Do You Know How Much You Spend on Food?

October 23, 2008

Earlier this week the San Francisco Chronicle published an interesting article about food spending. In the story, author Rob Baedeker unscientifically asks grocery store goers if they know how much they spend on food each month. The majority have no food budget and have never totaled their grocery and eating out receipts. I'll admit, I had no clue how much I spent on food and was a little surprised when I checked in with my bank. Between groceries and restaurant bills, I spend a whopping $500 on food! How about you?

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79 Comments

sweetpeabrina 4 years 29 weeks

I spend about $320/month on food. Thank goodness for Mint.com! They told me I spent $286 - but I had a few ATM visits which went mostly towards food.

WhatTheFrockBlog 4 years 29 weeks

Between my boyfriend and I, we spend about $400 a month on food.

TidalWave 4 years 29 weeks

I'm amused at the excuses people are making!! "I eat healthy, therefore it's okay I spend $600 on groceries on a month." No, no it's not. I am sure there are many many other people, like myself, who eat healthy on <$200/month.

kristints 4 years 29 weeks

I spend more on food than most people because I think that what we put in our bodies is the most important thing we spend money on, I would say that between groceries and eating out, I spend around $900 a month, $200 a week at the grocery store and around $25 a week eating out (on average) for 2 people. which actually averages out to $4-5 a meal, which considering we eat all organic, high quality foods and a lot of what I buy goes into baking (a passion of mine) I think we're doing pretty well, we'd spend a lot more eating out at every meal and wouldn't be eating as well.

Giasbash6260 4 years 29 weeks

I am disgusting! I am not even going to reveal how much I spend a WEEK on groceries! EW! Although there is this new place in my town called Sunflower Market and I can get about 2 weeks worth of veggies for just under $50 which is pretty darn amazing considering the veggies are ORGANIC too!! I guess that is why they call their prices "SILLY"... ha ha

Chaoticfury 4 years 30 weeks

I spend about 120 a month on groceries and between 40-80 a month going out, so 200 total or less. I have paid lunches at work so that helps. Though food prices have gone up, it really a matter where and when to shop. I'm a fiend at waiting until farmer's market are about to close and pushing produce at you at lower prices. :)

LoveSarah 4 years 30 weeks

I don't really know. I buy things when it is on sale, freeze it, and then use it when I need to. Plus, when I go to the store I get a couple of things and spend about $30, so I'm really not sure what I spend per month.

Le Luxe 4 years 30 weeks

I would say between groceries and eating out- usually $300 or less

laellavita 4 years 30 weeks

I can usually get by with about 50-60 dollars a week for myself on groceries, but it cost so much more before I switched to being a vegetarian. I might spend about 25 a week on outside food expenses, like eating out or grabbing something on the go if i need to, so that's about 75 a week, 300 a month.

ilanac13 4 years 30 weeks

i can usually ballpark what i spend on food but i don't know the exact amount since it's not like i go to the store for one big shop each week. i'll typically stop off at the store on my way home from work if there's something that i need.

CoconutPie 4 years 30 weeks

Hubby and I spend at least $1000 in food each month. And we rarely eat out and we also try to eat cheap. Oh the joys of living in one of the most expensive countries in the world! :cry:

agrepina 4 years 30 weeks

around 150 a month..not including the times i eat out, which is about once every week or so

agrepina 4 years 30 weeks

around 150 a month..not including the times i eat out, which is about once every week or so

margokhal 4 years 30 weeks

I live with my dad for now, so my personal food bills aren't that expensive, but between me and my dad shopping for the whole house, it's probably something like $250-300/mo on groceries, and about $50 eating out, we don't do that much [and by eating out I mean non-sit down places, like Subway...we're kind of addicted to the $5 footlong]. Food's kind of expensive - especially if you try to eat healthy! I cut out eating meat about 4x a week, and the amount of money I spent on food to replace the meat was almost twice as expensive!

danielle854 4 years 30 weeks

I still live at home, so my mom & step-dad usually do the "big trip" to the grocery store. Usually if we need anything extra picked up for a meal or just feel like getting something while I'm out, I have no problem with fronting the bill. & to make matters more complicated right now I'm living abroad with a host family. I pay 400 a month, but that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, my room, water, electricity, cable/internet. I say that's a pretty good deal. Plus whatever else I want snackwise or if I feel like eating out I obviously pay for. So all in all what I'm trying to say is I haven't a clue!

onepoorfoodie 4 years 30 weeks

Strange, I've found eating healthy is way cheaper. My budget got way out of control...way too much convenience food. I set a budget for myself - $40 a week on groceries. $20 a week on lunches at work. I've found I rarely hit those caps. Grocery shopping usually means stocking up on produce, about 20 bucks. And if I'm cooking I can just bring lunch to work.

digibron 4 years 30 weeks

I spend about AU$360 per month on groceries (but that's only half of them - my boyfriend pays the other half), but I don't keep track of how much I spend eating out. I reckon on average it's about AU$150-200 a month?

demure20 4 years 30 weeks

Around $350-$450 on groceries alone. $200 for the mon-fri workday lunch.

lawchick 4 years 30 weeks

for the two of us, we spend about $100 week at the grocery store. we eat out one night a week - "date night" - and that's usually around $50 for two dinners and a couple of drinks. I buy a couple of cheapie bottles of wine per month, too, so that adds about $20. So, I guess that means we spend about $620/month on food and alcohol. Ugh I am a little horrified!!!

Molambert 4 years 30 weeks

I probably spend about $200 on groceries and about$100-150 on eating out

Zivanod 4 years 30 weeks

I really should keep better track of it. We spend about $500 a month too. I have recently switched to a cheaper grocery store (No Frills) to try and get more bang for my buck.

mtiger 4 years 30 weeks

I don't understand how people eat out for like $25! Where do you go?! My boyfriend and I usually spend at least $50 when we go out to eat. Also, I agree with what someone said earlier...eating healthy is so much more expensive!

tinabeana 4 years 30 weeks

I'd say we spend about 60 bucks a week for my husband and I but we eat our WAY too much. We probably spend less the 400 dollars on groceries a month, but that's a lot of counting beer and junk food.