These days most talk about how expensive shopping for food is…question is how much do you spend on groceries per week or fortnight a month?
Just groceries…
I spend around $350-$400 a week 2 adults 2 children under age of 5….
How Much Do You Spend on Groceries?
HappyBigKid on 17/05/2025 - 19:56
Last edited 18/05/2025 - 08:10 by 1 other user
Last edited 18/05/2025 - 08:10 by 1 other user
Poll Options
- 16$0 to $50 | 2 or fewer people
- 103$50 to $100 | 2 or fewer people
- 12$500 or more | 2 or fewer people
- 5$0 to $50 | 3 or more people
- 28$50 to $100 | 3 or more people
- 68$500 or more | 3 or more people
Comments
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$350-$400 a week 2 adults 2 children under age of 5….
Edit - I misread. Ours is about $200 a week (or $400 a fortnight)
$350-$400 seems high for 4 people when 2 are children.
My household of 4 adults and a teenager spends around $250. We eat out one night a week and take away less than once a week.
We aren’t as frugal as we used to be either, so I think $250 is with a mix of homebrand and brand names on sale, and usually some nicer cuts of meat along with mince, chicken, pork.
OP probably doesn't use ALDI Laundrite powder smh
No way $250 per week for 5 people is feasible. Your family must be skipping a meal or missing out on some food groups or just eating a slice of toast each with some butter and calling it breakfast.
I do usually have vegemite toast for breakfast, and others have cereal.
And usually a sandwich or leftovers for lunch.
Some recent dinners are:
- chorizo pasta
- sunday roast chicken, lamb or pork
- Thai salad with chilli and soy marinated steak
- omelettes with salad
- marinated chicken drumsticks with veg
- home made pizzas on leb bread
- jacket potatoes with bacon, cheese, sour crèmeI aim for dinner under $20 but sometimes stretch to $25 and buy what is on special.
Big savings in the supermarket with generic cleaning products and things that don’t matter like milk and flour. Skip frozen meals and a lot if junk foods.Still doesnt add up though…. That means on average your dinner and lunches are costing $4 per serve and thats without any fruits, desserts or snacks. Which works out to 4 x 5 x 2 x 6 ($4 x 5 people x 2 meals a day [lunch & dinner] x 6 days a week [assuming eat out and take away once a week]) = $240.
Unless you are living like a povo, which i very much doubt so.
How are you feeding 5 adults for $20 per meal and have leftovers after???
@mrvaluepack: l’ll give you a breakdown for the meals above:
- chorizo pasta - 4 chorizo sausages approx 500g $7 (they are 50% off at the deli every few weeks and they freeze fine so I have some on hand). An onion 50c, a tin of tomatoes $1 or jar of sauce $2.50, 4 or 5 mushrooms 80c, spaghetti $1 and some ready made garlic bread, $2.40. Total $13.70 or $15.20 if I use the ready made sauce, makes about 6 portions. Add a dollar to cover a couple of spoons of minced garlic, sprinkle of oregano, a little oil.
- sunday roast chicken, lamb or pork. Whatever meat is on special. E.g. 1.5kg pork shoulder is $12 this week. 1kg potato $2.50, 500g carrot $1, frozen peas, $2. Makes about 8 portions for $20.50.
- Thai salad with chilli and soy marinated steak. Woolies Thai salad mix, $5.50, 700g rump steak $17.50, Birds Eye chilli $1, soy sauce 40c, garlic, 20c. I usually add a bit of extra lettuce and carrot to the salad as they are a bit meagre, so $24.60 plus those extra of $1 or two nudging over $25.
- omelettes with salad. Dozen eggs $8, 250g cheese $4, couple of rashers of bacon $3, mushrooms $1 plus whatever left over scraps like a bit of capsicum or or onion $1. Maybe dice a potato and fry it $1. $18 for 4 or 5 serves.
- marinated chicken drumsticks with veg. 2kg drumsticks $7.50, diced potato baked with some herbs 1kg $2.50, broccoli 500g $3, corn cob $1.50, add something for a marinade, honey and soy, or half a jar of oyster sauce, or bbq sauce $2. $16.50 for 6 serves.
- home made pizzas on leb bread. 5pk leb bread $3, 500g mozzarella, $7.50, pizza sauce, $2.20, toppings are often scraps but costed out: sml capsicum $2, 10 mushrooms $3, 1 onion 50c, cabanossi x 2 $5, salami 80g sliced $2.50. $25.70 makes 5 pizzas.
- jacket potatoes with bacon, cheese, sour crème. 6 large potatoes $6, 300g cheese $4, 3 rashers bacon $4, sour cream $3.30, chives $3.20 (but half left over) 6 serves for $20.50I’ll often roast an extra chicken for sandwiches or to go on top of ramen for lunches. My good value staples to eat well cheap are 1kg blocks of cheese, whole chickens or drumstick/maryland cuts, eggs, rice, pasta, noodles and in season vegetables/fruit.
I don’t buy things like 100g pre-pack sliced deli meats, or cheese in 250g packs and I avoid small portion packs of most things unless it is the same price as buying in larger quantities or will go off quickly.
Sometimes that means we have a Mexican kit one night, then burgers the next, then bbq sausages/chops the next so we use up a head of lettuce before it goes off or similar.@mskeggs: +1 for effort… he asked me the same question and no way was I wasting my time to go thorough receipts and give him an itemized breakdown
@arkie0: I think a big gap is that if you are single and just feeding yourself, or maybe newly co-habiting, it’s hard to understand where the savings can be had.
When I lived in a 1br apartment with no kids and 2 FT incomes, we didn’t buy our rice in 10kg bags or buy the 2kg tray of mince and portion it and freeze the stuff not used straight away.
But it legitimately halves the cost of a meal, often more. Yesterday at Coles they had chicken leg fillet 2kg for $20, or in the trays for $17kg. Lamb leg is often $12kg but buy it sliced into stirfry and it is $27kg. Potatoes were $3.70 kg loose (an outrage) but often $2kg in a 2kg bag, or less if brushed.
And I guess a younger person who maybe visits the gym a lot or works a trade or physical job needs more calories than toast or porridge for breakfast gives, and a couple of toasted cheese and ham sandwiches for lunch wouldn’t be enough. But most of the time I want a light breakfast and lunch, not a full dinner style meal.@mskeggs: We do buy 10kg bags of rice, other things we do is buy discounted food, think reduced price bread and freeze it if your going toast it who cares.
Meats in bulk, whole legs of ham, Aldi slicer, and freeze it, free bones from the butcher for broths
We go shopping in an area where the old Asian people sell home grown veggies on the footpath.
We're lucky enough to live near a Costco and can share the cost of some items over 3 families.
We've got a lemon, kumquat and apple tree at home, mum also grows strawberries and persimmon, though not in huge amounts.I think it's a mindset but also needs more spare time to shop around and prep.
@mskeggs: Thanks for sharing! So it looks like it's pretty much what I expected — around $20 per meal on average, but nothing on snacks, fruits, or dessert?
@mrvaluepack: We don't spend $20 on each of 3 meals per day, I think that is where you are finding the budget misleading. Snacks are a couple of packets of biscuits on special, apples, oranges, muesli bars etc.
We eat a fair bit of bread as sandwiches and toast, hardly any "snack foods", and very rarely packaged meals (like, every couple of months).So our budget for groceries isn't double our main meal budget.
@mskeggs: Dessert sometimes, there is a box of ice cream sticks in the freezer and a tub of vanilla.
Maybe make a cake or a slice once a week.I guess if you are looking for 4000kJ at each meal you'll need to add more!
@mskeggs: My $20 per meal estimate was just for 2 meals per day - lunch and dinner for 5 people. Even that comes up to $240 over 6 days. So just to clarify, you are saying that the $250 per week "grocery" bill was just your main meal budget but you have another budget for snacks, desserts, fruits and other non-main meal consumable items? That makes sense then.
@mrvaluepack: No, 6 days of dinner meals totals about $120. The remaining $120 covers breakfast and lunch and ancillaries.
Another question is what they are spending on non essential items.
For the nerds
Here's a few charts (monthly) to digest>
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/finance/monthly-ho…150 week, 3 people
I did a budget in previous post a few days ago and got ridiculed because 150 for 1 person was "hilariously low".
We aim for $100 for 2 people. It's low but doable.
What are your average breakfasts, lunches and dinners?
Breaky would be something like coffee(instant nescafe) and toast, spread like jam and egg
Asian household so usually core is rice & Asian dish home made - Today's lunch is rice & egg plant + veggie(brocoli/capsicum/carrot/onion/canned corn) stir fry
Dinner will be sweet sour fish with similar veggies.
Home made, not a premade coles mix.Nice! Thank you.
150 for 3 adults? I call bullshit, especially if asian as well because asian cuisine and groceries are generally more expensive.
Yes 3 adults, 2 above 70 though, they do not eat much.
The poll suggests otherwise and a few other replies in line with 50 per person - what reason would all those people need to lie about it for?
A basic home-cooked Asian stir-fry with one protein, one vegetable, and rice comes out to around $5 per serving using non-organic, homebrand ingredients.
Assuming you don't eat out at all (which you haven’t mentioned), lunch and dinner for 3 adults, 7 days a week would cost:
($5 + $5) × 3 × 7 = $210 per weekAnd that’s excluding breakfast, snacks, or desserts.
That’s why I find your stated grocery bill either unrealistic or, at best, a significant underestimation.
@mrvaluepack: You believe what you want, that's your prerogative.
For reference youfoodz or hellofresh is at about 5$ a meal - without discounts, that's easy enough for you to verify.
@arkie0: Same with woolies/coles/aldi frozen meal - thats $4 per meal but portions are tiny and definitely not enough per meal. Need snacks, dessert and/or fruits to fill up. So please share your grocery hack that can create adult sized meal portions for $150 week with itemized prices? Because i want to learn as well.
I spend $200-$220 with 3 adult children and 2 hungry cats
how long is a piece of string
I've just measured mine it's 78 cm
69cm
420mm
Where is the “?”
Sounds like OP needs to do more google searches for places where Op can buy meat on special like and put it in the freezer. Also find a vegie shop that has specials.
I find I save allot by buying meat and vegies when on special. Vegies do not always work out, but I bug $5G potatoes for say $4 or $5 and make home made chips and mash that I freeze. If the potatoes get below $3 I bug 2 x 5KG to then make allot of extra to freeze until then next special.
ATM I have 3KG of $5.99 chicken breast and a bunch of other meat in the freezer along with about 3KG of chips/potatoes. This week the specials are not great, so I have been clearing the freezer space.Nothing, grow and butcher our own cattle now days!
But when in Australia, it's about $1000 per month for 3 adults and 2 kids …
Where are you now?
South East Texas, just woke up :P
But can spend up to 9 months in Australia some years ;)
Many of my items come directly from Amazon. For example, dishwashing liquid, handwash, body wash, sensodyne, toothbrush, shaving gel, conditioner, omo, garbage bag, wipes etc are all from subscribe and save. Hence, it is hard to compare.. Is it not?
We tend to buy from wollies/coles/local shops when it comes to veges, dairy and meat.
Why downvote? Amazon is often cheaper than wollies/coles for many items. When it comes to veges , local shops/coles/wollies etc may be worth it.
The presence of Amazon in the Australian market is improving competition in the non-perishable grocery space, mainly because it was is uncompetitive with the duopoly controlling the majority of the market across the country.
presence of Amazon in the Australian market is improving competition in the non-perishable grocery space,
I find that hard to believe purely because when you look through most of the Amazon grocery deals it’s mostly Amazon price following the big two when they are on special. If not for colesworth weekly specials amazon pricing is just not that special.
I rarely see Amazon lead in price.
@cloudy: I can't get 10% of colesworth gift cards that I can spend whenever I want. Colesworth only offers 10% off one shop per month and you have to pay for the privelage (either directly or buying one of their other services).
Even if Amazon only price matches, it works out cheaper (for me).
I didnt downvote but 7 times out of 10 i can get the item cheaper than when people list bargains they think they are getting here from Amazon on Ozbargain. Never assume because you get a few items cheaper that they always will be cheaper than elsewhere.
I aim to spend $69 per person
$69 is far more fun per 2 people. At least that's what I have been told. one day…
$69 per person
That’s….nice
Do you count junk food in that spend?
Everything ( except take away etc )
Key bit of information here.
I've spoken to people that say "bro I only spend $50 a week on groceries" then proceeds to eat out every lunch and thursday + Friday night, easily spending hundreds.
Big brain savings!
/s
$200-250 per week 2 adults 2 young teenagers 2 hungry cats.
No clue what we spend, the wife handles the shopping because apparently I’m too frugal. My role is strictly unloading and unpacking.
$888/w
$420 pw
Munchies are expensive
$50-$100 per week for 2 adults.
Add a poll with $50 increments.
$0 to $50 | 2 or fewer people
$50 to $100 | 2 or fewer people
…
$500 or more | 2 or fewer people
$0 to $50 | 3 or more people
$50 to $100 | 3 or more people
…
$500 or more | 3 or more peopleOP not familiar with the meaning of ellipses.
Surprisingly expensive per oerson as a single person compared with when had three children living at home.
If you're just talking food maybe $100 per week, but with other groceries and special gluten-free foods staples like wheat-free oats, flour, nuts, etc., is often closer to $150. The biggest recent impact has been quality free-range eggs going from $8 to $11 a dozen, as they are one of my main protein sources.
yep.. singles tax at work
$300-$350/week - 1 adult who is currently on a relatively clean bulk.
You're missing a lot of options in the poll. That was just an example. You need all the options between $100 and $500.
OP..
I spend around $350-$400 a week 2 adults 2 children under age of 5….
But your own spend doesn't fit within any of the poll options that you present?
Why would you have $0-$50 and $50-$100 but have no options, that presumably cover most other people, until they hit the $500 mark?
Pretty sure the poll contributes nothing to this post. Just asking the question seems to get more relevent answers.
350 / week for 2 adults and 3 young kids.
I spend around $350-$400 a week 2 adults 2 children under age of 5….
How the heck do you manage that? Have king crab every night?
$350-$400 a week
Ubereats everyday?
That is the weirdest spacing for this type of poll…
Eg:$0-100 is unlikely for 2 people
$500 + is also unlikely for them.Where are the real options? Lol
Or is the poll supposed to be: Are you rich or in poverty? 😂
$113 per week for 1 adult, 1 cat and 0.5 kids (shared custody). I’ve got the data in spreadsheets so it’s not just a guess! (Also this figure falls outside your poll options).
It constantly varys and is hard to keep track if bulk buying specials but between $200-$250 a week 2 adults and 2 teenagers that eat more than us. Call it 4 adults.
What amazes me is the amount of waste especially fruit and veges some families through out. Such as buying a bag of bananas but only eat a couple but throw out the rest.
Either buy what you think you will need or cook or freeze.
Ive got a few bananas in the freezer because my boys all the sudden stopped eating them. So i better make some banana cake today.
On average $400 a week for 2 Adults, 2 Kids (5 and 18 months).
We try and buy stuff on special and some weeks are worse than others.
Biggest cost I would say is some of the kids stuff like nappies and wipes etc (for our 18 month old). Will be easier when the kids are older.
WFH full time, so there are often extras and use more Coffee, Milk etc. Save on travel, but maybe a bit more on home costs.
Biggest cost I would say is some of the kids stuff like nappies and wipes etc (for our 18 month old). Will be easier when the kids are older.
Hate to break it to you but it gets more expensive
“They have a term, ‘grocery.’ It’s an old term, but it means basically what you’re buying: food. It’s a pretty accurate term, but it’s an old-fashioned sound, but groceries are down.”
$200-$500 for 2 a week depending on stuff.
$100 to $150 | 3 people (1A + 10 + 8)
I spend around $350-$400 a week 2 adults 2 children under age of 5….
So which poll option did you pick?
$200-$250 2 adults and 2 toddlers, includes cost of formula and nappies
While the years have marched on, this blog from Mr Money Moustache gives a good insight into working out a method / process.
$250-$300 a week for 2 adults.
I eat one meal a day. I rotate meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb, fish) from Coles (or Costco). I buy the meat in the bulk pack, so like 1.5 kg of chicken for then I'd consume that in 2 days. I rarely eat fruits & vegetables.
I rotate meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb, fish)
Ah, spit roast, nice.
Way to go, shame me for eating fresh fruit and ethically raised animal products (grass over grain fed ect..), but don't go for organic for "organic", if that makes sense.
I know mine is too high, after paying $6 for Pomegranate, so then I stopped checking the prices (too depressing.
I bumped the $500 (fat fingers), but typically $200 per week, that excludes big ticket items like kitchen\laundry\bathroom\hair products and coffee, just groceries.question is how much do you spend on groceries per week or fortnight a month?
which one is it?
… there needs to be some options between the 100-500, surely that’s where most of us are spending.
P.S. those of you spending <$50 a week even as a single person… How?!? Are you just living on low nutrient food and using bar soap for all cleaning or is there some secrets I’m missing out on.
Single person household - 100~150/wk. Could maybe cut to ~100 if removing convenience item’s/foods.
As a single person on a tight budget, home brands, clearance or bulk meats, almost no convenience foods and utilise the freezer. I meal prep and freeze batch cooking, which started as a laziness thing, then my financial situation changed.
I just finished a Coles flybys offer where I spent $50 pw for 4 weeks, and I'll probably only need milk, more frozen veggies, and fresh veggies for my parrot in the next two weeks.
I have switched to dove bar soap, lol, but I use Cronometer to track macros and I'm not deficient in anything but chocolate.
They are probably eating out more often than they realised, stating some bullshit numbers or just don't know how to properly add up their totals.
Yeah think u maybe right… $50/wk is 7.14/day - even my most basic meal prep dinner with chicken breast is ~$4-5/serve and that’s without any breakfast/lunches/drinks, no way I could eat on $7/day and that’s before considering all the other groceries one needs.
markdowns, probably. and growing own veg. but even then, there's costs to having a garden
I'd say $150-200 a week for two adults
I aim for less than 100 bucks per day on food, travel expenses and consumables for a family of 5. The average though is probably about the same as OP. Getting a tin of toddler milk that might last 2-3 weeks is already 40 bucks. A staple dinner dish for us is chicken wingettes and ive watched that go from 6.99 to sometimes 17.99 a kilo in the space of a few years.
worst poll options
Lol i know right… no idea what the OP is thinking there…
Its the standard method when you want to release skewed statistics.
I spend around $350-$400 a week 2 adults 2 children under age of 5….
And yet you didn't even include a poll band that covered your own situation!. Please fix if you want some meaningful results.
Around $300 - $400 a week for us - 2 adults, 3 children. We try and base all our meals around what is on sale that week at the supermarket.
Do it via ChatGPT, you will spend 1/2 of that.
Ask ChatGPT to do their shopping list?
Yep. And where to buy from and what quantities
We spend + / - $2500 a month on groceries. Two adults, 3 toddlers. Some months are $3000 if we're hosting (which we only do 4-5 times a year). Honestly not happy with it; last year; it was closer to $1800/month and not much has changed..
Groceries includes most cleaning supplies, baby supplies (nappies etc.) We try and avoid junk, and try and eat relatively fresh and healthy. I feel if we ate junk food and snacks, we'd be back down to about $1800/month (but getting less)… Its still very expensive… I am the garbage disposal; and eat foods near expiry, and buy almost everything on special/switch brands when I can. Family eats the fresher, healthier stuff.
Usually its 2 online shops, and 1 in-store a week.
If I was asked on the street; I'd guess $300-350 a week to make myself sound cool (realistically its much more; but that probably accounts what I'm buying for the family; not my partner). Everyone thinking they only spend x/week - check your bank app. Westpac, for example - has a category breakdown from where I can pull numbers.
(Woolworths primarily - Aldi / Costco / Coles / Grima Bros specials)$130
2 teenagers and 2 adults.ChatGPT - simple to make, healthy recipes and where to buy from.
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About $150-200/week for 2 adults + 1 toddler