Grocery budget | Imamother

JoyInTheMorning

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 12:13 pm

Amarante wrote:

Which is why questions like this are meaningless.

Five percent of a high income is much more than five percent of a low income.

Unless one is eating diamonds a wealthy family spends a lower percentage of their income on food than a less affluent family.

Amarante points out exactly what the USDA charts show.

amother

Aqua

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 12:16 pm

Squishy wrote:

The grocery budget is usually dependent on family income. 5% of income is the target for groceries. 6% of disposable income is the guideline used to budget for dining out. Kosher food and CY will obviously alter these figures.

My food spending is all over the place. We are frugal with certain items and buy in bulk for great prices. If you have storage, that can bring down your food bill.

Prescriptive or Descriptive?

amother

Orchid

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 12:34 pm

Serious question. I'm the one who posted approx $650 for a family of 10. How do ppl with large families keep their bills so low? We eat no takeout, and I pack meals to take along for lunches. So really no additional moneys spent on food. I am including paper goods, detergents, etc. Kids are mostly teens, who eat A LOT and we do eat healthfully and well. Every dinner includes a salad or cooked vegetables, a protein and a small serving of carb. With all that said, we are not eating steak dinners on a regular basis, so wondering how you all keep your food bills so low?

small bean

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 12:38 pm

Groceries and household items should be about 11% of your budget. This will look different for everybody.

Why dont you figure out how much you can spend and work backwards to make it work.

We are a family of 9 and I spend about 500 a week on household stuff.

amother

Aqua

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 12:39 pm

small bean wrote:

Groceries should be about 11% of your budget. This will look different for everybody.

Why dont you figure out how much you can spend and work backwards to make it work.

We are a family of 9 and I spend about 500 a week on household stuff.

Where does that number come from?

small bean

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 12:44 pm

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

Where does that number come from?

I forgot where I read it, when I bought my first house 12 years ago. It was in regards to buying a house you can afford. It went through all expenses and gave it a percentage of overall budget. And it promoted the idea of taking this number and multiplying it by 6 to put aside for a rainy day.

I do not keep to it at all anymore, but I used to be aware. Now my family has grown and BH I dont need to think about it. I just buy what I need and my husband takes care of bills

33055

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 1:31 pm

JoyInTheMorning wrote:

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/

So I checked, and I think this is where we have to be careful not to conflate median and average. The USDA says exactly what Squishy said, that Americans spend on average around 5% of their income on food at home, and another 5% of their income on eating out. (This may include inexpensive meals at school and work cafeterias.) However, note that the percentage spent of income falls as income rises. Poor people spend as much as 35% of their income on food (total), while people who are in the top quintile spend around 8% of their income on food (total). So it largely depends on income.

And of course, it also depends on family size, and on family needs. Kosher food is more expensive.

(Edited to fix the percentages shown by the graph.)

I was just coming to post this because what you said made sense, so I was looking for an explanation. TY

amother

White

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 4:00 pm

dankbar wrote:

I think Usda says to allocate $50 a week for food per person.
Kosher food is way more expensive than others

We need to allocate about $100 per person per week. We don't buy takeout but buy ready sauces, individual dairy, frozen pizza, pre washed bags of lettuce, and bought Challah and such because we both work.

amother

Jade

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 4:18 pm

amother [ Orchid ] wrote:

+1

I think this thread would be more useful if people would actually provide a sample week menu of what they buy and what they use it for. That's obviously pretty labor intensive to write out, but it'd be a helpful resource to people looking to cut down.

dankbar

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 5:19 pm

amother [ White ] wrote:

We need to allocate about $100 per person per week. We don't buy takeout but buy ready sauces, individual dairy, frozen pizza and bought Challah and such because we both work.

Depends on ages & how many meals you would need to provide.
According to your chesbon, for 6 people, it would be $600 for a week, which is a lot

amother

White

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 5:29 pm

dankbar wrote:

Depends on ages & how many meals you would need to provide.
According to your chesbon, for 6 people, it would be $600 for a week, which is a lot

4 people $400 for us. Includes fish, meat, bakery everything.

amother

Cerise

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 6:49 pm

amother [ Violet ] wrote:

6 kids Lakewood

$300/week. Includes most paper goods and dry goods I buy regularly - but some I stock up on twice a year so it isn’t reflected in that total.

I buy everything - danishes and snack bags for school - we eat tons of pre-checked lettuce, chicken, vegetables, fruit, yogurts. I don’t really budget. But almost no ready made food/ take out.

where do you shop thats so cheap?? I have 3 kids in lkwd. no precheck lettuce, but yogurt, milk, friut, veggies. and no takeout at all and my bill is close to $300 a week too??

LolaGuac

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 7:34 pm

I have two kids away, in college, and one home, so we are a family of three for much of the year. We spend between $250-300/week when we are three people (with shabbos food and guests usually).

amother

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 10:33 pm

LolaGuac wrote:

I have two kids away, in college, and one home, so we are a family of three for much of the year. We spend between $250-300/week when we are three people (with shabbos food and guests usually).

Thanks for your reply and thanks to everyone who replied Very Happy

justforfun87

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 11:41 pm

I live in Baltimore with three young kids but make lunches. I am not frugal with shopping but not extravagant I.e. I buy premade tuna but not tons of meat.

amother

Violet

Mon, Nov 25 2019, 11:49 pm

amother [ Cerise ] wrote:

where do you shop thats so cheap?? I have 3 kids in lkwd. no precheck lettuce, but yogurt, milk, friut, veggies. and no takeout at all and my bill is close to $300 a week too??

Chicken I only shop sales - evergreen, aisle 9, seasons, bingo. Will only spend max 3.99 on cutlets. Under 1.99 chicken on the bone.
Meat is harder now because we eat limited imported meats. Seasons used to be my go to place until they switched from tevya. Sad

I mainly shop npgs for rest of food. Will buy based on sales. Like my kids get diff yogurts every week.
Except salmon and milk at aisle 9. (We need our pride of the farm...)
We don’t throw out any food which means I don’t make many suppers. Leftover chicken, kugel, veggies, cholent and soup gets reused a lot. Everything’s get repurposed. Just add fresh veggies.
Soups are really cheap in the summer.
I bake almost everything. Have bread machine.