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

125 a week for groceries, household goods, lunch/eating out- family of 3.

I coupon, but most of yall already know that. I have 2 deep freezers full of wild game that we eat. The only thing I buy is chicken and occasionally pork/beef, only when it is on sale and I am getting low. I dont buy any ground meat. My parents make ground meat with deer/beef mixture and I "barter" with them coupon stockpile for ground meat.

Also, they grow veggies/fruit so I barter for that as well.

This is worth adding to the sticky list.

my wife and I spend about $500/month. usually shop at walmart or sams. we try to minimize the eat out situation but, usually 3 to 4 per month or once per week. fwiw kids aren't at home.

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.

If you have Peapod (or similar services) in your area, give it a look. We're saving a bunch with Peapod not because of sale prices, but because it allows for smarter shopping.

My wife reports that ordering our food online allows her to compare prices and look things up - to our advantage. By comparison, when you walk into the grocery store you're basically playing a road game on the marketers' home field. You don't have a chance.

Also, services like Peapod usually allow you to go pick the stuff up for a nominal fee, as opposed to paying a higher delivery fee + tip

It’s also just healthier in general!

We average a few vendor lunches each week so if I really want to eat out, I can get it for free. But I shouldn’t for my wallet and my waist line!

One thing I’m also bad about is not using meats that I freeze. I’ll freeze something and not pull it out until 2 years later. I need to get better with that.

I live with SO and we are averaging about $500 a month. Even single I was averaging about that much and using what I cooked (leftover) and the freezer. I have learn to prep the food for the week helps and freeze at least 5 different meals (or have mostly ready in the freezer) for those nights that want to just pick up something due to the time. The crock pot (slow cooker) is a saver too.

Food is biggest 'random' in my monthly personal budget. I honestly do not have any idea what I spend on it but I budget $900 ($600 eating out, $300 groceries) for just me and the girlfriend.

I don't bring my lunch and we eat out a lot. I cover her bill 75% of the time so I am paying for two a good bit of the time. We rarely eat at very fancy places though.

I enjoy cooking but I do not like bringing my lunch to work...at least not yet. Time to go check Mint and see how much I spend on food each month...

ETA: I spent $140 for work lunches in October. I spent right at $600 for the entire month for food (including going out and groceries). That's reasonable for me.

I was spending $900-1000 when I traveled every week and ate out 98% of the time. But, I was reimbursed for all of those expenses...per diem is amazing.

We try to average $1200 a month on food/groceries/entertainment. Typically, we plan a week's worth of meals and shop for them on Tuesday. Weekends are almost always eating out or hosting parties. Sometimes we'll also go out during the week too, but are mostly frequenting happy hour specials. My wife is still young and in professional school, so a lot of our spending is due to hanging out with college kids (albeit older 20's/younger 30's "kids" they still want to go out all the time) and drinking quite often.

Hoping that our $1200 monthly budget for food/groceries/entertainment can be lowered to ~$1000 after she gets out of school.

Here's my best estimate as to where my "food" money goes. Note: I do all the grocery shopping, wife does the Wal-Mart/pharmacy shopping typically.

Family of 4 with two young kids. I’m averaging $847/month on fast food, groceries, restaurant eating, minor pharmacy stuff, and trips to wal-mart for misc toiletries and diapers. Anything that falls into that description comes out of the "food" bucket"

Usually don’t eat breakfast but keep cereal on hand (bag cheerios).
We do pretty well about not eating out for lunch but let’s say $20/week. (subway, fast food, etc…)
Throw in picking up supper one or two nights a week $45 (local pizza joint/po boy’s…)
Wal-Mart/CVS monthly for stuff ~$150
Maybe eat out once nice per month $100.
That’s ~$510 leaving me with $330 for groceries.

Typical weekly grocery list looks typically like:
Box or two of oatmeal $5
2-3 gal water $3
Gal of milk $5
~$15 meat (pork chops, pork tenderloins, chicken thighs, etc…)
Veggies/fruit $10
Lunch meat and bread $15
Eggs $3
Baby food/toddler food $10
Other Mist…
Total ~$75

Atypical grocery store pickups…
6 pack of beer
Steaks
seafood
Wine
Liquor

Typical weekly meals:
Grilled meats/fish
Kabobs
Tacos
Spaghetti
Grits and eggs
Reheated gumbo/soup/chili

So:
Eating out approx 15x per month ~$360
Wal-Mart/CVS ~$150
Groceries: ~$75/wk x 4 = ~$300
$30 to random meals
~$840 monthly