Determining typical or average amount which could be spend on groceries often pointless because multiple factors always affect actual cost of food per month for a family or single person. There are few essentials aspect should be taken into account while budgeting food expenses.
Type of food you buy
Purchasing 10 lbs. bag of rice or beans with some salad it is possible to prepare under $10 meals daily for a family of three, but high probability in a week you will be sick from same type of food every day. One pound of fresh pork or beef cuts cost about $4 – $5 and adding steak or meatballs to your menu easily double monthly groceries expenses.
Portion sizes and a number of family members
Buying food for a single person is not the same as feeding four people every day. The age of family members matter as well. It might not be wise to shop for junk food or buy cheaper inorganic groceries for children. For instance, one gallon of 2% milk cost about $2.5 - $3.0 while organic whole milk normally more than twice expensive. It is very wrong to assume that feeding kids is cheaper compare to adults and purchasing food for 12 years old child can be much costly than buying groceries for 40 years old person.
In addition, we all unlike and some of us can be satisfied with a single medium size vegetable sandwich and cup of tea for dinner, while others might not fall asleep before finishing a plate full of barbecue ribs and three cans of soda.
Eating out or cooking at home
Cooking at home is typically cheaper compare to eating at restaurants. For less than $800 a month you can easily manage purchasing diverse food at the store and cook well balanced meals every day for two adults and three children. Ordering one dinner for 5 people even in the least expensive restaurant normally won’t be cheaper than $30 and adding breakfast and lunches will increase the cost even more.
How much average person spends on food per year?
It is certainly possible to survive on $150 per month cooking pasta with broccoli at home and ones a week visiting fast food restaurant for low cost meal. But if you care about your health and planning on consuming right amount of essentially important minerals and vitamins $300 per month will be more realistic. Adding shrimps, salmon, beefsteak and cheesecake desserts to your daily food menus can be costly and even $500 might not be sufficient to cover groceries expenses for one month.
Budget limitations
With all factors in mind, affordability often play essential role how much you can spend on groceries. Local stores full of food for any budget, taste and preferences, but with $40,000 yearly income family of five simply won’t be able to afford paying over $1,500 a month for groceries only. At the same time, a single working adult with much higher salary could easily order $40 meals at decent restaurant seven days a week and not even considering cooing at home.