@Anonymous wrote:By myself: ~$100 month for food...Could do less but I need meat sometimes. I take or get free samples when I need toiletries.
My boyfriend by himself: $400-500 per month for food and toiletries. He eats out quite a bit.
This is going to be interesting when we combine households.
I'm totally with you... I'm not really into food but Hubby loves to eat out. I think he loves food period. I try not to think about how much less I would spend on food without him. I love him to pieces though...I couldn't imagine my life without him. 
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:By myself: ~$100 month for food...Could do less but I need meat sometimes. I take or get free samples when I need toiletries.
My boyfriend by himself: $400-500 per month for food and toiletries. He eats out quite a bit.
This is going to be interesting when we combine households.
I'm totally with you... I'm not really into food but Hubby loves to eat out. I think he loves food period. I try not to think about how much less I would spend on food without him. I love him to pieces though...I couldn't imagine my life without him.
He's a "foodie," it's all good.
Best wishes to both of you.
@IOBA wrote:@grillandwinemaster - Back then, there was no such thing as eating out, or soda, or convenience foods. I literally would make a double batch of split pea soup, throw in 1/4-1/2 a kalbasa, and freeze a serving size. A serving size back then was a small yogurt container. I think back then it was 4 oz. Might have been 5 or 6 oz. I would make lasagna (meatless) and do the same thing. Yep, lasagna in yogurt containers. Same with pasta with fresh tomatoes diced up. Sometimes, I could get canned fruit on sale. Sometimes, I could get fresh beans or fresh fruit on sale. I'd make baked beans from scratch. I'd take a hot dog (dog if they had been on sale) and cut them up really, really, really tiny and put them in the beans. Meatless chili. A special treat would be chicken soup. And plums from the tree in the yard. Kids were well fed. I was hungry most of the time.
*sigh* I miss those days...not of being hungry, but of being so disciplined with the food budget and eating so healthy.
Although now I make almost everything at home, the food prices are so high. I am slowly getting back to those days. I have to be gluten free, soy free, and peanut/legume/bean free now due to allergies.
Of my food expeditures now, like I said before it's about $790 a month for two people who travel every week. I track the travel food separately than the personal, I want to eat out food. About $300-500 if mandatory eat out expenses, even though I try to reduce it. But if boss says dinner meeting at xyz restaurant, bring your spouse, separate tickets, I gots to go. We pay up front for our food, then get reimbursed. Business expense.
For August, there have been six trips. I bought extra groceries so I could cook our meals ahead of time. For the most part, I have been successful and I have a nice stash of food going into next month. (On this trip, I have spent $12 on eating out by choice and $10 on work reimbursed food and it's day three. So not too bad.)
I've spent a total of $919 (there goes my monthly average!) in August.
$432 on groceries
$134 on eating out by choice
$353 on reimbursed meals for work travel
The goal is to reduce the eating out by choice to less than $50 a month. I'd like to reduce the eating out for work too....but that' s a bit harder, but I am trying (thus the two bags of groceries/precooked meals for this trip that I brought.)
I think if it was just me, I'd be spending $300 or less a month on food. But it's not. And the man likes his organic coffee...his free range meats...and his sweets. Not saying it's a bad thing...I'm just saying, he's got some expensive requirements as he ages!
I'm glad that I am blessed that I can have choices regarding food. SO many people don't have that much money to make many food choices.
So "back then" your lunch consisted of a portion the size of a yogurt container?? I've heard of the American phenomenon of ever expanding food portions. That's amazing, I Don't think I could survive for too long on that. You we're Ok until dinner time on that? Amazing!
@IOBA wrote:Lol - yeah, back then I was ok with it. And about 70# lighter! Back then, I didn't feel like I had a choice due to finances.
I do have what I call "my size" food storage containers. And I still package things in "my" size and "everyone else's" size. My serving size is a little bigger now...usually whatever is the accepted. Like 1/4 cup of m&m's is one serving size. I don't eat m&m's anymore. Didn't back then either. Fruit is 1 cup raw and a 1/2 cup cooked. Veggies are the same. Meat is 1 oz is one serving. I actually can afford to eat more than one serving - more than 4 oz - per meal now. (I ate Probably didn't help with the weight gain.
Portion sizes in the restaurants have gotten a LOT bigger! Man, when I worked at McDonalds we only had one size fry (not called the kid size) and we only had one size drink, except for in the summer, when they started the Super sizing! That super size drink is not the "regular." The kid size drink was the regular back then. So many changes!
I wouldn't recommend the 4 oz a meal thing...I only did it because of finances. I would recommend real portion sizes, not the restaurant or what looks good.
If I was feeding just me, I think the food bill would be a lot less! When it's just me, it's easier to stick to good portion sizes and a good budget.
I do remember reading about the kids meal French fries being the regular serving size for adults. One small thing I do to compensate is that we usually order 1 regular order of fries and we split it between all of our family. (5people) we have found that its actually plenty of fries for all of us. Sometimes we get funny looks from other families. I feel like telling them something along the lines of " we can afford to buy more fries, we only ordered 1 because that's what we want!"