What should my grocery budget be?

Question

Me and my fiance are moving in together soon so we're making a food budget.

Normally her family shops at this posh grocery store with high quality goods and fancy things.

Meanwhile I grew up on ghetto food and on FoodsCo and FoodsMax, and that's what I generally cook.

my fiance prefers the food I cook and grew up with, which is a relief because the posh store is frightfully expensive.

To compare Andronico's sells 4 boned chicken thighs between $5-$7. in the same price range Safeway sells 12 boned thighs. the price for 18 eggs at andronicos is the SAME as the price for 6 dozen eggs at Safeway.

with this in mind we think that our grocery budget wont go over $150 a month, especially if we look out for good deals. we get this estimate because we spend about $200 on groceries a month at the posh stores.

but how much is the usual grocery budget for two people. living together? (one is under 80 lbs)

Answer 1

Depending on if you count toiletries as part of your grocery budget I would plan for a whole lot more than 150 a month... I live with my boyfriend and we try to look for decent prices and we still wind up spending like $300 a month at least  (that includes cleaning supplies and toilet paper etc...).

hope that was helpful.

Answer 2

It depends a lot on how many meals you eat out every week.  $200/month for two is $25/week per person.  I suppose you can do it if you can cook from scratch well.

You could start a checking account just for food and use the card only for groceries. If you budget $200 and you can use less you could use the extra for going out once a month.

Answer 3

Your grocery budget should be somewhat related to your income.

I've always done my budget in retrospect at the end of the month... Unless I make a massive purchase, the months are always in the black.  Right now I'm spending nearly nothing on food, because I'm living in a construction camp.  Prior to moving here, I was spending between 150 and 200 per week.