For a quick visual representation, the breakout by category is as follows:
I was surprised by two of the categories - dairy & fruit. If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year, I would have been convinced that vegetables were our more expensive category. So, I will continue to use this data to ensure we are spending wisely in each category (no waste, best prices available, etc) & monitor our spend over time. I'm very happy to see that prepared food is such a tiny sliver of our budget. I'm pretty sure that was all frozen pizza while I was traveling.
And, for actual numbers:
Total spend for the first half of the year = $3721.88
Spend per month = $620.31
People fed = 2 adults (working out approximately 5x/week), a 9 year old boy, a 10 year old boy who both play sports 5x/week
Fruit - $974.09
Meat/Fish - $749.03
Vegetables - $659.36
Dairy - $545.68
Pantry - $333.31
Snacks - $117.52
Prepared Food - $92.81
My goal will be to drive down our meat/fish spending, as well as dairy. Both have a relatively small amount of waste associated with it, but I think I can do better. With fruit, we're doing an admirable job of eating it all before it goes bad (or, freezing for smoothies), so I think our only options would be to consume less or to find a cheaper source. We buy at Costco, which, on average, is cheapest. Getting a cheaper per unit price would likely be more work than I can take on right on.
What about you? Are you tracking your grocery spend for the year? How are you doing against budget? Our budgeted spend is actually $550/month, so we are trending above that in the first half. Talk to me about groceries! They fascinate me, clearly. :-)
Our budget is $550 for two adults in Canada (Approx $425) per month and we eat pretty well. I tend to only buy veggies when they are on sale and each store seems to use them as loss leaders these days. I also grow tomatoes, cilantro and chives although the tomatoes are just starting to ripen. I buy fruit but also have frozen fruit (mangos) on hand for smoothies. I don't divide out my categories like you - now I am wondering what we spend on fruit and veggies. In my books though, you clearly are doing a good job if you are eating a lot of veggies and fruit, so worth paying more for.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that it would be hard to convince myself that it's a good decision to eat less fruit & veggies simply to cut on costs. So for now, everything stays & I look at the other categories to ensure we're most efficiently using our budget. We're getting much better at reducing waste, which means trimming the easy excess. We meal plan & try to use leftovers as a core part of our menu (although, that's really about time management during the work week) & enjoy food. :-)
DeleteI love this! I break down my spending in a similar way. Our spending was $2819 for food only, for two adults, for the past 6 months - so that's $470/month (Canadian).
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