Poll of the Day > How much do you spend in a week on food?

(+) Yeah! (+)

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For the household like 100-200 depending on the week and eating out. Just me is half of that.

I'm guessing the first 3 brackets consist of homeless people or people living with mommy and daddy?
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I normally drop $100 every two weeks at the grocery store, so I guess that would mean about $50 a week.
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Renraku_San posted...

I'm guessing the first 3 brackets consist of homeless people or people living with mommy and daddy?

I voted 40~60 cuz on a pizza week I would splurge on more.

If I stuck to my staples it'd be more like 20 via milk and pasta.
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Several hundred, I have to constantly feed the grimlocks in the basement to keep them docile.
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Hard to say exactly. I go grocery shopping like every 3-5 weeks, but how much food I buy and how much i eat out between shopping trip varies. I'd guess somewhere between 60 and 100 a week if you average out my monthly food costs.
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Between $25-70 usually depending on what I plan to cook, what we already have at home, how many calories my boyfriend is eating that week/his meal plan/supplies. We split the bill 50/50 even though it really should be 25/75 with him paying more.
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100-140 is what I put down.

Honestly though I eat steaks all the time, and out some.

And that is making meals for 3 mainly (I cook for my roomate and her daughter and pay for it all).

If I was trying to save money?

I'd still eat steak every so often (maybe twice a week), but would still buy ribeyes on sale for $5.77 and stock up/freeze it), potatoes and brocolli etc, add a bit more but it's still under 10. I don't generally eat breakfasts, and lunch is usually pretty cheap unless I eat out (and even arbies is less then 5$.

So yeah, a not saving that much conservative number would be about $80 a week (still could eat out, and have steaks a few times, but also chicken ($1.14 on sale/frozen), pasta (Enough sauce for 3 pasta meals a week would be $10) and chineese/stir fry at least once.

I really do blow too much on food, but I have the money and I don't really need to save it anymore.....and I love food.
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Depends what's on the menu. 40 to 60 is the best estimate for me.
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I spend more eating out, I haven't had the time to cook in a while

I would say now I'm looking at $250-300 since I buy lunch and dinner almost every single fuckin day, it's miserable :(

LOL oh a week, well

250+300=550/2=225/4= 56.25, sounds about right
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Around £10 and that equals $12.

Renraku_San posted...

I'm guessing the first 3 brackets consist of homeless people or people living with mommy and daddy?

While it's true I live with my dad we contribute equally when it comes to bills. I could just as easy buy the food I need for a week on a £10 budget. It's not hard.
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1-20

I get the Taco Bell 5$ Craving Deal 2-3 times a week.
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If you REALLY wanted to save though..............


Gonna go with 2 meals a day as I don't like breakfasts, that being said, eggs are mega cheap, and some cereals are as well (With milk of course). You can get breakfasts for a whole week for $10 easily (potatoes are also cheap and can make hashbrowns for a week to go with your breakfasts easily for $4, you can get the 10 sausage boxes for $1 on sale most of the time (3 per breakfast...so $2), and 18 eggs for 4 (enough for 2-3 eggs per), all for less then $10.

Then lunches can be sandwiches, go with tuna fish, or ham/swiss on sale, and bread, again, whole week of variety of lunches for $10 (toss in noodle ramen which are insanely cheap and can be made many different ways as well).

That is $20 so far, and gives you 2 full meals.

If your not trying to cut carbs you can make pasta 3 times a week, for $10....and if you know how to make the sauce it'll be better then you can get eating out (so quite yummy).

Chicken is so cheap, so get chicken thighs/breasts (I prefer thighs), at $1.14 a pound (cheapest price, have to wait for it to be that low and stock up). Most often you will pay at least $1.50 a pound so we'll go with that price as the average. Three meals of chicken (prepared different ways), and a box of Rice (jasmin), along with potatoes and brocolli (the bags for $5 will last two weeks easily for 1 person). IF you eat 1 pound of checken, per meal, and count in the rice/brocolli (and potatoes already covered in the morning), that is another $20.

That is 20$ total for 6 dinners, added to the eariler $20, for a total of $40 for the weeks so far.

I say toss in another 10$ for 1 meal (steak meal, eat out etc), and finish at $50.

You could go lower, but that would give you a decent number of tasty options while not spending that much at all. What is more, if you do your shopping at the right time, you can save $10 of that cost (safeway has $10 off your order if you spend $50 or more, or 10%/15%/20% off your order is you spend 50/100/150 almost every other week). In this situation the $10 off would be better.

Since it's only 50$ though, you could have multiple safeway accounts that you use and stock up on supplies food for the $10 off one....or just stock up heavily buying 150$ worth of food when that have that special.

Either way, that would drop your cost from $50 a month to $40....while still getting you some pretty yummy food.

Upgrading from there (40$) to things like lasagna (only additional cost is the cheese, which is often on sale for $4). Steak (5$ a pound vs 1.50...so $3.50 more per meal), Cod ($5 a pound), shrimp (7$ a pound for argentieen shrimp when on sale in a frozen 2pound bag...and delicious) etc.

No real reason for anyone to spend more then around 60-70$ if they are careful and trying to conserve money.
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40-60, although if I brought my lunch every day I could probably get that down more. I just like being lazy.
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Around $150.
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Renraku_San posted...

I'm guessing the first 3 brackets consist of homeless people or people living with mommy and daddy?

or people who shop savvy and have people to split the bill with

sorry you're lonely and buy expensive food
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$101-150 probs
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Usually do 1 or 2 "big shops" a month that equate to about $400. Add in lunches at work and other miscellaneous food and monthly its probably about $500ish ... So option 6
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6.25 i believe it is on average. Occasionally ill get take out and buff that to like 40 though.
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A bit more than 80 I guess.arounf 85 maybe?Though I usually cook to much and store the leftovers in my fridge so some weeks are considerable lower in cost.
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Jen0125 posted...

Renraku_San posted...

I'm guessing the first 3 brackets consist of homeless people or people living with mommy and daddy?

or people who shop savvy and have people to split the bill with

sorry you're lonely and buy expensive food

What does buying expensive food have to do with being lonely?

Here's what is typical for me:

Daily breakfast from work cafeteria - ~$6 (coffee, fruit, 1liter water bottle, eggs)
Daily lunch - Various small snacks bulk purchased from Target on monday, ~$6
Dinner during week - ~$15/day, average including leftovers twice a week
Dinner on weekend - ~$75, we don't cook on the weekends

Now let's say I only ate one meal a day and the cheapest food in my area. That's $6 for fast food * 7 = 72/week.

Ok let's stretch a bit further. I can buy a 99c box of Macaroni, which should last two days. I could eat that all week and get the budget down to $4/week. But who the fuck would do that?

I'm wondering what the hell people are eating to get their budget to under $70/week, that is actually varied and tasteful and healthy.
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Btw, when I was shopping/cooking for 4, I would buy about $2000 worth of food a month, but I would always save about 40% or so (so ended up spending around $1200).

I would stock up on stuff that was on sale, buy one get one free etc.

I still spend over $400 now, but not by much.
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I eat out a lot so it's somewhere between 80-160 a week I guess. I really should start cooking more.
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wolfy42 posted...

I would buy about $2000 worth of food a month

what in the fuck, that's $500/person lol

who are you feeding
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Renraku_San posted...

Jen0125 posted...

Renraku_San posted...

I'm guessing the first 3 brackets consist of homeless people or people living with mommy and daddy?

or people who shop savvy and have people to split the bill with

sorry you're lonely and buy expensive food

What does buying expensive food have to do with being lonely?

Here's what is typical for me:

Daily breakfast from work cafeteria - ~$6 (coffee, fruit, 1liter water bottle, eggs)
Daily lunch - Various small snacks bulk purchased from Target on monday, ~$6
Dinner during week - ~$15/day, average including leftovers twice a week
Dinner on weekend - ~$75, we don't cook on the weekends

Now let's say I only ate one meal a day and the cheapest food in my area. That's $6 for fast food * 7 = 72/week.

Ok let's stretch a bit further. I can buy a 99c box of Macaroni, which should last two days. I could eat that all week and get the budget down to $4/week. But who the fuck would do that?

I'm wondering what the hell people are eating to get their budget to under $70/week, that is actually varied and tasteful.

I posted a breakdown above on that.

Breakfasts for a week are easy to get for $10, that includes eggs, bread etc. Don't buy your coffee at starbucks and you can have that as well (just buy a bag of ground coffee for $7 or so and it'll last a month or more).

Lunch can be had for about $10 as well if you make your own. Sandwiches, burritos, soups, chilli, chicken etc.

That is 20$ a week for 2 decent meals already.

That leaves you $50 for dinners, or about $7 a day average for dinner.

If you don't eat out, that can let you have steak/chicken/pasta/fish etc.

Cod is $5 a pound, Chicken can be as little as $1.50 a pound (need to buy it on sale) and Steak is usually on sale for about $5 a pound. So if you have 2 chicken meals, 1 fish and 1 steak, that is 5 pounds of meet for less then $15.

Toss in a pound of 80% ground beef (3$ a pound), to make a pasta sauce and eat that the other two nights. The cost of the pasta and maybe some sausage to flavor the sauce (or parm cheese to put on top), will bring you up to a total of $20.

Total cost for all of that so far is only $40 for the whole week. You have no side dishes yet for the meals though. A 2 pound bag of brocolli florrets is 5$ (without a sale), a bag of potatoes is $3 (10 pound bag), A box of rice is $2 (for the fish), that is another $10 total, bringing you to $50.

That nets you a full breakfast and lunch every day, and a decent variety of meals for dinner, for under $50. You would still have $20 left over if your trying to spend under 70, which means you could even eat out once a week like that if you really wanted to.

And that isn't factoring in using sales etc. Safeway for instance often has a special if you spend $50 you get $10 off, so if you spent $50 on food listed above, it would only cost you $40. Since you can freeze almost everythign listed, or it lasts along time), you can stock up during sales.

That could let you eat quite well, on $40 a week average pretty easily. Most people would not consider eating 2 chicken meals, 1 fish meal and 1 steak meal a week along with 2 pasta dishes as a chore, especially ifyour a good cook.
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Junpeiclover posted...

wolfy42 posted...

I would buy about $2000 worth of food a month

what in the fuck, that's $500/person lol

who are you feeding

Four VERY spoiled people lol.

Not anymore though.

It was pretty insane, but money wasn't really a worry, and I like to cook big meals. That does include cleaning supplies/pet food/litter etc as well that I would buy at the store, so it wasn't all food.

Also even though I only spent $1200, the base $2000 price is higher at safeway then many other places. The $1200 was probablyonly 20% or so less then ifI had shopped at walmart for instance instead (but better quality and options).
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wolfy42 posted...

Breakfasts for a week are easy to get for $10, that includes eggs, bread etc.

Milk costs about $5 a gallon where I live.
Cereal and a loaf of bread also make another $5.
That's $10 for milk, bread, and cereal only. (No eggs.)
<_<

Xfma100 posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Breakfasts for a week are easy to get for $10, that includes eggs, bread etc.

Milk costs about $5 a gallon where I live.
Cereal and a loaf of bread also make another $5.
That's $10 for milk, bread, and cereal only. (No eggs.)
<_<

Cereal is expensive, don't have that for breakfast, it's not healthy anyway.

You don't need a gallon of milk for one person in a week, but on top of that, even in themost expensive areas in the US, you can get a gallon of milk for less then $5 (I know, I have lived in themost expensive areas).

Eggs are mega cheap usually. Bread is cheap as well. Boxes of sausage of $1 for 10 patties (2 is plenty for a brekafast). Potatoes for hash browns are 3$ for a 10 pound bag (more then enough to use for both breakfasts and dinners for a week...I included that in the dinner costs already).

You can get cereal on sale of course and then it's not as bad. You can get enough milk for 1 person for $2 for a week in most places as well. Cereal is not totally impossible to do for $10 in a week (with enough left over for eggs and sausage a few times).

You also have pancakes/waffles which are MEGA cheap (a package of mix (just add water) is like $5 for enough for months and months of pancakes/waffles.

There are tons of ways to make breakfasts for a week for $10 or less.
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Xfma100 posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Breakfasts for a week are easy to get for $10, that includes eggs, bread etc.

Milk costs about $5 a gallon where I live.
Cereal and a loaf of bread also make another $5.
That's $10 for milk, bread, and cereal only. (No eggs.)
<_<

Btw, tell me your general area (where you live, as long as it's in the US) and I'll give you direct prices even:)
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wolfy42 posted...

Xfma100 posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Breakfasts for a week are easy to get for $10, that includes eggs, bread etc.

Milk costs about $5 a gallon where I live.
Cereal and a loaf of bread also make another $5.
That's $10 for milk, bread, and cereal only. (No eggs.)
<_<

Cereal is expensive, don't have that for breakfast, it's not healthy anyway, but every other point you made is correct.

You don't need a gallon of milk for one person in a week, but on top of that, even in themost expensive areas in the US, you can get a gallon of milk for less then $5 (I know, I have lived in themost expensive areas).

Eggs are mega cheap usually. Bread is cheap as well. Boxes of sausage of $1 for 10 patties (2 is plenty for a brekafast). Potatoes for hash browns are 3$ for a 10 pound bag (more then enough to use for both breakfasts and dinners for a week...I included that in the dinner costs already).

You can get cereal on sale of course and then it's not as bad. You can get enough milk for 1 person for $2 for a week in most places as well. Cereal is not totally impossible to do for $10 in a week (with enough left over for eggs and sausage a few times).

You also have pancakes/waffles which are MEGA cheap (a package of mix (just add water) is like $5 for enough for months and months of pancakes/waffles.

There are tons of ways to make breakfasts for a week for $10 or less.

Actually, in Hawaii, milk can cost up to $9 depending on location because they can't easily produce it domestically. I'm a college student and I was living on $100 a month for myself just by cooking for myself, it allowed me to eat well and eat a lot. It's not hard and it's more rewarding.

Safeway prices are fairly consistent.

A gallon of Lucerne milk is just about $3 and a half gallon is $2 that is without a sale (and they have sales all the time).

Yes, there are gallons of milk for $5 or even $8, but you don't have to buy those brands.

Eggs Lucerne again...12 count $1.70, 18 count $2.10 and 60 count 7.79. If you had 3 eggs a morning except one morning you could get them for $2.10. Again this is not on sale at all.

Potatoes 10 pound bag for 2.99. Hash browns for weeks (and potatoes for dinner as well.

Frozen Breakfast Sausage Banquet patties 8 per box, only buy them on sale for $1...and stock up.

Cereal is freaking expensive at base price (around $6-7 a pound). That is more expensive then steak. On sale you can usually get it for about $2.50 a pound. I would only ever buy it on sale and stock up...if I ate it at all.

Bagels are 1.99 for a bag of 6 sara-lee ...not on sale. Could have a bagel every morning as well, and STILL be under 10$ total for the week.
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FalinmerTheil posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Xfma100 posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Breakfasts for a week are easy to get for $10, that includes eggs, bread etc.

Milk costs about $5 a gallon where I live.
Cereal and a loaf of bread also make another $5.
That's $10 for milk, bread, and cereal only. (No eggs.)
<_<

Cereal is expensive, don't have that for breakfast, it's not healthy anyway, but every other point you made is correct.

You don't need a gallon of milk for one person in a week, but on top of that, even in themost expensive areas in the US, you can get a gallon of milk for less then $5 (I know, I have lived in themost expensive areas).

Eggs are mega cheap usually. Bread is cheap as well. Boxes of sausage of $1 for 10 patties (2 is plenty for a brekafast). Potatoes for hash browns are 3$ for a 10 pound bag (more then enough to use for both breakfasts and dinners for a week...I included that in the dinner costs already).

You can get cereal on sale of course and then it's not as bad. You can get enough milk for 1 person for $2 for a week in most places as well. Cereal is not totally impossible to do for $10 in a week (with enough left over for eggs and sausage a few times).

You also have pancakes/waffles which are MEGA cheap (a package of mix (just add water) is like $5 for enough for months and months of pancakes/waffles.

There are tons of ways to make breakfasts for a week for $10 or less.

Actually, in Hawaii, milk can cost up to $9 depending on location because they can't easily produce it domestically. I'm a college student and I was living on $100 a month for myself just by cooking for myself, it allowed me to eat well and eat a lot. It's not hard and it's more rewarding.

Not gonna include hawii or Alaska as they may be different. I could look up safeways in Hawaii and get an idea of the prices but it's not really worth it. I'll amend my statement to the mainland US states.
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Actually looked up a safeway store in hawaii, man I wish I had that weekly deal instead of the one for my store, they have better savings this week.

Eggs and Milk seem to be around the same price as where I live, although they have a buy one get one free on half and half right now (which means you could actually get it cheaper).

Perhaps they solved the shipping problems for milk?

Here is a link to their adds this week in Hawaii (just one of many stores)

http://plan.safeway.com/Circular/Kailua-Kona-75-1027-Henry-St/A12474524/Weekly/3/6


So it looks like even in Hawaii you could get by with $10 a week for breakfasts.
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I should mention that while I have been listing prices that are not on sale, the real trick on saving money is to always buy based on what is on sale that week (both normal sale and just 4 u).

I pretty much never get less then 30% off because I shop based on sales.

So for instance, the normal price of the groceries I buy might be 80$, but I get 35% off, dropping it down to 52$.

I then have a $10 off deal if you spend 50$ or more, dropping it to 42$.

So I get $80 of groceries for 42$.

And I'm not talking about buying obscure foods etc. I just choose my meats based on sales (chicken/steak/ground beef/fish), and my side dishes as well in general. I buy things based on sales and stock up if it isn't perishable for future weeks (So I don't have to eat a ton of just one thing).

This week for instance they have chicken legs for 69 cents a pound. I'll buy 2 max packs and freeze one of them. They have chuck roasts for $2.50 a pound, I'll buy 3 of them probably and freeze two.

In my fridge right now I still have 3 packages of 1pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (got for 1.14$ a pound), and 1 2 pound bag of boneless skinless chicken thighs (Same price). I ate all the rib eye steaks I had frozen from the last sale ($5 a pound) last week.

It was only $5 a pound for the whole roast btw, but I just had them slice it (thin cut) for me at the deli. Normal price for thin cut rib eye steaks is 13$ a pound btw. I got them for $5 (and 20% off on top of that for an order over 150....so net price was actually 4$ a pound for ribeye steaks.I bought about 30 pounds all together (froze most of it).
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Wolfy, you're killin me. You sound like my wife when she shows me the receipt after a shopping trip.

She is always hunting down the deals while I'm more like well we need this so get it, if its on sale get two.

IT - I budget $500 a month for groceries but there are a few take out nights too.
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Firewood18 posted...

Wolfy, you're killin me. You sound like my wife when she shows me the receipt after a shopping trip.

She is always hunting down the deals while I'm more like well we need this so get it, if its on sale get two.

IT - I budget $500 a month for groceries but there are a few take out nights too.

I'm comfortable with my body, and have many masculine traits (even won a burp competition once!!), but I woulda have made a freaking awesome wife heh.

I love talking about food, cooking it, eating it and even shopping for it. During water areobics classes I would pretty much always end up getting everyone talking about it within a few minutes.

Years ago (15?) or so, when albertsons/luckys was seperate from Safeway, I would shop at both stores in Pleasanton CA. I would shop only the best deals from both and usually saved at leas 70%, I think my record was 86% once.

And that was without ever using paper coupons:)

I just do normal weekly deals and just 4 u now, but still aim to save as much as possible. I have a decent supply of everything no-perishable stocked up at home from buying it while on sale (and/or when there is a 20% off whole order going on).

Saving money has always been important to me. My wife liked to spend it though, which kinda defeated the purpose. I'd save 400$ on groceries, and she would spend it on clothes that she never actually wore.
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My wife pays the bills, so I have no idea.

Realistically, I'd guess $100-$150 because although she cooks we have a juicer and go out to eat a lot.

I eat out WAY too much so like $150-$200 a week

fettster777 posted...

I eat out WAY too much so like $150-$200 a week

Don't wanna take over this topic, but you can eat out pretty cheaply as well, especially if you only eat once or twice a day.

Cheap food "fast food etc" is often not a very good deal at all.

Other things like pizza buffets for $7, Chineese lunch buffets or mongolian resteraunts (9$ or so), home town buffets etc, as a single meal a day are all pretty good (usually less then 10$ a day as long as you only eat once).

Other deals like 2 for 20$ at Applebees etc are decent as well if you can eat with someone else (could always get one of the meals to go).

Olive garden isn't bad in a pinch with lunch specials or buy one get one to take home (lunch specials like the meatball sandwich and fries for $7 with all you can eat soup or salad and breadsticks could totally work for your food for a day.

Some deals like Arbys 2 Gyro's for $6 are decent as well, it's alot of food (1 gyro is plenty for me at a time), so you could do a lunch and dinner that way.

Pretty much could get by with spending 10-15$ a day and only eat out if you really wanted to....so about $70-$100 a week.
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