How much do you spend on Food & Grog?

[ShokWaveRider]

I only started recording Food & Grog this year and I think I am pretty surprised on how much we (All 2 of us) spend.

Definition:

Food = Most items from a grocery store, warehouse or Food purveyor. (Not Going out to eat.

Grog = Beer, Wine, Liquor & Mothers Ruin.

At our current rate we are averaging $827 Pm. or $924 Pa. for Food and $253 Pm. or $3036 Pa. on Grog (We like Wine which is most of the cost, but we also get Whiskey, Gin and Vodka).

Seems like an awful lot. DW eats out more than me as she goes out for lunch with friends and I do not track eating out.

 

[Teacher Terry]

500 for food and 100 for grog.

 

[COcheesehead]

$600 for food, but some of that is cleaning supplies, TP, all the stuff we'd buy at Costco.
Grog for home consumption is easily another $100 - $200 because we like fine wine.

 

[Dtail]

About 600 for food and 100 for grog. However we eat out 3x per week which is an additional 600 pm.

 

[97guns]

Less than $300 total per month, we don’t drink and we eat out maybe 1-2 times a month, wife eats very little meat, lots of vegetables rice and noodles

 

[athena53]

Last year I averaged $350/month for food (including cleaning supplies, OTC supplements, etc.) and $75 for alcohol. I live alone, most of my meals are at home and my diet is very light on meat and fish. Seems high compared to 97guns, above, whose numbers are for two people. Not sure why other than the fact that I've pretty much cut out potatoes, pasta and rice (which are cheap) and instead use faro, wheatberries, bulghur, couscous, etc.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We eat out 2-3x's/week and spend 600-800 monthly on that.

 

[davebarnes]

More on wine than on food consumed at home.
We did not buy the Sub-Zero wine fridge for no reason.

 

[haha]

I spend ~$400/month on all groceries and alcohol that I bring home. This is for one person, much of it from Trader Joe. Eating out is accounted separately, and recorded under the heading of entertainment as I almost never eat out alone, or just because I am hungry when outside of my home.

Ha

 

[aja8888]

We have given up keeping track of stuff like this, but I can guess that we spend around $400/month combined on food, house supplies, and wine (DW, I don't partake). That's for two old people.

 

[ABQ2015]

I spend $400 a month just for myself which includes cleaning supplies and paper products. Personal care products and other items bought at the grocery store are tracked separately. This seems high for one person but I'm on an eternal diet and buy lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood, and specialty diet foods that are expensive. But I don't drink or eat out much except when on travel so those costs are low.

 

[LakeRat1]

For the two of us, we average $1100 eating/drinking at home, as well as eating/drinking out per month --- Includes cleaning supplies, etc.....Items from warehouse or grocery stores

 

[Midpack]

Our budget is $975/mo for two $(500 groceries, $75 wine/liquor & $400 dining out). And that doesn’t account for out of pocket spending for food or drinks, probably another $80/mo. Our spending hasn't changed significantly with retirement, if anything up slightly. Might be high (or low) to some, but we're routinely over budget, but I don't see any value in comparing with others. Others may spend more on other activities, we all have different wants/needs, that's what makes the world go around...

 

[aaronc879]

This is the first time I have hear the term "grog". I spend nothing on alcohol and less than $200/mo on food

 

[Red Badger]

Wine is ~$3-400 PM.
Food about the same, unless you add in venison (mine) and garden veggies (hers). Those price out like caviar. If we include them, let's say $6-700 PM

We share the food. I drink the wine.

 

[RetireAge50]

How much do you spend on Food & Grog?

About $1,000 is my guess but really no idea.

 

[Gumby]

For the two of us, $650 per month on food and $290 per month on booze (mostly wine). An additional $1000 per month on restaurants. The latter figure is why I'm fairly confident that our portfolio will survive a downturn - there is a lot of room to cut.

 

[ls99]

No idea, not something I ever kept track of. Eat out once or twice a week, mostly oriental. If everyone drank as much as I do there would be very few liquor stores.

 

[NYEXPAT]

$1136.00 p/m on food for 4 people (includes cooks salary).Maybe another $200.00 p/m for Take out Chinese & Pizza (3 x week). Another $200-$300 on restaurants. Booze is almost all gifted .

 

[Big_Hitter]

i'm budgeting about $1K a month on food/grog

 

[mexexpat]

We eat out 7 days a week, 5 dinners and 2 lunches (weekend). Our meals incl. tax and tip with drinks (usually 3 or 4 wines) average 425 pesos (USD equiv. today = under $22). The rest of meals are often delivery of a pizza (150 w/tax and tip) and we get 4 meals out of it; or delivery of a bbq chicken w/sides for 180 w/tax and tip) and we get 3 meals out of it. I do buy fresh fish to grill at home; yesterday I paid 170 a kilo (under 4 bucks a pound) for fresh mahi. Add a few bottles of wine at avg. of 100 incl. tax for the week. Breakfast is either an English muffin or a French pastry from a bakery on our street or fresh goat milk yogurt and Driscolls berries (their farms are on our lakeside). I would guess our breakfasts average 150 pesos for the week for both of us. Breakfast coffee we buy from a guy who brings it from Veracruz...180 a kilo, or 4.15 USD a pound.

Somebody with a calculator can feel free to do the math. I can attest we spend a lot less on food here in Central MX than we do in the US and we get to eat out daily.

EDIT: Lest you think we are eating at taco stands for all our meals out (not that there's anything wrong with that), here's a list of our local eateries. We can walk to 15+ of these.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g499405-Ajijic.html

 

[W2R]

There is only one of me, and I don't drink but I do eat lunch out at restaurants every day, and sometimes dinners too once in a long while. Here is my average monthly spending in 2017:

Category | Monthly Spending
Groceries | ….. $194
Alcohol | ….. $0
Restaurants | ….. $283
GRAND TOTAL | ….. $477

RESTAURANTS: We love our daily lunch out together! Usually my restaurant lunches are just a cup of soup, or a small green side salad, or half a grilled chicken pita, or something like that, with water to drink. At restaurants we each pay for our own meal, tax, and tip, unless it is the other one's birthday. That's because we both like keeping our money as separate as possible.

GROCERIES: I have been getting my groceries online, at Amazon Prime and Walmart (drive-through pickup), and this is saving me some money on groceries compared with our local supermarkets. Groceries include cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, vitamins, soap, shampoo, and so on, just like they do at a grocery store.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Ex: I would never cook again with those prices)

 

[Car-Guy]

Whatever it takes. I don't have a clue but if I had to guess, it's over 1k a month for the two of us with all meals/drinks included.

 

[NW-Bound]

I looked at Quicken's summary for the last 6 years since I retired.

Food cost is 6.6% of all expenses. It's way below other categories such as travel, healthcare, gifts and donations (no, we do not attend church and do not tithe).

In economic hard times, I can see that our eating standards (and my drinking, as my wife is a teetotaler) will not go down, because we will be cutting something else.

But then, there's no fat in our diet, both literally and figuratively speaking.