I’m trying to come up with a realistic budget number for groceries. I’m 33 and have a moderately physical full-time job, and I ride a mountain bike on the trails probably 5-15 miles a week, weather and depression permitting. So I’m decently active. What do you think I should expect to spend on groceries every week, if I’m being moderately thrifty?
ETA: Bonus points if you give me a rough idea of what you’d spend the money on.
For a Midwest USA city, we’re averaging $86 a week per person in groceries. We’re cooking pretty much everything from scratch ingredients. We buy a lot of stuff from a big bulk stores, and then Aldi, and then a few specialty items that we like from Trader Joe’s.
Main staples are Rice, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Beans, Mushrooms, Tofu, Eggs, and then a large variety of greens. I’m sure I’m forgetting major categories of food we eat. We do eat chicken and salmon, but it’s usually a once or twice a week thing. We keep a lot of dry ingredients in storage for seasoning, so a typical meal might have a lot of ingredients. We are very diligent about eating up everything in the fridge within a week or two, it’s terrible to let food just sit in there and go bad.
Cooking from scratch is the main way to save money. Buying in bulk is the second way. Both are kind of challenging if you’re just a single person household, unfortunately.