Average Food Costs

I shared in an earlier post that the average family in America spends $650.00 per month on food.  My friends who have responded to this statistic have been shocked.  They are also certain that they spend nowhere near that amount and that you would have to be living a strange lifestyle to be hitting those kinds of numbers.  They are wrong.  I know this because I myself have hit those numbers and was doing it without feeling like I was being at all extravagant.  Here's how it happens.  You go to the grocery store on Sunday planning to buy a weeks worth of food and spend $100.00.  You are feeling frugal.  Four people for a whole week for $100.00 is $3.57 per person per day.  You rock.  You might even have a receipt that says that when you spent your $100.00 you saved $22.50!!  Tuesday is a crazy day and you decide that you do not have time to cook so you go to McCallister's where kids eat free on Tuesday but iced tea costs $2.00 per glass and spend $18.25.  You still feel good because, after all that's less than you "saved" the day before.  On Thursday you run out of milk so hit the store.  They have a special on bell peppers and chips so you pick those up too.  You spend $8.66.  On Friday everyone begs for pizza, and because pizza is such a good buy right now you go for it.  You may as well get enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow so you spend $21.70.  On Saturday you pull your receipts and find that you spent $148.61 on food.  You also find that the head of broccoli and on special beef tips that you did not eat on Tuesday or Friday have gone bad.  You throw them out and vow to do better next week.

$148.61  x 4.3 weeks per month = $639.02.  Average is expensive I learned to do better and so can you.