Tracking household grocery expenses - what do you spend?

Culture, Media, General
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What do you spend on groceries now?

We keep a budget book for tracking household expenses and every few months I total those by category. The groceries category includes paper products and soap, and excludes meals out and alcohol. Just 2 adults in our household and “grocery” costs took a huge leap June- August, and averaged $160/week (it had been around 100 - 110 for a couple of years). I know that included quite a bit of restocking the freezer with salmon and chicken for future meals. And all paper products seemed to run out and get restocked in large quantity packages during this span.

Even so, I think cooking at home for almost all meals is saving a TON of money – average cost is less than $4 per person per meal.

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During COVID, we spent more on groceries, but a lot less on eating out. (We used to eat out about five times a week.). We also lost some excess weight because what we were eating had a lot less salt and fat.

Now for various reasons we eat out only about once a week (often as take-out). I haven’t done a spreadsheet or anything, but I’m pretty sure we’re still spending less on food than pre-Covid.

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I utilize “digital coupons” to do meal planning for the week. I’ll adjust what I’m cooking based on what is on sale that week. I’ll also try to stock up and freeze any “meats” that happen to go on (digital coupon) sale.

ETA: Forgot to mention, I’ve been buying flour in 25 pound bags. I’ve been doing a lot of baking from scratch, which also lowers our monthly food costs.

I do keep a budget for food and I spend about $175-$200/month for two people. Again, I watch for sales and always check the “clearance” items.

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I haven’t done a detailed analysis but I’d definitely come down on the side of prices up over the past year. It just seems like my average market visit is maybe 10-20% higher than it used to be. A couple of examples I can recall are:

  • pre-packaged salads that used to be 3 for $10 on sale are now $3.69 each if you buy 3.
  • distilled water used to be around $2 for a gallon jug. Today it was $3.49.

It seems to have been a gradual thing, but is is noticeable.

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We’re spending about $175-200 per week for two adults. That includes household items, OTC meds, alcohol, etc… It used to be closer to $150. I was stunned at the price of jars of peanut butter and strawberry jam recently. Still, as the OP pointed out, it’s only about $4-5 per person per meal, so not too bad!

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Great thread topic @MidwesternerTT

I don’t regularly track expenses really, other than having a sense of what grocery store visits tend to run ($30-40 every week or two, sometimes twice that if protein stocking is being done), and my total credit card bill (which includes meals eaten out).

A Costco trip is always an outlier, and needs severe editing before checkout (eg: do I really need to store a 3-lbs pack of salmon, or am I okay paying a buck or two more per lb for 1-2 portions at the usual store? Answer there is yes because of quality, but in many other instances is no.

This depends so much on what and how people eat.

There was a whole discussion here a while back about how in some big cities (like nyc), it’s actually cheaper to eat out / takeout than to cook at home — especially when you factor in the cost of stocking the kitchen and also of food waste, which must be accounted for. (The last point is also what has provided many folks justification for using services like Blue Apron and their ilk.)

I could get a lunch special from my chinese or thai place for $10-15 and eat it for at least two meals, maybe even a third with a bit of supplementation. To make the same things at home, I first have to stock the specialty ingredients, which is sunk cost going forward, and yet must be factored in. Then I have to get things that are inexpensive per serving, but may not be inexpensive in the quantity in which they are sold (cilantro, scallions, shallots, etc et).

Ditto Indian food — my pantry is fully stocked, but for someone else it could be a whole lot more cost-effective to get a fill-it-yourself flat rate lunch box from the nice restaurant near my old office for $12, which if judiciously filled lasted no less than 3 meals. (When biryani was DOTM on chowhound, I remember recommending a whole spice pack sold on Amazon to someone instead of buying all the individual whole spices needed, because: expensive!)

I don’t cook at home because it’s cheaper, but for a host of other reasons — I am particular about my ingredients, I don’t want as much oil / salt takeout incorporates, I enjoy cooking, I like my cooking, and so on and so forth. But I still eat many meals out for other reasons— it’s social, I enjoy trying different restaurants, etc.

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We cook at home because we can make better food and have more variety than what’s available to us in restaurants where we live. Fortunately, we have become good at it. I have been sidelined by a succession of health issues over the past 10 or so years, but my spouse has stepped up to the plate so to speak. We are cost-conscious for the most part when we shop for groceries, take advantage of sales and use our freezer a lot. We don’t have a food budget per se but both of us are by nature rather frugal. Doesn’t mean we don’t splurge on our local fresh fish/shellfish or well-marbled ribeyes. For two people, we have a ridiculous spice collection and pantry of canned/dry goods and we grow vegetables. I would love to live in a place where we had variety in dining options but we don’t - only when we travel do we get that experience.

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I don’t track grocery expenses but obviously with inflation the costs are up since the pre-Covid times. I used to spend around $200 on weekly grocery runs before and now its $300. Interestingly my alcohol bill hasn’t gone up nearly as much. Looking at my Astor Wine account my spending seems to be up about +25% over that time as contrasted to the +50% for groceries. My dining out bill has also jumped. What used to be $150 dinner for two is now $200 or more. As we live in NYC, our dining out options are varied so we eat out a lot.

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I have been doing the grocery shopping for myself and 2 relatives. I spend around $600 Cdn ($450 USD)/ week.

I tend to do 3 big hauls a week, usually $200 on Monday, $200 again on Thursday or Friday (when I buy fish for Friday and steak for Saturday), $100 at the Farmers’ Market on Friday morning.

I spend another $80 a week on baked goods, quiches, breads and cakes from bakeries, and around $20/ week on coffee from coffee shops, to drink at home.

Yesterday, I bought some Turkish baklava, Turkish delight, a paella kit, quince jelly, some bulk poppy seeds, sesame seeds and freekeh. Those groceries added up to $100.

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I usually spend $50 a week for one but it’s been creeping up to $60 to $70 a week during the last few months. I ordered a CSA when the pandemic started and it looked like the farmers markets weren’t going to open for the summer. I always have a well stocked pantry so once a week I pick up my veggies so the only things I need to buy at the store are missing ingredients plus a few sundries. Most of the times it’s just herbs I need but periodically I need to replenish my stash of eggs, bacon and milk for example so I’ve been spending less on groceries. During CSA season I don’t get lured in by attractive displays in the grocery store so that is saving me a lot of money :grinning: My stash of pasta, grains and legumes are going down now so my grocery bill will probably be going up.

And when I budget for groceries it’s strictly for food so I have a separate budget for drugstore items (shampoo, soap, toilet paper, etc.), a budget for entertainment (dinners out, movie and museum admissions, etc.) and alcohol. When money gets tight I can reduce the amount of money I spend on entertainment and alcohol. I was on strike for eight days at the end of April so when my employer processed my leave without pay in early July I was still vacationing. I tried going to events that were as free as possible and I enjoyed that last bottle of wine in the fridge while it lasted.

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I really am curious about this and should track my weekly spend too. Since I have a bi-monthly meat share, and occasional Costco runs, the bulk shopping can really skew my numbers. Most week’s I’m only spending $20-30 at the local grocery stores, but if you factor in bulk trips, I would expect I land closer to $50-60/wk, which isn’t too bad. Having Asian grocery stores, where even with cost increases, vegetables and greens are still relatively good deals helps a lot. Except of course this last week, when I spent about $30 on 3lb of mangosteen…

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Two adults and sometimes our kids (college ya know), but $100 a week is good for everything. Maybe $120 when my boy is home. TP, cleaning stuff, toiletries, fruit and veg, baking items, meat, etc.

I’m a pretty weary shopper, though. We’re finally getting an Aldi’s in town. Used to have to drive 20 minutes to one. That said, I’m soon to drop $350ish on a half a lamb. Any beef I buy know will be replaced by that.

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Okay, I toted up the last six months’ credit card bills for grocery stores, Costco, and restaurants. It comes to about $500/month, or about $125/week for two people. This includes cleaning supplies, paper products, OTC drugs, and probably some DVDs from Dollar Tree. OTOH, it doesn’t include restaurants where I paid cash.

The breakdown is an average of $88/month for Costco, $315/month for grocery stores, and $127/month for restaurants.

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I have enjoyed this Kitchen series:

https://www.thekitchn.com/collection/grocery-diaries

I don’t know what we spend. Honestly, I’m more than a little afraid to calculate. I keep a well stocked fridge and pantry. A little bit of produce waste (that we compost), but not much else.

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I do a budget, I keep track of all the known expenses.

we use one single credit card at the local supermarket.
I track every dollar spent there - which includes pet food and all ‘sundries’ like soap and toilet paper . . .
summertime we pay cash at various local produce stands, which is not tracked…

the credit card spending at the supermarket has doubled

the only remaining “deal” is a half-bushel of tomato canners from the local stand - $3.00 a box . . . I get six quarts of stewed down tomato from the box.

I put up six dozen bi-color sweet corn ears / year - the cost has doubled

as happened post-Arab oil embargo, the cost of energy has increased dramatically, and the cost of everything you buy or do will double in the next couple years as the cost of energy rippled through the system.

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I have started writing down the amounts I spend on groceries and takeout on my calendar.
This week, I’ve gone shopping 3 times since Monday. Around $75 on Monday, $75 on Wednesday and $136 today.
We also compost our vegetable scraps , and I grow about half the vegetables we eat in Aug and Sept.

I do splurge regularly on better cuts of beef, local lamb, imported French and British biscuits. The dining out budget is 1/5 of what it was from 2010-2020, so even if I’m spending 3 times as much on groceries, which I probably am, because of eating home cooked food, grocery store -prepared food, splurges and inflation, the total amount I’m spending on food each month including all groceries , take-put and patio dining probably is less than what it was in 2019.

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I kept a price book for a month, coincidentally before the pandemic, just to get an idea of which stores had the best prices in general. Makes for an interesting comparison. Here are a few items, then and now, in Houston but in statewide/nationwide chains, and excluding produce since that’s so variable and seasonal.

  • Sabra hummus, 17 oz., Walmart: $4.48 (then); resized now and not available at Walmart; at HEB, 10 oz. is $4.13

  • Nature’s Own Butterbread sandwich bread, 20 oz. loaf, Walmart: $2.58 (then), $3.42 (now)

  • Store brand can black beans, 15.25 oz., Walmart: $0.66 (then), $0.78 (now)

  • Store brand oatmeal, 42 oz., Aldi: $2.39 (then), $4.35 (now)

  • Store brand frozen corn, 16 oz., HEB: $0.88 (then), $1.33 (now)

  • Store brand frosted mini-wheat cereal, 18 oz., Aldi: $1.99 (then), $2.35 (now)

  • Kashi GoLean Original cereal, 13.1 oz., HEB: $2.50 (then), $4.14 (now)

  • Salmon fillets (Atlantic, farmed), 1 lb., Sprouts: $4.99 (then), $12.99 (now)

  • Prime 1 beef brisket, 1 lb., HEB: $2.67 (then), $4.67 (now)

  • Frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 5 lbs., Walmart: $10.33 (then); resized now, bone-in and 4 lbs. is $8.76

  • Store brand skim milk, 1 gal., HEB: $2.48 (then), $3.41 (now)

  • OB tampons, 40 ct. variety box, Walmart: $6.47 (then), $7.68 (now)

  • Tidy Cat kitty litter, 14 lb., HEB: $5.98 (then), resized now 20 lb. is $11.94

  • Store brand, bleach 121 fl. oz., Walmart: $1.21 (then), $5.72 (now) (recent price increase with headlines about a Covid resurgence…)

There were headlines last year about CEOs bragging that they can increase prices and consumers still buy their groceries, beverages, fast food. I’d say prices have continued to rise even since then.

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I’m paying $5.79 Cdn ( ~$4.75USD) for a half gallon ( 2 litre) container of milk these days. It was closer to $4.29 Cdn in 2020.

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I drink soymilk and that’s about what I pay for Silk brand. Which seems like a ripoff to me because Plant → Milk should be cheaper to make than Plant → Cow → Milk but I guess that’s not the way markets work (or milk probably).

It’s hard to compare grocery prices - for example, in the US a federal program subsidizes dairies with billions of dollars, which keeps dairy prices lower, but they aren’t subsidized in Canada (?); also there’s this which I don’t completely understand except to know that it’s controversial with strongly-held positions on all sides of the issue.

Fuel costs are probably lower in my area too, which affects that last bit of transportation to the stores ($3.10/gal. for regular unleaded; $3.50/gal. for diesel - but again, hard to compare because federal and state/province fuel taxes differ). And then there’s cost of living, which is lower in my area (but incomes are lower, too).

For sure, though, we’ve seen an increase in grocery prices across the board. I wonder if that’s true outside North America?

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Prices are going up astronomically everywhere as far as know. I think inflation is worse for groceries in the UK than inflation for groceries is in North America.

That said, some of my staples have doubled or tripled in price over the past 4 years.

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