We spend $600/month for a family of 6 and that includes all food, toiletries, pet food(we have 6 pets) and paper products. I dont buy a lot of convenience food either. I have gotten it lower but it seems as my kids get older they eat more lol! Also I have diabetes so I have dietary restrictions and some of my food is more expensive.

When they were little I got away with spending under $100/week. That was also with buying diapers and wipes, go figure.

For a family of 5 depending on the ages of the children I would say $100/week is a good target.

__________________

Some of these ladies are amazing shoppers.

I think I'm pretty good but I don't think I could do $400/month for a family of five, especially with teenagers. And that's even though I get a ton of our groceries for free, or leave the store with a cart full of healthy food and only paid $10.

All You is having a contest right now where the challenge is to stick to $25/person/week. I can't remember if that includes HBA/pet food/diapers, etc., but if it does, that seems like a reasonably challenging budget, to me. That would mean $600/month for five.

And I definitely couldn't do that the first month's try; for me, that requires long-term couponing/stockpiling. (Having 20 boxes of pasta on hand from the last time it was free somewhere, that kind of thing.)

I used to spend $100 a week for everything including shampoos, dog food etc, sometimes $125 if we were out of stuff

Now I spend about $70 to $80 a week and that is because I am much greener now. I have learned to clean with out chemicals, no paper towels, no paper plates, I make a lot of our food from scratch and I have eliminated convenience foods (for the most part, sometimes the oreo's are screaming buy me ) I also love to shop with coupons so that is a definate helper.

I would say it can be done for $400 a month and if you get good at it less.

I forgot to say we are a family of 5.

__________________
A Family of 5's quest to forget the Joneses.

we are a family of 6..2 adults, 11 yr old boy, 10 yr old girl, 8 yr old boy, and 4 yr old girl and we spend anywhere from $150-$200 per week..

I have a family of 4 and I spend about $200-$250 a week. :eek It would be more if we added an extra little one.

Edited to add that is: 2 adults 2 boys ages 14 and 7. We also have 3 dogs, 1 cat, 1 bird, 1 lizard. Their food money comes out of grocery as well.