Cost Of Living: Food

I was going over my bank statements and was curious to see what my wife and I spend on food a month. I was shocked to find out the results and have come to the conclusion that we aren't going to eat again for the next month as a result of the absurdity behind the numbers. I was curious what others here average on food in a month. This includes groceries, dining out, and any coffees or snacks at work. Please tell the city you live in and the number of people the total includes.

As for me...

Atlanta, 2 people, average over last 3 months = $1,266.67 sick

Well, I'm only one person and after some quick calculation I'm showing I average a little over $100 to $150 per month. I don't really eat out too much, picking up a coffee into to work in the morning is REALLY rare and I more often than not pack a lunch for work (though there might be the occasional few days every so often where I haven't had a chance to cook, so I'll have to go out and grab something to eat).

Hmmmm but even $100 a month seems like a lot to me. I'll have to see if I can cut that down.

This is a great topic BTW. I'm actually amazed by the amount of people I know who do go out to eat lunch everyday, do pick-up that $4 or more morning drink everyday (sometimes twice a day), and will get take-out quite a few times a week for dinner.

Northern California, 2 People Married =$ 800 over 3 months average.

Sometimes its higher, sometimes its lower. When school is in session right at the beginning, before longer breaks and right before the end, we spend a lot, eat out and often pick up Starbucks in the mornings on the way to work because we are dealing with changing routines. In the summer sessions though since we are at home for 90% of that we buy in bulk and usually eat at home so it balances out.

just figure at least $10 a day unless you're making the meals yourself.

LA
I had dinner with some friends tonight, $28 that's about average price each time I go out to eat. I go out to eat 3-4 times a week so $120. If I hit up a club or bar, average spent is $80 for a couple rounds of drinks, and I do that once a week. coffee/tea is about $4 each and I get about 4 of those a week so $16.
so about $850 a month...man...that's a lot of statues i could be buying with that!

Sometimes when I need to save money I just get a big jar of workout protein, and milk. Thats absolutely all I eat unless I come across free food like work potlucks etc then mow it down, it free! Its a good diet plan too to drop 20 (not much to me I am 200 lbs 6 ft). Once you learn to last through the constant hunger pangs and the fact that all your stool is pure liquid it aint so bad. I pop a multivitamin too. You can spend as little as 50 bucks. Consult your doctor before doing this **** though lol. The longest I did it was 3 weeks, not an entire month.

I spent a ****load in the 6 yrs I lived in Hawaii though.

Trustey said:

Sometimes when I need to save money I just get a big jar of workout protein, and milk. Thats absolutely all I eat unless I come across free food like work potlucks etc then mow it down, it free! Its a good diet plan too to drop 20 (not much to me I am 200 lbs 6 ft). Once you learn to last through the constant hunger pangs and the fact that all your stool is pure liquid it aint so bad. I pop a multivitamin too. You can spend as little as 50 bucks. Consult your doctor before doing this **** though lol. The longest I did it was 3 weeks, not an entire month.

I spent a ****load in the 6 yrs I lived in Hawaii though.

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I get Laughed at cause I bring my lunch to work (kidding), but I save over $40 a week!

wofford29 said:

I was going over my bank statements and was curious to see what my wife and I spend on food a month. I was shocked to find out the results and have come to the conclusion that we aren't going to eat again for the next month as a result of the absurdity behind the numbers. I was curious what others here average on food in a month. This includes groceries, dining out, and any coffees or snacks at work. Please tell the city you live in and the number of people the total includes.

As for me...

Atlanta, 2 people, average over last 3 months = $1,266.67 sick

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That seems outrageous. Maybe you are including places like Walmart in your calculation thereby including nongrocery purchases? Otherwise, you guys must have a Starbucks habit or run bar tabs when you eat out.

lunch is free at my work..i eat breakfast and lunch there...Food is a very small part of my budget.Like everything else in my life, I am lucky.

free meals at work. wow that would be awesome.

It is about 900ish right now with 2 kids and one in diapers. That adds a lot to the cost. I would love the price of groceries to go down.

Shai Hulud said:

lunch is free at my work..i eat breakfast and lunch there...Food is a very small part of my budget.Like everything else in my life, I am lucky.

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Yeah but who wants MacDonalds every day twice a day. :emperor

It's all about cooking at home and bringing your lunch to work. It gets old after a while, but you definitely save a ton doing that. Oh, and brewing your own coffee instead of buying from Starbucks. That's huge.

ProgMatinee said:

That seems outrageous. Maybe you are including places like Walmart in your calculation thereby including nongrocery purchases? Otherwise, you guys must have a Starbucks habit or run bar tabs when you eat out.

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Nope, we don't go to Walmart, I don't drink coffee, my wife takes coffee into work with her(although those damn lidded foam to go cups do cost money). She'll drink a Starbucks occassionaly, but just the $1 cup of coffee. I attribute all of this to the lifestyle change we had about 3-4 months ago. We both started eating healthier and working out again, we started buying only organic and whole foods, fresh veggies, a lot of Kashi and Amy's frozen meals, Kashi bars, etc. We never really have a plan during the week for meals and end up eating out lunch and dinner on weekends which at most includes one drink from my wife.

What it all boils down to is that we just need to stop eating out but maybe once on the weekends. It seems that we go to the grocery store at least once a week to buy more stuff because we don't have a meal plan for the week and end up making multiple trips to accomodate. Now that I'm aware of this I'm going to report back on the 6th of next month to see what my total is.

Well, there is your problem - you're eating healthy.

Junk food is cheaper.

sounds like some better planning would go a long way. Also, splitting a meal occassionally when you go out would save.
Also, not sure if this is ethical or not but my wife and I never both order soda when going out. Usually we just order one and both drink from it. 90% of the time I just drink water when at a resteraunt, fast food places included. $2.25 soda is ridiculous

Also, when you make a meal, cook extra and eat left overs the next day. Really I can't imagine $1200 a month on food unless you're just one of those stereotype American conspicuous consumer over buying everything and throwing it away.

Reinhardt said:

Well, there is your problem - you're eating healthy.

Junk food is cheaper.

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Ours is probably around $550 a month for 2 people. Normaly if we go out its to fast food places so its a lot cheaper than sit down places. We don't drink coffee (Probably the only 2 people in Seattle that don't) so that save a LOT since those dang places can be expensive.

It's just my wife and I and I too was surprised we spend so much on basically just food. I think it's also about $1,200 a month here in NJ. it's an average of $100 a week for groceries which includes dinner for the week. We usually eat out all weekend starting Friday evening, but we take home half most of the time, so a restaurant dinner will yield us 2 meals (lunch the next day). We don't really buy coffee, and we don't order drinks (alcohol) with dinner either. And we vary between fancy-ish dinners (where the total can be around $65--which is usually just a salad/appetizer and the meal and includes tip) and casual like Chili's.

And we have also found how much more expensive eating healthy can be. When we buy a lot of produce for our meals, we see the grocery bill skyrocket! If we were to eat how those people on Oprah and other daytime shows say you should eat (all fresh fruits and vegetables with only small portions of chicken or beef), we'd be bankrupt!