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Grocery Costs per Family Member


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Hills Mum Bec

We are about $220 per month for family if 5 (eldest child is an adult). We have pets but all pet food is purchased from pet food store.

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nom_de_plume

We spend $150 per week for a family of 5 plus a cat. That includes takeaway at least once a fortnight, all alcohol, pet food/supplies and toiletries/cleaning products. Using the formula in the OP - that's $108 per person, per month.


We shop in bulk at Costco and the market, and top up with incidentals from Aldi or Colesworths.

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I’m not watching it again but they did say on wife swap the $250 a month was food and entertainment. I remain unclear on what their entertainment would be.

 

Wow thats even worse then.


I've shopped at Aldi and Costco, sure some things are cheaper but not by much.

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They might be Costco people. You know buy 1 years worth of washing powder at once. I’m sure that’s not counted in the total.


What I do really like about the oamc idea is that you wouldn’t have waste. So if you bought a 1 kilo of carrots, you’d use it in many different options, so you’d never get a mouldy carrot etc. I would just get bored only having so many options and not being able to adapt to the in season prices of things.

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I spend about $300 per week - 5 person household. This works out to about $260 per person per month.


This is for all groceries, not just food.

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I spend about $300 per week - 5 person household. This works out to about $260 per person per month.


This is for all groceries, not just food.

 

I'm feeling hopelessly extravagant.

Just spent $220 on food and this will not last four of us the week.

Can't imagine spending 1/4 of this and feeding four of us for the week.

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I used to do bulk cooking, and although it does make weekdays easier, it makes weekends harder. I found actual once a month impossible, there simply weren't enough hours on a weekend and it was gruelling, my whole body would ache - its alot of shopping, chopping, more chopping, and cooking. So then I did 2x2 meals plus lunches and snacks for the kids every weekend which worked out ok. So it was 2 different family meals, and then 2 serves for everyone, that would get me 4 meals a week plus a takeaway meal. That was achievable but still alot of work on the weekend.


I didn't really find it saved me much though. I do need to get back into it - I'm practically vegan these days however the rest of the family isn't, and the one advantage of it is that it makes dealing with different dietary requirements easier.

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Every week I have the same experience where I come out of Aldi with bags stuffed full of food for an entire week for <$200 for a family of 4 including 2 teens who eat adult portions and 2 cats. Much self congratulation.

 

And that's still 4 times what the $50/m person does, without adding in the extra bits.

I think it would be pretty difficult to cut out 3/4 of that.

I have no idea how it could be done. Absolutely none.

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This thread is interesting!

I don't know what we spend exactly but I'm guessing it's more than lots of people based on this thread.

The cost of groceries seems to have gone up, especially since covid, and I feel like I can't get out of a grocery store without a minimum spend of $60, and that is just for a regular top up. We eat out maybe twice a month but do buy bakery treat or after school snack on the way somewhere more often than I'd like.

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nom_de_plume
[quote=WaitForMe post_id=78229 time=1615693057 user_id=284] [quote=riotproof post_id=78190 time=1615689973 user_id=139] I’m not watching it again but they did say on wife swap the $250 a month was food and entertainment. I remain unclear on what their entertainment would be. [/quote] Wow thats even worse then.

I've shopped at Aldi and Costco, sure some things are cheaper but not by much. [/quote]
When ALDI first came to Australia they were much cheaper then Colesworths. Over the years, Colesworths have had to drop their prices to remain competitive and the gap has become narrower. Most things are still cheaper at ALDI though.

With Costco, you have to know your prices. Some things are no cheaper than when they are on sale at Colesworths, others are definitely a lot cheaper. They always have coupons as well as in store/managers specials too.

We buy a lot of stuff in bulk. Cold Power laundry liquid from Costco when it's on sale for $22/6L. 2 X 6L will do us for a year. Baker's flour $10/12.5kg which lasts about 3 months in our houshold and is used to make bread, rolls and pizza bases. Dried cat food is $34/8ish kg and will last a year. We supplement that with pet mince from the petstore that's also bought in bulk. Cat litter is $24/15kg which lasts 3 months. That sort of stuff is factored into my weekly spend though. I have a book I record it all in. My actual bill when I go through the till on a weekly basis is usually $60-$100. Today we went to the market and spent $53 on fruit and veg. That will last all of this week and a few things will stretch to next week.
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StillFreddiesMum

Too much. We spend too much on groceries.


People talk about doing 'a weekly shop' - I am at a supermarket every 2nd to 3rd day - we run out of milk and bananas and yoghurts and bread all the time. Like a PP I go and do a 'big shop' at Aldi and think 'that will last us at least 4 to 5 days' and within 2 to 3 days, the locusts (our family of 4 plus pets) will have devoured most of it. Then I will go back to another superrmarket like Woolies and buy the milk, bananas, yoghurts, bread (plus extras) that have all disappeared and they will only last another 2 to 3 days !

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^yup!


And I find it almost impossible to get DH to track things properly. I budget, he's like "ok great, yay you've done a budget, that's awesome, I love it!" Then off he goes not sticking to the budget, so I have given up. He'll stick to a budget for 1 shop but doesn't include all the run back to the store for the things he inevitably forgets first time around. Then there's our miscommunication - I do a top up, and he will do the same top up. So, yeah, we suck at this.

I'm going to track it and see how bad it is lol.

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Princess Peach

Based on my shop yesterday, I’ve ended up with $190 per person for the 4 of us.


We do have 1 night a week of takeaway, but that covers all the rest of the meals.


I also agree with a PP, the cost of fruit & veggies have gone through the roof. We are not vegetarian, but they do make up a huge portion of my weekly shop. I’m working on DH to build a veggie garden for me as the costs of even the basic stuff is crazy.

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Based on my shop yesterday, I’ve ended up with $190 per person for the 4 of us.


We do have 1 night a week of takeaway, but that covers all the rest of the meals.


I also agree with a PP, the cost of fruit & veggies have gone through the roof. We are not vegetarian, but they do make up a huge portion of my weekly shop. I’m working on DH to build a veggie garden for me as the costs of even the basic stuff is crazy.

 

I agree re the cost of fruit and veg. I mostly get mine from a fruit and veg shop and spend around $100 a week there plus top up with bits and pieces from Coles during the week.


We (well me anyway) eat a lot of fruit and veg. 2 x vegans in the house plus I eat a bit of fish but don't eat any other meat. We mostly live on legumes and fresh veges.


I don't know how people can afford to eat meat daily though. I'm only buying it for two of us and the cost is insane. I can stretch 1kg of mince to 4-6 meals for DS and DD, but at $17/$18ish per kg even mince isn't that cheap these days. Fortunately they are happy to eat vegetarian meals a few times per week.

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Too much. We spend too much on groceries.


People talk about doing 'a weekly shop' - I am at a supermarket every 2nd to 3rd day - we run out of milk and bananas and yoghurts and bread all the time. Like a PP I go and do a 'big shop' at Aldi and think 'that will last us at least 4 to 5 days' and within 2 to 3 days, the locusts (our family of 4 plus pets) will have devoured most of it. Then I will go back to another superrmarket like Woolies and buy the milk, bananas, yoghurts, bread (plus extras) that have all disappeared and they will only last another 2 to 3 days !

 

If you don't need to, I don't think its actually that great getting every single thing in one shop - theres no room for it all! We'd have to find room to freeze 3 loaves of bread, no idea where we'd put the extra 2L of milk, theres no room for it in the fridge.. If we lived in the country where its an hour drive to the shops, well I'm sure we'd have a much bigger house and fridge/freezer.


We do buy a weeks worth of bananas but they take over! DH has 1 a day, I use 3 in a batch of muffins and often make 2 batches so we have 13-16 bananas in the house on shopping day! I used to have 1 a day as well, that would be 20-23, but I've switched up my breakfast and don't have it any more.

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Feebi: I go to a bulk discount butcher every 4-6 weeks for cheaper steak. I can get a whole sliced rump for less $ per kg than lean mince at the supermarket. That’s one way to afford meat. Of course you need the freezer space for about 5kg or so of steak.


No idea what we spend. Too much. Gluten free and lactose free dietary requirements mean that it gets stupidly expensive. Thank goodness DD can eat ordinary dairy products considering the amount of milk, cheese and yoghurt she goes through.

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LemonMyrtle

Too much. We spend too much on groceries.


People talk about doing 'a weekly shop' - I am at a supermarket every 2nd to 3rd day - we run out of milk and bananas and yoghurts and bread all the time. Like a PP I go and do a 'big shop' at Aldi and think 'that will last us at least 4 to 5 days' and within 2 to 3 days, the locusts (our family of 4 plus pets) will have devoured most of it. Then I will go back to another superrmarket like Woolies and buy the milk, bananas, yoghurts, bread (plus extras) that have all disappeared and they will only last another 2 to 3 days !

 

If you don't need to, I don't think its actually that great getting every single thing in one shop - theres no room for it all! We'd have to find room to freeze 3 loaves of bread, no idea where we'd put the extra 2L of milk, theres no room for it in the fridge.. If we lived in the country where its an hour drive to the shops, well I'm sure we'd have a much bigger house and fridge/freezer.


We do buy a weeks worth of bananas but they take over! DH has 1 a day, I use 3 in a batch of muffins and often make 2 batches so we have 13-16 bananas in the house on shopping day! I used to have 1 a day as well, that would be 20-23, but I've switched up my breakfast and don't have it any more.

 

We have 2 fridges and a chest freezer to enable us to shop almost fortnightly. It’s usually a big shop then a fresh fruit and veg top up in the second week. It is definitely a lot of food to store.

I don’t buy stuff in bulk generally though, like washing powder or toilet paper, because we just don’t have the room for it. I’m sure we pay more in the long run, but I just can’t store it.

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