$400 monthly grocery budget for family of 4?

[unrequited23]

I normally meal plan by what's on sale. For the past 6 months or so, there really haven't been sales. At the end of March I was just happy to see food on the shelves no matter the brand. Still random things are just completely wiped out the day I choose to shop. Last week it was yogurt. Nearly all yogurt in the cooler was gone except coconut.

I would suggest knowing your prices for the items you normally buy, so that way you know what's the usual price, a good price or a too expensive to buy even though it's on the list price. For example, eggs are usually around $1/dozen, sometimes they go up to $1.50 and unless I've promised the kids something that needs them I skip it. If I see them for $0.45 a dozen, I'm stocking up and making omelets for dinner and hard boiled eggs for grab and go snacks.

I do get a lot of my staples from Aldi--oats, tortillas, baking supplies, bread, chips/crackers for the kids. The prices are generally lower and more consistent. If you are budgeting consistency is nice to count on. We also do a meatless Monday and have breakfast for dinner at least one night every two weeks.

Pre-pandemic we averaged about $100-$110/week for 2 adults and 2 elementary aged kids. Now it's more like, $150/week and I nearly faint because only shopping every two weeks. I would say $600 would be a great starting goal for your family.

 

[disneychrista]

The egg prices some of you are quoting are seriously low. I don't buy eggs very often but when I do I have been paying about $1.99 for a half dozen. A dozen might be $2.99.

 

[Tallis]

The egg prices some of you are quoting are seriously low. I don't buy eggs very often but when I do I have been paying about $1.99 for a half dozen. A dozen might be $2.99.

Eggs here are .65 at Aldi and a bit higher at Walmart, as of yesterday. I'm so confused.

Our milk did go up at Walmart. It's been 1.99 gallon for a very long time, and just jumped to 2.99.

 

[DLgal]

The egg prices some of you are quoting are seriously low. I don't buy eggs very often but when I do I have been paying about $1.99 for a half dozen. A dozen might be $2.99.

Seriously. No one in CA is getting eggs that cheap. I'm paying around $2-4 per dozen, depending on what is available.

 

[starry_solo]

Seriously. No one in CA is getting eggs that cheap. I'm paying around $2-4 per dozen, depending on what is available.

Agreed, although some Aldi's have sprung up in various parts of So Cal and have sales for 99-cents a dozen.

And now I'm thinking, did the OP ever tell us the general area where she lives? Maybe $400/month is doable if she can get eggs for 65-cents a dozen like the PP.

 

[Tallis]

Seriously. No one in CA is getting eggs that cheap. I'm paying around $2-4 per dozen, depending on what is available.

We use a lot of eggs around here (FL.) If we had to pay those prices, I would get some chickens. I can't recall ever paying more than $1.09 per dozen, and almost bought chickens during that period.

We typically use 8 - 10 dozen a month. Costs typically around $5 to $7 a month. If that jumped to $40, it would be a deal breaker.

Agreed, although some Aldi's have sprung up in various parts of So Cal and have sales for 99-cents a dozen.

And now I'm thinking, did the OP ever tell us the general area where she lives? Maybe $400/month is doable if she can get eggs for 65-cents a dozen like the PP.

I agree. I wasn't even going to go there about the total. But we are big eaters, four adults (other three are men,) and our grandchildren live on the property and eat here often. Even so, we usually only spend around $400 a month. Sometimes that has went closer to $500, when we have bought expensive things like crab legs, but seems like a very large budget to me. Especially with only a 12 and 3 year old.

It must be a regional thing. Our cost of living here is fairly low, including real estate, property taxes, etc.

 

[starry_solo]

We use a lot of eggs around here (FL.) If we had to pay those prices, I would get some chickens. I can't recall ever paying more than $1.09 per dozen, and almost bought chickens during that period.

We typically use 8 - 10 dozen a month. Costs typically around $5 to $7 a month. If that jumped to $40, it would be a deal breaker.

LOL, we can't have chickens in the city.

 

[Tallis]

LOL, we can't have chickens in the city.

This proves you are correct about location differences. We live on a large parcel of land in a rural, mostly farming, community. Most people around here have chickens. I don't just because we have 4 free range dogs and I would want our chickens to be free range, not cooped up all the time.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Eggs here are .65 at Aldi and a bit higher at Walmart, as of yesterday. I'm so confused.

Our milk did go up at Walmart. It's been 1.99 gallon for a very long time, and just jumped to 2.99.

It's so crazy how different prices are around the country. Here in Louisville, KY at Kroger a dz eggs is .88 and a gallon of milk is 1.29.

 

[starry_solo]

A gallon of regular milk that isn't on sale is usually $2.99-3.99.

 

[barkley]

i live rural. every new neighbor/new to rural living inevitably wants to have chickens. they are so excited........until they find out that their chickens attract raccoons and coyotes to their property and the chickens end up with ptsd and stop producing. i've never had the desire even if we didn't have the predatory critters around-between the cost of building a coop that would be humane year round, the cost of the chickens, the cost of their feed....it would take a hundred years worth of egg purchases to break even.

 

[Tallis]

i live rural. every new neighbor/new to rural living inevitably wants to have chickens. they are so excited........until they find out that their chickens attract raccoons and coyotes to their property and the chickens end up with ptsd and stop producing. i've never had the desire even if we didn't have the predatory critters around-between the cost of building a coop that would be humane year round, the cost of the chickens, the cost of their feed....it would take a hundred years worth of egg purchases to break even.

We are not new to living rural, even so these are some of the other reasons I have never gotten chickens. Most people around here have lived here their entire lives and generations before, so not much in the way of new people moving here (except us, we are newbies at 14 years here.) We moved from WV, also a rural location. Aside from our dogs, we have tons of raccoons and other wildlife that I be concerned with.

Everyone I know keeps their chickens in smaller fenced areas, with coops for night. I know that is technically all they need, but I would want them to have the run of the property and no clipped wings so they could escape predators during the day. I just don't feel it's doable around here, which is likely why nobody does it. We have far more birds of prey here than any other kind.

Although we could build a coop from scrap that we already have - one part of our property has an old house and some buildings on it - the cost of feed would add up. In order to make it a good financial decision, we would have to get a rooster and breed some for meat. I don't want to do that.

Many people around us also have goats. I honestly don't know if they are for the milk/cheese or meat. Very different from WV, where nobody I ever knew had goats.

Another way to save, if people have the space, is put in a garden. We always had a large garden in WV, and did a lot of canning. Here, we have not been able to produce as much, as Florida gardening is very different. Despite our efforts, we usually only have surplus of peppers. Lots of peppers. Peppers love Florida sand, apparently. LOL

 

[afan]

A gallon of regular milk that isn't on sale is usually $2.99-3.99.

Ours near Seattle is reg price 2.99. The prices are what they are here, we don't have a ton of options for groceries even in a suburb of a major city. There's no aldi's around here. For that matter, unless I want to shop at a not super target or not super walmart, which I don't shop at anyway, we have the option of Safeway or Fred Meyer (our Kroger) and that's it within 5-10 miles. There's a couple of no name markets, oh and a grocery outlet that either doesn't have what I'd buy or it's more than where I normally shop. So for us it's Fred's for most, Target for some things like pasta that are cheaper there and the few things of their store brand we like, or Safeway for loss leaders, I only shop there for sales because their regular prices are insane. We just don't have options.

When I lived in NC there was 5 or 6 different chains, including a super target, I could shop at that were within 5 miles of my house. It was much easier to find deals there, so here we just watch for sales and stock up when things are a good price or buy it where it's cheapest. We don't all have these options that are discussed in threads like this.

 

[DLgal]

I guess I never really thought about the price of eggs. We buy no more than a dozen a week, unless I make French Toast, when I use 6 eggs just for that, so I'll buy an 18 pack those weeks. We don't eat that many eggs, so the price doesn't bother me.

Lately, we have had major egg shortages and many weeks, the only option is Egglands Best or some organic eggs that are like $4-5/dozen.

 

[DLgal]

Ours near Seattle is reg price 2.99. The prices are what they are here, we don't have a ton of options for groceries even in a suburb of a major city. There's no aldi's around here. For that matter, unless I want to shop at a not super target or not super walmart, which I don't shop at anyway, we have the option of Safeway or Fred Meyer (our Kroger) and that's it within 5-10 miles. There's a couple of no name markets, oh and a grocery outlet that either doesn't have what I'd buy or it's more than where I normally shop. So for us it's Fred's for most, Target for some things like pasta that are cheaper there and the few things of their store brand we like, or Safeway for loss leaders, I only shop there for sales because their regular prices are insane. We just don't have options.

When I lived in NC there was 5 or 6 different chains, including a super target, I could shop at that were within 5 miles of my house. It was much easier to find deals there, so here we just watch for sales and stock up when things are a good price or buy it where it's cheapest. We don't all have these options that are discussed in threads like this.

Same. I live in a very expensive city in Orange County, CA. I have lots of options, but none are cheap. There is expensive, more expensive, and then most expensive. I do Target for lots of things but it's not much cheaper than Albertsons or Ralph's.

It is what it is. Some weeks, I spend $400 on food.

 

[neatokimmo]

You know, how much you spend depends on where you live. We can do $100 pp per month no problem. But I can also get chicken and pork for $2 or less pp. Vegetables are rarely over $1 pp. Eggs are $1 or less, milk is $3.

Have you made an inventory of your pantry? Look and see if certain expensive items are not being used and cut those from your shopping list.

 

[SteveMouse]

Mozzarella logs are expensive, particularly in a normal grocery store. Olives are another item that are expensive.

 

[barkley]

Olives are another item that are expensive.

i can't believe how much olives have increased in price over the last few years. it's crazy! i have a kid who lives for nachos which in his mind are not nachos absent black olives. we also make several dishes that call for them. i finally waited until one of the stores had a crazy good sale on the small cans (sliced or chopped) and hit up the store manager to order me multiple 24 can cases. yup, that's allot of olives but their shelf life is several years so since i was able to get them for about 40% of the regular price i figured i would do well to stock up.

 

[Cattrip]

Same. I live in a very expensive city in Orange County, CA. I have lots of options, but none are cheap. There is expensive, more expensive, and then most expensive. I do Target for lots of things but it's not much cheaper than Albertsons or Ralph's.

It is what it is. Some weeks, I spend $400 on food.

I spend 400/week on food and household items. I start off on a Sunday getting meals at around 200 for the week...and then Sams is 1-200, but there are 6 in our family...two kids, one college student and one working adult son, who does contribute 200/month for food and utilities.

 

[firefly_ris]

I think a lot of this will be dependent on where you live. 400 doesn't sound implausible to me. Some of these other quoted weekly/monthly bills do but I don't live in those places.

Best thing to do is track and figure out what you're doing now and line by line figure out how to reduce overall cost by either eliminating certain things or figuring out where that thing is cheaper. I have a rotation of a few stores I shop at based on what they carry for what price, as well as an easily predictive sale cycle (like our locally owned grocery chain has overall higher prices but I go there certain weeks to stock up and freeze on BOGO items that I know will happen at certain intervals and don't come back until it happens again). I live rurally but fortunately the next burb over has 4 different grocery stores within a block of each other so it's easier to hop like that. Again location will dictate that as well.

[ETA] Also there are in fact cities where you can keep chickens... My own city Buffalo being one of them. Just need a permit.

I never had chickens but I did have ducks for several years so during that time I never purchased eggs and I could sell the duck eggs for a decent price. If I was in the mood for chicken eggs I had a few people who had chickens that I would trade eggs with. We built a coop with scrap wood and they had a daytime fenced area that we made from chain link fencing my in laws were throwing out. They ate a base of feed but most of their food came from my kitchen scraps and bug foraging in the yard so I wouldn't say they were expensive keepers.