How much does two person family spend per month in US?

[story645]

Jeez food must be pretty cheap in the US. My wife and I and 2 kids(6+9) spend around $1200 a month on food(if not even more).

That sounds a bit high, though I think my family(4 people) can top out at around $1000/month before we factor in restaurants.

Food costs me about $100-$150 every three weeks for groceries (this is buying for just me and my roommate) but if I factor in how rarely I cook I'd go with about $300/month and another $100 for meat/fish (but that estimate is possibly high 'cause kosher meat costs more), so $300-$500 is reasonable for food (I know it sounds pretty high, but *shrugs*), but as it'd be cheaper if I shopped in Queens rather than Manhattan, it's really location dependent.

. When there is a loss-leader sale on very good cuts of steak, she buys in bulk, repackages and freezes them.

I do this with just about any meat I buy 'cause the family packs are usually cheaper but it's way too much food for two people.

Electricity runs me about a $100/month, internet is $40-50, and heat is included in the rent, otherwise it can be another $100 or $200. Public transport is another biggie, $50-$100 a month on a metrocard, more if I have to factor in rail tickets and the like.

 

[physics girl phd]

Jeez food must be pretty cheap in the US.My wife and I and 2 kids(6+9) spend around $1200
a month on food(if not even more).We certainly don't eat extravagantly and shop around for bargains.We are in Ireland.Must look at what we spend again after seeing everyone elses spend.

For a family of 4.5 -- the kids are 17 (with permanent disability), 12, and 1.75 -- our food and gas budget pretty much eats up my part-time job pay each month... I'd say we spend about $500 per month on each of us, outside of rent and heat...
If you include:

1. food (We eat a lot of "family size" meat packages in one sitting, have at least one/two vegetarian meals a week, and don't do "packaged food" much beyond breakfast cereal.. but I definitely try to get a variety of fresh produce in), but that totals about $1200 per month for us too ($150 2x/week). This doesn't count that my spouse takes us to both a breakfast (we have a "regular" diner place) and a dinner (usually to see some sports on TV, since we don't have a home set) once per week.
2. gas and regular car maintenance (we have one vehicle, and the drive to work is only ten minutes, but we can't avoid that our vehicle is a handicapped-access van... so it's a gas-guzzler, and typically the drive needs to be back-forth at least two times a day on the two-three days/week that I work, since I need to be home to meet our handicapped child's bus.) Note: Let's keep the car insurance separate (My spouse's speeding tickets drove that up, and I don't want to know the cost. )
3. clothing allotments (one of our sons goes through five pairs of shoes a year -- except this year when we got him steel-toed boots for the winter... and the baby keeps growing -- and needing a few new toys).
4. regular non-food household needs (like cleaners, toilet paper, school supplies, etc.)
5. medical needs (copays on medicines, and over the counter things that are required for our disabled son but not covered by insurance)

I remember looking at average cost/person when we decided to have the baby... and most sources seemed to state about $500... which seems to me pretty accurate.