I really want "food shopping" vs. "other". Just treat dining hall food as eating out. So you probably spend about 20/week at the grocery store or the drug store or whatever, and eat out at least 2 meals, 6-7 days/week.
This was kind of difficult for me since for the past month or so we haven't gone food shopping at all, since we haven't unpacked the kitchen stuff yet (yeah, we're slow). So we've been going out to eat for pretty much every meal lately. So, I answered how it used to be before we moved, and how it'll (hopefully) be once we're settled in here.
Couple of caveats to my figure out around $150. First I'm buying for two since I'm married. Second, we get most of our food at Reading Terminal and pay a bit of a premium there. We get a break on veggies by shopping at Iovine, but our meat is much more expensive and we tend to go a little crazy at the cheese shop. The big difference is that we eat really good.
Some weeks are more, some are less. Depends several things. Whenever we get sticker shock at the supermarket where we get dry goods, it's usuaully due to sundries like cat food and personal grooming items.
The biggest line item money waster is breakfest cereal. We need to find a good alternative.
The shocking thing about Reading Terminal is how cheap you can get very high quality produce. And I just compared chicken prices at the market last night. There's not much difference, but that locally grown chicken cooks up so much nicer.
I'm still astonished that I spend more than $20 a week. That's what I fed myself on when I was in college. I used to buy a lot of stuff in bulk from the food co-op and purchase whole, uncut chickens. Both measures kept prices down.
What about old-fashioned oatmeal? Not the instant stuff, because that's pretty expensive per serving, but the Quaker Oats in a cannister deal? Takes a bit longer to make, but healthier and cheaper and you can actually toss in real fruit.
If you do still want breakfast cereals (and I assume at this point you've already looked at the store-brand types), for me, it's Trader Joe's all the way.
I'm not all that fond of oatmeal, but I have been thinking about getting some oats and other whole grains and making my own cereal. I supposed it's be like making my own granola. I'd just buy that but I have such severe allergies to nuts that I can't risk most what they sell. I've already died once from unexpectedly eating a nut and I don't want to press my luck.
My $150 is all me - but pretty much all of it is meat, veggies, cheese, and eggs. That's pricey ;) On a non-carb controlled diet I could feed just myself for $50 a week or less, easy.
Given that I am in a dorm that doesn't have a kitchen, these numbers don't reflect how I would normally eat if given a choice. I would PREFER to eat in most nights and cook dinner. It's also kind of touchy here because a lot of my friends prefer to eat out when Elliot and I would be just as happy eating a frozen meal or hot dogs at home.
To hazard a guess, I'd say that normally I will spend $60-70 on groceries/week and eat out once or twice once I move into an apartment with a kitchen.
i can't answer this accurately, since i buy food for Pixel and me, so i'll answer here. all money is in Canadian dollars.
every week (on thursday or friday) i go to the grocery store. i spend between $70 and $85, although occasionally less. on the weeks that i spend less, i sometimes go to the store in the middle of the week and spend another $20 or so.
we each get $40 per week spending money, and if we go out to eat (for lunch or something) it comes out of that.
approximately once a month, we get take-out, which usually ends up costing around $30 to $40.
This is hard to answer because we generally do two to three weeks of grocery shopping at once (for two people) and then get perishable bits periodically. We also get certain things in bulk that we then don't have to replace for more than one shopping cycle.
However, our goal is $10/person/day, so I went with that.
I established a baselined "Cost of Living" weekly expense that mostly reflects your first two questions, but also includes unavoidable non-utility costs such as buying stamps or picking up dry cleaning. This used to be $90, but this year i decided that was ridiculous and have so far been holding it to $65.
I try to hold costs from your second question (mostly lunch) to under $25 a week, reasoning that i can pack my own for about $3.50 a day, plus the cost of my preparation time.
A grocery trip tends to be about $60, with a big "stocking-up" trip being almost double that. That's just for me - Elise and I are pretty good about equally splitting costs. For budgeting purposes I split grocery costs across however many weeks that trip's food will account for (usually 2.5).
Additionally, i schedule a fixed amount of Frivolous Spending a week (which would include your third question, as well as buying books, CDs, liquor, etc), with some higher amounts scattered through the year so that my year roughly comes out to my known Friv/wk average, adjusted for inflation.
Right now my frivolous spending assumes i will at least go out for dinner and buy one CD in any given week.
A lot of it is just common sense and determining a pattern in what you do. Much like going on a diet, it's not realistic to say you're only going to spend $40 a week just in the name of being on a budget, when in reality it takes $90 to live. Also, it's no good budgeting every week based on how much you spend in a year when half of that spending happens in September.
When i use common sense and stick to my estabished spending pattern i can go off the budget for one to three months and come back to only a minor variance. If i decide to do something unusual like go to go out to every night for a week or buy a new guitar then i need to remap to understand the impact of my irregular actions.
I highly recommend using Quicken or Money to meticulously track expenses for 2-3 months once you start your new job, especially utilizing a plethora of categories and sub-categories so you can see some very detailed charts. Then you can create a budget that's statistically sure to be true to your reality.
I haven't touched Quicken since my meticulous track of 2004. Of course, i spend very differently now, but i'm already very self-aware of that through the budget. Also, i have discovered that my actual spending is the most realistic when i'm budgeting predictively (i.e. tweaking all manner of near-future expenses to aim for a specific mid/long-term spending/saving goal), and that's a pain to do in Quicken.
About once a month I go to costco (bulk food place). This almost always costs $130 dollars. Every time I have gone, it has been shopping for two people, but this past time, it was just shopping for me. All this means is, it will last me more then a month. In terms of non-food stuff I buy there (toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, bags etc..) I bought a huge amount of them when I first got my membership, and have not needed any more since then (back in august I think?) I normally eat lunch out every day, but rarely eat out for dinner (0-2 times a week). When I do eat out for lunch I keep it under $6, but it normally ends up being closer to $4 (I love the food trucks). When I go out for dinner, I normally spend at least $30. All the rest of the stuff (buying milk, eggs, some random thing I need for a meal that night) I would suspect comes out to about $20 a week, and I think that is a bit higher then reality (though I am not sure).
Hope this helps (though it probably didn't). I agree with the quicken thing. Use quicken to get an idea of how much you are spending on what, and then adjust as needed.
I still dn't know how i foudn you in the first place. Maybe the Decemberists or They Might Be Giants? Settlers? Well, you're not friends with anyone i am friends with on lj at least. Too bad we didn't get to play Puerto Rico. See you round.
My "budget" for food has been really in flux lately, but on average in a given month, I spend about $150 at the grocery store. This doesn't include side trips to ethnic markets, which is probably another $25-$50/month, but sometimes those side trips include premade meals from the "deli case," or whatever passes for one at the Pakistani or Korean or Japanese markets. *g*
In the summer, I go to the farmers' markets a lot, but I'm thinking about joining Boston Organics. I've heard nothing but good about them, and even given that I go to farmers' markets, I'm all "ooh, nifty" there and then am not sure what to do with them, so I come home with the same old stuff. I'm hoping that a weekly delivery where I can read up on what's coming ahead of time will do two things for me: 1. I can look up recipes for said fruits and veggies. 2. I can thus implement more fruits and veggies into what I eat naturally. That will be $25/week, but then my grocery bills should hopefully decrease to compensate, since then I'll just need milk and juice and crackers and cheese and bread and some meats/fish and my snobby chocolate and baking supplies. ;)
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The biggest line item money waster is breakfest cereal. We need to find a good alternative.
The shocking thing about Reading Terminal is how cheap you can get very high quality produce. And I just compared chicken prices at the market last night. There's not much difference, but that locally grown chicken cooks up so much nicer.
I'm still astonished that I spend more than $20 a week. That's what I fed myself on when I was in college. I used to buy a lot of stuff in bulk from the food co-op and purchase whole, uncut chickens. Both measures kept prices down.
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If you do still want breakfast cereals (and I assume at this point you've already looked at the store-brand types), for me, it's Trader Joe's all the way.
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To hazard a guess, I'd say that normally I will spend $60-70 on groceries/week and eat out once or twice once I move into an apartment with a kitchen.
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every week (on thursday or friday) i go to the grocery store. i spend between $70 and $85, although occasionally less. on the weeks that i spend less, i sometimes go to the store in the middle of the week and spend another $20 or so.
we each get $40 per week spending money, and if we go out to eat (for lunch or something) it comes out of that.
approximately once a month, we get take-out, which usually ends up costing around $30 to $40.
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However, our goal is $10/person/day, so I went with that.
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I try to hold costs from your second question (mostly lunch) to under $25 a week, reasoning that i can pack my own for about $3.50 a day, plus the cost of my preparation time.
A grocery trip tends to be about $60, with a big "stocking-up" trip being almost double that. That's just for me - Elise and I are pretty good about equally splitting costs. For budgeting purposes I split grocery costs across however many weeks that trip's food will account for (usually 2.5).
Additionally, i schedule a fixed amount of Frivolous Spending a week (which would include your third question, as well as buying books, CDs, liquor, etc), with some higher amounts scattered through the year so that my year roughly comes out to my known Friv/wk average, adjusted for inflation.
Right now my frivolous spending assumes i will at least go out for dinner and buy one CD in any given week.
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You should teach a class on this, by the way. I'm 100% serious.
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When i use common sense and stick to my estabished spending pattern i can go off the budget for one to three months and come back to only a minor variance. If i decide to do something unusual like go to go out to every night for a week or buy a new guitar then i need to remap to understand the impact of my irregular actions.
I highly recommend using Quicken or Money to meticulously track expenses for 2-3 months once you start your new job, especially utilizing a plethora of categories and sub-categories so you can see some very detailed charts. Then you can create a budget that's statistically sure to be true to your reality.
I haven't touched Quicken since my meticulous track of 2004. Of course, i spend very differently now, but i'm already very self-aware of that through the budget. Also, i have discovered that my actual spending is the most realistic when i'm budgeting predictively (i.e. tweaking all manner of near-future expenses to aim for a specific mid/long-term spending/saving goal), and that's a pain to do in Quicken.
Here's the deal
I normally eat lunch out every day, but rarely eat out for dinner (0-2 times a week). When I do eat out for lunch I keep it under $6, but it normally ends up being closer to $4 (I love the food trucks). When I go out for dinner, I normally spend at least $30.
All the rest of the stuff (buying milk, eggs, some random thing I need for a meal that night) I would suspect comes out to about $20 a week, and I think that is a bit higher then reality (though I am not sure).
Hope this helps (though it probably didn't). I agree with the quicken thing. Use quicken to get an idea of how much you are spending on what, and then adjust as needed.
Nice to meet you
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In the summer, I go to the farmers' markets a lot, but I'm thinking about joining Boston Organics. I've heard nothing but good about them, and even given that I go to farmers' markets, I'm all "ooh, nifty" there and then am not sure what to do with them, so I come home with the same old stuff. I'm hoping that a weekly delivery where I can read up on what's coming ahead of time will do two things for me: 1. I can look up recipes for said fruits and veggies. 2. I can thus implement more fruits and veggies into what I eat naturally. That will be $25/week, but then my grocery bills should hopefully decrease to compensate, since then I'll just need milk and juice and crackers and cheese and bread and some meats/fish and my snobby chocolate and baking supplies. ;)