There are 3 of us living in our home. My husband, myself and our grown son. I spend approximately $300 a month on groceries. I’m very careful about how I spend, and most meals are eaten at home. We go out to dinner usually on Friday nights, and once a week, i will eat a “fast food” breakfast or lunch out. We do a lot of barbecuing when the weather’s nice, and eat outside a lot, making dinner a really fun time.

We’re a family of 4, and our grocery budget is about $400 right now, though I’m working hard on getting it lower.

We have homemade pizza night on most Friday nights, and the kids (ages 9 & 4) help make the pizza. We have a great time in the kitchen, and the kids are always proud of the dinner they made.

Oh hey, Meredith! Good to see you here! Congrats on the new writing assignment!

Ok, a comfortable grocery budget would probably be about $600-700 per month. I have two teens and a picky 9yo, and they all like different things. My dh and I eat low carb for the most part, and all the ingredients to do that can be expensive.

REALITY CHECK: What works for us right now is about $500. I know that still sounds like alot…it is, and I’m tired of it! It’s too much money to be spending on food! I suppose that would mean about $100 per person per month, which is similar to what anita (above) said she spends, so perhaps it’s not so much. Still….too much for me.

I am getting back to making menus with simple recipes for the week as well as starting to use coupons again. I am wanting to lower our budget to $400, then hopefully $300, and so on. This is actually enjoyable to me, but I don’t know if that answers the question you asked. I do know that when I have a menu and am well prepared, I do enjoy cooking much more. I also like the challenge of seeing how much less I can spend on groceries, so I suppose I will be doing this with a smile on my face.

Hi, my family has 6 members, my husband, myself,a 12, 9, 4 and newborn baby 5months old. All Boys! Our budget is around 400 a month plus 50 for paper/diapers,deoderant, etc. I would be much more comfortable with 600 for food and 100 for paper–My kids invite friends over constantly–being all boys they can really rip thru my cabinets! Couponing is not easy in my area–stores that say they double, will not double on sale items–I do a lot intense menu planning to make it work. This is last baby is my first baby to require formula. So recently having to add formula, baby food ( I only buy on sale and with coupons, otherwise I make my own) and diapers ugh!! Well those things have put a squeeze on us. I am impressed with Miranda’s budget! Wow

Wow! I’m thrilled that so many of you have taken the time to talk about your grocery budgets.

It is so interesting to see the different numbers, needs, and wants. Brings a bit of perspective to your own grocery spending, doesn’t it?

Next Monday I plan to go into more detail about developing a cheerful grocery budget.

Keep the comments coming!

My grocery budget is $350.00 a month for my family of four, hubby, myself, 13 yo dd and 8 yo dd. That does not include eating out, which we do about twice a month but that is often a dollar menu and we take our own drinks and chips.

I am blessed with a husband who will eat literally ANYTHING I fix and tell me it’s wonderful! My 13 yo is the same. 8 you and myself are the picky eaters.

Generally we eat meat only once and sometimes twic a week. I make lots of stews and fix a huge meal every Saturday night so that the leftovers carry over to Sunday (my day off). Soups and stews usually carry over as well, so I only plan meals for 5 nights a week and the other two are leftovers or sandwiches. One night is breakfast type food (we like it better at dinner time), and another night is a good sandwich night, like a Rueben or French Dip (our favorites).

I think I could cut our budget even more if we cut out soda, but hubby has to have his Diet Coke. I would also like to plant a garden next spring and see how that goes.

I estimate my food expenses for my family of ten to be about $700 a month. I use a food co-op, Azure Standard, for many of our organic items, canned food, wheat, and some personal care things…the rest is is spent at Costco for meat, pantry and bulk things, and grocery stores and fruit stands for perishables.

I indulge by purchasing $11.00 (2 half gallons)in raw milk weekly. If I had no budget at all, I would use only raw milk for everyone and everything!

We eat out about twice a month, which runs between $30 for fast food (which we almost never do..it makes us sick!)or pizza to $85 for a fancier restaurant (Bubba Gump’s once a year!)

obviously i meant stock up not stoke up…

I feel slightly guilty admitting to the $1000 a month I easily spend on groceries. However, we are all at home for every meal, two adults and four pubescent children HEAVILY into growth spurts, and one toddler. We can’t eat any dairy-based meals due to a child’s allergies, and we only go out to eat when hosted by in-laws.

I buy as much organic as I can find, including dairy for the ones who can. I do all our baking myself and buy very little processed foods. Crackers, maybe.

On the plus side, not one of us has needed to see a doctor in the last three years. Some kids haven’t needed to go in more than five years!

We are a family of 4, myself, hubby, a one and two year old. I budget $50 a week (or about $200 a month) for groceries, diapers, paper goods, etc. I shop all the loss leaders, use cloth napkins instead of paper towels, baking soda & vinegar for cleaning. We do really well with this budget, both my fridge freezer and chest freezer are full, and we have full meals each day, including some form of meat each night. I make most of our food from scratch, use powdered milk, and buy hardly any “snack” foods. $100 a week would be extremely comfortable, but I think it would make me less creative in the kitchen (which I enjoy more and more).

I budget $600 a month for food and $75 for tp, diapers and girly stuff.
We are a family of 9. All meals are eaten at home and I cook, cook, cook.
Dinner last night was 1# bacon, 1# sausage, 12 eggs, 1 doz. cinn. rolls and 2# grapes. There were a few pieces of bacon left so I put those on sandwiches for the older childrens lunch.
We don’t eat out and we don’t snack much. I could go cheaper without the sausage and bacon but then they are hungry again in an hour. Plus, a skimpy meal is depressing. I even it out over the course of a week.

Our grocery budget is $50/week for a family of 5 (2 adults and 3 children 10 and under). Sometimes it is a stretch to keep within the budget. We have always had to budget very tightly- I think a comfortable budget for our family (with the cost of dairy etc. climbing higher every day) would be more like $350/month. The thought of an “unlimited” budget just about boggles my mind. What would our budget be if we could set it for any amount? What would I do/purchase differently? Well, I know one thing I would purchase would be organic milk- as much as I would like to do so now I just can’t justify it in my budget. I’d also probably purchase better (and more) meat selections. I would also purchase more of a variety of fresh fruits. With a higher budget I bet that I would probably be tempted to make more than 1 trip every other week to the grocery store.
All in all, it’s probably best we are budgeted where we are at right now.
I actually [usually] enjoy the challenge of being creative with our food budget and menu planning.
I also look forward to reading you here every Monday, Meredith. Good Luck and God Bless your cheerful frugality!

I average around $300 a month for my husband and I and a picky 2 year old for groceries, toiletries, paper, and cleaning supplies. $40 a month for almost-raw whole milk (2 gal. a week), 50 – 60 bi-weekly at Aldi for yogurt, sliced cheese, cereal, etc, and most of the rest I spend once a month at Sam’s Club. I do get personal care items at Walmart, we get organic whole wheat bread at the bakery thrift store, usually for 49 cents a loaf. We shop our local Ingles for some items that I cannot get at Sams or Aldi, or for sale items or things that I might have a coupon for. I very rarely coupon and since I work full time, I don’t care to spend a lot of time grocery shopping. I have a garden and get a lot of organic seasonal produce that I can and freeze.
Quarterly, I do a freezer filler. For a Saturday’s worth of work, I put approx. 40 meals in the freezer. They are ready to thaw and cook. This really cuts down on the eating out, which we might go out once every month or two. It also cuts down on waste, since I portion the meals out to enough for dinner for us and maybe a little for leftovers for lunch the next day. I also plan a menu for the week.
We don’t eat totally organic, but do stick to mainly whole foods, with meat at least once a day. My husband doesn’t care for chicken, so we use lots of roasts, ground beef, and pork. If I had a few extra $$ I would buy all organic meats, but there isn’t much else I would change. We have tons of food in the pantry and freezer and eat very well.

I budget about $700 for our family of four, plus any other loved ones who drop in at mealtime. I try very hard to buy in season, local produce, and I buy our dairy & meat products from a local organic ranch. Having grown up in California, we also have a nice glass of wine with dinner almost every night. I could do just fine spending less, but I enjoy cooking and experimenting with new recipes to share with friends and family, so I’m frugal in other areas of the budget.

We spend 350-450 a month for two adults and a 16 year old girl and a 14 year old girl. If I could have an unlimited food budget I would buy more fresh veggies, fruit and a better selection of meat. We buy chicken, fish, hamburger and occasionally pork on sale. We don’t have any food allergies so that helps. I wish we could double our coupons here in Canada. I coupon when I can but usually only save 2-5 dollars but all that helps as well. I do try to keep a stocked pantry for the tight months when our car insurance goes out every 6 months. Clare