re: Family budget question re: groceries/food/consumables

Update:

So I started tracking this hard in July. I came up with a budget of $740/month

Grocery $75/wk, $300/mo
Dine out $40/wk, $160/mo + 1 or 2 "actual dine out" $100 total $260
Pharmacy $30
Consumable (Wal-Mart etc.) $150
Total $740


Through July-Oct we’re averaging $847.76/month.

Don’t have it broken down in the buckets I talked about above. I’ve pulled this number down for about an $1100 average from the months leading up to 7/14. I’ll take that $250/month. We’ve done some bulk cooking and freezing and just general cutting out eating out on week nights.

This number may be slightly high because I don’t break down trips to wal-mart into food or fun (which is pretty much everything non-food). If the trip is majority one or the other, that’s the bucket it falls into. Not itemizing receipts.

Successes: bringing lunch more/not eating out multiple times per week, more home cookin (easy meals w/ leftovers)

Areas for improvement: still could eat out a little less and more bulk cooking. Could probably get this number down another $50. All in all, I’m happy thus far.