How much should you spend on groceries? (and other grocery questions)
I've gotten lots of questions in the new year about my grocery budget, so I thought I'd answer them here in a post, rather than emailing/responding to everyone's comments.
Less work for me, and then everyone can benefit!
How many people are you feeding?
I'm currently feeding five people (two adults in their 40s, and three girls, 17, 14, and 12).
Does your budget include toiletries, cleaning supplies, and paper products?
Yep. I include both in my total. However, I don't buy tons of paper products (particularly paper towels, which can be pretty easily replaced with washcloths and kitchen towels).
I also don't use a whole lot of cleaning supplies, and I don't use disposable cleaning supplies, such as Windex wipes. So, that stuff doesn't use up a great percentage of my grocery budget.
Should I make my grocery budget just for food? Or should I include cleaning supplies, etc.?
That is completely up to you! The money is going to be spent no matter what, so I don't think it matters how you categorize it.
Where do you shop?
I do about 80% of my shopping at Aldi. I also get a Hungry Harvest produce box each week.
I shop at Costco here and there (my top ten Costco purchases here!), and I also pop in to non-Aldi grocery stores to buy whatever Aldi doesn't carry.
How do I know how much to budget for my groceries?
How much you should spend on groceries depends on so many factors, such as:
- the size and ages of the people you feed
- the type of diet you eat
- the area you live in
- the amount of time you have to cook from scratch
- the amount of disposable income you have
So, it's impossible for me to say how much you should spend, and you should NOT NOT NOT feel like your budget should mimic mine.
For instance, some factors that influence my budget size:
- No one in my house has a large build, and my current kids at home are girls. If you are feeding male teenage football players, you will need more food than I do!
- I have easy access to Aldi and to plenty of other grocery stores, which makes it easy to find low prices.
- I am a work-at-home homeschooling mom, which means it's not that hard for me to avoid convenience foods and cook more from scratch.
You can get a ballpark figure of what it should cost to feed your household by using the USDA numbers, which you can access right here.
Their numbers end up being high for me, but that's because they're a general guideline. Your mileage may vary!
I think your shopping/eating/food management techniques are the thing to focus on rather than a specific dollar amount.
If you are faithfully doing things like:
- shopping at the lowest priced stores in your area
- buying generics
- shopping sales
- avoiding unnecessary purchases (like sugary beverages or a bunch of disposable products)
- cooking a lot of meals from close-to-scratch
- managing your food waste
then your spending level is probably not something you should worry about unless you really, really do not have that money to spend.
In that case you may have to resort to more active measures such as:
- reducing meat consumption/eating cheaper cuts of meat
- really sticking to from-scratch, unprocessed eating (for instance: only eating bulk oatmeal instead of cold cereal)
- drinking only water
- eating more basic fruits and veggies
- growing some of your own food
Well. I had a lot to say about that question, I guess!
The main thing to remember is that you should not beat yourself up if you spend more than another person.
No two households are exactly the same, and even if you shop super-duper carefully, you still might not be able to get your spending as low as another person's.
So.
Figure out what's reasonable for your household and your overall financial situation, and do not let other people's lower grocery budgets keep you up at night, mmmkay?
___________________
Readers, how have you determined the size of your grocery budget?
P.S.I want to help you feel good about your grocery spending! So, if you have other grocery-related questions for me, leave them in the comments, and I'll either add them to this post or make a new post in the future.
I went to one of those parties that was selling those reusable cloths that are good cleaners, and I can't remember the name. Anyway, the presenter said most people spend $40.00 a month on cleaning supplies. I thought it was a slip of the tongue and she meant in a year. But no, she meant a month. I don't see how anyone could possibly spend that much unless they have a cleaning business.
That does seem awfully high, even if you include laundry detergent and dish soap.
Even if you bought those disposable cleaning wipes, it still seems like it would be hard to add up to $40 a month, unless you are wiping down every surface of your house every day.
I agree that $40 every single month sounds like a marketing ploy. I guess you could spend that much a month if you buy only the most expensive name brands, buy a separate product for everything i.e. no multi-purpose products, do a ton of laundry, and are wasteful in your applications and uses.
My house must be really dirty because I don't know if I spend that much per year.
Honestly, I think people sometimes over-clean. For instance, I definitely do not use a cleaning spray every time I wipe my kitchen counters, for instance. Unless there's grease or raw meat juices, a washcloth rinsed in hot water works just fine.
And a rag wet with water followed by a towel cleans my wood floors just fine too.
I use a bit of white vinegar to clean my counters and floors with and it's dirt cheap
One can save a ton of money just by using cloth instead of paper towel[1] and using vinegar+water instead of Windex.
My lightweight cleaning spray is the same stuff I use to clean produce: 25% vinegar, 75% water. Heavier is diluted Joy/Lysol/whatever is on sale.
[1] Although strongly-anti-paper me uses paper towel to drain and blot bacon. But I use one layer of paper towel over a lot of newspaper.
We are a family of 5 (3 adults, 1 toddler and 1 baby) and live in DC. We spend about $900 on groceries a month.
Hubby and I bring lunch to work most of the time. Hubby eats out once a week with his friends. Sometimes we eat out. I tried to keep it under $500 but failed, so we will just stick with this budget since it makes us happy. 😀
For that area it does not sound unreasonable to me since we lived in that area also!
My budget runs high for two people, because 1.) No Aldi, 2.) we eat organic, and much of our meat is locally produced, and 3.) We both have chronic medical conditions which means we have to avoid or greatly reduce foods like breads, white potatoes, beans, pasta, etc. -- all of which normally put the "low" in low-cost menus. (My husband is a Type 1 Diabetic and I have a different auto-immune disease).
The way I determined my grocery budget was to track my grocery spending for a few months, then look at the totals, gasp and faint, recover, and set a lower budget as my goal. So far, I have been doing well with the lower amount, but that's also because I bought a half of a pig earlier in the year. Once that runs out, I have to decide if I want to do a bulk meat purchase again or not. Buying it from small farms, the cost can run to $8 a pound by the time you add in processing fees. So later this year, the challenge will be a different one -- figure out the best and cheapest way to buy meat while keeping our goal of local, organic/grass fed, and sustainable.
JD - you are so right. I'm T1D like your husband, and a diet that facilitates excellent glycemic control is not cheap! Kudos to you and your husband for prioritizing health.
I really struggle with with getting our food budget down, although we already do many of the things listed (ours is in the low-cost range of the USDA plan, $200-250 a week for 6). It would be interesting to know what other families spend. Some of the things we do: cook from scratch and bake, some vegetarian meals (I'm a vegetarian, so we always have lots of beans, etc anyway), buy cheap veggies and cuts of meat, limit processed snacks, limit cleaning supplies, grow our own herbs. We do buy some juice as we pack lunches for the kids and they don't drink enough water, we are big coffee drinkers, and my husband likes to cook for a hobby so our meals tend to have a few more ingredients in them and are always on the larger side. We also don't shop at Aldi, but try to buy only sales elsewhere or at TJs.
My budget should make your readers feel good about theirs. 🙂 I easily spend $175-200 per week including personal care and cleaning products for 4 people, 2 adults and 2 teenaged girls (one athlete) with my college aged son home on breaks. 4 of us eat breakfast/coffee from home daily. I eat lunch at home half the week (split time in the office), and one daughter packs her lunch daily. The other daughter has early dismissal from school and buys lunch out most days (on her own dime). My husband eats lunch out on work days. I think I spend less when I do a Home Chef delivery ($119 for 3 nights of dinners), but there are absolutely no leftovers which makes lunch for me harder. When my rugby playing son was in high school, we spent more as he would eat thirds for every dinner and needed more snacks.
I have decided not to worry about the grocery budget too much. This is a luxury for sure with extra expendable income. We have made great progress in eating far less takeout and eating out and more meal planning, so if my grocery budget is high, so be it. We are still doing better than we used to both in $$ and healthier meals. I also recently started going in to the office 3 days a week, so it is really a personal victory for me that I am still cooking and not doing take out on those days!
I spend that and there's only two of us! That's why I'm here
Your budget sounds pretty low to me, and nothing to be ashamed of. Based on the USDA chart she linked to, your budget is between Low and Moderate.
I am also a work-from-home, homeschooling mom and I am so thankful to finally find someone similar to me. I see all the time these families whose budgets are crazy low for a month and I always say to myself that they most likely have babies or little ones - unlike me who has three practically grown children (girl-20; girl-18; and boy-16) and feed five people for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. All that said, I strive very much to keep my grocery bill as low as possible. I only shop 2x/month and shop primarily at Aldi, Walmart (for those items I can't find at Aldi), and Sam's Club (only for toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, etc.) My grocery bill can average anywhere from $550-$700 per month and includes everything. I am a huge fan of freezer cooking! My sister and I work an entire day to fill our freezers with meals, soups, and even desserts for about 6 months. It is a long and grueling day but so worth it. Another huge money saver is buying in bulk whenever possible.
Wow, Tammy. What do you make? My little one has Cerebral Palsy and has 23 hours of therapy a week. I have done enchiladas, chicken pot pie filling, and shepherds pie but need more ideas. Pasta is a no go for us since it purees down to mush for our CP Warrior that needs every calorie we can get in him. High fat and high protein ideas please!!!
We make big batches of meatballs (make into BBQ meatballs, meatball subs, sweet/sour meatballs), meatloaves, crock pot fajitas (put everything in bag to dump in crock pot), taco meat (for tacos, taco salad, crunch wraps), chili, creamed chicken (to go over biscuits or mashed potatoes), chicken noodle soup, chicken/rice casserole, hamburger patties (to throw on grill), twice baked potatoes, apple crisp, apple pie filling, pumpkin quick bread. Hope this gives you some more ideas!!
I agree with Susan that my budget should make others feel very thrifty.
We are a family of 5, with 2 teenage boys and a 10 year old boy that is as tall as a 14 year old, so...they eat a lot. All 3 take their lunch every day, I eat at home for lunch in the winter and take my lunch during my work season and my husband varies. I make nearly everything from scratch, my oldest has autism and is on a very specific diet and we limit carbs for my husband and I. He has type 2 diabetes (he's not overweight or anything, just a genetic tendency in his family for their pancreas to start to falter in their 40s) and I have a lot of pancreas issues in my family on both sides, too, so we eat basically paleo.
Our budget is $250 a week, but it isn't uncommon to come in at $300 if we are having company for the weekend or we are stocking up on a sale item. (Like the time I bought 35 pounds of salt...) That includes some personal care and toilet paper, but not everything. We buy our meat from a local farm in bulk quantities, but I include that in figuring my budgeted amount. So, I only take out $210 a week because the meat averages to nearly $60 per week. The only additional proteins I buy are eggs, almond flour, various nuts and fish.
I would love to spend less but this is how far I've managed to get it down and still have enough to fill lunch boxes for my boys, keep all of us in real food and keep our rice/potato/pasta consumption to a minimum. Most of us are dairy intolerant, too, as a fun bonus, so I buy a fair amount of coconut milk but save tons of money not buying cheese. Haha!
A paleo diet for three hungry boys and two parents is just going to be expensive no matter how careful you are. I think you're doing great!
Kristen, you are such a kind person. Thank you for the support! Love your blog, girl. It's awesome!!!
We spend $50-$75 per week on food, personal supplies, and household supplies for 2 adults, 1 child, and 1 infant (who is exclusively breastfed). I know this is low- we have worked many years to get it this low.
We cook all of our meals at home. Rarely do we go out to eat. Many of our meals are meat free. We buy vegetables that are in season to reduce costs. We try to buy our meat on sale and freeze portions. Many of our meals have rice or beans in them, which we buy in bulk (20 lb bags). We usually eat oatmeal for breakfast, which is cheap and healthy. We are lucky to have one of the best public markets in the country here, so we shop there weekly for produce and sometimes cheese, meat, etc. We make our own breads, pizza dough, pancakes, waffles, etc from scratch. We rarely buy any processed foods. For snacks we have fruit- whatever is in season or on sale. We have a medium sized vegetable and herb garden, which we preserve for use during winter months (basil pesto, salsa, tomato puree, dried herbs, sundried tomatoes, etc).
I do not buy any cleaning supplies. I make my own vinegar from apple scraps and use that to clean mostly everything. I use baking soda for scrubbing. I make my own laundry detergent, which costs about $20 yearly.
We make our own toothpaste, deoderant, lotion, conditioner, and hair paste (for my husband) which also reduces costs.
You are amazing!
Girl, YOU need to write a blog on frugality!
Lol! Maybe some day!
I would subscribe!
Me too!!
Wow, I am impressed- that is amazing! I agree that you should start a blog. Do you mind sharing where you live?
I live in Rochester, NY! Food prices are very reasonable here and our public market is amazing!
you deserve a gold star just for avoiding Wegmans! (I am from Rochester and I just LOVE that store - and if I shopped there all the time I would be broke 🙂
Although Wegmans has good prices on some items, so we will purchase some things there!
I am from Rochester and love Wegmans. I mainly shop at Wegmans with some Walmart and TJs occasionally. For my family of 5 (three active teenage boys), we spend $350 per week! I have not been able to get it down (we eat 95% of our meals at home; mostly from scratch).
How do you make apple cider vinegar? I’m intrigued.
I make it by putting apple peelings and cores in a jar with water and a tiny bit of sugar and leaving it to kind of steep for a couple of weeks covered with a cloth. Then you strain out the solids and let it sit a couple more weeks covered with a cloth again until it has thecloudy "mother" in it and smells like vinegar. Then I put it in the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation.
I've done it this way probably half a dozen times, and it worked more than half the time. There are lots of online tutorials about it, too.
This is amazing! Would you mind posting your recipe for laundry soap?
We are a family of five (2 adults, three boys 6, 4, and 2). They eat a lot of food (for example the six year old will eat three 8" flour tortillas tacos stuffed with all the toppings or two bowls of chili). But they spend most of their free time running around outside. They are still on the slight side.
We buy a lot of things in bulk. The rest is bought at Aldi. I make bread and yogurt and granola. Breakfasts are often oatmeal, yogurt and granola, or bread and butter (they can eat an entire loaf of homemade bread for breakfast).
I buy meat in bulk and make things in batches. Today I made a double batch of tacos and frozen them and spaghetti sauce. The meat I bought at Aldi in a family pack. Less packaging! I will buy a family pack of chicken and prep it and freeze it in meal size portions.
I spend about $70-$80 a week on groceries. Meal planning helps a lot. And so do cooks country recipes. 🙂
Two adults, 1 toddler. We bring lunches daily, eat leftovers, mostly have given up soda. My budget includes cleaning supplies, toiletries etc.
We budget $300 a month and almost never spend that much. We aren't all that glamorous in our cooking (no exotic ingredients or top end cuts of meat) and buy in bulk, buy from bulk bins and do a lot of from scratch cooking. I do indulge in some NA beer once in a while but that's not a big expense.
I do shop at Aldi, some local grocery stores and BJ's (and Walmart if I absolutely have to.) I don't buy things unless they are on sale, always buy store brand if I can.
We spend a lot on food/toiletries/cleaning supplies. I'd estimate it's about $200/week for me, DH, our toddler, and our 8-month old. BUT, we aren't eating out anymore. We are cooking at home, from scratch, and with clean ingredients. Also, we really like food. So we don't only buy the cheap meats or the lowest-priced veggies. Sometimes, we really want a good steak dinner. We're cheaper in other areas to make up for our food choices, and as long as we're eating healthy and not wasting food, I'm okay with it 🙂
I just started mapping my budget for food 38.00 per week single person. Hoping 20.00 per mo. Will suffice for dish det. And paper lawn bags, hefty bags, toilet paper, vinegar, bleach, baking soda, lemon juice and toothpaste.
We budget about $100 a week for two adults. It's often less than that and rarely a bit more if really good meat or seafood is at a price that can't be beat. We will buy extra and freeze it for later. I splurged on a grass-fed, grass finished beef brisket at $10 per pound, sounds like a lot but that's cheap for NYC and it will feed us for many, many meals. I do buy a few cleaning products but spend maybe $40 in a whole year for them as I supplement them with vinegar and baking soda whenever possible. Our biggest expense each week is usually cold cuts but my husband, (whom I love dearly but he can be lazy), will otherwise order in lunch so cold cuts are the cheaper compromise in the long run. You gotta pick your battles!
Your last point is something I point out all the time...almost anything is cheaper than eating out! So buy the lunch meat and don't look back.
Agreed. There's always something better than what you're doing (spending, exercise, eating, cleaning, you name it!) so better to focus on the improvements. And packing a sandwich is definitely an improvement over ordering one.
It varies greatly. I am probably on the high side of what people have posted here and am cooking for 2 adults and one kid in a very high cost of living area.
I make a lot of things from scratch (chicken stock! Thanks for the recipe, Kristen!!!!) I don't usually bake breads or granola bars from scratch, and this is an area where I know I could save a lot.
I work out of the house but have ramped up efforts to bring lunch.
I try to do deals when possible. I usually shop at Trader Joe's, which is the least expensive local store, and shop other stores when they have sales or to fill in things I can't get at Trader Joe's.
I recently got a promotion for $50 off each of two orders of $100 from a local grocery delivery service. And while their outright prices are high, and I wouldn't normally use them, the $100 off, combined with shopping their sale items and another $5 coupon for picking an particular delivery slot yielded a HUGE amount of food for a grand total of $100, which I will use to restock the freezer.
I had to almost double our grocery budget last year because of some dietary changes for health reasons (I’m a restricted Paleo, one son is gluten, dairy, soy free, one daughter is gluten free). Now we just added two foster daughters who seem like they were probably food insecure. They LOVE meat and won’t really touch vegetables (one is dairy free). We are aiming for $1500 a month for 7 people. I shop Aldi, Costco & Amazon, primarily. We almost never eat out/do takeout and I cook most things from scratch. The cost is well worth the health results! That said, we feel blessed to have the means to prioritize this way...
Best of luck with your fosters and your health challenges. I agree, it's a blessing to be able to prioritize that way.
We spend around R570 a week, including cleaning and personal care products. My husband and I eat mostly paleo/lchf, and my son has ADHD, so he doesn't have artificial additives. I try to buy local and in season; organic is just not financially readable for us. Lots of planning and cooking from scratch!
What is lchf?
Low carb, high fat
Low carb, high fat
We used to be below the thrifty plan costs for our family of 2 adults because we had to be. Not going to lie, the breathing room from an income increase went partially to the grocery budget, so now we're *gasp* in the low-cost plan. But it's so nice, every week, to buy the type of apples I like instead of always having to buy the apples that happen to be on sale that week.
We spend about $130/week for just my husband and I. (This includes a weekly dinner with my 2 girls and their families). We mostly shop from 2 grocery stores here in Madison. Which includes meat except for ground beef (which I buy in bulk at Costco and freeze). My husband and I pack our lunches everyday. I watch what I buy at Costco and will not buy bulk unless I can freeze it. We do eat out about once every two weeks, but that is not included in our grocery budget.
We do a pretty good job of eating our leftovers and not wasting food. Cooking is my hobby so I think our food budget is pretty spot on considering it is my hobby too!
Another way to save is to choose your recipes wisely. Cookbooks published in the 1930s and early '40s have lots of recipes using cheap ingredients. One of our family favorites is creamed hard boiled eggs served over crispy chow mein noodles with fruited Jell-O. We also like egg noddles with crackers crumbled over them then drizzled with melted butter-- quite a different texture than regular noodles. Those noodles are served with fried Spam and applesauce.
We are a family of 7, two adults and 5 kids ages 18, 16, 13, 9 and 7. All of our kids have various food allergies which include peanuts, tree nuts and eggs. One child also has to avoid nightshades for an autoimmune disease and we have super sensitive skin and eczema thrown in there also. My husband works outside the home 3 days a week and two at home and I work outside the home 2 days a week as I am part-time.
I do all of the grocery shopping and used to spend about $1200 a month for everything including toiletries, household items and food. Last year I cut it to $800 for food and $100 for household/toiletries. and that went so well that this year I cut it to $700 a month for everything and so far so good.
Due to food allergies, we rarely eat out. I cook from scratch as much as possible and most snacky foods at the grocery are unsafe so I also do all our baking from scratch. I shop every week at Aldi and Meijer/Walmart for what I cannot get at Aldi and there are a few items I buy from Costco about 1-2 times a month. I meal plan and have a detailed shopping list with estimated prices written down as well next to the item. so this has helped me to drastically reduce my grocery spending!
As for cleaners, I buy generic dishwasher and window cleaner. Lysol toilet cleaner(we have super hard water) and use vinegar for my kitchen floors and counters! that is about it for cleaners.
I should also say we have 4 rescue animals! One cat and 3 large dogs(2 great danes and one german shepherd) and that food is delivered from Amazon and not part of this budget. The cat littler and dog treats are but I get those from Aldi!
I forgot to add that I pack my lunch for my 2 days at work, my husband usually does not eat at work and our kids go to public school and pack every day. On the weekends we are almost all home for all 3 meals.
ONE more thing. we are not small people. I am 5'11" and my husband is 6'3" and our kids are super tall also with a muscular build. So they EAT, a LOT. but we buy a lot of fruits and veggies and almost all chip/pretzels come from either Aldi or Costco.
Build makes such a huge difference! I came from a featherweight family that eating 1/2 a slice of toast with peanut butter was enough food to last a body 5-6 hours. I always found that imcomprehensible as my 5'4" average build frame (much larger than my sisters) was famished after 2 hours. When I met my husband's family (strong, and athletic without working for it) they always insisted I was going to starve on the diet I had. Sure enough, when I started adding calories to my life I started building real muscle! Apparently I was eating a diet that didn't suit my build. Now that I eat more I feel so much healthier and stronger! My kids inherited a strong, athletic build from my husband, and even at 2 and 4 they put down more food than I do in a day.
It's so funny, I've always wished I were delicately built but when you describe it...it sounds less appealing. Or, less ideal, anyway. Not as perfect as it seems in my head. I am tall and naturally very muscular and energetic. Along with that comes significantly higher caloric needs, but I always feel guilty about it. No need to, I am not at an unhealthy weight because of it. It's funny how we need to be reminded of obvious things. Lol! I can't imagine half a piece of toast with pb...I would faint. I eat 2 scrambled eggs, half an avocado, a piece of fruit and two cups of tea for breakfast!
I'm glad you found a better balance. And I really feel ya about kids that eat a lot. My sons blow my mind with how much they eat!
My family (2 adults, 2 preschoolers, 1 baby) spend $300/month on food. I think when my husband and I got married almost 10 years ago we spent $180/month. We've increased periodically with each kid and their growth. We usually wait until I can't make it work for a couple of months in a row, then we increase. I think we're nearing another one as my kids grow and my baby is about to start solids. Our last increase was the easiest due to a pay raise my husband received, but there was one increase in particular that was hard to find the funds for and that was stressful. 95% of my shopping is done at Aldi and we have a garden in the summer. I am so thankful for Aldi!
One other thing: we love in a low-cost area and when we lived in Virginia we had a discount grocery store in our city... These two things have allowed us to keep costs down in the 3 states we've lived in (IN, VA, MI).
This is just fascinating to read. One of these months I might have to actually track how much I spend on food, just out of curiosity. I don't pay any attention as a general rule, but then, our grocery situation is so far out of the ordinary, I don't feel as if it would be any kind of apples to apples comparison for the average American anyway. Come to think of it, I'd have to do it more than one month to get an accurate picture, as it varies tremendously based on if I take a trip to "the world" that month or not. This month, there are no trips to the regular grocery store, so costs are much lower. Next month? Probably going to spend like $300 in one trip to the "big" store. Maybe more. And then there's averaging out the whole cow we bought from a rancher, and the milk we buy every week from a farm up the road, and what we manage to grow in our new garden this year will also affect purchases. It's much more complicated than just tallying receipts.
When we moved to this very unpopulated place, one of my blog readers expressed real concern that I would have trouble feeding my family of six without access to a standard grocery store. I was so far down the road to self-sufficiency already, though, that I wasn't worried about that. I'm happy to say no one has evidenced any malnutrition yet, although sometimes my kids do wish we lived closer than 75 miles from the store that (sometimes) carries blueberries. 🙂
My takeaway from all these comments is that if anyone is focusing as much as these people are on what they eat and buy, they're probably doing really well, regardless of the actual expenditure.
I think you are right. Everyone here is thinking about what they are doing, aren't they, and doing what works for them.
It is a win-win when you cook mostly from scratch. Not only is it more frugal, but it is 1000 times healthier. You know exactly what's in your food and the temptation to indulge in treats is a lot less when you have to make them from scratch. I think this goes a long way to promoting health.
For people whose budget is really tight, where there's a will, there's a way. A friend of mine has Cal-Fresh (food stamps) and she uses them at the local farmers market--the farmer's market doubles the value of her food stamps, so she is able to buy organic fresh produce within her very limited budget. There's also this: http://www.52weeksofbirmingham.com/low-carb-recipes/budget-low-carb-25-seven-day-three-meals-daily-dollar-tree-menu-for-one/ Great example how you can do even a supposedly expensive low carb diet with very little money.
A further way to save money is to can, freeze, ferment, and dry food. When certain types of produce are plentiful we will dry them in our ancient dehydrator or pickle/ferment them. We make large quantities of broth from leftover chicken bones and freeze it in large ice cube trays to have on hand, and anytime we open something where we need just a little (tomato paste!) we will freeze the rest in serving sizes. I'm not really a canner, but that's another way to preserve plentiful vegetables when they are inexpensive.
Thanks for the link. The meals were creative and healthy options.
I suspect that our higher grocery budget is actually one of the things that allows us to save in other categories. In particular, we love to have people over and cook for them. Groceries for a game night or dinner at our home are cheaper than meeting friends at an event or restaurant. Groceries that are a little special are cheaper than date nights out. Groceries that prioritize our health are cheaper than doctors' visits. Groceries to bake a cake for a friend's birthday are less than a fancy gift (and won't become clutter). We still work hard to cook in-season and from scratch, and we eat a lot of low-cost options (lentils and beans for the win!), but I don't panic when our numbers are higher than the USDA's lowest tiers. We are saving in other areas, and I enjoy investing in good food.
I would cry if I knew our exact food budget. There is nothing I can do about it. We live in Hawaii, and shop exclusively at Costco/Sam’s and at the on post grocery stores. Still, food here is between double and triple the price of the mainland, and, yes, we eat like the locals. I’m sick of rice, though. We rarely ever eat out and are highly selective about the restaurants we will go to. It’s a major bummer. On the happier side, when we visit the mainland it feels like we won the lottery!
So, I just noticed we are below the “thrifty” plan for our family in Hawaii. I don’t know how anyone can be excited with $1160 per month for a family of four, but there it is!
EEK! That's high! I knew Hawaii was extremely expensive, but my word! That's insane, and many tens of degrees worse than Alaska!
We visited Hawaii in 2011 and I was fascinated by the grocery prices. We are in Indiana and food is crazy cheap here. We do a paleo diet with grass fed meat for less than $1100! On the other hand, you do live in paradise and never have to buy winter clothes? Lol.
I no longer track my food spending and I'm sure it's considerable. I like food, I prefer quality produce and Happy Meat and I like eating out, and that's what I choose to spend on: I don't get fancy haircuts, I'm hardly in the manicure crowd, most shopping is torture rather than therapy for me.
I economize around the edges - I abhore food waste, buy some things in bulk, I like making soup and stock, I brown bag 90% of my work food. I also use cloth, wash zip locks, bring in my own carry-out containers at restaurants, reuse tin foil, etc.
I've never understood not reusing foil and baggies.
Amen to all of this!
$1000+
House of 6 ~ 4 adults, a teen (hungry) boy, and a baby with a gluten intolerance. We don't have Aldi. My prefered (closest) store is a Kroger affilitate that just went thru a full store remodel and I'm pretty sure prices are higher. I love Winco for produce but it's not very convenient so I can't go as often as I would like.
Here are my related questions for Kristen: What amount of your weekly purchased food is used during that week? Do you strive to stock up for future use or do you only buy what you would eat in a week? What kind of pantry inventory do you typically keep?
Food seems more expensive in Canada than the USA. For the 4 of us (2 adults, 2 young kids) it's about 800-900$/month. Only food, no cleaning supplies or toiletry, etc. And this is basic food, price matching, coupons, reduced rack, etc. But we have 2 gluten-intolerant eaters in the lot, which makes it a bit more expensive. And we eat lots of meat, some of it organic.
What's the exchange rate for the Canadian to US dollar? Does that account for some of the difference? (Feeling a bit ignorant that I don't know enough about our Northern neighbor to answer the question myself!!)
It's about $1 USD = $1.33 CAD.
Even when taking into consideration the exchange rate, it's still cheaper in the US (example, a box of crackers in the US being 1,50$, so about 1,80$ Canadian, would be 3$ here). It might have to do with wages differences (salaries), don't know. Or exportation/importation fees?
The poultry/dairy prices are controlled by the gov't.
When I lived in Ontario, I used to drive to MI once a week to stock up on Chicken and dairy. I had a po box there so it was worth it to me. Dairy and poultry are very expensive in Ontario. I was shocked to see boneless skinless chicken breasts for 9.00lb, that was 9yrs ago. On the other hand, I lived in a very small town and no one ate avocados. The grocery store would mark them down to 10 cents each. I used to cook for 50 seniors 2x a month and my budget was 3 bucks a person. I had to provide juice( tomato), meat, starch, veg, salad, roll and dessert. I had to purchase the meat at 1.99lb to be able to stay within budget.
I really wish we lived somewhere where we had an aldi! My family of 2 adults and 2 kids spends approximately 200-250 per week. My goal is to be consistent at 200 per week. It is hard as I have celiac and one child has dairy/egg allergies.
$250 USD is about $330 CAN, which sounds about right because that's our average per week in Northern Alberta.
Ouch! That's a lot! Is it the norm in Alberta?? Quebec, for us, about 200$/week
I averaged at $432 a month for 2018.We are a family of 4, myself, hubby, my son(19) and my daughter (17). We do not include medicine or pet stuff in that amount We do have several food issues. I am on a low salt diet, Hubby is allergic to dairy and we just learned in 2018 that my daughter had a gluten intolerance. Those all add to higher food costs. Neither of my kids are on a sports team any longer. My son is able to bring home bread and pastries from his job. I grow a nice size garden and enjoy canning. We cook from scratch everyday. We bring lunch to work and school. I shop sales, use coupons and Ibotta. I live in an area that there are many grocery stores. I shop at Aldi, Shop Rite, Stop & Shop, Target, Walmart, and Meat Farms. I have a membership to BJs as well and that comes from my grocery budget too. I was trying to keep my budget to $400 a month last year but with my daughter going GF it did not happen. My full post on my grocery shopping for 2018 is here: http://mcoia.blogspot.com/2019/01/food-costs-for-2018.html
We are a family of 2 adults and one 14 year old boy. Our food expenditures for the week average $70. I do not count cleaning supplies, toiletries, or pet food into that amount. I shop Aldi’s mostly, a local discount grocery store for staples, Costco once a month for bulk items, Giant for a very limited few brand name items (Gazebo Room Greek dressing, gotta have it!). I cook/make most of our meals. I work part time from home and homeschool our son so that and my trusty crock pot make it pretty easy to have home cooked meals ready. We do eat out some, us adults would rather spend on experiences like eating out, concerts and movies than buy gifts for each other. I do not count eating out into the grocery budget as that is in the entertainment budget but we maybe eat out once or twice a month at a low or medium cost place.
I’m so envious of the low price of groceries in the USA! Here in New Zealand groceries are sooo expensive! I spent $300 NZ$ per week which is not ultra frugal but not extravagant . The budget includes everything and it feeds 2 adults, 17,15,12,10 girls a small dog and a cat. We rarely have takeaways instead we have invested in a deep fryer to fry our French fries! Such a frugal meal and fun (and quick) too! I also grow my own veggies which supplement our diet .
I like to set my budget at $300 per month. We have 2 adults and 1 teenager living at home right now, with several cousins that pass through frequently (at meal times) and quite a few shared family or church meals that we contribute to. We don't eat out. We cook from scratch. We do buy 1/4 beef every fall, and that is is addition to the $300/month. It probably ends up at around $50+ dollars average, but varies according to the size of the butchered beef. (So, around $500-600 each fall--you have to buy it all at once). The $300 includes t.p., tin foil, toothpaste, etc. Occasionally, we are given a gift of food, or money for food, and the gift we were given for Christmas went for things at Costco like Ziplock bags, garbage bags...you know...super exciting stuff. Still, I am very grateful to be able to stock up on those things. We have a few challenges. I am type 1 diabetic, and completely gluten-free. My husband is on a quest to lose weight and has recently lost 77 lbs.
Our grocery budget used to be larger, but circumstances forced us to lower it. We are making it, but I'll admit it is something like work:)
I do this by growing a garden in my yard and canning and freezing everything I can from the garden as well as anything I can scrounge from my sister's garden and farm. I do buy a few things like cauliflower from farm stands in the fall for low prices and freeze or can. I buy lots of any grocery item that is on super sale, such as butter for $1.99/lb--I get what I can. If it's only 2, I get 2, but if it's 5, I buy 5. Then, I freeze for later, when it's not on sale. I have 3 freezers, which are always full. I shop at more than one store most weeks.
In December, I spent over my grocery budget. In January, I've decided I need to use up a bunch of items that may be getting old in my stockpile, plus work hard on all the canned and frozen goods I've preserved. I'm super happy because I've made up the difference in money saved this month, used up a lot of items that needed to go, and we have suffered for nothing.
I blog about all of this at: http://beckyathome.com
I know this is a little late (been busy this week with 3 sick kids), but what is the noodle recipe in the picture above. It looks so good!
I've tried reading other frugal living blogs, and they always make me feel guilty. I love this blog because it accepts that different people make different choices, and that's OK.
My family's goal is not frugal living, it is mindful spending. We spend a bit over $1000 a month on food for 4 people (and that's just food, no cleaners or toiletries). I don't shop at Aldi at all, and I usually don't buy generics, but that is because my family can taste the difference. I also don't use grocery store spices or seasonings, and instead order them from an online spice merchant (and they're cheaper there!). I've taken the time to find the one brand of pasta that my family likes best, and since we can afford it (partly by spending less in other areas), we have decided that the greater pleasure we gain from the taste of the better pasta is worth it to us. I cook almost everythng from scratch, but that's because my family complains about the taste of convenience foods or even eating out.
And here at this blog, I don't feel like that decision is judged. I do read it and consider some of the cost saving methods, even try those of them that don't result in sacrifices in taste my family would notice. Thank you!
I'm so glad you feel that way here! I want people to feel encouraged here, not judged.
Off topic, but what is the noodle dish in the picture? It looks delicious!!!!
That's zha jiang mian, a recipe from Cook's Illustrated. And it was tasty!
I just found your post after freaking out about grocery shopping. My husband is constantly telling me not to worry about it. But I can't seem to stop myself.
He is a truck driver and is gone for sometimes months. Our budget includes basically 2 households of 1 each. When he is gone, he is on tour (hauls music/entertainment). Their meals are catered when at a venue. Which means he's only buying coffee & the occasional meal out. He has a small fridge & microwave in his truck for frozen meals when he doesn't have access to catering. When he is home I always send him out with frozen meals I've cooked: soups, pastas, empanadas, breakfast burritos. I don't worry about his spending so much, it's mine. In fact, I worry constantly that he doesn't spend enough on himself.
I have gall bladder issues & a recent diabetes diagnosis I'm trying to handle through diet instead of medication. Whole foods/fresh foods are so much more expensive. I'm basically doing a low keto-type diet, which means all the cheap fillers to make a budget stretch, I can't eat. No bread, pasta, rice, beans, quinoa, oats, grains... Or very very limited. I don't drink sodas. I drink coffee, water, tea, juice occasionally. I don't buy sweets or snacks. I never have. If I get one 80% dark chocolate bar it'll literally last me 2 weeks.
My budget is all fresh/frozen veggies, berries, lean meats, cheeses, full-fat dairy (not milk, but heavy whipping cream, greek yogurt, etc), spices, & aromatics. We do not have an Aldi's here in Las Vegas, not an Aldi's in the entire state. Farmer's markets are more expensive than grocery stores. I'm averaging $60-80/week for JUST ME depending on if I need personal supplies (monthly girl items, dog food, ACV, shampoo, etc). I always try to buy on sale & seasonal for fresh produce. Most of what I get is for cooking from/close to scratch.
I remember when I was younger spending $30/week on just me & getting tons of stuff. Now I spend double or more than that & hardly get anything. I'm freaking out over my budget. I rarely have food waste because I freeze leftovers for either me or my husband. Even veggie scraps & meat bones to make soup broths. We struggle, but not as bad as so many others. Other than incorporating coupons, which I've never managed to get the hang of & always seem to be for boxed items/grains/etc... that I can't or don't eat anyway, what am I missing or what else can I be doing?
Our goal in the next year is to try to move out of LV to a more rural area where I can put the extra money to good use, like having a garden and some chickens. Until then, I feel like I should be doing something because I feel incredibly guilty over what I spend each week just to stay healthy.
I'm sorry that you are struggling! It sounds to me like you are doing everything you can to maximize your grocery dollars while still sticking to a diet that works for your health. I'm inclined to agree with your husband about your grocery spending. 🙂
So if I were you, I'd look to other areas to cut instead, if you are not able to make ends meet.
Hi there, is Aldi cheaper than Walmart by chance? I have been shopping Walmart for groceries exclusively for about three years now and have turned a blind eye to other grocery options for saving money. Your thoughts?
This all depends on what you're buying. If you are comparing Aldi's private label brands to Walmart's private label brands, Aldi is usually going to be cheaper.
But the name brand products are not usually a good deal at Aldi; those will tend to be cheaper at Walmart.
I really like how small Aldi is; it feels so much more convenient than Walmart, especially if you are just popping in for a few things. I'd recommend walking through an Aldi store to see what you think about how it compares to Walmart!