One of the most frequent things I get asked is how we only spend $400 on groceries a month. First let me say, I struggle to keep it around $400, but that’s what we budget. Second of all, this is going to vary for each of us depending on how many people are in a family, the foods we buy, where we live, how much we cook, etc. And third, if I could spend $800 on groceries a month, I so easily would.
Last month someone left a comment asking to share our groceries again. I did this a while back (you can find them under the Finance tab above) and thought I’d write a quick post showing you what we buy so you can get an idea of how we spend our money. I’ll try to leave some random tips and any other information along the way. In my head, I shoot for $100 a week. The first week is usually the most I spend.
A few facts:
-We shop at Walmart
-Use the Savings Catcher to snag any deals in our area (I don’t have time these days to coupon so this app is nice…gives me money back on items that are cheaper elsewhere)
-Family of 4 (2 young kiddos)
-Include everything you would buy at a grocery store with exception to diapers.
-We eat fairly healthy, but I’ve been getting a few more convenience foods during this time of year when I’m single mommin’ it!
-My husband takes a lunch to work everyday
Those groceries above were $64.97! I made another trip mid-week for $13.88 for 3lbs of ground turkey, bread, and deli turkey. TOTAL GROCERIES FOR WEEK 1: $78.85
That’s really good for us, but I had a lot of food already in our pantry and freezer that I’m trying to use this week. I do not like to cook on the weekends so that’s usually when we go out to eat.
Our MENU this week:
Breakfasts: We eat english muffins, breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal, pancakes, Nutrigrain bars on rushed mornings
Lunch: We eat sandwiches (chips, fruit), leftovers, or fast food like Chick-fil-a or Subway
Dinner:
Monday – White Chicken Pasta and salad (I went to Chick-fil-a instead this night because we were running an errand at dinnertime and Ryan was gone, so this meal will be another night).
Tuesday – Tacos (Ryan got a last minute game and was gone again, so I had an egg salad sandwich instead because I didn’t want to to cook)
Wednesday – We had Tacos
Thursday – BBQ chicken, au gratin potatoes, Brussels sprouts
Friday – White Chicken pasta
Saturday – Dinner out
Sunday – Dinner out
Hope that was interesting/helpful and I’ll share more next week. If I buy anything between today and next week, I’ll add it to the next post.
This is great! I think everyone really struggles with food budget, I know I do! When we were in mega save mode, we spent $80/week, now I struggle to keep it to $125/week and that doesn't include diapers or a lot of household items we buy from Amazon. I need to focus more on it and will need to try Walmart to save. How much do you budget for eating out? I'm with you, by the weekend comes, I am done cooking! We've started ordering pizza Friday night, and then go out for at least another meal or Saturday or Sunday. I cook dinner generally every night Sunday-thursday so we have leftovers to take to work for lunch.
Thank you so much for posting this!!! It's something I really need to work on. I'm also interested in how you budget for eating out/fast food?
We budget $160 for eating out. We most always use a coupon when eating out as a family. Otherwise it's just here and there for us kids during the week.
$160 for the month? And thank you!
Oh yes, sorry. $160 a month. And I'll just say if there are two categories we over spend each month, it's groceries and eating out. Usually if our grocery bill is higher, our eating out is lower or on budget. I eat out more when Ryan is reffing but it's usually a lot cheaper too since it's just me and Beckham. We average about $15-25 when we eat out as a family. I'll try to write a post about our updated eating out (I have an old post about it) since we do a few things to make it more affordable now with kids.
Thank you so much! I'll check out the old post you did
I love your grocery posts! We eat out a lot-probably more than we should, but we consider it our "recreation" since we really don't do much else at this point in our lives with little ones. Thanks for sharing some great tips!
Food is our #1 spending item each month (aside from mortgage, of course). We usually over spend – and I budget a good amount each month. Sometimes it's so discouraging. But, I love your finance/grocery tips! They have been so helpful to me over the last year or so. (We became debt free in December via Dave Ramsey, but now we're trying to work on save, save, save so we can accomplish all of our financial goals!)
That is awesome Miranda! And I can relate with the grocery spending. It's tough keeping it low…I swear prices have gone up as well!
That is awesome Miranda! And I can relate with the grocery spending. It's tough keeping it low…I swear prices have gone up as well!
Love your fruit of the spirit sign on your counter. Is it in your shop?
Thank you Bonnie! Yes it is. It's slightly updated.
You gotta include all restaurant food in the budget.
We have a separate category for dining out which is in our budget