What Is a Reasonable Monthly Food Budget?

Hi! I don't know what I spend a month but I do have a few tips. 1. I make my own pancakes and muffins and freeze them for a quick breakfast. 2. I make cookies and snacks and place in small snack or sandwich bags for additions to bagged lunches. 3. I make extra for dinner and fill divided plastic containers that microwave well with the leftovers for my husbands and my lunches. Hope this is helpful.

You have already gotten a lot of great ideas and I don't want to repeat anything, so I will just add a budget note. Eating out is included in our entertainment budget, not our food budget, which makes it easier for us to know each month how we compare.
It also showed us how lame we were spending so much money on food eaten out. It made us want to be more fun and do stuff rather than just eat out.

Hi L.,
I have a family of 4 and spend about 500.00 a month on groceries. I also try and stay away from anything that is processed. My boys also like healthy fruits, veggies, beans, ect. I always bring a list and go on a full stomach. If it isn't on my list I don't buy it. My boys have even caught on to it. My oldest will tell my youngest that it isn't on our list. It's pretty cute. We used to go out to eat a couple of times a week and I would also stop and get coffee and then I added up what we were spending. I was shocked and cut out all of the things that aren't needed. Good luck.
Chris

2,000 dollars thats alot!!!

Kudos on your eating, that is great, way to be healthy and feed your family healthy. I know it is expensive to eat better. I am on a tight budget for groceries we spend about 125-150 a week for me my husband and 15month old, but that usually includes non food items we need each week as well, such as diapers etc...

I could spend much more and eat much better but we don't have the money right now. If we did I would probably spend around 200-220 a week and I don't think that is over spending that would just be getting all organic and the other healthier things we eat.

I'm really lucky in that my husband does most of the meal planning and cooking. We always figure out our meals and snacks for the week before we go to the store and always go with a list. Typically, we spend about $50-60 each week for my husband and I (we have a 5 month old who's not needing any groceries yet). We resist buying anything that is not on the list, unless its on sale, then we tweak our list or buy it if we will need it anyway in the future.

We go out for dinner once a week, all other meals are made at home. My husband makes his lunch the night before - never eats out for lunch during work. Once in a while we go out for lunch on a weekend, but like I said most of our meals are eaten at home which saves a LOT of money. Going out is too expensive.

We also buy organic produce and try to eat healthy and are pretty successful at keeping our food costs down. We are always on a budget and have a lot of practice. My husband likes the challenge of bargain shopping!

Good luck!

I am right there with you!!! I spend A LOT on food, especially all the grass fed beef, free range eggs, and free range chicken. Did you know that in the summer you can buy a share of an organic farmer's produce? You choose an amount that is appropriate for the size of your family and once a week you pick up a HUGE bag of whatever is in season. It is AWESOME and you really save by avoiding the grocer's markup.

I'm a grandma and vividly remember the last REAL recession this economy had in the 70's. At the time I was a divorced mom with one child. The popular thing then was "food co-ops". Something I'd like to see come back. Families numbering 25-30, as a group, would rotate 4 or 5 shoppers from that group to purchase fresh produce from Eastern Market. We would barter on case pricing. All the goods were divided up at one of the member's homes with volunteers bagging. The program saved me a lot of money and we ate healthy. However, it is all about cooking at home.

I could write forever on this topic so I'll just give you the main points:

-Only buy items on sale when you know it's a good price.
-Combine sale items with coupons whenever possible. Use couponmom.com to help checkout if coupons are available on products and where to find them.
-When it's a great sale, buy in quantity, but only on items you know you like AND will use.
-Buy seasonal produce (when it tastes the best and is priced the cheapest)
-Grow some of your own produce.

It is harder to cut costs on organic and fresh foods but it can be done. Pricewise, Trader Joe's is great for organic items, although, I'm pretty positive they don't have any downriver. Personally, I stick to the dirty dozen when it comes to organic. I'm comfortable with that and it helps save me a bit.

Good luck.

I just want to say you are doing beautifully!
Just the commitment to organics, local produce and reducing/eliminating boxed anything from the stores sets you miles apart from most.
It helps to have the kids help you in the kitchen as they really love to create and it is so bonding at any age.
Cook in double batches so you don't feel like you're in the kitchen 24/7.
It's also fun to find new recipes and cookbooks to keep things interesting for your family.
Give yourself a pat on the back for a stellar job!
Warmly,
C.

One thing I'd suggest, especially since you're vegetarians, is actually a purchase but it will save you hundreds in the short run (at least it has for us). Find yourself a Tupperware distributor and buy these, well I don't know what they're called, but they're designed to stay in the refrigerator and keep produce fresh longer. They're miracle workers, seriously. I'm no big Tupperware person, but I bought these after being dragged to a party and they saved us $$ immediately. We never throw away old produce now. Stuff lasts forever. It has to do with the material, and the design of the container and these vents that are either open, shut, or halfway shut depending on the type of fruit or vegetable. Good luck! I also have to watch our food budget because we live in Calgary and food is so expensive. A gallon of milk is $4.00 on a good day, and organic is $5.40 for a HALF gallon!

When I recently began tracking my monthly grocery expenditures I also was appalled - we were at around $1,200 a month, which I knew was just ridiculous. So I began the envelope system. Last month was our first month on it; I began the month with $800 cash from the bank and kept it in an envelope in the kitchen. The idea behind the envelope system is you spend less if you use cash instead of a debit card or check and you're more aware so you can stop impulse buys. It worked pretty well although we also use our cash for gas money too so this month I began with $900. I've read it can take a couple of months to figure out exactly how much I need for the budget but I can see where it works! I use this for all things bought at Sam's Costco and the grocery store so this ends up covering dog food and even laundry soap.

Like others said, I also stock up when things are on sale often buying the full 10 items on a 10 for 10 (that I know my family will use). For other big families who eat meat - I also have found a farm and buy half a cow and half a pig every year so except for chicken and fish I've cut meat out of my budget. You end up paying around $1.50 a pound for even the porterhouse steaks that way.

I also started taking a lunch to work - I was finding that by eating out I was spending between 5 and 10 bucks a night at work and I was getting bored with the menus. Good luck!

Wow! $2000 a month for food? That sounds like a lot to me. We are a family of four. My husband, myself, our 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter. I am able to feed our family plus two nephews I watch on weekdays for about $65 a week. My secrets are; coupons, (coupons.com and coolsavings.com are great) buying a lot of the things I use when they go on sale, cooking from scratch, avoiding prepackaged convenience food, I have a large garden where I grow my own fruits and veggies that I also freeze and can at home for the entire year! We order pizza or take out once in awhile, like maybe once a month. We save dinners out for special occasions.

It is all about watching the ads and cutting coupons. You see what is on sale in the circular. Then you see what coupons you have and you make a list. First filling in what you MUST have and then plan a menu around what is on sale and buy only what's on the list. I like to write the price of each item, or what I am willing to spend on a given item, next to each thing on my list so I know exactly what I am going to spend before I even get to the store. You would be surprised how much money you can save if you just do a little homework.

Good luck to you!

J.

Two words for you.... Cost Co. It has made a HUGE difference in our grocery bills. They have a lot of organic products (soups, dressings, vegetables...)as well and they have great pasta!!! They also have nice produce and we love the organics green beans you can purchase in the frozen food sections and also they have big bags of frozen berries. I can't say how much for sure it has saved us but it has been a lot. Also, my husband takes lunch to work everyday (once in awhile he treats himself for lunch out with the guys) but he will take a salad, a wrap with organic lunch meat, organic torilla chips, an apple, an orange and some yogurt. That saves a ton of money. If you think about it lunch out everyday at $10 per day (lower end) at 20 work days a month - that's $200 per month ($2400 per year), then if you get coffee or anything else out... it adds up so fast! Another thing I do is make homemade granola which lasts a while. Good Luck ~ Hope this helps!