Cost of Groceries and Restaurants, including alcohol and vacations

[Marita40]

I spend about $300 a month on groceries, toiletries, paper products such as tp and tissues, and cat food and litter. I'm single. If I'm feeling frugal I stop at Aldi first, but generally shop Supertarget. I eat simply but well. Good quality meat or fish. Homemade chili or soup. I love to roast all sorts of fresh veggies: today I bought butternut squash, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, Brussels sprouts. I only drink alcohol when I go out to dinner, so I save there. I do like good coffee and lots of it.
Cat stuff costs about $60/ month.

 

[FIREd]

We spend about $12 a day per person on food (both store bought and restaurants) and alcohol. It is important for us to feel good about what we eat and drink, so some of our food purchases are hedonistic. We don't eat out a lot.

 

[FUEGO]

Our grocery spending took a slight dip over the past several years of being retired even though our kids are growing older. I think it's more focus on buying cheaper whole ingredients and buying less processed stuff (more time/energy to cook from scratch). Also more time to shop for groceries and visit a second store if they have great sales.

But overall it seems like we're actually eating better food. More seafood, more fresh produce/veggies. Fancier cheeses and beer. Can't quite figure it out. 2013 averaged $3.88/person per day (still working most of year). More recently 2016 averaged to $3.18/person per day while 2017 is currently running $2.69/person per day. Doesn't include restaurants which are <$0.50/person per day or less (aka 1-2 meals out per month).

We did have rice for dinner so maybe that's the secret. 2 different kinds, both good kinds imported from Thailand. With a side of ribs and curry, edamame and broccoli. Breakfast was oatmeal and lunch was kale salad (both very inexpensive but healthy-ish).

 

[Katsmeow]

We average about $16.23 per day per person. About 37% of it is dining out and the rest is other eating. This is actually a little high. Our son was living with us for awhile until he started graduate school. He mostly bought his own food but a little bit of this was for him. I don't think it would have made much difference though.

This does not include non-food items bought at the grocery store.

Shokwaverider - It is simple to do this. When I enter a grocery receipt into YNAB, I categorize food as groceries and categorize non-food consumables as Home: Consumables. That is usually the only categories for stuff I get at the grocery store. But, if I picked up some cat food I would categorize that as cat food, etc.

 

[sengsational]

Yes, it's fairly popular. Several of my friends home brew...most of them make wine but some make beer as well. I'm too "picky" so I just suck it up and pay what it costs.

That being said, the quality has gone up in recent years and I might consider giving it a try if I can find a home brewed beer that I really like.

They have wort from legit craft breweries that are sanitized and packaged . I had a couple of batches and they turned out great. The fermentation temp was managed at the shop...all I did was bottle condition. And when I say "Great" I mean BJCP judges would give the beer a better than average rating.

 

[NYEXPAT]

I never thought to calculate it before but it comes to $24/day for a family of four (including the housekeeper) and one meal out a week. Does not include my Wifes daily eating out, my breakfast out 3x week, and take out for dinner,Chinese, pizza's, Sat night fancy restaurant, alcohol in bars and clubs. vacation meals and a few other things like kids lunches in school, food and popcorn at the movies, snacks at night for netflex or alcohol in the house for friends and family. The $24/day sounds nice, so I will probably go with that.

 

[Music Lover]

They have wort from legit craft breweries that are sanitized and packaged . I had a couple of batches and they turned out great. The fermentation temp was managed at the shop...all I did was bottle condition. And when I say "Great" I mean BJCP judges would give the beer a better than average rating.

One of my friends is in a group that takes beer making seriously...they entered a local competition and came in 4th place in one category out of dozens of entries.

 

[Scuba]

Like others, I don't have a super accurate accounting as our grocery costs include some non-food items, food when traveling goes into the travel category, and entertainment includes both eating out and concerts/theater/movies. Very roughly we are spending about $60/day for 2 people or $30/day per person. We eat out often, almost always order wine or cocktails with dinner, and we buy a lot of fresh fish, fresh herbs, shellfish, and filet mignon to cook at home. We love food & wine so we don't try very hard to manage this cost. Guess we are "blowing that dough" compared to many.

By the way these numbers don't include feeding our dog. He eats better than we do on a per pound basis, but luckily he's only 13 lbs. We spend another $50-$60 per month on his food and treats.