detpilot

For those of you who are good at budgeting, how much do you spend on food per month? Please include food on the road and at home... Only looking for single people, I'm trying to figure out if I'm spending more than I should be compared to my peers. Thanks!

jungle

~ We plan, we toil, we suffer - in the hope of what? A camel-load of idol's eyes? The title deeds of Radio City? The empire of Asia? A trip to the moon? No, no, no, no. Simply to wake just in time to smell coffee and bacon and eggs. ~
J.B. Priestly


“Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.”
Elsa Schiaparelli

dbrault17

I try to budget no more than $15/day.

If I spend less on a day I roll that over to a sort of fund that will be used to pay for going out to eat. My rule is to try and never eat out alone so eating out becomes more of a social outing than a dining lifestyle.

Its very easy to eat on the cheap when living off of Hamburger Helper, spagatti, bologna and PB&J sandwiches etc. I save all the leftovers for the next meal. Three good servings can cost about 3 bucks. However this kind of diet makes me feel like crap and I start gaining a ton of fat weight.

Switching to a protein diet of lean meats of chicken, beef, pork, fish and veggies usually costs me about 80-100 a week. It also takes alot more to cook and its harder to have leftovers for storage. The plus side is I start to look leaner and more muscular and have alot more attention, motivation and energy.

I ususally switch between the two a few times a years. Doing the healthier diet eventually drains my finances and I have to resort to the cheap carb based diet to replenish the funds.

As for on the road-I used to eat as much as possible from the continental breakfast and take leftovers to my room. The rest of the meals I would eat out and spend around 12-20 bucks for about two meals. This is not only expensive but again its very unhealthy.

This time around for my job when I'm back on the road I have a hiking pot with a homemade stove. The stove is a cat tin (supercat hiking stove), I use HEET for fuel which can be bought for a buck at any gas station and cleverly disguised as a bottle of saline, and a flint stiker for a lighter (TSA wont even know what it is if they even find it). The food will be cheap dehydrated meals and soups.

I'm interested on others take also.

EqualTimePoint

I am a single 25 year old guy and I budget for around $80-100 a week when I am not on the road.

I buy a pretty decent mix of food: soup, pasta, Lean Cuisines, veggies, salad, lunch meats, yogurt, milk, Gatorade, meal replacement shakes, chips/salsa, cereal, chicken (or burgers or hot dogs depending on my mood) etc. I take my time and make sure I am getting the most for my money i.e. buying bulk or generic branded foods if they are cheaper. If I have to take the extra time to whip out my cell phone calculator and make sure I'm getting the best deal I do. Spending the time on math saves me a good amount of money a year and gives me more of an opportunity to observe the locals feeding at the self-serve candy kiosks.

When I'm on the road I take advantage of the free breakfasts and fill up, but other than that I rarely make an attempt to budget my meals. I just spend what I need (within the limits of my per diem) to to eat, drink and be merry when time permits. I figure if I have to be away from home for 21 days a month I may as well do what I can to enjoy it, but that's just me.

I have seen guys bring a spare bag with soups, granola bars, Raman noodles and slimfast in an effort to pocket as much per diem as they can. There is nothing wrong with it, to each his/her own.

I can't attest to what most of the guys I work with do at home, but almost all of the guys I work with have the same philosophy regarding eating on the road.

Hopefully that is a decent comparison for you. I am pretty interested in everyone elses' spending habits as well.

FlyingNasaForm

I pack food, so I spend give myself a budget of $50 / month for eating out. (That's is for home and the road.) Most months I am easily under that amount.

My wife and I (no kids) shop at Aldi and can get through a month on around $275. We buy what we want at Aldi. We could spend less if all we ate was ramen noodles. (If I was single I bet I could get by on $100-150 and eating healthy.)

Aldi's food is good, and is at least 40% cheaper than a main stream grocery store. She really didn't want to shop there at first, so I made a deal with her. We'll try Aldi products, if she doesn't like it, we'll get that item at Kroger or Giant Eagle. I'd say 90% of their stuff is as good as the brand names you find in Kroger. You do have to check the fresh fruit and vegetables closely though.

Aldi is the dominant grocery store in Germany, so what we perceive as "generic" they perceive brand name.