Just curious if my budget is way off the norm: We are a family of 5 (3 small ones) and I budget $450/month for groceries. I spend more at times, but I truly try to stay in that range. What do you spend? I'm tired of stressing about it and want an excuse to add more to the budget - Ha! I am a SAHM, so let me know if you are too to get an equal comparison (as working full-time - I always spent more). Thank you in advance!
$200 a week. I spend about $130 for the big trip then my hubby goes for the weekend trip and spends way too much. We budget about a thousand a month for food. I think we go way over since my husband makes alot of trips to the store. This is a bit of an issue but I appreciate it as well but I come home with bags and bags and always tell him look this is all I spent!!! He comes in with a few bags and it's $80. Can't wait to see other posts.
Hi Suzanne-
We also have 3 little ones (7, 5, and 18 months). Our "budget" is $500 but I have NEVER been on target! I average about $600 a month. I keep trying but it just never seems to come down.
Good luck,
Karen
I'm a SAHM, my kids are 5 and 3, and I spend about $200-$250 every 2 wks on everything (food, toiletries, OTC medicines, dog food for 4 large dogs, and my little one is still in diapers/pull-ups and my older one has to have overnight pullups). I do all my shopping at Walmart Supercenter and buy mostly Great Value brands
I am a SAHM of 2 little ones and we have an outrageous grocery budget. If you include diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, etc., our budget is about $800-$900 per month. I do cook almost every meal at home though and my hubby takes his lunch to work, so our "eating out" budget is very small. When I look at other people's budgets, I think I should be cutting back! I also make meals for people at church and for Bible Study and stuff too, so some of it comes from that, but wow....I never realized how much it was until I just looked. We tried to eat on a smaller budget, but ended up eating less healthy foods, so we increased it. I like to buy fresh fruits and veggies and we sometimes eat elaborate meals since I like to cook. Anyway, I think that our budget is high, but for a family of 5, I think yours might be a bit low. Try to talk hubby into giving you a bit more to work with! Good luck! :-)
We are a family of 3. We spend $400/month. We also eat out a bit and DH eats out at work with the guys 4X/week.
I think we spend around $600 a month. Sometimes more. My husband drinks protein supplements and gets his own food sometimes(he is a trainer), pet food, I have two in diapers, baby doesn't eat food or formula. Eating healthy costs a lot. I am still trying to figure out how to better save on groceries. I do shop at about 4 different stores because some places have better prices on certain things. I quit going to walmart so much because I would spend so much money. I do get chickfila for my son and I about 3 times a week.
We spend about $150/week on groceries with 3 kids and 1 still in diapers.
For a family of 3 me, husband and 17 month old is about $100 - $200 weekly depending on what we need.
I try to spend $20. per day for food.. That does not include, cleaning products, cat food and other items like toilet paper etc.. When we are all home there are 3 adults.
We eat a ton of grilled meat (always purchased on sale). Fish once a week, tons fresh veggies or frozen (purchased on sale at HEB, Fiesta, or Sunharvest, depending on what is on sale is what we will eat that day), our daughter has never had a canned veggie. And tons of fresh fruit. I cook almost every night and we are light breakfast and lunch eaters. We make it a game to always try to buy the "Meal Deal" at HEB.. Sometimes, It is not anything we would eat, so we skip a week. We make Thursday nights, leftover night, so sometimes, there is cereal in 2 bowls at the dinner table..
I have always shopped the sales based on Wed. newspaper. That is how I plan our meals. Lots of rice, beans, tacos, grilled chicken.. We have cut back on the pasta almost entirely, even though I love it. My family is tired of it... Sometimes, I think we will cluck... Eggs for breakfast....
When we eat out, no extras, we try to take a coupon or eat on a night that they have a special.. We just order the entree and sometimes we will share a salad. No alcohol, dessert or appetizers.
Can you tell I was raised by a tight wad? My mom was a single mom and she was extremely careful with every nickle..
Suzanna,
We are a family of 5 and I am a SAHM. All three of my little ones are still in diapers. We spend about $230/week on groceries and that includes diapers and household stuff. It ends up being about $700 a month on groceries and such and I do use alot of coupons and we do not eat much that isn't on sale. A big portion of my budgett has to be on the diapers because the kids get really bad breakouts if I use generic, and even loves causes problems.
Good luck getting the budgett changed
Roxanne
www.roxannebruce.pureromance.com
I am a SAHM in a family of 5. I have an 11 yo daughter and GB twins who are 4 yo. I budget between $200 and $250 per pay period (we get payed on the 1st and 15th of each month) for food. If the pay period is a long one and my stock items run extra low (flour, sugar, etc) I will spend between $300 and $350 for that pay period.
My husband is currently in the military so I am able to purchas my groceries on base at the commissary. While it tends to be a wash with some items more expensive, some less and some about the same price...we do not have to pay tax and the commissaries surcharge is only 5%...so I end up saving money...
When my husband gets out of the military and we settle where we plan to live and raise our family...I expect that our grocery spending will increase by 5 - 10% across the board...
I hope this information is helpful for your situation.
Good Luck.. ;-)
We average around $700/month and that includes food, household, health/beauty and pets. Usually $150/week and the beginning of the month is an extra $100 for stocking up on meats and paper items at Sam's. We are a family of four plus I have an in-home daycare with 6 other kids. I use coupons and shop by what's on sale.
Jennifer
Gold Canyon Candles Demonstrator
You sound on top of things, so I hesitate to ask, do you shop with a grocery list? It saves you money.
It is just me and my husband and we spend about $450/month. Some months we spend much more and some months much less, depending on what staples we needed to buy.
We shop the bulk food store and freeze food into single meals. We only eat out about once a month. We eat high-quality, high-nutrition, mostly organic foods. We are conscientious of the chemical additives in our food and eat very few premade foods (ie, yogurt, ice cream, bread, etc). We mostly shop the perimeter of the store; most items in the center aisles are chemical-laden and expensive for the (little) nutritional value they offer.
Another way that we save a lot of money and time is to spend a day a month making and freezing huge batches of premade meals (lasgna, chili, etc) into single meals. While they have the convenience of premade food, we know that every ingredient is high-quality and chem-free.
I think you are doing great. Nowadays is very hard to spend less than that. I probably average 500.00 a month. We are a family of four and I pack school lunches almost everyday. I do not buy a lot of junk foods, we do not eat meats on a daily basis, and I shop at HEB and Sam's. Sams can be a money saver on cereal, milk, eggs, margarine, tp, paper towels and meats which I separate in ziploc bags. I also go to the farmers market at Airline. Bottom line, the way economy is doing I think you are doing great on your grocery budget.
We're a family of four and it's hard to keep it within $400/mo. for groceries. Esp. since they're so expensive! I think you're doing great for a family of 5! Wow! :-)
I think we spend, on average, around $850 a month on groceries. That would include Sun Harvest, HEB and Sam's Club. (And, Suzanna, you know we buy 95% organic.) I pray you have a great day! Love ya.
We spend about 200-300 a month. We do shop at the Save - A - lot store. We buy caned foods, and other staples there. Its usually much cheaper. We buy a basket load of grocerys and spend half the money we would if we were to go to HEB or Wal Mart. In bigger citys they also have things like double coupon days. Kroger card where its cheaper if you have one. Internte has coupons, you can even go to the brand site and find coupons most of the time. Good luck.
I try to buy a lot of organic, local food, so mine is higher than others. I spend about $200 per week and have a family of three ( my husband, daughter and myself)
We spend $135 wkly and we only have 3 so I think you are doing awesome. That does include paper goods, personal items, diapers etc. When I break it down I spend between $90-100 on actual food. Hopefully we will be out of diapers soon and have a few months break before baby number two shows up! We came up with our amount using the Dave Ramesy financial tools. You can go online to DaveRamsey.com and do a budget for free. It gives you categories and tells you what percentage to use for different areas. For instance, groceries can be like 5-15% of your monthly income. I am not sure if that is the right percentage anymore bc it has been a while, but you make a budget based on what you find most important and then you stick with it. It was awesome for us and helped us to know what our funds were doing. Hope that is helpful, have a great day!