3 ms·

I’m super skeptical on these numbers as me and my partner are nowhere near $250 a month per person and don’t do any budgeting or restrictions when we are at the

I’m super skeptical on these numbers as me and my partner are nowhere near $250 a month per person and don’t do any budgeting or restrictions when we are at the expensive grocery stores in our town.

Izkata 3y ago
Here's another then: I'm one person with no pets who has spent an average of $430 per month at the grocery store in 2023. And almost all of that is food, I get most non-food consumables from Amazon subscriptions. In 2019 it was around $250 per month. Pretty much the same set of items. (This is in Chicago)
- mulderc 3y ago
  So prices went up and you didn’t change what you get? I guess people are much less price elastic than I am. We are well under $200 a month and I don’t feel like we do anything special to keep our costs down.
  - Izkata 3y ago
    I usually don't add to these conversations because my salary is high enough I don't need to pay attention and people love jumping on that. But I think here it ends up with a good comparison point.
- mulderc 3y ago
  We also make a high enough income where we don’t really think much at all about grocery prices but have no issue spending way below $200 a month without thinking about it. This is why I am confused by these stories. Sure I grab the thing on sale instead of the expensive thing when I notice but it doesn’t seem that hard to stay under $200 a person.
  - candybar 3y ago
    How are you defining groceries here? I suspect that some people are being fairly expansive and including everything that they'd buy at a grocery store, while others are being much more restrictive. Using a more expansive definition (mostly because I've literally broken things down by items), we're close to $500 per person, the few times I've spot-checked our spending. I think it's difficult to be well-below $200 per person without being highly budget-conscious, avoiding expensive categories altogether and/or eating out all the time.

Izkata 3y ago

Here's another then: I'm one person with no pets who has spent an average of $430 per month at the grocery store in 2023. And almost all of that is food, I get most non-food consumables from Amazon subscriptions. In 2019 it was around $250 per month. Pretty much the same set of items. (This is in Chicago)

mulderc 3y ago
So prices went up and you didn’t change what you get? I guess people are much less price elastic than I am. We are well under $200 a month and I don’t feel like we do anything special to keep our costs down.
- Izkata 3y ago
  I usually don't add to these conversations because my salary is high enough I don't need to pay attention and people love jumping on that. But I think here it ends up with a good comparison point.
mulderc 3y ago
We also make a high enough income where we don’t really think much at all about grocery prices but have no issue spending way below $200 a month without thinking about it. This is why I am confused by these stories. Sure I grab the thing on sale instead of the expensive thing when I notice but it doesn’t seem that hard to stay under $200 a person.
- candybar 3y ago
  How are you defining groceries here? I suspect that some people are being fairly expansive and including everything that they'd buy at a grocery store, while others are being much more restrictive. Using a more expansive definition (mostly because I've literally broken things down by items), we're close to $500 per person, the few times I've spot-checked our spending. I think it's difficult to be well-below $200 per person without being highly budget-conscious, avoiding expensive categories altogether and/or eating out all the time.