Monthly Grocery Expenditure

[retire48in2018]

We spend $225/month grocery/household for 3 of last 4 years.

Eating out $500/month. Eating out usually includes paying for some others on some of those meals - usually 4 additional people about 1/3 of those meals

We cook from scratch a lot and always look for bargains to buy that week - and buy to a menu for week.

In last year, we are spending $600/month (grocery & household supplies) - for 6. The additional amount is for daughter & her family who are somewhat foodies - but love to cook from scratch as well. I don’t know how much the other 4 spend per month on eating out.

For about 8 years (2001-2009) - we averaged about $100/month for 4 of us - but we were in a coupon nirvana area. Additionally, donated about several hundreds dollars per month (value) from that $100/month. DW was in a documentary then. Frequently triple coupon from 3 different competitor chains.

We are not in a good coupon area, and don’t spend the time necessary to do that any more.

 

[ransil]

2 of us

2023 is $423.64 per mo includes paper and cleaning
2023 eating out $23.88 per mo

 

[Toast]

We spent around $800 per month for 2 adults and 1 adorable dog. We eat exclusively at home and buy organic as often as possible.

 

[athena53]

In 2023 it was $470/month for just me, running around $530 so far this year. That includes cleaning products but excludes alcohol. Mostly dairy and fresh vegetables, very little meat, mostly form Costco.

 

[BrianB]

For the two of us:

$600 / month for groceries & cleaning supplies & paper supplies from the supermarket / Costco. (My wife is a great cook, so it is a rare occasion we don't make our own meals.)

$90 / month wine beer and spirits. (We do like a nice glass of wine with dinner!)

$60 / month dining out. (We only ate at restaurants 6 times in 2023 for about half of that. The Costco hot dog & soda combos really add up fast!)

BrianB

 

[njhowie]

Also, when this topic comes up among friends and family, I find that the male partner is the one who typically does the shopping. I love to shop; my wife not so much!

How about you?

Ditto on both counts - I do it, DW hates it.

I spend $250 to $350/month for the two of us. I do not purchase anything that is not on sale. If it's not on sale, I don't buy. I arrange our meals based on what I purchase that week. I don't plan the meals and then go shopping with a list. I primarily shop at the major chain supermarket and also Aldi which is in the same plaza. A well-stocked pantry and freezer also help. Ricotta was on sale this week, so I'll make a tray of lasagna...which will last a week.

 

[street]

Just asked wife she says ~500$ a month. Kids are here a lot, so it has increased to that in the last few years.

 

[Chuckanut]

I probably spend over $500 a month on groceries. Since I don’t go out to eat very often, I like making good food, and at times that means expensive ingredients. Also, my area has some of the highest grocery prices in the nation. I am dreading the merger of Kroger and Albertsons as that means no other normal markets near me. Just boutique supermarkets as well as Costco and TJs. I expect my Costco grocery spending will rise a lot if the merger goes through. Color me envious of those of you who have an Aldi’s or Lidl nearby. And I would love to see a WalMart grocery store in my area.

 

[Healthy Lifestyle]

We spend $700-800 month for the two of us on groceries and cleaning supplies.
We have take out on occasion.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Chuck, if you have Winco nearby nobody can beat their prices and the quality is good. I have found Walmart to have crappy quality where I live. Our grocery prices have skyrocketed in the past two years like everything else in the West.

 

[GenXguy]

Hmm, that works out to 50 cents a meal for each of them if they eat 3 meals a day.

Oh, the post referenced was in 2020 and a follow-up in Oct 2021 that there wasn't much change. But since it's 2024 now, maybe that family is up to $250/mo by now due to high inflation.

 

[Samething]

Single, 2023 grocery spending $377 per month. Eating out, $208 per month.

 

[msieweke]

Averaged $570 in 2023 for 1 male, nearly all food cooked at home. About 50% of that is for grass-fed beef. I could eat a lot cheaper, but quit worrying about that when I realized my NW is rising by more each year than my gross income while working.

 

[ksr]

For two of it’s about $700 per month for groceries and eating out. Groceries include paper products and cleaning products. On average we eat out about once a week.

 

[Steeler75]

You don’t want to know. We don’t eat out at all unless traveling and prepare all our meals from scratch at home. We eat like kings at home - high quality great food is something we happily splurge on. In other words we don’t try to save money on groceries.

Ditto, but we do takeout once a week.

Prime steaks, king salmon, free range chicken and some Morgan Ranch hamburger… along with appropriate pairing of high end wine. I used to track but don’t bother anymore. Don’t even get me started on the cost of the Kona coffee we drink

 

[Steeler75]

I have no idea. Spent $700 yesterday at Costco, paid $800(after butchering) for a whole 350# hog 2 weeks ago. We bought half beef last fall I think for $1200. DW says about $1200/ month for local grocers, and we eat out only when traveling and we do a lot of cooking at VRBOs when we do. We garden and go to farmer's markets when we travel as well.

But does your wine tab go under groceries or hobby?

 

[TrvlBug]

I recently started tracking our expenses 'for the heck of it' and 2023 was my first 12 month period. This excludes food consumed during vacations.

Groceries: $1,417/month (this is food only; no alcohol or other non-food items)
Eating out: $99/month (we don't eat out much)
2 Cats: $114/month food items only but includes $800/yr in water additive costs as one of our fur babies has teeth/gum issues)

For this year, I have decided to alter my shopping habits so that I throw away a lot less food...savings for Jan and Feb have been $400. I know I throw away lots of food, but had no idea how much .

edit: that's for 2 of us.

 

[Tom52]

For two adults we spend an average of $550 per month at the grocery stores. We buy a lot of produce but very little red meat. We eat out about twice a week normally for lunch an that runs about $350 per month.

 

[CO-guy]

There's two of us. In 2023 our supermarket spending varied from $400-600/mo. In the summer we participate in a weekly CSA which explains the variation.

In addition, we buy a few staples on Amazon and my better half shops at the local health food store for a few items every few weeks, but fairly negligible (under $100/mo).

Typically we go out to dinner together once a week and we each go out about once a week on our own (happy hour or a lunch, etc) which runs around $450/mo at restaurants.

 

[jollystomper]

Monthly Average since retirement: $518
2018: $608
2019: $545
2020: $563
2021: $507
2022: $468
2023: $467
YTD through February: 500

Groceries include everything bought in supermarket ,and food/discardable food serving/paper products bought in other stores (mostly Walmart, Costco, Amazon, and Dollar+A-Quarter Tree).

We still had one child in the house a lot through the end of 2018. After that it has been primarily for the two of us. This also includes groceries bought when we (primarily DW in truth) decides to provide a meal to others in need, which can be a several times a month. Also one son who lives nearby probably has meals with us 3-4 times a month.

2020 and some of 2021 was high, as we were in covid stockpile mode. The first two months of 2023 were high, but this month we will not be spending as much, so the average for the year should be back around $450-$470.

 

[tmitchell]

I'm amazed at the lower figures here, wondering how!

We eat almost exclusively at home, averaging just under $1000/mo for 2. That includes alcohol, mostly organic veggies, and pasture raised meats. Health is #1 so we go for quality whenever possible.

When we do eat out it's while traveling, so that goes under our travel budget.

 

[jollystomper]

I'm amazed at the lower figures here, wondering how!

We eat almost exclusively at home, averaging just under $1000/mo for 2. That includes alcohol, mostly organic veggies, and pasture raised meats. Health is #1 so we go for quality whenever possible.

When we do eat out it's while traveling, so that goes under our travel budget.

You mention alcohol. We rarely buy that, and mostly wine for cooking . No beer. Last year about $130 of our groceries were alcohol products.

 

[Jeffman52]

I'm amazed at the lower figures here, wondering how!

We eat almost exclusively at home, averaging just under $1000/mo for 2. That includes alcohol, mostly organic veggies, and pasture raised meats. Health is #1 so we go for quality whenever possible.

When we do eat out it's while traveling, so that goes under our travel budget.

Agree. Not yet retired but my retirement budget for groceries for DW and I is about 1500 per month. That includes everything we buy at the grocery store including alchohol. We only eat out once or twice a week. We eat all our left overs. But we also try to stay away from processed foods (which are cheaper and go further).

 

[rwdflynavy]

We spend a lot on groceries.

For our family of 3-4 (one at college) we spend about $1300 a month.

 

[njhowie]

That includes alcohol, mostly organic veggies, and pasture raised meats. Health is #1 so we go for quality whenever possible

Well those are certainly major contributing factors in your relatively high monthly spend. $1000/month comes out to $30-$35/day.