So we have always had “food” as the budget , but the deeper I dive into this, the more I see people separating both.
Right now, our budget is $1200 per month for 2 adults and 2 teens who eat a lot, so $300 each. This is for both groceries and the occasional fast food/ restaurant trip. Some weeks it’s 2 times a week, others more, depending on what we have going on. In addition to this, my partner and I have “fun money”, that we have used to eat lunch at work when we run out of the house and forget our lunches.
We were trying to budget it to $800 last year but it started being very tight for the growing kids, so we upped it.
My question is: have you seen a huge impact in separating the groceries budget from the eating out budget? Is it worth the trouble? FWIW, I use quicken simplifi to categorize purchases so we are able to actually track what we spend in each category.
I usually group eating out with entertainment as it’s usually with friends. Going for fast food alone or buying lunch counts towards food budget though.
$300/person isn’t too bad in the current economy IMO. As a single person, when I prepare all my lunches (with the occasional free lunch from work, and office snacks), I can usually get by on $250 a month. A couple of fast food visits and that usually gets to $300. I used to spend less than $150 a month on food when I was making a lot less, but it was a ton of rice and chicken. Going out can be extremely expensive though so it makes it easier to separate it out. When I want to tighten the belt, I’ll cut down on going out, then cut down on getting lunch, and just have a base food budget.
Teens eat a lot! At one point, I was going through 4 gallons of milk a week! Good luck, and heres hoping the grow up fast. If they have the option at college, the unlimited meal plan is best!