US Dept. of Ag food budgets

Attachment 6202

I hope this chart is readable. It presents food budgets in 3 categories: thrifty, moderate, liberal, for people in the United States.

It is not realistic. I spend liberally at the grocery store and do not achieve the $800/month amount pegged to us, 2 people age 71+. We aren’t quite that old yet, but soon.

Anyway. We spent $532 in December. That doesn’t include beef costs or any pet supplies.

We talked about this on another thread but here is a dedicated thread.

article is here

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-...eral%20budget.

Well, we're about on target for four adults (broken down by age/sex) for the liberal plan, but that includes a lot of convenience foods, take out, and an ungodly amount of coffee-shop beverages. That said, there's a huge difference in grocery store prices between us here in the Midwest, my DBIL's expenses in the LA area, and our Aunt's local grocery on Cape Cod. The coasts do tend to have more lower priced ethnic markets though. So depending, that might balance out a little, I'm not involved enough to know for sure. USDA seems generous, but again, covers expensive areas too. I'm not sure what all the USDA figures are being used for, but if it's any sort of snap/food stamp benefits, I'd for sure want it to err on the generous side. Poor people have enough to worry about, and should have the ability for some decent and convenient food choices.

I now see that our huge garden really does play a role in our food budget. We are still eating onions from our garden, and
i use a lot of onions. I seem to remember they get expensive this time of year.

I have bags and bags of frozen tomstoes (from 2023 bumper crop) and green peppers. We have a six month supply of winter squash.

Yeah, that all would really help! We buy fresh(ish) produce, and it adds up. I don't food garden much at all, never found it enjoyable. As soon as I could stop, I did. But the dollars do add up!! And I can go back to it if need be, but I'd try like heck to make some raised beds. And no corn, lol. I won't fight the raccoons for corn!

Another place we save is on drinks. We don’t buy fizzy drinks or soda or sweet drinks or anything like that. The coffee we drink most every day is instant coffee although once in a while, I do make regular coffee. DH makes ice tea from bags, which is pretty cheap.

I do buy quite a lot from frozen food section and from the deli so we do spend money on prepared foods.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Another place we save is on drinks. We don’t buy fizzy drinks or soda or sweet drinks or anything like that. The coffee we drink most every day is instant coffee although once in a while, I do make regular coffee. DH makes ice tea from bags, which is pretty cheap.

I do buy quite a lot from frozen food section and from the deli so we do spend money on prepared foods.

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Instant coffee - arghh! I could probably go on a rant about instant coffee comparable to somebody's rant about e-bikes, but I will try to restrain myself!

We are probably right in the ballpark for the liberal budget amount for our household. We may even be a little bit over, but I do not bother to exclude non-food items that we buy at the grocery store or Costco, so a lot of paper goods, cleaning products, cat food, and health and beauty stuff is in there. Market Basket has good prices, so I buy as much as I can there to avoid extra trips to various stores.

Eyes are so bad, I can't see fine details on the chart, but I don't think we do more than $500 for 2-3 adults. (child at home doesn't always eat here- lol)

Instant coffee - count us in! LOL Use the dark roast and it's fine, easy, and no grounds, pots, etc. to deal with.

Ah, I'm in the ground coffee camp. Generally buy beans. Not the cheapest but we do like coffee. I've never met an instant I liked, but I'm sure there are some out there, I'm just not motivated to try them. We almost always have a pot of hot coffee available; if we had to stop and make a cup of instant every time someone here wanted some, it would be a real pain. Happystuff, the link IL posted takes you to the article where the chart is displayed much much larger. I had to do that. There doesn't seem to be a paywall.

When we have overnight guests, I make ground coffee. I don’t expect anyone to drink the awful stuff we are accustomed to.

We are on the high side for food budgets (800-1000), but my grocery bill is inflated with "convenience" purchases (no major supermarket on the island) and local purchases (which tend to be higher) and this year, I started including DH's cigars because it's a PIA to go through every receipt and pull those out.

As for coffee, I am not fussy about most food, but I follow the sales for Green Mountain Dark Magic ground coffee, and I stock up. I'd have to be desperate to resort to instant coffee.

Thanks, early morning.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by catherine

We are on the high side for food budgets (800-1000), but my grocery bill is inflated with "convenience" purchases (no major supermarket on the island) and local purchases (which tend to be higher) and this year, I started including DH's cigars because it's a PIA to go through every receipt and pull those out.

As for coffee, I am not fussy about most food, but I follow the sales for Green Mountain Dark Magic ground coffee, and I stock up. I'd have to be desperate to resort to instant coffee.

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We like Vermont Coffee Company's coffee, and we buy the beans at Costco. We pay $16 for 2 lbs, which is about half what Stonewall Kitchen charges (they own the brand). I think that's pretty cheap for what I would consider to be a luxury coffee.

I would definitely have a cup of tea before resorting to instant coffee. I actually love tea.

I live in an incredibly high cost-of-living area.

$900+/month, for one person.

I go to the grocery store roughly once a week, spending ~$150/visit. $600/month./ I buy almost entirely vegetables, fruit, dairy, and if there's some good meat/fish on offer for a good price, I'll grab that as well. I try to buy things that are on sale, my local market has pricing that varies wildly from week-to-week, day-to-day.

Most of the meat and fish I get, I source from local farmers and fisherman, so that cost should be added onto the $600/month, over the year. The meat tends to be better and cheaper than what the market can offer, but you have to buy in volume. I probably buy $1500 in fish, $2000 in beef/lamb/goat/pig each year, round that up to $3600/year, or another $300/month.

I mostly "buy" my own wine, cider, and beer. The wine is in essence "free", the beer has some cost for ingredients, the cider I make from my own fruit so it is "free". I then trade some of this stuff for some really nice mead the fellow down the road makes.

I guess we are on the low side. I think we spend around $75-100 a week for food. No pet food, no red meat or pork, very little processed foods. We often base our meals for the week on what is on sale or being clearanced due to expiration date. Example: Got a loaf of English muffin bread for $1.04, 18 eggs on sale for $3.99, huge box of spring mix for $3.

We are older and like simple meals. Rarely buy alcohol, no carbonated drinks, and occas. spend $100 at Costco for products like oatmeal, nuts, precooked chicken, etc. that last a long time.

Just checked my cc statements: For the past year, I averaged about $125/month on groceries and $70/month on eating out ( -- this doesn't reflect ALL the food I ate last year, I eat at friends' houses or social events around 3 meals/week, and occasionally I'll go out to eat and someone else will foot the bill, but it's pretty much what I spent). But that was especially conscious, I was focused on paying down debts/saving money. This year I anticipate spending more. I buy everything I can at Aldi's (love it!) and rarely buy meat, chicken, or fish. I don't buy cage-free eggs or organic produce, so I save some money there (eek!). So I definitely could easily imagine spending the $300 that my age bracket calls for (or even more), but instead I eat pretty simple.

PS -- I also spent around $250 or so on alcohol for the year (no, not all for myself :D ) and I may have missed some grocery/restaurant expenses so the totals are probably slightly higher.