You need to start paying attention to the weekly grocery ad and planning your meals for the week based on what’s on sale. When a favorite protein is on sale, buy extra and put some in the freezer.

I think my average for 2 is less than half yours. Primarily Aldi, with Safeway/TJs for the occasional other item.

Do you have prime? I find a lot of the produce is cheaper at Whole Foods than TJs when you get the prime deals and the quality of giant produce is always so disappointing.

Couple. ~$350/mo on groceries from Trader Joe’s. $100-200/mo at Target for home supplies and such. $0-$100/mo at Whole Foods/Giant as needed. No meat purchased.

I spend like $400 a month on groceries. It’s just me. But I am very specific with my shopping & go to streets/yes organic.

~$130 a month, I do one tjs run a week about $25 each time and go to Costco once a month for meats and bulk. I would say I eat pretty frugally - no red meat, snacks, or expensive ingredients so that’s how I keep it down.

Single guy without a car and a small-ish kitchen.

I go to Safeway 2-3x a week and (usually) TJs once a week for specific items. I usually spend on average anywhere from $90 to $110 per week, so around $400/month give or take.

I usually just buy the same fresh things over and over again...think eggs, juice, fruits, veggies, chicken, fish, cheese, and yogurt. I have a pretty well-stocked pantry of dry goods, frozen foods, and a shit ton of condiments that I top off as needed, maybe once every 4 months.

Two people. Avg wk is about 85 bucks at aldi. So about 350/month. Sometimes as high as 500 a month when we have movie intensive weekends. Gotta stock up on snacks LOL

Aldi is awesome. Buy ingredients, not packaged foods. Meal plan for the week and like the top comment said, use that sale flyer to find good deals and work off of that.

About $200/month. I skip breakfast, eat small lunches, and meal plan dinner. I also try to do the bulk of my shopping at Costco and hit the Safeway or Whole Foods just for produce.

Are you scrambling Faberge eggs?

About 350 / month, couple, split between Safeway / Aldi's / HT. We cook, though, so we're buying ingredients.

Worth noting: I tend to stock up when decent sales happen, and I go for generics / store brands whenever they're cheaper. I'm not picky =)

checks notes

In 2022 my expenses included:

• $110 on Metro/transit
• $1509.41 on my car/driving (interestingly, insurance costs > maintenance costs > parking costs > gasoline. Though since I'm pretty sure this is amalgamating car insurance with apartment insurance...)
• $0 on rideshare (not my thing)
• $4154.45 on groceries (edit: this might have been 100% at Safeway)
• $0 on alcohol (I don't drink)
• $526.16 on eating out (albeit $131.04 of that was on a business trip)
• $17436 on rent (1bd apt)

Note that I live alone

Harris teeter predominately. ~850-900

This includes alcohol though like beer, wine. We also meal prep.

Eating out is separate from this

Thank you for asking this! I’m moving to dc soon and have been wondering how much to budget

According to my app (Mint, Feb 2023):

$472 on groceries

$697 on restaurants

for 1 person. So $850/month for groceries for 2 people seems about right.

$1300+/month for 3 people. We have some dietary restrictions that drives the budget up a bit. We shop at MOM’s pretty exclusively.

Although I think it’s possible for singles in their 20s to eat cheap, I’d encourage everyone who believes they spend <$200/month to look at their card statements because it’s always higher than you think

We spend about $400-500 and been mixing it up between Aldi, Safeway and giant. We probably go out to 3-4 times a month too.

It’s always good to pay attention to what’s on sale and try to pick up what you need and store meats in the freezer when they go on sale and just thaw it when you want to eat it.

Inflation is out of control these days.

I'm gonna guess around $600/month. That might be a little high. Excludes eating out. A mix of 70% Safeway, 30% Trader Joe's. We eat very little animal meat and consume very little alcohol. We do breakfast at home and cook dinner 5 nights per week on average. We eat out for lunch probably 6 days a week on average.

Family of 5. I spend about $600-800 month at Costco to stick up for the month and supplement at Safeway or Lidl in between. So maybe around $$1500 a month. My kids are teens so they eat a lot. Stocking up at Costco helps and Lidl has great prices. This includes meat and some of the alcohol we consume.

costco for meats does a number on savings…. i spend about $120/week and about $300 on salmon, chicken, shrimp, scallops, and beef every 2-3 months the $120 is eggs yogurt milk juice vegetables kombucha fruit etc. salmon and chicken at costco is such a deal saver. i’d never buy else where unless i didn’t thaw that week. a piece of salmon cost $9 at giant, $7-8 at walmart or for $30 at costco get 5x as much. i’m originally from moco living in dc and my friends in grad school from all over the country rave about hmart…it’s not all that price wise…. nothing beats costco for meat at least lol

i live in ft totten by the walmart so that’s pretty decent for getting cheap produce. i’m not too far from the aldi in maryland but that’s probably kinda far from you. i’m glad to see you don’t shop at safe way bc that’s a rip off. if you can go to Aldi you will save big time! it’s just the commute that might get you…just like costco

i am a single grad student.

What the fuck are you buying/eating? Like a steak every night? Dawg, I spend like $30-50 a week MAX for me and my partner and we get take out/pick up 1-3 times in that week and still come out with less. I'm not a small dude either at 220. I do Costco maybe quarterly for meat, that keeps costs down well. Besides that, I split my food between our giant and Harris teeter, occasionally go to whole paycheck to get an ingredient or two.

You said you don't do meal prep...how are you making a list for the store then? Do you just go and buy foods assuming it will come together? Do you buy a lot of precooked or packaged meals? What's your waste look like? I go in with at least two dinner recipes and an all week lunch in mind then buy extras after.

This week I made a huge ratatouille, pesto pasta, chicken in brown butter sauce, Mediterranean style loaded potatoes for lunch, breakfasts are normally up to the person but I have two eggs and toast damn near every morning. Spent $37 at giant, had the chicken from Costco. I used to make meal plans for folks on food stamps, $50 a week is very doable on nice meals if you take 10 minutes and plan it out. You don't even have to eat rice and beans lol. Budget bytes. com and other similar sites also are a huge help too.

Costco might be a good route for y'all. They deliver in the city via USPS or instakart and membership pays for itself in no time at all, especially if you're buying meat in bulk. Also DC Costco will be the cheapest booze in the city IME

$250 for myself

That's absolutely absurd. Watch some youtube, ETHAN CHLEBOWSKI is the man and helped me learn to cook on a budget and eat good!

As a couple in Northern Virginia our grocery budget cut down a lot when I started having more time to cook and it's around $400 to $500, eating out once a week. Our groceries used to be $600 to $800. We used to shop at trader joes, hmart, and target. Now we go to mainly lidls, hmart, and buy like 1 or 2 brand name snacks at target.

A big contribution is that I've been experimenting with vegan or vegetarian recipes for the health aspect - not bc im practicing. So a lot of the times it's more vegetables and the proteins are things like chickpeas, lentils, potatoes, etc. which is cheaper than meat. We still eat meat but I was just trying out new recipes.

We freeze a lot so we freeze and thaw our meat throughout the week.

I've also been trying new recipes so that we never waste any ingredients in the fridge. We significantly cut our food waste once I started learning new recipes around certain ingredients

Bc I am aiming to reduce food waste, it takes a lot of meal planning. I plan for the whole week right before grocery shopping and look for recipes to use leftover ingredients or extra meals to make using pantry or freezer ingredients in case the portions go by quicker than expected

~$400/mo for one, but I'm a god damn trash panda. I very rarely eat out, and when I go out I usually eat at home first and then just get drinks. I can't justify restaurant prices anymore.

One trick - I've saved money eating out by pre-calculating prices. Like "oh, I can spare $12 for a chicken sandwich! But let's see... fries aren't included, so that an extra $5, then there's 10% tax, 20% service fee, service fees (unlike regular tips) are taxed, so $22.44... never mind"

I do have an uncompromising addiction to fat-free Reddi Whip whipped cream, which is about $50-60/mo of the grocery bill. I could get it for about $5/lb in 2021, and is now ~$11/lb.

We were spending about $800 a month with weekly Whole Foods deliveries. Couple, No meat, some vegan products, 1 meal a week out. Been trying like crazy to cut that down- food prepping, trying different stores. Finally managed to significantly cut that cost this month then completely undid all the hard work by inviting friends over one night, bought a bunch of nice cheese, apps, and a couple bottles of ~$20 wine. Sigh.

I don't make frugal choices, however, the average $250 trip is now like $450 so that's a little nuts for the 3 of us for like <10 days.

The best way to save some cash when you like to buy premium/fresh stuff is Costco. The stuff I get at Costco (not everything) is at least HALF the price of Giant, if not better. Just the cheese, meats, and snacks for my kid make it well worth the membership and hassle. I get 4% of my purchases back, can count on one free trip per year basically, and cover the membership.

Bonus points if you want to buy a couch or something. Costco also offers instacart, if you're sick or lazy.

Next is Whole Foods/Amazon fresh. Obviously WF is the worst value anywhere, with huge markups for no obvious benefit. I mean they don't even sell regular stuff. BUTTTTT... I get 5% off with the Prime card at all times. I also get 5% or sometimes 10% at the amazon fresh, and all online orders. Combined with coupons, etc. I get fresh stuff I can't get from Costco for very nice prices. Bonus points I can get in and out of there in under 5 minutes on a bad day.

ALL my Amazon orders are also 5% off which really adds. I know they are the bad guys and all that, but Safeway wants $10 for bread and Prime is literally dropping this shit off at my door, without moving my kid around.

This combo is 1) always getting me a discount automatically, 2) quality stuff, 3) usually got a competitive or great unit price, and 4) it is very little work/research to maintain.

That seems a bit high. Do you guys drink a lot?

A couple in our mid-late ‘30s living in Adams Morgan shopping at the Soviet Safeway, Harris Teeter, 7-11, and the local bodega and we spend around $550 a month. We make a lot of meals that can be frozen and eaten later.

I found bulk buying meat at Costco saves me so much money. It lasts me 3 ish months. Mainly chicken and ground turkey. Just make sure you have enough freezer space lol.

According to my apple card, for me and my partner (we’re vegan + shop at Whole Foods), we spend $455 a month on groceries and ~$250 on takeout/eating out. Definitely more than I would want to spend.

$1000 a month. Plan weekly meals and nearly always cook. Shop mostly at Harris teeter.

2 adults, two young children.

My daughter and I were spending about as much as you Giant/TJs/Costco, and occasionally WFs. We decided to cut way back, so we make meals for the week on Sunday using dried beans like lentils, red beans and fresh veggies. We have meatless dinners with baked sweet potato for me and regular baked potato for her, plus fixins. This past Sunday we made a large pot of lentil soup which will last 5-6 days, and we can freeze it. We vary it each night by having rice with it or avocado, greens etc so it doesn’t get boring. Neither one of us eat three meals a day, so we keep fresh fruit, yogurt, nuts, etc for mid day. If I happen to have a big lunch with friends or coworkers, I will just have a very light “dinner”. Lots of apples and peanut butter. My only splurge is wine, lol. I need that in my life.

Here’s some useful info. I’m a Wegmans man myself:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/02/21/ratings-grocery-stores-price-quality/

As a couple that mainly shops at Giant about once a week or every other week and adjusts meals based on coupons/sales: $250 per person. I’ve noticed that the points you collect from Giant can be applied for free food including eggs, which has been nice in avoiding feeling that inflation. I’ll do a Trader Joe’s run here and there during the week as I work by one. Usually buying small things for the week’s dinners I’m missing/cheap wine. We usually don’t eat breakfast so we’re really having 2 meals a day. I also never buy lunch out when at the office.

Eating out varies but we eat out about once a week so maybe $150-200 a month per person.

Single dude. Probably about 350 but I’m serious into fitness and eat a high protein and high fiber diet

High quality fresh fish is worth it tho. We probably spend 15-20% of our grocery budget on 1ish good fish meal a week (largely vegetarian at home, some fish).

About $300 a month (I live alone), except for the months when I make a trip out to Hmart (maybe 3-4 times a year) and can spend $100 on a single trip stocking up on various things.

ETA: mostly shop at Trader Joe's with some Whole Foods and Wegmans for things I can't find at TJ's.

Probably $400 a month at just Aldi. I dine out maybe once a week on average that not a bar or coffee. I also eat like 2500 to 3000 calories a day.

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I’m spending around $180/month for one person, most by just going to Aldi.

I spend about $400/month. Meat, produce, snacks, some juices and drinks. I meal prep some, but tbh I’m mostly using meal prep kits lately. I do about 90% of my shopping at Costco and BJ’s, supplementing a bit at Safeway. I could probably pare the cost down some by getting it delivered less. But the convenience is usually too good to turn down. And I honestly feel like the savings wouldn’t justify the inconvenience of doing all of the schlepping around myself.

EveryPlate delivers six meals a week for two people to your door for ~$80 a week. They provide all the ingredients so all you need is staple items. This has made our grocery store trips much less expensive.

450$ a month / couple / shop mostly at Aldi

I make mostly curry’s and tofu dishes but one thing I’ve done that really saves money is make whatever I eat at home. Every week I make a large batch of granola, pastas/wonton wrappers, and a couple loads of bread that will last and try to plan my meals around this. I don’t have the most sophisticated pallet but if you plan your meals out and learn some DIY tricks to save money, you can bring down your grocery bill.

*Side note - I probably would not do all the cooking at home if I didn’t have a stand mixer and WFH

About $180-200 per week for two people and we order dinner once or twice a week. Big meal cooked on Sunday to last to Tuesday and a mid week meal cooked on Wednesday.

Giant is so so overpriced, i love safeways online coupon system, just for U tracks exactly what you buy and clip coupons on the app, i save like 4 or 5 bucks each visit. i shop every 3 days for what i need , i dont like buyig too much at once, because i overbuy and tend to stock stuff i dont eat

I get a veggie delivery per week $25-35, and spend about $100 on Costco every two weeks. Adding another $50 for adhoc trips per week.

So about $400/month for two people. I cook everything from scratch, but buy more premium ingredients, I eat meat but not every day.

I’d say about $700-800 for 3 of us.

Whoa. Family of 3. $100 per week. 80% TJ, 20% mix of wegmans/Safeway/giant/whole foods (we live near all 5). Another $100 for the target trip (home supplies) and $100 Asian store. Not super big meat eaters (sometimes frozen fish, whole chickens, ground meats/deli). But we never budget, the low meat content and high veggie/fruit content keeps costs naturally in control.

That's about what we spend as a couple too. Mostly Wegman's

$400 at Whole Foods as a couple with a toddler. But we eat out a lot and get pre prepared meals delivered from territory. So it’s basically just for snacks, food for baby, and maybe 1-2 lunches and 1-2 dinners a week.

As a couple I would say we average $600/month generally at Whole Foods, cooking 5-6 nights per week and having the prior night's leftovers for lunch the next day. We don't buy many extra things like snacks, and neither of us are big breakfast people.

I will sound snobby when I say this but I don't look at prices if I need something, and with how much we spend, it hasn't really changed all that much in the past few years so I struggle with how much I hear people talk about how much more expensive everything is. And yes, we eat meat, but try to have a couple vegetarian meals each week.

I aim to spend 50-75/week as a single person. I have a Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods and Giant in walking distance, so I tend to go grocery shopping a 2-4 times a week which is nice for getting the right produce and making meals that I’m excited about. I shop sales as much as possible, and don’t make grocery lists, just vibe w what’s fresh and on sale

About $230/month for myself. It took me a little while to get in to the groove of shopping and cooking for one and not overbuying. I love to cook and make most of my meals at home. I usually eat out 2x week with friends

About $150 on average for one person.

I'm impressed by some of your spending discipline. $35/month is my budget for coffee beans haha

I spent $900 for two of us this month. We get 4 dinners from hello fresh a week which bumps up the price, then we get a mix from TJs/Safeway/Harris Teeter.

We budget $610 for two adults and an infant. Last year our monthly avg was $478. But we like to budget conservatively just incase. We don't eat out or order in very much and prefer cooking at home. We absolutely plan weekly meals and do our shopping on Sunday for produce and staples, but typically do a COSTCO run once a month for our backstock items like pasta, flour, paper products/toiletries, and other things that last. We pay attention to meat sales and will buy up to like 6 or 8 lbs at a time for good sales, then portion it out and freeze in 1lb amounts.

This is quite low actually. This number corresponds to ~15$ per day per person. How do you manage eating three meals for $15?

We’re spending about $200 every 10 days which I guess averages out to about $600/mo for two people. Probably 65% Trader Joe’s, 25% Whole Foods, 10% other (Giant, Safeway, etc)

2.5 meals a day (both working from home, sometimes lunch is just a snack) cooking at home generally 5 days but some weeks the full week.

Having just moved here from the Bay Area I’m decidedly disappointed in the non- high end restaurant scene here.

Me and my wife try to buy things in bulk and look out for sales, Safeway/target/Harris teeter/giant, we go through most of those and a friend with a car will often take us to Sams/Walmart when they go. We spend anywhere from 300-450 per month.

OP, Giant is very much over priced. I highly recommend finding a Wegmans instead.

Whole Foods has good produce but also can be pricey - we mostly shop at Wegman's now and have stopped going to Safeway, Harris Teeter, TJs, etc.

~$500 for 2 people, purely in groceries. Mostly from local co-op with more expensive organic/sustainable foods and the like. Less in the summer when our garden is producing.

We go out to eat sometimes, which obviously is more expensive. Usually $50-70 per outing.

We (two people) spend maybe $600/month maybe $700 at most and eat pretty large meals. When we eat meat, it’s usually chicken or fish and we buy it at costco and keep it frozen until we need it. Most of the groceries we buy at the store are fresh produce or dairy/eggs/oat milk. We very rarely buy steaks, frozen foods, and prepared foods from the grocery store (except rotisserie chicken).

We usually plan out 2 meals a week that will last 2-3 nights each and then eat out or order in 1 night. Planning out meals and eating the same things for a few nights probably helps keep costs low.

Couple + 2 young kids. We spend around $800/mo on groceries split evenly between WF and Lidl.

We do meal plan and we eat out as a family once per week on avg plus the odd lunch out here and there for myself of my wife.

$600

I'm one person and I probably average like $30-$35 a week and I shop at whole foods. I only need to feed myself for dinner only. I'm fortunate enough to work in the restaurant industry that I get fed during the day.

Not sure how much we spend monthly, but try Walmart or Adli/Lidl for lower prices. We usually get out of either of those at around $100 for a week (family of 3)

About $200 a month, but I eat vegan + eggs at home so it's pretty cheap.

Probably 30% Giant, 30% WF, 30% TJs, 10% Safeway

I spend about $200-$220 per week at Whole Foods for two adults and a toddler. I shop exclusively at Whole Foods because I get 5% back with Prime + Prime CC. We also order take out 1-2x a week, but I’m not counting that as part of groceries. Our weekly spend has definitely increased over the last year, but it’s hard to know how much of that is inflation vs. my son’s berry obsession.

For two we spend about $80/wk between Trader Joe’s and giant, and ~$150/mo at Costco for various essentials and stocking up on proteins (we buy in bulk and freeze). We eat a lot of meat/seafood but have started incorporating a few veggie meals a week to cut down on costs. We cook during the week and eat out on weekends, primarily. This doesn’t include pet food/essentials.

2 people, no more than 300 a month. We shop things on sale and eat pretty austerely...but damn 800. Im just so confused LOL

320 max for just me - I shop at Harris teeter and farmers markets when they are in season.

For my DINK household, about $600 a month total. Almost exclusively at Harris Teeter.

How do you all think Aldi's compares to Trader Joe's? I've found TJ's significantly cheaper than standard grocery stores like Giant for about 80-90% of my groceries. They don't have the best produce though.

Hitting up Costco, BK Miller and Restaurant Depot keeps my costs down. Also having a big chest freezer helps too.

40lb box of leg quarters for $20 has my house set for a good while.

We do spend a lot less as a couple, maybe $250-$300 a month.

The secret is to eat incredibly poorly, we've become economic vegetarians because meat & fish is too expensive for our income, we never eat name brands and what's on sale plays a huge part on what ends up in the cart.

The tips and tricks other people have suggested will help you shave money off your spend but if you get it down 20% then you've done great. Groceries are one of the last you get what you pay for items.

$500ish per month for a single person working full time, mostly Safeway but some items from the farmer's market, Yes Organic, and Imperfect Foods delivery (can be much cheaper if I'm good about meal prepping). It's gotten harder to save money/plan since I started having to go back into the office and since I've been dating more again post-covid, TBH. I got by with like $200/month in 2019 in grad school. I'm also admittedly someone who is a bit of an ingredient snob and tries not to eat any highly preserved foods, so that increases my costs.

Also a side note - DC has some of the worst kitchens/tiniest dysfunctional fridges/freezers I've ever had! It's been hard to meal prep bc there's little storage room or space to freeze meals like in prior apartments, so that's made it much harder. That being said, I live in a tiny basement apartment to save on rent for now, so it's a trade off.

But - down with food shaming. Living in this city is hard and we all have different lifestyles.

About $400 a month, just me. Almost exclusively shopping at TJs. I do like fresh produce, but very limited meats. Food is hella expensive here

cohabiting couple, one vegetarian and one eats meat a few times a week. we're ~$450-500 with a combo of Safeway, TJs, occasional WF, and Imperfect foods 2x monthly. If you do want meat consistently, Imperfect has a wide range that is apparently great. Takeout/restaurants are very infrequent.

We don't reeeally meal prep, but have a series of bean and veg centric recipes to draw from. Meat is mostly chicken with occasional deli/pepperoni although I'm the veg one so I don't keep close track. I do bake a lot from scratch so buying flour/extracts can add up.

About 800 to 1000 it varies, but we eat a lot of produce, fruit, fish and every month we splurge on something like a steak or scallops

About $250-$300 a week

$700-$900/month for a family of four. That includes a packed school lunch for both kids and working mostly from home. Kids are expensive!

Family of four, including two teenagers: $1200 a month, or about $300 a week (+/-) for five days a week (we eat out the other two, which isn't included here), mostly from Harris Teeter (with Trader Joe's and Whole Foods mixed in occasionally). The highest prices for me were in late 2022, but prices have been going down a bit over the past few months. We do all the meal prep at home (or rather, I should say I do all of the meal prep, except for lunches which my daughter cooks for herself on Sundays and Wednesdays).

$80/week for a single person from TJ’s

I spend about $100 a week at Trader Joe’s but it’s pretty much the same unaspiring shopping list every week of yogurt, 4-5 vegetables to roast, a bag of fruit, and two proteins to meal prep. I am in no way a chef.

On occasion though I go to Harris Teeter for more pantry items like the frozen veggies, canned soups, etc.

do the Asian thing where the main portion is carbs and the side is meat. look at Japanese dishes. then compare budgets months to month.