What is your grocery bill/month, what should mine be? (long)

[dancingingrace]

We are a family of 4, 2 adults, one toddler and one still nursing. I try to do my major shopping about once a month or so, just because it is easier with the kids, and then I make mini stops for refills on milk, bread, sale items, etc. throughout the month. We have never gone by a budget because we've never really needed to (but we're getting ready to start one now), but I always buy the store brand items if they are cheaper than name brand (which is most of the time), we don't eat expensive things like steak or seafood...most of our meals that do contain meat are either chicken or ground beef. I use some coupons, but I don't base my shopping off of coupons b/c I don't buy a lot of what I have coupons for. I'm also inluding household items (toilet paper, soaps, new socks for kids, any misc. item like that which can be bought at WalMart and is used on a regular basis). So, my question is this: *ABOUT* how much should my grocery bill be for a month, and how much is yours if your family size is close to mine? I am embarrassed to admit this, but I don't know exactly how much I spend each month b/c, like I said, we haven't been following a budget...I could go back and total my receipts if I really needed to know, but right now I don't know. My DH just saw credit card statements (which we pay off each month, only use for interest) from grocery shopping, and he says we're spending way too much. Without knowing exactly, I'd say we spent around $345-360??? I know this isn't super thrifty, but without being an extreme couponer or without eating like kings, how far off am I?

[mama_to_DJM]

I think that sounds about right. We spend about 500/month for 2 adults and 3 kids, and that's with trying to be thrifty and cooking a lot from scratch! We don't eat out much, so that figure is most of what we eat in a month.

[cokelush]

We spend about 1k a month for two adults, 3 dogs and a cat. Way to much but stuff is $$ here. {1-2 things organic, and grass-fed beef} We rarely eat out. It's terrible.

[bumminbeachbabe]

Our food plus cat food bill for 2 adults and 2 kids is about $300 a month. We don't spend much on things like tp, laundry detergent, etc.

[Melinda29]

For all household goods and food, $75-125 per month per person (lower end for babies and young kids, higher end for adults and older kids). If you buy organic whenever possible, free range meats, and whole foods (nothing processed), then $150-$200 per person per month for food and household goods.

I am basing this off buying from WalMart and whole foods coops.

[rverrone11]

We are currently a family of 4--DH, me, 5 year old DD, and 2 year old DD. We never went by a budget until this month because we don't *have* to. But we started a budget so we checked to see what we spent in November (December and January wouldn't be accurate because of holidays and lots of travel). I was surprised that our bill was over $700.

We budgeted in $550 monthly for food. There is no way we could do just $300 unless we didn't buy fresh fruit and vegetables. We are vegetarian, so don't spend money on meat. But just this week, I spent about $60 on fresh fruit and vegetables. That's $240/month right there, and in the summer we spend more. We also have 2 cats, so we need to factor in their food and cat litter. If we had to spend less, we could, but we'd have to give up some things we like.

[Marianna1988]

Originally Posted by dancingingrace We are a family of 4, 2 adults, one toddler and one still nursing. I try to do my major shopping about once a month or so, just because it is easier with the kids, and then I make mini stops for refills on milk, bread, sale items, etc. throughout the month. We have never gone by a budget because we've never really needed to (but we're getting ready to start one now), but I always buy the store brand items if they are cheaper than name brand (which is most of the time), we don't eat expensive things like steak or seafood...most of our meals that do contain meat are either chicken or ground beef. I use some coupons, but I don't base my shopping off of coupons b/c I don't buy a lot of what I have coupons for. I'm also inluding household items (toilet paper, soaps, new socks for kids, any misc. item like that which can be bought at WalMart and is used on a regular basis). So, my question is this: *ABOUT* how much should my grocery bill be for a month, and how much is yours if your family size is close to mine? I am embarrassed to admit this, but I don't know exactly how much I spend each month b/c, like I said, we haven't been following a budget...I could go back and total my receipts if I really needed to know, but right now I don't know. My DH just saw credit card statements (which we pay off each month, only use for interest) from grocery shopping, and he says we're spending way too much. Without knowing exactly, I'd say we spent around $345-360??? I know this isn't super thrifty, but without being an extreme couponer or without eating like kings, how far off am I?

Before we had to work around allergies and intolerances, I budgeted $400 per month for our family of 4 (2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 nursing but starting to eat baby), including most household items and stocking up items when there are good deals. We atemostly organic, only chicken and ground beef (any other meat was only when it was in the marked down bin and priced really low), made most things from scratch. We did lots of thrifty meals and methods to keep costs down (whole chickens, meat was never a main item. 34 vegetarian meals per week, lots of pasta, beans, rice and quinoa). I always wrote a list when going shopping, and as long as I stuck to it, I had no problem sticking to my budget (however, I am the queen of impulse buys).

Now we can no longer have gluten or dairy in our meals (unless its like, cheese on the side, like tacos, YDS can't have dairy), which was a large basis of our meals. I haven't been doing df/gf/paleo-ish for too long, and we've had a move, so I don't know what to budget right now, but I'm planning for $500 per month for 2 adults and two toddlers, and I'll adjust in a couple months if I need to. We have a much smaller selection of organics here than we did stateside, so it will keep costs down. Kinda bittersweet, I suppose. Good for the pocketbook, but we'd rather pay more for organic, pasture raised, etc. DH asked someone local (well, an american whos lived here since the 80s) if they do CSAs or co-ops around here, and she looked completely baffled. She'd never heard of such a thing

[Marianna1988]

Originally Posted by Marianna1988 Before we had to work around allergies and intolerances, I budgeted $400 per month for our family of 4 (2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 nursing but starting to eat baby), including most household items and stocking up items when there are good deals. We atemostly organic, only chicken and ground beef (any other meat was only when it was in the marked down bin and priced really low), made most things from scratch. We did lots of thrifty meals and methods to keep costs down (whole chickens, meat was never a main item. 34 vegetarian meals per week, lots of pasta, beans, rice and quinoa). I always wrote a list when going shopping, and as long as I stuck to it, I had no problem sticking to my budget (however, I am the queen of impulse buys). Now we can no longer have gluten or dairy in our meals (unless its like, cheese on the side, like tacos, YDS can't have dairy), which was a large basis of our meals. I haven't been doing df/gf/paleo-ish for too long, and we've had a move, so I don't know what to budget right now, but I'm planning for $500 per month for 2 adults and two toddlers, and I'll adjust in a couple months if I need to. We have a much smaller selection of organics here than we did stateside, so it will keep costs down. Kinda bittersweet, I suppose. Good for the pocketbook, but we'd rather pay more for organic, pasture raised, etc. DH asked someone local (well, an american whos lived here since the 80s) if they do CSAs or co-ops around here, and she looked completely baffled. She'd never heard of such a thing

*3-4 vegetarian meals... 34 is a lot! Lol

[lizgrace07]

I think that sounds about right if it's including household products. We have 2 adults and 3 kids, and no pets and I spend about $300/month. Lots of fruits and veggies, minimal meat, and minimal packaged foods, lots of cooking from scratch. Our $300/month does not include any household products. We don't buy any disposable products anyway (napkins, tp, towels, etc. are all cloth). I make most of our cleaning supplies. I do buy dish soap, laundry detergent, soaps, etc. but those are not included in the grocery budget.

ETA: We live in what I would consider a moderate cost of living area. I keep the cost down by buying the fruits/veggies/meats that are cheapest that week. We also eat a lot of the same cheap fruits/veggies each week such as bananas, apples (right now), oranges (right now), carrots, lettuce, broccoli, and of course potatoes. In the summer it's more variety and usually includes berries and melons more than apples and oranges.

[kimb96]

That sounds reasonable. I budget $100 a week for 3 people. That includes all paper products, cleaning supplies, and cat stuff.