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. The wife and I get 2-3 meals out of a ~$6 chicken easy.

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If spending $6 on a whole chicken, why not just buy that rotesserie one? Those are $7 where I shop.

Love those things. Eat it fresh first night, then fridge the rest and use it on salad or pasta or whatever.

Too damn much. But not nearly as much as we could.

We don't buy much in terms of meat - that's where my hunting comes in. Granted, it's not as cheap as buying meat, but it's also on a different line item and healthier. Plus, i process it.

We could do a lot better though, just haven't made it a huge priority yet. Honestly we coudl probably cut the budget down by 25% if we just cut out the garbage easy junk food.

I'm impressed at how well y'all track this stuff. I honestly couldn't even ballpark it. I go to the store on my way home 3-4x a week and usually once on weekends. The good part of having a job with a flexible schedule is that I try to buy groceries fresh and only as much as we'll need for the next 48 hours or so so not much gets wasted.

I agree with what you are saying, but we could buy processed sides and frozen meats and easily feed ourselves for cheaper than buying minimally processed. So maybe its not expensive, but its more expensive than the processed options. You also have to factor in food waste with fresh foods for everything you don't eat in time.

We are bad with leftovers which contributes to our spend. We really only eat leftovers of things that are better as leftovers like gumbo and chicken and dumplings.

My Credit Card has a category called groceries that I use. Its not exact but its really close. I am the same way I usually shop 2 to 3 times a week. Right now I am on a 4 month paternity leave so I shop almost every day with the boy.

I track expenses on an excel spreadsheet. Here is what I got through 6 months YTD.... Actually less than I would have guessed.

Grocery: 3151 (121/wk)
Costco: 1830 (70/wk)
Restaurants: 1343 (52/wk)

Total: 6325 (243/wk)

If we take a costco trip and only buy grocery items I may plug it in the grocery line instead of costco line, but at least half of that costco number is non-food still. My wife also buys some cleaning supplies, toiletries, medicine, etc.. at HEB when needed. We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 5 yr old, 3 yr old, newborn (note - no food expenses yet)). Our eating out expense is probably mainly chic-fil-a with the young kids. With a newborn we haven't really had any decently expensive meals out or date nights.

We eat a lot of chicken/pork/ground beef so not much for expensive meats. Only seafood is probably salmon burgers from HEB that my wife likes. Costco protein bars are probably the biggest food expense... We both eat 2 a day so we go through the $18 boxes every 5 days.

Groceries: $160/week YTD (~$165 in 2018)

Restaurants: $131/week YTD (~$137 in 2018)

90-100/week family of 3 (2 year old)

Highest it has ever been. When we were newly married it was 55-65/week.

Easily $325+ per week @ HEB for 4.5 of us. Kid # 5 eats dinner at our house a few days a week and lunch just about everyday because she works close to our house and comes there on lunch break.

The number gets a little skewed because not everything is strictly groceries. There are cleaning supplies, flowers, makeup, soaps/lotions/hygiene items, and general household items.

This is with dinner at home most days per week and having two teenage boys on summer break who can eat a lot. My wife and I also take lunch to work most days per week.

I think that is very reasonable. It doesn't take very many items in your cart at HEB to reach $100. Especially with meat/fish and beer or wine.

Same as most families have already posted. There are 5 of us, rarely eat out, but cook a lot at home. I include toiletries, cleaning supplies, vitamins, and pull-ups - average about $1200/month.

Usually $150-$200 weekly at Heb, plus small mid week trips and a couple of trips a month to sams. Order most non groceries from Amazon subscribe and save.

I must be a poor shopper or have expensive taste or just lazy (yes this probably it). Four of us and we spend 150 to 200 every week plus I eat out for lunch 4 times a week and at least 1 weekend meal between the four of us.

Doesn't help that the wife has no clue about cooking.

62strat said:

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Currently we can usually get by on $100 a week for family of 4.

But it's really more like $75 for 5 dinners, then sat/sun meals, because kids are in full time daycare which includes lunch and snacks, and wife and I are pretty frugal for lunch at work spending only $10-$12 a week each. For breakfast, kids eat a breakfast bar and banana which is all $1-$2/wk each, my work provides granola bars and such and wife doesn't eat breakfast.

Kids get fast food on friday nights, we get pizza or other takeout. That's the extent of our dining out. Still on a strict daycare budget which doesn't include eating out often.

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what do you cook for dinner? what do you have for lunch for $10 per week?

I think we spend close to $400 per week excluding alcohol. 4 of us

Gordon McKernan said:

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I track expenses on an excel spreadsheet. Here is what I got through 6 months YTD.... Actually less than I would have guessed.

Grocery: 3151 (121/wk)
Costco: 1830 (70/wk)
Restaurants: 1343 (52/wk)

Total: 6325 (243/wk)

If we take a costco trip and only buy grocery items I may plug it in the grocery line instead of costco line, but at least half of that costco number is non-food still. My wife also buys some cleaning supplies, toiletries, medicine, etc.. at HEB when needed. We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 5 yr old, 3 yr old, newborn (note - no food expenses yet)). Our eating out expense is probably mainly chic-fil-a with the young kids. With a newborn we haven't really had any decently expensive meals out or date nights.

We eat a lot of chicken/pork/ground beef so not much for expensive meats. Only seafood is probably salmon burgers from HEB that my wife likes. Costco protein bars are probably the biggest food expense... We both eat 2 a day so we go through the $18 boxes every 5 days.

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That is some analysis. I bet my family is close to this w/o the analysis.

Koko Chingo said:

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Easily $325+ per week @ HEB for 4.5 of us. Kid # 5 eats dinner at our house a few days a week and lunch just about everyday because she works close to our house and comes there on lunch break.

The number gets a little skewed because not everything is strictly groceries. There are cleaning supplies, flowers, makeup, soaps/lotions/hygiene items, and general household items.

This is with dinner at home most days per week and having two teenage boys on summer break who can eat a lot. My wife and I also take lunch to work most days per week.

I think that is very reasonable. It doesn't take very many items in your cart at HEB to reach $100. Especially with meat/fish and beer or wine.

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4.5? Should I count our Beta fish?

62 Strat are you also the first guy destroying left overs in the break room.

chipotle said:

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Talking with a buddy last night and his was in the 250-300 range. With dry goods in all I'd say we're at 100-120 range with eating out for dinner once a week.

Family of 4 btw

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$100 per week for 4 and you eat out once a week?

Where? McDonald's?

Cassius said:

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chipotle said:

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Talking with a buddy last night and his was in the 250-300 range. With dry goods in all I'd say we're at 100-120 range with eating out for dinner once a week.

Family of 4 btw

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$100 per week for 4 and you eat out once a week?

Where? McDonald's?

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We spend around 120/wk just for groceries. In addition to that we spend around 200 eating out per month. Not necessarily McDonald's but there is some fast food in there. Family of 4: 2 adults, 1 toddler and a baby. Dinner Meals are meticulously planned out for 3 weeks so grocery runs can be easily kept at a minimum. If we eat out it's not on the weekend so we can avoid crowds and take advantage of weekday deals at restaurants.

austinag1997 said:

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4.5? Should I count our Beta fish?

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4.5 is my 22 yr old who eats lunch at my house everyday during the week, takes from the pantry, dinner about 1 to 2 times a week, and a dog who might as well be mine.

You can count your beta fish if it eats as much as my kid.... lol

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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62 Strat are you also the first guy destroying left overs in the break room.

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I don't eat much for lunch.. maybe 300 calories, usually a protein and a veggie. I save my calories for dinner and the weekends.