How much do you spend on food?

[Jenny]

I spend about $150-$200 a month on food for one person, and that includes eating out. I could spend less, so I can see how Staci's family spends what they do. You sound like a smart shopper, Staci. When I want to save more, I eat out less or at cheaper places.

[so-beyond-broke]

Let's stop the big debate!

I hope that bk and staci make up after this long debate about how much money a family can spend in a week. It's Staci's house and she should know how much she spends and how to make it last. As for bk, maybe Staci can invite you over to her house for a week so that you can see her spending in action. I'm sure that she's creative and can stretch her budget to feed an extra mouth. LOL!

I can agree that teenagers cost more to feed than younger children. Teens can eat like "grown people." I have to feed 5 people - myself, my significant other and our 3 kids. We have boy/girl twins age 14 and another son 13 and they can sure put away some food. They can eat more than I do. I spend about $150 a week - some weeks maybe more if I can stock up on a sale. I wish that they were younger because they ate alot less! The meat is what makes the food bill expensive here in NY, but I am sure that's across the country as well. We should all become vegetarians - it would cut the food bill for sure. But my SO will certaintly not go without meat and the kids are not in love with vegetables!!

so-beyond-broke

[bkfiler]

well your bill seems reasonable to me.

id get way to skinny if i lived at their house. but i should would have fun with pumpkin! shes actually my baby. shes perfect!

[StaciMM]

GREAT! Now I have to make room for a house guest, LOL.

We used to do alot of fast food-3 or 4 times per week or more for dinner, me almost every day for lunch. It was an adjustment, but we had to stop that! I realised how bad we had gotten when I'd come home from work and the kids would ask if I brought dinner with me.

[SinkingFast]

While we were fixing dinner I told one daughter about this thread. She immediately said, "Food costs about $250/month per person!" I asked how she knew that. Something they learned in a class a couple years ago. They had a project where they had to "pretend" find a job, place to live, buy a car, the whole 9 yards. The teacher told them several things were required for their budget. One was food. Teach said on average, a person spends about $250/month for food. They had to budget in at least $250/month for food for themselves for that project.

I probably spent a little more than Staci when our kids were little. Partly 'cause we've always had Mom living with us, and partly due to milk. Our kids are teens and I'm still buying 4-5 gallons of milk a week. Our kids have always been into sports so they are constantly on the go. It's better now, somewhat, that son doesn't play football anymore. The girls swim. Serious swimming. As in 3 and 4 miles a day of laps in the pool swimming. The team ate dinner yesterday at Fazoli's on the way to a meet. Gotta carbo load. Then they raided the freezer and ate 2 TV dinners each when they got home last night.

Plus I've always thrown "extras" into things. I keep dried onion flakes and bacon bits on hand all the time. Throw those in canned green beans to spice them up. Bacon bits add some jazz to mac and cheese. Applesauce is more like warm applebutter in our house. Jar of cheap applesauce, stick of butter (margarine really), and add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves to taste. Yum Yum!! Before Bush's brought out their different lines of baked beans, I spiced up the plain ones too. Add in some ketchup, a shot of yellow mustard, salt, pepper, chopped onion, some brown sugar, and a spoon of bacon grease. All seasoned to taste. Voila! You have stove top baked beans with slow cooked, oven baked taste and not much work.

Our Walmart is very nice. Produce isn't great, but the meats are OK. Except I don't much care for the idea of their ground beef. It contains "meat flavorings" whatever that is. Don't buy much fresh produce on a regular basis due to costs. Just potatoes and carrots. An occassional onion or bell pepper, maybe some celery here and there. If I want nice tomatoes for salad, I have to go to the "name" grocery. Kroger. Other than that, I don't buy much fresh produce. We buy fruits when they are on sale or if the girls need snacks for after practice or during a meet.

We have Aldi's which is a good place to get canned veggies. As long as it says Grade A Fancy, the only difference between Aldi's and Green Giant is cost. Aldi's also offers what looks like close outs on name brands. You never know what they'll have from one time to the next when you go in there. You can also get cheap cookies and snacks at Aldi's. We try to swing by there 1x a month or so.

I stock up on seasonal sales too. We just had Stove Top stuffing for dinner tonite. I bought that back during all the Thanksgiving sales. Boxes and Boxes of it. Daughters thought I was crazy. But, it was $0.50 a box on sale with my Kroger card. They had a limit so I made a "few" trips that week to get as much as I could and had storage space for. It takes 2 boxes for us for dinner and we have a little left over.

[robivi3]

We have three teenage boys. The bill is around 300.00 per week all groceries, including cleaning supplies. Plus eating out another 50.00 minimum.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

ok you are a liar. i could only list around $315 for food per my attorney but i tracked it and it was $425+ and that was buying cheap arse at bargain places food and no fasat food except $2 per week maybe.

remeber that i drink 2 2 liters of soda a day and that costs $1.50 a day. yes its an additction. and yes im waiting until i cans sue the soda companies for my problems. (if you think it aint an addiction then quit your soda and watch how severe the back of your lower head upper high neck area gets). thats $45 a month for just soda. that leaves me with 360 for food at 4.3 weeks and thats $88 per week. thats $12 a day. i aint scrimping and im not tiny little girl either but that aint buying high priced meals at all. im talking budget stuff mostly.

and yes it does inlcude the buffet at the strip club for $5 entrance fee

For one thing, groceries in the south cost about half what they do up north. Although staci's figures still sound low, the 5 person family has 3 very young children that are nibblers. Your average blue collar working man probably burns 2 times the calories and eats twice as much as all these kids combined. So I don't doubt staci's grocery figures. However, you better start saving now, because soon these kids will be teenagers then they will be eating you out of house and home

[StaciMM]

I know...

[bkinfoseeker]

OK, so lets cut to the chase.

Food costs differ depending on the area.

I feel I definately spend above $300 per month as a single person but my IRS expense exemptions allow for more than this (I spend $5 per day in lunch alone = $125/month). While I probably have spent more in the past but most of the eating out on weeknights will have to stop. I feel guilty about claiming that much since so many people are in the $200 area. However, I am beginning to feel more confident that I may be OK if:
1) I actually spend that much or more.
2) It is below the IRS Expense Exemption for single person with my income.
Any thoughts about that?

Two more questions:
1) How is everyone itemizing their food expenses? I don't see anywhere on the "J" form for this.
2) Some mentioned household supplies. Where the heck on the "J" form does this item go?

[bkfiler]

dont make me drag out my bk petition lol.

keep looking.

or maybe your court doesnt think people need to eat

[LostOne0069]

Well, since I started this thread, I guess I can put in my $.02

A gallon of milk per WEEK? and you say your kids LIKE milk?

We go through SEVEN gallons per week!

One pound of hamburger w/hamburger helper for dinner? We have to do 2 packages at a time or the kids are saying, "nice snack, when's dinner?"

We don't actually do packaged stuff very often, we usually make everything from scratch as we try to be as healthy as we can in what we eat.

My kids ages are 3, 5, 8 & 11... and it sounds like they eat more than some of your teenagers! I swear they all have black holes for bellies! Mind you, they all are thin... get it from their mothers side of the family. My 8 year old can eat more than _I_ can and he's about as big around as a broom stick!

When we've budgeted in the past we've tried doing a $500/month grocery budget... and even stuck to it sometimes... but when I look back at it, you see that the month after we managed to come in under $500.... we'll spent $1100 or more and the month after that will be $800... I'm guessing that we average around $800-$900 a month, not counting eating out. Mind you, this is with us trying to keep the expense down... if we weren't trying to save money to pay bills... I could see it hitting $1000-$1200 per month.

I wonder what a bankruptcy judge will consider "normal"... I mean, if I put down that we spent $1200/month, would they freak?

[bkfiler]

Well, since I started this thread, I guess I can put in my $.02

A gallon of milk per WEEK? and you say your kids LIKE milk?

We go through SEVEN gallons per week!

One pound of hamburger w/hamburger helper for dinner? We have to do 2 packages at a time or the kids are saying, "nice snack, when's dinner?"

ok that settles it. im not having kids. or their pets are cows isntead.

wait, cant they breat feed off momma until they are like 15? i can share.

[StaciMM]

I don't have teenagers-I have 3 kids ages 4, 5, and 7. I acknowledge that things would be different if they were older. Some others in the thread have posted about their teenagers, but since your other comments referred to things I've posted-I think you've gotten posts mixed up.

Yes, 1 gallon per week, ocasionally we go slightly over that. They have milk w/ breakfast. (And the DD not in school w/ her lunch-the other 2 eat lunch at school.) Right now, we still have a little in the gallon bought last Sunday.

Yes-hamburger helper, 1 package and 1 pound ground beef is enough for dinner for the kids and usually has leftovers for DD's lunch the next day. (I'll normally have a salad, or sandwich, or rice.)

Yesterday-spent $168 at the grocery store, included about $30 for cleaning supplies, and 2 weeks worth some things. Will pretty much just need to add bread/milk/eggs sort of items next weekend.

I'd love to have the time to NOT do packaged stuff. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice but to work-I get home at 6pm, Dh handles homework, etc. after they get home from school-I do dinner as he is pretty much a zombie by late afternoon & spoils homeself by getting a few hours of uninterrupted sleep once I get home before going to work at 10pm .

Well, since I started this thread, I guess I can put in my $.02

A gallon of milk per WEEK? and you say your kids LIKE milk?

We go through SEVEN gallons per week!

One pound of hamburger w/hamburger helper for dinner? We have to do 2 packages at a time or the kids are saying, "nice snack, when's dinner?"

We don't actually do packaged stuff very often, we usually make everything from scratch as we try to be as healthy as we can in what we eat.

My kids ages are 3, 5, 8 & 11... and it sounds like they eat more than some of your teenagers! I swear they all have black holes for bellies! Mind you, they all are thin... get it from their mothers side of the family. My 8 year old can eat more than _I_ can and he's about as big around as a broom stick!

When we've budgeted in the past we've tried doing a $500/month grocery budget... and even stuck to it sometimes... but when I look back at it, you see that the month after we managed to come in under $500.... we'll spent $1100 or more and the month after that will be $800... I'm guessing that we average around $800-$900 a month, not counting eating out. Mind you, this is with us trying to keep the expense down... if we weren't trying to save money to pay bills... I could see it hitting $1000-$1200 per month.

I wonder what a bankruptcy judge will consider "normal"... I mean, if I put down that we spent $1200/month, would they freak?

[StaciMM]

Ps-there was a place for groceries, food, or something similar on the budget schedule. Don't have it front of me to see which line.