fullofgrace
Posts: 395
Joined: 3/24/2006
From: fl, usa
Status: offline
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i shop and cook for myself, generally. i love cooking, though since my parents died i've been eating out more. but eating out aside, i tend to do serious grocery shopping about once every two months (i don't have a car) and i tend to spend about $150 per trip. every few weeks or so i'll go buy some fresh produce for $20ish. as far as meat goes, i pretty much only buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts, though i've been known to pick up the occasional package of ground turkey or pork chop. aside from meat, most of my money's spent on fresh fruit, veggies (i ALWAYS have broccoli and mushrooms on hand), soymilk and yogurt, pasta, alfredo sauce, and brown rice. back before i had to give them up, i also bought peppers pretty much every time i was at the store. i don't usually eat breakfast, but occasionally i'll buy frozen sausage or pancake mix (i've fallen in love with raspberry pancakes with nutella). i do make or buy a lot of sweets/desserts. i drink mostly water and tea, and i have tons and tons of tea on hand already. as far as where i buy...i like to shop at publix (the expensive store, but they have the best produce/meat and a halfway decent organic section)...sometimes i will go to another store for all my prepackaged stuff and then shop at publix for that stuff. i probably spend around $50/month on food outside the house...so...altogether for a month it's $75 (shopping) + $50 (fast food/restaurants) + $30ish (produce) = $155.
i could take that and multiply it by 10...however, often when you're cooking for more people, it's cheaper. when i lived at home, we spent around $300-$400 on groceries per month for 4-7 people's dinner, snacks, and lunch sandwich fixings. even multiplying that by two to make 10, you still come up with less than multiplying my monthly budget by 10. i did most of the cooking after the age of 10ish. we had a LOT of spaghetti, hamburgers, chili, baked chicken, baked pork chops, barbecued pork, prepackaged soups and sides, etc. because that's what the majority wanted and those are pretty much easy to cook 30 minute-1 hour meals. also, i'm the only person in my family who eats anything organic, soy, or hot tea, so we saved on the extra i spend on soymilk, yogurt, organic juices, and (in the past) on hot tea. it's easy to still spend that much and make it a bit healthier though - using olive oil on the main dishes instead of butter or vegetable oil, and making the sides more veggie oriented or using brown rice/wheat pasta as opposed to white pastas, rices, and prepackaged stuff really isn't that much more expensive. the difference to me in terms of what i eat now versus what i used to cook for my family is that when i cook for myself i tend to cook more specialized meals, on a smaller scale, so i focus on what i feel like cooking or eating within my budget as opposed to what everyone wants and how to feed the most amount of people within a budget.
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RE: Food Costs - 
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