A friend on Facebook, also with a family of four, including two little ones about the same age as mine, wrote to ask how much we spend on groceries each month. I started to message him back, but decided to post here instead. Partly because it’s too long for a Facebook message, and partly because I’m curious how much others spend as well, so feel free to leave a comment if you’re brave enough.
Last year, I created several grocery categories and totally geeked out with it. I know, I know - I’m a big huge nerd when it comes to this.
I separated out drugstore and household items into their own categories, and kept groceries just to foodstuffs. Then I added two subcategories for coffee/tea (because we’re coffee snobs), and for wine/beer/alcohol. I made those their own categories, because we wanted to see how much of our grocery budget was spent in those two areas.
Here’s the breakdown:
Total grocery spending for 2009: $9488.56 ($791 per month)
Total spent on wine/beer/alcohol: $1413.38 ($118 per month)
Total spent on coffee/tea: $256.74 ($21 per month)
So, the total, non-alcohol, non-coffee/tea spending: $7818.44 ($652 per month, about $152 per week)
Is this too high? I have no idea. I know one mom who runs a blog who spends $40 a week on all groceries, drugstore and household items. I have no idea how she does that, but she lives in Kansas, and is a couponing DIVA. Last, year we spent about $65 per month just on drugstore items (health and beauty-related items, OTC medicines, diapers) and about $75 per month on household items (everything from toilet paper, light bulbs and laundry detergent; wood for the fireplace, ant baits and mousetraps; and storage bins, coat hangers and a new French press).
I also only buy organic milk, and try to buy most of my dairy products organically. I get the majority of our meat from the local butcher. We eat most of our meals at home, including all of our lunches, and Joshua usually packs his lunch from leftovers. We might eat out a few times a month. My sister sends me several packages of coffee a few times a year, so we don’t spend as much on coffee as we would if we were buying all of our coffee and not getting it for free.
I started using coupons last year, and seeing how big our grocery bill is (especially compared to that mom who spends $40 a week!) I was feeling bad, and then I looked at how much we spent in 2008: $10,733.60. So we spent about $1,200 LESS from 2008 to 2009. My records aren’t as good as far as subcategorizing, because I had lost all my financial data when my hard drive crashed at the end of 2008, but still, that’s good. I’d like to get everything down even more. It’s like a game for me.
I left the drugstore and household budgets alone for 2010 (although I hope we do spend less), and set the grocery budget at $720, with $100 a month for alcohol, and $20 a month for coffee/tea. That leaves $600 for other groceries. I’m also hoping to shop smarter, and do a better job at not wasting food, using what we have and meal-planning. I still plan on sticking to organic dairy, getting my meat from the butcher, and I plan to join a CSA for produce, if I’ll ever just get off my duff and pick one.
Last month, I withdrew $100 for wine/alcohol (we didn’t spend it all), we spent $0 on coffee/tea, and about $372 on groceries. That number is low because people brought us food for over a week’s worth of meals after I was hospitalized.
How much do you spend? And please, no judgment - everyone’s doing the best they can with what they have, and have different values surrounding money and food.