I had this question posed to me by a fellow colleague who was stumped as how we could live on $300/month for the two of us eating in groceries.
He says he spends about $700/month just for the two of them.
I basically said that all we buy is raw ingredients such as fruit, veggies and meat and some other basics like dairy.
He said: “Me too!”
So I asked him where he shopped (turns out, we shop at the same grocery store).
I also mentioned that we don’t buy frozen food, dinners, cans or packages for the most part.
He said: “Me too!”
Then he started listing out what he buys:
- Fruits
- Veggies
- Bottled Sparking Water
- Juice
- Pop
- Candy
- Flowers for his wife
- Chocolate
- Tasty Bottled Sauces
- …and they eat out once a week
That’s where the extra $400/month is going in their budget — the extras, and stuff that isn’t even ‘food’, like flowers.
So I thought it’d be fun to track what I do buy in a month:
- Apples
- Pears
- Bananas
- Beef/Chicken
- Salmon
- Carrots
- Tomatoes
- Zucchini
- Potatoes
- Green Onions
- Onions
- Mushrooms
- Garlic
- Soy Milk
- Regular Milk
- Yoghurt
- Butter
- Eggs
- Staple replenishment: Rice, Oatmeal, Pasta, Flour, Salt, Pepper, Spices, Olive Oil
And that’s about $70 a week on average, which BF considers high, and is pleading with me to eat less.
5 Things I do that I think works:
1. We never buy more than what we can eat in a week
Like stocking up our freezer? It’s not really in our habit to do that. We only buy what we need to eat for the week
2. We don’t buy a lot of meat
When I say beef or salmon, I mean one cut of beef that lasts a week (we’re trying to cut down on meat consumption) and salmon means just a palm-sized helping for the week.
We aren’t buying 5 packs of salmon for a meal each — I make it last by supplementing it with vegetables (raw sliced zucchini) and rice. It’s more filling and tastier to me to have different textures and flavours with a bit of salmon, than to just eat a hunk of salmon every day for the week.
3. We don’t buy the extras all the time
Chocolate, flowers, and treats? No way. If we ate ice cream every day (we do buy tubs on occasion), it’d stop being a treat and it’d become a habit. Plus, it’s not good for us.
If you think about a frozen dinner like a pizza costing $8 to buy, when the ingredients if you were to make it yourself might be only $3 (if you buy a hunk of salami or cheese, you don’t have to use it all on only one pizza), it becomes a lot harder to fork over the money.
4. We don’t eat out a lot
Lately, there hasn’t been any eating out AT ALL.
We have enough food at home for the whole week that we don’t need to (or want to) eat out. It’s not like we NEVER eat out, but we tend to prefer not to.
I am just not interested in paying $20 for a plate of spaghetti and meatballs that I can make at home for $5.
5. We eat a lot of staples
Rice, oatmeal, and pasta are the main sides to every dish. It helps give us a little extra fiber and filling, and I’m addicted to white rice.
I think all 5 tips that we employ in our grocery shopping each week, really helps us keep the costs down, and is probably the reason why we don’t spend a ton on groceries.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
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I was appalled when I first began tracking our money (boyfriend and I) and realized we spent anywhere from $600-$1,000/month total on dining out (that’s not even counting the groceries bought that were never eaten, left to go bad in favor of tastier, more convenient food outside of the home). I am not proud of it, but neither of us really knows how to cook much beyond breakfast and pasta dinners. I’m currently trying hard to eat more at home and learn some simple recipes. But I think it’s amazing how much money a person can waste without even realizing it, because it becomes such an acceptable and routine part of the lifestyle. So glad I found your blog. Did you always cook, or do you have any suggestions for someone who has to read instructions carefully just to make a meatloaf?
I always cooked instinctively, as my mom is a great cook in the home. We measure nothing but we have a feel for what might taste good in food.
That said, we do not bake for that reason and I also get inspiration from TV shows and books for flavour profiles or ideas.
Then I do it my own way. If you search Recipes on this blog, you will find some stuff I have done.
Same for a family of 3
We are spending about $300 per month on our groceries too but the eating out has GOT to stop! I think dining out adds about $100 per month to the budget.
We don’t buy alcohol, but efforts to cut out cookies have failed miserably. Boxed cereal also seems to hop right into the shopping cart. I think if I would spend time baking, we could cut more from our grocery budget.
I spend about $300 on groceries including toiletries/cleaners and meals out for me and my partner. We try to buy seasonal organic fruits and vegetables, we stock up when foods we eat often are on sale quinoa, oats, whole grain pasta, we buy little meat just sliced deli turkey. We eat mostly beans, tofu or fish for protein.
After I shop I write a list of various breakfast lunch and dinners I can make with things on hand. I also buy snack foods. I save money by freezing soups, using all my leftovers, and cooking 90% of my meals.
We spend about $400 per month for two adults, including alcohol. It’s a lot of money, but for the most part we buy only organic, fair-trade, and local foods-which add up quickly. We live in a fairly expensive city- although I still think that this is too much money. Though we don’t eat much meat, we do always have one or two ‘easy’ frozen meals/pizzas on the menu each week because we’re both gone from the house 12+hours each day. Now that it’s getting cooler, we’ll be using our slow cooker more and relying on frozen meals less.
Our biggest money savers are planning for the week, having those easy meals on hand (prevents impulse take-out) and always carrying trail mix with us to work/school, so we’re not tempted by fast food or vending machines when our days run longer than expected.
Your BF wants you to eat less because…? You are oveweight? You are spending too much? Or does he want you to spend less money on food?
That’s a pretty good budget if you are eating lots of produce.
We seem to be averaging $485/month this year, for three. I have done MUCH better than that other years, but we’ve definitely been eating more meat this year (cutting back on carbs a bit due to my age), and I buy meat at the farmer’s market so it’s local, organic, grass fed, and expensive.
My budget is food only, no paper products or cleaning supplies. And we don’t buy soda. Wine is a separate budget for me, as is eating out. Those are vices I want to track separately. We are at about $230/month for eating out this year, on average, but most of that comes from when we are traveling. I can never decide whether to include that in the “dining out” or the “vacation” category.
We include toothpaste, shampoo, dishwasher liquid, lightbulbs, mop heads, razors, TP and all that in our grocery budget, because we buy all that at the supermarket.
Some weeks we literally buy nothing but fresh meat and veg, and maybe milk, flour etc. Others include things like chocolate chips/cream cheese/other delicious noms for baking, cheese, and we always have a lot of canned tomatoes/corn/coconut milk on hand. We usually buy a tub of ice cream most weeks, and sometimes Tim Tams and the like.
Neat concept! I think I might track all the food that we buy for a month, but I know we’ve got some unusual months coming up with the holidays. Great idea!
Like you, we don’t buy much meat (maybe beef for tacos once a month, and we keep frozen chicken breasts on hand). We make pizza from scratch – dough, sauce, the works. We don’t include anything in the grocery budget that’s not edible, like shampoo or toothpaste or whatever, even if we get it from the same store (which we usually don’t unless there’s a coupon + sale). I’ve been doing a once-a-week cooking plan where I make a big crockpot of some soup, stew, or chili and eat that for lunch every day – it’s worked to keep costs down a lot.
I was looking at your costs, about $150 a person, and was a little disgruntled that I haven’t been able to get myself down to that. Then I realized that I also include incidentals like laundry detergent, feminine hygiene products and aluminum foil in my total, so I may not actually be that far off. Not bad considering I’ve been able to get my total down even with organic produce included 🙂
I usually don’t buy pop or juice. On average I may buy a case a year. Maybe. Any pop that’s in my house is usually left over from a party where someone else brought it. Usually I just drink water straight from the tap, no flavours. I also usually make my own sauces (satay, sweet & sour, bbq, salad dressing, etc…), so that cuts down on the costs nicely. I haven’t bought meat in quite a while, but that’s because I went in on the purchase of an organic grass fed cow with some friends, and I’m still eating through that. I want to start eating more fish though.
I also don’t buy bread, but that’s not really saving me money because I’m still working on learning how to do gluten free baking right now. *shrug*
I’ve moved to an expensive city, but have figured out with good planning that I can spend ~$200/month, which includes all toiletry items, cleaning supplies, cat litter, etc. – all the things I buy in the grocery store whether they are food items or not. My cat’s on a prescription diet now so I budget for that separately.
I buy mostly raw ingredients, but I do include chocolate (whatever dark chocolate is on sale I buy one bar and ration myself over the week), good, fair trade coffee (so I’m not tempted to buy out) and about 2x a month I do allow a treat like a yummy bottled sauce for a recipe or a small tub of ice cream, etc. If getting a yummy $3 cooking sauce to satisfy a craving keeps me from eating a $20+ meal out, plus I get a week’s worth of leftovers, I think it’s worth it. I don’t eat meat but do buy fish occasionally.
I also include wine along the lines of Trader Joes’ Three-Buck Chuck. I also enjoy getting Chinese about once a month, which I order in such a way that I get three meals out of it (big meal plus extra spring rolls). The Chinese comes out of my $50/month “fun” budget. So far, it’s working. I’m on a grad student budget but feel it’s important to eat well and healthily, and not to feel too deprived. I was able to eat this way for $160/month in my old city, but I’ve figured out how it works here now and where to get things at the best prices and ~$200 is about as good as it will get here.
We’ve been spending between $300-400 a month on groceries (closer to $400 lately since we’ve been eating at home a lot more lately versus going out to eat). There’s barely anything processed in our grocery basket. It’s mostly fruits and veggies and dairy. We eat a lot of rice/couscous and pasta as side dishes, and not a lot of meat. We do usually keep tofu on hand so we have some protein for stir frys.
We always have peanut butter on hand too, and I need my cereal 🙂
Other than that it’s canned stuff like beans and chickpeas, and baking supplies/spices. Really the only “packaged” foods we’ll buy are cereal, soups, and our weekly treat, a frozen pizza!
Katie and I spend around $100-$200 a month on groceries. It depends on if we stock up on things we catch on sale. I primarily buy discounted meat when it is available and stuff it in the deep freezer. We don’t eat a huge amount of meat but we eat quite a bit. In a pinch we have spent as low as $10/week but we had quite a bit stocked up and we haven’t had to do that in years.
We eat a bunch of peanut butter so we’re stocking up because of the poor peanut harvest (and soon to be rising prices). We also eat oatmeal, cream of wheat, dried beans, rice, cheese and a bunch of potatoes. In fact, baked potatoes are a staple around here. A lot of times that is what we have for dinner or snacks. We wash them, poke a few holes and stuff them in the microwave. When they come out we add butter, ranch dressing, cheese, black olives, bac-o’s or whatever else we have on hand.
I try to catch things on sale. For instance, last night I got 10 pounds of potatoes for $3 at Wal Mart. A 15 pound bag cost $6.45 in the same store.
Overall we eat pretty good but rather simply. We may buy a 2-liter as a treat but mostly we drink water.