Who else is spending a lot on groceries, entertainment and dining out?

[MarieIG]

DH spends plenty on groceries, wild salmon, organic vegetables, organic chicken, organic eggs, some grass fed beef and butter. I don't drink alcohol at all, and DH will drink maybe one beer on a holiday, so the alcohol budget is almost non-existent. We don't go out to eat much, and haven't gone at all since Covid, other than some McDonald's coffee from the drive-through.

Right now we are staying with DS and family, and will go shopping tomorrow for groceries.

 

[2017ish]

...

I'll admit to being a bit mystified as to how someone can spend $19K a year on groceries and $5K on liquor. What on earth are you getting for that kind of dough? Imported Russian caviar? Prime Wagu beef? Heck, Wagu Beef Hot Dogs?

With traveling 6 months of the year and excluding those meals and all restaurants from the grocery category, we come nowhere near 19k (currently away from records, but from memory, 7 or 8k on just grocery).

OTOH, no way do we get by for 5k on liquor/wine. A bottle of wine from the cellar nearly every night we are home, plus occasional cocktails, then the occasional family get together at our house. And when we travel domestically by car, we bring aged bottles/cases when visiting friends and family. All of those wines need to be replenished, and DW has developed a taste for ageable Pinots and cabs (and I have always enjoyed higher classified German wines after a decade or more of age).

For us, wines are a major budget category.

 

[Scuba]

Half a century ago I grew up on Kailua Beach, in Hawaii. It was an idyllic time and place back then. Like many locals my cousins, brothers, uncles, friends, and I used to go spear fishing several times a week for fish, octopus, and so on. Such fun, and nothing like a free dinner! If we caught too much, I'd freeze it. If we didn't catch anything, well, then dinner would be something else. But we almost always caught enough for dinner, and often considerably more than that. We'd cook it over a fire on the beach, or take it home.

And then several times a year all the neighbors would get together and we'd get out the nets and have a hukilau and maybe then a luau after cooking in an imu, since that was usually a lot more fish.

This was more than half a century ago and times have changed, so I don't even know if spearfishing is still allowed. But it sure was fun and seafood fresh out of the ocean is such a treat. We seldom bought seafood at the grocery store, and I don't remember the prices although I do remember that it was always fresh too. I never noticed any that was frozen and re-thawed at that time.

I'd tell you about stringing leis out on our lanai afterwards to wear to school the next day, but that might be overdoing the Hawaiiana aspects of this post!

Sounds like a wonderful way to grow up, W2R. Nothing better than freshly caught seafood. It has always surprised me when traveling to islands that there is no inexpensive fresh fish available. Between what the locals consume/freeze and selling to restaurants if that’s an option, there seems to be little available for tourists to buy. I’ve found that throughout the Caribbean and South Pacific.

 

[Music Lover]

Regarding food prices, something I've noticed that makes no sense is that fresh fruit and veggies down here in Florida are either the same price or more expensive than back home on the frozen Canadian prairies.

 

[Koolau]

Last time I was in Hawaii, I wish the seafoods could be as cheap as the cabbages. Why not? you have oceans everywhere.

Yeah, as W2R points out - if you catch it yourself, it's free. Otherwise you buy at a store and all bets are off. I thought when I moved that seafood would be cheap, but it just doesn't translate.

Now, if you know local folks that hunt/fish and work out some kind of trade with them, you probably can eat seafood pretty cheap. We've just never hooked up with locals that live like W2R describes. Most local folks we know work for the electric company, the bus company, the schools, etc. YMMV

 

[Scuba]

Regarding food prices, something I've noticed that makes no sense is that fresh fruit and veggies down here in Florida are either the same price or more expensive than back home on the frozen Canadian prairies.

Same in California.

 

[Badger]

Regarding food prices, something I've noticed that makes no sense is that fresh fruit and veggies down here in Florida are either the same price or more expensive than back home on the frozen Canadian prairies.

This has been the case for at least 3 decades that I am aware. I used to travel in the northern US states during the 80s and early 90s and saw the same thing. I specifically recall items like shrimp and oranges that were the same price or cheaper in states like Michigan and Minnesota.


Cheers!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Same in California.

In the Bay Area it really depends where you shop. Most of the supermarkets are pretty pricey for produce, but prices are usually pretty reasonable at the discount stores, ethnic markets and produce markets. One politician has said recently that the major grocers have "continued to earn massive profits while pushing grocery cost increases onto consumers". Produce, and many other types of food, are just a lot less expensive here if you avoid the corporate retail grocery store chains.

 

[tmm99]

In the Bay Area it really depends where you shop. Most of the supermarkets are pretty pricey for produce, but prices are usually pretty reasonable at the discount stores, ethnic markets and produce markets. One politician has said recently that the major grocers have "continued to earn massive profits while pushing grocery cost increases onto consumers". Produce, and many other types of food, are just a lot less expensive here if you avoid the corporate retail grocery store chains.

What's mind-boggling to me is that I used to pick up $.99 tub of blackberries in ethnic (Mexican) grocery stores when I lived in the South Bay area, but I see the same tub of blackberries (produced in California) sold for $1CAD (which is around $0.79USD) when they're on sale at a local discount store here in Ontario, Canada. How do they do this? One must wonder...

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, as W2R points out - if you catch it yourself, it's free. Otherwise you buy at a store and all bets are off.

Let's see;
Boat - Eleven grand
Dock - Two hundred / month
Gas at 2 miles per gallon...
Fishing License - $65/year
Fishing rod, reel, line and tackle - $200
Bait, filet knives, cutting/cleaning board...

So much for free fish. Much less expensive at grocery store

 

[W2R]

Let's see;
Boat - Eleven grand
Dock - Two hundred / month
Gas at 2 miles per gallon...
Fishing License - $65/year
Fishing rod, reel, line and tackle - $200
Bait, filet knives, cutting/cleaning board...

So much for free fish. Much less expensive at grocery store

But back in those days, we just paid $2 each for air for our SCUBA tanks. We already had mask, fins, spears, and so on. So, $2 for enough fish for 1-5 dinners was a bit cheaper than what you are paying. The locals we hung out with were our age, and we'd usually start spearfishing around 4:30 or so after school or work. We'd be done fishing in maybe a couple of hours I guess. Then, we'd hurry to rinse off our gear, filet the fish, and so on, before dusk. I admit, I am so nostalgic for those days! Good friends, good fish (and octopus!), good times, and maybe my first beer ever and some singing together on the beach. I love reminiscing about all this, thanks everyone.

 

[Koolau]

Let's see;
Boat - Eleven grand
Dock - Two hundred / month
Gas at 2 miles per gallon...
Fishing License - $65/year
Fishing rod, reel, line and tackle - $200
Bait, filet knives, cutting/cleaning board...

So much for free fish. Much less expensive at grocery store

But there's fresh and then there is FRESH. BTD!

 

[mountainsoft]

So much for free fish.

Reminds me of when I was a kid. I would find a long stick, tie some fishing line and a hook to it, and dig a worm out of the ground for bait. I think I borrowed a bobber from my Grandpa, but otherwise the cost was basically zero. I caught quite a few fish out of the local pond with that crude setup. No reeling involved. When the fish grabs the hook you lift the pole and start running.

We used to tie metal rods (coat hangers?) to wood poles and go frog hunting at night too. I loved fried frog legs. I can buy them in the store now, but it's just not the same.

Those were the days. I used to love fishing as a kid, but I moved to the Pacific Northwest when I was eleven. Fishing for salmon in the rivers was a whole different story than pulling catfish, bass, and bluegill out of the local pond. After a month or two with no success I gave up fishing and haven't gone since.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

What's mind-boggling to me is that I used to pick up $.99 tub of blackberries in ethnic (Mexican) grocery stores when I lived in the South Bay area, but I see the same tub of blackberries (produced in California) sold for $1CAD (which is around $0.79USD) when they're on sale at a local discount store here in Ontario, Canada. How do they do this? One must wonder...

In my experience usually those kind of prices mean loss leaders (to get you in the store to buy more expensive stuff) or if it is a local discount store more likely surplus produce. There are a couple of discount stores near me where they sell off the surplus produce cheap. It is like a treasure hunt every time we go there. I never know what they will have but they almost always have some usually expensive fruits and vegetables for $1 a pound or less. Or $4 for fancy mushrooms that might be $12 a pound at the supermarkets and fresh herbs for $1.

 

[Koolau]

In my experience usually those kind of prices mean loss leaders (to get you in the store to buy more expensive stuff) or if it is a local discount store more likely surplus produce. There are a couple of discount stores near me where they sell off the surplus produce cheap. It is like a treasure hunt every time we go there. I never know what they will have but they almost always have some usually expensive fruits and vegetables for $1 a pound or less. Or $4 for fancy mushrooms that might be $12 a pound at the supermarkets and fresh herbs for $1.

We do watch the sales fliers in the paper - looking for loss-leaders. Today, we found diet soda for $2.50 a six pack of 24oz bottles. NOT on sale, cans of soda are $9/12 pack of 12oz cans. So, that's less than $0.02/oz on sale or more than $0.06/oz full price. That's worth keeping an eye on. YMMV

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We do watch the sales fliers in the paper - looking for loss-leaders. Today, we found diet soda for $2.50 a six pack of 24oz bottles. NOT on sale, cans of soda are $9/12 pack of 12oz cans. So, that's less than $0.02/oz on sale or more than $0.06/oz full price. That's worth keeping an eye on. YMMV

Regular grocery store prices might be going up do to inflation / price gouging, but I have noticed that sale prices in the store flyer still seem to be the same as they have been the last year or so.

 

[Koolau]

Regular grocery store prices might be going up do to inflation / price gouging, but I have noticed that sale prices in the store flyer still seem to be the same as they have been the last year or so.

Very true. The loss leaders on the diet soda I mentioned were offered (on occasion) more than 2 years ago. But the 12 packs of soda have gone up $2 in that period of time. I'm sure sodas are a very high profit item and ripe for "loss leader" offerings. My SWAG is that they don't actually lose when they offer the good prices. They just give up the enormous profits they usually make - but YMMV.

 

[aja8888]

A good friend of mine who is also retired after 35 years in the grocery business (corporate purchasing) told me that the real profits in the grocery business are made on the wholesale level. That's where they cut the good deals. The stores are just outlets and are programmed to cover their costs plus a small profit margin.

The loss leaders (break even goods) are done to get people in the stores.

When I worked in basic metals (like making copper water tube by the millions of pounds), our profits were made on metal value going into manufacturing. The production mill was just there to move the copper (tubing) and essentially broke even. Discounts on water tube were just to get the sales.

 

[Katsmeow]

We don't spend nearly as much as you do. In fact in the past few years groceries and dining our are categories we have decreased.

From a recoding standpoint though I would separate the following into their own categories (or sub-categories):

Dining out with just you and spouse.

Food you buy for others. In our "fun" category I have a sub-category for Kids Food where I record food I spend for meals we buy for our adult kids.

Activities/entertainment. This includes money for activities and money that I might spend on other people.

 

[Car-Guy]

We don't really have a budget for such items (or anything for that matter) but it's clear to me that groceries are up noticeably in the past 6 to 12 months and so is eating out, which we do a lot... Ballpark estimate is maybe 15% more in the past year but that hasn't changed our buying habits at all. So yes, we are spending more on food but not because we are buying more or eating out more often.

 

[Koolau]

We don't really have a budget for such items (or anything for that matter) but it's clear to me that groceries are up noticeably in the past 6 to 12 months and so is eating out, which we do a lot... Ballpark estimate is maybe 15% more in the past year but that hasn't changed our buying habits at all. So yes, we are spending more on food but not because we are buying more or eating out more often.

We also don't keep a budget either but we've noticed prices going up locally for several years (including the smaller portions for the same or higher prices). The past year, the increase has been almost breathtaking on some items. Of course, we have added shipping costs here which it seems no one even questions anymore. I think your figure of 15% is about right, though I've not calculated it. One thing for certain - nothing is going DOWN in price but YMMV.

 

[RetiriusMinimus]

Just did my 2021 consolidated credit card analysis…groceries, bj’s stuff like paper goods and HBA, toilet paper and junk like that averaged $945/mont. Take out averaged $318/mont. 3adults at home, DW and DS (WFH remotely for now). Live in Conn. No entertaining too other than 2-3x entire year for holiday..

Told wife we spend too much…

On the plus side only spent $800 on gas all year…