Eat Better Than The Average American With A Grocery Budget Of Less Than $200 A Month

It’s astounding to me how much the average American spends on food. According to the USDA, the average couple spends an average of $625 a month on groceries. That equates to $7,500 per year. And that’s just for groceries! It is also estimated that the average couple spends about 40% (or about $5,000 per year) of their overall food budget going out to eat at restaurants. Doing the math, that means the average couple is spending $12,500 a year on food!

Doesn’t that sound like a lot to you? It does to me. The median household income in the United States is $56,516.  Assuming close to a 15% effective tax, the median household will take home about $48,000 after taxes. Is the average household really spending more than 25% of their disposable income on food? It must be. And I’m sure the average American isn’t shopping at Whole Foods for expensive organic groceries or eating at fancy restaurants either. I’m guessing that a lot of people are spending a lot of their money on heavily processed foods, unhealthy ready-made microwaveable dinners, and going out to eat at fast food restaurants. Considering all of this, it’s no wonder the average American finds it difficult to save money and is unknowingly eating their way to longterm sickness and chronic diseases of lifestyle.

 

We are not like most Americans

I am not ashamed to admit that my wife and I eat really well.

We eat mostly at home, usually organic, and almost exclusively minimally processed plant-based foods.

Many people falsely assume that this healthy way of eating is prohibitively expensive. Not so. We are able to do it easily on a grocery budget of less than $200 per month.

And it’s not like we go out to eat a lot either. Depending on the month (and its associated occasions like birthdays and holidays), we only go out to eat four to eight times a month. And when we do go out, we are not going to Michelin-star, fine dining restaurants. (Side note: there is nothing wrong with fine dining experiences once in a rare while, we just don’t value those experiences as much anymore.) In general, we are spending about $30-40 (or $15-20 per person), all-in with tax and tip, each time we do go out to eat.

It’s important to note that I don’t count the special occasions in which we treat others (family, friends, etc.) at a restaurant. For example, my wife and I helped treat twelve of her high school students to lunch for celebrating their achievements in the annual Mock Trial competition. The bill was split evenly between my wife and another coach, and our portion came out to be around $160.  Obviously, I would only count the portion of the bill that accounts for what we ate. And yes, it was still under $40 for the two of us.

 

Spend less, eat well, live more

All in all, we spend an average of about $300 per month eating out, $200 a month for groceries. This comes out to a total of about $500 per month for food. It’s not like we are specifically trying to spend within this budget. These numbers are a result of us curiously analyzing our average spending habits and expenses from last year.

It was only this year that we started tracking our expenses in real time after making a few New Year’s resolutions. I did this to keep lifestyle creep in check and to see how having a baby impacts our expenses.

I can best describe our diet as a whole food, minimally processed, Blue Zone inspired, plant-based diet. In my opinion, we are not only saving money now, we are also saving a lot of money in the long run. I am convinced that eating this way will improve our quality of life (so far we feel great!), extend our life span (more years to enjoy retirement and our future life with our adult kids), and decrease our chances of developing chronic diseases of lifestyle (which will save us money by lowering the cost of future medical expenses).

If you are curious, here’s how we do it…

 

1) Don’t think of restaurants as a source of food

I stole this line from Mr. Money Mustache in his post “Wealth Advice that Should be Obvious“.  It’s so applicable. Restaurants are expensive. Period.

Even fast food is expensive. A meal with a burger, fries, and drink will easily cost $6. Even if a person just ate two items from the dollar menu, it’s still $2 spent on high calorie junk with little to no nutritional value that is likely ridden with chemicals and additives. These chemicals are often addicting, and the sugar, fat, and salt make it too easy for people to crave and eat more food. At home, my wife and I can easily fix up (within 10 minutes) a meal that costs us less than $2 a person. And I can guarantee that it’s much more nutritious than the food at a fast food restaurant.

Sit-down restaurants can be just as bad. The truth is, you don’t really know what’s in your food if you eat at a restaurant. There is a lot of added sugar, salt, oil, and unhealthy additives that are hidden in restaurant food. Why do you think it tastes so good? 😉

Restaurants are expensive because the overhead and all employees (from the supply chain, distribution, and production) have to get paid. It’s like Mr. Money Mustache says: “Look at me, I am renting this huge venue and paying an army of servants to prepare food for me!” This is in essence what we are doing when we eat at a restaurant.

When we do eat out, we make it a treat and reserve eating at restaurants for carefully planned social experiences with good friends and family. Sometimes it’s just the two of us if it’s a “date night” or a special occasion.

 

2) Don’t eat TV dinners

It’s great to avoid restaurants, but it’s also important to avoid eating prepackaged, heavily processed, “TV dinner” meals. Just like restaurants, these meals of convenience are expensive for what they are and provide little nutritional value. If it has more than ten ingredients and most of them are chemicals whose names that are difficult to pronounce, it’s likely not healthy for you.

 

3) Eat simple, home cooked meals with few ingredients

Just keep it simple. The fewer the ingredients, the less we have to buy.

Baked sweet potatoes, cooked beans, and steamed vegetables like broccoli and carrots are easy to prepare at home. To spice it up, there are plenty of food bloggers who publish easy to follow recipes for simple and delicious meals with 10 or fewer ingredients. My favorites are Minimalist Baker and The Vegan 8.

 

4) Drink water and avoid drinking your calories

Clean water is a cheap and healthy drink. It makes you feel fuller with zero calories, contains no additives, and helps flush toxins while hydrating the body.

A $4 Frappuccino is not much more than cup of liquid sugar (and fat) prepared in a nice package. Sorry, but that’s the truth. The same can be said about other drinks, such as soft drinks. These liquid calories are necessary and often leave us slightly poorer and unhealthier, especially when consumed on a daily basis.

My wife and I primarily drink filtered water from our home and also try to avoid plastic water bottles.

 

5) Eat mostly plants

In general, vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains are cheaper (and healthier) than animal-based foods such as meat and dairy. For various reasons (not going delineate all of them in this post), we choose to eat exclusively plants.

 

6) Take inventory and make a grocery shopping list

Before going to the grocery store, we always take inventory of what we already have and what we actually need. To do this effectively, we store all of our dried goods and a lot of our food in glass jars. Not only is it easy to see what we have, it is a cleaner, more environmentally-friendly and non-toxic way to store food (as opposed to using plastic). The upfront cost of buying these jars is not expensive, and it’s worth it in the long run.

 

7) Plan meals and buy only what you need for the week

Always have a plan when you go to the grocery store. And don’t shop when you’re hungry either. In addition to taking an inventory, it’s useful to plan your meals for the week so that you only buy what you need. Buying more food than you need can lead to expired food that eventually gets thrown out as well as a lot of wasted money. Food wastage is one of my pet peeves.

8) Load up on cheap staples and common items in bulk

Dried beans, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots), and whole grains (oatmeal, barley, rice, and quinoa), and nuts are extremely cheap and they can be stored for a long time. They are great staples for any meal. I buy frozen organic blueberries and cherries in bulk at Costco to save money on berries.

9) Try to buy produce in season and on sale

This is self explanatory. Produce in season is usually on sale because of the abundance in supply. In general, food also tastes better when it’s in season as well.

If you are fortunate enough to live near a farmer’s market, these are great places to get deals on food. Often (not always) the food is cheaper than in the grocery stores. And sometimes you can score great discounted deals when you arrive as they closing shop and looking to offload their inventory!

 

10) You don’t have to buy organic (but we generally do)

Organic produce and foods can be expensive and it is debatable whether the potential health benefits outweigh the cost. Are there long term health hazards to eating GMO foods? It’s possible, but there is nothing conclusive that suggests it. Are there more pesticides on non-organic food? Probably. But organic produce has be shown to also contain pesticides. Because it would be difficult to conduct a large scale study comparing the long term health implications of organic food versus non-organic food, we may never if organic food is actually better for you.

In general, we try to buy certain produce organic just to be safe. This includes fruits and vegetables in which we eat the skin/peel, such as apples, grapes, and berries. Nevertheless, we still wash everything thoroughly to decrease our cumulative pesticide load from the residue on produce.

 

Final thoughts

There is this misconception that healthy food is prohibitively expensive. In reality, it doesn’t have to be. My wife and I do it with a reasonable budget of around $500 and we still eat out on occasions. I assure you, we are not depriving ourselves; we eat extremely well. In fact, we could even reduce our spending to $100 a month if we totally didn’t eat out, didn’t buy slightly more expensive organic produce, and just ate oatmeal, rice, potatoes, and scallions. But that wouldn’t be fun at all.

A common obstacle that people complain about is that it is hard to change the way that you eat. I get it. It can be challenging. But habits can be changed one step at at time, and then it becomes way easier over time. You just gotta do it.

Another common misconception is that that healthy food is bland. It is definitely not. I would argue that food in the standard American diet is so oversaturated with sugar, salt, fat, and chemicals that our taste buds can no longer recognize real food anymore; this consequently makes people crave unhealthy, heavily processed food. If you think healthy food (the stuff that I eat) is bland, try changing your habits and eat super clean and healthy for an entire month. Fresh fruit will taste so much sweeter, while things like soda and Frappunccinos will start to taste like a gross sensory overload. Fatty, oily, and greasy food will taste gross too.

And finally, some people may think that the way I eat isn’t fun. I vehemently disagree. It IS fun. And sexy. Here’s a taste…

 

 

 

If you can save money on food and eat much healthier, why wouldn’t you?