How much do you spend on food?

[k15n1]

What percentage of your annual income do you spend on food? You have to include restaurants, gardening expenses and animal feed.

For me, it's about 8%, which I understand is below the national average.

What about you? I'm guessing you're all beating me! Just calculate

[food-related expenses] / [annual income]

and post it here.

 

[savingdogs]

We don't keep track of expenses that well, you must have a better financial system going. I think we are spending more than 8 percent though.

 

[dragonlaurel]

8 % is actually really cheap. Wish we could manage on that. Summertime will be better though since the garden is planted.

 

[Denim Deb]

But, depending on how much you make, that 8% can actually be quite high. If you're making $250,000.00 per year, that's going to be a lot more than if you're making $25,000.00 per year.

I don't know how much we spend. I try to spend as little as possible. But then, hubby goes shopping and buys all kinds of stuff that I don't buy.

 

[FarmerChick]

more than 8% here, in the 15% area I think for me.

also when you throw in garden and animal feed, well when we had the farm-- heck I spent at least $1400 per month on feed and tons on diesel per month for the tractors lol

 

[SKR8PN]

I'd venture to guess, less than 10%. 90% or more of our garden is heirloom varieties, the mulch and compost are free. We can and cook with propane which costs us pennies, most all of our jars are hand-me-downs from my mother, the lids are all bought bulk and on sale only. The things we buy at the store, are ALL bought in bulk and on sale. We eat out maybe once or twice a year. The most expensive part would be the electricity to run the freezers. Diesel fuel to run the tractor for gardening purposes amounts to about 20 bucks for a season.

One thing you need to consider when trying to put a dollar amount on your food production/storage, are the BENEFITS you get by eating healthier and what that does FOR you in the long term. How do you put a monetary value on something like that??

 

[miss_thenorth]

yeah, it's all gonna vary--depending on how many people and animals you are feeding, and how many critters,a nd also whatg your annual income is. The grocery bill for feeding afamily of four will be roughly the same for people wh have an income of $30,000, and those who make $120,000. Put animals on top of that, the number, the amount your feeding etc. Not a reliable calculation.

For my family of 4, we spend between $400 and $600 oer month. For the critters, (2 horses, a cow, 2 sheep, 30ish chickens, 3 ducks, one rabbit, many quail, three dogs, and 6 cats)(diud I forget anyone??)I spend roughly $150, per month on bagged feed. For hay, I spend $35/round bale, and we go through one a week from October to May but still needing about a bale a month from May to October.

 

[Wannabefree]

Well right now probably 20ish % but when we actually had a decent income it was more like 6% and the ammount designated groceries...was the SAME LOL! So uh...not a very good way to figure to get a good idea of what people are spending on food in actually. $300 a month for a family of 3 on average, less during gardening season...WAYYYYY less. I generally use about $100 a month per person, no matter the income, we still gotta eat...and wipe, wash, clean, and brush which is included in that figure. The animals are a different story altogether So if you want a REAL idea, I'd say ask the average of what is spent per person per month, not the percentage.

 

[abifae]

I don't have any realistic way to garden (my best plan so far is to squat one of the empty houses by auntie and use their yard) so mine is all store bought. And I buy local which is a lot more expensive. Buying frozen veggies from another area is by far the cheapest method.

So I spend anywhere between 250-350 a month on food. About a quarter of my income.

I don't go out to eat more than once a month and that is often paid for by someone else.

 

[Wifezilla]

Yes, Abi lives in the big city and eats organic. Plus her metabolism is wicked fast and she burns through a lot of calories.