Food budget

[Venga]

I usual spend around £30 a week, but thats just on food and soft drinks, alot more goes on alcohol!

With that £30 i usual eat quite well during that week, at dinner time. Breakfast is cereal, toast and juice, standard.

Lunch will be chips, nothing major just something to keep me going until 6. Then i really pig out. Usually ill east at least 1 curry a week, fajitas, crispy duck.

[Weiing]

I refuse to shop at Walmart due to their sketchy business practices. I typically go to Sprouts which is an inexpensive farmers market or Trader Joes which is also relatively inexpensive.

Oh my god I love sprouts! I'm so sad they don't have it everywhere... When I move to Seattle. I live in Irvine! We're close!

And @ OP: I spend roughly $400-600/month for food for my fiance and I. This fluctuates depending on how fast I run out of vegetarian meats/protein sources, as they are quite expensive--refrigerated or frozen kind. Sometimes I wish I could just get over it and eat meat again because it's cheaper. I'm sure there is a TJ's around, or something like that. Whole Foods is butt rape and I never go in there anymore... I used to have to for vegetarian meats in Michigan, but now I have Mother's Market for that.

We do eat out, typically once or twice a week. When we do, we usually go to a veggie place which is typically a bit more expensive for our tastes ($8-10 a dish), which really isn't too bad. Our favorite place to go eat out is Lee's Sandwiches, a Vietnamese/French sandwich shop. So delicious and so cheap...but I realize nowhere but CA really has them. However, eating out also depends on what's going on... It fluctuates. It's still possible to eat out on a budget, just have to be smart about it.

Farmers markets and CSAs are pretty nice, though I believe they're probably ending for you soon as winter is coming. You should also check Asian markets--they usually have cheap veggies and stuff.

I also enjoy Costco for frozen stuff (frozen berries for smoothies, frozen veggie patties) or dry things (canned diced tomatoes). My fiance and I can't eat fast enough to finish the produce items at Costco, though.

Eating Subway everyday is kind of..meh. Like everyone else has said, you can definitely eat more home-made sandwiches with that money. Subway is just pretending you're eating healthier.

Also, drink more water...like some people else have said-- I drink nothing but tap water, really. Even when I'm out and about. Sometimes I'll treat myself to a smoothie or iced blended coffee but they aren't really worth the calories to me.

[Melena]

Me and my Fiance spend probably 3-400 a month on groceries. Typically we split it up between costco and safeway.

At costco we buy the majority of our meats. 10lb of frozen boneless chicken breasts I think is like $20 for example. Toss in a good sized roast and maybe some corned beef or pork and for about 80 bucks we have all the meat we will need for the month. We also get stuff like Soda, Juice (2 gallons of apple juice for under 4 bucks is a damn steal), snacks, etc. We also typically get most of our potatoes there as we get a 10lb bag of red potatoes for like 5 dollars. Safeway we use mainly for frozen dinners ($2.00 a pop), fruits & veggies and rice/pasta roni.

As people said, watch the ad's as well and use coupons when you can. A little bit of homework will save you a ton of money.

[Kerberoz]

Curry and gumbo/stew are cheap to make at home in large batches and can feed you all week. Eggs are cheap and delicious snacks. Plan out your meals, buy everything in bulk, and don't shop when you're hungry. Learn how to use spices and keep a cabinet stocked. Lots of things (not red meat, though) can be frozen without losing much flavor. Ramen + frozen veggies/meat scraps/leftovers + egg + chilis = delicious.

Like someone above said, bottled water is fucktarded. Fuck all the free-range/organic shit, it's exactly the same product for twice as much money and you're not saving the world. Soda is a massive waste of money, at the very least try to cut back.

[Serif]

ftfy

Damn you...I would do that but I generally have the water jugs out on job sites and what not.

I will concede you are right though.

[Ryany]

...350 a month with almost never eating out. It would be about half that if I didn't worry about getting a lot of quality protein. (thanks to protein calories/dollar being 5-10x that of fat/carbs)

[Heavencloud]

Augh I feel like when I move out I'm gonna start eating a LOT less. Living at home is nice cause I just eat whatever, but I'm cheap as fuck so when I move out it's gonna be a lot of water + bread + pasta, lol.

[Kumbai]

Pasta rocks. Cheap/can be healthy, and it can be mixed with anything you have lying round really. And it can be reheated :3

[Kerberoz]

Oh, and also:

Spoiler: show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=531v0T_LD1E

Don't waste bones/scraps and you'll save a bit.

[noblemountain]

I was actually curious about how much I am spending on food...time for the breakdown...

My diet changes depending on if I'm trying to cut weight for a fight or not, but we'll assume the norm.

Breakfast: Omelet (that doesn't look right but FF isn't correcting me...)

6 eggs, 1 oz sharp cheddar, coriander, green chilies, and a little sriracha

Lunch: 2 Sandwiches

4 pieces of sourdough bread, 4 slices of pastrami, 4 slices of smoked chicken, 2 slices of smoked swiss, 2 slices of provalone, mayo, dijon mustard, olive oil, vinegar

Dinner: varies...chicken breast or tuna grilled is the most common...whatever meat is in season also, ie turkey, deer, dove.


I cook all my own meals and prepare my own sauces when possible. I shop at the local farmer's market and the Amish market near us for almost everything. I go to Star Market for some of my meat and make special trips to the Asian market in Huntsville for other things (sushi rice especially). I buy fresh goats milk from the Amish, Milo's Sweet Tea (greatest thing on earth), tap water, orange juice, cran-grape, and green tea w/ pomegranate. I drink about two gallons of water a day because it's hot as fuck and I work outside...sometimes I drink Gatorade...but usually avoid it. I spend about 6-700 bucks a month...so not that far off of the OP. I probably eat a lot more though, I walk around at 210 lbs and eat like a horse. When I cut weight for a fight, I drop about 20 lbs over a month and a half, then the last 10 is water weight that I get rid of the night before weigh-ins.

[Franzer]

While i can't say i do this too often for myself, my girlfriend has been doing it a lot lately. If you have a android phone(possibly on iphone or others, just using from personal experience), you can use the barcode scanner on the phone and scan in all the things you typically buy from the store. It saves all of them, and creates a coupon list that you can print out from your computer. This saves a lot of time in the store and while its not a whole lot of money, it adds up. I used to be anti-coupons cause i didn't want to cut that shit out or find the items, but when i'm already going to buy them anyway, having a coupon is cool. Just throwing out an idea.

[Meat]

bout 300 ish, i cook 99% of my meals myself and i eat exceptionally healthy. I also use a friend's restaurant depot card

$50 for 2 gallons eggwhites
$80 for 2 5ls bag whey
$50 for chicken
$40 for veggies

the rest on assorted crap

[Militant]

I sincerely hope CreamSoda is eating other food on the side besides ramen... please... right?

[Cream Soda]

I sincerely hope CreamSoda is eating other food on the side besides ramen... please... right?

When I eat at white people's house yea, but I don't purchase anything else.

[Julian]

One thing that I noticed in Publix (supermarket, SEish USA I think), possibly the same for others, is that they seem to do their deals around Wed/Thurs/end of week.

So if you can, do your shopping towards the end of the week, rather than the start. (Assuming it even matters)

The one time I went on a Monday, there were no deals at all, so I always go on Thurs/Fri now. Tons of buy 1 get 1 free, or just a ton of -so much$ off, etc.

[Takedown3]

400 on groceries a month (200 every 2 weeks sometimes 3)
200 on meat every 6 weeks (100 every 3 weeks sometimes 4)

would have to an extra 300 a month on junk like random take out and convenience store stops

household of 4, 30yo male, 55yo female, 28 yo female, 4 yo female.

so something like 850$$$ estimating the meat to 150 a month. 300 a month on junk is reasonable because 2 pizzas and an order of breadsticks is 45$, a family size lasagna with ceasar salad and bread is 45$, mcdonalds for a kids meal and a couple reg. burgs is 10-15$, daily coffee stops can hit 5$ for 2 coffees and an ice cap or a bagel. etc.

[Drex]

cook some eggs
cook some rice or noodles
steam some frozen veggies
mix it together and om nom nom

if you have to have subway, at least split a footlong in half and eat the first part for lunch and the second part for dinner

[Mayareira]

Subway is expensive. But eating alone generally doesn't cut too much from costs especially if you've got a busy life.

Avoid tap water if you are not sure of the infrastructure of your house/region. You wouldn't want to deal with infections that'd annoy you (and your balls) + doctor costs, etc. I only drank tap water a week in my life (and that was for tea, lol) and bam, urinary tract infection, painful balls, getting my balls handled by urologist guy, wasted Spring Break and...uh, medicine, etc. costs.

I spend around 600/month as well.

[Weiing]

@Mayareira - Don't use/have a filtration system? Brita?

[Mayareira]

I didn't, that figures why I got sick I guess! The house here doesn't have filteration system (rental, won't be here for long) but I guess I could've used one of those smaller ones.

I drink from those large Aquafina/Deer Park bottles. They don't really cost much at all and...ease of mind I guess.