Anyone else guilty of over spending on food?

[Bades]

This is usually my single biggest expense every month. I enjoy eating well, but I still feel like I'm paying way too much.

I like to eat out every now and then and have a nice "date night" with my gf maybe once a month. Recently I've been buying lunch at work more than packing. My companies cafeteria offers good and healthy meals for right around $5, so sometimes that just makes things easier.

Yet it seems like I even spend a lot on groceries and I usually almost always buy items that are on sale. Grant it my gf and I buy a lot of fruit and vegs, but we don't throw much away either.

I think our worst month was a combined grocery bill of $600 (a lot of the groceries did transfer over to the next month though) and then I spent about $350 on eating out (work lunches, dinners, pizzas, etc). So basically I spent $650 on myself for one month, I didn't know that was possible!

Anyone else have a problem getting their food bill under-control?

[PauletteGoddard]

I do. I've tried planning meals, making one meatless meal a week, taking advantage of flyer specials and bulk purchase of meats, tracking pantry and freezer inventories, buying seasonings and grains in bulk, coupons, reducing the # of coffees out, cutting down on family eating out nights to one a month, using leftovers and am now using a price book. I cannot make my ideal $750 for three people. We keep only a small amount (3 meals) of frozen prepared foods in the freezer. I don't eat duck, venison and filet mignon every week either.

But then everything is relative. For us, $30 a month on electricity is overspending.

[disneysteve]

I'm guilty. Our problem isn't eating at home. It is eating out. That is just way too expensive no matter where you go or what you get. A simple lunch is $6-8. Dinner easily double that. And that's when we go to the trashy places. When we go anywhere decent, it is over $20/person for dinner.

[riverwed070707]

Originally Posted by PauletteGoddard

I do. I've tried planning meals, making one meatless meal a week, taking advantage of flyer specials and bulk purchase of meats, tracking pantry and freezer inventories, buying seasonings and grains in bulk, coupons, reducing the # of coffees out, cutting down on family eating out nights to one a month, using leftovers and am now using a price book. I cannot make my ideal $750 for three people. We keep only a small amount (3 meals) of frozen prepared foods in the freezer. I don't eat duck, venison and filet mignon every week either.

But then everything is relative. For us, $30 a month on electricity is overspending.

Yikes. Where do you live? Some places groceries are just more expensive. Not much you can do about that. Have you looked into joining a CSA or a co-op?

[bjl584]

I splurge here and there but nothing that makes me feel too guilty.

[PauletteGoddard]

Yikes. Where do you live? Some places groceries are just more expensive.

Seattle. I used to belong to a CSA but our food boxes were stolen too often, and some vegetables showed mold. I also shopped farmers' markets but $19/lb for lamb just wasn't within my budget.

[cypher1]

Guilty also. Sun-Fri nights I cook at home, but lunch is still bad eating out. Several months ago a co-worker bet me I couldn't bring a lunch twice a week for a month. I ended up brown bagging it 3 times a week for almost 2 months, just to win a free beer. Bad habits came back, and I stopped. I should've added at my new year's resolution.

[feh]

I allow myself 2 "out" lunches per week. And I keep them cheap; $6-8. My wife cooks home-made meals 4 or 5 times a week. As a family, we only eat out a couple times a month, if that.

For a family of 3, we average $580 per month on groceries.

[GREENBACK]

I deny myself some enjoyable things in life for the sake of being frugal but food isn't one of those things. Fortunately, I enjoy cooking so I will do things like buy cheaper cuts of meat and attempt to make them as good as the choice stuff. I try to be a frugal shopper but don't try to "control" my food bill. I don't eat out a lot nowadays because I feel I can make food better and certainly healthier at home. I'm generally between 4 to 500 for the month.

[kilboy]

I used to be terrible with food. I used to spend 1,600/month on eating out and food...

[ActYourWage]

This thought has been weighing on my mind lately too. I spend too much money eating out. The one thing that helps me is thinking "you got to eat to live, right?" However, for me, if I am motivated to save up money for a purchase or in my current situation, pay down the mortgage, I find it easier to avoid the expensive meals out all the time.

[fe2o3ez]

Guilty, your honor. Our struggle, though, is getting healthy food for ourselves and both healthy and fun food for my son. He has ultra-high metabolism, so he eats lots of stuff and doesn't put on a pound. Plus, teaching a 6-year old to eat what has been served to him is easier said than done, so occasionally he ends up 'trying' a healthy dinner, but ultimately eating chicken nuggets. Gets expensive over time.

And as others have said, that doesn't consider eating out. That's a whole different animal. We try to only eat out occasionally, so when we do, you can bet that it won't be at a fast food or burger joint, so we spend money on the nicer dinners!

[gf1723]

I am guilty as well. I actually eat healthier when I don't eat out because I don't stuff myself. I made it one of my new years resolutions to bring my lunch more. I was actually eating out almost every day of the week. So far this week, I have yet to spend any money during lunch on food.

I did go to Subway once, but that was because I had a gift card.

[Shaabenanizer]

$300/month in groceries and eating out just for myself. Over the holiday I spent extra $150 when my sister was staying with me for 11 days. I know I can do better but, I don't. The sad thing is in the last 6 months I lost 10 pounds I didn't need to lose because for some reason I lost my appetite. So why hasn't my food bill gone down?

[f0rgiv3n]

Guilty!!! It's so hard because we don't have kids and we both work. So you know the story, you get home and are both tired from a long day and don't want to cook. We go out to eat probably 4-5 times a week... However, sometimes it actually IS cheaper to eat out if you're smart about it. For instance, sometimes Arby's has deals where you can get 2 for $5. It's about the same to eat out or in at that rate.

[Maxoman]

I live in NY State and feed a family of 4 for around $400/month. That includes not only groceries but also anythign bought at the food store, i.e., TP, cleaning supplies, etc. I am proud of keeping our food budget down while not sacrificing quality (as a SAHM/part timer I consider it my job to keep within budget). I do this by couponing (i've been doing it long before it came into "fashion"), loss leaders, and planning our meals around the circulars. I cook and bake from scratch, which saves a ton and is also healthier/tastier. We only eat out for special occasions such as birthdays.

Groceries are the one budget item that is so flexible. Yes, you have to eat. No, you don't have to eat expensive to eat well. We eat steak, chicken, pasta, etc. and my family generally does not want for anything. If they are craving something specific, my answer is always "I'll pick that up when I can get a good price on it".

The secret to not spending alot on cleaning supplies at the store is to make your own. Vinegar/water goes an awful long way and cleans well. We need to follow what our grandparents did, not what the commercials tell us we have to clean with.

[DeniseNTexas]

Count me in as another one guilty of spending too much on food. I feed just myself and a cat (and occasional co-workers at our job) and rarely eat out but I definitely have issues with impulse spending at the grocery. Most of it gets used, sure, but occasionally I throw stuff out and that really irks me.

I have a blog here at SA and have been writing about my struggles with this very thing. I do meal planning, try to eat the leftovers (but recently had quite the epiphany about cooking and eating what I cook) take lunch, snacks and sometimes breakfast to work but I still spend too much at the grocery! I try to use cash only at the grocery but do cave and use my debit card and that's going to have to stop since I think it's a major culprit for me.

It's just a struggle but the last few days I've focused on simply not spending and on cooking small amounts of food so I don't have leftovers to waste.

I can relate, for sure!

[PetMom]

Food is just more expensive.

We automatically take from the top fruits and vegetables and organic eggs, coconut milk, nuts. Chicken breasts to make my dogs' food. Whole grain when possible. Dark chocolate for dessert/candy. But when you add in tp and laundry soap the bill gets ridiculous.

Actually cut out coffee - that has gone way up - but did not make a dent in our bill.

And make my own cleaning products.

I think 'date night' is something that helps the marriage so that would be in the 'avoid an expensive divorce' section.

But, when emergency fund is sinking that is the first thing we cut out.

Best cheap food combos: Home cooked beans and cornbread. Pasta is cheap with some tomato sauce (no meat). Cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bun. Those will bring the food bill down.

Easily we spend $600.00 per month for us and the dogs' food.

[Bades]

I just averaged my last three months together. This is all for me, except when I got out with my gf I probably pay 80% of the time, so that's why restuarnts is a bit high.

Groceries - 225
Restuarants - 180
Fast Food (pizza, arby's, etc) - 96
Lunches (Buy from work cafe) - 80
Bars (drinks & apps) - 96

Total: 676

I think the lessons learned here are how fast those little McDonalds' drive thrus or late night pizzas can add up to! The lunch average covers at least 15/20 business days, so around $5.25 isn't too bad for lunch and the convience of it. Problem is when I've been making dinners at home I dont make enough for left overs to take to lunch. I think I need to start making more to take the next day to cut down on the lunches I pay for.

Obviously the Bars tab is getting high. My gf and I just graduated college a year ago so we still have a little party in us But now that Thanksgiving and Xmas have come and gone, that average will hopefully be decreasing by at least half

[dojo]

We don't eat out (maybe 3-4 times/year, when we're traveling), since the food is bad. What we can cook at home is way better and healthier, not to mention less expensive. On the other hand though we do tend to buy a lot of food and some of it will spoil. So we need to work on this aspect