[Tifani]

What is a reasonable grocery budget for a family of 5? Three adults and 2 children, ages 9 and 6. I’d like not to eat cereals or boxed meals.

My husband has to have meat.

My kids pretty much eat the same things for breakfast (yogurt, protein waffles, bagels.

We do try to eat as much organic as possible.

We drink mostly water. I’m just looking for a starting point so I can start a budget.

[Bailey]

We are a family of 5 and are just now starting our cutting food cost journey. We have BIG eaters in our household and summer has not helped.

All the activities and being home…. they’re definitely eating more.

Right now I would say we easily will spend $250/week. But we also feed their friends etc

[Amy]

Our grocery budget is $135/person per month for a mostly organic/allergy family.

This is the same budget I use when there at up to 8 at home but for the last 18 months it has just been 2 of us so its been $270/month

[Terrie]

I’ve found that one of the first places to start is to go through your receipts and separate edible purchases from non-edibles.

When I did this I found that about 30% of my purchases were non-edibles.

I had been picking up cleaning supplies, paper goods, health & hygiene products etc. and including all that in my grocery budget.

Once I started giving those things their own line items in my budget it was way easier to get a handle on our real food expenses.

I also found that the non-edibles were the easiest places to cut costs without a major impact on our lifestyles.

[Lisa]

Oh my gosh I loathe this question. People can give their advice but YOU ultimately know your family best and should create the budget that’s right for YOU.

Groceries are expensive wherever you live so generic advice would be shop the weekly sales, meal plan by using the sale ads, shop the least expensive stores when possible, hunt for your meat if possible, sometimes investing in a half or quarter cow will be cheaper in the long run, grow a garden.

You have to start by spending a little money to figure out what works for you and where you can trim back.

No one can tell you what’s right for your situation that’s the ugly reality

[Lyn]

Make and freeze your waffles from scratch. You can make yogurt in your crockpot with milk. Do not buy water bottles, the plastic is bad for you. Look for sales.

Buy your oatmeal, rice, sugar and other shelf stable foods in bulk. Stop buying box meals.

Make things from scratch. Use your crockpot

I understand this is not a monetary sum of money.

To save money you have to think outside of the box.

[Jill]

We budget $350 a month .. some months we spend a bit more, and other months we spend a bit less.

This cost does not take into account that we hunt deer, so that is a separate cost of $70.

That covers my husband and I, plus about 1/2 the food of 1 of our adult children.

[Denise]

I’m in uses 100 per person plus 100 for other per month. So, family of 5 is $600. This includes your soaps, paper, otc meds etc. it’s doable if you only shop sales, stock up on them.

Find discounted meats and Vegs, scratch cook. Make your own bread, waffles etc.

use flash food or other discount programs. I’m single and do it for 150 a month. It’s tight. Snacks are my issue.

Chips even on sale, candy bars etc can blow it.

[Eva]

It’s me & husband in California & I buy the same things all the time like variety of meats, fresh & frozen veggies, fruits, bread, dairy & I’m trying to spend below $500/ month.

I don’t buy soda, ready made desserts, frozen dinners except French fries. We don’t eat out.

I cook from scratch. I do recommend the EveryDollar app

[Lucinda]

I did a search for supermarket spending in my credit card app earlierthis year. Monthly spending ranged from $400-900, but averaged about $600 the previous 12 months.

We have a large deep freezer and ample pantry space, so I take advantage of clearance and loss leaders to stock them.

There are 2 adults and one teen, plus a cat (her food/etc is bought through Chewy about 4 times a year for $75-100 each time).

Some of the other things that saves us a lot is that we mostly drink water, don’t use a lot of convenience/junk foods, and avoid buying name brands or very pricey meats.

[Phill]

My family of 5 (two adults, one teenager, and a 9 and 4 year old) spends about $800 a month including all food, toiletries, and household goods.

There are occasional months when I stock up on things and will spend a bit more.

I buy all organic and unprocessed foods with this budget and some wine and good beer. This does not count the 3-4 takeout meals we get per month.

I coupon like crazy and get really quality food and we have either chicken, lamb, or 100% grassfed beef, and occasionally turkey (all organic pasture raised) and sometimes seafood, every day.

I could get it down even further but I splurge on things like 100% grassfed organic dairy (a2 when I can find it) and red meats and we buy tons and tons of fresh produce.

I also splurge on things like organic einkorn flour and organic raw local honey and organic real maple syrup instead of using sugar.

And my husband drinks tons of coffee which is expensive when you buy good quality organic beans. So, we could probably manage on $600 a month if it came down to it.

Also to be noted, my kids are all homeschooled and I send a lunch to work with my husband each day so this budget is for 15 full meals per day every day.

[Kelley]

My family of 5, 3 adults, 2 boys ages 10 and 15, spend roughly $1320 a month, not including when we occasionally eat out. Both my boys are audhd with ARFID and they don’t eat what we eat, my oldest has never ate our food, or what I call real food.

My youngest does eat quite a bit of real food but it’s very specific, like plain pasta with olive oil and he’s incredibly picky about the olive oil, the kind he prefers cost me $25 a bottle, and if I buy different and he doesn’t like it he won’t eat it, he eats any kind of chicken nuggets and fries, at home or eating out, he likes cheese pizza with no pizza sauce, and very seldomly he will eat a little basmati or jasmine rice.

My oldest only eats chicken nuggets from McDonald’s and fries from a few places.

At home they eat a lot of soft pretzels and waffles (frozen and homemade without syrup) they both like pancakes but my youngest will only eat them if he feels like it, that’s all the foods they’ll both eat, then I have to buy a lot of cheezits, regular goldfish for youngest rainbow goldfish for oldest, popcorn (both microwave and air), plain chips, pretzels, pretzel chips, chicken nuggets, Oreo ice cream cones, bomb pops, bread, butter, and dot sprinkles for fairy bread, funyens, Doritos, tortilla chips, animal crackers, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies from the bakery, ice box cookies from the bakery, glazed donuts, powder donuts, chocolate covered donuts, bananas, cutie oranges, chocolate milk, tons and tons of white milk, lemonade, coke, squeeze it’s, orange hi c, pacific cooler capri suns, s’mores pop tarts, Graham crackers, strawberry pocky, peanut butter, saltine crackers, oyster crackers, lucky charm marshmallows, regular marshmallows, several different types of cereals, most of them being the type someone could buy if they have WIC, Cheeto puffs, veggie straws sometimes, cocktail peanuts, original pringles, tropical gushers, great value smiley fruit snacks, fruit roll up, fruit by the foot, sometimes blue jello, Ensure, sprite, and Ensure.

That’s everything our kids will eat and they’re brand specific, not meaning it’s always name brand, but it has to be the specific brand they know and like.

We have only been buying their foods when we go grocery shopping for the last 8 years. We buy what we need as we decide what to eat, us adults are lucky to eat 2-3 times a week.

I go grocery shopping every other week on payday for the big shopping trip which cost me $300-500.

Then on non pay weeks I spend between $100-160 buying food to get them through. We get takeout or eat a restaurant 1-2 times a pay period.

There is no way for me to budget our food

[Chelsea]

Depends on where you live. When I lived in the Northeast I spent ~$600 for my husband and I.. but now in the south I spend around $400. But the best thing to do is look on your bank statements to get an idea of what you’re actually spending.

Then you can adjust/widdle down that number by being more conscience of what your family’s needs and wants are for a budget to work.

[Barbara]

I would say 250.00 per week give or take. If you teach your family to eat leftovers you can make a whole lot out of a little.

Example you can do a lot with a boneless chuck roast.

10 lb rolls of hamburger are the cheapest way to buy. Buy turkey when on sale:

[Kaiti]

$100-150 a week.
But, I use flashfood for meat and vegetable boxes. And coupon for snacks, yogurt, cereal and household and personal care items.

Couponing at Walmart, CVS and Walgreens.

FlashFood my local grocery store
Aldi for the first rest.

We make a lot from scratch – bread, waffles, pancakes, etc. And meal prep almost all meals.

[Corbett]

I have found to check your clearance sections at your local grocery store. You might be surprised at what is there.

I also shop the sales so if your store has an ad then look through it and pick out what you want to buy for that week.

And a bonus is if your store has digital coupons.

We are a family of 3 adults and we buy a lot of produce, meats, eggs.

We try not to buy pre packages dinners or frozen so out grocery budget can be anywhere from $90 to $150 a week.

Just be mindful on what you are buying so it doesn’t end up in the trash.

[Laurie]

I’m not sure where you live, but in South Carolina, by shopping the sales, going to the local farmer’s stands, and planning items that coordinate for multiple meals, I could feed five for $125 to $150 per week.

[Linda]

it’s really going to depend on so much – location, how willing you/your family are to compromising on specific foods/brands/organic…

I agree with a previous poster about starting with what you’re currently spending and work from there.

I will say that I (personally) try to stay at or under the USDA thrifty plan amount for my family size/composition.

[Kristi]

We have about a600 per month for groceries.
I find I do much better if I order the groceries and pick them up.

It saves me from impulse buys.

They will also deliver for a small fee.

[Michele]

Check flash food app for discounted items. Keep track of your spending and shop the sales. stock your pantry slowly with sale items.

When my favourite spaghetti sauce goes on sale I buy a case. Meal plan so eating out is not a temptation.

A huge bag of rice and a rice cooker. bulk if it’s cheaper and put into glass storage containers.

Thrift or market place for storage ideas shelving or pantry.

Keep a list of prices per pound on your phone so you know a good deal when you see one. Try to shop several stores for promotions. Making a budget is great.

My challenges is seeing how much I can save

[Author]

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