Hi fellow ozbargainers,
I'm trying to figure out what's the average food costs for an adult to see if I have been spending lavishly or otherwise in ozbargainers standards.
See poll below
Please note the poll is on a per adult basis perweek basis.
been ploughing opal fare savings into takeout
using my many sims to do the doordash $15 off first 3 orders
some people live to eat and other eat to live,,,
some people are happy to have vegemite sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
while other prefer to have smash avo, organic eggs and sourdough bread for breakfast
truffle past for lunch and A5 wagyu steak and lobsters for dinner
what you see as necessary or unnecessary may not be the same for others,
we are family of 6. approx
eating out which includes takeaway $200 per week
fresh groceries about $100 per week (milk, bread, fruit, meat and vegetables)
pantry items $100 per week (pasta, snacks, sauces, condiments, rice, flour, ETC)
some weeks will be less in one category but more in another..
I've genuinely never understood this. I have a mate who lives off frozen food from the supermarkets and claims he doesn't care as long as he gets the nutrients he needs. Such a sad life to live from my perspective.
Dead tastebuds? Gets joy from other means? Bad relationship with food? any number of reasons for this. could also be that he doesn't know how to cook.
He is not getting any nutrients.. just filling his stomach with garbage
where's the 'no idea' option?
.
No idea.
Rice and soy sauce and I lash out when some crazy subsidized take away offer usually on the app is on hand hehe :)
was 20c/day in Thailand, several years ago now.
I live alone and spend on average about $400-500 on food each week. I mostly eat out and that amount also varies depending on who visits and who I eat with. At restaurants, I sometimes pay for them and other weeks they might pay, etc. I realise it's a bit but as I've got older (over the age of clubbing and regular bar-hopping!), catching up over dinner etc has now become my main source of socialising/entertainment so I don't mind the spending. When I used to go out drinking all the time, I'd easily spend that amount on alcohol (and other goodies) in a single night!
Random question of the day - do you own property also?
I do (but I really don't, because the bank still owns some of it! š). Although home ownership or not doesn't tell the whole story. Some people choose to rent to keep the flexibility of being able to move about.
If I'm not mistaken, I think what you're really wanting to know is if the amount being spent is all or a significant portion of income that results in no savings etc. (The answer is no).
Congrats on the high income!
@Gunther: Thanks, but if you look at it from another perspective, it's actually my food and entertainment budget put together. It's really just a change in lifestyle as I age. Cut down on drinking and going out and just enjoy food. I barely have a life these days.
@Cheaplikethebird: shhh… I think OP was just talking about food for the "mouth"… š
(Everything else falls under a different budget! haha)
Typical weekly spend-
Rice: $2643
Beans: $853
Bread: $346
Fruit: $7475
Vegetables: $854642
Noodles: $3
Coke: $5
Hungry Jack's: $10
Vitamin supplements: $568466457
(Eating vegan is so expensive.)
Mmm $1 instant noodles for 5-pack.
So $0.20 per meal = $0.60 per day, $4.20 per week, or $219 per year.
I'm not personally on this diet but would be interested to know if people do this.
For comparison, $2.25 frozen lasagna x 21 = ~$50 per week
I sometimes eat a lot of fast food/takeaway which would average $7.50 a meal so that would amount to $160 a week.
Boy who ate instant noodles every day for years dies of stomach cancer
https://www.nst.com.my/world/2018/10/422584/boy-who-ate-instā¦
Nonetheless, almost guaranteed you would develop scurvy or some other nutritional imbalance!
I only live on Jerky.
So lately I have been starving.
I scavenge the bins so eat for free :-)
150-200 per week in our household (2 adults, 1 baby). We have cheap takeaway once a week
$100 on groceries + $100 on other (eating out, drinks, coffee etc.).
Some weeks I go over, some under. Don't monitor it closely.
Single guy
Bout $200/week if I include groceries, takeaway, vending machines and booze.
Single dude that doesn't really go shopping for groceries with a bargain basement mentality lol.
This sort of post comes up every now and again and it's important to remember that this is just one metric. I might spend $300 a week on food for one person but someone else might spend $100.
Am I wasting $200? not if I'm eating great quality food, maybe it's organic, maybe I eat more (or less) meat, expensive cheeses etc.
Some people are totally happy to eat plain rice and 50g of beef mince for dinner, and a banana for breakfast. Of course their weekly spend will be in the realm of $50-$100. Other people like to have nice, healthy meals, snacks and more.
Comparing the raw number doesn't really mean anything.
This is Ozbargain. We need to get $300 weekly value for the price of $100.
We are spending about $250 a week at the moment for 6.
We have deliberately been spending more and making meals a focus as it has been boring in lockdown.
So we've been eating great - ribs, lamb roasts, pork belly stir fries, meatballs, slow cooked pork shoulder.
And usually a dessert too.
Even brand name breakfast cereals like the fancy muesli (when on special).
Gonna need some work to get back to fighting weight later on.
My wife and I earn enough to just buy and eat whatever we want. There are times when we binge on food delivery apps or when I just go hit up my local gourmet butcher and buy enough meat and veges to last a week.
Question is how much you spend on all the food per month or week?
Vegetarians here. Easily less than $100 per week. More like $30 to $50 max. We do a $200 shop once a month. Takeout and some extra fresh fruit and veggies $100. $300 a month for two people is less than $50 a week each plus we eat lots of snacks and desserts. We eat really well for $50 a week. My partner and I cook meals mostly. Hot meals twice a day most days.
Family of four (two kids in primary school). Average a little under $200/week on groceries. Take-away dinner once per week, $40-60. Not sure how to convert that to per adult…
Edit: Added last sentence
Weekly farmers markets shop $120 .. fruit/veg/herbs/dairy and of course a meat pie for the freezer..
Cake take out every two weeks as no one has sweet tooth but cakes are amazing and a treat $100
Dinners cooked by restaurants some weeks $90, other weeks $120 (2 restaurants)
Tried one place for $150 and not doing it again..
What's alcohol again?
Oh and my job is on hold due to covid. so no income..
My groceries budget is $20-$30/week, take away and eating is what explodes it so I restrict it to once or twice a week. I eat well balanced and always have some protein, veggies, carbs each meal. If you know where to shop, cooking meals yourselves is actually very affordable. Plenty of fruits for <$1/kg, recently I bought 5c kiwis each, 50c/kg sweet potatoes, 70c/kg mandarins, rules of thumbs is buy fruits/veggies at fruits shops and not coles/woolies. Buy the off cuts, the lamb forequarter at $14/kg is actually so tender and juicy I don't feel like spending $30/kg on a sirloin.
I eat lots of delivery at the moment. Gonna say 400 is a reasonable estimate. Including the cakes, gelato, late night servo munchies. Yep, 400.
Edit: could easily keep it to 100, and sometimes do. May be eating my way through this winter for lack of other entertainment.
Actual groceries for 2 adults comes to just under $100 each week. Sometimes itāll creep up to $150 on weeks where I need multiples of non perishable items like dishwashing and laundry detergent, coffee, etc. since I always get by the best value (usually bigger) packages.
I picked $50-100 since weāll also go out for a nice dinner once per month, and weāll also go out for lunch with our respective coworkers every week or two.
Once I got bit by the cooking bug I realised how much of a rip off takeout is - especially if youāre getting it delivered and have to wait. May as well just spend half an hour cooking - you just have to keep a stock of ingredients for quick to prepare meals.
I eat reasonably healthy but still choose to hunt for the specials at every supermarket here in SA we have food land and they have excellent local produce and meat cheaper most of the big 4 then of course there's Aldi who also have a lot of local stuff at great price, you can eat well without going crazy, the people I can't stand are the ones who think "brand name" food is actually that much different and still choose to pay 3x the price when most items come from one big factory and rarely make a difference in quality.
Obviously if you've got real good money and choose to go crazy then good for you but you don't have to. I prefer to live off specials and hunt the clearance items which is mostly cupboard stuff anyways.. I may splash out on a nice roast or a steak but mostly I'll buy home brand and budget my money for things like electronics or travel or clothing.
$150 on groceries for a couple plus take-out/dine-out once a week, about $50-100, so total of $250/week for a couple