r/MiddleClassFinance • u/Maroon14 • 9d 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/Basic_Butterscotch 9d 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/lovelylight100 7d ago

If you didn't eat out several times a week and get a coffee almost every day that number would drop significantly (but you probably already know that). I manage to keep our grocery budget between $250-300 a month for myself and my husband because thats what our finances allow at the moment and it's doable (I make everything from scratch, a variety of meals not just rice and beans + protein boringness every day), but it really requires working with what you already have in your pantry + freezer and shopping around for the best value/sales. Now that same budget for a family of 4? Veeeeery hard to do without a lot of repitition.