How Much Should I Budget for Food Every Month? The Ultimate Guide

Last updated on September 21st, 2024 at 10:28 am

 

How much should I budget for food every month is the question that you always ask yourself, right? This is so because you’re finding challenges in how you spend on food items throughout the month.

Since we all have different money behaviors, the way you spend on food can’t be the same as your neighbor’s. That’s why research done by various organizations like USDA relates it from different angles in order to bring out a thorough illustration.

According to USDA monthly reports, people who are minors have a low expenses ratio ($194.68) compared to adults. Also as stated by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics adults can use up to $250 a month on food.

But if it comes to spending, we know that food it’s a must but you have to control yourself and have discipline with money. Look into how best you can have discipline with your money on food that’s preparing your own food.

Usually, take a meal to work though once in a while you can make an order for delivery to have that pizza. But remember this is all money paid on food for you and maybe your family in case you’re married, it all adds up at the end of the month.

When you spend on food with best practices you won’t spend that much money eating what you want. I respect budgeting with all my heart, I used to go to the stores then, but I could almost finish the money in my wallet on groceries at times.

And I came to realize that I could spend up to $300 just on food per month which is a lot of money in the real sense. Then I had to take the decision to work on my expenditure since I found out that I was spending more than necessary.

So, I cut food expenses up to $170 or even less in some months now. You mayn’t be exact about your monthly budget for food but you can fix it to normal spending.

This can be with a manageable figure that’s not taking a big percentage of your income. I surely nowadays don’t have any issues with my budget for food every month because am very cautious.

How You Should Budget Your Monthly Food Expenses!

If you’re finding challenges in making a monthly food budget it’s not the end. You can benchmark the monthly United States Department of Agriculture reports about consumer expenditures

And if you didn’t have a criterion to use, they got you covered with food plans that are defined into four categories. Asking about the categories? That is thrifty, low-cost, moderate-cost, and liberal.

All these are considered healthy plans despite their categories. USDA is somehow specific when it comes to age and gender in their plans, that’s why different costs are attached to them.

Since I had an intention to extremely cut spending on food according to my income, I referred to the thrifty plan to make things right. And I am fine with the choice I made since I am too conservative.

Though for a high-income earner, you can refer to other plans that can work better too for a monthly budget.

• A Monthly Budget for An Adult Without a Family.

If you’re an adult there’re several things that you have to look into when it comes to a monthly realistic food budget for 1 person. These will help you in making a monthly food budget in order to be a success.

Put in mind that you have to interact with yourself about how you’re going to achieve the best out of the practices. Concerning food you have to take decisions whether about what to cook, shopping, and where to eat in case you failed to cook.

Sometimes you can buy what to eat, say a KFC to be delivered, which should be once in a while since you’re on a budget. Though eating out once in a while is normal but you must ensure that at your place you don’t have food that will go bad because you ate out.

Understanding this all the time you’ll not waste any food and your budget will have a surplus of food that you can forward to next month. More to that, most people when they go to a restaurant, don’t pack their leftover food.

But it’s not financially healthy at all yet you paid and you can pack it to be eaten at home. When you cook your food at home just warm it will power you up in the morning without preparing breakfast, and you save.

Be it at home you don’t have to pour your leftover food if you’re to work within your monthly food budget, it saves.

Are you planning to make a food budget? Because you’re single most likely you can spend about $250 to $300 on average every month. And with this figure, you can eat out 2 to 3 times a week while making your own meals with all the groceries available.

College students’ expense ratio is high, what about them? Actually, many of them can’t tell their monthly expenditure on food.

If a college student has a food budget, that one is most likely to have just a few friends around honestly. And when you’re a college student, having a budget can really change your life when it comes to finances since it teaches you financial discipline.

So, you won’t spend too much on food though it’s among the things that take the money most and it’s a basic need. It’s hard finding most students making their meals at school since they’re always up and down not ready to settle most times to meal plan.

But what some college students do is divert the money that would have been spent on other things to the monthly food budget in order to keep up.

Want to make a monthly food budget student, right? Your monthly budget should be about $300 per month. And with this amount, you can sometimes eat out or make your meals to cut overspending.

The biggest percentage fails to spend within limits due to poor money behaviors though some sustain the budget with this amount.

• Monthly Budget for A Couple with Two Minors

When you have a family it’s again different if it comes to the average food cost per month since you’re more than one person. It will also be too expensive to eat out every day unless once in a while just for fun.

Therefore, you can’t eat out anyhow because cooking won’t be an issue, you help out one another hence not stressing at all. Planning your meals is easy when you plan with your children what to have throughout the month.

As a couple with two children shopping can be done by the children then the cooking done by adults whoever is available at a time.

Because you do all your shopping for groceries and all other food items, time for eating out will be limited compared to when you’re alone. And you will realize that you save more than when you decide to eat out all the time.

As adults, you may choose at least once in a while to spice up your love life by maybe eating out for fun and next time the whole family. Then the monthly food budget for a couple with two minors?

For a couple with two minors you can budget about $889.36 per month on food but it also includes eating out sometimes when you wish to.

More On How You Should Budget Your Monthly Food Expenses.

At first, we talked about a monthly food budget for 1 person and how much you can budget for the month. But also, we talked about a family and how much is needed.

It’s shown that a family requires more money to spend on food compared to someone single. However, you can try to get more information from trusted sources such as USDA.

The United States Department of Agriculture shows that show that $194.68 it’s worth the child’s monthly food budget till the age of 18 years. But if you’re spending less than that then the better what’s needed is having a fair food budget figure at the end of the month.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics also shows that a child’s budget for food per month is about $150 and for an adult, it’s $250. So, the monthly budget expense on food depends on the number hence one person uses less money compared to two and more.

Why You Must Cut Back on Eating Out Often!

Eating out often is really expensive though most people enjoy doing it compared to planning their own meals. It can screw up your monthly budget on food just in weeks yet with cooking you can sometimes even have a surplus to carry forward.

When you buy food from out in most cases is about three times the cost you can use to make it from home. There are places where you could buy juice at $7 because you want convenience yet you can make it home at less than $1.

In my case am so concerned about what I am going to eat especially when it’s not me who made it. If you’re to eat out it shouldn’t be all the time since you have to mind about your health and finances on food gotten out, it’s sometimes not fit.

You don’t have to completely quit eating out but where necessary it’s fine and it will save you a lot of money on your budget. And there are also different ways in which you can cut costs when spending on food like through coupons, promos, and loyalty programs that offer discounts.

With all this done, eating out reduced you can save a lot of money on the monthly budget. So, with best practice, you’ll start to clearly get to understand what amount really is fit for your budget every month.

Get Time to Plan and Cook Your Meals.

You might not be having time to meal plan and then make your own food at home because you have a very tight schedule and that’s fine. I have a friend who works for more than 10 hours a day throughout the week and gets very little time home to make food.

But guess what, she always makes sure that prepares meals at least four times a week no matter how busy she might be in a week. This means that no matter how busy you might be, you can still fix time to make your own food in order to be in control of the budget.

In fact, she told me that she does grocery shopping herself and on time to ensure that whenever in need of cooking everything is available to cook. So, you can also include cooking into your schedule because it’s healthy for you and your finances in the long run.

Plan a meal that won’t take you a lot of time to cook say 25 minutes to 45 minutes just in case you have a tight schedule. Cooking is my style though sometimes eat out but I rarely do it and really saves me a lot of money with my budget.

The ball is in your hands, whether you start planning your own meals or not your budget will tell and that’s how realistic the budget game is. But making your meals is the only option you can use in order to work within a healthy monthly food budget that saves.

You’ll never have enough time to settle down to cook, but you can use the little you have to make things right in time. Cooking will be fun and enjoyable when you prioritize it and your goal to save won’t be hard to hit.

Here’s How You Can Spend on Budget to Save Money Every Month on Food

There’s a very big list of things that are basic necessities of life and yes, they’re but food is first on the list. You can’t stay without food that’s why it takes even the little that you have saved.

And if you don’t plan well since every time that passes you feel like eating, you’ll keep spending. But if you plan well you end up saving a lot more on food and hence meeting your other financial goals.

Though some associate quality with price, it’s sometimes not true. When you make your own food, you know the best ingredients to use and the same applies to discounted offers.

You’re given the usual quality or even better so that you can keep passing by whenever you get time. Nothing can stop you from saving as much as possible with food items like groceries and ingredients when you come across offers.

Use Cash Back Apps

Way back in the early 90s, things were different from what it is right now because of technological advancements. Using just your phone you can make shopping online with preferred apps like Ibotta.

Just download the Ibotta app onto your phone and start getting cash back on food items purchased. With convenience Ibotta allows you to look through items in preferred stores such that you can pick out those that have cash-back offers.

And it works in a way that when you make a purchase you can then scan receipts. This is done using the app to claim your cashback which is paid out in less than 36 hours.

Rakuten app also has some good offers in terms of cashback money when you sign up with the app. It gets you a $10 bonus on spending $25 or more as a new sign up

But the money you get to make referrals is really good because $20 is quite some good money for people. If you’re good with online shopping Rakuten is a platform you needn’t avoid using.

You get some cash back from discounted items at the stores whenever you make purchases using the app. It’s another way you shouldn’t avoid when you’re interested in saving money on food purchases.

Earning a free $10 sign bonus, and making referrals to earn commissions plus cash back through food purchases can really make a difference within the budget. You always get updated with Rakuten online special deals using their extension browser

Save more on your monthly food budget using Rakuten anytime using their site or app. Other apps that you can check out is the Dosh app and fetch rewards in order to get more rewards

Making sure you’re PayPal or bank account is ready to be cashed is very important in this case to enable you to cash out to save.

Listing Items to Purchase

Most people when they don’t make a list of items to be bought at the stores, end up even buying what they don’t have to. When you get to the stores trust me everything there is meant to be sold off.

That’s why a lot is input to attract you to make a buy even when you are not interested. But when you move with a list, you’ll stick to it, and even if you might be with free money it won’t be enough to be spent on expensive items.

A list will give you the discipline to spend within that budget no matter how enticing the items at the stores would be. A list is a powerful tool to use towards impulse spending and you can even make it better using delivery apps whereby you just forward the list.

You won’t bother moving out shopping so long as you make the right choices of the things you want at a cheaper cost. About the cost of a delivery service app? that’s inevitable but just know that you save a lot when you don’t reach the stores being an impulse buyer.

And if you had a busy day, you may not have time to move to the stores to buy things on your own. You’re still saving because you’re avoiding eating out which is costly in the long term and this will completely work on your budget.

Have A Meal Before Shopping

I always ensure that when am planning to go grocery shopping, I first have a meal. Actually, it’s not just me, many people do it to avoid impulse spending due to an empty stomach.

I used to buy groceries in plenty and most of them got spoilt since they couldn’t get finished in time. When you trash groceries as waste that’s all wasting money which is not good for the food budget.

Until I got to understand that the main cause was grocery shopping with hunger then I had to adjust. It’s really not good to take loads of food items from the stores that won’t get used up.

To go shopping for groceries I make sure that at least I take a glass of juice to fill my empty stomach with something. It really helps me spend within the planned food budget because I do the shopping with a controlled mindset.

Bulk Buying

If you want to save more on food just start buying in bulk, it saves a lot of money. Yes, it saves but this will work best when you know that all you buy gets finished.

This helps to avoid losing money on dumping spoilt groceries and ingredients sometimes. No matter how many you’re at home, you can bulk buy and spend way below your budget on groceries and ingredients.

Although some mayn’t find it easy to buy in bulk yet single but those who are committed to it find no issues. And therefore, buy according to their schedule or adjust where necessary to get things in bulk.

Buying in bulk saves money when you do it the right way and it improves your monthly food budget in case it’s overwhelming.

Plan Meals Ahead of Cooking Time

When you plan meals to take you throughout the week you won’t spend on items you didn’t include in the budget. And when you make that weekly budget for food you know when to eat out or not it’s all planned for earlier.

It’s not easy planning meals when you have a tight schedule but you can try using services such as the $ 5 meal plan which will save you time and money. You’ll be guided on how to cook different things and how they can save you money using the right techniques.

All the hustles of planning meals while you’re exhausted will be worked out and you’ll save more by making your meals on a budget.

Couponing

Another good way you can spend less on food is by using coupons, these can be easily gotten. Coupons can be gotten online in different ways for example via emails, grocery store apps, and in-store.

Offers on coupons are not that much but when you keep using them, you’ll find value in their discounts. I use coupons when am interested in certain groceries that am surely going to use in a week.

It’s therefore wasting money on food when you buy food items just because you have coupons yet you’re not going to use them up.

Take Meals to Work

Avoid convenience and sometimes start carrying your meals to work to cut spending on food.

This might feel not worth doing but it’s really affecting your monthly food budget. And this is so because it’s costing you much compared to when you make your meals.

So, deciding to buy food from work is hard to quit when you’re used to it. But it’s also possible to start carrying meals to work made by you at a cheaper cost and well-balanced with the best ingredients.

Start knocking some dollars off your budget by carrying your meals to work to save.

Keep Your Groceries and Ready Food Safe

Groceries and ready food must be kept in a safe place to prevent them from getting spoilt Some people don’t take time to keep food safe and it gets spoilt hence spending more the other days.

This will affect your food budget, time, and finances the wrong way in the long run. Things that can last longer when frozen say chicken should be kept in a freezer to keep them safe.

And items that require normal handling to keep safe like some ingredients at room temperature should also be stored in safe places.

Here you have to make sure that rodents and cockroaches are nowhere to be seen to eat them up. You’ll save a lot of money by keeping groceries and readymade food safe than trashing them as waste.

Bottom Line

It’s hard using a fixed amount of money on your monthly budget but you can estimate a figure within which you can spend. And this should be way below the income you get instead of spending the largest percentage of your income on food.