Like Donny’s wife, I have a budget of $200/week for groceries and toiletries/cleaning supplies. My boyfriend and I eat $400 in groceries and probably spend $100 in eating out per month. Since our goal was to get *down* to $500/month in food costs for the two of us, our current budget makes us feel very thrifty!

We do, however, feed our friends and family members a couple times a week when they are low on cash or as a way of saying congratulations/thank you/etc (we are pretty generous about helping them out with food), and we opt to go out to a $20 dinner and watch NetFlix movie occasionally rather than, say, spend the same amount on a theater movie.

I wonder, respectfully, if the individuals with low food budgets are making up for it by spending more heavily in other areas? An example besides the movie theater bit would be that we help our friends and family with food, but we do not donate to church or other charitable organizations.

Four years later, after much effort and learning, and with zero reduction in the quality of food we eat, we each spend $160/month on food, for a combined household total of $320/month. This number doesn’t include the around $100 we spend on staples like dried beans and quinoa at Costco every 3 months, though, so figure that kicks our cost up to around $354/month.

We made the following lifestyle changes to reduce our spending: carefully organized the fridge and pantry from top to bottom, so we always know what we have at all times, meaning no more buying excess and wasting it; pack all lunches at home (we *never* buy them anymore); bake our own bread every weekend in the breadmaker I bought 3 years ago at a heavy discount; switched from canned beans to dried beans (we cook a big batch in the pressure cooker every weekend – so much cheaper); buy bulk oranges and make our own juice (we freeze small amounts in little jars and then move them into the fridge as needed – delicious, cheaper, no added sugars or anything); make a large batch of brown rice every two weeks and freeze 1 cup portions, so they’re always on hand; we cook with the crockpot and in big batches more than we ever did before, so there’s always food in the house; we cancelled our CSA, which was $35/week, and began going to the farmer’s market every Saturday instead, which is much less expensive in our area (I understand the cost of CSAs vs. farmer’s markets may vary by region); we made a price book and learned where our staples were cheapest, and began to only buy them there; we eat out only once a week now at the very most, and only at our favorite restaurant’s “happy hour” – all their healthy appetizers are 1/2 price before 6pm on Fridays, so we can share 3 big appetizers (things like salads made from local, organic produce, quesadillas made with caramelized veggies and vegan cheese, etc.) for under $12, and still have leftovers for lunch the next day, bringing the cost of this date-night “splurge” down to $3/person/meal; we never order alcohol or soda in a restaurant, and drink only so-called “two buck chuck” wine from Trader Joe’s ($2/bottle) at home; we buy organic for things on the “dirty dozen” list of pesticide-retaining foods (strawberries, apples, etc.) but less expensive conventional produce for the rest; I never ever buy cleaning products – we make our own from bulk jugs of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda, saving money, keeping toxic chemicals out of our home, and helping the environment; rather than 3-4 trips to the store/week, we shop just once a week now, under the theory that every time you walk into a store it’s $ out of your pocket; we routinely make our own salad dressings and vegan sausages instead of buying them, which is kind of fun and a huge savings; we bought a few plastic food storage tupperware bins for a few bucks from Ikea, allowing us to keep all our fresh produce in either the crisper or a bin, and it stays fresh many days longer because of this; and most importantly, we put ourselves on a cash only, strict food budget each week, and when the money is gone, it’s gone, and we eat what we have in the house.

I also looked into couponing, but it just isn’t possible for the way we eat. I always see couponers insist that they buy “healthy” foods with their coupons, but when they list some of these supposedly healthy foods (sugary juices, chips, cookies, and other snack foods, mac and cheese, frozen dinners, etc.), I have to respectfully disagree. We don’t personally eat things that aren’t whole grain (we don’t even buy non-whole grain pasta, let alone rice, bread, etc.), and eat only unprocessed, fresh, and vegan foods, so coupons generally don’t apply to any of our items. That said, I can often find veggies and fruits on sale for under $1/pound at our local Henry’s Market, and our farmer’s market always has $1 bags of things like onions, zucchini, squash, bell peppers, etc. that are an amazing deal. We eat lots of meals of simple, cheap things like roasted veggies (veggies roasted on cookie sheets with a little olive oil), chili, vegetable soups, veggie curries over rice, salads with beans and rice to make them more filling, and so on. Dessert in our house means either popcorn popped from kernels we buy in bulk, or a piece of fruit. Once in a blue moon, if we want a cookie or something, I bake a cookie with flour we’ve bought in bulk and chocolate chips I’ve gotten on sale.

I think the key to managing this area of the budget without compromising quality is to track things carefully and thoughtfully, using a system that works for you, and to challenge yourself to eat the same on less every month, until you hit the level where doing so stops being possible. Then you know your minimum necessary food budget, and you can make an informed choice about how much to spend each week, fortnight, or month. Then develop a system of sticking to your budget that works for you – for us, the key was going to an all-cash food budget, and to manage it in easier to track two-week, rather than month-long, intervals.

Finally, I’m sure that if all I had was $150/month to feed a family of four, or whatever people are claiming they do, I could find a way to do it, but not without seriously sacrificing the quality of the food I was buying. Everyone has to do what they have to do to get by, but I don’t really think anyone can tell anyone else what the “right” food budget is for their family, and especially not people living in different parts of the country with different food costs, and with different definitions of what “healthy” food is.

I didn’t change my menu much and reduced our bill down to around 650.00 a month. How? I stopped going daily or every other day to the grocery store. Instead, I do a monthly menu and shop every two weeks for all the items only going back for milk bread and eggs. Why? easy, daily shopping always adds a couple of dollars for extra items. Biweekly doesn’t add anything if you have a list and stick to it. We’re not eating any boxed meals, I won’t feed my family that nonsense. We don’t eat fast food, it’s too unhealthy. My wife drinks soda, but me and the kids drink milk, juice and primarily water.

The trick for us, was making a master menu in excel but paper would work. I listed all of the meals I cook, the ingredients for each meal and how balanced of a meal it was.

from here, I’m able to make my shopping list and not miss anything. Meals with ingredients that won’t last two weeks I make first or make and freeze. For a month, we’ve been eating much the same for much less money. The kids don’t know any difference. My wife notices that we’re coming up with almost 1k extra a month and is loving it.

I found this by typing in “average food budget” wondering if I’m still higher than needed, or lower. It appears I’m doing well but considering I’m in a state where my milk costs me 1.90 a gallon and my bread is rarely over .65 for 100% whole wheat, I think I can do even better.

If I can offer one piece of advice, plan ahead! Not just a week, but a month or more. Make a list and stick to it at all costs.

As I always say: If you’ve got time to watch television (or spend hours on the internet), you’ve got time to bake bread, cook from scratch, make laundry detergent, sew, etc.

Given all this, I’m totally okay with spending a lot on our food. Now that I know how to treat my disease, I don’t get sick anymore. I’m not dosing myself up with all kinds of pharmaceuticals to get through each day. I’m not spending money on doctor co-pays only to be told “I have no idea what is wrong with you”. Totally worth the expense.

I’m absolutely sure that is all that gets spent on food (in answer to a couple old posts asking how people keep track.) My husband tracks every penny spent and where it goes, and I never use more than $150 at the grocery store (I go twice a month) and we don’t eat out AT ALL. The food I bring home every other week is the only food we eat. My husband may grab a coke or candy bar at work IF he has change…probably amounts to about $5 a year. Lol.

PLUS…my budget(which is for 2 adults, one 2-yr. old and one infant-I nurse so I eat more)…that budget also has to cover all household items, hygene stuff etc, about $70/month in prescriptions (asthma and eczema), $15/month in dog food, cat food and litter, and any gifts for birthdays or extras.
~~~So basically, my $300/month budget covers EVERYthing that is not bills or gas for cars. For food itself, I probably spend about $200/month. (Which breaks down to just over a dollar per person, per meal.)

Oh, and I stay at home, cloth-diaper my infant, and cook everything, we have oatmeal for breakfast every day, weekends we get eggs or pancakes. Lunches are whatever is left over from dinner, and my toddler doesn’t eat packaged snacky foods (like crackers cookies juice etc.) We usually snack on leftovers. Basically I buy a little meat, lot of grains (lentils, barley, beans), lot of potatoes, try to throw in some fresh veggies, and some milk, cheese, baking ingredients, and pb&j. I don’t buy soda or candy or any packaged foods. I do garden, but as we live in high desert, it only produces some tomatoes (which are cheap anyway) and a few spices and some squash. Doesn’t make a dent in my shopping.

I have been on both sides of the fence on the issue of how much to spend on food. I have a family of 4. We have a 7 year old and a 3 year old. I used to spend $300 a month using Aldi, Walmart, and Kroger to get the maximum amount of savings possible. But I have changed my priorities recently. I have started going to a coop in town that sells local, organic, and healthful food. I have also joined a CSA and try to go to a farmers market as well. I don’t buy much junk food and we make our own bread and pretty much every meal is from scratch. Our bill is a little closer to $600 per month now–and we live in an area of the country where food is not terribly expensive.

Organic food in the U.S. is not subsidized. That’s why it’s so expensive compared to non-organic items. So for all of the people who have criticized you b/c they eat on a smaller budget, their food might cost close to the same as yours to produce but Uncle Sam is subsidizing it (mostly to farmers working for big corporations,) and the independent organic farmer relies on only his customers to foot the bill. So, a person’s grocery costs might not all come out of his/her individual pocket, but society is paying for it just the same.

Also, Americans spend an average of less than 10% of their money on food. In Europe and Japan, it’s about 16-17%. They don’t eat stuff laden with corn syrup. They are more healthy overall and have less medical expenses, too. It’s good to be frugal…but not at the expense of one’s health.

All of our groceries plus Enfamil formula plus diapers and other toiletries runs about $350/month here in Minneapolis. We don’t eat out often, and we all bring lunch to work.

I have mixed feelings about the “average” figure reported in the post!!

My husband and I are very frugal, so when we moved, he disputed my monthly budget amount for groceries. We spent the next month saving every food related reciept (groceries, fast food, etc). If you do ittoo and are honest with yourself, you will notice how those small midweek trips add up. So I think the average is right on. I won’t feel guilty for buying healthy food for my family, knowing that we eat and not let go to waste.

However, I wonder if the national average is based on grocery bills that are full of cheap processed foods.

We are eating a gluten-free, no eggs, dairy, oatmeal, soy, or beef diet due to food allergies.

We get 5-10 lbs of free vegetables each week from my husband’s work.

I am really struggling to keep the budget under $600 per month. We eat beans in our meals 1-3 times each day, often for snacks, and eat meat about 1x/week. Beans are delicious.

Everything is from scratch.

I often wonder if we require more than the average person’s calories–my husband is doing physical labor each day, I am running after kids and tending a garden, and my kids don’t watch tv–plus,the boy needs to gain weight.