How much do you spend a week on groceries?

[MRAHoffman]

I am a newbie and the one sticking point in my budget is groceries. How much do you spend on groceries (on average) each week and for a family of how many (there are 3 of us) and any pets, etc to consider. Thank you in advance for your help.

Rhonda

[jas]

Hello and welcome!
I try to stay within 75.00-100.00 a week that is for everything for a family of four. Food, hba, pets, laundry. If I get a good deal on something then it goes up a bit.

[YankeeMom]

I shop monthly rather than weekly. Then do a bi-weekly stock up on things. I'm just now doing my monthly shopping. I will have spent about $350 right off the bat. Then we spend between $50-80 every two weeks for things I can't just buy once a month...like fresh fruit/veggies, bread, cereal, milk..or things we run out of or things that are on sale for a really good price.

All told we spend between $500-600/month for a family of six (me, dh, dd16, dd14, ds10, & ds7) people, three dogs, and two cats. That does include all food, pet food/cat litter, hygiene products, cleaning products, paper products, etc. Usually it's less than $500/month but with the holidays coming up I know it will be more. I'll be stocking up on turkeys (I still have two left from last year lol) and baking supplies.

So if you average it out, it comes out to about $130/week for our family.

[khjmom]

Right now, we spend between $400-$425 for four of us. (and the occasional purchase for the dd in college..she can't get cherry lemon sundrop at school).This amount covers groceries, household and laundry cleaners, otc meds and pet supplies along with alot of snacks for band students. We will be able to drop this atleast $50 after band season is over and quite frankly I would love to drop it more than that. It is a wait and see kind of thing.Now I do have to clarify that both of my children at home are teenagers and bottomless pits when it comes to food. I can't keep peanut butter in the house to save my life! much less a gallon of milk. I have friends that spend about the same for their families...and one that spends so much less....about $200 for a family of five. I would love to be able to do that, but I don't think I can cut that much out of our budget right now.

[crazyBMB]

I've been working on trying to lower our costs (who isn't?)

Mine has been about $600 a month for 6 (people & pets)

[Neeley]

We are a family of two adults, two teens, two dogs and two cats. We spend an average of $150-$200 per week.

[katybug]

It is between $40 - $80 a week and the price really depends on if we buy cat food/litter or non-food items. We have a regional store here called Winco and they usually have the cheapest prices on food and a huge bulk section. We utilized these features fully.

I mostly cook from scratch and eat a lot of cheap meals. Like oatmeal for breakfast as an example. This is for 2 adults (one is a bottomless pit) and two kitties. We also actually include leftovers in the menu planning process and I usually cook double or just a "little" more in order to have leftovers for lunches or to freeze for easy meals later. (That saves time AND money)

But those numbers are a little off, we got a quarter of a cow this year, so we really haven't had to buy much meat so our food bills have been lower. I probably won't do that again as it is just too much meat and I don't like having to force red meat into my cooking.

Of course sometimes I mess up like this weekend. I was in the store, obliviously not paying attention to a label. For my DH's birthday I was going to bake him a couple of pumpkin pies (his FAVORITE) but I bought enough supplies for FOUR pies instead of two. Least just say I cooked those bad boys up and 3 are in the freezer right now.

We try and stay away from crackers, chips, sweets, sodas and processed foods. We do buy microbrews for the weekend so we aren't grocery saints.

The funny thing is, I could certainly tighten the belt a lot further. I'm working on my price book and hoping to really stock up on good deals in the future. I've relaxed a lot during my recovery, but we will be plugging the leaks once our lives settle a bit.



~KB

[aubrylyn]

I'm desperately trying to get mine lower! I'm working on buying more items in bulk and building up my pantry. Right now I spend around $150-200 week. That includes HBA and pets. We are a family of 5(me, dh, dd11, ds9, ds5) 1 cat, 1 dog.
My dd is gluten and lactose free, so that adds to our budget. I bought bread mix, a box of crackers, and 1/2 gal. of rice milk for her today, that was $12 right there. My goal is to make more food for her instead of buying convience foods for her.

[IntlMom]

Right now, I spend about 40-60 a week for the 5 of us and 2 cats. That's everything.....food, meat, veggies, pet, hba, diapers......everything!!!

[brenda67]

We are a family of 5 and I average $100 to $150 a week... don't get overwelmed by the flutuating amount's you see posted..some low number's you see might be because people have a stockpile and don't need to spend so much..other amounts might depend on certain diets and where you live might have higher prices then others do....I could easily get away with just buying milk and eggs for 3 weeks because I have a good stockpile to eat/choose from but I choose not to because I don't want to decrease my stash right now with the way my dh's job is going right at the moment and it's a secure feeling knowing I have lot's of food,hba's and medicine if I needed to save money..HTH..

[nuisance26]

~We're a family of four and I average $52 weekly($225 month), food only. I spend an additional $5-10 a week on home and personal products. I'll be bumping my budget by 10% come January, as I do every year.~

[Starlight9803]

I try to stick to a $400 budget every month. This is for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children), 5 big dogs, and 3 cats. This budget includes all food, pet food/litter, cleaning, hba, paper products, etc. I do cook alot from scratch, and we rarely go out, so that helps keep it in check.

[Moor]

I spend $75 a week for people food, household items, and pet items.
That's for 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 snakes, and several fish.

When the other two kids lived at home, I was spending anywhere from 150 to 200 a week. Then when you add in the 2 adopted kids, we were spending close to 300 a week.
I have cut back a lot on the junk/easy foods!

[Buc-O-Mama]

About 100 per week here, and that's everything except DD's prescriptions. 2 adults, 3 teenagers, 2 dogs and 3 cats. Some weeks are a touch more or a touch less.

[kittykatstrong]

I spend $100 a week give or take $20. If it is high one week I make sure it lower the next week.. That is for 4 adults and 2 kids. The third adult (SIL) buys all the junk food and that might be $20 a week.