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How much do you spend on food a week/month?

Family of 5, 3 dogs, 1 tortoise (eats lettuce daily). I'd say we are up to $150 a week average. Lately it's been more. I'm expecting it to go down when we go back to school.
 
I have been slacking a bit in the last few months, mostly due to lack of great deals. We eat organic fruit, veggies, milk, eggs, and sometimes even meat. I used to use MM RRs to pay for extras...now i do farmers markets and Trader Joes. For all HBA, pull-ups, and food, we are at about $150 a week for a family of 4! Add another $80 a month for dog food.
 
We are a family of 4-6, depending on the day/weekend. We almost always have 4 of us here, and 1/3 of the time all 6 of us are here. We have 2 dogs, 2 cats & a pond full of turtles.

I spend about $75/wk on food, HBA, pet food, etc. I spent more over the summer because I had no time to coupon & we're on the go a lot.

DH & I haven't gone out to dinner in months. I hate it. :lol: We spend about $30 every other week or so on take out. I've really been trying to cook at home, but 10 days in a row seems to be all I can handle. ;) According to the IA state calculator, I should be spending $183/wk. Even when I worked I didn't spend that much.
 
My grocery and HBA is connected (along with diapers, some other misc. things like school supplies, etc. ) and we are up to $35/week for our budget. (was $25/week for a while, but ran out of meat stockpile and deals got low so I had to add $40/month for mainy meat). We are a Family of 5. Our fresh fruit and veggies realy is based on what is on sale...we might be eating 10 tubs of strawberries one week and apples the next. The only constant is bannanas because my girls LOVE them. I also cook all meals in doubles so that we have leftovers the next day.

ETA: Our dog is another line item in our budget and for heartworm medicine, food and flea meds. We budget $38 a month. We buy the huge bags of food and only buy it about 5 times per year and buy meds in 6 month qty, we just budget for it monthly.
 
skincarekathy said:
And this is not directed specifically at anyone in this thread, but people really underestimate what they spend on food unless they write down every expenditure for a while. Couple years ago I thought I was spending around $140 a week on groc, turned out it was around $200-220 when I actually started tracking OOP.
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So true...and tax and coupons are something people overlook too in their grocery counts.
 
A while ago, I was spending only 30.00/week for 2 adults, 2 kids, and a bunch of cats. We were mostly living on stockpile so this was mostly for milk, produce, and whatever fresh meat I wanted for the week. I mostly cook from scratch for all our meals and we don't eat much processed stuff other than the occasional fish sticks and Bagel Bites that my kids sometimes insist on. I make my own ck nuggets and have tried to have them eat all their meals with us rather than let them eat the typical kid cuisine that they liked to eat a couple years ago. Some HBA stuff like TP, PT, laundry detergent, shampoo ... I hadn't needed that stuff for a couple years so that was completely written out of our budget and that was so nice.

I know my OOP costs were accurate because I have a dedicated ING debit card that I used for anything that I bought at TGT, CVS, WAGs, Doms, and Jewel and I didn't shop anywhere else for food, HBA, cleaning or pet stuff. This actually makes tracking expenses very easy. The Walgreens MM RR deals were plentiful back then so I always had extra money to use for the stuff we wanted. If there was a good deal, I could hit it hard and have an extra 50.00-100.00 in RRs that would cover my groceries for the next 2-3 weeks!

However, these days, it's more like 50.00 a week. I'm sad that my costs have almost doubled but I ran out of several things in my stockpile and actually had to buy them. I've made a couple trips to Valli in recent weeks for fresh produce and deli meat/cheese and that pretty much killed my 30.00/week budget but I got so much more there than I could have with Jewel's inflated prices even though I could use my RRs there.

This also doesn't include eating out which we do 1 or 2x per week. I use Groupon or coupons or GC when I can, but we like places that don't typically offer those types of deals so we just budget that in accordingly. Plus, I am a pretty big rebater and often times use that money to cover any of our dining out costs.

I really miss the days of plentiful deals (WAGs glucose monitor deals, anyone?) and an overflowing stockpile. Keep hoping those days will come back but I'm pretty sure they won't ...
 
I suck at stockpiling because my kids eat it. You know all that Swiss Miss? They were drinking like 3 cups a day until I had a blowup about it.

I probably spend $200 a week because of all the meat, cheese, produce and veggies. Since I have no stockpile, I feel like am basically screwed. You can't stockpile that stuff!
 
TOO MUCH! Probably around $100 a week for 5 people. I remember the days when I spent $40-$50 a week on groceries and had a huge stockpile, the stockpile that is now completely non-existant :(
 
I'm guessing we are spending $75/week now. But given that we likely underestimate, it may be more.

We are running dangerously low on meat. No more beef at all. A bunch of chicken nuggets and a few packs of pork chops/ribs, hot dogs, Hillshire Farm type sausages.

I lost some meat when a freezer broke during flood, but mostly we just have tried to only eat whatever we have for the last month. Its working....but I will have to start buying meat soon.
 
I have a family of 4 with 2 very hungry boys and dog, I spend about a 100.00 a week. That is for HB, food, meds, dog food and any little extras, we don't eat out often so it's not included. I budget a 100.00 but some weeks it goes up to 115.00-120.00 with the cost of food going up, the sales have sucked and its summer I haven't been able to do very good. I hope with school starting I can spend more time on it and get that amount down. I have very little room for a stockpile but am able to store away a decent amount to help stretch the weekly budget.

All of you amaze me with how little you spend a week. I have been couponing for about 2 years and when I listen to you guys I realize I still have so much to learn. All of you do such a great job!
 
I'm trying to stay at $75 for a family of 5 with 1 dog. We a hardley eat out... lower budget due to job loss....

I get two Sunday papers, and try to trade coupons where I can. I prefer not to buy them..but will if SUPER deal. (that get figured into the budget). We eat fresh produce (for the most part) and typically shop at Jewel, Hy-Vee, Wags and Meijer. Ocassionally shop at Target when a good deal is found! (but my Target is NEVER stocked).
 
We are eating out of freezer and stockpile for the last two months, so mainly getting milk for DH and some fresh veg/fruits with RRs or overages. I would say $30-$40/month for both of us, mainly tax and OOP at WAG to roll the RRs.
 
boyzrus said:
I can easily spend $50-$100 a week just on produce and lunchmeat. There are no coupons for that and I am shopping at Valli Produce which has pretty good prices.

We don't eat many things in boxes which is what lots of the coupons are for, not even cereal.

I have 4 boys ages 7,13,14 and 16 and I know it will only get worse.
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I would recommend checking out the lunchmeat at Aldi. It's $3.29 a pound for ham, chicken breast or turkey breast. Certainly you can do well at Valli, but I don't think their prices compare with the Aldi stuff unless you have coupons for Sara Lee $1 off 1/2 lb.
 
skincarekathy said:
I am spending around $100 a week total for everything I buy at a grocery store, target, walmart, or drugstore. I am like Mary, 3 hungry boys & lots of fresh produce & meats, etc.

We do not eat out with the kids AT ALL. My DH and I eat out 2x a month. The kids get their fill of fast and fast-ish food with their other parents.

And this is not directed specifically at anyone in this thread, but people really underestimate what they spend on food unless they write down every expenditure for a while. Couple years ago I thought I was spending around $140 a week on groc, turned out it was around $200-220 when I actually started tracking OOP.
Click to expand...

I find the easiest way to make sure I stay on target is to use cash. I pull all I need for the month out at the beginning and dole it out throughout the month. Once its gone...its gone.
 
We have so many big expenses coming up over the next several months, this thread has been very helpful to me- maybe just realizing that 1) I can do better, 2) I need to look through what we have & get back to planning meals like I was doing before summer started and 3) I should set a cash budget & stick to it.

Thanks to all who have contributed!
 
moreforless said:
I would recommend checking out the lunchmeat at Aldi. It's $3.29 a pound for ham, chicken breast or turkey breast. Certainly you can do well at Valli, but I don't think their prices compare with the Aldi stuff unless you have coupons for Sara Lee $1 off 1/2 lb.
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Yeah, but the taste difference between the packaged stuff at Aldi and the fresh meat from the deli is huge. I don't know about Vali, but similar stores by me often have 1-2 types per week for around $4 a pound.
 
Anywhere between $50 - $150 per week, sometimes less depending upon how much time I have to coupon. But I used to spend $200 - $300 a week. :faint:
 
boyzrus said:
I suck at stockpiling because my kids eat it. You know all that Swiss Miss? They were drinking like 3 cups a day until I had a blowup about it.

I probably spend $200 a week because of all the meat, cheese, produce and veggies. Since I have no stockpile, I feel like am basically screwed. You can't stockpile that stuff!
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Only 3, My DS was filling up 32 ouncejugs 4-5 times a day, and had the nerve to try to use milk instead of water. Had to put an end to that one real quick.

lucyrevenge said:
I find the easiest way to make sure I stay on target is to use cash. I pull all I need for the month out at the beginning and dole it out throughout the month. Once its gone...its gone.
Click to expand...

See, I am horribewith cash. Once I break a big bill I have no idea were the rest goes, I use a modified enveope system ,where I spend it on the card (for rewards :) ) and the pay the card every other day for the expenses I charge and track my "envelopes" in excel. I admire cash people, I lack the discipline.
 
mrs.melton08 said:
Only 3, My DS was filling up 32 ouncejugs 4-5 times a day, and had the nerve to try to use milk instead of water. Had to put an end to that one real quick.



See, I am horribewith cash. Once I break a big bill I have no idea were the rest goes, I use a modified enveope system ,where I spend it on the card (for rewards :) ) and the pay the card every other day for the expenses I charge and track my "envelopes" in excel. I admire cash people, I lack the discipline.
Click to expand...


I can't use cash either. It all disappears on me, I have no idea how.

I saw Jessica on EC last night again (she was the lady in Idaho who rocked the Feb Conagra catalina) and I think she is still my fave. Starstruck by her stockpile LOL, but she meals plans EVERY meal, shops for that and seems very disciplined.

I am getting better. I have to retrain myself to not care about/buy stuff we a) don't use, b) maybe don't need right now, etc. I was very pepped up by Barb mentioning stockpile maintenance last week :)
 
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