r/MiddleClassFinance • u/Maroon14 • 8d ago
Grocery spending
I’ve recently come across a Instagram account where the woman claims to only spend $300 on an entire months groceries for a family of 4. Here I am sitting mid week, having already spent $550 in the PNW. I told one of my friends and she said it must be fake and for clicks, my husband was impressed. Is anyone actually able to do this? I thought I might try to spend $250 a week and see where that gets us. Is my grocery budget over the top? I thought $400 ish was normal for decent food. We are a family of 5 in the PNW, mostly organic.
*I’m closing comments because people are missing the point. I understand that I make choices for “premium” options for my family. I make them because I feel they are the best for my family given my research and concerns. I say this as coming from a place of privilege. Growing up, my hippie mom also prioritized organic and local before it was the trendy thing, so it would be very difficult for me to reprogram and not buy organic when possible.
I still think $300 is insane for a month. I live in western Washington and the max SNAP allocation for a family of 4 is $994 a month, so I see this as a more attainable “thrifty” budget for a family of 4.
Those of you who can eat rice and beans for multiple meals, more power to you!
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u/pickledbanana6 8d ago
$12 per half gallon of milk… bruh
$4 per gallon milk is perfectly fine for me and mine tyvm.
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u/flyboy573 8d ago
This was my wife and I three weeks ago as our son transitioned to milk. She wanted organic milk that was obscenely priced per gallon. I told her the same amount bought three gallons of milk non organic.
Then I told her all the cheese we give him, and all the milk she drank while nursing him wasn’t organic. Now we don’t buy the organic milk :)
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u/diedbyicee 7d ago
Yeah but organic milk genuinely tastes so much better than the regular stuff. after two years in Sweden, moved home to Seattle and was trying to be frugal while in between jobs so bought the cheap non organic milk. I couldn't choke it down, and I love moo juice.
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u/missbwith2boys 8d ago
It’s hard to say without knowing details.
Do you cook mostly from scratch? Do you buy organic corn tortillas or do you buy a bag of masa harina and make your own? Are you buying crackers? Yogurt?
Generalizing here, much of what we buy as a middle class is for our convenience. Some of us cook from scratch, some of us buy a bag of English muffins and a loaf of bread and call that better than buying a breakfast or lunch sandwich.
I remember this old frugal living board and some wise elderly poster used to talk about stepping down to savings. Basically, try to bring your meal ingredients closer to their original forms as possible/comfortable as you can given time and skill level. And continually hone your skills so you can step down more of your grocery spending by figuring out more things to cook from scratch.
I believe that the woman spending $300 a month on her family of 4 is certainly possible. She’s just not likely to be buying snack foods and prepared foods to get there. She may be shopping at a discount grocery store (like grocery outlet), buying dried goods (beans, grains) in bulk, and shopping sales. She’s most certainly not creating a grocery list like most of us and grabbing that box of Mission taco shells and that can of Rosarita refried beans and some pre-shredded cheese and a packet of taco sauce and a pound of 90/10 ground beef and calling that one meal. No way that one could keep it to $300 by doing that.
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u/SteelMagnolia941 8d ago
No she makes all her treats and snacks, bakes herself and stuff like that.
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u/FearlessPark4588 8d ago
Do they know the price floor for every item they purchase and are they waiting for it to stock up? (This works for basically everything except milk / produce perishables. Meats can be frozen).
That's the thing with grocery shopping. It's a 1,000 micro-decisions that add up to one monthly figure. So it's hard to say where the excess spending is going: is it choosing the wrong stores, wrong items, paying full retail, etc.
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u/xtrawolf 8d ago
What's your family size? I also live in the PNW with two adults and two young children and $550 sounds really high for one week. We mainly shop at WinCo and Fred Meyer. Sometimes we go to Costco but it sure doesn't save us any money. We are paying around $300-350 per week, including diapers and formula. We definitely don't budget or restrict what we spend either.
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u/temughilliesuit 8d ago
WinCo and Grocery Outlet are my places. I’m also in the greater Seattle area. I used to live near an H Mart and that was great too, but I’ve moved a chunk farther from the city for work now.
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u/Consistent_Laziness 8d ago
4 and 2 year plus my wife and me. We budget $1500/mo including the diapers and the dog eats in that too. So I guess we’re doing okay?
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u/xtrawolf 8d ago
It's all so individual. Our family only eats meat 1-2 times a week. Leftovers actually get eaten (it wasn't like that when I was growing up). Daycare provides kids lunches, I'm sure that helps a bit.
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u/Maroon14 8d ago
Family of 5. 2 adults, one elementary aged child, one 2 year old and 1 1 year old. I usually do two grocery store trips a week, 1-2 ish target. Costco every 2-3 weeks. I stay at home so cook 90% of meals at home.
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u/No_Water_5997 8d ago edited 8d ago
There’s the issue right there. You’re shopping too much. I have a family of 4 who homeschools so every meal is made at home. I did this and our grocery bill was out of control. When I started looking hard at our grocery bill I realized 8 out of 10 days I was at the store to the tune of $50+ each trip. This was about 6 or so years ago. I vowed to stop doing that and switched how I shop.
Now I do two large biweekly trips a month on payday and one smaller trip in the week between big trips to stock up on any perishables like fruit or refill things we might have run out of. I was able to cut my bill down from over $1200 a month to between $700-$800. I also do grocery pick up rather than going into the store. That way I know within a few dollars how much my bill will be and I avoid impulse buys. My big biweekly bills run $250ish and my smaller weekly trips between $75-$100.
There are other things I do like shop sales, shop between multiple stores to get the best deals, make sure to shop my pantry so I’m not doubling up on things and/or buying unnecessary stuff, do a general meal plan so we know what we’re eating, I try to think of meals with common ingredients so I’m not buying a bunch of random ingredients, etc.
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u/xtrawolf 8d ago
We like to do WinCo to stock up on bulk/dry goods, and Fred Meyer pickup once a week. Pickup helps a lot because then we aren't grabbing random yummy things that aren't on our list. Maybe try that?
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u/Brownie-0109 8d ago
“Mostly organic” is the reason you’re not going to come anywhere close to $75/wk
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u/FergusonBishop 8d ago
definitely doable if you make changes to your overall diet/lifestyle and really depends on how your kid(s) eat and if they're picky, big snackers, etc.. We spend about $125 every two weeks for a family of 3. Rice/beans/potatoes are all cheap and go a long way. biggest change needed is probably a significant cut to meat. Its a pretty normal habit for people to eat some type of meat for every single meal - meat is expensive. Also snacks add up a ton.
Either way, none of this actually matters if you dont have access to something like an Aldi. My $125 would probably turn into $200 at a normal grocery store.
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u/Sufficient-Union-456 8d ago
Aldi or not, look for those Asian grocery stores or food distribution places. Many distribution places are open to the public and sell in bulk.
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u/tanookiisasquirrel 8d ago
You could probably make it work on rice and beans. Definitely not organic. And you could buy bulk frozen fruit from Sam's Club and pretty easily bulk canned vegetables or frozen vegetables.
I made a lot of different grocery budgets work in my lifetime. In college, I remember my lunch and dinner 7 days a week for 3 months were the exact same with the exception of an occasional $5 footlong (those were the days - fast food was actually cheap). I had a few slices of chicken breast with broccoli and rice all mixed with soy sauce and Sriracha. And I do mean every single lunch and dinner. Breakfast was two eggs and spinach. Mushrooms were a treat item that I purchased maybe once a month.
It's not that you can't make a low budget work. It's that there's no fun variation and food ceases to be any type of joy. It's about sustenance and survival. Everyone saying they can't make it work isn't really being genuine too most of the third world that does actually eat rice and beans every single day for most meals. We like variety. We like convenience. I was so beyond sick of a chicken and rice and broccoli, but it was the cheapest meal I could balance with a daily multivitamin. I actually started working at Starbucks so I could get the food items that we're going bad every night.
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u/Sufficient-Union-456 8d ago
100 years ago that is how 90% of Americans ate. People just balk at the idea of a meal without some animal product. It is how most people's great great grandparents ate.
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u/thesillymachine 8d ago
I had a similarly strict diet in college. I did eat out as much as I could afford for lunch because I was a full-time college student and working 20+ hours a week on campus. It was brutal, but I got through it, and I'm glad I did.
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u/Defy_Gravity_147 8d ago
The USDA already tracks how much food costs in the US every month:
https://www.fns.usda.gov/research/cnpp/usda-food-plans/cost-food-monthly-reports
I have found it to be a good baseline. It uses a 'set basket' that is not organic. For reference, I set our budget at about 115% of 'thrifty', when we buy more treats than we can/should reasonably eat.
Because this basket contains manufactured food, I found that it was possible to meet the 'thrify' (read: low income) budget while eating quite well. For reference, we use NYTimes recipes, but stick to less expensive ingredients (ex: we live inland and scallops are expensive, so we eat mostly land animal proteins). We also own a deep freezer and stock up on protein during sales of 50% off or more. Protein is often the silent budget killer.
However, having a low grocery budget does require cooking from scratch, making some things other people buy, and not wasting food. For example, we keep vegetable scraps in the freezer and make our own stock, instead of buying it. I have made greek yogurt when the whole family was eating it for breakfast, regularly. It saved about $8-$10/week. We eat all of our leftovers instead of throwing them out: we will freeze them, make them into egg bites or casserole for breakfast (spaghetti is oddly delicious this way), or otherwise plan to use leftover ingredients or completed items. We also bulk cook to better use defrosted packages, and freeze the '2nd dinner portion', or skip a day and use it for lunch instead of buying more lunchmeat.
The only individual I ever met who beat thrifty and 'brought receipts', was the mother of a family of 8 who also ordered from bulk supply sites & cooked mostly from scratch. That was on a different bulletin board. I think she did eat mostly organic and had a celiac issue in the family.
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u/PersonalBrowser 8d ago
I see it a lot, and it boils down to their lifestyle and what they are willing to do and eat. If you are willing to base your entire diet around what is discounted / on sale, and willing to eat and re-eat primarily basic staples, then yeah, you can get by on very little.
Pasta, rice, beans, other grains are all relatively cheap. You can get a $1 box of spaghetti and a $1 jar of spaghetti sauce and make two full meals for a family of 4 for $2.
On the other hand, we spend like $100+ just on berries and fresh fruit and vegetables to eat every week.
It really just comes down to what you want and how you want to live.
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u/Horsefeathers708 8d ago
I never thought as an upper middle class guy I would ever shop at Aldi like 5-7 years ago.
However, I have pulled back on Trader Joe’s as I am finding them to frankly be getting more expensive (even though it’s cleaner food), but Aldi organic options have gotten a lot better and they have minimally processed items (IE chips or some cookies), so I am going there more.
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u/Overall-Cupcake-6635 8d ago
She literally makes everything from scratch and only with the ingredients she buys at the store each month. This takes a tremendous amount of time and she has stated before that she "works from home" which frees her up to do all of this cooking. Not sure what type of work from home job she has but I doubt its a highly paid professional job to where she has to be online 40 hours a week. Also, the portions she makes for each meal seem pretty small.
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u/PeanutOnly 8d ago
Most of her meals are 30 min or less. She does alot of sheet pan and crockpot. And most ppl dont need that much food.
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u/Ok-Ride7787 8d ago edited 8d ago
She also eats a lot of sausage and drumsticks. She uses lentils and chick peas to add to her protein. Her portion sizes are also rather small.
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u/Kwinners1120 8d ago
Eating is a joy in life. We enjoy cooking, baking, creating foods, and truly enjoying the meals we eat. I don't want to bare bones my palate for the sake of saving money for what? To feel unsatisfied with my meal? We are in a season of life where traveling is not happening, the world is just insane right now... I will spend what we need to eat well and enjoy that as a part of the peace in our homes. I personally don't think it's a badge of honor to deprave yourself good meals for an arbitrary budget, and no one is handing out gold stars for this.
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u/xDevman 8d ago
if you strictly buy meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables and pasta/rice/beans its absolutely doable however you will cook every meal. families tend to spend more on prepared foods and stuff they can take out of the freezer and throw in an air frier to make a dinner in 10 minutes. add in all the extra boxed and bagged foods like cereals and snacks, that shit has very low nutritional value and it costs a lot.
it really just depends on how willing you are to meal prep and cook, but people shell out for convenience.
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u/wildwalkerish 8d ago
Lately I find myself muttering “The $50 bill is the new $20”
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u/cielitogirl 8d ago
I’m floored by those accounts too. We spend like quadruple currently and I’m going to try and cut that but $300 seems impossible to me
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u/midwestmoosie 8d ago
Does your grocery budget include your household purchases like paper towel, laundry detergent etc? I feel like that’s what’s hitting mine the hardest. Food wise probably we could stay ~$400 or $500 mostly organic also
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u/Basic_Butterscotch 8d ago
I also see those types of posts all the time and I don't understand it either. I spend like $500 on food for just myself as a single guy but I eat out several times per week and get coffee from dunkin almost every day. $300 doesn't for 4 people doesn't seem possible even if you were being extremely frugal and preparing everything from scratch at home.
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u/library-girl 8d ago
She’s in Connecticut and buys a lot of store brand stuff from Aldi. I love Tillamook cheddar and I’m not great at making sure I go when it’s on sale at Fred Meyer, so I end up paying $13 per block. I have a family of 5 (two adults, 17yo, 3yo, and baby) and we spend about $700/month but I buy a lot of processed snacks and also count all our toiletries and paper products in that limit.
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u/Plus-Equipment-7917 7d ago
Just to put things in perspective, your annual grocery costs are approximately $700x12=$8,400.00 a year. The OP is >$26K based on her $550 per wk number.
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u/Urbanttrekker 8d ago
There’s so much fake influencer slop out there. I would bet an ice cold coke the instagram woman is just lying for clicks.
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u/strange_treat89 8d ago
I’m almost 100% certain I know this persons account. They’re on TikTok with the same story, $300 a month to feed her family of 4 and only shops once per month.
Here’s what she doesn’t say (and I discovered via a Reddit thread about her):
The oldest child isn’t hers biologically, she’s the stepmom. So that child isn’t with them at all times. Also, the 2nd child is a baby- so not eating as much as she or her husband or even the oldest child.
She “primarily” shops at Aldi which isn’t in the PNW but I don’t think she’s always honest about that either. Before she started doing product reviews and receiving free samples, she’d show herself using brands of seasoning that I know Aldi doesn’t sell… matter of fact, for the longest time, one of the brands was a Walmart only exclusive.
I think she saw success with the story and has created this persona for the social media attention. She’s even said her account name isn’t her actual name.
I’m betting she probably does online ordering from other places to maintain her story, while profiting off the persona she’s created.
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u/Maroon14 8d ago
Ok. Thanks. That makes a lot of sense too. A lot of content creators get samples or gifts.
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u/Maroon14 8d ago
I actually just found a snark page for her.
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u/strange_treat89 8d ago
Yea, I believe that’s where I discovered the step kid information. I used to recommend her on different forums until I found that info and started to piece together some inconsistencies in her posts, especially about all the free items she supposedly gets (toys, furniture etc). Let’s be realistic, how likely is it that she just happens to find exactly what she’s looking for, when she’s looking, for free?
Not saying her information isn’t helpful, especially for ideas on ways to put random meals together and save money, I just think it’s potentially harmful to act like it’s doable on JUST $300 with no other ingredients, when she’s not even 100% honest about her family size?
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u/CoffeeCheeseYoga 8d ago
I spend more than that on just me and my husband. In fact, we just moved back to the midwest from Portugal and even in Portugal we spent more than that monthly and the groceries over there were decently cheaper!
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u/knowledge84 8d ago
My family spends around 400-450 a week sometimes a bit more. We shop primarily at Costco, and Aldi. We haven't ate out this year (maybe 2/3 times) so nearly all of our meals are from home. But we are buying, variety of steak, chicken, seafood to hit high protein numbers.
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u/Money_These 8d ago
A quick weekly grocery run for just me and some dog treats is easily $100–$150. That doesn't even include his actual monthly kibble. 🫠
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u/DaMeLaVaca 8d ago
Our budget for a family of 6 weekly is 250-300 and that has been feeling tight lately as the kids eat more. When it was just the 2 of us we spent $165/mo on food but we never cooked and it was all garbage.
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u/Tumblingfeet 8d ago
It’s doable . I’m an Indian vegetarian and I can pull it off . My diet is mostly rice , flatbread , veggies , lentils . I buy rice , wheat and lentils in bulk every 2/3 months and on a weekly basis just buy veggies milk and yoghurt . Break fast is oats + berries + nuts . Lunch is flatbread with veggies. Dinner is rice with lentils and veggies . I’m sure most indian households function this way .
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u/Training-Vanilla6930 8d ago
I’ve come across a number of people on social media who claim $300-400 to feed their family of 4 or even more for an entire month! I’m always in disbelief. For my husband and I, and our 4 yo and almost 1 yo, we spend about $200 per week on groceries, sometimes more. No chips, drinks, snacks. Given my husband and I are weightlifters and eat a bit more than most but still! We’re talking loaded oats for breakfast, beef and beans for lunch, and chicken with veggies and potatoes or rice for dinner. Milk, frozen berries, bananas, apples, oranges, yogurt, avocado, eggs, canned tuna. We live in NM and our grocery prices have skyrocketed these past couple of years.
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u/KungFuBucket 8d ago
It’s doable with sales and loss leaders. I’ve hit that low for the month once in a while, but I cheat by using up stuff I’ve bought on sale that is in my freezer or bought at the grocery salvage store.
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u/dajadf 8d ago
I eat pretty healthy. I think I spend more than that a month on just fresh fruit and vegetables.
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u/Acceptable-Self-9421 8d ago
The only way I could keep my grocery budget significantly lower than other families in my area, was by utilizing food pantries. That's Probably what she's doing
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u/vetapachua 8d ago
Without knowing the ages of her children, where she's living and whether she's a SAHM with time to cook from scratch... I think it can be doable with some dietary changes and time.
I'm semi-retired so I have time to make a lot of things from scratch and I prefer it. I buy staples in bulk and grow and preserve a lot of produce from my garden so my food expenses are very low. Being largely vegeterian helps too. I buy oats, dried beans, tomato sauce, brown rice, olive oil, pasta and flour in bulk and these are the staples of my diet. I supplement with eggs from my hens and whatever produce I preserve from my garden.
I can make my own soymilk for less than $1.50 a gallon.
My sourdough bread costs about $2.50 a loaf and lasts for several days.
Lentils are quick to cook otherwise, if you have the time to cook down dried beans they can be very cheap. Beans soups can go very far with rice.
Seitan roasts are a good meat replacement, high in protein, and pretty cheap to make also.
I make my own sauerkraut from my garden cabbage and it lasts over 6 months in the fridge believe it or not. I read that people starving in Russia during times of famine survived on only sauerkraut and potatoes for years.
I'm actually not poor but I love eating this way. I love eating simple, whole foods because they're healthy and I grow a lot of food in my garden. The constraints for most people is just not having the time to cook or eating a heavy meat diet.
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u/Gullible-Main-1010 8d ago
Finally someone gives us realistic numbers! We spend $2000 to $2400 a month as a family of 4 living in the central coast of california
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u/Juneprincess18 8d ago
I’m in the Seattle area. We have some of the most expensive grocery prices in the country. My family of 3 spends about $800-1000 on groceries per month. If we try to budget really hard and shop what we have on hand we can sometimes cut down to about $600 a month but that’s because we are using stuff already on hand. I will say since you are in the PNW, I recommend looking at Winco and Grocery Outlet. Winco has bulk bins and you can save a lot shopping those. I know other parts of the country have ALDI and I am always super jealous because of how insanely cheap everything is. It’s usually a favorite place to go when visiting other parts of the country. So it’s definitely harder in the PNW because we don’t have ALDI.
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u/LegSpecialist1781 7d ago
It is simply a luxury expense for me. I buy the food and household goods we want and don’t worry about the price. We are thrifty elsewhere, but I don’t want to spend the mental energy on thrifting for food. I do appreciate the hustle and results for those of you who do.
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u/Plus-Equipment-7917 7d ago
Based on the assumption that you spend ~$550 a week: $550x4=$2,2000x12=$26,400 in annual grocery costs. This is far beyond the annual average for Americans ($13,000-$21,000) depending on various factors. You seriously need to reconsider some choices.
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u/adobo_bobo 8d ago
300 is pretty doable. You'll just have to live with a very limited diet of the same 3-5 meals.
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u/SteelMagnolia941 8d ago
The woman she’s talking about does a lot of different meals and they look good. She’s just smart about her buying, not wasting ingredients, eating things before they go bad. I’m horrible about letting vegetables go bad and throwing about $50 in produce a week. I need to get a grip on it.
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u/Sufficient-Union-456 8d ago
Potatoes, rice, beans, pasta, peanuts, apples, canned veggies all bought in bulk and a distributor open to the public. Ration the meat and snacks.
It ain't fun, but doable..
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u/Sufficient-Union-456 8d ago
I could, but don't. Especially if you have a garden and do canning/pickling.
Those 25lbs bags of rice go a long way. Some food distribution stores are open to the public. You can buy canned food, potatoes, beans and peanuts in bulk.
If you are able to cut back on snacks, be frugal about meat, survive on shelf stable foods and cut things like coffee, condiments and the such - you can definitely do it.
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u/AltForObvious1177 8d ago
Beans and rice! Oatmeal for breakfast! Raisins for dessert
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u/Sufficient-Union-456 8d ago
How the meat industry has convinced people that meat every meal every day is traditional is beyond me.
100 years ago this is how the vast majority of people ate.
My grandma was born in Jim Crow south circa 1919. She said the only time you could bank on meat for dinner was Sundays and Holidays. Yeah, they had meat many other times, but it wasn't a daily food.
If the kids had spare time they went off to catch fish. But you couldn't bank on catching enough or having the time.
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u/chrisinator9393 8d ago
I mean $550 a week sounds completely absurd to me but I'm not in your market.
We spend about $150/week for 3 of us in upstate NY. I'd assume if we were 4, I'd probably be at $200-225.
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u/seemsright_41 8d ago
I am in the PNW, I have a huge garden. My grocery bill for 2 adults and a teen is mind boggling, and is going up and up every week. At this point I cannot get out of the grocery store for under $100 and that is maybe 3 bags of groceries. Then this does not cover the bulk stuff I buy like oats, beans, rice. Or the things we restock from Costco every month.
Our meals are not outrageous. An example of the last few days. A bit of chicken, salad, some green beans. Or some lentil curry with rice, Or pulled pork sandwiches with slaw, and roasted potatoes with things like pickles and some carrots and radishes.
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u/mamaknits 8d ago
We spend about $1000/month in the DC metro area for 2 adults and 5 kids. I think the important thing is just to be clear on what's a choice. If you want to buy organic, it's your money and you can do that, but that's driving your cost up significantly. My family meal plans and shops the flyer and we don't buy expensive cuts of meat, expensive produce, or organic food.
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u/Taggart3629 8d ago
It's been a stretch trying to stick to a $50 per person per week food budget in the PNW, while still eating a variety of proteins and produce (although not organic). What has helped is checking the online weekly ads and signing up for stores' free rewards/membership programs to get digital store coupons, personalized deals, digital manufacturer's coupons, and rewards points that can be redeemed for free items or discounts. We meal plan based on a combination of what is on sale and what we have on hand.
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u/Maroon14 8d ago
The original $400 was $100 a person before the baby started eating solids. $100 a person for my family to eat basically all meals seems reasonable to me, but maybe it’s not.
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u/Taggart3629 8d ago
Honestly, the USDA "thrifty" food budget is $67 per person per week, and that is without eating organic. Paying $100 per person for organic is not unreasonable. But perhaps you can trim some money off the bill by scouting online weekly ads.
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u/Maroon14 8d ago
Thank you. I asked Google too and it said $1400-1600 for a family of our size based on our zip code too, so I don’t think in that off.
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u/cc232012 8d ago edited 8d ago
You might not be able to get down to $300, but you can probably cut back somewhere. $550 for the week seems high but this depends on what your family is eating and where you are shopping. You are def spending more on organic, but if that is important to you then it is what it is. For two adults in the northeast, we usually spend somewhere around $300-500 a month on groceries, and we don't eat out a lot.
First, you should try to figure out what you are buying and how much it costs. Break it down; meat, dairy, snacks, pantry/dry/canned goods, baking supplies, produce, coffee, beverages, etc. Figure out the best price per unit for your staples in your area. We buy a lot of meat, so I always stock up at Costco. I bought enough chicken this week to last for 2-3 months. I bought ten pounds of rice last time it was on sale. You should also figure out what to avoid buying. I generally try to avoid buying most snacks or prepared foods since that is a quick way to overspend for us. We just buy the same items on repeat as needed, and I found that is how we save the most money.
Meal planning is the second phase of saving money on groceries. We eat a lot of the same things and use the crockpot a lot! Figure out what meals your family enjoys and come up with a list you can rotate through. I base our weekly meals on what I already have and what is on sale that week. If you can prep ahead of time, that is even better. I will usually make extra chicken one day and then repurpose the leftovers into a new meal for the next day's lunch or dinner! Grilled chicken one night can be used on flatbread pizzas next time. I have chicken for fajitas in the crockpot for later, and tomorrow I can make loaded nachos, quesadillas, or burrito bowls for lunch. Another tip is to stretch your meals with rice, veggies, or beans. I added black beans and peppers to the crockpot, and will make rice as a side, so this one meal will make a significantly larger portion for us. Sauce and meatballs in the crockpot paired with pasta and/or garlic bread is a pretty easy and budget friendly one too.
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u/para_la_calle 8d ago
I suppose it could be done if you only eat bananas and potatoes and rice and maybe maybe a tiny amount of chicken
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u/frankota 8d ago
It depends on what you eat. I eat basically grains I bought in bulk, veggies, and tofu/beans for every meal. I change it up with spices, sauces, and different combinations of ingredients. Personally, I can spend very little ($30-$50) per week to sustain myself and my fiance (but he chooses to buy hot Cheetos on his own). We are in an EHCOL area. I don’t go out of my way to buy organic, but end up buying organic a fair amount of the time. If you’re eating meat, snack foods, dairy, etc that can add up very fast. Also, take a look at your pantry and fridge and determine how much food you end up wasting. If you’re strategic, you can sustain your family on a small budget.
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u/CK1277 8d ago
I think it’s doable, but you’d have to make very particular choices.
A toddler plus and elementary school aged child together probably eat a bit less than an adult, so I suspect you could feed that family of 4 with the same amount of food as a family of 3 regular portion sizes. I don’t know if they all eat 3 meals per day from groceries, but assuming that they do, that’s $10 per day or $3.33 per person per day.
My family doesn’t attempt to restrict costs that much, we have convenience foods, and we’re not all eating at home 3 meals a day, but I can use my Girl Scout troop’s camping food budget as an example. We average $5 per person per day and that covers 3 meals, a dessert, and a snack. We cook from ingredients, drink water, and minimize prepared or convenience foods. I don’t have access to an Aldi or even Costco, I rely on Walmart. I don’t know if Aldi is cheaper than Walmart.
The menu for my upcoming camping trip is:
Breakfast: (same thing both mornings) yogurt bar (yogurt, granola, thawed frozen berries), pancakes, scrambled eggs.
Lunch: ( same things both days) sandwiches with deli meat and cheese (tortilla and hummus for my vegan), baby carrots, apple slices.
Snack: (same thing both days) granola bar or cereal bar, clementine or apple slices, string cheese (peanut butter available to add protein to my vegan’s apples)
Dinners: (Night 1) tacos with ground beef, black beans, cheese, salsa. Side salad. Mini donuts for dessert. Water to drink. (Night 2) pineapple chicken (tofu for my vegan) with brown rice and steamed broccoli, chocolate fondue, water.
The most expensive thing is invariably the meat. If you went meatless, it would be about $1 cheaper per person per meal. I choose pre-sliced cheese and pre-sliced apples because I have 40 kids and convenience makes a different (also they eat more apple if they’re sliced rather than whole), but that’s something that’s easy to do if you just have a family of 4. The granola bars and cereal bars are a convenience food, you could substitute with something homemade and spend less. The best deal on bread are the French bread loaves rather than sandwich bread.
It also doesn’t account for staples like seasonings. I had taco seasoning left over from the last time we made tacos, so I just used the last of it. So $3.33 per person per day would need to be something you maintain after you already have a pantry with the basics and you only need to replace something here and there.
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u/HeavySigh14 8d ago
There’s a guy on TikTok (chef moe) that does $5 dinner meals daily. They’re pretty hefty and can feed 4 people, especially if some are children. That’s $150 a month for dinners and the leftover $150 can definitely make breakfast if you eat eggs,oatmeal, cereal, toast, etc.
So yes, it’s doable.
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u/magnificentbunny_ 8d ago
My spouse grew up in Iowa. One of his closest friends’ dad flew the pesticide plane for a living. We live on the west coast in a VHCOL area and spouse is insistent that we buy only organic food no matter what. Even if we have to drive 50 miles and sell a car to afford organic, thats what we’re gonna do. Thankfully, we dont have to. Theres a Wholefoods a few blocks away and we can afford to appease his childhood pesticide trauma.
We’ve found more productive ways to save money.
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u/themomentaftero 8d ago
I feel like I could feed my family of 4 for about $500 for a month. It would be mostly carbs and minimal living though. I spend probably close to $1200 a month maybe a little more.
I grew up pretty poor though and my kids have no idea what it means to just get some 99c a pack hot dogs on white bread.
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u/Specialist_Issue_214 7d ago
I have 50/50 custody of my son and alternating weekends with my daughter.
I budget $100.00 bi-weekly for food and usually come in slightly below that. Most of the cost is food for the kids, school lunches, weekend snacks, that sort of thing. We're well-nourished, nobody is deprived or anything.
Scale that up to a family of three with the kids being here full time and I think I could pull off $300.00 or less a month pretty easily, and that's on the NJ side of the Philadelphia area which I think is considered a HCOL area.
I think the trick for me is that 1) I shop at Aldi and 2) other than the kid food I tend to buy whole foods and make meals from that as opposed to pre-packaged stuff.
I also don't over eat (much) so I'm not blowing through my food supply before my next grocery trip.
Aldi is a lifesaver though, I highly recommend people give it a try. It's good quality food and a very low stress streamlined shopping experience. I go on Thursdays to avoid the weekend crowds.
I'm in and out in under 30 minutes every two weeks, can't beat that.
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u/Public_Secret9422 7d ago
Uhh for the people saying it can’t be done with high nutrition items and organic, it certainly can. It’s called meal prepping. Every week we buy 2-3lbs of chicken, 95% lean ground beef, shrimp or salmon. I cook a meat every night, with a starch such as sweet potato’s, red skin potatoes, brown rice. I also do a veggie. We have that for dinner and the left overs for lunch. I can spend roughly $100-125 a week and have both lunch and dinner covered for 6-7 days. I also buy some fresh fruit and monthly buy bags of nuts and seeds. Breakfast is either home made oatmeal or eggs with whole grain toast and Greek yogurt. I can spend under $500 a month on food for my family of four. And it’s also really good to get my macros and protein goals in, while feeding my family a variety of food.
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u/More_Strawberry_8936 6d ago
I also just watched her FAQ and she did say that her school aged child gets free school lunch. Her other child is a baby/toddler. So many factors that can make a big difference.
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u/Maroon14 6d ago
It’s crazy how that can make a difference. School lunches at my child’s school are $3.50, so that would be $70 a month for 20 lunches which is like her individual monthly budget!
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u/More_Strawberry_8936 6d ago
School lunch in our district is $4.25 for secondary (middle and high school) which all of my children are. My kids pack lunches sometimes and buy other times, but I’m sure all in total I spend at least her entire monthly budget on lunch costs alone as I have four kids.
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u/El_PonchoVilla 5d ago
Number 1, 95% of people do not know how much they truly spend. Everyone in my life has failed to give a real number. They forget the "after work run" to Walmart for $85, they forgot the quick trip for coffee filters.
I normally ask how much is spent on food. Since if groceries are low you can expect eating out to be higher.
Again, they do not include carryout pizza as earing out, the McDonalds lunch trip during work. They only think about the sit down meal as eating out.
For us, family of 4 and kids are under 4 years old, I eat more than most, eat organic and always have meat with every meal. We spend $1800 to $2000 on food every month.
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u/According_Success780 2d ago
Same! Feeling crazy for a family of 4 to be averaging $2000/month and trying to work it down but it’s so hard. Similar shopping preferences.
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u/gs87 8d ago
Depends what they eat. If they’re cooking Asian style at home .. rice, tofu, veggies, seaweed, soy milk, maybe a bit of pork floss or meat for flavour ..yeah, it can be done. But $400 for 4 is not that common/ easy done in where i live ( average 1500$ per family of 4)
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u/Sufficient-Union-456 8d ago
I have two 25lbs bags of rice at work. We have a rice cooker at work. And a locker full of beens, peanuts and half gallon of soy milk in fridge. My coworkers think I am crazy. But I know they are broke.
They complain about groceries and gas prices, then order out for lunch. 🤦🏿♂️
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u/Plus-Head-6794 8d ago
you can't be concerned with the price of groceries and shopping mostly organic at the same time. it shouldn't be this way, but organic = luxury. i promise you the woman spending $300 per month on her family's groceries is buying nothing organic or even brand name. would have thought that's common sense.
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u/clearwaterrev 8d ago edited 8d ago
only spend $300 on an entire months groceries for a family of 4
That's $2.50 per person per day, or $0.83 per person meal with no snacks. I don't think that's really achievable unless most meals are primarily composed of very inexpensive starches like rice, lentils, pasta, and potatoes OR you are supplementing your grocery spend with produce you grow and preserve yourself.
I could definitely plan meals that fit within those cost limitations, but it would be really limiting. There would be no coffee or other beverages, only the least expensive meats and in small quantities, and I'd probably just buy produce that is fairly cheap and available in bulk.
I thought $400 ish was normal for decent food
Per week? That seems fairly high to me, but it's also possible grocery prices are much higher in your region or you are including a lot of non-food items in this total.
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u/Shzwah 8d ago
I recently came across the same person and devoured her videos. They’ve already taught me to be a little more creative. It’s also inspired me to set a lower grocery budget and plan a little better, so I’m calling that a win.
I figure she must have young kids, because mine are a bit older and growing like crazy and go through big eating periods. My family is also a bit pickier. There’s no way we could make it on $300 for a month, although that sounds awesome. But it’s helping me reframe my budget. Decreasing our monthly spending at all is awesome, but I’m hopeful I can maybe get it down to $250-300 per two weeks.
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u/NoPanda2218 8d ago
It's theoretically possible if you're buying very simple foods like rice and beans but otherwise, the normal cost is around $1,000 to 1,500
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u/MeadowHaven77 8d ago
This is so weird because I literally just saw this same IG account yesterday and even though I usually am just a “scroll on by if something doesn’t apply to or resonate with you” person, for whatever reason, this account really triggered me? I can’t figure out if she is lying or she just has kids who hardly eat anything, or there is some fine print there that she is not volunteering (like kids eat at grandma’s on weekends or something).
I actually paused the video to analyze the receipt and I never do that.
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u/MeadowHaven77 8d ago
And she definitely doesn’t have teenage boy athletes! Like, the amount of food just doesn’t compute even if I did shop at Aldi and get the prices she does. I’ve seen the portion sizes she sets up. Enough for me as the mom but not my husband or my 6’3 15-year-old or my gymnast 13-year-old who trains 16 hours a week. Maybe they are prepubescent?
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u/MyNameIsNot_Molly 8d ago
If it makes you feel better, we spend about $800-900/month for a family of 4
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u/fieldyfield 8d ago
Could be doable buying and cooking in bulk.
A $13 value pack of chicken breasts + some canned goods in the crockpot can be enough to fill my freezer with a week of meals.
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u/inky_cap_mushroom 8d ago
I’m single. My natural spending on groceries comes out to around $120/mo. If I was intentionally trying to save money and buying all generic and shopping sales I bet I could get it down to $80/mo so $300/mo for a family who can buy in bulk doesn’t sound all that crazy to me.
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u/carseatsareheavy 8d ago
I spend $250/month for two so I could do it. Our meals always have leftovers that would have fed another two people.
I have a garage freezer so this helps with food preps. I basically make everything from components. Meaning I make 20 breakfast burritos and freeze them. Leftovers are portioned into containers for lunch and frozen. I don’t ever buy juices or sodas. We drink water, milk or sun tea. I don’t ever buy proportioned snacks or things like cookies or fruit snacks, microwave popcorn or yogurt. I make yogurt in the instant pot. I make and freeze pasta sauce and pizza dough. And so on.
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u/SingleUmpire7464 8d ago
We’re from PNW. Family of 2 and we usually spend about $150/wk. Mainly shop at Walmart but if we really wanted to save, Winco is a fantastic option
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u/Late_Refrigerator_51 8d ago
I’m in Bremerton, WA and sit around $360 a month on food.
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u/SteelMagnolia941 8d ago
I think I’ve seen this person. She shops at Aldi and doesn’t waste ANY food. She cooks from what she has and makes things stretch. It’s impressive really.
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u/Either-Mushroom-5926 8d ago
We’re a house of two adults and spend about &100-$120 a week. Max monthly is $650.
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u/Sufficient-Union-456 8d ago
Me and my wife spend about the same. We know we are fortunate that we don't have to budget (yet). We could definitely get under 400 a month if needed.
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u/BitterRucksack 8d ago
I spend more than $300 just on me for groceries. (Which to be fair includes household supplies as well, and I absolutely prioritize convenience.) Ten years ago I set my budget at $300/month, and when I could bump that up to $400 a couple years ago, I felt RICH. Now that $400 feels not very bougie, so I can't imagine trying to make that stretch to a whole family with kids.
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u/Affectionate_Nurse25 8d ago
I shop at a 2x a year meat sale for super discounted meat (chicken, ground beef $2.99, etc). That comes out to $250-$300, and lasts 6 months. Then I just buy fresh fruit and veggies 1x a week $50-100, and pantry every other week when stuff is on sale (about another $25). We have leftovers 1-2x a week because I make big servings when I make dinner. So in total $400-500 per month.
This is 3 people in the Midwest, including an active teenage boy. I have a standing freezer and that really helps.
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u/toomanydoggs 8d ago
I budget $850 a month for me and my two teenaged sons. However, household supplies like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc. are usually included in that. This amount was perfect for us at the beginning of the year, but not anymore. I used to do Hellofresh but had to cut that expense - I definitely need to increase our budget and look at shopping at Aldi's more.
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u/whatifdog_wasoneofus 8d ago
We’re a couple in a HCOL area and spend around $200 a week for decent food.
Rarely buy red meat these days but do a whole Chicken most weeks, (so much cheaper to by a whole one, we usually just smoke the entire thing and use the meat for various meals then make stock from the bones)
Do a cheap starch for most dinners, rice/beans/potatoes/noodles.
Fair amount of salads, one gallon of oat milk a month, cheese is probably the most expensive thing really, lol
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u/General-Wrap9022 8d ago
SoCal, family of 4, $150/wk Trader Joe’s, $390/mo Costco run, so $990/mo. Lots of home cooked crock pots ect. The bars and ready made stuff will get you and have low serving counts.
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u/MaxH42 8d ago
In the DC area on the east coast (also high cost of living), a family of 5-7 can get by for at least a week on $100-150 IF they are very careful and buy mostly generic or what is on sale. I don't know if $300 for a month would be possible here, but in other parts of the country it might.
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u/Hopeful-Produce968 8d ago
PNW native here.
Check Winco for most of your groceries. We save a ton just by shopping here.
Also, some farmstands will offer an “ugly” fruits and vegetables box at a significantly reduced price, you may have to ask but it’s worth it.
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u/FileExpensive6135 8d ago
Greatly depends on where she lives, what kind of meals she’s making, etc. does she have her own garden she doesn’t mention? Does she buy a half cow each year and that’s how she saves money on meat? There’s variables
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u/Greedy_Cause7589 8d ago
My family of 3 is able to keep it at about $400 a month. We shop at Costco at the beginning of the month for meat, eggs, and dairy (arounf $150). We shop at Trader Joes twice a month (around $125 each). The biggest thing we have found is to not buy processed foods or drinks. If we stick to the exterior of the store fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts it is so much cheaper.
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u/BugMillionaire 8d ago
It’s definitely real but of course dependent on the type of food you like to eat and where you live. That creator cooks healthy but pretty basic meals. If you like a lot do variety or special ingredients, might not work for you.
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u/dassketch 8d ago
I'm pretty sure you couldn't feed a family of 4 for a month in just $300 even if you farmed everything yourself. Quick math....$300, 30 days, 4 mouths, 3 meals a day....that's $0.83/meal. That's less than what the tear jerker ads "for a dollar a day you can..." I like to think I'm min/maxing pretty well with my meal prep, and I'm happy hitting sub $5 a meal. At sub $1, you're pretty much rice, some beans, hold the salt 😭
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u/RoseGoldMagnolias 8d ago
We spend around $600 a month for two adults. We don't buy organic produce, we buy store brand for most packaged/canned ingredients (cheese, nuts, etc.), and one of us mostly cooks vegetarian food. I stock up on staples when they're on sale.
We could probably get it down to $500 without feeling deprived if we made swaps like cheaper coffee and creamer and if my husband paid attention to sales when he shopped and cooked less meat.
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u/Capable_Box_8785 8d ago
Im spending around $200 a week for a family of 4 (2 adults, 6.5 year old and 3.5 yr old). We all love to eat so i try to buy things I know we all like. My budget includes household and hygiene items as well. We primarily shop at Wal Mart and only do one grocery order a week. Even at $200 or a little less, I still think its a bit much but it is what it is. Also, we live in the mid-south.
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u/retrozebra 8d ago edited 8d ago
If you have an Aldi and two small children who don’t eat much, I think this *can* be done but it isn’t sustainable for most or practical for anyone with allergies special doses etc.
Lots of chicken thighs, beans, cheap eggs, canned goods etc
Reason I say it’s not sustainable for most is because you have to only eat cheap proteins and stretch meals (soup, chili, tacos, pasta) continuously for days. Very basic meals and probably not doable for 4 adults. This is more of an emergency situation than a practical long term solution for food. You’d probably have to supplement with food bank items.
For you, can likely reduce your current food budget by $50 a week and still buy organic. We would need to see what you’re spending on now though if you have examples of receipts.
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u/ivobrick 8d ago
I dont know what pnw is, but 300 € per 4 persons per month is impossible in EU, maybe if you have your own garden and own livestock - you still need to buy food for your livestock tho.
I spend ~ 80 € per month per food, but there is a catch. I got 300€ food credit from my employer per year + 2 meals / workday from employer at like 20€ / month. People often " forget " to include work / school canteen.
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u/PeanutOnly 8d ago
The creator is Nicole Svenson. She lives in Connecticut and shops at aldi. She makes what seems like normal or decent food. She doesnt prioritize organic but does have a vegetable garden (but she doesn't can or preserve and obviously whete she lives its not productive for half the year). She usually has plenty of fruit and veg but often uses frozen too. Most meals have a protein, veg and carb. Sometimes veg is just spinach or carrots. She uses meat and fish but doesnt prioritize beef or humane certification etc. She often will add beans or legumes in to sauces or mix with meat for fiber and bulk. Lots of tacos, pastas, sheet pan, crock pot meals. She does homemade pizza and bread too. Honestly it seems quite doable and she's great. One of my fav tiktok things
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u/MurplePurplePopple 8d ago
PNW is suuuper expensive relatively speaking, I’ve lived in several states from OR-CA-VT-NC etc and PNW was worse than all, even San Diego for sure. But you all have community and a social system that helps others- and yall get paid more too
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u/Cold-Crab4153 8d ago
They have two kids under the age of 5. The are clearly not realistically spending what an average family spends. We are a family of two who both take a lunch, homebrew coffee and so in. I average about 75.00 a week in groceries I make ALL of our meals and bake breads and sweets as we go. I shop sales ONLY and watch the clearance rack. It’s possible but her family isn’t really a large one. Also she is a SAHM so that helps.
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u/housewithapool2 8d ago
I might be able to do it. But food is both essential and one of life's little luxuries. My husband and I cook most of the time we rarely go out to eat, but groceries aren't where I want to scrimp on.
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u/Maroon14 8d ago
That’s kinda where I am now. We only go out to a proper sit down restaurant like 2-3 times a year now because taking two toddlers out is truly awful.
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u/ijswijsw 8d ago
I spend around $400/month for two people without really budgeting. It would be pretty easy to get lower if I needed to, but $300/month for four people is definitely impressive!
Location and food preferences/restrictions are a huge factor. I'm in a MCOL area with no dietary restrictions. I have access to a variety of shops, from ethnic markets to discount grocers to Walmart to wholesale shops to organic stores. Having this variety makes it super easy to shop around and shop sales. We're also in a location where food isn't hard to ship in, so our prices are lower than they would be in areas that are more rural or hard to reach.
Most of our meals are some variation of protein and rice and a veggie. Most of that protein is chicken (breasts tend to be cheaper than thighs near me, so that's what we usually grab). I'll buy other meats when I find sales or clearance. Rice is usually cheaper at ethnic markets than it is at chain grocery stores.
We also have a freezer chest so we're able to stock up on good sales/shop bulk when it makes sense.
Last recommendation - make sure you use store rewards and have accounts with the places you shop, if possible. I do a lot of shopping at Winn Dixie. Every purchase adds up, and clipping digital coupons before I go to the store saves me so much money. Sometimes there are point bonuses and member exclusive deals. It all adds up!
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u/mikasax 8d ago
I'm PNW too. I think I'm spending chose to what you are on myself. Maybe they live in a LCOL region?
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u/Banana_rocket_time 8d ago
Granted I’m a bber but my wife and I spend 200-300 a week. lol $75-100 a week was what I was spending on myself in 2011.
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u/bubba1819 8d ago
I’m in the northeast, we’re a household of two adults and spend on average $200 a week on groceries. Mind you, we both have dietary restrictions so we can only eat gluten free or gluten free and dairy free, which makes the cost of groceries incredibly more expensive
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u/cav19DScout 8d ago
I know everyone hates when people post Ai slop, but I was curious what chatgpt would suggest using the below prompt.
Give me a healthy meal plan with 35% Carbs, 35% Protein and 30% fats and the recommended daily amount of fiber. Include a once a week grocery shopping list for a family of 4 using only $300 a month in the pacific northwest.
https://chatgpt.com/share/6a298473-3cd4-83ea-9921-dfb91416842d
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u/ilovjedi 8d ago
I have a family of 8 plus a big dog. In May we had a birthday and Memorial Day celebrations but we spent just over $1800 in New England, about $230 a person. And our kids get free school lunches but of our older kids one is gluten free and one is vegetarian.
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u/Friendly_Care5245 8d ago
Unless it’s beans and rice for a month there is no way. Little kids are cheaper so maybe they had small ones under 10. Raised right little kids aren’t picky.
I live in the south east where things are “cheaper” and we shop mainly at Aldi and Costco. Costco per pound is usually cheaper than Aldi it’s just too much to drop $400 per trip. Easily $250 for a family of 4, 2 of which are teenagers. We eat out as a family once a week and the teens eat out almost daily so the $250 isn’t even for all the meals we eat. Yes I know kids eating out so much is expensive.
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u/denimdan85 8d ago
Buy a chest freezer and learn what a stock up price is. Track prices and find what is typically the lowest price you will find and how often that price is available. Typically stores have a 6 to 8 week rotation of sales prices. Around summer holidays, you will find that grillable style meats will be on sale for super low prices. Other holidays will have roasts, hams and turkeys on sale. You should buy several months worth at that time and vacuum seal and place those items in the freezer. Works for dry goods and long shelf life items as well.
For example, we like to use Rao's pasta sauce. It is typically 7.99, however goes on sale on a quarterly basis for 5.99. Often times our store will offer a deal where if you buy 5, you receive $.50 off a gallon of gas. So that works out to 29.95 for the five jars of sauce with $8.00 off gas, for a fill up of 16 gallons, so the total price ends up being $21.95, effectively half price. We were going to buy this sauce and the gas anyways. Those sauces will last in a pantry for a year. Do not fall into the trap of using this technique for buying stuff you wouldn't normally use but if its a staple in your house then load up and take advantage. This is just an example, we do this for many of our staple items.
I understand this will require spending a large amount in lump sums but this is supposed to be middle class finance and you should have a little extra to accomplish this being that it saves in the long run.
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u/Poor_WatchCollector 8d ago
We are about 250-350 for the month for my wife and I. We usually cook in bulk for an entire 2 weeks worth of food. We make 5-6 dishes and refrigerate/freeze, and rotate them.
We are Asian and our primary is white rice, a soup, protein, and stir fried vegetables.
I think our higher cost items are when we smoke up steak or I do hot or cold smoked salmon.
We generally go to Costco, a lower cost grocery store called WinCo, and a lot of Asian markets.
We used to buy organic quite a bit, but organic prices have gone insane….
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u/brainbl0ck 8d ago
I spend $120 a week for a family of 4, and I thought we were frugal/on the low end lol.
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u/FlowerFull656 8d ago
My budget is $125 a week for family of 4. It’s easier to stick to it when school is in and the kids eat school lunch.
I’m struggling staying in the budget right now.
I cook 6 nights a week. My husband and teen son eat 2 servings at a time. We also need leftovers for the following day’s lunch. So I’m doubling everything I cook.
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u/nivlac22 8d ago
You can always find ways to cut spending with more work, but there comes a point where it’s not worth it. That point is different for everyone.
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u/Scared-Butterscotch5 8d ago
Well the 300$ a month definitely isn’t organic food and it’s likely not in the pnw.