How much do you spend on Food & Grog?

[daylatedollarshort]

With house guests lately, I'm at $116 a month per person for food at home. We eat pretty healthy - mostly whole foods, lots of veggies, some organic and low preservatives. I collect ethnic and whole foods type recipe books for a hobby and match up the recipes with this week's best loss leaders and closeouts, and whatever I've stockpiled in the freezer and pantry.

Dining out is usually around $100 - $200 a month between us. We go out for ethnic food with a coupon when it is just the two a few times a month or get carry out Dim Sum, but nights out with friends and club events usually bring up the total. We don't spend much on booze at home. I buy a case of beer every other month on sale or at Costco and wine is usually 75% off the winery prices at Grocery Outlet.

 

[rodi]

Family of four - including two male, voracious teenagers. (They can EAT!)

I just checked quicken - we spent $12400 in the last 12 months for groceries. Groceries is everything purchased at costco, sprouts, vons, 99ranch, and various ethnic markets. Because I don't break out things from costco - that included some clothes, some electronics, booze/wine, etc.

Dining out was $2500 for the year. That includes everything from restaurants out to our favorite combo pizzas from costco's food court that we buy every week or two for an easy dinner. (Food court is a separate transaction - so it's easy to tag it is dining in quicken.)

Put in monthly terms - just over $1k/month groceries and other stuff. Just over $200/month dining out.

We eat well - but cook at home most of the time. Last night we had a roast leg of lamb... Yummm.

 

[DawgMan]

Apparently too much after reading all these answers!!

$1200/mo food, $400/mo grog. That is primarily for 2 and an occasional child stray who shows up for a meal. We do like the good stuff and do some entertaining, but apparently I need reign it in!!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We're trying to stay under the ACA limit so I've been focusing on expenses more than extra taxable income from my hobby business for now since the extra earned income just worsens instead of helping the ACA issue. If we can save $10K off food, $10K off travel and entertainment, and save $20K off our health care premiums, there's $40K a year savings for us we can use to leave for the kids, future travel or whatever instead of handing over to corporations like Safeway. The trick for me is to eat the same as before but just buy the same foods at lower prices. Ditto with travel and entertainment.

 

[MichaelB]

Apparently too much after reading all these answers!!

$1200/mo food, $400/mo grog. That is primarily for 2 and an occasional child stray who shows up for a meal. We do like the good stuff and do some entertaining, but apparently I need reign it in!!

Don't even think it. If I were to count, I'm sure we spend a fair amount more than that, but it's not a category I track. For us food and beverage is equal parts nutrition, health care, personal care, entertainment and personal development.

 

[DawgMan]

Don't even think it. If I were to count, I'm sure we spend a fair amount more than that, but it's not a category I track. For us food and beverage is equal parts nutrition, health care, personal care, entertainment and personal development.

Thanks for talking me off a ledge...

Its good to know i'm not on island... or have a drinking problem!

 

[MichaelB]

Family of four - including two male, voracious teenagers. (They can EAT!)

I was amazed at how much our food bill declined when the [-]freeloaders[/-] kids moved out. The grocery bill declined by half, but surprisingly, our dining out / take out also fell by at least half. When they were older it was very challenging for DW to prepare meals that everyone enjoyed, and the meal prep itself was a lot of work, so we ate out or ordered out frequently.

Now, DW cooks just for the two of us, she has complete flexibility with ingredients and less food to prepare, so we find ourselves going out less frequently.

 

[Winemaker]

Should I put wine grapes/juice in food or alcohol heading?

We spent $450/month on food, $4000/year on grapes/juice/ booze, and $2000/year restaurants/fine dining.

 

[Cobra9777]

Grocery plus grog last year averaged $1100/mo for 2, plus frequent visits from kids, grandkids, and in-laws. We spare no expense for holidays and get-togethers. I don't know the breakout, but grog is mainly better-quality red wine. Based on typical consumption it's probably around $400 for wine and $700 for groceries. We eat out once every 10-15 days, so not a significant number. No household goods in those numbers.

 

[aja8888]

Don't even think it. If I were to count, I'm sure we spend a fair amount more than that, but it's not a category I track. For us food and beverage is equal parts nutrition, health care, personal care, entertainment and personal development.

Understand the concepts, except for food and beverage as personal development? Care to explain?

 

[Mdlerth]

If you become what you eat, bring me something rich

Apparently too much after reading all these answers!!

$1200/mo food, $400/mo grog. That is primarily for 2 and an occasional child stray who shows up for a meal. We do like the good stuff and do some entertaining, but apparently I need reign it in!!

Right there with ya, buddy! Same numbers, but with zero plans to reign it in.



Like others said, I don't have the data to break out tp, Vim or dog treats. I do note that a disproportionate fraction of the food expense relates to specific celebratory events. When it comes to feasting for birthdays and holidays I'm a disciple of RobbieB.



Maybe it will decline in December (when I plan to FIRE), but who knows? Four of our five offspring have nominally launched, but they have been known to show up unannounced and hungry, and with Significant Others in tow.

 

[DawgMan]

Right there with ya, buddy! Same numbers, but with zero plans to reign it in.



Like others said, I don't have the data to break out tp, Vim or dog treats. I do note that a disproportionate fraction of the food expense relates to specific celebratory events. When it comes to feasting for birthdays and holidays I'm a disciple of RobbieB.



Maybe it will decline in December (when I plan to FIRE), but who knows? Four of our five offspring have nominally launched, but they have been known to show up unannounced and hungry, and with Significant Others in tow.

I am sure reigning it in is just a pipe dream.

i am one kid behind you with 4... 2 married, 1 grand kid on the way. We are also big on celebrating family bdays/events which often lead to big daddy taking everyone out to a nice steak dinner. Throw in the new in-laws and the "grog"/wine tab can grow your bill nicely. Speaking of wine or your favorite spirit, it's very difficult to go backwards once your palette has tasted the good stuff!

Our entertainment budget (restaurants) is supposed to be $1200/mo on avg... need to see if we are really keeping that between the lines!

 

[John Galt III]

Quote: Originally Posted by John Galt III Around $100 a month on food. Around $90 a month on booze (beer only, usually).

I like your beer to food ratio.

I noticed that too, ha ha! It looks like I need to spend $10 more on beer. lol.

 

[MichaelB]

Understand the concepts, except for food and beverage as personal development? Care to explain?

Well, I could BS my way through a detailed response - all those years in MegaCorp weren't a total waste. Truth is, I just threw that in to see if anyone was paying attention. Gold Star for aja ...

 

[NYEXPAT]

I always laugh to myself when someone say's they "buy" beer, when we all know you only "rent" it!

 

[NW-Bound]

As mentioned in an earlier post, our food consumption is always right at what we can and want to eat.

So, there's never any thought of reining or "reigning" it in.

And come to think of it some more, there's also no thought of reining in of any category. The last couple years, we spent less and less, running out of things we think we "must" have.

Spend more? Not on food, as we value our health. Can't eat more!

Buying more expensive food? Even if it is not to our taste, and buy just to throw away? Like caviar? I don't think so. Guess we have a simple palate.

 

[RobbieB]

I sure wouldn't buy expensive food if I didn't think it was worth it.

 

[NW-Bound]

Before I debate that something is worth it or not, I have to like it first.

Caviar is out for me. XO cognac on the other hand, I have been drinking it since my late 20s. I don't drink that much, so the price is not a big deal.

 

[RobbieB]

That goes w/o saying. If you don't like it it's not worth buying.

 

[Winemaker]

Understand the concepts, except for food and beverage as personal development? Care to explain?

My booze budget is all for personal development. I cannot perfect my craft by narrowing my choices or always drinking my own. I recently discovered Santa Barbara AVA Sauvignon Blanc that tends to have apricot/peach/nectarine notes rather than the grassy/kiwi/citrus notes of NorCal and NZ. Gotta do my homework!

 

[RobbieB]

That's true. How do you know how good your stuff is w/o a reference?

 

[W2R]

That goes w/o saying. If you don't like it it's not worth buying.

+1

That said, I can't even imagine anyone not liking genuine caviar!!! Yum.

On the other hand, just in the past couple of years I have decided that I actually do not like BBQ and never have. Therefore after eating it unhappily without protest for 65+ years, lately I started turning it down. Sssshhh, don't tell any of the Texans here about that or they'll string me up.

 

[wmc1000]

W2R please continue to eat all the caviar you want as it will leave more BBQ for me! I don't live in TX however.

Last year our household groceries/cleaning and household prods. ran $375 / mo. and Grog was $50 / mo.

Dining out was $175 / mo. avg.

 

[NW-Bound]

I eat fish, but caviar is too fishy for me.

I would rather have pâté or terrine, and these are not expensive. I even learned to make some variations myself. Yep, peasant food but it is so yummy. See photo from the Web.

PS. When going through France, we ate pâté/terrine with French bread nearly everyday. Crossing into Italy, had a hard time finding it. Italians don't eat this.

 

[W2R]

W2R please continue to eat all the caviar you want as it will leave more BBQ for me! I don't live in TX however.

Last year our household groceries/cleaning and household prods. ran $375 / mo. and Grog was $50 / mo.

Dining out was $175 / mo. avg.

It's a deal! I'll leave all the BBQ for you and others who actually like it.

Good job on keeping the groceries, restaurants, and grog at $600/month total, for a household with more than one person!