Grocery/Household Supplies Budget

[doctorsbaby]

What do you ladies feel is an appropriate grocery/household supplies budget for a mom & teenage daughter? The do not eat organic, shop primarily at Wal-Mart, live in MCOL and have 2 cats that need to be feed as well.

I'm thinking $50-75 per week would be enough but I'm not sure. I shop very differently from them and do not track my grocery/household spending to compare.

[arch01]

DH and I could do $75/mo, MCOL pretty easily on food only, but I can't answer about cat food. Household supplies is budgeted at $50/mo. Our budget is proportional to our income, which I think is the bigger picture.

[Deleted]

Me and DH lived on a $200/month grocery budget several years ago, it sucked, and groceries have rose a lot in cost since then. I would say $100/week minimum.

[ddi741]

For My H & I and a dog we spend anywhere between $100-150/week and another $200/month at Costco. on groceries and household stuff, we don't eat organic but we do eat dinner at home 4-5 nights a week and take our lunch every day.

[Deleted]

For H and I we have a Grocery budget of $500/month (including dining out) most of the time we come in closer to $450. I would say we spend another $50-$75/month for pet supplies. We have 2 cats (food and litter) and 2 dogs.

So for the 2 of them and 2 cats I would say $500 is reasonable.

[penguingrrl]

We eat breakfast at home, lunch at home or "brown bag it" for work, dinners 6 nights a week at home. We don't do organic, but we don't do prepackaged either, fresh foods with some frozen veggies thrown in to help keep costs down. For a family of 4 we spend $100-125/week on groceries, plus $50-100/month on personal care (shampoo and conditioner, shaving cream, soap, toothpaste), cat supplies, household, etc. When it was just me and DH it was about $50/month for food, but that was also 5.5 years ago. We're in a HCOL, just left a VHCOL area, and went down about $100/month in groceries after our move.

[mbcdefg]

I shop every week for MH, myself, and two cats. Human food (non-organic) comes from Shop Rite, and the cat litter and cat food (Blue Buffalo, so a bit pricier than supermarket brands such as Friskies) comes from Petco.

I spend around $125-140 a week at both stores. That includes stuff like soap, paper towels, etc., when we need it. If we're hosting a party or something at home, it's more like $150 at the supermarket alone. But I'm not counting a few bucks here and there if we need to buy something else or if we feel like ordering a pizza.

I could trim it back to $75 a week if I absolutely had to (primarily by doing a lot more meatless dinners in favor of beans/pasta/etc.), but it'd be tight. $100 a week would be a little comfier.

[doctorsbaby]

Thanks ladies! I think we are going to be asked to help out my mom & sister (again). My mom just finished school and is looking for a job. They have a small fixed income each month. I would prefer not to give them cash, instead looking at store gift cards to buy groceries & household items. Pretty much no frills but enough to get by is what I'm thinking.

[Deleted]

Just me in a MCOL (I think) I spend about $100-200/month depending on if I meal plan. And that's plenty of food; breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. I used to shop at Wal-Mart and it's fairly easy to get cheap/brand name groceries. The only reason I stopped shopping there was I get gas points for Smith's/Kroger's and save .10/gallon.

As for household supplies I buy those quarterly so it's about $25/month.

[SusanBAnthony]

100 a week should be enough for a frugal grocery shopping budget. We spend about twice that but we have four people and eat almost all organic.

[midwest07]

When I was laid off a couple of years ago, I was able to pretty routinely keep our weekly groceries at around $75. As others have said, that is pretty no frills and I rarely bought pop, alcohol, etc. I am also a vegetarian and H will eat mostly that way too. However, it was for a limited time period so we could do it. I think a reasonable budget would be $75/week, plus another $25/month for extra stuff that comes up (like having to make something for a work potluck), then an additional $25 for cats assuming they don't have medical issues, and $40 for household. So for a month with 4 weeks, that would total $390...so maybe an even $400.

[rfs13]

If we are just doing food (no household supplies) I can usually come in around $70/week for my husband and I. I'm sure if I planned my meals a little better I could make that even lower.

[mrssavy42112]

DH and I hover around $120/wk. We have 3 cats to feed and are in a HCOL.

[flygirl22]

We usually spend around $75/week. I live in a MCOL suburb. We eat meat, but usually not as the main component.

We have 2 dogs and spend roughly $65/month on expensive grain free food.

[aliceinfairyland]

We try to do about $40 a week for all of that for 3 of us. Our dog food isn't counted in there, and we are in very LCOL. We also buy no meat.

For a teenager, we'd probably need to keep more food in the house (right now, if we go 1.5 weeks without groceries, we have limited choices).

I think $75/week.

[hocus]

I think $100 is about right. Some weeks it will be $80 others it would be $110.

I could live on say $75 for myself in a HCOL but it would be a really lean. My family of 4 spends far more each month and even with all the fat removed we'd still only get down about $150 unless I started buying in bulk and freezing which would hard with my crappy freezer.

[doctorsbaby]

Thank you everyone!

[whitepicketfence]

We budget $600/month for groceries, toiletries, and household supplies for a family of 4. We buy our meat in bulk from a local farmer once a year. We buy mostly organic but I do clip coupons and shop sales.

We have a small dog and spend another $25/month or so on his food (Canidae).