Pretty closely related: have any of you heard of a chain of fairly small grocery (not "convenience", although I think they might own some of those, too) stores called Kim's? They have some good points, but their prices generally, it seems to me, are astonishingly high. I wouldn't think anyone using them as their first-line grocer would be concerned about budgeting. Just wondering if it's just me, or if I'm off base.

Im at around 2k a month but I also have 2 boys 12 and 15 who eat 24/7. Plus wine is pricey…

I eat out too much.

About $800 a month. One adult and a 12 year old (a girl, it makes a difference according to my friends who have sons). I feel like it's reasonable? It used to be a lot
more because I pretty much exclusively shopped at central market for years, but now there's a proper HEB close enough and that's saved me a lot. We eat out twice a week at the most - a quick dinner from Jason's Deli on her busiest school night, and brunch on Saturday.

Family of 6 - we have a MIL living with us and 3 boys (1 college commuter, 1 Sophmore, 1 7th grade all athletes)

$2500 and it's a struggle (includes houshold items). We go through 12-16 gallons of milk per month and our meat bill will make the milk bill blush, for context.

1 or 2 trips to the H-mart every month for Korean food (MIL). Weekly trips to the grocery store.

Restaurants $150, we rarely eat out. Typically fast food after ball games or late practices.

One tip I'll share... Stay out of HEB and Kroger if you are budget minded. If you have ALDI, that's the ticket.

Figure out your value items at Costco but resist Costco as a one stop shop, they are not the cost leader for many items.

My wife is a value wizard. If you do not have one of those, I feel for you. She is a champ.

I just checked year to date of wife's card and mine at soopers/safeway/walmart/costco
That's $2000 so far, so roughly $600 per month.

We eat out ~2 times a month, so that's another ~$200 per month.

Two boys 10&11.

Got some chunguses up in here!

Average around $2000 not including eating out. That would probably double it to $4000. 2 adults, 2 kids.

Duffel Pud said:

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$487.50/mo for two adults.

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are you living off Ramen noodles?

Tatem said:

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Duffel Pud said:

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$487.50/mo for two adults.

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are you living off Ramen noodles?

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For literal comparison's sake, if a person ate 2 packs of ramen noodles for each meal each day (~2200 calories), based on the 12 pack at my store being $4.20 x 15 = $63 a month per person.

So this person is eating a lot more than ramen noodles.

We spend <$700 with 2 boys.

62strat said:

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Tatem said:

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Duffel Pud said:

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$487.50/mo for two adults.

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are you living off Ramen noodles?

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For literal comparison's sake, if a person ate 2 packs of ramen noodles for each meal each day (~2200 calories), based on the 12 pack at my store being $4.20 x 15 = $63 a month per person.

So this person is eating a lot more than ramen noodles.

We spend <$700 with 2 boys.

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You offer any classes I can send my wife to?

62strat said:

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Tatem said:

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Duffel Pud said:

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$487.50/mo for two adults.

---

are you living off Ramen noodles?

---

For literal comparison's sake, if a person ate 2 packs of ramen noodles for each meal each day (~2200 calories), based on the 12 pack at my store being $4.20 x 15 = $63 a month per person.

So this person is eating a lot more than ramen noodles.

We spend <$700 with 2 boys.

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internet sarcasm is lost on you

Howdy Dammit said:

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62strat said:

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Tatem said:

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Duffel Pud said:

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$487.50/mo for two adults.

---

are you living off Ramen noodles?

---

For literal comparison's sake, if a person ate 2 packs of ramen noodles for each meal each day (~2200 calories), based on the 12 pack at my store being $4.20 x 15 = $63 a month per person.

So this person is eating a lot more than ramen noodles.

We spend <$700 with 2 boys.

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You offer any classes I can send my wife to?

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I do the shopping, and within the last year or so I've pretty much resorted to 100% online delivery or pickup.
I feel I spend way less by picking and choosing groceries in front of a computer, instead of in the store. On my computer, I can just browse the list of digital coupons/sales for the week and shop from there. I pretty much don't buy it if it's full price.

I also am moving away from a single large purchase weekly, instead doing smaller orders, potentially different chains, or different sale periods. I also don't pay for any account for free shipping, as king soopers shipping is often $0.99 at off peak delivery times, and only need $25 min to get it.

Like this week, my kids were complaining they were low on cereal. I hopped online tuesday and checked.. nothing on sale. Waited til yesterday (sales run wed-tues). BAM, 'giant sized' cereal, half off. Got 5 boxes at $4 ea, instead of $8, free pickup on my way home.
Had my wife stopped by the store on her way home mon or tues, she would have paid full price. So it's pretty agreed upon that she stays out of the grocery store most of the time.

I can regularly save 30-50% of my online orders. That's several hundred dollars a month for not a whole lot of effort.