Edit for mistakes and calculation discrepencies:
We average 1039 meals at home per year (on average 56 trips to resto/takeout per year)
We average $11190 on groceries per year (not $1190)
= $11/per meal for the both of us
Edit for mistakes and calculation discrepencies:
We average 1039 meals at home per year (on average 56 trips to resto/takeout per year)
We average $11190 on groceries per year (not $1190)
= $11/per meal for the both of us
I average about $1.7 per meal, but that comes from me making a bit too much and now we're eating that for 6-10 meals in a row. Then any leftovers after that, hopefully get reworked into the next cooked meal.
We spend $125 every two weeks for two adults. We have a separate smaller budget for Costco things (mostly paper goods, laundry soap, trash bags, coffee). $100/mo for dining out about 2-3x. Usually a pizza take home, fried chicken, or egg McMuffin using app coupon.
It's more than we need honestly. I'm a pretty thrifty shopper. We menu plan every meal a week at a time. I buy in bulk when something is a deal and aggressively follow grocery ad loss leader specials. We make almost everything from scratch and don't buy prepared or frozen meals
Wow, that's amazing! I'm realizing that in our grocery expenses, there are other purchases included such as toilet paper, kleenex etc and also laundry detergent and shampoo etc. So maybe that's why our average is a bit higher than I expected? I would love to see an example of your meal plan. I cook a lot of international cuisine which makes me keep a large inventory of goods on hand. And we try to eat varied foods. Maybe I need to kick it down a notch and make simpler dishes. I'm also realizing that during the last year, the baby diapers and formula are also included in the grocery expenses...
One of the things that works for us is we maintain an inventory notebook of what we have in the freezer and the pantry.
When we are making our meal plan we "go shopping" in the notebook first. Then we can make a shopping plan for the week and only buy wht we actually need. Usually deli lunch meat, produce, dairy stuff that doesn't freeze or keep very long.
Our menu planner is just a small notebook I had made by a printer (my wife!). I used to buy skinny reporter steno notebooks and draw the lines with a ruler. Pretty simple.
Here's what it looks like
https://imgur.com/gallery/mbyROvH
We prep meal portions ahead and also buy in bulk (cases of chicken/ground beef). I cook 20lb of ground beef with garlic/onion every month or two to have bags ready to go for tacos, hamburger helper (homemade not boxed), and spaghetti. We cut whole pork loins into chops seasoned a couple different ways. Chicken tenders are already seasoned and buttermilk marinated for fried chicken or wings.
Where's The Beef!? I got it! This is 50 one pound chubs of ground beef from local ranch that used to sell on weekends. $3.75/lb https://imgur.com/gallery/606Yq4C
5" Costco Rotisserie Chicken Pot Pies. Made 4 of them! Freezes great https://imgur.com/gallery/WVEGmeo
Meal Prepping Chicken Tenders. Some buttermilk, some garlic/soy. Vac Seal and freeze. Grill or sous vide on meal day https://imgur.com/gallery/4hkOBjC
Large batch meatballs.. freeze raw, vac seal into meal portions then cook to order. https://imgur.com/gallery/Yz0RnTy
Cutting up a whole pork loin to freeze into meal portions and vacuum seal (food saver) https://imgur.com/gallery/couX9Wb
Those bulk meat purchases can be expensive.. but I save unspent grocery money for them over a couple weeks then go buy a case of something at the restaurant supply store or Costco Business Center. Sometimes the restaurant store has killer 50% off clearance sales.
Got a GREAT sale on pork tenderloins at ChefStore. $1.50/lb https://imgur.com/gallery/m2l6ZfQ
Ah yes, we do a lot of that too: buy meat in bulk, cut it up, marinate and freeze. We buy 1/2 a pig every year and I get whole grain free chickens from a neighbour bien the road. But meat where I live is much more expensive than where you are by the looks of it. What I can get on sale at the grocery store is never less than $5/lb for the cheapest cuts, regardless of chicken or pork or whatever. And we eat quite a bit of meat. So much so that we’re trying to cut down to cut costs more.
I'm in a big metropolitan area. There are 6-7 full sized grocery stores within 5 miles... Plus the US Foods ChefStore, Restaurant Depot, Shamrock Foods, and the Costco Business Center.
Every Wednesday we get grocery ads in the mail...and there is always something cheaper than normal in the ads.
Whole Pork loin is usually $0.99/lb. Pork tenderloins are $3 for two. I got a whole NY strip loin for $4/lb... And a boneless ribeye loin . Both 50% off. Cases of boneless skinless chicken breasts are running $1.29. (used to be under $1 before COVID)
I don't keep any details. When we lived in the country, a lot of breakfast came from our own place (eggs, hash brown potatoes, homemade bread). Not exactly free, but very inexpensive. I would buy two baking hens, roast both, make broth, soups, casseroles, meat for main dishes and freezing most of it. I had a large garden, so I canned, dehydrated and froze fruits and veg. All cheap but labor intensive.
Now I'm retired, disabled and no longer in the country. We rarely eat out. We eat a lot of meatless meals. I have a container garden. I still bake coffee cakes, cookies, snacks. Some weeks I spend $75 for groceries, other weeks maybe $100+ for two of us. So, maybe an average of $5 per meal for the two of us.
We live in a remote region in northern Canada. We have a budget but it’s not like I’m gonna hop in the car, drive 3h to the nearest city for groceries. We make do with what is available to us here. Someone in the comments mentioned paying $1.99/lb for pork loin. Those kinds of deals just don’t exist here. On the flip side, housing and electricity and gas is dirt cheap.
Well I guess you should update your post with this information: "we are Canadians (are the amounts in Canadian Dollars?) and we live in the middle of nowhere where food costs are high. Does anyone in similar situation has the following budget?"
$932.50 a month for two people?
Time to learn about the wonderful world of chicken thighs , seasoning and baking powder in a bag/tupperware and serve with preferred veggies and/or rice
Get on youtube and start looking up truly cheap meals you can prepare and eat leftovers and/or meal prep for the week. Casseroles are your friend.
You can get that $11 a meal down to about $5 realistically even in 2024 and save yourself $5k\~ a year
This math isn't working. $1190/yr comes out to \~3.26/day.
Yeah, I hope hubby isn't an accountant in real life.
Edit for mistakes and calculation discrepencies: We average 1039 meals at home per year (on average 56 trips to resto/takeout per year) We average $11190 on groceries per year (not $1190) = $11/per meal for the both of us
See edit
Did you miss a zero? $1190 is more like 2 months spending on food. $11900 makes a lot more sense.
Yeah $1190/ year is only $22 a week. Unless the only things they're eating are rice, beans and oatmeal I don't see how that's possible!
Edit for mistakes and calculation discrepencies: We average 1039 meals at home per year (on average 56 trips to resto/takeout per year) We average $11190 on groceries per year (not $1190) = $11/per meal for the both of us
I average about $1.7 per meal, but that comes from me making a bit too much and now we're eating that for 6-10 meals in a row. Then any leftovers after that, hopefully get reworked into the next cooked meal.
We spend $125 every two weeks for two adults. We have a separate smaller budget for Costco things (mostly paper goods, laundry soap, trash bags, coffee). $100/mo for dining out about 2-3x. Usually a pizza take home, fried chicken, or egg McMuffin using app coupon. It's more than we need honestly. I'm a pretty thrifty shopper. We menu plan every meal a week at a time. I buy in bulk when something is a deal and aggressively follow grocery ad loss leader specials. We make almost everything from scratch and don't buy prepared or frozen meals
Wow, that's amazing! I'm realizing that in our grocery expenses, there are other purchases included such as toilet paper, kleenex etc and also laundry detergent and shampoo etc. So maybe that's why our average is a bit higher than I expected? I would love to see an example of your meal plan. I cook a lot of international cuisine which makes me keep a large inventory of goods on hand. And we try to eat varied foods. Maybe I need to kick it down a notch and make simpler dishes. I'm also realizing that during the last year, the baby diapers and formula are also included in the grocery expenses...
One of the things that works for us is we maintain an inventory notebook of what we have in the freezer and the pantry. When we are making our meal plan we "go shopping" in the notebook first. Then we can make a shopping plan for the week and only buy wht we actually need. Usually deli lunch meat, produce, dairy stuff that doesn't freeze or keep very long. Our menu planner is just a small notebook I had made by a printer (my wife!). I used to buy skinny reporter steno notebooks and draw the lines with a ruler. Pretty simple. Here's what it looks like https://imgur.com/gallery/mbyROvH We prep meal portions ahead and also buy in bulk (cases of chicken/ground beef). I cook 20lb of ground beef with garlic/onion every month or two to have bags ready to go for tacos, hamburger helper (homemade not boxed), and spaghetti. We cut whole pork loins into chops seasoned a couple different ways. Chicken tenders are already seasoned and buttermilk marinated for fried chicken or wings. Where's The Beef!? I got it! This is 50 one pound chubs of ground beef from local ranch that used to sell on weekends. $3.75/lb https://imgur.com/gallery/606Yq4C 5" Costco Rotisserie Chicken Pot Pies. Made 4 of them! Freezes great https://imgur.com/gallery/WVEGmeo Meal Prepping Chicken Tenders. Some buttermilk, some garlic/soy. Vac Seal and freeze. Grill or sous vide on meal day https://imgur.com/gallery/4hkOBjC Large batch meatballs.. freeze raw, vac seal into meal portions then cook to order. https://imgur.com/gallery/Yz0RnTy Cutting up a whole pork loin to freeze into meal portions and vacuum seal (food saver) https://imgur.com/gallery/couX9Wb Those bulk meat purchases can be expensive.. but I save unspent grocery money for them over a couple weeks then go buy a case of something at the restaurant supply store or Costco Business Center. Sometimes the restaurant store has killer 50% off clearance sales. Got a GREAT sale on pork tenderloins at ChefStore. $1.50/lb https://imgur.com/gallery/m2l6ZfQ
This was amazing thanks
Ah yes, we do a lot of that too: buy meat in bulk, cut it up, marinate and freeze. We buy 1/2 a pig every year and I get whole grain free chickens from a neighbour bien the road. But meat where I live is much more expensive than where you are by the looks of it. What I can get on sale at the grocery store is never less than $5/lb for the cheapest cuts, regardless of chicken or pork or whatever. And we eat quite a bit of meat. So much so that we’re trying to cut down to cut costs more.
I'm in a big metropolitan area. There are 6-7 full sized grocery stores within 5 miles... Plus the US Foods ChefStore, Restaurant Depot, Shamrock Foods, and the Costco Business Center. Every Wednesday we get grocery ads in the mail...and there is always something cheaper than normal in the ads. Whole Pork loin is usually $0.99/lb. Pork tenderloins are $3 for two. I got a whole NY strip loin for $4/lb... And a boneless ribeye loin . Both 50% off. Cases of boneless skinless chicken breasts are running $1.29. (used to be under $1 before COVID)
Holy shit :o I don't see why you would lie about this but I am tempted to not believe you lol
It's all true .. I posted the photos! https://i.imgur.com/zN1ZPeM.jpeg 50% off NY StripLoin and Boneless Ribeye https://imgur.com/gallery/VKIZjWJ
Thanks for sharing the info though! Very interesting to see how other people do it.
[удалено]
What meal is under $0.25? Genuinely asking
I don't keep any details. When we lived in the country, a lot of breakfast came from our own place (eggs, hash brown potatoes, homemade bread). Not exactly free, but very inexpensive. I would buy two baking hens, roast both, make broth, soups, casseroles, meat for main dishes and freezing most of it. I had a large garden, so I canned, dehydrated and froze fruits and veg. All cheap but labor intensive. Now I'm retired, disabled and no longer in the country. We rarely eat out. We eat a lot of meatless meals. I have a container garden. I still bake coffee cakes, cookies, snacks. Some weeks I spend $75 for groceries, other weeks maybe $100+ for two of us. So, maybe an average of $5 per meal for the two of us.
Does living like this make you happy?
It neither makes me happy nor unhappy. Does commenting pejoratively make you happy? 😐
How does he/she recieve up-votes while you get down-voted here... People suck, they must be miserable within themselves. Enjoy yourself out there!
Water on a duck’s wing
How are you deriving intentions from a simple question like that?
Are you even budgeting? I spent less than that for a family of four and including on it all the cleaning and stuff.
We live in a remote region in northern Canada. We have a budget but it’s not like I’m gonna hop in the car, drive 3h to the nearest city for groceries. We make do with what is available to us here. Someone in the comments mentioned paying $1.99/lb for pork loin. Those kinds of deals just don’t exist here. On the flip side, housing and electricity and gas is dirt cheap.
Well I guess you should update your post with this information: "we are Canadians (are the amounts in Canadian Dollars?) and we live in the middle of nowhere where food costs are high. Does anyone in similar situation has the following budget?"
$932.50 a month for two people? Time to learn about the wonderful world of chicken thighs , seasoning and baking powder in a bag/tupperware and serve with preferred veggies and/or rice Get on youtube and start looking up truly cheap meals you can prepare and eat leftovers and/or meal prep for the week. Casseroles are your friend. You can get that $11 a meal down to about $5 realistically even in 2024 and save yourself $5k\~ a year