Monthly Eating Expenses
- Started
- Last post
- 28 Responses
- pinkfloyd
How much do you spend a month on food? Any tips / recipes on saving?
- DRIFTMONKEY0
I really like to cook, so I don't cut corners on food or ingredients. I spend around $500 a month on provisions for me and my son. I typically spend 1-2 hours per night preparing and cooking a meal.
- I need to evolve into your lifestyle. Sounds idyllic.detritus
- Show off.monospaced
- Cooking time, I mean.
1-2 hours is a luxury!detritus - 1-2 hours every night will be toughpinkfloyd
- Like I said, I really like to cook. So, I make time for it.DRIFTMONKEY
- MrT0
Aside from eating out, also spend around $500 / month on food for MrsT & I, pretty much all from the market aside from dry groceries. No meals from a packet, cook from scratch which doesn't have to take long either - I'd love 2 hrs a night to cook!
Let's 'ave a QBN recipe blog...
- pinkfloyd0
Please respond with an estimation of how much you'd be spending for 1 person.
- omahadesigns0
$6-$20 day on myself.
- omahadesigns0
Where do you live? If you shop at places like Trader Joe's instead of Whole Foods, you save. Don't sacrifice tho.
- sem0
We have a regular delivery every couple weeks of the essentials to make sure there is always enough to make something. This is something you can do online and find the best prices / products etc.
If you're trying to budget give yourself a weekly allowance for anything outside of that, i.e food and snacks when out and about. This way you will have the peace of mind knowing you've always got whats needed at home.
Me and my misses treat ourself to delivery or restaurant once a week which is where most of the money goes, damn raw fish addiction.
- pinkfloyd0
Lunch is the biggest expense. I'm willing to pack my lunch if it's easy and safe to leave at room temperature during my commute. I can refridge it at work if necessary.
- You just saved a bunch. Or get a job that provides free / cheap food.omahadesigns
- Current job doesn't supply free food or drinks.pinkfloyd
- That's a crappy job.omahadesigns
- My last job supplied free lunch and drinks, I prefer my current jobpinkfloyd
- omahadesigns0
Some supermarkets are cheaper than others, even the normal kind. Shop around.
- pr20
around $1500 - but i eat out a lot.
- Salarrue0
I used to be eating out a lot before, but after a financial crisis last year I needed to make some changes. It is hard because in my family philosophy is more important get your work done and eat out or order that spend hours in the kitchen... but in my wife's family is more important to take the time to cook and eat out only special occasions...
Anyhow... the main factor to consider is where you buy food. Here in montreal there is a place that you can buy vegetables and fruit at half price of the other supermarkets and for example a hundred oranges for 4 dollars... all juice now is natural in the morning.
I got a costco membership and some laundry supplies, toilet paper and milk we got them from there.
Other thing is to buy a bigger freezer, there are some good offers for good beef, chicken or even cheese and you froze them to have a good backup You even can freeze some bread is really good when you put it in the oven right from the freezer and it gets as fresh baked.
We found a place where you buy like 150 good chicken pieces (legs with bones) for about 50$ we froze them and prepare, empanadas, tacos, grilled chicken and even share to my family. we buy that big box every 4-5 months. Fish is good too there is a greek place here where there are good deals.
What we learned after a year is that is worth it to follow some offers, mostly in stuff that we can freeze and save it for later. It really made a change for me, I learned a lot from my wife in this end and is crazy how now we saved.
rough with no restaurants in the month we can spend like 300$-400$ max in groceries.
- omg0
Try digging in the trash of bakeries, delis, buffets, restaurants, supermarkets to find some good edible food thrown away that is still good to save money.
- omahadesigns0
Not buying meat could be cheaper (and healthier) too.
- Not true.monospaced
- Certainly healthier.set
- gotta make up with lots of nuts n shitmoldero
- not really, it's easier than cooking meat to be a veggieformed
- oey0
We are 7 in my apartment.
Each has to spend a minimum of €30 a week.
Most products are Bio.Bio bread and eggs are apart.
We eat a lot of cheese.
- monospaced0
I need to start budgeting this. I do love to cook and I'm good at it and do it as much as I can, but I know it's not enough.
Crazy thing is that when I do make a couple trips to the grocery store in a month ($200 together) I find myself with a lot more cash at the end of the month. If not, we end up ordering delivery which averages $35 a night. I also spend $15 a day on breakfast and lunch out.
- moldero0
Groceries for me and my family is around $4000 pesos / month (approx $300 us) and we eat a lot. we don't buy sodas or any sugary crap or processed shit. all meals are home made and from scratch. back in the US I spent about $1000 / month on groceries just for me alone.
Stateside the real food seems more expensive than the processed stuff, where I'm at here in Mexico its the opposite, the fake sugary shit costs way more ex: a SMALL single serving bucket of ben and jerries ice cream is like $11 us. and most fruits and vegetables in Mexico (where im at and shop anyway) are what would be sold stateside as "organic", for $5 us, i get more fruits and vegetables than i can carry.
my only gripe is lack of variety down here.
- $1000 for one person is insane. That's like for a family of four.iCanHazQBN
- 1k is about right if you add some junk here and there. he's probably better with math than you iCan.pr2
- Pesos, silly.omahadesigns
- $1k a month US it was. i eat real food like fresh salmon and quality meats from quality butcher shopsmoldero
- formed0
I eat very healthily, though not fancy like those above pics. Probably spend $200-300, total guess though. I am pretty frugal and try to balance the taste/nutrition/dollars.
- pr20
As someone who was pre-producing a documentary about food - and thus did a shit load of research. And as someone who's lost his "tin hat" and simply accepted the reality for what it is... i can tell you that the quality of ingredients in the US is abyssal. Basically on this side of the Pond it's about price and looks. Nothing else matters. You have tasteless vegetables that look great because of all the poison to kill anything that lives spread on and in the vegetables and fruits and animals.
So if you are an American, price should be the LAST thing you are looking at because it means you are buying a poison disguised as something edible. In that respect next time you go to a farmers markets you should be surprised how cheap and affordable the real vegetables, fruits, meat really is. Still it's not as cheap as the garbage sold in majority supermarkets. So at the end it's you choice, pay now a bit more for quality or pay letter your medical bills when your health starts failing.
A typical take out for 2 is $40-70, while trip to a restaurant doubles it because of the drinks. A typical meal (again for 2) from quality ingredients is $20-30. So to eat well, you still are looking at around $900/month if it's all home cooked.