Average Grocery Budget

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What is the ave mo expense to feed 2 adults, 1 child and 2 large dogs?

Average Grocery Budget

A question was recently asked:
"What is the average monthly expense for groceries to feed 2 adults, one child and 2 large dogs?"

Here's my reply:

The answer to your question can be quite complicated as there are a number of different variables involved:
*The type of diet you consume (i.e.do you eat a lot of meat or do you prefer a mostly non-meat diet?)
*Do you use coupons?
*Do you do rebates?
*The age of your child (i.e. is your child an infant on formula or is your child a teenager?)
*The diets of your large breed dogs (do you feed store bought food, table scraps, or high-end food like Bil-Jac or Eukunuba?)

I can give you the web address to a National Statistics chart listed on The Dollar Stretcher's Website. For a family of 3 the National Average is $101 per week ($435/mo, $5,228 yr) I haven't found any stats on budgets of families with dogs included. http://www.stretcher.com/stories/990705a.cfm

Now MiserlyMom believes that on a frugal budget you should allow for $10 per person per week. If you are new to frugality try for $15 per person per week. And it could go higher based upon types of products you buy. Here's the link for that information: http://www.stretcher.com/stories/00/000612b.cfm

Personally my family has 4 members (2 adults and 2 children age 2 and younger). Including groceries, Similac formula expendatures and brand name diapers, we spend approximately $208 every 3 weeks. That's after coupons but before any mail-in rebates that may be available. We eat steak, shrimp, a lot of chicken, lots of fruits and veggies. We use Pampers and Huggies diapers (at the rate of 1 pack of each per week) and also 2 cans of Similac with Iron Powder per week. We really don't lack for anything on our budget. I could probably save some more by buying less expensive cuts of meat, but that's an indulgence I can live with. As far as the dogs go, I have no idea what they consume. I had 2 small dogs (Lhasa Apsos) that ate approximately $30 worth of BilJac dog food per month. Big dogs would be much more. I would compare prices on the internet, use online coupons, utilize any of your local store's price match policies, etc. to get the best deal on that.

I hope this helps you a little. Good luck on your grocery budget.

   

Comments

12/4/2007 10:39:24 AM
Amy said:

I think that this tip was very helpful. I especially appreciate the information on the additional websites. Thank you!!!


1/26/2008 4:59:01 PM
Mike said:

my wife thinks that these numbers are insane. We spend about 1200 per month for our family of 4 and about 350 eating out per month. Nobody in our family is overweight.


1/8/2009 9:37:20 AM
GadgetMan said:

Of course that meat you're eating is probably not at all healthy for your family as it's full of hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals. The cost of real organic foods would be much higher.


6/3/2009 1:40:40 PM
Lex said:

I'm having hard time budgeting w/ 2 adult 1 tod 1 dog.
I spend $500/month average. I like to see my numbers in the $350-400 mark. I do primary shopping at Costco and occasional on produce at supermarkets and farmers markets. I have found that using Quicken really helped out in determining my actual financial stand point.


1/14/2012 2:40:36 PM
sc said:

I wonder where this person lives. There is NO way in the DC area that a family of 4 with diapers and formula will spend only $208 EVERY 3 WEEKS. Maybe one week -or a little less. But it would be more in the line of $208 very week.


6/4/2012 8:12:31 AM
Adam said:

I spend $60-70 a week on just myself. $208 every 3 weeks? I call serious bullshit, or you're eating fast food and microwaved garbage. I buy a bag of baked chicken breasts, a bag of tilapia, 2 4-packs of tuna, 5 cartons of eggs, 6 bananas, a few oranges, and veggies. I spend $200-250 a month on groceries including the occasional bodywash and toothpaste.




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