How much money should I be spending on grocery on a monthly basis?

Question

I am a single 23 year old male living alone in an apartment. Work in the morning and school at night. At current, I spend about $100 a week on food, not counting money spent on lunch at work. Never had much guidance on how to survive alone so please share your thoughts. How much do you and your family get by on a monthly basis and what's your budget? I don't want to be a dumb a.ss spending more than others but I don't want to deprive myself beyond others as well, so what's the average monthly budget people spend on food. Single mothers out there! How do you do it? Thanks...

Answer 1

You should be able to get by on $50 a week for food, but a lot depends on your eating habits, how much you eat, where you live, etc. One thing i can tell you, eating out costs more! buy some stuff to make a sack lunch, or at least get some of those frozen dinners when they are on sale for $1.50-$2 each and take those for lunches.

good for you for wanting to be careful and monitor your spending. basically, where you should start is try to track how much you spend in a typical month (eating out and all). Track your bills, rent, gas, and especially the money you spend out of pocket or on the debit card. If you want, you can take a week and multiply it by four, that will give you a close-enough estimate. Once you have all that totaled, compare that to your monthly take-home pay (after taxes etc.). Which number is bigger? If your spending is bigger, you need to trim it down- you are living beyond your means. If your income is bigger, way to go! Stick some extra in savings to give you an emergency fund when life happens.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

I spend about $550 a month on food. That is for 5 people. My 10 year old daughter who weighs 65 lbs. can devour half a 16 inch pizza by herself in one sitting so I have to buy lots of food. Pasta is a good way to go. It's cheap and doesn't go bad. Get some jarred sauce like Prego and use only what you need. Stay away from too many sandwich meats unless they are on sale. If I lived alone I could probably get by spending about $100 a month but I would rather have some snacks so I would want to spend more like $200. You could also pack a lunch for work every couple of days to save some money and calories. Take out gets old quick. I also buy meat in bulk when it's on sale and freeze it in individual meal portioned bags. You can also write a list and stick to it and if you are really motivated you can make up a meal plan for the week and grocery shop according to that. If I'm running low on cash I have to do that so I don't run out of food in the middle of the week. I'm not much older than you but I've been doing this for over 10 years. It's funny the things we have to learn :)

Answer 4

Wow! $100 a week for a single guy is a lot. I spend about $150 a month for my husband and I. You don't need to deprieve yourself, but you can definitely save some cash by creating a menu for the week and only buying the things on that you will need to make the meals on your menu. You can also buy enough for two servings to make at dinner so that you will have lunch at work the next day. I started doing that when I got married because my husband won't eat sandwiches. It has saved us a ton of money. You can also clip coupons. Another big money saver is to buy store brands. I have found that Kroger and Publix have very good store brands, plus they have a money back thing so that if you dislike their brand, they will give you the national brand free. Obviously if you are a healthy eater, you will spend more. My husband and I only drink organic milk; we don't eat canned veggies, and we do not eat pre packaged foods for the most part and we are still able to eat for $150 monthly. Just some suggestions! Good luck!

Answer 5

It's all about what your budget is. For example I personally think that you should spend $180 - $200 a MONTH on food. You live by yourself. So to make things last create meals so you don't have to cook everynight. Dishes like spaghetti are good because you can have left overs. Also cooking big meals allows you to also take left over food to work insted of spending $2.00 on fries or a burger. You do not need to spend even $100 per week on food if you live alone. What do you buy fast food every night or eat at red lobster? If I was you I would survive one week on about $50. You are eating for like 2-3 people.

Answer 6

About a month should be about 3-400 dollars. Open up a savings account and put a few dollars in each pay day. That way if you need some money in a desperate situation, you'll have it there. It really sounds like you don't spend alot of time at home, but you spend money on alot of food. Instead of buying expensive meals at work, make a lunch at home and take it with you. Or if you don't want to have such a hassel in the morning/evening try balancing out your schedule and how much you make a week and decide how much you want to spend on food, clothes, entertainment, gas, and to put in the bank, and stick to it.

Answer 7

Yep, I have a family of 3 with 2 large dogs and other small pets. We spend about $85.00 a week. That's including pet supplies, paper products, and hygiene products. Single mother's usually qualify for government aide or have a well paying job or strong family support.

Of course if your dating that could cost you a lot more than a family of eight! Eating out is very pricey unless your very careful.

Also, subscribe to your Sunday paper and get the scissors out to clip some coupons. They are a life saver. You save about 20% on average just by clipping a few coupons. And most guys for some reason never look at the price of things they are buying. Be careful with your hard earned money and buy products on sale. Between sales and coupons you can end up paying like 25% of the retail price, awesome!

Answer 8

That is a lot. We are a famnily of 4 and we spend 100 a week. Brown bag your lunch. COok instead of heat up convenience food do not buy brand name foods and plan meals ahead of time. You are spending way more than I ever did when I was single...

Answer 9

I use to spend more, but have learned to budget my monthy food money well now. !st get a few food storage containers. this is if you want to be frugal but still eat well. I spend about $300.00 a month on food including restaraunts for my 4 yr old and myself. First buy your meats when they are on sale, it will save you in the long run. Learn to cook, prepackaged meals and eating out will suck up the money. cook meals often that go a long way like lazagna, chilli, roast. chicken, Thease things can be stored in frezer and taken for lunch at work. Pasta go far, can soup and lunch meat for work or home lunch also. Limit how often you go out to eat. The way I have accomplished this is by allowing my self the $300 dollars in cash at beginiing of month. If I can't afford to go out with in that 300.00 limit I don't go. p.s if you have something like a Little ceazars pizza they have $5.00 large pizzas everyday they make 2 meals for me and a slice or 2 for my daughter. I use the money I save by not eating out to pay off other things or save for things I want. I eat well.

Answer 10

if you're alone $100 a week is too much for you. Like us we are four in the family is spend $150-200 a week and there's still plenty leftovers from the previous grocery, so just buy what you really need.