How much should a single person spend on groceries per month ?

[Anonymous]

How much should a single person spend on groceries per month? bear in mind the person can't cook, he can cook basic foods like pasta, eggs, and frozen foods

Is 150$ too little or too much?

[BoopBoopBeep]

Depends on what you're eating too. If I make a salad, in addition to lettuce, it may have multiple types of onions, heirloom tomatoes, micro greens, arugula, radicchio, asparagus, water chestnuts, hearts of palm, maybe some toasted nuts and some croutons made from artisan bread. Mushroom or two, some of those can get a little pricey. That's going to cost more than a head of iceberg and some Newman's Own. It's also not uncommon for me to go through a 3lb bag of clementines every day and a couple pounds of berries when they're in season.

This is specifically chosen to show uncooked vs uncooked can result in a very different grocery experience. That just compounds further the more you get into cooking.

Personally I'm very nose-to-tail even when it comes to produce, and very little organic waste goes out to the compost. Even some of the citrus peel is kept to candy or to use as an infusion on one of my aged custom vodkas. I buy staples in significant quantities when on sale (think, beans, canned tomato paste, the various flours I use and the like), and I only buy protein that's on sale (or buy nothing and take some from my freezer).

All this is a long answer for this. Bottom line, when my garden is in a heavy production time of year, and I'm properly stocked on staples, I've spent less than $20 in a month. Last year as a whole, if my credit card end-of-year summary is to be believed, I spent just under 10k on groceries. Now some of that I'm still using, but I'm also still grocery shopping. I'm at a place in life where I can afford it though, and I like to eat healthy. I don't buy any condiments and instead make my own mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, occasional mayo, salsa, bread and noodles because I like being aware of what's going into my body.

When I was not doing so well in life I know there were months where I didn't go through $150, but there was less inflation now. Assuming you aren't just buying HoHos and Capt Crunch and are eating healthily, I think you're doing a great job to get by on $150. If you're not eating anything green then I'd say you need to up the budget there so you can.

[jshm2]

Depends. But you should learn how to budget better. It's not always cheaper to cook, yourself ; and sometimes you can relieve a lot of stress by picking up takeout instead of worrying about cooking a meal.

Will probably be better if you meal plan your month instead.

[Anonymous]

$150 a month is about $38 a week, i don't think it's too much. if you really want to push it, i heard of just getting some bread, lunch meat or cheese, and eating that. that'll cut it in half. but again, not very healthy. i think where you're at is fine.

[FreyaRed]

"Is 150$ too little or too much? "
It's not much. I pay for food 300-400 USD every month.

[Asker]

you know how to cook?

[FreyaRed]

yes, but I like expensive ingredients

[Drumlin2001]

As much as you want or can afford. $150 if not cooking your own meals seems rather low. $5 a day barely buys a coffee from Starbucks

[LiamJHayden]

Quite a few variables depending upon your diet.

[Anonymous]

Depends on a lot of factors I'd expect I spent about $300 a month