US Dept. of Ag food budgets

[iris lilies]

IMG_7553.jpg

I hope this chart is readable. It presents food budgets in 3 categories: thrifty, moderate, liberal, for people in the United States.

It is not realistic. I spend liberally at the grocery store and do not achieve the $800/month amount pegged to us, 2 people age 71+. We aren’t quite that old yet, but soon.

Anyway. We spent $532 in December. That doesn’t include beef costs or any pet supplies.

We talked about this on another thread but here is a dedicated thread.

article is here

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-...eral%20budget.

[early morning]

Well, we're about on target for four adults (broken down by age/sex) for the liberal plan, but that includes a lot of convenience foods, take out, and an ungodly amount of coffee-shop beverages. That said, there's a huge difference in grocery store prices between us here in the Midwest, my DBIL's expenses in the LA area, and our Aunt's local grocery on Cape Cod. The coasts do tend to have more lower priced ethnic markets though. So depending, that might balance out a little, I'm not involved enough to know for sure. USDA seems generous, but again, covers expensive areas too. I'm not sure what all the USDA figures are being used for, but if it's any sort of snap/food stamp benefits, I'd for sure want it to err on the generous side. Poor people have enough to worry about, and should have the ability for some decent and convenient food choices.

[iris lilies]

I now see that our huge garden really does play a role in our food budget. We are still eating onions from our garden, and
i use a lot of onions. I seem to remember they get expensive this time of year.

I have bags and bags of frozen tomstoes (from 2023 bumper crop) and green peppers. We have a six month supply of winter squash.

[early morning]

Yeah, that all would really help! We buy fresh(ish) produce, and it adds up. I don't food garden much at all, never found it enjoyable. As soon as I could stop, I did. But the dollars do add up!! And I can go back to it if need be, but I'd try like heck to make some raised beds. And no corn, lol. I won't fight the raccoons for corn!

[iris lilies]

Another place we save is on drinks. We don’t buy fizzy drinks or soda or sweet drinks or anything like that. The coffee we drink most every day is instant coffee although once in a while, I do make regular coffee. DH makes ice tea from bags, which is pretty cheap.

I do buy quite a lot from frozen food section and from the deli so we do spend money on prepared foods.

[rosarugosa]

Another place we save is on drinks. We don’t buy fizzy drinks or soda or sweet drinks or anything like that. The coffee we drink most every day is instant coffee although once in a while, I do make regular coffee. DH makes ice tea from bags, which is pretty cheap.

I do buy quite a lot from frozen food section and from the deli so we do spend money on prepared foods.

Instant coffee - arghh! I could probably go on a rant about instant coffee comparable to somebody's rant about e-bikes, but I will try to restrain myself!

[rosarugosa]

We are probably right in the ballpark for the liberal budget amount for our household. We may even be a little bit over, but I do not bother to exclude non-food items that we buy at the grocery store or Costco, so a lot of paper goods, cleaning products, cat food, and health and beauty stuff is in there. Market Basket has good prices, so I buy as much as I can there to avoid extra trips to various stores.

[happystuff]

Eyes are so bad, I can't see fine details on the chart, but I don't think we do more than $500 for 2-3 adults. (child at home doesn't always eat here- lol)

Instant coffee - count us in! LOL Use the dark roast and it's fine, easy, and no grounds, pots, etc. to deal with.

[early morning]

Ah, I'm in the ground coffee camp. Generally buy beans. Not the cheapest but we do like coffee. I've never met an instant I liked, but I'm sure there are some out there, I'm just not motivated to try them. We almost always have a pot of hot coffee available; if we had to stop and make a cup of instant every time someone here wanted some, it would be a real pain. Happystuff, the link IL posted takes you to the article where the chart is displayed much much larger. I had to do that. There doesn't seem to be a paywall.

[iris lilies]

When we have overnight guests, I make ground coffee. I don’t expect anyone to drink the awful stuff we are accustomed to.