How much is an average grocery trip for you?

[Amanda]

I have been averaging ~$150/trip, and the groceries I get last around a week & a half, with refresh-buys on staple ingredients (milk, eggs, bread).

[Karen Bowness]

I generally shop about 3 times a week (my boyfriend and I alternate cooking, so he does the same) and trips range from $30-$50, depending on if I am stocking up on staples or splurging on cheese. Mmm, cheese. 

I suspect his trips are less costly, but I also make myself work lunch, which he skips, and buy coffee as to his tea. (You can save a lot of money being a tea drinker!)

[rhgol...@gmail.com]

I just pulled up my Mint trends to check on this. In December, I went to a grocery store twelve times. Cheapest trip was $7 at the store around the corner- that was probably for like two things that I had run out of? Most expensive was a $96 stock up trip at Fairway, where I bought EVERYTHING. It looks like if I'm just buying produce and refreshing one or two staples, I average about $25, and if I'm buying for something special (Shabbat dinner) or stocking up on a lot of items, it's more like $40. I live in NYC, so I go more than once a week because I don't buy more than I can fit in my favorite reusable grocery bag. I'm probably at a grocery store 2-3 times a week.

[Jessica Squires]

My boyfriend and I budget $80/week but in reality spend anywhere from $80-$120, depending on what activities we have planned for the week. We don't eat meat so that really cuts down on cost. 

[Jenn Hubbs]

With the caveat that my partner does go grocery shopping 1/3 to 1/2 of the time and so I only have hard data for the shopping I do:
-Every week I spend about $20-25 at the farmer's market. $16 of that is my CSA box, which is actually pre-paid. The rest is usually just baked goods and/or salsa.
-I go to the main grocery store about once a week and spend $50-60 each time. I plan my meals around the veggies in my CSA box. I usually don't buy much meat at the store, though my partner and I are carnivores (see below), and we don't drink anything other than water 99% of the time, which helps. We restock here on sandwich makings, cereal and milk, snacks for when we're entertaining, non-local or out-of-season produce I can't get at the market, and a few canned goods or staple ingredients.
-Once every few months I drop $50+ on this amazing local ground beef at a totally different store, or occasionally when there's a great sale at the main grocery store I'll buy like 5+ pounds of pan sausage or ground turkey and go home and split it into 1-pound packages, or buy a big thing of fajita meat and chop it up to split it into 6-oz frozen containers for stew or stirfry.

So I guess I spend $80 per week on grocery shopping, which fits with the fact that I blow my $300/month budget on months when there's a good meat sale and don't blow it the other months. (I am just now noticing this trend. This has been a useful exercise!)

[Lucy]

This is a question that I really wanted to ask Billfold people! Except it makes me feel way spendy. My husband and I go to the grocery store once a week, and spend $130-$180 each time. It's not the cheapest store we could be going to, but we love the place and the people. We also buy a lot of non-grocery things there, like toilet paper and cleaning supplies, because the drugstores around us don't have the natural-type stuff we prefer.

[Karen Bowness]

$180 doesn't seem that bad to me, I'm sure between us my boyfriend and I spend that much, if we took into account drugstore things. And meat/dairy heavy meals occasionally. And cat food. 

And if it's in your budget, then that's fine. 

[Adrienne]

I am a poor college student, and my budget is $20 a week at the grocery store, with one meal I eat out. I don't starve! I swear! Even then, people don't understand how I keep it so cheap. I just invite them to go with me and buy exactly what I do, but no one takes me up!

(Midwestern grocery prices, though.)

I avoid buying snacks/processed stuff other than crackers and cereal (which must be on sale), and mainly stick with just bread/produce(on sale mostly)/milk/eggs/occasionally (on sale) meat to be frozen. I stock up at Natural Grocer's in the city occasionally on things like organic chicken bouillon and at an Asian supermarket for noodles, soy sauce, sriracha, tofu, etc. Everything is amazingly cheap at those places, a lot of it is the same stuff you can get at the regular grocery stores, but priced for people that eat it all the time and don't consider it "specialty."

It would cost more if I went organic, but that is neither within my means or available for most items in my area. During the summer the farmer's market is open, and I save even more money! I also benefit from free veggies from my mom's garden. So, winter is more of a drag.

[Emma]

I've been able to start doing under-$60/week grocery trips suddenly and regularly, which is awesome and so much less spendy. I think the big things are 1) meal planning before I go for a couple of weeks, and trying to plan to actually use up ingredients I buy/already have (ie I'm way less likely to make something I have ZERO things for already), 2) the fact that I live across the street from a grocery store so if I forget something it's not the end of the world, so I'm more likely to err on the side of "don't buy" and 3) I've finally reached Peak Pantry and don't need to buy spices/condiments/$8 bottles of vinegar nearly so much anymore.

But I also cook for one, don't eat much meat, and eat out more frequently than I probably should.

[Rosebud]

Based on my very unscientific guess we are at roughly $130.  I tend do lots of little trips, rather than one big trip because I am not great at planning ahead.  I like to call it shopping like a European (i.e. buying the ingredients I need in order to make dinner for that night).  In reality my methods need improvement because this often results in me buying a $4 smoothie for breakfast alllll the time.   I have lunch and dinner mostly under control, but not breakfast. 

[Katie/faustbanana]

I'm single, go to the store probably twice a week, and walk, so I can only carry a couple of bags at once. Depending on what I'm buying the trips range from $20-$40, so $40-$80 per week. This includes wine and occasional splurges (nice cheeses, meat occasionally.)

I budget $350 for groceries each month, but usually end up coming in at least $50 below that. $350 would be a month where I'm throwing a dinner party or run our of all my staples or something. I gave myself a huge grocery budget so I could buy a wide range of items and discourage myself from eating out so much. My plan has not been foolproof, unfortunately :)

[Andrea Glazer]

Between $80-$150 per week, depending on what we need (the kitty litter bulk 3-pack is expensive and usually skews the whole budget every few weeks). 

[Michelle Rose]

My boyfriend and I go grocery shopping once a week, and we budget $75/week and average maybe $65-70. We live in a pretty inexpensive part of the country (northern Delaware). About once a month, we go to Trader Joe's or the Asian grocery store or the natural food store that sells cheap whole spices, and those weeks are usually at least $20 more expensive. We plan all of the coming week's meals on Saturday-ish and go shopping on Sundays.

[Meredith]

I just looked at my March spending - spent just shy of $540 for the whole month - about $135 per week.  Which may not be impressive to some, but last year in March I spent over $700, and I was out of town for 10 days of the month. This year I also threw myself a 30th birthday wine & cheese with 5 different kinds of fancy cheese and tons of snacks.