I wouldn't be making drastic grocery changes without knowing how much of your $2k is restaurant and alcohol.
I haven't added ours up in awhile so I'm useless. We don't cook a ton during the week, but when we do cook, it's typically with more expensive ingredients (meats and cheese). We don't eat dinner out a ton, and if we do its not fine dining since we always end up disappointed at $$$$ places.
So it looks like this is my menu and approximately dinner costs:
If my estimates are right, which I'm not sure if they are.. we should be able to stay around $150 for the week in groceries give or take.
This is similar to what our costs look like the past few weeks. Meats and cheese are the biggest costs. I have learned to splurge for more quality ingredients though because DH is a picky eater and will throw out what he doesn't like and eat a frozen pizza! Talk about waste! I also get frozen fruit/vegetables whenever possible, since buying fresh is more expensive and usually wasteful since we can't use all of it in a week.
However, you might want to reduce the red meat if you're looking to cut costs. Our staples are chicken, fish, and pork. If we have beef it's usually ground beef for tacos or it's a tough cut of meat that we put in the slow cooker to make it edible. We probably have good steaks a few times a year, for special occasions. But that's what works for us.
This would be meals for two weeks for us. Whatever I make, I make sure that there will be enough leftovers for the next night. So we get two dinners out of every meal. I know that you said you have the leftovers for lunch instead. Would it help the budget to try to plan cheaper lunch meals and make your dinners last for two nights?
I don't know if lunches would be cheaper. I'm assuming bread & cold cuts would end up being more than leftover penne or mac and cheese. I also would prefer not to deal with preparing a lunch in the morning if I don't have to. I'm not a morning person at all and I'm usually rushing out the door.
I would try to do as others have suggested and cook meat for 2 nights and repurpose but DH will just eat what is available and it's hard to tell him not to eat the leftovers because we are using last night's roast chicken for tonight's enchiladas. I can try to push him not to touch leftovers so I can reuse them for another dish but it might backfire if he forgets and then we are left with nothing to make. We also eat a lot. DH especially is a big guy. Forget the "fist" sized serving of meat that is recommended. He probably eats 2X the suggested portion sizes at a minimum.
I don't see the point of cooking for two dinners at once if you like/don't mind making a new dinner each night and you know the leftovers are being eaten at lunch. It is sort of a six of one, half dozen of another situation.
We spend $1,200 for two adults in Chicago. We mostly shop the perimeter at the grocery store. I don't drink alcohol anymore but I have a pretty bad coffee habit
For the two of us, we usually spend about $1500 / month between groceries and eating out. $900 for groceries $600 dining out. Breakfast we either eat at home or bring from home every day except Sunday when we go out. Lunch we bring from home M-F Dinner we eat at home M-Thurs We eat dinner out every Friday & Saturday, sometime s lunch on Saturday Sunday we have family dinner at my FIL but we buy and prepare the meal.
This would be meals for two weeks for us. Whatever I make, I make sure that there will be enough leftovers for the next night. So we get two dinners out of every meal. I know that you said you have the leftovers for lunch instead. Would it help the budget to try to plan cheaper lunch meals and make your dinners last for two nights?
I don't know if lunches would be cheaper. I'm assuming bread & cold cuts would end up being more than leftover penne or mac and cheese. I also would prefer not to deal with preparing a lunch in the morning if I don't have to. I'm not a morning person at all and I'm usually rushing out the door.
I would try to do as others have suggested and cook meat for 2 nights and repurpose but DH will just eat what is available and it's hard to tell him not to eat the leftovers because we are using last night's roast chicken for tonight's enchiladas. I can try to push him not to touch leftovers so I can reuse them for another dish but it might backfire if he forgets and then we are left with nothing to make. We also eat a lot. DH especially is a big guy. Forget the "fist" sized serving of meat that is recommended. He probably eats 2X the suggested portion sizes at a minimum.
Can you cook a chicken and put half of it in the fridge before you serve dinner? I know my husband will eat what is on his plate, but he rarely goes looking for chicken in the fridge. Honestly, if you are getting chicken from Costco $8 in chicken is A LOT of chicken. We are in a HCOL area too and that would get us an entire chicken or ~ 2.5 pounds of chicken breasts in the freezer section.
Also, it might be easier to reuse the sides. When I make mashed potatoes I buy the bad of potatoes that usually runs the same as what you are paying for 4. Another trick for things like Mac and Cheese is I'll use half sharp cheddar cheese and half nice cheeses. I can get a cheddar cheese cheap when it is on sale, so it cuts way down on the overall cost of the dish.
Lastly, I make our salads a little more substantial so we don't need another side. They usually have some combination of nuts/cheese/fruit/avocado/bacon in them.
Groceries about $100 per week. Neither of us eat breakfast or lunch out but we spent a lot on eating dinners out - I'd say about $200 a week. So - that's about $1300 per month on stuff going into our mouths.
Well, this month I've already spent about $300 at the grocery store! But I made a big Costco run and won't do that again this month.
On average, we spend around $400 at the grocery store and maybe $100-150 on eating out. Nothing is set in stone and I honestly just try to do the best I can but I'm never going to just eat beans and rice for a week because my grocery money for the month is gone, so some months we do spend more. I have a feeling this will be one of those months, though we're pretty well stocked we'll definitely need to replenish fruits/veggies/yogurt/etc so I can see spending another $150-200 easily.
I typically buy stuff when it's on sale whether I need it or not. So if I'm at the store and see pasta is on sale I'll pick up several boxes. I usually buy salmon and if there is fish for a decent price at Costco I'll buy it - but other than that we mostly stick to chicken and ground beef for meat. Rarely steak, shrimp, or the more expensive meats (I don't really like pork so we avoid that too). So an average week we have fish 1-2 nights, chicken 2-3 nights, ground beef usually 1 night, and then either eat out or something vegetarian or something that doesn't fall neatly into a meat category (for example last night we had chicken ravioli that I bought at Costco, that's chicken but didn't require the chicken breasts I bought). I buy organic when it's only slightly more expensive than regular, but otherwise I don't. I choose my fruits and veggies for the week based mostly on what's on sale - so this week I didn't buy asparagus like I wanted to, but I got something else instead (I forget what lol).
I don't buy expensive cheeses unless it's a special occasion. Occasionally I buy BF juice if he requests it, but we don't really drink anything at home aside from water and alcohol. For alcohol, we are not that picky. We do buy specialty beers but wine is usually no more than $6 a bottle and I just bought a big thing of Pinnacle vodka for $15 because it was on sale and mixes fine. I prefer Grey Goose, but I pretty much never buy it. We also mostly limit drinking to the weekends (otherwise we could easily go through 7 bottles of wine a week, and that's not healthy or budget friendly).
We usually get takeout about once a week, most often Chinese from a neighborhood place ($15 for 2 dinners!) and occasionally pick up Jimmy Johns, Chipotle, or something similar. Most meals are made at home and we bring lunch to work almost every day.
IDK. I would love to spend less actually but that's about as far back as I'm willing to cut.
Other staples we buy: eggs $3 milk $4 heavy cream $2 granola $4 greek yogurt $5 blueberries $3 bananas $1 mango $2 strawberries $2 bacon $6 popcorn: $3 tortilla chips: $3 gauc: $5 salsa: $4 coffee: $5 a week for part of a bag
If my estimates are right, which I'm not sure if they are.. we should be able to stay around $150 for the week in groceries give or take.
Between the cheese, scallops, and filets, you're spending $46. Personally, I wouldn't plan meals including any of those things. I mean we eat cheese But I usually buy the bags of shredded cheese that can be 2/$4 or 2/$5 depending on sales. I realize that's not going to be as tasty, but in that case I'd probably either skip the mac and cheese or make that a special treat vs. a typical weekly meal.
Filet and scallops are super special occasion stuff for us - like we bought steaks on Valentine's day and I don't think we've had them since.
There is no judgement there - I think if you can afford it and don't mind spending it, there is NOTHING wrong with buying that stuff. But if you are looking for a lower budget, those are not things people with a $400 a month grocery budget buy. Ever.
We spend about $500 on food and $200 on dining out.
We eat very simple meals during the week that don't call for a lot of ingredients, staples are always bought on sale, I check the final sale and closeouts weekly, very little processed foods and beverages, and I stash a lot in the freezer. I always plan meals, but not the exact day we'll have them. Since I buy a lot of fresh produce I often fix whatever needs to be used first or whatever fits my time schedule.
Dining out is usually take out (smaller tip/no drinks) or some sort of special.
For the two of us, we're hitting around $7-800/month on grocery-store stuff (this includes things like tp, tissues, paper towels, batteries, spare bulbs, booze, etc...). I'm hoping to drop this by a little bit as we are finally getting settled into our new place, post-move. We're in what I'd consider MCOL.
Like pp's, I tend to plan 3-4 meals per week. Outside of that, we eat leftovers, grab meals ready made from the freezer (I do big-batch cooking, and freeze individual servings of things like soup, chili, pasta sauce, etc - this saves time, and cost, and reduces how often we go out or get take-out... trying something like this out might be useful for you, if you have the space).
Go ahead and eat the veggies you're eating. I'm not sure why folks are saying you are eating too many (it looks pretty normal to me). But, realize that out of season or out of market fresh produce is going to cost money. Things like the papaya you listed, the berries on your list (although, strawberries seem to be hitting "in season" where we are at, or close to), pineapple, fresh asparagus (we're past the season for that in most of the US) all come at a premium cost... You could probably find some cost savings by switching to in season produce...
It's a tradeoff I'm willing to accept right now - my grocery list from yesterday includes a collection of produce that fits into the "yeah, there are cheaper options, but I want to eat these, I will enjoy eating them, they're good for me, and that makes them worth it".
A side thought - you mention a lot of herbs in your grocery list, and I am guessing they are fresh. Have you tried planting an herb garden? Or even just a few pots for herbs? It might help save you some money, and they'd be fresher this way, too.
I only buy meat in bulk from costco and freeze it. I like to do this because I feel it is cheaper and it's nice to have food on hand when we have guests over or want to invite friends for dinner on a whim and we already have 4 steaks or 4 chicken breasts instead of having to run to the store. When I was buying produce there it was spoiling before I could get through it unless I was juicing everyday so I do agree with you about that! I always hear costco has great produce but I just feel it's ok. I can find better at other supermarkets for similar prices. My problem when I go to the store several times a week for a particular meal is this... I am usually going right after work when I'm starving.. so I will run into TJ's to get one thing and while I'm there I decide it would be nice to have a cheese plate and wine to snack on while cooking and all of a sudden I walk out with 4 kinds of cheese, salami, olives, fig jam, bread and wine turning a $15 pasta meal into a $50 meal. This is my downfall and it's probably why I need to cut out Whole Foods and TJ's for a while to see if things improve.
Given this, it does sound like meal planning (so cutting down the number of trips to grocery stores) will help your food budget.
FYI, our budget is $900/month for "groceries" (this includes detergents and stuff we buy at the grocery store) and $500/month for eating out for 2 people, so it's not that much lower than yours, especially if you include the $250 for alcohol (we like expensive microbrews). We're not unhappy with these amounts in our budget, so we're not actively trying to cut down, but I know we could do so if needed by better meal planning.
ETA - oops, missed that there was a page 2 to this thread and all the updates.
Other staples we buy: eggs $3 milk $4 heavy cream $2 granola $4 greek yogurt $5 blueberries $3 bananas $1 mango $2 strawberries $2 bacon $6 popcorn: $3 tortilla chips: $3 gauc: $5 salsa: $4 coffee: $5 a week for part of a bag
If my estimates are right, which I'm not sure if they are.. we should be able to stay around $150 for the week in groceries give or take.
Between the cheese, scallops, and filets, you're spending $46. Personally, I wouldn't plan meals including any of those things. I mean we eat cheese But I usually buy the bags of shredded cheese that can be 2/$4 or 2/$5 depending on sales. I realize that's not going to be as tasty, but in that case I'd probably either skip the mac and cheese or make that a special treat vs. a typical weekly meal.
Filet and scallops are super special occasion stuff for us - like we bought steaks on Valentine's day and I don't think we've had them since.
There is no judgement there - I think if you can afford it and don't mind spending it, there is NOTHING wrong with buying that stuff. But if you are looking for a lower budget, those are not things people with a $400 a month grocery budget buy. Ever.
I don't know, I wouldn't say that these are things that people on a lower budget don't ever buy. We probably buy one of these types of things every week, actually. I think the key is not to buy them all in one week, though. Just as an example, fish is pretty $$$$ where I live. If I am going to buy a piece of tuna or salmon, or even a bag of shrimp, that's typically about $15 of my budget. So I probably wouldn't buy fish AND fillet. If I wanted both, I'd have to cut out something else that's expensive to do it. Sometimes it works out OK, like if I don't need coffee or something else equally priced that week. We try to cook at least one nice meal per week, even on a budget, because it's still cheaper than going out for that meal.
Other staples we buy: eggs $3 milk $4 heavy cream $2 granola $4 greek yogurt $5 blueberries $3 bananas $1 mango $2 strawberries $2 bacon $6 popcorn: $3 tortilla chips: $3 gauc: $5 salsa: $4 coffee: $5 a week for part of a bag
If my estimates are right, which I'm not sure if they are.. we should be able to stay around $150 for the week in groceries give or take.
If $150 is affordable for you, this doesn't look that bad to me. But if you are trying to cut back a bit, there are definitely a few places to do it.
The herbs are an easy one. Including the basil for the pasta, you are at $9 for fresh herbs. My first thought here is to plant a small window herb garden of your own at home. It's easy, cheap, and you could avoid buying a lot of pricey herbs at the store. If you are opposed to that, check your store for a "combo" pack of herbs that provides a few different ones in one package, rather than buying them all separate. Use the basil leftover from the pasta dish in your salads and maybe pick one other herb if you really want another one in there.
As others have mentioned, the meat and seafood costs are a huge chunk of your budget. I see you didn't include shrimp on your list above, but it's in your menu. Do you have that at home already? Otherwise, I think it's tough to keep a moderate grocery bill if you are going to eat fillet, shrimp, and scallops all in one week. Even without the shrimp, you're at $44 for meats/seafood.
The other thing that sticks out is the snack stuff. Could you get one snack item per week instead of popcorn and tortilla chips/dips?
Between the cheese, scallops, and filets, you're spending $46. Personally, I wouldn't plan meals including any of those things. I mean we eat cheese But I usually buy the bags of shredded cheese that can be 2/$4 or 2/$5 depending on sales. I realize that's not going to be as tasty, but in that case I'd probably either skip the mac and cheese or make that a special treat vs. a typical weekly meal.
Filet and scallops are super special occasion stuff for us - like we bought steaks on Valentine's day and I don't think we've had them since.
There is no judgement there - I think if you can afford it and don't mind spending it, there is NOTHING wrong with buying that stuff. But if you are looking for a lower budget, those are not things people with a $400 a month grocery budget buy. Ever.
I don't know, I wouldn't say that these are things that people on a lower budget don't ever buy. We probably buy one of these types of things every week, actually. I think the key is not to buy them all in one week, though. Just as an example, fish is pretty $$$$ where I live. If I am going to buy a piece of tuna or salmon, or even a bag of shrimp, that's typically about $15 of my budget. So I probably wouldn't buy fish AND fillet. If I wanted both, I'd have to cut out something else that's expensive to do it. Sometimes it works out OK, like if I don't need coffee or something else equally priced that week. We try to cook at least one nice meal per week, even on a budget, because it's still cheaper than going out for that meal.
Well, I guess that's more what I meant actually I don't think people who stick to a lower budget would ever spend $46 in one week on just those meal components - that's almost half my target budget for each week ($100). I wouldn't even think you could buy all those things monthly since that's only a few meals for about 1/8 of the budget. But buying one of those items here and there is not out of the question. It just isn't going to be a part of the regular rotation.
Then again, I don't think I've ever bought $20 steaks or prepared scallops at home, so who knows lol. I have been unable get my budget under $400 or so even without those kinds of splurges.
MCOL, overwhelmingly vegetarian, lots of fresh food and organics, and lots of beer, as well. We budget $600 to include all food, alcohol, cleaning supplies, sundries like toilet paper and shampoo. That doesn't include eating out or pet food/supplies.
I usually try to spend $75-$80/week at the grocery store, though that can vary up or down slightly. Once or twice a month I also get a box fro Blue Apron ($60). My husband usually picks up a 6 pack of beer on Friday evenings. And once or twice a month we re-stock non-food stuff from Target.
ETA: I budget $200 for going out, and we each get $300/month in fun money, some of which is spent on coffee or happy hour or whatever.
Would you be willing to look at my 6 day meal plan I came up with and see if it looks about right to stay in an average budget. I included two meatless dishes but also have filets and scallops on the menu, so I'm not really sure if I am being unrealistic to include those if I want to bring our budget in under $1000 a month.
1. Penne vodka, salad
2. Roasted garlic chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, salad
3. Grilled steak, probably costco filets, baked sweet potato with brown sugar butter, grilled asparagus, salad
4. Homemade mac and cheese and salad
5. Thai fried rice with pineapple and shrimp, Vietnamese Papaya salad
6. Seared scallops, grilled fennel, orzo with lemon, salad
Salad is usually a random mix of greens, carrots, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers with herbs and oil/ vinegar.
When I cook, I normally cook so that the protein does double duty. So a roasted chicken earlier in the week will show up in a chicken cesear's salad later (and the chicken carcass is used to make stock for soup). If I make spaghetti sauce, the leftover sauce winds up in some sort of baked pasta dish later. Last night, we smoked a part of a pork butt and the pulled pork is going to land some place else later this week (haven't figured it out yet). I'll grill an extra steak and make paninis out of it.
While we have not totally eliminated carbs (pasta/rice/potatoes) in the menu, I've really stopped making sure that they are in most meals. So a grilled steak would be served with a salad and green beans, chicken we'd do maybe the corn and a salad.
However, like you, we do eat a lot of salads but more to fill out the meal in replacement of the potato or rice.
Okay, looking at your menu now, that is a lot of really nice meals for a week. Don't get me wrong: I love food. I *can* afford to spend a good chunk on food. I like fancy dinners, special dinners and meals at nice restaurants. I used to cook interesting meals all the damn time, but then I realized I was throwing out the other half of the onion or butternut squash or whatever, or I was buying a black truffle in the same week I was buying imported olive oil and really nice cheeses, and it was just too much.
No, I would not eat filet and scallops in the same week. But then, scallops are something I would make a few times a year, not just as a random weeknight meal. Ditto the sides. I wouldn't plan 3+ involved side dishes, not just from a cost perspective, but because I don't want to take the time to do it! Most of the time, we just have salad as a side dish. And salad means various lettuce, tomatoes, maybe some nuts or seeds, and some cheese like parmigiano-reggiano.
Last night, for example, we had salmon with some creamy dill sauce, parsley-butter potatoes, and asparagus. And that's a pretty involved dinner for me. My parents are visiting. 4 components! I DO like to cook. But I also don't have copious amounts of time to dedicate to it, nor endless amounts of money.
Like I said, I often make vegetarian food, with seafood maybe 1-2 times a week, but the seafood tends to be whatever fish I can find reasonably or shrimp.
I like the use the burrito bowl from Chipotle as inspiration sometimes. Rice, beans, maybe a meat of your choice, plus cheese, sour cream and salsa. You can also use, say, couscous and chickpeas, or quinoa and lentils. Just do various seasons and veggies. It's cheap.
Penne vodka and salad is a good choice. And mac and cheese. Let's go with that: spaghetti marinara, fettucini alfredo, linguini carbonara. All pretty easy and pretty cheap. I actually like the ravioli at Trader Joes, too, with just a little melted butter and garlic. Again, add a salad, and it's a quick meal for less than $10.
Homemade pizza might be fun with some wine or beer instead of going out.
Since it's summer-y now, do you have a grill? How about grilling? And not fancy cuts of steak, but more like burgers, sausages, chicken, that kind of thing? It's pretty easy to make pasta or potato salad on the side and have that make enough to use as leftovers.