Current Events > Adulting Topic: How much should a family of four be spending on food per month?

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I, (30yo male) the only income earner here, which I'm absolutely fine with.

My wife(28) loves that she can just focus on making sure our kids (8yo girl and 2yo boy) are well adjusted because when she did have to work, she had to lose out on sleep and do a lot of additional driving to get her kid to her mother/grandmother's place while also missing her daughter. If she ever wants to work again that's fine, but I never want her to feel like she has to work.

Of course, that means I have to aggressively manage our budget. And figure out when and where our spending is inefficient.

Our non-modifiable expenses are about $1300/mo, which I think is pretty modest considering about $120 of that is pure investments with the rest being mortgage/cell/utils/etc... but we always end up going way over in the gas+food dept... which alone ran us $1,150 last month and $1,023 this month... $860 of which was just food.

Now that I'm analyzing this, that seems high... outrageously high that a house of four goes through $860 on just food.

Other families of CE that have four-person houses in the US, what do you spend on food+gas a month?
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I spend about $1000 on food. That doesn't include quick trips to the store to get one thing or me stopping in for some lunch food.

Gas, about $100 a week. It was less a couple of months ago but gas prices have gone up.

My mortgage is $2200 a month.
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I have a family of 2 and spend about $1,100 a month on food but me and my fiance are weightliftera and have a very high protein diet and I insist on organic everything and grass fed beef, pastured poultry, and wild caught fish.

There are so many variables with a food bill. I mean how much do you care for variety? If you make the same things over and over you can buy in bulk and save a ton. I grew up where my mom made rice and beans with chicken 9/10 days which allows you to bulk buy on sale. How much meat does ur family need to eat and do you care about the quality of the meat. Factory farmed corn fed trash chicken and beef can be very cheap, it also leads to chronic inflammation and heart disease.

Adulting sucks.
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Where do you live (generally)? Food prices vary a lot across the country. (I'm assuming you're American.) That seems high to me, but not extraordinarily so. With food you really need to drill down in your analysis. What are you eating? Is it in season? Do you buy things on sale? Do you use coupons? Do you consume all leftovers?

And do you eat out?

You also have to balance gas and food. Does it really make sense to go to three stores to get the best deals on food (just an example), or are you eating up all those savings by using extra gas?
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Omega Hunter posted...

I have a family of 2 and spend about $1,100 a month on food but me and my fiance are weightliftera and have a very high protein diet and I insist on organic everything and grass fed beef, pastured poultry, and wild caught fish.

Lmfao
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Just groceries? You could eat really well for 500 a month. I spend about 100 a week on family of 3. I get whatever meat is on sale and take leftovers to work as lunch.
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I have a family of 5 and spend 800-1000 on food monthly. That includes taking my lunch to work and sending the kids to school with a packed lunch. The difference in the 800 and 1000 figures are whether we go out to dinner at a nice place or cheap fast food a couple of times a month. I buy most groceries from Aldi.
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Family of three here. Two adults and a toddler.

Our weekly grocery bill is about 150 on the high end. So 600 or so a month in groceries. Lets add the one, occasionally two, times we eat out which is another lets say 50 a week.

So not including the random snack/lunch thats $800/month for us three.
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Sariana21 posted...

Where do you live (generally)?

Hey probably would've been important to preface with that, lol... I'm in Southern Illinois... so generally low cost of living.
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I don't really know anything about food costs in IL, but I used to live in MI, and certain foods there were more expensive than some here in CA (where I live now, and also where I grew up). I would not have pegged IL as a "low cost food" state, FWIW.

You say you budget. How detailed are you? If you're concerned that a category is out of whack, you need to track it for a while and see exactly where the money is going.

Have you used the envelope method? You set aside a certain amount for each category, and when it's gone, it's gone. You could try that for food. Start with a higher number (close to what you spent last week, or month) and then decrease the amount each cycle as you learn to live within that budget. You'll be able to see where you realistically can cut costs and where you really can't.
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