Grocery Bill?

[eamyrick]

Appreciate the responses. I should have addd that $1471 also includes household goods since our grocery has pretty much everything, lightbulbs, charcoal, kid medicine, dish and laundry detergent. Food is probably 1100–1200 of the bill.

 

[grfox92]

$1200-1400 a month. Me my wife and 3 young kids.

That same grocery bill was $800 before Joe Biden was the president.

When every individual item at the grocery store has gone up by 50-100% things start getting very expensive.

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[Will_m]

I can’t imagine spending less than a grand a month. That’s between two people and nothing other than meat, vegetables, coffee and whatever consumables we need like paper towels, dish detergent etc. Game meat cuts it back but I would need to kill ten deer a year to really make an impact that way.

I simply cannot believe some of the responses with a family of four coming in around a grand. Especially with young boys. They eat more than horses.

 

[GunsAreFun]

We shop at Aldi and try to only eat out one night a week or less, though I’ve gotten bad about buying lunch 2-3 days per week. 2 and 4 year old and my wife. We spend between $80-130/week at Aldi and probably $10-40 at other stores for miscellaneous things that were on sale or Aldi didn’t have.

 

[ddd-shooter]

Agree with responses thus far. We’ve seen groceries up at least 30% no matter what we do.
Clean meats, veggies, and home cooked meals every night for us. Except Friday night. That’s pizza night lol

 

[psirus7]

About $900 per month for a family of 3 in the inland northwest. It was easily double that before my wife started using a solid meal planning system.

 

[LostArra]

I have 16 and 11 year old boys, at least 2 gallons of milk and 2 loaves a bread a week..we do butcher box and whatever fish and game we can bring to hand for protein and we have a garden every year and can what we can. Just pulled all my Brussel sprouts out of the garden this evening to vac pack and freeze. But yeah it's expensive.

My 91 year old mom loves to tell anyone who will listen about feeding three teenage boys. Box of cereal gone at one sitting. Milk man delivered twice a week. Fried two chickens or ten pork chops or a dozen hamburgers for a meal. She always said she wished we were picky eaters.

We raised four daughters and they could eat like horses and no one weighed over 100 pounds!

When my wife discusses grocery bills: "have a friend with chickens (we haven't bought eggs in years), a husband who hunts elk, a Costco nearby plus two freezers."

 

[EastCoaster]

Family of three here and our food budget is 800-1000 per month. We have to try a little harder now and are a little more creative with our meals. I treat it like an opportunity to try new cuts of meat or new types of produce. We eat out less than once a month…….makes no sense to pay that kind of money for food that sucks.

 

[wyosteve]

Wow, now I understand why being single lets me do a sheep hunt every year if I want!!

 

[Walkstoomuch]

My wife and I budget $800 monthly but as others have said that includes some household items as well, paper towels etc. We shop at Costco, Bimart, buy and freeze proteins, grow a garden and belong to a CSA. We also budget $200 for eating out

I run a restaurant and can tell you that our costs on food have increased 10%-40% since the beginning of the pandemic. Proteins jumped early on but have stayed fairly stable minus the standard holiday increases. A few items are up over 50% and they can't be explained by our sales people. I also have to carry around 3x the inventory on a lot of specialty items as shipping seems to be fubar and consistently getting staples (vinegars, oils, specialty flours and grains etc) is near impossible. The egg issue due to the avian flu and having to pay triple for eggs is a real kick in the dick when margins are already so tight. Thankfully we just saw substantial relief about two weeks ago, prices have dropped about 50%, but not sure if that's happening in the stores as well. We live in a bubble here and it's crazy what businesses are charging for a plate, knowing what the associated costs are makes it near impossible for us to eat out and enjoy ourselves. A lot of restaurants just charge through the nose because the money is here and people are willing to pay.

I can't imagine having to feed a family, my brother and I ate like it was our job.

 

[sconnieVLP]

Single dude here, I’m at about $350/month. Two years ago I was at about $250/month. Probably be more about $450/month if I wasn’t eating venison and game birds for most of my meat. It definitely helps being able to shop at the commissary on base instead of having to go to a regular grocery store, the prices are a good bit cheaper on most items.

One thing that helps keep my bill stable is meal prep. I figure out what I’m going to eat and portioned out all week and have every breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks prepped to not have stuff go to waste. Also keeps me from going and buying lunch or dinner when I make it easy and helps both from a money and nutrition perspective.

 

[Jethro]

It’s strange the egg thing is on the news non stop.I also just bought boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.99 per pound 2 weeks ago in the family packs.

It obviously must be regional. In Oregon an 18 pack is about 3.99. The last 5 dozen box I got was $9.99. Lions like it’s $14 for 5 dozen right now

I watched news stories where people are renting chickens and chicken coops for $100 per month.

The politicians and have really jumped on the eggs are way too high bandwagon also.

I can spend significantly more or less depending what store I go to within a 15 minute radius of my house also.

Going to the wrong store can easily add $20 - $30 per week for my small family

Thats a good price on eggs.

I don't know what we spend. I don't buy the groceries. 2 teenagers. Its A LOT $$.

Did pick up a few items on way home yesterday. 18 eggs. $6.69. Bread used to be 2 for $4, now $3.29 each. Store brand 2% milk $4.39 a gallon.

No joke, I did use my Discover card to pay. 5% cashback at grocery stores this month.

 

[ToolMann]

Two of us. We "young" empty nesters. Our standard weekly bill at the grocery store is $130. Almost every time. Add in one Costco trip every two months or so (paper towels, TP, olive oil, etc.). As funds have become better we do opt for some more expensive things: Red Bird chicken, etc. Other than chicken and pork we don't buy much meat. Brought home enough fish from Alaska for a year and have elk and deer in the freezer. We're not counting alcohol in this budget, right

 

[aMurderOfCrows]

Everything is insanely expensive right now. Groceries especially. When the cost of fuel goes up 40% that means ever single thing you buy goes up. Add in supply chain issues, shortages, fires at food processing facilities. Yea, you’re gonna pay more.

 

[5MilesBack]

My wife and I and teenage daughter at home now and we're under $1000/month pretty easily. I'd say I spend about $250 every other week on average. I do most of the cooking and I'm pretty frugal with all things, and groceries are no exception. There are certain prices I just won't pay for items, so when they go past a certain point I just don't buy. I would say that most of the stuff we buy is only "on sale" items. Between our two largest local grocery chains, they normally have decent coupons on the "staple items" like milk etc. This week milk is $0.97 per half gallon at one store and $0.99 at the other. We go through about two gallons a week.

That's the same for most items we buy. $1.29/lb two days ago for a 10lb pork butt that I smoked yesterday. That will provide quite a few pulled pork sandwiches. We also go through quite a few Costco rotisserie chickens at $4.99/ea. I use the breasts for sandwich meat (at least 4 sandwiches per chicken) and the wings, legs, and thighs for soup most the time. Add in the game meat that we have in the freezers, and we really don't spend much each month. No soda or other sugary drinks, no alcohol, not much for prepackaged processed foods.......and it's fairly easy to keep costs down and reasonable.

 

[jayhawk]

Everything is insanely expensive right now. Groceries especially. When the cost of fuel goes up 40% that means ever single thing you buy goes up. Add in supply chain issues, shortages, fires at food processing facilities. Yea, you’re gonna pay more.

Don’t forget the new scope for your rifle, 2 boxes of ammo, new boots, and beer and twinkies from the weekly run to the 7/11. It all adds up.

Single guy. I was at $200/mo two years ago, but now around $300. I snack more and cut some things back like beef and alcohol. That stuff gets EXPENSIVE.

 

[S.Clancy]

The egg thing is Avian Influenza. I work for USDA, local layers have had to kill their entire flock if birds come down with Avian Flu. I can think of over 100K laying birds killed on local hutterite colonies alone, so imagine if avian flu gets into massive facilities in the Midwest, adds up fast.

 

[Szwampdonkey]

Family of 3 in WI, we average 500-600/month. One thing I think saves a ton is we almost exclusively eat oatmeal for breakfast. Its oatmeal or no meal, but ive already been doing that for probably 20 years so it wasnt a change anyways. We dont buy any meat as we eat what i shot so im sure that saves a ton right there. Fish we eat is also what we catch through out the year. My wife uses ground venison for meat loaf, spaghetti, etc. One thing we changed with food getting so expensive is we went to things like frozen cherries, raspberries, blackberries, etc instead of the fresh fruit. We found we actually like the frozen better, it lasts longer, and we never end up throwing any away to spoiling. Ive also gone to just drinking water at almost every meal as opposed to something like milk which is way healthier for me anyways.

 

[Customweld]

Just 2 of us. On occasion one of the adult daughters will eat with us. We budget 500-700 a month for groceries. My wife is a frugal shopper and an excellent cook. We don’t do boxed meals or pre made stuff. We buy a half beef and a half hog every year. The last half beef we bought in October was $3 a pound hanging. I forget what the hugs generally run. We buy raw milk and eggs from local folks that we found advertising on FB. The milk is $4 a gallon and the eggs are $3.50/18. The wife stocks up on veggies at Winco when they are on sale and hits their bulk section pretty hard. We both eat leftovers for lunches and rarely eat out. Venison also plays a pretty good part in our diet. We make our own sausages. We have a small orchard with cherries, peaches, apples and blackberries. We freeze or dehydrate fruit to eat through the winter. I’m a lousy gardener, so we don’t count much on that.
The grocery budget has went up about 30 percent in the last 2 years.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

It's just the wife and me, except when the grand son comes over, man that kid can eat. 15 skinny as a rail and packs it away. I notice recently all the stores are rearranging their shelfs. They do that so you have to walk around more looking for what you came for. It makes for more impulse shopping. Prices are sky high and they try to get you to buy more than you came for. Make a list and stick to it. Also eat more wild game.