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Grocery Spending
Armored Gorilla
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been eating out way too much lately and I need to get back in the habit of making my own breakfast, lunch and dinner, etc. How much should I expect to spend on groceries per week for just one person?
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I could potentially get away with a $20 weekly food budget if I were extremely frugal, but $40-50 is a lot more reasonable. This is assuming that you buy during sales, at a regular grocery store/co-op, and use a few coupons/"club" cards.
Do you cook fancy meals or try new things? Steak is nice, but it comes at a price.
Are you a vegetarian or vegan? You'll save on meat (and dairy) but spend on soy.
Do you prefer "organic" foods? Expect to get robbed in the produce department.
Guzzle a can of pop with every meal? That shit's not just unhealthy, it's expensive too.
Living like a student, and you just can't get enough rice, beans, and pasta? Cost will go down, but don't neglect the fresh foods.
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For example, you will want to plan meals for a week. Make sure you plan meals that have overlapping ingreidants and such. I like to make tacos a lot, so I'll make 1/2 or 1/3rd of a thing of ground beef, 1/3 of a green pepper, and 1/3rd of an onion as my core spices along with some salsa and shredded lettice from a salad bag. The next night I use another third of the meat and veggies to make pasta, and the thrid night I use the leftovers from the taco night (remaining salsa or meat&veggies refridgerated) in a thing of mac&cheese.
If you keep basic staples like hot dogs and buns and ramen noodles (or soup or ewhatever dry-good you like) you can use those to pad between your planned meals.
Honestly, for two people I usually make pretty elaborate, high quality food for about $5 per person each night. $10 if you include alcohol. The above is just an example, if you want higher quality products for cheap you have to shop around. Find a produce store/farmer's market and get your veggies from them. My town has a meat market where I can get a whole chicken for the price of a quarter pound of white mean at my grocery.
I usually only get dry goods from a general grocery store, though if it is your only option you can still be quite affordable.
The last bit of advice is to know what sauces and spices you are going to be using often. Like mexican? be sure to have a large stock of red pepper, chili powder, and cumin. Look up what you will use the most and be well stocked upon it.
And plan plan plan!
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I regularly spend $30 a week
I cook, and I spend about $50/week for myself. Buying stuff in boxes and things will make it more expensive.
And yeah this is assuming you live someplace normal and not a remote island.
Wholesale clubs can also be a good way to save money.
Pick a few of the less-intimidating ones off of your list and go shopping for the ingredients. This will give you a good baseline for how much you'll be spending on a weekly basis. $50 a week is a good average, especially after you've built up your supply of staple ingredients (flour, sugar, cornstarch, bouillon, etc...)
And stay away from prepared food; it's easier to make, but is generally more expensive and not as good for you. In general, you can bring your grocery bill down dramatically by spending more time in the kitchen and doing things yourself. Plus, it pushes the same obsessive-compulsive buttons that crafting minigames push in RPGs (but with a more tangible end-product.)
Good luck!
edit: hey, everyone else is advising against prepared food, too!
Obviously you can cut it down to way less than that if you need to save money, you just have to focus on finding deals and buying different things. As others have said, the best thing you can do is to have a plan. You'll end up paying an insane amount if you go to the grocery store and just try to pick out random things and have no idea what you're making -- plus, if you do that, you'll end up having to run back out for more things when you figure out what you DO want and realize you don't have everything.
That said, I'd say plan for somewhere around $50-$70 as you get started and you'll work it out to the high or low end depending on your needs. Start looking around websites and finding recipes. Keep in mind you can make certain foods like chili in bulk and freeze portions for later!
Websites like tastespotting.com may help you come up with good ideas. FoodNetwork's website is good, too.
Stirfry is cheap and easy.
but they're listening to every word I say
Also, "regular grocery store/co-op" refers to the insane price-gouging that occurs at places like Whole Foods. Shop at a Kroger or something if you want to keep your spending reasonable.
We are kind of ridiculous in trying to buy stuff that's on sale and that we have coupons for, so take that into account too.
Instead of going to the store, heading down each aisle, and buying what you think looks good, what's on sale, or what you think would work in a meal at some point, sit down and write down a meal for every day of the week.
Then, go to the kitchen and check off the things you already have for those meals. When you go to the store, you only buy the items on your list. You could easily get by with $50/week for one person. I've gone with $50/week for two, and that's not with eating junk/pre-made garbage at all. It's all about planning your meals.
It also helps to check out flyers for your local stores, and plan meals according to what the current sales are. If ground beef is on sale, plan a lot of your meals around that (spaghetti & meatballs, shepherd's pie, tacos, etc.)
Also, although a lot of people may disagree, stay away from Costco or similar stores. You waste money every year on a membership only to buy way too much shit that will eventually go to waste. For the most part, you aren't saving that much money, and you end up buying shit you don't need because, "Hey look! That's such a great deal!"
So, in NYC, with 2 cats, it came to $380 total per month, or $45 per person per week.
That said, I buy almost everything on sale in big quantities and therefore have lots of everything for cheap at all times. I think my last receipt told me I've saved $140 this month.
If you have a friend with a membership though... it is a great place to buy things that don't go bad (think tp, paper towels, dishwasher detergent, canned tomatoes, canned beans) My mom has a membership and every time she comes to visit we go shopping for that sort of stuff if we need it. You do need to have some self-control and not buy stuff you wouldn't buy otherwise.
You pay for convenience, as others have said. Learn to cook stuff that's easy and you enjoy, and you'll save scads of cash, and avoid a shitload of sodium in prepared meals.
I'll concur with the estimate of $20-50 per person, per week, although $20 is at the very very low end of doable in my experience (I used to shop for myself and three roommates, $160 every two weeks, but this was 15 years ago now).
Meat will be one of your biggest expenses, but if you buy bulk packs of meat, freeze some, and/or make soups, stews and the better casseroles (not a casserole fan myself), that will help save cash as well. If you like a hot breakfast, you can even make a huge pot of stone cut oatmeal early in the weak, mix it with some dried fruits like raisins or craisins, a little honey or brown sugar, maybe some nuts and it will keep and reheat well all week. Big tin of the stuff is only a few bucks and makes a hell of a lot more breakfasts than regular cereal.
As for the clubs, many will offer "trial memberships" from time to time. Take advantage of those to stock up on the stuff you know you'll use, and won't go bad. Helps if you know the per-unit cost of the stuff you buy at the grocery store (laundry detergent, toothpaste, shampoo, etc...)you have a good coupon, and you aren't brand loyal or they have your favorite brand.. PAYING for a membership isn't worth it, UNLESS you're buying diapers and formula. Discounts on buying that shit in bulk WILL pay off during your kid's first year. (I know you're a bachelor, but just some free advice to anyone reading who's a new parent).
My boyfriend and I have a one month trial membership we were given and I have a feeling once we start going we'll keep going for the same reason. Also, perishable doesn't mean eat now or lose it, I freeze ground beef all the time when I get it on sale as well as chicken and pork. I also buy a lot, cook a lot and then freeze the meals so I have something to take out on days I don't feel like cooking. Membership is only $50/yr and I already know I'll save that easily.
When I got to a regular grocer like Shaw's I always buy what's on sale unless I need something brand specific (typically this only happens for baking where I'm nuts about my ingredients). Sure I'm, only saving $.20 on the store brand butter over the name brand but over a year it adds up and over my whole shopping trip it adds up.
Mostly sound advice. I go to Costco for one or two things that I know I'll use enough of to make practical. Staple coffee is a good thing you can pick up here (I get the Duncan Donuts Brand whole bean for about a third of what I would pay per ounce at my grocery, same with certain cleaning detergents and staples like toilet paper and paper towels, and power bars).
But then, I have a free membership through work. Odds are good that by time you pay the membership fees, even if you are a careful shopper, you aren't saving anything.
The woman who runs this website regularly buys $1-300 worth of groceries and pays 20-50 dollars. She says that on good weeks when there's double coupon days and buy-one-get-one sales and the like, she can actually go shopping for a months worth of food and the grocery store ends up owing her money when she's done.
That shit's goddamn crazy.
Whee.
Anything like that for Canada?
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EDIT: To clarify, I'm not shilling for her website. In fact, I actively dislike her particular site. In order to run their "free trial", they make you enter a credit card number, and assure you that as long as you cancel before your free trial is up, you won't be billed. Thats some BMG/Sci-Fi Book Club style tactics there. I just used that site as an example, as I'm not directly familiar with similar sites that truly are free.
Yeah, I just use RFD/SC/other Canadian forums, and get the online flyers/coupon codes for my local stores. Something tells me that I wouldn't get anything from a pay-site like TGG. If I lived in a metro centre where I had these stores that are stupid enough to offer double-coupon/coupon-stacking/etc, then I'd be all over something like this.
Also, that credit-card thing is shady as fuck.
tl;dr - punch your zip/postal code into the website's checker first to make sure that it'll be of use to you
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Like if you see chicken breast is on sale this week (or whatever) then you're making something with that this week.
My freezer has already paid for itself. My only regret is not buying one twice as large. :P
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
I've seen several stories about her and people like her. The only drawback is that you begin investing serious amounts of time comparison shopping and getting the best coupons. It can become like a part time job. So you need to ask what your time is worth to you at that point. Regardless, anyone can save some money with coupons. Look at it this way - if through sales and coupons you manage to save $10 a week, that's $520 more a year to spend on games!
wut
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Epic fail. I'm tired, and I had a squirming 4 year old pestering me. I'll fix it.
Point is, still a shitload of savings over time.
On that note, all that coffee will probably go stale if you're buying the huge bags, even if you store them in an airtight container like you're supposed to since air will remain in the container when you seal it up. One thing that I discovered a couple of months ago that keeps coffee beans tasting better for longer (no matter the quantity) are one of those Reynolds vacuum sealable plastic bags. It's a small investment if you're a coffee fiend (around 6 or 7 dollars for the sealer and the bags it comes with) and you can get virtually all of the air out of the bags, unlike trying to squeeze the air out of a regular zip-lock bag. The beans are packed solid when you're done.
I like buying those little ziplock snack bags that parents use to put carrots and stuff in. They're great for meat portions. Buy ground beef or steak or chicken breast or thighs or whatever and divide it up into those bags. Each bag can hold approximately one serving of meat. So when you want something for dinner just take a bag out of the freezer, defrost, and make whatever with it.