I’m wondering…what’s the median monthly grocery bill for anyone living in North America? I guess the expense will vary, depending on where you live.
I’m a single guy, and I have noticed I spent almost $200 each month on grocery in the past two years (ie, after I graduated from university). In contrast, I spent around $150 each month when I was in university (years 2003 to 2007). My grocery bills consist of dining-outs and expenses from anything that I buy at grocery stores; ie, foods, personal hygiene stuff, household cleaning stuff, etc.
Do I spend too much?!?! ò.ó Is there any way to cut down the grocery bill further?
If I alone spend about $200 each month on grocery, how much do a couple spend? Or, a family of 3, 4, 5, 6? Here is an updated statistics for grocery bills across Canada.
We live in a rural Ontario town, family of 4 – husband works away so there is usually onlly 3 of us – we spend $700/mo (includes dog food and other items bought at grocery store like toilet paper,laundry soap etc) but we also spend $300/mo in restaurants etc (these would be mostly my husbands meals)
Wanda,
I was looking at your list.I’m not sure if you are interested, but here are some suggestings i have for stretching your budget even further..if that is your goal. Buy full cream milk, and dilute it, until you notice any significant difference. especially when cooking. If you see a sale on eggs, stock up, as they will keep 6 weeks in the fridge.Go to a thrift store or online(kijiji/craigs list) and buy a cheap bread maker.Making bread is a lot cheaper and very easy.When you cook a roast, slice it up immediately, and portion it out for other meals. Many people overeat, just because “its there..and yumm”. You are already buying quality teabags (I can tell by the price).This may sound weird, but I remember once when i was sick, my husband made me tea and it was the best i ever had. He didn’t remove the teabag from the teapot, but added lots more water and another teabag.We start fresh each day. Cleaners can be simply made with baking soda/vinegar/ammonia/dish detergent.(different combinations, and google is our friend) Also making homemade laundry detergent is simple and easy..and very cheap. Try buying dried beans and
cooking them yourself. It isn’t hard, and a lot cheaper.
My husband and I are both mid 50s, both disabled, non smokers/non drinkers. We have no car and live in the country. We receive $900 per month. We pay lights/heat $350., phone $60, internet $55, taxi to drs, groc etc 2 trips $20/trip, groceries for a 5 week month $*0 per week. We buy: milk @ L $4.57, potatoes $$4.38, eggs $3.67 doz, bread $2.65 per loaf, meat $8.00 for a roast which does us for 2 meals, tea bags $7.00 per 216 bags, coffee $4.00 / 200 gr bottle, margarine $1.69 per pound, sugar $2.99/5 lb bag, bananas $3.00, cleaners $5.00 per bottle, canned pasta, beans-$5.00 for 4 cans, cabbage 42.39, onions $2.99/5 lb, carrots $2.99/5 lb, turnip $3.99 for 5 lb, toilet paper and paper towels $1.89 each, cat and dog food $10.00 every two weeks. vvThis amount per week goes down if we need repairs done, or clothes.
I have recently moved from England to BC and the price of groceries here is shocking! I lived in Winnipeg a couple of years ago and the monthly bill for 2 adults was around $400. Here, I spend around $650, which is almost twice what it costs in England!!
Ahah! I was waiting for someone from BC to join this discussion. I was in BC only once in my life, in 1996. Even at that time, I couldn’t believe the prices in the grocery store. Many things were nearly the double of what I was paying in Quebec at the time.
i’ve lived in bc all my life and buy what i want/need. now with our daughter in university, she seems to be going through all her alloted food $. i’ve tried to teach making larger freezable meals, scouting flyers etc and cooking extra chicken for example for many different easy to prepare meals. what is the average university food bill for young adults these days? i give her 300-350 per month and she’s going through it! this is for toiletries & cleaning products as well. is this enough? after all, it is bc! ha!
Fantastic topic! I have been trying to consistently lower our food bill for over 8 months. I track EVERYTHING religiously, even every single Timmies (Can I get a receipt please?) lol. At any rate, groceries alone, for 2 adults (hubby can out eat anybody I think), one very hungry overweight 13 year old boy and a 9 year old every other weekend averages $150 a week.
This does include the following: Dairy, Meats (we eat meat everyday), FRESH fruits and veggies (I refuse to buy processed and packaged items); Dog food for our 2 dogs, laundry items, health&beauty items; household cleaners and wraps (tin foil, baggies for lunches, etc.)TP and PT. My last report on my accounting software says $603.15 from April 1 – April 24 2012. I still think this is too high – but after reading other peoples grocery bills – I guess I’m doing ok?
My trick is NOT to shop from store to store – rather I will spend an hour throughout the week, go through my flyers and price compare at Wal-Mart. If we don’t shop there, then we shop at Food Basics and ALWAYS after 7pm. That is when they reduce their meat and you will AWESOME deals – especially on roasts and beef (I’m talking 30-40%). They may expire within a day or two – but who cares if you are going to freeze it right away? That is probably where we save the most of our money.
Take out on the other hand …. well, that is a different story. For the same time period, we spent a whopping $387.80 (Restaurants, Coffee and Bars. Not too bad I suppose, the month of March was over $600. But still a little too much out of my range of comfort.
As for buying in bulk – I don’t do it unless I KNOW I will use it up within 10 days. Otherwise it just sits in your cupboard/fridge/freezer and goes bad or gets forgotten about (of course unless its Costco’s muffins … yummmm). We don’t drink pop and we only buy the no name juice crystals and brewing coffee grinds when its on sale. Load up! We will buy $ or more at a time when its on sale for $4.99 – $6.99. That is one commodity in the house you know will get used
I hope others here will be contributing their saving ideas. This is a fantastic blurb on grocery spending.
Lara, Hamilton, Ontario
Lara, Thanks for your post, great details in my quest for knowledge about how other families spend money on food! I am still amazed that you can fit all that in to 150 dollars a week. Do you buy fresh vegetables? Asparagus? Brussel Sprouts? Cauliflower? How about tomatoes and berries? Nuts? What about cereal? In this city, a family size box of Special K is about 5,99! How about milk? Just curious! Thanks
Hi Briget,
YES YES YES – FRESH veggies always!!! I try to change it up every week. I am looking at my grocery bill here from Sunday. This post may get lengthy but I will list what I bought and cost.
10lb Yellow Onions – $2.50
Canary Melon – $1.97
Sweet Potatoes – 2.94 ( 4 mid sized ones)
Broccoli – $1.76
Hummus – $3.29
Baby Pickles – $1.49
2% milk 4L – $4.47
Triscuit Crackers (2 boxes) – $3.98
12 pack of Sesame Seed Bagels – $3.99
Multigrain Dempters bread – $1.99
500g Brick Cheese (cooking purposes only) – $5.44
Delisso Pizza (2 boxes w/2 pizzas in each – I like to treat the kids once a month) – $11.76
Mini Croissants (24 in a bag) – 3.49
Chocolate Brownies – $1.50
Navel Oranges – $3.60 (5 pieces)
Polish Sausage (like Kielbasa) – $5.99
Lean Ground Pork 1lb – $3.76
Maxwell House Coffee Grinds (lg container x2, on sale) – $15.98
Ball of Mozzarella Cheese – $1.99
Oasis Apple Juice x2 – $1.98 (again on sale)
Family pack of Pork Chops – $5.62 (30% off due date is for May 1st – just throw in freezer)
Lady Finger Cookies (boy has never had them before? lol) – $0.79
Single Bunch of fresh Spinach -$1.50
Green Grapes – $5.04
Fresh Corn (4 pieces) – $2.00
and … bad me … 8 grocery bags ( I forgot mine at home … tsk tsk tsk) – $0.45 (w/HST included)
Grand Total: $99.27
Some of the things I bought, not realizing I didn’t need, such as the milk bread. But these staple items I KNOW we will use before they expire.
This bill is an exceptionally low bill because we already had oatmeal, cereal, toilet paper, cauliflower, eggs and apples. Every week, I like to change up my green veggies – this week it was broccoli and spinach – last week it was cabbage and brussell sprouts, bean sprouts zucchini.
Overall, I star away from packaged items (except this bill oddly enough), name brand unless it is comparatively symmetrical in price, sweet and salty foods as well as prepared drinks.
If you like, I don’t mind putting up my grocery bill every week for 4 weeks. Maybe this will give other people like you and me a perfect snap shot of grocery expense for a month? For anyone else reading this, PLEASE comment and let me know if I should or shouldn’t post my bills.
I hope to read more posts from other people on here too. I’m always looking to buy healthy cheap food for my family. We are all overweight and I only make slightly larger than Canada Food Guides proportionate meals.
But I can’t Stress Enough how important it is to shop at Food Basics (if you can) after 7pm to buy your meat – IT WILL SAVE YOU TONS!!!
Happy reading – I hope to hear from you soon!
Lara
Wow Wow Wow! I am amazed. Many of those items are not cheap, so yes, I’m amazed that yes indeed, food is very expensive and not only here in quebec. it’s very interesting for me to see how much you paid and for what, that is the interesting part for me, to know exactly what people spend their money on. you cannot read this on any statistic. And, on one salary as well, that must be really tricky. But you have a good attitude and you eat well, so that is the most important! I will post my next food bill as well because I personally find it interesting. Thanks. back to work now!
Hi Briget and everyone who is reading this. If I had more time and sensibility, I would create, (if possible) another category on here just for grocery bills. Anyhoot! We went shopping again, I tried to scale back a bit as this is to last us until next weekend (yikes!) I’m not too happy with what we spent because hubby wanted to make HIS chili. so it was a little more out of my budgeting range, but oh well, can’t deny anybody chili now can we?
Wal-Mart
Medley Cereal ???g same size as below(kind of like Honey Bunches Of Oats only without the nuts) x2 – $6.66
Sweet Wheat Cereal 797g (again like Mini Wheats) – $3.33
Pedigree Vitality Beef Dog Food 16kg (will last us 4 weeks) – $33.88 (including taxes)
6 Bananas – $ 1.64
Medium Ground Beef (4lbs) – $6.58 (reduced from $9.87)
6 Skinless Drumsticks – $3.47 (reduced $5.21)
6 Skinless Drumsticks – $3.14 (reduced from $4.71)
1 Small Pork Loin Roast – $3.82 (reduced from $5.73)
Hot Italian Sausages x2 = 10 pieces – $8.00
Margarine (Great Value) 2lb – $1.87
Club House Chili Seasoning packet – $1.34
Great Value Low Sodium Chicken Broth 1l – $1.61
Sliced Mushrooms ( package) – $1.97
Celery – $1.27
Zucchini 4pieces – $1.34
Green bell Peppers 2 pieces – $0.88
Great Value Beans in syurp – $0.78
Tomato Sauce ( regular pasta sauce size) – $1.78
Red Kidney Beans (dry) – $0.78
Large jar of Medium Salsa – $2.97
This totaled $80.87 + $5.25 ( for his beer ingredient – honestly) comes to:
Grand Total: 86.12
***I want people to recognize if they don’t already know … your grocery store’s prices reflect YOUR demographic location meaning … if your average household income is higher than mine, your “Foodland” Flyer show higher prices than mine. The same also goes for the regular shelf price.***
Lara, Hamilton, Ontario
If any one is interested in $100 month menus/recipes/ingredient list (per person) send me an email at kathryn_dayle@hotmail.com
It isn’t hard and when there are more than one person, it becomes even cheaper.
I don’t know how anyone who wants to eat properly, i.e. sufficient vegetables and fruit in their diet, can get away with less than $150 per week per adult. That is what I spent on groceries at a minimun and I have been refraining from purchasing processed foods for some time now. I personally don’t eat meat so I end up spending more (i.e. cheese is way more exp. than beef). People with low incomes must really struggle. I reside in Hamilton ON.
Jen, I live in Hamilton Ontario and we operate on only my fiances income – which is moderately low income ($15/hr). Our bills for the 2 of us, 13 yr boy and every other w/e 9 yr old girl manages around the $150 mark. You just have to be sharp about your buying. Only buy whats on sale, make from scratch everything possible, dinners here only take me an hour from start to table. I don’t buy shake n bake, instead I buy seasoned bread crumbs and use the veggie bags from the store to coat my meat or to top my baked dishes. It is possible. See my post above and follow me for 4 weeks to show you.
Also, Kathryn did what I did as well. I took a Saturday afternoon and put together 5 sheets with different meal ideas and their total cost for each one. All of them are under $7 a meal. Not per person, for 3 of us. I try my best to adhere to it. Sometimes, its OK to shake it up and splurge, but not too often otherwise you will spoil your self discipline and start craving more expensive, less healthy meals. If you want I can send you my set of meal plans? Let me know.
Lara
My partner doesn’t believe what I spend on groceries, and I consider myself frugal! Average is between $210 – $240 per week for two adults and two children in Northern BC Canada. That is with no treats, pop, junk food or extras. That is just plain healthy food! That also does not include pet food, paper products or cleaning supplies as I buy those in bulk elsewhere. So that is an average of $60 per person per week, or just over $1,000 per month.
hi there! I am happy to read this. I think most people have NO clue how much money they spend on groceries. I want to know what someone (i live in QC) who spends 100 bucks a month on groceries, EATS. in this town, 60 dollars last me about 3 days. i am very tiny and don’t eat much. i don’t eat any junk food. i eat real food, i.e. pork chops and potatoes, stir fries, grilled vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, salads with tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese, beef and broccoli with rice noodles, pasta casseroles, etc etc etc. this is normal food. eating on less than 100 dollars per week is not possible in this town. so i am happy to read the posts by the folks who like me, also spend 1,000 per month on food.
Hi to you all.. just reading all the other posts, wondering where my family stands in regards to grocery expenses.
Because we do not have a lot of money, about 4000 amonth to live off, I have found that I am very much limitied what is left over, after paying bills and rent and other needed expenses, I have $800 left for food, as well as diapers. So I guess that is not too bad for 2 adults, and 4 kids. ( well the little one is only 1 month old, so he doesn’t count yet;) We also can do this because we get our meat from people who raise the meat, so we buy it it bulk, such as half a pig, and 1/4 of beef, which helps our monthly bill.
I was reading with interest what folks are spending on grocery, and I live alone, on a fixed income and $200.00 a month if that includes
personal care and cleaning supplies
is what I estimate I spend
This is good info and I often wonder what’s right. We are family, with small 2 kids. My best guestimate is we spend close to
$1000
You have got excellent content there, Appreciate it, I think that this is fairly intriguing. I’ve genuinely liked reading your articles. Simply marvelous what you’ve here.
Single and I spend about 700$ a month in Bethesda MD.
I’ve been tracking all my monthly expenses for years. We are two adults, two dogs, no kids.
We definately spent too much
Monthly averages for 2009:
- Bills (mortgage, houseinsurance, phone, cable, internet, water, electricity, bankfees): $1800
- Groceries, Pet Food, Alcohol: $930
- Restaurant, Takeouts and bars: $180
- Car, carinsurance, gas, repairs, bus: $700
- Cash: $600
$200/month sounds very reasonable to me
I traack my groceries monthly on a chart. Im not the best at being frugal but try. We spend. for 2 adults a 8 year old and 3 year old $800 monthly including diapers and personal hygene. It seems to be a comfortable amount.
Thank you! I was wondering what I was doing wrong? I have cut back drastically, rarely eat out, make almost everything from scratch including kids lunch box snacks, shop sales, buy in bulk, and still spend around $800 per month for one adult, 3 kids. I must have spent much more before.
I challenge anyone to track their food bill for 1 month. I guarantee you will be surprised. We spend anywhere from $1,400 to $1,600 per month for a family of 5, and thats doing the Costco runs. When people say they spend under a grand for a family, I suspect that they haven’t actually tracked it in their financial software. Do the math, feel the pain!
Monty – you are bang on. I track my monthly bill religiously and can’t believe we spend $1200 per month for 2 kids (8 mo and 4 yr old) and 2 adults. And I am always on the lookout for deals on groceries.
Monty, I have been tracking all expenses for 10 years, every little grocery bill, even those under $10. We’re a family of 6, including four kids ages 5-17 and a Great Dane. I do Costco twice a month and buy produce and dairy once a week at the local IGA. I keep our bill under $1000. This includes detergent, napkins, paper towels, things like ziplock bags and aluminium foil. I used to think I wasn’t doing too well and could bring it down lower but now I see we’re doing all right so feel a bit better. I’ve seen posts from people who have 7 kids and spend 800$ – HOW??
I absolutely agree with Monty. For a family of 5 including Costco runs we end up spending $1500 per month. I do wish some of these sights would be a bit more helpful in cost cutting measures for the average family. (Esp if you have teenagers)!
Monty! I totally agree. I am so relieved to read this. I also think people are fooling themselves. I read all kinds of articles werhe people say they spend 100 dollars a week on food for a family. I dream of visiting them and seeing what they eat. Even if you ate only rice and beans (which would leave you with scurvey and several other health issues) it would be difficult. In this town anyways. I mean seriously, kids need yogurt cheese and milk and oranges. I don’t eat caviar for breakfast and haven’t had even a tbone steak in months. I have been tracking my food expenses dilligently for years and the costs have skyrocketed in recent months.
How do you manage to spend that little for 4 people? I myself spend $200 per month, and I buy stuff when they’re cheap. Time to diet. LOL
We spend about $400 each month for myself, hubby, and 2 kids. We like to buy things in bulk when they’re at discount.