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Thread: How Much Do You Spend On Groceries?

  1. #31
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Groceries only I didn’t list eating out.

  2. #32
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gardnr View Post
    Also, some have noted eating out spent here. I thought this was groceries only so I did not include eating out.
    I think they kind of go together. TT did not ask about eating out, but I figure that posting "I spend only $200 a month on groceries" without mentioning "But we spend $400 a month eating out" provides an accurate answer to the question that was posed but does not get to the heart of it, which is "How much do you spend on eating meals?"
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  3. #33
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    I am not a fan of potlucks because I am a fussy eater and I wonder about people’s cleanliness habits.
    Same here. But I usually can pick around all the carbohydrates lol. And I decided a long time ago that, in the interest of sociability and in the absence of overt issues (cats all over the kitchen counters, food that's not sufficiently hot or cold) I was better off overlooking the cleanliness thing. Choices, choices...
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  4. #34
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    We spend 300/month eating out. It’s one of our favorite things to do.

  5. #35
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    I am not a fan of potlucks because I am a fussy eater and I wonder about people’s cleanliness habits.
    DH agrees with you, but I love them. I'm not a picky eater at all, and I enjoy seeing what other people make for ideas/recipes. I also don't worry about the cleanliness aspect. To be honest, if I were worried about that, I wouldn't go to restaurants. You never know what happens in those kitchens.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  6. #36
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Cats on countertops? Check. Got a problem with that?

    Like Catherine, I'm not a germophobe and I'm not in the least averse to food cooked in a private kitchen. Like Steve, I occasionally eat around the carbs. I mostly like potlucks for the cookies, which I rarely get a chance to eat. I always brought chips or paper plates to ours.

  7. #37
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    Steve, how long have you been using SEE Finance? What did you use prior, and how does it compare? I’ve been looking for a program like this and, strangely, hadn't heard of it yet. Thanks.

  8. #38
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by talula View Post
    Steve, how long have you been using SEE Finance? What did you use prior, and how does it compare? I’ve been looking for a program like this and, strangely, hadn't heard of it yet. Thanks.
    About nine years now (looked up my first registration key; no idea it had been so long!). Before that I used ... umm, I don't remember well, but it most likely was the Windows app HomeBank, running under MacPorts.

    SEE Finance works much like Quicken and HomeBank and other checkbook-register applications. It has a fairly clean interface and is more Mac-like than much of its competition. The reports (the ones I use, anyway) are comparable. There is investment tracking and a syncing iPhone version of the app (neither of which I've ever used). I don't need true double-entry accounting (like GnuCash) or a lot of budget guidance (like You Need A Budget or envelope-system apps). I abandoned Quicken when Intuit made it clear the Mac version would be a poor cousin to the Windows version. I found SEE Finance and have seen no reason to leave it, even after trying apps like Moneydance, iBank/Banktivity, and Checkbook Pro (especially since the sidegrade would cost me about as much as I have into SEE Finance). And support has been good with keeping up with OS updates and responsive to specific questions about how to use it to do things not outlined in the documentation.

    Does that help?
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  9. #39
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    FWIW, groceries are cheapest at supermarkets between the week before thanksgiving and Christmas. They go up the most by percentage starting in January, getting back where they were.

    I have a weird hobby: I read USDA reports. The USDA has a monthly retail price report (or they did) for produce and more common meats.

  10. #40
    Senior Member pcooley's Avatar
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    I'm ashamed to say that our grocery expenditure is around $1100 a month, and our dining out as been around $100-$300 a month. I've had an eternal struggle to bring it down. I personally think I could do it, without my family adding things to the "list", for around $300 a month.

    Because our son isn't getting the kind of financial aid he was hoping for for the colleges to which he has been accepted, we're trying to pile up money and get our expenses down between now and August, so I'm forcefully saying that we're spending $100 a week on groceries, and that's that.

    Where it gets difficult is when it starts feeling like I'm being the budget demon, and the family feels like I'm trying to starve them.

    This week, the budget was staying close to $100, but then I had to make a trip to Trader Joe's for coffee, (the big can of whole bean French Roast is a little more expensive than Maxwell House, but tastes better and seems less acidic). My son then wanted to tack on salami, jarlsberg cheese, crackers - my wife wanted chips and dog treats (for the dog), and I bought two bags of peanuts for our individual snacks. That came out to $60 or so. So this week was around $160, which is still better than close to $300. Nothing we buy seems like a big extravagance. We make kombucha and kefir, so there's not any "recreational" drink purchases. We eat mostly vegetarian. Still, it seems difficult to keep it down. I think "Food" is roughly a third of our yearly expenditures.

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