How much do you spend on your monthly food budget?

[HappySaver]

$750 per month, alcohol not included, for two adults. That includes all three meals every single day - we never eat out.

I shop exclusively at local farmers markets for produce, eggs, and some pasture-fed meats, and Whole Foods for the rest. The produce is fresher and cheaper at the markets; the eggs and meats are more expensive at the markets but worth it to us. I buy a few staples at Trader Joes.

Yes, Whole Foods is more expensive than other stores, but I really have no choice. I have celiac disease along with a bunch of food allergies and must buy gluten-free foods, which are crazy expensive and which Whole Foods caters to. For instance, a tiny loaf of bread is $6. I don't buy a ton of processed foods, but still. I find myself having to buy more and more organic because I really do feel the difference - my allergies extend to pesticides/sprays/coatings that get used on non-organic foods. To those who think there's no difference, you are lucky if you don't have a health reason to need organic foods, but I assure you there is a difference.

We're lucky we can afford our food budget, but we do prioritize it and sacrifice in other ways. Cheap food comes at huge long term costs, both to personal health and to the environment, and more people are starting to realize this.

[marvholly]

Several people are posting $150 A MONTH. Is that correct? What are you buying? That seems way too low for an entire month. I can't get to that number in a week. We are just two skinny little women. I am missing something!

you are 2 people at $150/month. I AM A SINGLE AT $100/MONTH. We are very much in the same range as things like cleaning supplies would be the same for 1, 2 or 6 people.

Another question posed was how I/we do it so low.

Shop ONLY the perimeter of stores
Shop ONLY sale items
Hit specialty or ethnic markets for ethnic items and produce
Shop at Aldi to fill in when needed
Shop at the dollar type stores when possible (some NOT great quality)
Regularly cook from scratch
Prepare more than a single meal's worth of food & freeze for 'those' kind of days.

[Reggie]

you are 2 people at $150/month. I AM A SINGLE AT $100/MONTH. We are very much in the same range as things like cleaning supplies would be the same for 1, 2 or 6 people.

I am two people at $150 a WEEK not a month. I cannot fathom only spending 100 a month. That wouldn't even cover lunch and breakfast everyday.

Maybe I'm doing something VERY wrong here. I don't get it. can someone post typical menus?

[disneysteve]

can someone post typical menus?

Breakfast:
M-F: OJ, whole grain cereal with skim milk, fruit
Sa-Su: Oatmeal (sometimes with fruit); vegetarian bacon; sometimes an egg
Now and then French toast or pancakes made at home with fruit and nuts

Lunch:
M-F: Typically either leftovers from something made at home or a Healthy Choice frozen meal supplemented with applesauce, whole grain roll, fruit, or yogurt
Sa-Su: Really varies based on what we're doing and whether we're home or out and about

Dinner:
(all made at home)
Pizza with multiple veggies topping
Vegetarian tacos, Enchiladas or Quesadillas
Veggie stir fry with brown rice and tofu
Grilled veggies with whole grain pasta
Vegetable potstickers with brown rice
Lots of other things but these are some examples

I try to make sure every meal (particularly lunch and dinner) includes a protein, dairy, whole grain, and fruits or veggies

Lunch is rarely more than $3/person. Dinner probably about the same. Breakfast is probably under $1/person. So roughly $5/day/person would be $150/month/person. We don't actually track our spending so I don't know how accurate that is but it's probably a reasonable estimate.

[MonkeyMama]

My breakfast staples are hard boiled eggs and apple sauce. The kids generally eat generic oatmeal, nature valley granola bars (bought on sale at Target) or $1 generic cereal (on sale at Target). My spouse is not a breakfast eater.

Snacks kept on hand at work: fruit, nuts (generally bought at Target), yogurt (generic bought on sale only), boiled eggs. I am trying to think what the kids snack on - in addition to the above: string cheese, crackers.

We frequently make home-made salsa and hummus - buy the chips/crackers/bread on sale.

{I live in California so produce is cheap and fresh. The last sentence reminded me that we often get bread at the "day old store." That is where we stock up in pita bread and sour dough}.

Lunch: Sandwiches and leftovers

Dinner: I already posted a dinner menu from the other night. Last night we had squash and sausage. It's crazy filling so that was all I ate - had wine with dinner. Sunday night we had taco rice salad. The older kid and I are salad crazy so we tend to whip up a salad every other night or so (just always have lettuce, cabbage, greens, carrots, green onions on hand - slice and shred everything ourselves). I am not sure if my hubby is cooking dinner tonight but he had a recipe out for a pasta dish. Otherwise the fridge is still full of squash and lentils (which will be my lunch for the rest of the week). If I get bored I can always whip up a sandwich or something else. Monday I had a sandwich and yesterday I went out for lunch, so I will probably just eat leftovers the rest of the week.

@Reggie- if you are looking for ways to improve food bill, I always say it doesn't happen overnight. This is 10 years of strategy and practice for us and we are still always finding ways to improve. Necessity is the mother of invention - we just have to spend within our means so that is why our food bill is as low as it is. Another more relevant question may be how much of your income goes to food spending. We try to keep our food spending under 10% of our income.

Instead of ordering pizza out, our grocery store had better pizza - $7 on sale take and bake. Very fresh.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/sausage-stuffed-acorn-squash

Not sure if this is it - but is similar to our taco rice salad:

http://community.tasteofhome.com/community_forums/f/30/p/721124/6161359.aspx

[disneysteve]

We frequently make home-made salsa and hummus

Funny that you say that. We've been on a bit of a hummus kick lately and just last week I made hummus from scratch for the first time ever. It was simple and delicious. The store bought stuff is about $5/pound. I figured out that the homemade stuff was less than half that price and didn't include any added ingredients or preservatives found in the national brand (Sabra).

[riverwed070707]

I aim to keep dinner under $5 per MEAL, not per person. In order for this to be healthy, that means making it from scratch and choosing recipes with fewer ingredients. Items that regularly occur on our dinner menu are spagetti (homemade sauce with whole grain noodles, sometimes with meat depending on the week), chicken tacos (we make our own taco seasoning, salsa and buy shells in bulk), stirfry, something grilled (burgers, chicken, pork chops -- depends what meat was on sale), baked or grilled fish with veggies, omlettes... there are lots of others but this gives you an idea. I rarely ever buy chicken breasts -- WAY too expensive. Instead I stock up on whole, natural chicken when it goes on sale for $.59-.79/pound. DH calls me the crazy chicken lady becuase I will walk out with 9-10 chickens, but they are SO easy. I pull one to defrost the day before I want to cook it. In the a.m. I rinse it and stick it in the crockpot on low. It cooks all day and when I get home all I can whip up quick 20 minute recipes with my precooked chicken. Then I debone the rest and save it for other meals through the week. One whole chicken usually gets us 2-3 dinners and some kind of chicken salad for lunches.

Our lunches usually are leftovers from the previous nights dinner, sometimes supplemented with a salad or fruit. I eat yogurt for breakfast almost every day. I make my own and it costs pennies per serving. I eat it with frozen fruit or granola to sweeten it up becuase I don't add sugar.

I guess for me it really comes down to planning. If I didn't take the time to plan meals around the meat thats on sale and carefully choose recipes that are healthy but require fewer ingredients, theres no way we'd be able to keep out budget as low as we do. And while the planning does take a little time, i think it saves us time in the long run.

[MonkeyMama]

Funny that you say that. We've been on a bit of a hummus kick lately and just last week I made hummus from scratch for the first time ever. It was simple and delicious. The store bought stuff is about $5/pound. I figured out that the homemade stuff was less than half that price and didn't include any added ingredients or preservatives found in the national brand (Sabra).

This is the best hummus we have ever had:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/roasted-red-pepper-hummus

[MonkeyMama]

I guess for me it really comes down to planning. If I didn't take the time to plan meals around the meat thats on sale and carefully choose recipes that are healthy but require fewer ingredients, theres no way we'd be able to keep out budget as low as we do. And while the planning does take a little time, i think it saves us time in the long run.

I agree. One final thought while reading the last couple of comments - don't waste food. We just try not to waste *anything*. I think that goes hand in hand with having a plan.

[disneysteve]

One final thought while reading the last couple of comments - don't waste food. We just try not to waste *anything*. I think that goes hand in hand with having a plan.

I agree. One thing that we had gotten rather sloppy about was wasting food. Leftovers would end up getting tossed on trash day. Some items would get purchased and never used before they went bad. When my wife stopped working a few months ago, we committed to doing a few things to cut costs: eat out less and cook more meals at home and cut down on waste. We've successfully done all 3 and have dropped our food spending by a couple hundred dollars per month in the process. Making meals from what we have on hand really makes a difference in cutting waste and reducing spending.

[hamchan]

We buy big bags of frozen chicken breast. When they go on sale we will buy several. We use vegetarian "ground beef" in chili and spaghetti sauce because I can't stand beef or pork. When it goes on sale we stock up and freeze it. We also keep a good supply on hand of frozen ground chicken, frozen pot sticker wrappers, dry pasta, sugar free preserves, sodium free boullion, rice, dried beans and lentils, and canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, which we buy in bulk or on sale (or both). We also keep on hand olive oil, rice vinegar, peanut butter, sesame oil, chili sauce, and lots of different spices. Some things I buy at the Asian market where they are much cheaper. From there all we need to buy for meals are fresh vegetables (I won't eat frozen ones).

We usually have all the ingredients we need on hand for a crock pot of chili, which will last my DH and I for days. If we want go make salad all we have to buy is the lettuce and any other veggies. Then I grill chicken on the foreman grill and make up some salad dressing.
For stir fry we just need veggies as we already have the chicken, rice, and things for sauce. For spaghetti all we need is some mushrooms or zucchini. I keep a small box of red wine in the fridge to add into that, and the sauce can be made in the crock pot also. Then I just have to cook some pasta when I get home, which is fast.

Fajitas are one of the more "expensive" meals because we have to buy the peppers, the tortillas, and the sour cream. We can make various soups with the chicken and sodium free bullion by adding in beans, vegetables, lentils, and/or pasta.

Sometimes I make cauliflower, potatoes and chicken with a curry sauce made with canned diced tomatoes, and then add some fresh coriander after it's cooked. Or a crock pot of curried lentils and chicken. Both of those reheat well as leftovers too.

Another good one is stir fried chicken (or tofu) and vegetables with peanut sauce. I keep small cans of coconut milk on hand from the Asian grocery for peanut sauce and already have all the other ingredients. The leftovers freeze well too.

For chicken potstickers we just have to buy a bag of shredded cabbage and carrots (cole slaw mix) and mix the veggies in with the ground chicken and some sesame oil, ginger, a tiny bit of soy sauce or hoisin sauce, some chili garlic sauce and a little olive oil. You fold the raw mixture into the wrappers, brown a little in olive oil and steam. You can freeze the uncooked ones for later too.

When DD isn't here things are much more simple. We don't cook dinner as often, and live off of leftovers for much longer, and some nights we just make sandwiches. When DD is here we don't have as much leftovers and cook at least 4 or 5 nights a week.

[annibe11e]

I live alone and spend about $125 a month on groceries. Here's what I'm eating during the week:

Breakfast: Coffee, crackers or dry cereal (I can't stomach much else in the morning)
Snack: Apple (free at work)
Lunch: Can of tuna/mayo/crackers 2x a week, other days dinner leftovers
Snack: Apple and granola bar (both free at work!)
Dinner: Chicken breast or sirloin or beans, brown rice, mixed frozen veggies

Weekend (I don't have an eating schedule)
Breakfast: Iced mocha from coffee shop (not part of grocery budget)
First food: Weekday leftovers scrambled with eggs, tortillas, jalapenos
Later food: Boyfriend usually makes some type of beef (burger or steak) and potatoes, mixed veggies

I know you're supposed to make a meal plan and a grocery list, but I can throw anything together into a meal, so I just wing it. I buy meat if it's a good deal, otherwise I may skip it for a week. Dry or canned beans, grains, fresh veggies if I find a good deal, otherwise frozen. I just drink water for most meals. Sometimes I'll buy pop out of my spending cash. If I splurge, it's a bag of potato chips and a tub of dip, but I always feel icky after I eat it. I have a lot of diet restrictions due to migraines, so I'm not buying seasonings, sauces, cheese, processed/cured meats, pickled items...

When my son is with me (summer, christmas, spring break), I don't follow a budget for food. He plans 3 meals a week and we buy everything we need to make them. (He's learning to cook.) The rest of the week is dressed-up leftovers and he eats frozen Banquet dinners for lunch. I have a special savings account for his visits, so the difference comes out of that money.

[Reggie]

@Reggie- if you are looking for ways to improve food bill, I always say it doesn't happen overnight. This is 10 years of strategy and practice for us and we are still always finding ways to improve. Necessity is the mother of invention - we just have to spend within our means so that is why our food bill is as low as it is. Another more relevant question may be how much of your income goes to food spending. We try to keep our food spending under 10% of our income.

Thank you for the information. Is the 10% net income? I only bring home $6800 per month after taxes.

I think I'm spending a little more because i don't eat too many carbs. I get my carbs from fruit. I could add a few whole grains into my daughter's diet, though. I try not to eat any grains at all.

[disneysteve]

I try not to eat any grains at all.

Why is that? I'm always suspicious of any diet that eliminates an entire food group.

[Reggie]

I just like how my body responds to no grains and primarily protein, fruits and veggies. I pretend I'm a body builder. When I eat grains, I gain weight. I can get my energy from fruit, usually.

It's not for everyone and I would never pretend to be a nutritionist or advise others.