What's your Average Grocery Bill?

[R_Bert]

Monthly average?

 

 For a household of two? (food & household operations - detergent, TP, paper towels, etc)

 

I have to track and document some living expenses

 

Still draft but :wall:.....and we are not big spenders!

Edited April 13, 2014 by R_Bert

[Ted S.]

If I stick to budget and not get any fast food or gas station nonsense, I sit around $100-120. I'm very careful about the food I buy outside of fast food though, hence the expence. I really don't eat that much.

Edited April 13, 2014 by Ted S.

[jacob]

ne'er mind....I was gonna interject till I saw for a family of two...I have two sons with 2 hollow legs each...

[itchytriggerfinger]

Yeah, you don't want to know mine. We have a household of four, and my two boys are only 5 and 2, and already eat as much as I do.

[nightrunner]

I am a single man and average $180-200 a month

[Sam1]

Two people here and we do about $100-$125/week but that doesn't include eating out at least twice

[R_Bert]

$120/mo?  Good grief.  Just one trip, with *no* meat this week, we spent $105 at Wally World

 

salad greens

coffee creamer

toilet paper (bulk)

cheese (WM generic)

4 potatoes

tomatoes

carrots

coffee (WM generic)

eye glass cleaner & wipes (WM generic)

protein bars (*OK...I have no idea why she *has* to have these)

dark chocolate (~2 pieces each per day)

5 cans of vegetable soup

Promise butter substitute

toothbrush & toothpaste

Epsom salts

dozen eggs

2 gal of distilled water (for saline rinse)

[R_Bert]

Two people here and we do about $100-$125/week but that doesn't include eating out at least twice

this is closer to what we do, but rarely eat out.

[Raoul]

My wife has several food allergies so we tend to buy lots of fresh veggies and fruit. Also we just about never eat out as a result. For the 2 of us, including alcohol, it's about $425.00 a month.

[TNMTBik3r]

Family of 3, we spend about $400 a month. One big shopping trip, and then usually a small trip for milk and whatever.
We could cut back and need to, fewer steaks for example.

[dralarms]

Well, I got my wife and me, plus my 2 granddaughters 6 nights a week for supper (my choice), plus I won't let my children go without either (you have to help them through the hard spells) I'm guessing, not counting going out to eat, about 1200.00 a month. :o (

[Good_Steward]

My wife is one of the "coupon queens". While we don't do the drastic 300 jars of peanut butter kind of thing (the group she meets with certainly discourages the extreme coupon thing seen on TV), we still only spend about $100 monthly to feed a family of 4 and two dogs.... Not too shabby considering we were spending $150-200 per week before.

[R_Bert]

My wife is one of the "coupon queens". While we don't do the drastic 300 jars of peanut butter kind of thing (the group she meets with certainly discourages the extreme coupon thing seen on TV), we still only spend about $100 monthly to feed a family of 4 and two dogs.... Not too shabby considering we were spending $150-200 per week before.

We use coupons, but probably save ~$40 - $50/mo. (and hit the Food City close-out meat counter)

Edited April 13, 2014 by R_Bert

[Raoul]

We use coupons, but probably save ~$40 - $50/mo. (and hit the Food City close-out meat counter)

 

I'm definitely a fan of the "used" meat section...lol. I have a food saver and I take full advantage of the markdown stuff.

[Murgatroy]

Family of three, our daughter is seven. Full trip, groceries and toiletries we budget for $100 a week. $400 a month. We are usually 20% over/under depending.

 

We all three bring lunch to work/school and we eat out four times a month.

 

Being honest it is fair to assume that we spend $550 a month.

 

And my wife coupons.

[runco]

This formula has worked for us for several years:

Food $1 breakfast, $3 lunch, and $5 for dinner per person per day M-F, and we bump it up $10 per person on the weekend for eating out.  For the misc (paper towels, detergents, soap, personal hygiene, etc. we use $3 per person per day. 

 

My family is a family of 6, and the above works great on avg, and we squeak by!  Clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, we budget $100 month total.  Obviously, we don't buy clothes every month, but we place it in a misc fund for later.  We use the electronic envelope system at the credit union for running our budget.  We have like ~12 sub-accounts under 1 account number, and each has a budget name like:  Mortgage, food/misc., utilities, auto insurance, car maintenance, Tithe, savings, vacation, Christmas, overdraft savings, regular savings, loan1, her fun money, my fun money, and we use a separate credit union and account for real savings, that way we are not tempted.  So every pay check, everything is deposited into each account automatically based upon budgeted amounts.  This system has worked great for us for 15+ years.  Never been short!  Its the Dave Ramsey approach using envelopes, but instead of cash in a real envelope, we use the credit union and these sub-accounts to run our family financial ledger.  BTW the fun money accounts, we can use as we see fit without asking the other.  Unfortunately, my fun money account is 100% dedicated to this maddening gun nut hobby!

[Oh Shoot]

I cook daily (for just me) but hard to say exactly. I go to Sam's every six weeks or so and spend average 3 bills, then supplement in dribs and drabs from Kroger and fresh produce market along the way. Sam's saves me yearly member ship fee just in one trip on meat alone compared to Kroger.

 

- OS

[Good_Steward]

We use coupons, but probably save ~$40 - $50/mo. (and hit the Food City close-out meat counter)

Several years back my wife became unemployed. She decided since she was not earning, she would find ways to reduce our expenses. One of those ways was to attend a "Time to Save" coupon course. This was probably 6 years ago. She has it to a science now and will leave places like CVS with a bill of $0 and a coupon for x amount for the next time she visits. She's good. Edited April 13, 2014 by Good_Steward

[bersaguy]

Well, lets see........ :unsure: I guess you could say I have two mouths to feed. Mine and the Queen is what my friends call her. That would be Kasey.  I have done a lot of shopping over the years and i have found some pretty cool places to shop. I cook for Kasey and she is very fond of Chicken Breasts so that's what she gets 5 nights a week but I have an outlet I buy them for her that makes it affordable. I cook about 8lbs in a  large crock pot a week for her and two nights a week she eats Pedigree dog food. He snacks are Jacks Links Beef and Turkey Jerky. You can buy them fairly reasonable in bulk and Sam's Warehouse in 1 lb bags and I normally by 10 bags a month and we share those. The there is about 8 boxes of Alpo Snack biscuits a month. Then with what I spend on myself for food each month I guess I spend about 350.00 to 400.00 a month of food. When I buy her chicken I go to a store near Gallatin that is only open on Fridays and I buy 10lb bags of good plump chicken breasts for $15.00 a bag. each bag has 25 breasts. I also eat the chicken, either grilled of deep fried or sometimes baked. It's a lot cheaper than Walmart and Krogers or any regular grocery stores. They also have Steaks, Short ribs, Pork roasts, beef roasts, hams bulk boxes of pork sausage patties, bacon, all kinds of frozen vegetables and 10 lb bags of Crinkle fries for about $4.50. I love their frozen Brussel Spouts. I normally spend 100 bucks there when I go and can eat for almost a month on meals and I seldom eat out. can't eat out as cheap as I can cook meals. About the only time I go to a real grocery store is to get things like Milk, eggs and butter. Most every thing else comes from Sam's or Gray's.

[Troutburger]

We have twins on formula to the tune of about $80/week. I'm scared to even add the diapers and wipes. Then about $150/week on groceries for the rest of us and the dogs. We try to eat fresh food from only the outside perimeter of the grocery store. That's the produce, butcher shop, and dairy isle. It's more expensive, but that stuff in the middle will kill you.

[strickj]

$120/mo?  Good grief.  Just one trip, with *no* meat this week, we spent $105 at Wally World

 

 

WW is yer problem. They tend to be higher on groceries than grocery stores... plus they don't have weekly sale items and all of the buy one/get one free items.
I usually spend about $80-100/month for just little ole me. I hardy get anything that's not on sale and I'll rack up on the used meat (as someone put it!). :)

[CQB Elite]

[quote name="jacob" post="1138150" timestamp="1397426711"]ne'er mind....I was gonna interject till I saw for a family of two...I have two sons with 2 hollow legs each...[/quote] I have 3 daughters that don't get full, they just get tired of eating... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[R_Bert]

WW is yer problem. They tend to be higher on groceries than grocery stores... plus they don't have weekly sale items and all of the buy one/get one free items.
I usually spend about $80-100/month for just little ole me. I hardy get anything that's not on sale and I'll rack up on the used meat (as someone put it!). :)

I need to check closer, but I have not seen that here in Knoxville. And especially a $300/mo difference (for two of us).  You have definitely got something figured out. 

Edited April 14, 2014 by R_Bert

[TNMTBik3r]

WW is yer problem. They tend to be higher on groceries than grocery stores... plus they don't have weekly sale items and all of the buy one/get one free items.
I usually spend about $80-100/month for just little ole me. I hardy get anything that's not on sale and I'll rack up on the used meat (as someone put it!). :)

We do almost all our shopping at WalMart. Always seems cheaper than going to Kroger - wife does price match for the times when Kroger or other store is cheaper and use coupons as she remembers.

She has talked about trying to get into a type of extreme couponing, just to get a lower bill not necessarily to stock on stuff we don't need like a ton of peanut butter.

It is a 30 minute drive to Publix and we never seem do it. Do visit Sams occasionally for meat and some bulk items, please we get meat at a meat market and Piggly Wiggly sometimes (PW seems expensive too). What are some other stores y'all shop at?

[R_Bert]

I have 3 daughters that don't get full, they just get tired of eating... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is funny!

 

I have seen pictures of kids falling asleep in their plate.