4 spends $510.00 a month for food. How much to you spend on food per month and what types of foods do you buy? We spend about $400.00 a month for food. We rarely eat prepared/convenience food. I cook from scratch and on rare occasions we will treat ourselves to a cheap roast or pork chops. We mostly eat homemade, beans, rice, potatoes, chile, pizza, casseroles with 85/15 ground beef or what ever is on sale. I will sometimes buy hot dogs or lunch meat but not very often as I don't particularly care for hot dogs/processed meats (have you seen how hot dogs are made).
We are a family of five (with three growing boys!) and I spend about $400 a month on food, plus about $100 a month on takeout after sports, etc. We go through a gallon of milk a day (it's between $2.69 and $4.19 here) and I use my crockpot alot. I try to cut back on the takeout food, but honestly, on the nights we have practices or games from 5-8 or 9, well, the drive-thru works. :| I make DH's lunch, and I try to have well-balanced meals for all three. In the summer especially though it is easier to tell the kids to grab some fruit or veggies for a snack than it is in the winter! I try to can or freeze for the winter months too- although sometimes I wonder if that isn't cost-effective so much as me knowing that I made this for the family. MT3
We are a family of 4 and spend an average of $400 a month ( $450 if its a stock up month , like paper towels, toliet paper , laundry soap, female produts, etc) ..that includes all personal products, pet food and eating out. Food prices are cheap here...lots of stores to choose from , great farmers markets, wholesale butchers and you pick farms. We eat meat 3 days a week ( top sirlion, rib eye , extra lean ground meat, ribs) , chicken breast 2 days a week , and seafood 2 days ( tuna steaks, salmon, shrimp, bass, tilipia, shark). We do not eat pork ( no we are not Jewish or Mormon ,per Words of Wisdom, but health studies show it is not a very good animal to eat) and the days we have beef it is only my dh that eats it ( maybe my oldest dd if she is in the mood for steak) and the girls and I go vegetarian. We eat lots of freah fruits and veggies, beans, rice, some potatoes, eggs, cheese, some pasta ( maybe 3 times a month), barley, quiona, couscous, tortillas, nuts, dark/milk chocolate ( organic), etc. Minimal processed foods..we do eat mac and cheese ( organic only) , some lunch meat ( turkey mostly, no nitrates added) , top ramen ( with veggies, chicken added), cereal ( whole grain Total, Special K), some muffin mixes ( for when I don't feel like making it homemade)...and our one vice is soda ( we try to keep it to one soda per person per day, we drink Hansens All Natural root beer and cherry vanilla). If we eat out it is with coupons ONLY ( we have the local coupon book that we buy for $20 from public school kids we know) or we use the coupons that the casinos sends to us for free dinners/lunches. My dh's cilents often give him $25-$50 dollar gift cards to different resturants around here and that helps out a lot.
We probably spend close to $600 for a family of 5 (including other household products like detergent, paper towels, etc). So maybe it's actually $500 if you subtact that out.....we buy groceries and household at the same stores so I don't separate the 2 in our budget. And it definitely is an avg. One month might be 400, the next higher.....just depends on what I've previously stocked. We do buy a lot of frozen and pre-packaged food. I hate to cook (there I admitted it :lol....add that my DH's schedule is not reliable, and we tend to eat a better lunch and I'm more a short order cook at dinner time (not always but more than I'd like....but it works for us). DH nukes a breakfast sandwich or 2 from the freezer when he heads to work (when it's still dark half the time) and typically doesn't eat lunch. He's always been a 1 or 2 meal a day soldier no matter how hard I try to tell him that it's not the best for him :roll: Our eating out budget is separate. It varies but we tend to eat out once or twice a week....mostly fast food on the way to some event and after church. Depending on the month, that budget varies from $100-200. Always looks worse when I compare it to you "scratch" cookers but it works for our family (at least until one of my girls decides she likes to cook.....:lol::lol. We do not have any cheap places to shop around here. Wal-Mart, Sam's and the Army commissaries are about the best but they are still much higher than when we lived in KY. Someone mentioned milk being betw. 2.60-4.20-ish. Ours here is $5+ unless I get it at Sam's and then it's a bit over $3 (same milk and the stores share the parking lot....how frustrating). It was almost $6 a gallon but has recently dropped a bit. So groceries and eating out probably hit the $600 most months. I tend to trim other things from the budget to make it work since I have EXTREMELY picky eaters and hate to cook! Rhonda C.
we are a family of 5 and we take about ok hold on 600 a month but that includes all my MIL meds and special things she got to have like depends and believe me those things aren't cheap around 12.00 a bag and theres only 14 in a bag and she goes through 8 to 10 bags a month, depends if I can get her behind up and out of the chair to the bathroom, she loves to sit and go in her pants. Man I don't know if I will brake that habit or not. But, I am working on it. We out twice a month if we are lucky and one of those times it's Sam's and there Pizza for 8.00 and that feeds us all. So, we don't eat alot. When it was just the 4 of us we use to eat for about 350 a month. My MIL loves her food and food is everything to her and she is a big eatter too. Eats from sun up to sun down. Trying to brake that habit too. Guess I have my work cut out for me there too.
We're a family of 5, two of which are teens. We spend around $450 per month on food. It used to be $600-$700 per month, but I've worked really hard to cut it down, and discovered Winco! I shop sales and stock up. I cook everything from scratch and we very rarely eat out. That's the hardest one for me, having three kids very involved in sports. I used to just swing by drive through after a late game, but now I will fix something in the crock pot or pack a picnic dinner to take to the field.
I have to make do with whatever is left after the bill money is put aside. There are times when I make $100 or less go for 2 weeks that includes things like diapers, toilet paper, dog food etc. for a family of 5. When I have to do that we eat things like spagetti, and stuffed cabbage casserole. When money isn't needing to be pinched I spend about 100 a week for everything.
For a family of 6, we spend about $350 a month on groceries. An additional $100 would cover things like toilet paper, toothpaste, cleaners, etc.
Wow, Pam. This is always something I've prided myself on, but lately the stores (or SOMETHING) is just killing it. Lately it's been about $150/wk, so $600/month.. but that does include things like shampoo, paper plates and towels, laundry and dishwashing soap, etc. It doesn't include the once (sometimes twice) per pay period we eat out. Dh gets paid every two weeks, so I guess we eat "out" about 3 times a month. Usually it's Little Ceasar's Pizza, $15 to feed all 5 of us including a 2 liter Pepsi, and we bring it back home. I really want to get back into Sam's, but our budget is SO tight right now that we can't spend the extra $40 to buy the larger packages that would last twice (or three times) as long. Gr. Maybe next month.
Ok Pam, I want lessons, and menus!!! We can make it on 400 a month, including diapers and all of our other necesities (soaps, papers etc), but my menu list sucks for eating cheap!
You know what's really great? This topic comes up every few months. I get $200 cash every two weeks for groceries. We're a family of 5, and that usually includes stuff like TP and toothpaste, feminine products for my girls, etc. And usually most people posting spend more than we do. But this time, it seems that most of us aare somewhere between $400 and $500. I know I'm spending a bit more now with prices going up, and told Carl I really need an increase. So I kind of expected everyone else to be spending more, too. But this time, it seems that most of us are somewhere between $400 and $500. And it thrills me that, where before it seemed to be between $500 and $600, it is now lower overall! (Am I making any sense?)
Jackie.. it is getting harder and harder to stay on a decent budget. I have recently started serving some strange things for lunch.. ok they aren't that strange.. pancakes and waffles, hot dogs cut up in pork and beans, and my least favorite due to the nutritional value, but my favorite on cost Ramin Noodles.. what other meal can you serve that costs 50 cents for 5 people???
Yea, Jackie this subject does come up alot. Crazymama, we love ramin noodles here, I make them and add different kinds of left over meat in them and they go along ways. Pam, I want your menu too.
I'm sorry, I didn't express myself well at all! Every other time this topic came up, my $400 a month was considered low. Most spent a good deal more. So it excites me to see that, with everything going up, more of us are managing to actually spend LESS.
I know for my family it became a necessity to be even more frugal when it coame to groceries. With more money going into the gas tank to get dh to work, there was less left over for groceries. I used to be a careful shopper, but I think now I've become an even better shopper.
A few weeks ago I had to laugh at my dd even if I didn't feel like laughing! We had x amount we could spend on groceries and bought mostly necessitites (bread, milk, lunch meat) and the only splure was a $2 bag of chips. About a week after that we were talking about what was left in the food budget and she said "how on earth did we spend $40 on food and didn't buy anything?!". That was definitely a learning experience for her. I told her that just the bread and milk alone was easily $15!
It has become necessary to keep my grocery bill low due to gas prices being so high. I'm not really sure how I do it. We went through a serious financial battle a few years into our marriage, and I learned then how to eat cheaply. There were times that we only had $25 a week to spend on groceries for 4 of us. I plan my whole menu around what's on sale. The local gorcery store has it's own coupon deals. At least one of those deals is buy one item (usually a more expensive item- this week's was 2 pkgs. Ball Park hot dogs) and get 5 to 6 things FREE (Sarah Lee buns, French's mustard, Hunt's ketchup, 1 can baked beans, 1 can chili no beans, and Hunt's 4-pk. pudding)!! Sometimes these are not good deals for me. It depends on whether or not it's something we'll use. This week, I saved almost $30 wiht in-store coupons. A great thing about TX, is that there is no tax on food. When we moved here, my grocery bill went down about $40/month, just because I was no longer paying the 10% TN sales tax. Food is also cheaper in TX than it was in TN. It is going up though. We are also members of a produce co-op. I get produce (varies each time) every 2 weeks for $12.50. I buy very little produce at the grocery store. As far as menus.... We eats lots of casseroles. That makes meats go much further. If I cooked one piece of chicken per person, I would use 6 pieces. I can make 2 casseroles with that. I make chicken pot pie often. You can throw in leftover veggies. I make poppyseed chicken, rotel chicken, chicken fajitas. These all use less chicken. We also use ground beef a lot. I make spaghetti, enchilada casserole, tacos, and beef stroganoff with it. Sometimes, I just throw some Velveeta, egg noodles (cooked), cream of mushroom soup and browned ground beef together. My kids like it. This is for the REALLY poor days (We've had those.): Mix browned ground beef, mushroom soup and rice (cooked). It tastes OK and is really hearty. Any other meats that I by have to be on special (usually yesterday's mark-downs). I have used coupons regularly in the past, but rarely use them now. I typically stay away from name brands, and that's what the coupons target. I will use them if I find a great deal, but coupon clipping just doesn't seem as worth it as it used to.
Oh, and we buy all our milk at Sam's. It's MUCH cheaper. We're lucky that dh has a free Sam's card through work. DaLynn, before dh got one through work, my mom bought me a membership as a birthday gift. Got a birthday coming up?
We probably spend about 500 per month on grocerys, cleaners and paper products for 3 adults and 2 kids. I could do lower if we had to. We are trying to eat out less so that frees up dollars for the grocery store and I spend them trying to eat fresher, and healthier stuff. I am fortunate that were I live there are produce stands that have very low prices on fresh stuff now. for example beautiful, locally grown tomatoes .59 a pound. THis helps off set some other items. Using rice more instead of potatoes and bread, is a way we could skim a little more off. Ditto pasta. Making bread instead of buying it would save some and I look forward to having a kitchen that will allow this soon. Not eating as much meat is an option an we are moving in that direction. I make meatless lunches and dinners about 2 times a week and will move to 3 soon.
I spend anywhere from $300 - $500 a month on food. Most weeks, I average between $80 - $100. Some weeks I go over (if I'm stocking up) & some weeks less. I allow myself a budget of up to $120 a week. Whatever I don't spend usually goes in the gas tank. On household stuff (toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.), we spend maybe another $100 per week, but that'll go down as soon as ds gets out of pull-ups (they're $20 a package). He's using the bathroom much more, so I'm hoping that will be soon. I make most of our food from scratch - bread, most of our pasta, pizza, pizza rolls, spaghetti sauce, etc. I don't like convienence foods, so we don't often waste money on them. I keep trying to grow my own fruits, veggies, & herbs, but nothing grows well here. So next year, I'm going to do container gardening for all of it. That should cut down the grocery bill even more (assuming they actually grow). I'm also making more & more cleaners (which also saves $), instead of buying them, and hope to be making all our own cleaners by the end of the year.
