How much does your family spend??

[Raene]

Hi, I'm new at raw foods but have been following a vegan diet for a while. How much do you spend on groceries? I'm worried that I can't afford a completely raw diet. I know food costs vary from city to city, so here's my example. I live in New York state and my one and a half person family spends $75 a week on groceries (about 90% of which are organic).
Thanks!!

[Purl]

We spend about $250-300/wk. We are a family of 6-2 adults, 4 dc (8,8,5,2). I buy some from the discount grocer, and the rest organic. My 3 oldest boys eat fruit 24/7 and the 2 yo LIVES on cashews. HTH

[livingatthetop]

I live in nyc and I shop for myself and I spend 60 bucks a week and I find myself running out of food by thursday.


sincerely Shernell







www.freewebs.com/shernellcooke

[Rawkinlocs]

My family is about like Purl's...we are a family of 6 (two adults and 4 children) and we spend on average anywhere from $175-$250 per week. It really depends on what we're getting. Like, the times when I need to re-stock on nuts and condiments (coconut oil, agave, nama shoyu, etc.) I spend more. But when I'm just buying produce and a few other things here and there, I spend less.

So, I'm thinking that with a 1 1/2 person household you may be around the same zone or maybe $75-$125 depending again on what you're buying. But there are threads here where people have given excellent tips on keeping the grocery bill down...you could try a search on "shopping" or "shopping list".

[Purl]

rawkinlocs-tell me how you keep it so low!!! Do you mail order, or buy at a discount? I just seem to go to the store every other day for this or that...my dc are eating like horses, esp fruit. Do you buy all og? There are a few "cooked" things that could save me about $30/wk (soymilk and gluten free bread), but my dc are ready to be 100%. I joined a CSA for the summer and I hope that will defray some of the cost. Also I was thinking of placing an order at sunfoods.com or some mail order place. I figured I'd have to spend about $1200-but I between the CSA and the mail order, I probably won't have to go shopping all summer! LOL!

[Denise Nicole]

I am spending about $150-$250 weekly for my family. But I am still on a learning curve and need to slowly stock my pantry with staples, and am learning frugal meals to work into my week.

[exurb]

purl / raene do you sprout? That is an awesome way to save money and have good organic food. I also really like to store stuff for the winter. We grow some stuff but others we get from organic farmers locally in season, then freeze or store. We eat sundried tomatoes all year from our cherry tomato plants, our freezer is full of other tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc. The apples we stored in the fall are only starting to get punky now, but the squash is still amazing. In season, those organic apples cost $15 a bushel which is 44 pounds. Other stuff we buy in bulk like buckwheat and oat groats in 25 pound bags, then it's always there. You can do a lot with sunflower seeds instead of nuts (thanks sweetgoddess for that tip :) ) In winter I also eat a lot of salads from grated carrots, beets, ginger. You can also get nuts at Costco to save $ but they're not organic.

[Raene]

I don't sprout yet. I haven't quite learned how (probably b/c I don't like sprouts, or at least, the sprouts found at restaurants). I need to learn though...

[eachpeachpearplum]

My budget is $225 a week for 2 adults & 2 kids . In the beginning I strugeled A LOT as it was very much trial & error. Now that I have everything well stocked it's just a matter of maintaining the stores so it's much easier.

Also I do a lot of "recipes" so if you eat more simply I assume you would spend less.

[jenjenn]

I'm a vegan right now and lately I've been going to an asain store and buying frutis and veggies for about 15-20 a week , since I'm on a really low buget
I really want to go organic but I just can't afford it, with the prices that you all say that you spend on food I can' t imagaine financially going raw. Where do you spend all of your money like 20 on veggies, 40 on fruits and 50 on nuts? How much do you think one person alone could spend on living raw in a week from smallest to biggest dollar amount?

[Cinnamon]

There are two of us and I spend between $400.00 and $600.00 per month. It seems like a lot but it is the one thing I do splurge on! Of course one of us is raw and the other is cooked so that makes for a variety of foods being purchased.

I buy as much organic as I can but do get things like nuts and dates at Costco, the prices are great and they are always fresh. Every once in a while I do find some organic produce at Costco, just the other week I got a large tub of organic mixed greens and another tub of baby cherry tomatoes. They were oh so yummy!

The rest of my shopping is at a local Central Market, the bulk foods and produce section are excellent.

[PATH301]

Today I just picked up some Hemp protein powder, 2lb bag of organic carrots, 3lbs head of cabbage = $21.00.

So if I were to buy all organic - be $100 - $125.00 week for one
or if I buy mix of organic and non organic = $60.00 to $80.

But it all depends if my cupboards are totally empty or if I just need a couple of things. :)

[karenisraw]

I spend about 50-75 per week just for myself. I buy all organic. Things I do to save money are:

sprout sprout sprout
buy sunflower seeds as the bulk of my nuts
buy the cheaper vegetables & fruits
go to asian markets or specialty store for cheaper items
:p

[misslinda]

Myself alone, 120-245 a month. Simple buys.

[Vandy]

I never spend more than 50$ a week on myself, and me and my sister combined usually spend about 70$.... what we do is we bulk order from the farmer's market (and get more food than we can eat but it's grat!) for our fruits and vegetables and sometimes herbs, and then when we need special condiments we head over to the store and spend about 20$ there... there is always a solution...

When we are home from college...my family spends about 100$ a week for all four of us... bulk ordering from the farmer's market is a miracle!!!