My Grocery Expenses tracked over the past 16 years.

[larry_stewart]

So, I recently was preparing my taxes and was going through all my expenses.
I came across my food expenses and remembered that there was a thread that pops up, from time to time , " What is your limit" where we were discussing our food budgets.

I don't necessarily use a food budget, but I figured it might be interesting if I compiled all my data from over the years ( since 2000) and make a chart to share with you guys. ( This is what I do at 2:27 am when I can't sleep do to insomnia)

Sure, there are many variables when looking at my chart, that will vary from each one of use, Such as:
-I live in a NYC Suburb
-We are a Vegetarian Family
-Inflation
-Avid gardner, so a lot of produce from June - October
-Eggs from chickens for the past 10 years ( really does make an impact)
-Family of 4 ( Son and Daughter), I tracked the kids ages too.
-The $$ amounts includes non-food Items ( detergent, napkins...)
-Restaurants/ going out to eat not included (that's listed under entertainment)
-More and more into cooking over the years
-Food Network
-Forums such as DC
-More (exotic/expensive) items easily available do to current food trends
-And probably a bunch more things I can't think of at the moment.

 

[larry_stewart]

I added a Weekly column for those Mathematically challenged.
( Im English challenged, so I'm sure you'll find many grammatical and spelling errors)

 

[Aunt Bea]

I think you should paste a copy of this on the refrigerator door!

It seemed like a very scary number until I did the math. It works out to about $65-70/week for each person. It is within the USDA numbers for a moderate to liberal food plan, take a look.

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/CostofFoodFeb2016.pdf

I have tracked my income and expenses for years. I like to look back and see where the money came from and where it went.

 

[Andy M.]

Interesting, Larry. Your cost went up by almost 4 times over the 15 years.

 

[GotGarlic]

Pretty cool, Larry. It would be interesting to see inflation factored into that.

 

[blissful]

Nice work Larry!

 

[Steve Kroll]

It seemed like a very scary number until I did the math. It works out to about $65-70/week for each person.

That's pretty much dead on what I spend on groceries per week as a single person. In fact, my monthly food budget is $250. And I live in the Midwest, where food is relatively (by my standards) inexpensive, or at least compared to other places I've lived.

 

[roadfix]

Awesome stats!
I don't think I can track our grocery expenses over time like that. I can see my brother doing something like that......he even tracks his haircut expenses. He's also a CPA so I can see him doing that on his spare time....LOL

 

[tenspeed]

Larry – is the big increase over the years due to your kids becoming teenagers, or is it other factors?

I spend $600 - $700 per month for the two of us. I thought it was kind of high, but I guess not so much.

I don’t shop to a budget, and just buy what I want. We don’t eat much beef, but have seafood once or twice a week. The seafood is mostly from the supermarkets, who generally have decent seafood, and not the expensive seafood store. We always have fresh fruit in the fridge, and don’t buy much in the way of convenience foods.

I’m one of those people who believe that wine is a grocery, but that’s tracked separately.

 

[larry_stewart]

My son's appetite is unbelievable.
He's 21, 6ft and 250 +
He has a pre-dinner, while waiting for dinner to be ready, then dinner and a post dinner before dessert.

Im guessing just their growth and increasing appetite explain a good portion of the increase. For the past year he has been working, not home as much for dinner, and often buying his own stuff, so I expect things to level off.

My daughter eats like a bird.

Also, I think my increased interesting cooking more exotic things, and watching the cooking shows, just cooking being as much of a hobby as it is a necessity, that also may have drove up the numbers.

We only go out to eat maybe 3 or 4 times a month at the most. Every other meal is prepared at home.

Except holidays and days off, we're all out of the house for lunch.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

larry, you are either very organized, or OCD. Nothing wrong with either way (says she who could be a "mini-Monk").

Our son ate like that too. Except he's 6' 1 1/2", never topped 180-185 during high school, and played sports each season. That kid ate ferociously during football season! Now that he's on his own, I think he hover around 170.

IF I tracked our monthly purchases, my numbers would be all over the charts. If meats are on sale for great prices, I load the freezer, then don't buy any for ages on end. Some weeks I might spend $120 for the two of us, others might be no more than $60. Now you have me wondering what our buying pattern would be over a year's time. One of these days I'm going to have to log into Discover and view my monthly grocery spending. Or at least check the annual pie chart to give me an idea.

 

[larry_stewart]

larry, you are either very organized, or OCD. Nothing wrong with either way (says she who could be a "mini-Monk").

Definitely a little bit of both, until I really need to find something, thats when the organization goes out the window, and I can't find it at all

 

[jd_1138]

We only spend about 500 a month on groceries for 3 people. We eat out once a week and maybe one or 2 times we'll grab a Burger King or Taco Bell.

Maybe get the son a gym membership. 250's kinda big and can lead to health problems. I don't mean to sound preachy. lol

 

[Cheryl J]

Larry, that's awesome that you've kept such records over the years. Very interesting to see how the grocery bills changed with the family growth and other factors. You're saving a boatload of money with your gardening.

I've been thinking about this. The nearest I can come up with....I think I average around $150 a month just for the food bill, not paper products or incidentals. It changes, of course - sometimes it's not nearly that much, sometimes it meets that amount, sometimes it goes way over. Depends on if I'm craving some good seafood, nice rib eyes for myself and/or guests, or if there's a good sale on something, or if I need to re-stock.

I live alone and keep my freezer jam packed with meats. Right now I don't think I could fit anything more in there. LOL. Most of my food $$'s go to fresh fruits and veggies, dairy products, wine , etc. I hardly ever eat out or order in, mostly because it's just me and the serving sizes are way too big for just one.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I just figured it out for some financial stuff tonight, we spend about $120 a week on food for the two of us. Every other week we have Mom and Dad over for dinner. I spend about $30 a week on my lunches for work, comes out the same if I get take out or buy it in the store. Work food is tough, no place to store it, premade gets soggy and gross, so I tend to buy a bag of greens and assorted veggies, meats and cheeses for topping, assemble at my desk.

 

[Kitchen Chatters]

Wow that's a big grocery bill. Especially since you grow a lot your own food. Our family of 4 spend about $700 a month here in South Africa.

 

[Addie]

I can only spend what is allotted to me in Food Stamps. $136.00 a month. Pirate has his own food stamps and buys his food separately.

 

[jd_1138]

I can only spend what is allotted to me in Food Stamps. $136.00 a month. Pirate has his own food stamps and buys his food separately.

It's usually much more efficient and frugal to pool limited resources and then plan a menu for the month.

Because buying/preparing 2 separate meals everyday is pricey. I lived as a boarder once in a lady's house for 6 months (the co. I worked for transferred me on a short-term basis to a different city), and I wasn't sure how long I'd be there so instead of signing a lease, I just rented a room.

I paid her an extra $150 a month, and was able to eat with her and her daughter every night. I was a young bachelor at the time and knew nothing about cooking (other than heating up a can of soup or using the microwave). So I ate a nice hot home cooked meal every night -- spaghetti/meatballs, lasagna, etc..

She said she usually ends up throwing away a certain part of the leftovers anyway, so I am sure I didn't add much to her food costs. And for breakfast, I just had cereal or oatmeal usually. A few times a week, she'd cook up a hot breakfast -- pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns.

 

[Addie]

It's usually much more efficient and frugal to pool limited resources and then plan a menu for the month.

Because buying/preparing 2 separate meals everyday is pricey. I lived as a boarder once in a lady's house for 6 months (the co. I worked for transferred me on a short-term basis to a different city), and I wasn't sure how long I'd be there so instead of signing a lease, I just rented a room.

I paid her an extra $150 a month, and was able to eat with her and her daughter every night. I was a young bachelor at the time and knew nothing about cooking (other than heating up a can of soup or using the microwave). So I ate a nice hot home cooked meal every night -- spaghetti/meatballs, lasagna, etc..

She said she usually ends up throwing away a certain part of the leftovers anyway, so I am sure I didn't add much to her food costs. And for breakfast, I just had cereal or oatmeal usually. A few times a week, she'd cook up a hot breakfast -- pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns.

Federal law requires that Pirate and I keep our foods bought with Food Stamps separate. And we do try to. Also he gets his Food Stamps much later in the month.

Grant you, I cannot eat a whole dozen eggs by myself. And he could go through a dozen in a week. So I buy all the eggs. Mainly because I use them in baking. I also buy all the condiments. Otherwise it could take me a couple of years to use us a bottle of ketchup. He is a big meat eater. I am not. And there are some meals where the recipe requires using something of someone else's food supply.

His dry foods are in a small cabinet in his room. We share the fridge. Ninety-nine percent of the freezer is filled with his meats. And he has his own shelf in the fridge. He cooks his meals, I cook mine, unless one of us has leftovers that we will never eat. It is a system we have worked out and pretty much within the law.

 

[jd_1138]

Federal law requires that Pirate and I keep our foods bought with Food Stamps separate. And we do try to. Also he gets his Food Stamps much later in the month.

Grant you, I cannot eat a whole dozen eggs by myself. And he could go through a dozen in a week. So I buy all the eggs. Mainly because I use them in baking. I also buy all the condiments. Otherwise it could take me a couple of years to use us a bottle of ketchup. He is a big meat eater. I am not. And there are some meals where the recipe requires using something of someone else's food supply.

His dry foods are in a small cabinet in his room. We share the fridge. Ninety-nine percent of the freezer is filled with his meats. And he has his own shelf in the fridge. He cooks his meals, I cook mine, unless one of us has leftovers that we will never eat. It is a system we have worked out and pretty much within the law.

Oh I thought you guys were married or in a relationship.

I'm no expert on how food stamps work, but the laws about keeping food separate are probably more along the lines of "you can't be feeding other people with your food stamps and thus overstating how many food stamps you need"? But heck at $136/month, there's no chance of that.

They probably just have the laws a certain way to keep certain people from abusing the system. If you were to buy certain items and he were to buy certain items, and you both ended up eating all the items in one month and used all the food stamps up AND your collective nutritional needs were better met that way. I don't think that'd be against the law. But like I said who knows. The government's pretty silly with their laws.

Plus some people just like to keep their food separate and have widely divergent food tastes.