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Excerpt from my Vocal article
OK. I just Googled food budgets and I came up with 2 interesting facts. Well, I actually came up with a whole lot more (because that’s how it works, right?). Anyway, the average single person spends ~ 100/week on food. Do the math (I like easy math) and that’s $400/month on food. The other item was that you (yes, I mean you) should budget 6% of your earnings for food (Wait, what?! You don’t have a budget? Tsk, tsk…).
Budgets are another story. I’ll assume you have one or you know how much you have to spend on food. Ha! Gotcha. If you know that, then you do have a budget. Back to the point (I go off on tangents sometimes…). Let’s say that you make $2000 a month. Times that by 6% (Oh-oh, harder math..) No worries – I just do this, 2 X 6 = 12 then chuck a zero on the end and get 120. I know that this isn’t math class, so I won’t get into it. That’s another story.
$120 is not a lot to spend on food. For me, I try to keep my budget under $200. Even if I made more, I’m still stingy so I don’t think I would spend a lot more. There are some factors that influence what and when I purchase, and I’m going to share them with you. These are probably some things that you have heard before, but I hope to entertain you as well.
Read the rest here:
https://vocal.media/stories/maximizing-your-food-budget
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I have always been frugal with food. In college, I had to eat out during my freshman year and got by on a dollar a day. In apartments and in my own home, I made my food rather than eating out and ate simple foods that were inexpensive, but fresh. Bought frozen vegetables and juices that were picked at the peak of their seasons when they were the most nutritious and inexpensive.
Now, I'm confined to my home and my caregiver/partner does all of the shopping and cooking for me. She has introduced me to many exotic vegetables and fruits, as well as buying meat and other items when they are on sale. She feeds me things like filet mignon in her stir fries and other foods that I normally wouldn't buy. She breaks up large, on sale, purchases into smaller quantities where a 1/3 pound of choice ground chuck turns into 15 meals at about a dollar a meal by buying 5 pounds bulk.
She pays by my credit card. Last year, my food bills came to about $2000. That's $167 per month. Save money and eat better. That's what I would advise young people who spend way too much for a cup of coffee that they could make themselves at Starbucks. Learn how to cook and enjoy cooking--it's a great way to wind down from a stressful day at work.
Ron