Grocery Budget

[paojack 41]

I was wondering why nobody was commenting and I realized the topic was locked

Anyways... feel free to comment and give ideas if you would like to

I am trying to set a weekly/monthly budget for our groceries (for only 2 people) and want to see what's the average as I have no idea and I have seen a lot of extremely different budgets, I know it depends also on where you live but I would like to get an idea at least

[arnie209 5]

im planing about 75 a day for two people but we are planning to eat out one meal and stay in the room or buy a low budget meal for the other two meals.

[Penguin_ie 5,998]

We spend around $400 for two adults and three small kids under 4. Mostly we buy Walmart, I grow some veggies. We have a take-away about every week to ten days.

[N M 96]

We aim for $100 a week (2 adults and 1 toddler) but generally go slightly over - especially in weeks when we have to buy diapers.

Most of what we make is from scratch - so we'd likely spend much more if we regularly had take out, or purchased those frozen ready meals and processed snack food.

We go to Wal-Mart or Target when we have the energy, but doing that can take an extra hour out of the weekend. Our nearest options are much less aggravating to reach, but considerably more expensive to shop at (an independent supermarket, and a couple of branches from the Kroger chain).

[Dan and Judy 614]

buy a $100 gift card from your grocery store at the beginning of the week and use it every time you buy groceries. That way you don't really have to do any math. you either run out of gift card or not.

[John&Juvy 36]

$400 to $500 a month for 2 people... different budget for our baby's needs .

[2xHollyx2 3]

Right now $50 a week for 2 people which is going to change soon.

Edited February 7, 2012 by Gina-S

[paojack 41]

im planing about 75 a day for two people but we are planning to eat out one meal and stay in the room or buy a low budget meal for the other two meals.

75 a day??? or week?? 75 a day would be crazy!!....

My husband and I have a deal that he pays the bills and I pay the groceries so trying to keep it inexpensive I started going for 40/week (not including beer ) which now that I see yous guys' posts I realized its a little stingy but it has worked for the past couple weeks! We are only 2 though and my husbands takes leftovers for lunch so we are saving on that too. Hopefully I will be able to keep it up.

And I dont buy the cheapest meat I see, neither the most expensive of course. I usually try to get healthy stuff, we eat a lot of fruit and always meat, chicken, seafood is in our menu.

Its amazing how expensive it gets when u have babies! We will have to start saving now....

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Groceries got really expensive within the past 2 years. That's when I started to write everything down we spend, every day. In fact, I have an EXCEL list for that. So our average monthly grocery bill in 2011 was $1,260.95, Starbucks $272.30, eating out $262.26.

We buy fresh wherever possible, go to the Farmers Market once a week, buy groceries mostly at Trader Joe's, some at Vons, some at Target, some at Fresh & Easy at the street corner, some at a 99 cent store, and a few selected items at Lassens and the local Anapurna store.

I put a certain amount of cash in our drawer every week. That's the spending money for the week. Before writing everything down, I wondered where all this cash ended up. We did buy "nothing" yet had no money left at the end of the week. We use cash wherever, whenever possible, so it's really a revelation to look at all the expenses at the end of the month and again at the end of the year and try to figure out where we can save money in the future.

[Ashlee and Bjørn 6]

Right now I only buy groceries for myself, and I end up spending about $50 which lasts me around a week to a week and a half. I am a vegetarian so I guess I save money on that...but my energy drink addiction probably makes up for it too.

I know that my fiance likes to have meat with pretty much every meal, so that will be a big change when he gets here. I am just wondering how much more expensive the grocery store trips will be once I have to start buying meat.

[paojack 41]

Groceries got really expensive within the past 2 years. That's when I started to write everything down we spend, every day. In fact, I have an EXCEL list for that. So our average monthly grocery bill in 2011 was $1,260.95, Starbucks $272.30, eating out $262.26.

We buy fresh wherever possible, go to the Farmers Market once a week, buy groceries mostly at Trader Joe's, some at Vons, some at Target, some at Fresh & Easy at the street corner, some at a 99 cent store, and a few selected items at Lassens and the local Anapurna store.

I put a certain amount of cash in our drawer every week. That's the spending money for the week. Before writing everything down, I wondered where all this cash ended up. We did buy "nothing" yet had no money left at the end of the week. We use cash wherever, whenever possible, so it's really a revelation to look at all the expenses at the end of the month and again at the end of the year and try to figure out where we can save money in the future.

wow! $1260 for how many people? seems like a lot to me!!

[Glyn and Kathy 288]

Haven't shopped for the three of us since Glyn went back to the UK, but it was about 75.00 a week for the three of us and two cats. That includes household items like paper goods. I am a coupon user...and I shop the sales and plan my meals around what's on sale. Like this past week, boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale at the store I normally shop at for 1.99 a pound. If I were shopping for the three of us, I would have bought a ton of chicken and frozen meal size portions. Planning a menu every week can be time consuming on a Sunday...but it really helps during the week. There is no coming home from work and trying to figure out what to have for dinner.

[BobnCherry 10]

We eat well maybe to well Cherry is enjoying Filet mignot from Costco and we never get out of there for under $200 but we'll never run out of TP I'd go to Wally world but my X works there and I don't want to ru into her with Cherry

[N M 96]

Groceries got really expensive within the past 2 years. That's when I started to write everything down we spend, every day. In fact, I have an EXCEL list for that. So our average monthly grocery bill in 2011 was $1,260.95, Starbucks $272.30, eating out $262.26.

We buy fresh wherever possible, go to the Farmers Market once a week, buy groceries mostly at Trader Joe's, some at Vons, some at Target, some at Fresh & Easy at the street corner, some at a 99 cent store, and a few selected items at Lassens and the local Anapurna store.

I put a certain amount of cash in our drawer every week. That's the spending money for the week. Before writing everything down, I wondered where all this cash ended up. We did buy "nothing" yet had no money left at the end of the week. We use cash wherever, whenever possible, so it's really a revelation to look at all the expenses at the end of the month and again at the end of the year and try to figure out where we can save money in the future.

There's part of your answer!

[Marilyn. 340]

I think we spend about $200 to $300 a month on groceries for 2 people... and probably about $80 to $100 a month on eating out