Average Cost per Person per Meal in your House?

[cbrunny]

Just wondering what others are at here. Exclude eating out or anything not made in your house.

(total monthly grocery bill / number of days / number of meals / number of people)

A rough estimate puts mine right around $2 CDN.

 

[shortylickens]

About 3.50.

 

[child of wonder]

Varies wildly. One night we'll cook scallops and risotto, another spaghetti and meatballs.

Probably between $3-$4 on average.

 

[Yakk]

Seem stable around $5 a person lately, includes electricity averaged costs to cook and all.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I honestly have no idea.

 

[Linux23]

around $10-12 pp

 

[LevelSea]

I honestly have no idea.

This. And I probably don't want to know.

 

[SithSolo1]

Last night was the first time in months I'd made anything. Spent $70 at the store, two people ate one meal so thats about $35 per person. Of course that number will decline over time.

 

[Scarpozzi]

My kids waste a lot of food...but $2-4 or so is pretty standard....$8-16/meal for 4 with leftovers.

What kills me is how we shop for groceries. My wife hates to go to the store, so when she does, she buys lots of the same things in bulk... We end up throwing out lots of produce, milk, cheese, etc.... I would shop every other day and stock only canned goods if I had my choice.

 

[lytalbayre2]

I haven't bothered calculating specifically, and it does vary widely. Normally I'm thinking I spend between $10-$15 on a meal, so $2-$3.

My basic rationale is that it would usually cost me between $25-$30 to go to In N Out, which is pretty much the cheapest way to eat out of the home. I'm usually feeding 4-5 people.

In the Grocery store, I can buy so much good food for $30. Some nice steak, rice, fresh veggies.... $30 would provide top tier food at home. This makes me feel happy and from this perspective, makes it easier for me to splurge on some nice T-bones or whatever else I want from the grocery since it's still pretty much cheaper than than the cheapest crap you can get going out...

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

About 3.50.

Same here, about tree fiddy

 

[PricklyPete]

My grocery bill is about 850-1200 a month for the five of us.

Restaurant bill is 300-500 a month. Tends to be inversely proportional to grocery bill.

 

[vi edit]

Really have no idea. Breakfasts are pretty cheap. I usually make breakfast sammiches for my wife and I. Kids get a waffle or two a sausage patty + Milk.

We tend to hit Sam's club twice a month.
Pack of pre-cooked sausage patties (lasts two weeks) - $10
2 loafs of bread (use one, freeze one, lasts two weeks) - $6
Sliced cheese (lasts a month or more) - $9
Box of waffles (72 count, lasts a month) - $6
Maple syrup (the real stuff) - $10 (lasts a month)
4 pack of cinnamon rolls (good for a month worth of breakfasts on weekends) - $6
18 pack of eggs (good for 8-10 days of meals) $3
2 Gallons of Milk (one per week) $4.50

That's *very* typical of my normal weekday breakfasts. That's about $20 a week for breakfast food on weekdays. Divide that by 20 (4 people x 5 days) and it's a dollar a person a day. You can add on another $7.50 a week for coffee. It's about $13 for a bag of starbucks coffee. I make a french press pot a day of it. So that adds another $.50 a day for my wife and I.

Dinner is also reasonably inexpensive. But not as cheap. It's usually some sort of somewhat prepared meal - whether that be a can of pasta sauce, noodle packets, meataballs, pre-formed hamburger patties or fish fillets, ect. I'd guess that we average out to $6-$8 a meal...or around $2 a person for most dinners. It gets more expensive when higher quality cuts of meat are used (pork loin, chicken breast, ect). So it may move towards $3 a person or more. And than can easily double or triple if my wife and I have a glass of wine or a beer.

It's really the drinks (coffee & alcohol) that are the hidden expense. I tend to balance it by not getting any coffee outside of the house. I never hit starbucks for coffee. I always make it at home. I also tend to do lots of leftovers at work for lunch. I rarely eat out for lunch.

 

[Staples]

I am cheap and so is my son but my wife drags up the bill tremendously.
Peanut butter and jam sandwitches are cheap.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Judging by my Quicken data....

Average spending over the last 12 months:
~$350 /month for restaurants
~$220/month for alcohol/bars (Can include pubs or the liquor store)
~$550/month for groceries

This is for 2 people.

 

[clamum]

Looks like exactly $3 for me. I added my average (roughly) weekly grocery bill to what I roughly spend each night on dinner, since I eat out 99% of the time for dinner, and divided it by 30 and then 3 and got $3. But I guess technically that weekly grocery bill also includes stuff like toilet paper, soap, face wipes, toothpaste, etc. I don't buy those things every week but they're included in the amount.

 

[PricklyPete]

Ok...I had a few minutes and the numbers for the first 10 months of the year.

Total Grocery: $9836
Total Restaurant: $4716
Total Days 303
Total $ per Day: 48
Total $ per Day per person: 9.60
Total $ per meal per person: 3.20

Some caveats:
- All 3 of my kids are under 3 years old...so not really at "full capacity"
- my youngest is 11 months old and was living off my wife for a good part of that time (we've been weening him off for that last few months and now only gets the boob right before he goes to bed at night.

So if I equate my 3 children to one adult, my numbers would look like...

Total $ per Day per person: 16
Total $ per Meal per person: 5.33

 

[cbrunny]

Yeesh. I either don't make much money or I'm hella cheap. Or both. Probably both.

 

[PricklyPete]

Yeesh. I either don't make much money or I'm hella cheap. Or both. Probably both.

I would consider myself cheap with the exception of food.

 

[purbeast0]

No clue.

Weekly grocery bill is like $100 - $125 on average but that also includes stuff like toilet paper, shampoo, etc, whenever we are running low.

I never really eat breakfast other than a protein shake, which I guess should be part of the grocery bill too, which is $50 for a 4lb tub of protein. On the weekends I'll make breakfast sometimes.

Then I eat out one or two times a week for lunch at work, as does my wife.

Then on the weekend we eat out a lot and some times we go to eat dinners that cost around $100 or so.

 

[Muse]

I kept accurate records for almost 3 years a few years ago. Between 2008 and 2011 my daily food bill came to a little under $4/day. This is not per meal, it's per day. Nowadays, it would be higher, probably closer to $7/day. I'm buying mostly organic veges and fruits, grains, coffee, etc. nowadays.

 

[lxskllr]

Probably $2, but It's not something I can verify.

 

[Rifter]

Probably $5 on average PP per meal.

Me and the girlfriend spend $800 a month on groceries, we never eat out, so thats for all our meals including work lunches which we pack and take with us. Not bad for being in canada i suppose i know alot of people who spend more up here, things arnt as cheap as in the US.

We eat good to i go shopping twice a week and so does the girlfriend on differnt days and buy good fresh food, I dont buy much in bulk. We could probably get our groceries down to 500-600 a month buying lower quality and bulk but i would rather have quality fresh food.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Woman and her mom do most of the shopping, they hit Aldi, Walmart, and will buy stuff on sale. Entire meals for the three of us often cost under $20 in groceries, counting breakfast where we go through like 8 or 9 eggs and some toast and butter and such ... we sometimes all eat for under $10 in groceries. I tend to go out for lunch at least 3 days per week at $15, and I take the woman out for dinner at least once per week (sometimes her mom joins us, sometimes, just the 2 of us) ... for like 25 bucks per person usually.

Overall, we are spending more money than I expect, however, we are spending a lot less than we used to when we went out to eat like 4 nights per week..

 

[BarkingGhostar]

In the actual house? You mean like using Trojans and lube? We don't really cook. We eat out. based on last years report we spent $17/person/meal, but that was only 2 meals a day.