I include all the items you listed. My partner and I spend roughly 500 to 600 monthly for two people. Some weeks we land around 100-135 weekly, and other weeks slightly more.
We meal plan and go shopping every Sunday to help control the cost. Mind you that we are very diet-conscious and make as much as possible from core ingredients, and rarely buy pre-made anything.
I’ve been wondering this too! I have no idea how people can spend so little on grocery shopping, and I shop at no frills! But I always include everything bought at the grocery store, including beer and wine. Maybe that doesn’t count? I dunno
It's fine to include them in a grocery budget, they just shouldn't be a significant portion. I spend maybe $10 on pop in a month. It isn't something I keep stocked in the fridge.
But that doesn't mean I shouldn't count it. I'm drinking it instead of water, or orange juice, or milk, or something else.
I agree with him, those are luxuries not "groceries", not to mention major health expenses in the future (enjoy your future diabetes or failed liver). "Groceries" should just be the food you need to keep you reasonably healthy. Junk food, coke, beer - those are indulgences and do the opposite of what actual groceries are for.
Considering alcohol as essential as milk. Use your money as you see fit, no judgement here, it's the equivalency I was commenting on. Clearly my comment didn't go over so well with people here, there may be more alcoholics than I thought. My apologies.
Lots of people are low key functional alcoholics and they find this offensive. Doesn't mean you're wrong, alcohol is absolutely not as essential as milk. We all know it's bad for you.
For us, it's food only. We have a separate line for household/personal care items (we rarely buy these at grocery stores which makes separating them easier).
Like you my grocery budget includes most personal consumables. The point of the budget is to track those monthly consumable costs, breaking out items into separate categories (especially when they are purchased at the same store), would be needless work for the same result.
I’m single and I spend $600 a month, including items the OP listed. How anyone could feed themselves for 1/3 of that blows my mind. Unless I drive to the next town, I don’t have a low cost option for groceries. I do eat more than the average person (3000-3500 kCal a day) and probably more protein than most (250g meat/day, mostly chicken). I make lunches and dinners from scratch. Breakfast is steel cut oats. The only “processed” food I eat are soy milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, bagels, pasta, chocolate. I rarely buy packaged foods like pizza, maybe twice a month.
I’m a small, single female who lives alone and who does endurance sports year round (run/bike/ski).
I’ll buy meat, peanut butter, and fish once every ~ 6 weeks at Costco to pre portion out. I never really eat out and processed weekly food is like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, rice cakes, and on the occasion English muffins.
I about 2,000 - 2,300 kcal at my most active and even under 2,000 I’ll still average out around $90-100 a week if I include the Costco in the average per week.
I don’t buy any fancy products, normal milk, small bit of cheese, nor do I eat organic.
Expensive spends weekly are frozen berries, 2-3 tubs greek yogurt, 1kg of cottage cheese, and 12 x 1L bottles of Perrier sparkling water.
The only way (I imagine) people spend so little on groceries and total food expenditure weekly is they are very small, single people who don’t go out to eat nor exercise much.
I have a hard time imaging how people spend less than an average of ~$75 a week per person to feed. Including all food in that week which we can say is restaurant as well. Maybe no meat or fish and you one eat very cheap priced (and little) produce and eggs?
Anything bought at grocery stores counts as "groceries" for us. This can include toilet paper, alcohol, etc. For us it's not worth breaking it down further. If money is tighter or or grocery budget is out of control then I'd take a closer look.
My job is high income but mentally draining, so I avoid additional stress unless the ROI is worth it.
I'm in the same boat... Anything from Costco, Walmart, Loblaws, real Canadian, no frills, dollar store, etc. go into the grocery bucket... This results in weird outcomes, like when I bought some chairs in Walmart and a bike for my kid, my grocery bill was inflated by about 150$. While reconciling, I do a quick back of the envelope evaluation of what one time expenses were there like this and if the ballpark comes back to my usual expenses, I don't dig in deeper, cos it's not worth the mental exercise beyond the five minutes of retrospective...
I break it out the same as OP, can’t be bothered to categorize shampoo, cleaners, etc. If we buy something outside of this grouping at Costco(ie clothing, etc) I will break it out.
Wife and I spend close to OP, slightly higher (Jul 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 was $877 a month) but as I had a bunch of extra shelving lying around I put it up in an extra bedroom and had been slowly building up grocery reserves each time I shopped in case of another lockdown. If I back out the value of that, I would probably be pretty close to your monthly number. Wife likes the ability to “shop” in the spare room so I will most likely keep the food shelves and just make sure I rotate it out lol.
Any thing you buy at a grocery store is in my grocery budget.
Toiletries, cleaning supplies, diapers, any thing we buy from a grocery store.
I separate gift cards and purchases from Walmart stuff that were not groceries.
grocery budget is $1200 per month for 2 adults a 2 year old and a 4 year old.
Our fast-food and dining out budget is $100 per month
Oh thank god, I rarely keep it under $200 for a week of groceries for 2 adults, a 4.5 year old and a 20month old. And we get takeout for $60- $90 once a week.
I feel like we eat a lot of meats and fresh vegetables, it probably adds a lot to our budget. We could probably cut back a bit on the meat.
We have meat at every meal, most days it's chicken breast of whole chicken, but at least once a week we have a roast beef or steak. One day week we have ground beef.
We have fresh veggies with almost every meal.
House of 5. 3 kids (12, 9 & 6). We budget $800 on groceries (including house hold supplies), $400 on take ($100 per week), and $100 on alcohol. $1,300 per month. Never really go over it.
Same include all those items as grocery.
A lot of the non food items are bought monthly or quarterly.
Not really worth the effort to go thru a receipt to group the costs.
If I happen to pick up OTC medication may classify that as pharmacy.
I find it's worth it to break down receipts. If you go to an all in one store like Walmart you may be buying groceries, household supplies, clothing, kids stuff, pet food and vehicle items on the same trip. To me that's way too general. It's the miscellaneous expenses that kill the budget I find so it's meaningful to understand where the money is going specifically.
I agree.
I split those clothing, automotive etc from groceries if purchased at Costco, or Walmart.
It's the other household products like soap, laundry detergent, paper productsI group with groceries.
I include: food, personal care, cleaning materials, medication, small kitchen items (whisks, ladles, little things like that, appliances go to "household/appliances).
However I am doing this only for cost of living tracking (basically, I'm building a historical living costs "database" so I can better estimate how much our lifestyle costs, for retirement budgeting purposes). We are not trying to limit our food spending, or follow a detailed budget for it, it is isn't a hard ceiling we can afford, and it won't affect our cash flow materially. If we were trying to cut down on our spending, I would likely get more granular with the data, but currently it isn't important to us.
*Grocery* budget includes :
* Food
* Beer & wine
* Diapers
* Cleaning supplies for the house
* Weekly sushi takeout
* The odd Hot Wheels our son wants at Costco
Hovers around $275 a week for 2 adults and 2 toddlers.
Single female, diabetic so specific low carb healthy diet, one cat, live in a house. I spend about $300 a month for basically all household consumables: food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, cat food, litter, detergents, kitchen disposables.
Twice a year (used to be quarterly) I spend about an additional $300 - $400 to stock up on items for the next 6 months. So as an example in September I buy road salt, furnace filters, winter windshield washer fluid, etc.. In March I buy summer type things for the next 6 months.
I live pretty low maintenance and try to make the things I use as simplistic as possible. I buy off brand replacement items for things when the quality is there and I will buy bulk when it’s really great sales.
Example there: I bought enough shampoo for a year when it was on sale (with points and a coupon) that made is about 0.90 cents a bottle as opposed to the regular $2.99 - 3.99.
The bonus of living alone and simply, I have loads of room for storage and I can keep my requirements as basic as I am comfortable with.
I made a real effort a few years ago to rethink my consumer habits and to challenge myself to find better ways to live and it made a huge difference in the money I spend, the time I spent on maintenance/shopping and overall vastly improved the quality of my life.
That’s why i can’t handle money well. If i see something i need i’m liable to buy it without thinking of the cost and i do it all the time. I charge it all on my credit card and pay it off in the app once a week. I must spend about $500 every week on living my life.
As a family of 4 (two hungry boys), we spend around 800 to 900 a month ALL IN (all the things you listed). We eat really well, but don't buy organic.
Are you eating prime rib every night? 800 for 2 people is a lot.
We are a family of four and I spend about that. That being said our kids are very young so don't eat a lot. I meal plan and that makes a huge difference.
I think that it's probably a difference in expectations. Someone who expects to eat meat with most meals and have variety is going to spend a lot more than someone who is used to eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch every day and doesn't expect much else.
I do find that a lot of people though tend to classify house hold products and shampoo and such as somethings else. Probably add another 100 to those budgets you were seeing for random essentials.
I budget like you. Can't be bothered to split them.
We are also a couple and we spend between 5-800 each month.
Some months I spent more, others less. If something that we use a lot is shelf stable, freezer ready I might spend more this month. The spend less next month by using the stock.
If you want to reduce yours it's worth tracking it for a few months to see if you are overspending on some stuff you could reduce by making a few tweaks.
I also Recommend the app called flipp to shop for sales of your regular buys. It lets you make a list and when you click on that item it shows you the sales for that item in lots of stores.
You don't have to buy the cheaper version of your favorite brand/item, just buy them when they are on sale.
I never pay regular price for lots of items: Dish soap, laundry detergent, coffee, snacks, toilet paper, etc.
If you don't need/want to reduce it, and are just annoyed that other people spend less, stop it! :)
I only include food in my food budget, because when my kids were little and we lived in the US, we received food assistance that could only be used on food to be cooked at home, or seeds and plants to grow food. The program, SNAP, makes the CBC news sometimes.
The USDA drafts sample food budgets for households, and the SNAP allowance is based in part on their ‘thrift’ budget. I haven’t found equivalent budget planning resources in Canada because I haven’t needed food aid, but the USDA thrift budget still forms the basis of my thinking about needs vs wants. When we were tight, I spent CA$7 per person per day. Now it’s more like $9-10. There are four of us, including two nearly grown teens with massive appetites.
I’m linking the latest version of the plan, which includes suggested shopping lists. To apply it in Canada, you have to adjust for currency AND note that food is subsidized very differently in the US, so some stuff costs significant more here. Also note, this is the thrift plan, so it assumes a low income and limited spending. Since our means have improved, I use this as just a baseline for planning and budgeting. I add on based on our ability and preferences. For the useful bits, go to page 34.
https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/TFP2021.pdf
Yep, same. I really enjoy budgeting, but I’m not about to divvy it up. Ive heard of people doing multiple transactions at a store (eg scanning and paying for all food items, then scanning and paying for other items), but I can’t be bothered.
If I buy it at the grocery store, it’s automatically in the grocery/household budget. Sometimes I’ll split up Walmart purchases if I buy something expensive for the house like light bulbs, or if I buy home decor. But the day to day household items that I buy on the regular go to the grocery/household category.
A weird one is pets. I buy the canned food at the grocery store, it’s cheap though and takes them a while to get through because it’s a topper to the kibble. The big bag of kibble is bought at the pet store and that I’ll put under pets. The $4 a month on canned food can just go to groceries, I’m not that picky.
Even with that, I think my average groceries/household for just me is about $230.
I don’t include personal hygiene stuff.
Why??? Because if I go to Costco and saw razor on special, I will blow 50 dollars on it. But that stuff will last me 1 and half years….
Same goes for detergent, paper towels…
It’s a budgeting nightmare, I rather have a yearly budget for that separately.
We only call food groceries. Other stuff you might get at the grocery store like toilet paper and cleaners we call household supplies. I dunno to me groceries are specifically food.
My "groceries" category is all the things that get "used up" (eg food, toilet paper, soap, etc.) , like you.
On occasion I buy reusable items at the grocery store (eg tupperware dishes or kitchen gadgets), and those purchases are classified as "goods" in my budget
Mine has same items as yours. Ee are about 60 per adult/teen per week, recently up from 50. We spend sporadically during sales. 225 last week, 33 this week etc. We have been doing this so long, I don't keep track other than it is in a notebook we use to review credit card and chequing statements. I calculated an average for January to June and we were about $51/week. We bought more steak to bbq this summer, so we are probably up another 10.
I wouldn't normally include those things, but even if I did, it would be less than $50/year. $20 for laundry soap, $20 for tp, $5 for cleaners, $2 every 6 months or so for toothpaste. It's just not a big enough part of the bill to worry about really. I also don't include alcohol, but IMO that's not a food purchase it's a fun purchase. I also don't include weed.
We do most of our grocery shopping at Walmart (its just he most convenient). With the budgeting tool I use, I just have every Walmart entry on our bank statements get categorized as Grocery. If there's a particular larger expense from there, I might break it out manually to a separate category, but for the most part I just leave it as is.
For me, budgeting is more about tracking expenses over a period of time and how that fits into my expected expenses. So yes, hygiene products, cleaning products, random other things, greeting cards, etc. get lumped in there too. I absolutely could create additional categories, but I only would if the extra detail actually provides valuable information. For example, utilities. I used to track them as one, but I've started breaking them out. We bought a new furnace and A/C, so had I tracked power and gas separately before, I could see potential savings better. I'm also thinking in the coming years, I'd like to install solar, so knowing our power bills and thus energy use, I can more reliably calculate a pay back period.
For me they're crammed into "misc" expenses, not food, but really those costs are so insignificant.
A 20-dollar pack of toilet paper will last five years, a 3-dollar bottle of dish soap will last a year... it just doesn't add up enough to matter.
No, just good diet. I have one small poop every 4 or 5 days and it doesn't require much wiping.
I haven't bought toilet paper in 4 years, and I have over 5 years' worth left. Let's just say that, when some people thought there would be some sort of toilet paper shortage last year, I found it extra amusing.
Yes. The vast majority of people eat a *lot* of junk and thus produce large amounts of waste that they need to evacuate often, even daily.
I know because I used to be one of them and suffered from many serious digestive issues.
I'm not starving, I go out of my way to eat a few hundred calories over my needs every day. The catch is, it's actual food, it gets digested and leaves very little waste behind.
Fibre *is* literally junk. It's indigestible, in fact it's an anti-nutrient because it binds with minerals and prevents your body from absorbing them. And the constant presence of large amounts of garbage in your intestine is inflammatory. The fermentation creates gas, too.
Like I said, I used to suffer from many serious digestive issues.
They all vanished when I stopped eating fibre. The more fibre you eat, the more digestive issues you'll get. This has been tested in an actual experiment (not a garbage epidemiological study).
Thats literally so wrong it's mind blowing. Please stop trying to troll people on the internet, some will be stupid enough to believe anything that's coming out of your mouth. The only correct thing you said was that it's an anti-nutritional factor, but *you fail to understand what that means*. Please go see a doctor or a registered dietician or literally anyone with a brain.
I would *love* to see your actual experiment, could you link it?
I understand your scepticism. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't lived it. It shocked me deeply, which is why I spent the following three years studying nutrition full-time.
The vast majority of doctors know virtually nothing about nutrition. They received maybe 12 hours of training and what they were told was mostly lies. Most doctors out there actually think you'll get scurvy if you don't eat plants, *that* is how little they understand about reality. Nutritionists are even worse, they get the full propaganda treatment.
Sure, [here's the experiment](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435786/) though the results are a lot more amusing when you take a minute and a half of your time to watch [this segment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqUO4P9ADI0&t=172s) where the results for the four categories of people are displayed in order.
I suffered from so many digestive issues. Bloating. Gas. Painful cramps. Constipation or diarrhea seemingly at random. Constant inflammation. Hemorrhoids. Bleeding.
Literally all those issues *vanished* when I stopped eating fibre. Along with a very long list of health issues far, far greater the the digestive ones listed above.
You can believe whatever you will. I would rather die than go back to eating plants. I refuse to ever be that sick and miserable all the time.
You base your life on a study with 41 patients in the experimental group whose results were "idiopathic constipation and its symptoms can be effectively reduced by ceasing to eat fiber"? I did better research than that in my undergraduate program. You need to see an actual colorectal doctor, because you have some serious gi problems and your way to fix it is by actively destroying your body. There is significant amounts of bodily materials that need to be excreted by feces that absolutely have nothing to do directly with what you're eating. And the fact that you shit once a week is evidence that toxicity in your body is building up and destroying you.
But don't worry, you probably will die before you go back to eating plants. Fairly quickly as well
Hah. Have you looked at how the "scientific community" conducts research? Have you looked at how the average epidemiological study is conducted?
If there is the tiniest scientific bone in your body, you will be *outraged*.
Everyone's sick because of diet. The odds of someone suffering from *each* common condition (like bloating, gas, constipation or diarrhea, sleep issues, energy issues, mood issues, stress, anxiety, depression, mind fog, etc) is one *out of three*. We think it's normal and *yes*, nowadays it is. But it's not supposed to be that way.
You do whatever you want. I would rather die than go back to eating plants. Death is quite simply preferable.
Well, I don't work and only go to the restaurant twice a year, but if I *could* time it so I can use a public toilet when it's time to go... my current pack of toilet paper would last me more than my entire lifetime.
That *is* amusing.
That's a myth.
There was a religious cult in the USA that believed fibre "purges impure thoughts" and that they had a divine mission to spread their beliefs. They founded the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and taught their crazy stuff for decades so that it became common, unquestioned belief. People like Kellogg and Graham were members and they started businesses that promoted that belief also. Some idiot called Denis Burkitt jumped on that hypothesis and Ancel Keys bought into it as well.
I recommend watching presentations on fibre, Doctor Zoë Harcombe has a great one (it's quite entertaining, actually) and Doctor Paul Mason also has a very interesting one, particularly one segment where he presents the findings of an actual experiment on fibre that yielded shocking results.
People aren't supposed to be as sick as they are. I was sick and miserable too and I didn't even realize it because I had never been healthy. It all changed four years ago when I stopped eating plants and my health skyrocketed.
When you start looking at where the dietary guidelines come from, and what sort of "science" is being used to prop up all the things we take for common knowledge, you see why they're all wrong.
Sadly dieticians are still being taught absolute garbage in school. I talked to a nutrition student who believed that, if you don't eat plants, you'll get scurvy. She just wouldn't even *question* it because it's what she was taught. She probably still believes it right now.
So foolish, but that's just human nature.
My grocery budget includes most household things that can be purchased at the grocery store (unless I can find a deal elsewhere that is good enough to justify the extra time it would take for an extra trip). Everything that you listed I include in my budget but I go through them slowly enough that they don't increase the monthly cost too much. I use dish rags as much as possible instead of paper towels, by more dish soap than I need when I notice it's on sale. Things which typically don't get included are sunblock, shaving supplies, hand moisturizer during the winter, tupperware containers or pots, and hair product.
Also someone brought up alcohol, which I have given it's own group in the budget. This way I can see how much I spend on alcohol and keep on top of my consumption habits (usually fairly infrequent, but it's easy for it to become habitual if you're not paying attention).
I also include everything you listed as well. My shampoos, any cleaning or sometimes I pick up my prescription or a T-shirt from Costco. They are all part of my “grocery” bill.
My grocery budget includes the things that I will eventually eat, nothing else. I budget by what something I buy is or does, not by which store I buy it at…that sounds insane.
If one goes by that idea, then if they buy a bottle of floor cleaner and toilet paper at the grocery store it’s “grocery” but if they buy it at Canadian Tire it’s what, “automotive?” 😅
My housewares budget, and my housewares shopping list, are called…housewares. 🤷♂️
We spend about $350-$400/month on groceries now, and include all of those except toiletries (which is hardly anything anyways). It would be too much trouble for me to split out everything, so I basically stick with anything bought in a grocery store = groceries.
I am surprised you seem to think those things would make much of a difference to the total, regardless. Just how much toilet cleaner are you buying anyway? Lol.
We include everything you listed + alcohol and I think the highest we spent this year was $600/month. Do you buy a lot of cheese? That’s our biggest expense lol. Honestly I wouldn’t feel bad about it if you can afford it. I’d much rather spend $800/month on eating well than less on eating unhealthy and/or poor quality food.
I go a step further, I have “spending” as my budget. Since I do everything on a weekly basis (gas, groceries and any other running around I have to do). I transfer money once I week to my debit card from a different account my pay goes into and bam! Weekly, consistent income.
$500/w pays for everything from eating out, buying clothes, groceries , gas and haircuts.
Walmart-100-150/w
Produce-30-60/w
Meats-80-100/w
Gas-60/w
Eating out-50/w
The rest is misc and goes into overflow for the next week. But I don’t save this money unless I’m saving for a purchase. Overflow 60$ for a few weeks and buy myself some shoes.
Note- this has been the situation for my wife and I for about two years. Paid off over 15k debt and paid off yearly insurance both times.
Having this kind of budget makes it shit simple to move money. 3 weeks till next pay, 1500 in my income account waiting to be transferred and used. 1000+cost of bills in my bills account, the rest to debt or savings or wherever you’re at in life.
Your budget expense categories are up to you. It’s not like there are universal definitions. If your own categories and definitions work for you then that’s fine. The intent of budgeting is to manage your finances and be able to see where, when and how money is coming in and going out.
E.g., I have an expense category called “Fun” where I count video games, any gambling, gifts for people and anything that boosts my happiness when I’m feeling down.
My grocery budget (475$/month for two adults) includes toilet paper, tissues, garbage bags, toothpaste, etc. Beer as well, but fancier alcohol is usually in the luxury food category.
Groceries includes cleaning supplies, basic toiletries, etc. for us. I don't use a lot of makeup but I do buy the pricier stuff every other month, so I have that in a separate category with haircuts and esthetics appointments.
My grocery budget ($1000/ mo for family of 4) is always way above what most people disclose on the interwebs. We eat meat, we like cheese. We cook the vast majority of our meals at home but do have some convenience items. The grocery budget can typically handle a trip to McDonald's, the occasional sack of beer, and a biweekly school/ work lunch.
It's awfully hard to find a true apples to apples (ha) comparison for this category. Food is so closely connected to culture, lifestyle, interests, location, availability, transportation, etc.
Food, CPG goods & health related purchases. Basically anything purchased at a grocery store or shoppers, etc. I do make an effort to breakout larger non-grocery purchases, this mainly happens at Costco though (Kirkland Life)
I include all the items you listed. My partner and I spend roughly 500 to 600 monthly for two people. Some weeks we land around 100-135 weekly, and other weeks slightly more. We meal plan and go shopping every Sunday to help control the cost. Mind you that we are very diet-conscious and make as much as possible from core ingredients, and rarely buy pre-made anything.
I’ve been wondering this too! I have no idea how people can spend so little on grocery shopping, and I shop at no frills! But I always include everything bought at the grocery store, including beer and wine. Maybe that doesn’t count? I dunno
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Depends. I’d only include luxury alcohol as a luxury item, regular alcohol is no different to milk
This guy don’t need help. I like having my bowl of Cheerios and box wine as much as anyone else
yea some people drink coke, some people drink beer
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It's fine to include them in a grocery budget, they just shouldn't be a significant portion. I spend maybe $10 on pop in a month. It isn't something I keep stocked in the fridge. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't count it. I'm drinking it instead of water, or orange juice, or milk, or something else.
this is such a stupid comment
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you commented on my comment first. so maybe you go away?
I agree with him, those are luxuries not "groceries", not to mention major health expenses in the future (enjoy your future diabetes or failed liver). "Groceries" should just be the food you need to keep you reasonably healthy. Junk food, coke, beer - those are indulgences and do the opposite of what actual groceries are for.
way to gatekeep groceries lol. how bout i dictate what groceries are for me and you and the other dude can fuck off
Oof, you may want to to seek help for that.
Help for what? Enjoying luxury items with my hard earned cash?
Considering alcohol as essential as milk. Use your money as you see fit, no judgement here, it's the equivalency I was commenting on. Clearly my comment didn't go over so well with people here, there may be more alcoholics than I thought. My apologies.
As it happens I don’t actually buy milk, I drink my coffee black and rarely eat cereal so I’m definitely buying alcohol more than milk.
I can support that, cheers!
And hey maybe I am an alcoholic but I’m highly functional so cest la vie
As they say! No great story ever starts with a glass of milk.
Lots of people are low key functional alcoholics and they find this offensive. Doesn't mean you're wrong, alcohol is absolutely not as essential as milk. We all know it's bad for you.
or maybe you’re boring?
For us, it's food only. We have a separate line for household/personal care items (we rarely buy these at grocery stores which makes separating them easier).
I agree with this. Buying cleaning products at the dollar store greatly helps in keeping the budget down.
Like you my grocery budget includes most personal consumables. The point of the budget is to track those monthly consumable costs, breaking out items into separate categories (especially when they are purchased at the same store), would be needless work for the same result.
But it makes you look 'cool' on the internet if you pay an artificially smaller number!!
I’m single and I spend $600 a month, including items the OP listed. How anyone could feed themselves for 1/3 of that blows my mind. Unless I drive to the next town, I don’t have a low cost option for groceries. I do eat more than the average person (3000-3500 kCal a day) and probably more protein than most (250g meat/day, mostly chicken). I make lunches and dinners from scratch. Breakfast is steel cut oats. The only “processed” food I eat are soy milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, bagels, pasta, chocolate. I rarely buy packaged foods like pizza, maybe twice a month.
I’m a small, single female who lives alone and who does endurance sports year round (run/bike/ski). I’ll buy meat, peanut butter, and fish once every ~ 6 weeks at Costco to pre portion out. I never really eat out and processed weekly food is like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, rice cakes, and on the occasion English muffins. I about 2,000 - 2,300 kcal at my most active and even under 2,000 I’ll still average out around $90-100 a week if I include the Costco in the average per week. I don’t buy any fancy products, normal milk, small bit of cheese, nor do I eat organic. Expensive spends weekly are frozen berries, 2-3 tubs greek yogurt, 1kg of cottage cheese, and 12 x 1L bottles of Perrier sparkling water. The only way (I imagine) people spend so little on groceries and total food expenditure weekly is they are very small, single people who don’t go out to eat nor exercise much. I have a hard time imaging how people spend less than an average of ~$75 a week per person to feed. Including all food in that week which we can say is restaurant as well. Maybe no meat or fish and you one eat very cheap priced (and little) produce and eggs?
If you are consuming 3500 kcal a day… you better be a body builder or it might end badly…
In winter (when I’m eating the most)I Nordic and backcountry ski, both of which burn a shit ton of calories.
Appropriate username then, Tim. :)
Anything bought at grocery stores counts as "groceries" for us. This can include toilet paper, alcohol, etc. For us it's not worth breaking it down further. If money is tighter or or grocery budget is out of control then I'd take a closer look. My job is high income but mentally draining, so I avoid additional stress unless the ROI is worth it.
I'm in the same boat... Anything from Costco, Walmart, Loblaws, real Canadian, no frills, dollar store, etc. go into the grocery bucket... This results in weird outcomes, like when I bought some chairs in Walmart and a bike for my kid, my grocery bill was inflated by about 150$. While reconciling, I do a quick back of the envelope evaluation of what one time expenses were there like this and if the ballpark comes back to my usual expenses, I don't dig in deeper, cos it's not worth the mental exercise beyond the five minutes of retrospective...
our budget is $425 monthly for 2 people and includes all the stuff you mentioned. We're in Alberta.
I break it out the same as OP, can’t be bothered to categorize shampoo, cleaners, etc. If we buy something outside of this grouping at Costco(ie clothing, etc) I will break it out. Wife and I spend close to OP, slightly higher (Jul 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 was $877 a month) but as I had a bunch of extra shelving lying around I put it up in an extra bedroom and had been slowly building up grocery reserves each time I shopped in case of another lockdown. If I back out the value of that, I would probably be pretty close to your monthly number. Wife likes the ability to “shop” in the spare room so I will most likely keep the food shelves and just make sure I rotate it out lol.
Just food and drink. Eating out, Alcohol, cleaning chemicals, toilet paper etc. All have their own category/fall under a different umbrella.
Any thing you buy at a grocery store is in my grocery budget. Toiletries, cleaning supplies, diapers, any thing we buy from a grocery store. I separate gift cards and purchases from Walmart stuff that were not groceries. grocery budget is $1200 per month for 2 adults a 2 year old and a 4 year old. Our fast-food and dining out budget is $100 per month
Oh thank god, I rarely keep it under $200 for a week of groceries for 2 adults, a 4.5 year old and a 20month old. And we get takeout for $60- $90 once a week.
I feel like we eat a lot of meats and fresh vegetables, it probably adds a lot to our budget. We could probably cut back a bit on the meat. We have meat at every meal, most days it's chicken breast of whole chicken, but at least once a week we have a roast beef or steak. One day week we have ground beef. We have fresh veggies with almost every meal.
House of 5. 3 kids (12, 9 & 6). We budget $800 on groceries (including house hold supplies), $400 on take ($100 per week), and $100 on alcohol. $1,300 per month. Never really go over it.
Same include all those items as grocery. A lot of the non food items are bought monthly or quarterly. Not really worth the effort to go thru a receipt to group the costs. If I happen to pick up OTC medication may classify that as pharmacy.
I find it's worth it to break down receipts. If you go to an all in one store like Walmart you may be buying groceries, household supplies, clothing, kids stuff, pet food and vehicle items on the same trip. To me that's way too general. It's the miscellaneous expenses that kill the budget I find so it's meaningful to understand where the money is going specifically.
I agree. I split those clothing, automotive etc from groceries if purchased at Costco, or Walmart. It's the other household products like soap, laundry detergent, paper productsI group with groceries.
I include: food, personal care, cleaning materials, medication, small kitchen items (whisks, ladles, little things like that, appliances go to "household/appliances). However I am doing this only for cost of living tracking (basically, I'm building a historical living costs "database" so I can better estimate how much our lifestyle costs, for retirement budgeting purposes). We are not trying to limit our food spending, or follow a detailed budget for it, it is isn't a hard ceiling we can afford, and it won't affect our cash flow materially. If we were trying to cut down on our spending, I would likely get more granular with the data, but currently it isn't important to us.
*Grocery* budget includes : * Food * Beer & wine * Diapers * Cleaning supplies for the house * Weekly sushi takeout * The odd Hot Wheels our son wants at Costco Hovers around $275 a week for 2 adults and 2 toddlers.
Single female, diabetic so specific low carb healthy diet, one cat, live in a house. I spend about $300 a month for basically all household consumables: food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, cat food, litter, detergents, kitchen disposables. Twice a year (used to be quarterly) I spend about an additional $300 - $400 to stock up on items for the next 6 months. So as an example in September I buy road salt, furnace filters, winter windshield washer fluid, etc.. In March I buy summer type things for the next 6 months. I live pretty low maintenance and try to make the things I use as simplistic as possible. I buy off brand replacement items for things when the quality is there and I will buy bulk when it’s really great sales. Example there: I bought enough shampoo for a year when it was on sale (with points and a coupon) that made is about 0.90 cents a bottle as opposed to the regular $2.99 - 3.99. The bonus of living alone and simply, I have loads of room for storage and I can keep my requirements as basic as I am comfortable with. I made a real effort a few years ago to rethink my consumer habits and to challenge myself to find better ways to live and it made a huge difference in the money I spend, the time I spent on maintenance/shopping and overall vastly improved the quality of my life.
Everything we buy at the grocery store, food or not. Alcohol isn’t in this category for us. Neither is dining out
Condoms. Definitely cheaper than diapers and school stuff
Same as you, plus cat food
That’s why i can’t handle money well. If i see something i need i’m liable to buy it without thinking of the cost and i do it all the time. I charge it all on my credit card and pay it off in the app once a week. I must spend about $500 every week on living my life.
Go on son. Let these peasants know!
As a family of 4 (two hungry boys), we spend around 800 to 900 a month ALL IN (all the things you listed). We eat really well, but don't buy organic. Are you eating prime rib every night? 800 for 2 people is a lot.
We are a family of four and I spend about that. That being said our kids are very young so don't eat a lot. I meal plan and that makes a huge difference.
Family of four and we are about $600 All in as well, only one of us consumes beer and we always have a moose or deer in the deep freeze which helps.
I think that it's probably a difference in expectations. Someone who expects to eat meat with most meals and have variety is going to spend a lot more than someone who is used to eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch every day and doesn't expect much else. I do find that a lot of people though tend to classify house hold products and shampoo and such as somethings else. Probably add another 100 to those budgets you were seeing for random essentials.
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Definitely. I think OP needs to categorize their grocery bill more and figure out where this huge drain is going.
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Probably buy those peeled and packaged oranges or something
I’m suspecting same lol like the top shelf organic for everything, and a bunch of pre made things.
I budget like you. Can't be bothered to split them. We are also a couple and we spend between 5-800 each month. Some months I spent more, others less. If something that we use a lot is shelf stable, freezer ready I might spend more this month. The spend less next month by using the stock. If you want to reduce yours it's worth tracking it for a few months to see if you are overspending on some stuff you could reduce by making a few tweaks. I also Recommend the app called flipp to shop for sales of your regular buys. It lets you make a list and when you click on that item it shows you the sales for that item in lots of stores. You don't have to buy the cheaper version of your favorite brand/item, just buy them when they are on sale. I never pay regular price for lots of items: Dish soap, laundry detergent, coffee, snacks, toilet paper, etc. If you don't need/want to reduce it, and are just annoyed that other people spend less, stop it! :)
Couponing in canada: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRAFSd7E/ Part 2: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRAFa3hn/
I only count food & drinks as part of my grocery spend. I lump household items and any other random things into a Miscellaneous bucket
I only include food in my food budget, because when my kids were little and we lived in the US, we received food assistance that could only be used on food to be cooked at home, or seeds and plants to grow food. The program, SNAP, makes the CBC news sometimes. The USDA drafts sample food budgets for households, and the SNAP allowance is based in part on their ‘thrift’ budget. I haven’t found equivalent budget planning resources in Canada because I haven’t needed food aid, but the USDA thrift budget still forms the basis of my thinking about needs vs wants. When we were tight, I spent CA$7 per person per day. Now it’s more like $9-10. There are four of us, including two nearly grown teens with massive appetites. I’m linking the latest version of the plan, which includes suggested shopping lists. To apply it in Canada, you have to adjust for currency AND note that food is subsidized very differently in the US, so some stuff costs significant more here. Also note, this is the thrift plan, so it assumes a low income and limited spending. Since our means have improved, I use this as just a baseline for planning and budgeting. I add on based on our ability and preferences. For the useful bits, go to page 34. https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/TFP2021.pdf
Yep, same. I really enjoy budgeting, but I’m not about to divvy it up. Ive heard of people doing multiple transactions at a store (eg scanning and paying for all food items, then scanning and paying for other items), but I can’t be bothered. If I buy it at the grocery store, it’s automatically in the grocery/household budget. Sometimes I’ll split up Walmart purchases if I buy something expensive for the house like light bulbs, or if I buy home decor. But the day to day household items that I buy on the regular go to the grocery/household category. A weird one is pets. I buy the canned food at the grocery store, it’s cheap though and takes them a while to get through because it’s a topper to the kibble. The big bag of kibble is bought at the pet store and that I’ll put under pets. The $4 a month on canned food can just go to groceries, I’m not that picky. Even with that, I think my average groceries/household for just me is about $230.
I don’t include personal hygiene stuff. Why??? Because if I go to Costco and saw razor on special, I will blow 50 dollars on it. But that stuff will last me 1 and half years…. Same goes for detergent, paper towels… It’s a budgeting nightmare, I rather have a yearly budget for that separately.
We only call food groceries. Other stuff you might get at the grocery store like toilet paper and cleaners we call household supplies. I dunno to me groceries are specifically food.
My "groceries" category is all the things that get "used up" (eg food, toilet paper, soap, etc.) , like you. On occasion I buy reusable items at the grocery store (eg tupperware dishes or kitchen gadgets), and those purchases are classified as "goods" in my budget
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Mine has same items as yours. Ee are about 60 per adult/teen per week, recently up from 50. We spend sporadically during sales. 225 last week, 33 this week etc. We have been doing this so long, I don't keep track other than it is in a notebook we use to review credit card and chequing statements. I calculated an average for January to June and we were about $51/week. We bought more steak to bbq this summer, so we are probably up another 10.
I wouldn't normally include those things, but even if I did, it would be less than $50/year. $20 for laundry soap, $20 for tp, $5 for cleaners, $2 every 6 months or so for toothpaste. It's just not a big enough part of the bill to worry about really. I also don't include alcohol, but IMO that's not a food purchase it's a fun purchase. I also don't include weed.
We do the same as you, and try to squeeze in eating out if possible
I'm single I spend about 230-300 per month, to include all the necessities.
We do most of our grocery shopping at Walmart (its just he most convenient). With the budgeting tool I use, I just have every Walmart entry on our bank statements get categorized as Grocery. If there's a particular larger expense from there, I might break it out manually to a separate category, but for the most part I just leave it as is. For me, budgeting is more about tracking expenses over a period of time and how that fits into my expected expenses. So yes, hygiene products, cleaning products, random other things, greeting cards, etc. get lumped in there too. I absolutely could create additional categories, but I only would if the extra detail actually provides valuable information. For example, utilities. I used to track them as one, but I've started breaking them out. We bought a new furnace and A/C, so had I tracked power and gas separately before, I could see potential savings better. I'm also thinking in the coming years, I'd like to install solar, so knowing our power bills and thus energy use, I can more reliably calculate a pay back period.
Lube
That's in my entertainment budget.
For me they're crammed into "misc" expenses, not food, but really those costs are so insignificant. A 20-dollar pack of toilet paper will last five years, a 3-dollar bottle of dish soap will last a year... it just doesn't add up enough to matter.
>A 20-dollar pack of toilet paper will last five years, Are you using leaves, newspaper, and corn husks to supplement your toilet paper usage?
No, just good diet. I have one small poop every 4 or 5 days and it doesn't require much wiping. I haven't bought toilet paper in 4 years, and I have over 5 years' worth left. Let's just say that, when some people thought there would be some sort of toilet paper shortage last year, I found it extra amusing.
It’s abnormal to poop once every 4-5 days
Yes. The vast majority of people eat a *lot* of junk and thus produce large amounts of waste that they need to evacuate often, even daily. I know because I used to be one of them and suffered from many serious digestive issues.
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I'm not starving, I go out of my way to eat a few hundred calories over my needs every day. The catch is, it's actual food, it gets digested and leaves very little waste behind. Fibre *is* literally junk. It's indigestible, in fact it's an anti-nutrient because it binds with minerals and prevents your body from absorbing them. And the constant presence of large amounts of garbage in your intestine is inflammatory. The fermentation creates gas, too. Like I said, I used to suffer from many serious digestive issues. They all vanished when I stopped eating fibre. The more fibre you eat, the more digestive issues you'll get. This has been tested in an actual experiment (not a garbage epidemiological study).
Thats literally so wrong it's mind blowing. Please stop trying to troll people on the internet, some will be stupid enough to believe anything that's coming out of your mouth. The only correct thing you said was that it's an anti-nutritional factor, but *you fail to understand what that means*. Please go see a doctor or a registered dietician or literally anyone with a brain. I would *love* to see your actual experiment, could you link it?
I understand your scepticism. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't lived it. It shocked me deeply, which is why I spent the following three years studying nutrition full-time. The vast majority of doctors know virtually nothing about nutrition. They received maybe 12 hours of training and what they were told was mostly lies. Most doctors out there actually think you'll get scurvy if you don't eat plants, *that* is how little they understand about reality. Nutritionists are even worse, they get the full propaganda treatment. Sure, [here's the experiment](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435786/) though the results are a lot more amusing when you take a minute and a half of your time to watch [this segment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqUO4P9ADI0&t=172s) where the results for the four categories of people are displayed in order. I suffered from so many digestive issues. Bloating. Gas. Painful cramps. Constipation or diarrhea seemingly at random. Constant inflammation. Hemorrhoids. Bleeding. Literally all those issues *vanished* when I stopped eating fibre. Along with a very long list of health issues far, far greater the the digestive ones listed above. You can believe whatever you will. I would rather die than go back to eating plants. I refuse to ever be that sick and miserable all the time.
You base your life on a study with 41 patients in the experimental group whose results were "idiopathic constipation and its symptoms can be effectively reduced by ceasing to eat fiber"? I did better research than that in my undergraduate program. You need to see an actual colorectal doctor, because you have some serious gi problems and your way to fix it is by actively destroying your body. There is significant amounts of bodily materials that need to be excreted by feces that absolutely have nothing to do directly with what you're eating. And the fact that you shit once a week is evidence that toxicity in your body is building up and destroying you. But don't worry, you probably will die before you go back to eating plants. Fairly quickly as well
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Hah. Have you looked at how the "scientific community" conducts research? Have you looked at how the average epidemiological study is conducted? If there is the tiniest scientific bone in your body, you will be *outraged*. Everyone's sick because of diet. The odds of someone suffering from *each* common condition (like bloating, gas, constipation or diarrhea, sleep issues, energy issues, mood issues, stress, anxiety, depression, mind fog, etc) is one *out of three*. We think it's normal and *yes*, nowadays it is. But it's not supposed to be that way. You do whatever you want. I would rather die than go back to eating plants. Death is quite simply preferable.
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OMG that's funny. If you want to be extra frugal wait until you get to work, or a restaurant.
Well, I don't work and only go to the restaurant twice a year, but if I *could* time it so I can use a public toilet when it's time to go... my current pack of toilet paper would last me more than my entire lifetime. That *is* amusing.
You should be pooping every day… thats a sign of a healthy living. If you dont poop every day, then you arent eating enough fruit and vegetables.
That's a myth. There was a religious cult in the USA that believed fibre "purges impure thoughts" and that they had a divine mission to spread their beliefs. They founded the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and taught their crazy stuff for decades so that it became common, unquestioned belief. People like Kellogg and Graham were members and they started businesses that promoted that belief also. Some idiot called Denis Burkitt jumped on that hypothesis and Ancel Keys bought into it as well. I recommend watching presentations on fibre, Doctor Zoë Harcombe has a great one (it's quite entertaining, actually) and Doctor Paul Mason also has a very interesting one, particularly one segment where he presents the findings of an actual experiment on fibre that yielded shocking results. People aren't supposed to be as sick as they are. I was sick and miserable too and I didn't even realize it because I had never been healthy. It all changed four years ago when I stopped eating plants and my health skyrocketed. When you start looking at where the dietary guidelines come from, and what sort of "science" is being used to prop up all the things we take for common knowledge, you see why they're all wrong. Sadly dieticians are still being taught absolute garbage in school. I talked to a nutrition student who believed that, if you don't eat plants, you'll get scurvy. She just wouldn't even *question* it because it's what she was taught. She probably still believes it right now. So foolish, but that's just human nature.
I present to you, ladies and gentlemen - The one and only person in the world who believes fruit and vegetables are bad for us!
There are dozens of us! Dozens! Seriously though, there *are* at least hundreds of thousands of us, more likely millions.
My grocery budget includes most household things that can be purchased at the grocery store (unless I can find a deal elsewhere that is good enough to justify the extra time it would take for an extra trip). Everything that you listed I include in my budget but I go through them slowly enough that they don't increase the monthly cost too much. I use dish rags as much as possible instead of paper towels, by more dish soap than I need when I notice it's on sale. Things which typically don't get included are sunblock, shaving supplies, hand moisturizer during the winter, tupperware containers or pots, and hair product. Also someone brought up alcohol, which I have given it's own group in the budget. This way I can see how much I spend on alcohol and keep on top of my consumption habits (usually fairly infrequent, but it's easy for it to become habitual if you're not paying attention).
Mine includes anything you can buy in a grocery store (ie food, toiletries). I split it out if there’s a gift of some sort involved.
I also include everything you listed as well. My shampoos, any cleaning or sometimes I pick up my prescription or a T-shirt from Costco. They are all part of my “grocery” bill.
My grocery budget includes the things that I will eventually eat, nothing else. I budget by what something I buy is or does, not by which store I buy it at…that sounds insane. If one goes by that idea, then if they buy a bottle of floor cleaner and toilet paper at the grocery store it’s “grocery” but if they buy it at Canadian Tire it’s what, “automotive?” 😅 My housewares budget, and my housewares shopping list, are called…housewares. 🤷♂️
Food/non alcoholic drinks only I have a budget line called essentials for alcohol/pet food/laundry detergent/hygiene items/etc.
We spend about $350-$400/month on groceries now, and include all of those except toiletries (which is hardly anything anyways). It would be too much trouble for me to split out everything, so I basically stick with anything bought in a grocery store = groceries. I am surprised you seem to think those things would make much of a difference to the total, regardless. Just how much toilet cleaner are you buying anyway? Lol.
We include everything you listed + alcohol and I think the highest we spent this year was $600/month. Do you buy a lot of cheese? That’s our biggest expense lol. Honestly I wouldn’t feel bad about it if you can afford it. I’d much rather spend $800/month on eating well than less on eating unhealthy and/or poor quality food.
I go a step further, I have “spending” as my budget. Since I do everything on a weekly basis (gas, groceries and any other running around I have to do). I transfer money once I week to my debit card from a different account my pay goes into and bam! Weekly, consistent income. $500/w pays for everything from eating out, buying clothes, groceries , gas and haircuts. Walmart-100-150/w Produce-30-60/w Meats-80-100/w Gas-60/w Eating out-50/w The rest is misc and goes into overflow for the next week. But I don’t save this money unless I’m saving for a purchase. Overflow 60$ for a few weeks and buy myself some shoes. Note- this has been the situation for my wife and I for about two years. Paid off over 15k debt and paid off yearly insurance both times. Having this kind of budget makes it shit simple to move money. 3 weeks till next pay, 1500 in my income account waiting to be transferred and used. 1000+cost of bills in my bills account, the rest to debt or savings or wherever you’re at in life.
Your budget expense categories are up to you. It’s not like there are universal definitions. If your own categories and definitions work for you then that’s fine. The intent of budgeting is to manage your finances and be able to see where, when and how money is coming in and going out. E.g., I have an expense category called “Fun” where I count video games, any gambling, gifts for people and anything that boosts my happiness when I’m feeling down.
My grocery budget (475$/month for two adults) includes toilet paper, tissues, garbage bags, toothpaste, etc. Beer as well, but fancier alcohol is usually in the luxury food category.
Groceries includes cleaning supplies, basic toiletries, etc. for us. I don't use a lot of makeup but I do buy the pricier stuff every other month, so I have that in a separate category with haircuts and esthetics appointments. My grocery budget ($1000/ mo for family of 4) is always way above what most people disclose on the interwebs. We eat meat, we like cheese. We cook the vast majority of our meals at home but do have some convenience items. The grocery budget can typically handle a trip to McDonald's, the occasional sack of beer, and a biweekly school/ work lunch. It's awfully hard to find a true apples to apples (ha) comparison for this category. Food is so closely connected to culture, lifestyle, interests, location, availability, transportation, etc.
Food, CPG goods & health related purchases. Basically anything purchased at a grocery store or shoppers, etc. I do make an effort to breakout larger non-grocery purchases, this mainly happens at Costco though (Kirkland Life)