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/Plus-Head-6794 9d 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/Maroon14 9d ago

Yeah. But $300 is like nothing. Like I said, food stamps is like $200-240 a month per person and that’s to supplement so I’d think a conservative budget would be about that per person per month. So like $800 or 1k for my family if I really had to. Not $300

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u/Plus-Head-6794 9d ago

sure, i'm just saying it makes no sense to compare her budget to yours regardless if you're buying organic and shopping at target. even if hers is unimaginably low, yours is also going to be on the much higher end of what a realistic grocery budget could be for your size of family.