Large Family Grocery Budget Breakdown
I’ve received several questions about my large family grocery budget since I started sharing my once-a-month grocery shopping hauls on YouTube. Our grocery budget also comes into play when I discuss the large family meal planning that I do for my growing family of nine.
Today I’m going to answer these questions by breaking down my large family grocery budget, sharing my exact dollar amounts broken down by store, and my current cash-based system for budgeting for our large family grocery hauls (here is our once-a-month grocery hauls as well). You can also read my best tips here for how to stick to a cash based grocery budget.
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Large Family Grocery Budget
In this current season with our growing children, ages 14, 11, 8, 5, 4, 2, and infant, plus my husband and I are both home full-time – our large family grocery budget is $1,000 a month for food. We additionally budget another $200 a month for household items.
We do not qualify for or receive any state or government assistance (just throwing that in because sometimes we’re asked). On our food-only budget of $1,000, I do large family meal planning in advance for 84 wholesome meals a month, plus healthy snacks.
Also included in our grocery budget are many of my items for following the Trim Healthy Mama plan (you can read here about my Trim Healthy Mama Journey so far). Every few months I’ll make an additional Amazon order to get my special Trim Healthy Mama Sweeteners and Whey Protein Powder. This is just a small, additional expense and part of me doing the program.
Large Family Grocery Budget
- $1,000 divided by 4 weeks worth of food is $250 a week
- $250 a week divided by 9 people is $27.77 per person for a full week of wholesome foods (that’s less than Gwyneth Paltrow’s $29 a week per person food stamp challenge)
- Broken down further, that’s $3.96 per family member per day. Drilled down even further that’s only $1.32 per meal per person!
I know $1,000 a month is more than double the $400 a month grocery budget I shared several years ago. However, we eat more meats, fruits, and veggies. I’ve been on Trim Healthy Mama for over a year (which in short is very similar to a low-glycemic way of eating). We have a 6-ft tall teenager and nearing tween. Plus, as I mentioned above, my hubby is home for all meals too.
How I Spend the $1,000 a Month Grocery Budget (Food Only)
I take $800 cash on our large family grocery shopping day that’s designated for food items only.
I additionally save back $200 cash in my grocery cash envelope for an additional small grocery trip around the 2nd or 3rd week of the month.
Here’s what a small trip into the store can look like 😉
Large Family Grocery List
The $800 cash I take on my large once-a-month grocery shopping trip is divided up as follows:
$150 is spent at my local Sharp Shopper grocery outlet. I hit Sharp Shopper first because for the last ten years I’ve been able to snag 4/$1 or 6/$1 yogurts, 2/$1 bagel packs, $1.69 or $2.49/lb cheese, and other mark-down items for a fraction of their retail costs. I also buy a 25 lb bag of Old Fashioned Oats, 25 lb bag of Brown Rice, any spices I need, and sometimes Almond Flour and Milled Flax.
Here’s what one of my carts looks like on the way out of Sharp Shopper. Also look here, here, and here — overflowing with awesome deals!
Our Sharp Shopper snacks on the road. Large family style of course!
If we have family trips coming up like when we went to Washington DC, Outer Banks, or Nashville (some months we get around a lot!), then I’ll look particularly for mark-downs on granola bars, beef jerky, juice boxes, and other road trip snacks. (I develop a separate large family meal plan for our travels if we’ll be gone several days or weeks. I’ll share that in another post.)
Sharp Shopper Grocery Budget $150:
- 25. lb bag of Old Fashioned Oats $17
- 25. lb bag of Brown Rice $17
- Yogurt Deals $50
- Other Deals $60 (this could be a 6 lb roll of cheese for $2.49/lb, etc.)
$30 is allocated for our local Dollar Tree. I’ve shared many times that I pick up name brand bread for only $1 a loaf. I’ll buy up to 30 loaves if they have them available.
After I’ve been to Sharp Shopper for $150 and the Dollar Tree for $30, I’ve spent $180 of my grocery budget cash and have $620 left.
The next stop is Costco with a $570 cash spending budget. At Costco, I get the bulk of our dairy products, meat, fruits, and vegetables.
One of our once-a-month grocery shopping hauls.
Costco Grocery Budget $570
- Fruit $50 ( Apples, Pears, Berries, Oranges, Bananas)
- Vegetables $50 (Onions, Potatoes, Carrots, Peppers, Tomatoes, etc.)
- Dairy $150 (Milk $30, Heavy Cream $5, Cream Cheese $15, Cottage Cheese $10, Sour Cream $10, Butter $15, Eggs $30, Baby Bell cheese (something I like) $15, Plain Greek Yogurt $15)
- Meat $200 (Skinless Chicken Breasts x2 10 lb bags $45, Ground Beef $50, Pork Chops $30, Two Bags of Meatballs $30, Other Meats $25)
- Other Items $100 (5 Large Cans of Applesauce $25, 4 Large Bags of Broccoli $28, Plain Tomato Sauce $12, Coffee $10 – please, Ketchup $8, Natural Peanut Butter $15, Coconut Oil $17 or misc.)
After Costco, our last stop is Walmart. At Walmart, I spend the last $50 of our grocery cash for the large once-a-month grocery trip.
Walmart Grocery Shopping Budget $50
Mostly these are my Trim Healthy Mama specific items for me that the rest of the family isn’t interested in. Since I’m the only one who eats these items I don’t always need more each month.
Trim Healthy Mama items at Walmart
- Unsweetened cocoa powder x2 $5
- Large Bag of Kale $4
- Zero Noodles x4 $10
- Kids Peanut Butter/Jelly $10
- Coffee Creamer $3, please
- Other needed items depending on meal plan needs $20
Additional Household Items Budget
Separate from our cash envelope for food, I additionally take another $200 cash for household items only (disposable diapers, toilet paper, cleaning products, soaps, hair products, etc., etc. — you know all the stuff the family needs).
At Costco, I also spend around $100 out of my separate household budget for toilet paper, Swiffer mop refills, freezer bags, dish soap, bleach wipes, trash bags, toiletries such as deodorant and toothpaste as needed.
At Walmart, I spend the other $100 for household items. $60 is on diapers (1 baby and 1 toddler in diapers full-time + 2 young bedwetters at bedtime), $10 baby wipes, shampoo/conditioner/hair spray (the essentials 😉 etc. $30.
You may notice laundry detergent isn’t on my list of household items. I spend under $10 once a year to get all the supplies I need to make our homemade liquid laundry detergent.
That’s my large family grocery budget breakdown for our once-a-month grocery shopping day and the rest of the month. $800 is spent on food in one day. $200 cash is saved for a small as-needed trip later in the month. A separate $200 budget is used for household items including all diapers, toiletries, cleaning products, etc. for our family of nine. To see our once-a-month grocery shopping day in action watch our videos on Jamerrill’s Large Family Table on YouTube!
Large Family Meal Planning
Now the question is, what do I do with all this food? Here is my large family meal planning system including a video tour of my meal planning calendar. Click here for the full meal planning post which also includes links to free meal planners!
Whew, dripping sweat from my brow – that’s my grocery madness breakdown. 😉 I told you mine, now if you’d like, tell me your grocery budget breakdown in the comments below! Be sure to share how many are in your household as well.
We have a budget of 600 for food 300 for other for a family of 5 (mom dad adult daughter 8yr old girl and 3 yr old boy)
Allergy meds vitamins/fish oil cat food/litter and pullups for the 3 year old who is only day trained right now keep the other budget pretty high. We do similar to your menu planning with dinners generally rotating something like pasta, chicken, pizza, taco/chili. burgers/meatloaf, fish/eggs, chicken soup/casserole. Costco or Sams is about an hour away here so I generally shop Aldi and Kroger and Walmart and we have a wonderful bread outlet in our tiny city. Maybe once a quarter we go to the big city and I go to Trader Joes or other stores to get any hard to find items or we order from Amazon. I’m getting closer to once a month shopping here too since we get paid monthly and I need to spend less time shopping each week. It’s good to know you have a few mini trips in there. If I could simply do a quick Aldi trip for milk eggs fruit and veggies it would literally take 20 minutes.
We spend about 600 a month on food and toiletries. Instead of having a bunch of budget categories we just have a monthly amount that all non bill items come out of- kid activities, food, clothes, eating out, etc. So if we need to spend more on food one month, we spend less on something else. We shop weekly at walmart and our 2 local grocery stores. I like to go weekly since I would have to go anyway to get the fresh fruit and milk we need. We do freezer cooking so that is 3 nights a week of meals and then we have simple meals a lot of other nights.
Thanks for sharing, Stephanie!
I use to love going weekly. I just can’t do it time-wise during this season. When I only had 2 small kiddos our weekly outing was our grocery shopping day. 🙂 Great job on the freezer cooking!
We spent about $800 per month for food and household. Family of 8 (mom, dad, kids ages 10,6,5,3,2, and 9 months). In our town we only have save a lot, Martin’s and Walmart for regular grocery stores. I despise Walmart so I shop at save a lot for the majority of what I buy. Then buy specialty items at Martin’s. Most household stuff ends up being purchased at dollar general and occasionally I hit up a small locally owned grocery outlet and a bread outlet. One of these days, I WILL get to Winchester to try out Sharp Shopper! 🙂 Oh, and we also spend $75/month toward our yearly hog and beef purchases.
Thanks for sharing, Sarah. Yeah, I’m thinking of trying our the ALDI in Winchester at some point. I’ve heard the prices are close to those of Sharp Shopper, only different products. Certainly sounds like it’s worth a trip!
I was going to ask about Aldi too! We used to shop at Costco weekly, but moved to the country and find it’s just too far and not worth the time. I miss a few things, but find Aldi fits almost all of our needs and is cheaper than Wal-Mart. Plus, a smaller store means less time used to shop.
Valerie, I have been to Aldi since I wrote this post. Here’s my first Aldi trip –> https://largefamilytable.com/my-first-aldi-grocery-shopping-haul-two-week-costco-haul/ We also live in the country. My biggest issue is Aldi is 45 minutes in a direction that we don’t usually go. My local stores are 30 minutes away with locations that we’re familiar with. I’m going to try Aldi again though. I did LOVE the store. I just can’t feel like I’m going out of our way to get there. The struggle is real 🙂
This is great!Shared this on my large family living page!Thank you for sharing!
This is very encouraging. We, too, are a family of 9. I’ve been wondering how we do on our grocery budget compared to other large families. We spend a pretty penny for raw milk, we buy a 1/4 cow at a time of grass-fed beef (works out to $4.70/lb). We’ve just been revamping our budget and coming to the conclusion that toiletries and pet products should not come out of our grocery budget!
I wanted to add that our children our similar in age to yours: 13, 9 1/2, 8, 6(soon to be), 4 1/2, 2 1/2 and 6 months:)
We got to the point where we realized that we couldn’t put things that are not truly *groceries* in our grocery budget. I just ordered 18 chicks (hens) and hope to start raising our own organic eggs. Once the chickens are settled my dream is to then add in dairy goats. I know realistically that even though I won’t be buying many eggs or milk in our grocery budget, I’ll have a NEW farm animal care budget. It’ll be worth it though for the experience for the kids and satisfaction of raising a little of our own food.
Thanks for sharing your system!
You might rethink those milk goats with all of the conferences and speaking engagements you have going on. It’s one thing to throw a grain flock block in for the birds for a weekend but the goats won’t wait for you to get back to get milked. Right now we are on a fairly strict budget of $100 a week for food and household items including seeds for the garden. It is hard but it seems to be working.
Thank you for those wise thoughts, Holly. The blessing, and what makes farm animals with travel possible, is we have several farm friendly people in our area who take care of animals (yes, even milking) when we’d travel; for a fee of course. 🙂 Otherwise there’s no way we’d consider it during this season.
Great job on working your budget!
We have 4 boys (age 18, 16, 10, and 7). So, 3 of the boys eat as much as men! Our budget is $450 a month (for food AND toiletries). I DO work in the summer for a community supported agriculture group. They pay me in food. So, this is a HUGE help for 26 weeks during the growing season. But, WHEW! It is a stretch most months. We eat ONLY real, whole foods. I am vegan. So, I only cook meat when the carnivores ask for it. Not very often. This also helps with the food budget. Bulk cooking keeps me organized and saves a ton of money. We also help monthly with our church food bank. And the director sends snack type things (approved by me) home with our boys. If we get organic or whole food items into the pantry, she also lets us take some of these home. We also get toiletry items into the food bank periodically, which we are able to take home. So, all this helps keep the grocery budget in check.
Hope, thanks so much for sharing your system! It sounds like you’ve worked hard to manage your budget and feed your family well between the agri group, bulk cooking, church food bank volunteer work, and more. Great job!
Thanks for sharing this! We (unsuccessfully) budget $750/month for our family of 5 that includes 17 and 13 year boys who eat a ton. You’ve inspired me to get organized with meal planning again.
One big problem I have with monthly shopping is how to store everything. We have a large refrigerator and a large upright freezer, but our refrigerator is stuffed after weekly trips to Sam’s already. I know I couldn’t fit a month’s worth of milk in there. Do you freeze milk?
I meant 5 kids. Our family of 7. Kids are 17,15,13,8, and 4.
Thank you so much, Jamerrill! We are also a family of nine, and now I know why we keep going over budget! We just weren’t being realistic. ((hugs))
Hi there!
This comment doesn’t fit with meal planning :). Have you ever done a hair tutorial? I think your hairstyle is so pretty and feminine!!!
His
Shari
I haven’t done a hair tutorial yet. I’ve thought about it though. I need to figure out the logistics of it as in –> how to film it without getting my whole bathroom that needs a major remodel, lol! 😉
Hi! Thanks for sharing.
We live in Virginia too!! Where is Sharp Shopper? I am in the Lynchburg area, are you near us? We have 5 and expecting #6 at the end of June! We homeschool.
Thanks so much and May the Lord continue to bless you!!
~Janice
Janice, there’s a Sharp Shopper in Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, and Winchester. Also outlets in PA. Here’s the site https://www.sharpshopper.net/index.html You could always plan a stop when you’re passing through. I know a family in VA Beach who stops by a Sharp Shopper two to three times a year when they’re in this area. Certainly worth a stop! 🙂
I would love to do a huge grocery haul like you do. How do you preserve your fruits, veggies, and dairy? I’m worried they would spoil before we could consume them.
This sounds great! I have 1 adult child still living at home and 2 teens plus me and hubby. Our groceries are outrageous. There isn’t an Aldi, Sams club, or any other fair prices store within 75 miles of me. I would have to drive 2 hours to get to one. We only have Kroger and Walmart so it’s hard to get good deals. We are also self-employed so we never have the money to go once a month shopping, otherwise I would make the 2 hour trip. I am going to try and figure out ways to cut back spending because you have inspired me! Thank you for so much help! I believe I can change due to your advice.
Thanks for sharing, I budget for one adult and three children $500 a month maybe up to $600 if we see some great items we can stick up on . I’ve been menu planning for several months now doing the same as you for a month at a time, I have never thought to keep the list and rotate them in and out – I shall be trying this by I do like sitting down with the kids and planning. We try and have a pasta night once a fortnight, meat free Monday’s, fish Friday’s, roast on a weekend and this usually leaves some leftovers for Monday school lunches and the kids favourite fake out night – I’ve got a folder with magazine cut outs of recipes that they choice from and I cook this as out ‘fake out take out night’ it doesn’t take long to plan good healthy meals for the family. I’ve also been able to save money with a back up list of about 5 meals that I use to swap with the plan if a product I need is too expensive to purchase and or life , school or sports go longer 🙂
Hi! I am a mother to 10 although I only have 5 left at home. We live in Michigan but visited our daughter who lived in Virginia and we would always go to the Sharp Shopper in Harrisonburg to stock up. I contacted them to put one up here but they won’t. ? A hint I have for you; if you get sour cream at a great price, you can turn it upside down and it will last for a year unopened! I don’t know why but it does. Blessings to you and your family.
whoa! What an amazing sour cream tip!! Thank you for sharing – going to try that!!
I’m new to your page and your YouTube videos and loving them!
I have a family of 6.
9, 5, 4, and 1 year old and my husband and I.
We spend just under 200 a week.
I meal plan. I definitely could be a smidge more organized with it and probably save us some money! Meal planning and grocery shopping are my most dreaded chore.. And laundry ? We are very involved in our church so our weekends are always filled and I help teach at our small Christian school 3 days a week and my husband works full time. So usually I have to take all the kiddos… I’m just rambling at this point! Thank you so much for your encouragement!!!
Thank you for all your encouragement!
Excuse my typo!
Misty, thank you so much for watching and commenting. I could be more organized as well. Meal planning is a huge lifesaver, I agree! xoxo
Great article! We also do one a month shopping. Although, I’m struggling to make the food last the month. I REALLY need to get a menu plan in place. We budget 700/month for food for the 11 of us. 8 boys and 1 girl ages 19-1. Plus about 100 dollars worth of WIC food..which helps alot!
We get to the end of that third week and we’re running out of everything..sigh. But a meal plan would help tremendously. I know we probably need to budget more..but we can’t yet ($ isn’t there ). Hopefully next year we can bump it up a bit.
I shop Costco, Aldi and a teeny bit of Walmart.
Well now I feel extremely lame! I spend 800$ a month for a family of 4! In my defense, both of my boys have multiple severe food allergies and I have to buy a bunch of safe foods that are really pricy but I still can do better! Color me inspired!
I put the wrong email oops. Corrected
Hey sweetie, we all just do our best, right! We have zero food allergies and I know those can really add up on the food budget. Thanks for watching!
Cooking for my family (two teens + me and hubby) and preparing same meal in separate smaller portions for my parents. I have decided it is easier to cook for many than for just one or two. Your Mac and cheese will be great for this since it’s all mixed together before it goes into the pan!
We homeschool and I pack hubby’s lunch. So, 4 people at 3 meals/day + 2 people at 1 meal a day and I get by on $100-130 weekly. Thanks.
Great, Amy! Bulk cooking is the way to go 😀
Hi Jamerrill, I have been following your vlog and yes u inspired me so much. Thank you for all the sharings. I hope u dont mind me asking why u do not do couponing. I live in a country where we dont hv that advantage, so I’m just curious. Tq.
Hey there! Thank you so much for following along in the fun. I don’t do heavy couponing because couponing takes 4-6 hours a week * at least* to do it right. Don’t get me wrong, couponing can be great and I know ladies who can basically get their groceries and household items for free. However for that “free” they trade time and energy. I also work-from-home (FreeHomeschoolDeals.com, blogging, YouTube, etc) and I make a full-time income doing so, and have several people who work for me to make it all possible. It’s more valuable for me to put that 4-6+ hours into my business than into couponing. My business in turn “buys our groceries” so that’s where I put my energy. I always look for the best deals, meal plan in advance, shop in bulk as much as possible, and save money in ways that are easy on my delicate energies, haha. Thanks for stopping by!!
Okay but what about things like tomato sauce, soy sauce, honey, peanut butter, jam, salad dressing, cooking oil, yeast, baking powder or soda, pickles, spices like chilli powder, etc. there is so much not listed in this budget that i would think are needed for home cooking.
Hi there, Miranda! Yes, all of those things are needed, and there is room for them in this budget that I shared in 2015. I also find many of them don’t have to be purchased everything month. I usually buy enough baking powder and baking soda to last 6-months or more. I also mentioned an area in this post under Costco that reads, “Other Items $100 (5 Large Cans of Applesauce $25, 4 Large Bags of Broccoli $28, Plain Tomato Sauce $12, Coffee $10 – please, Ketchup $8, Natural Peanut Butter $15, Coconut Oil $17 or misc.)” and another area in the Walmart portion that shared, “Other needed items depending on meal plan needs $20.” And there is another area those pantry staples can fit in under my Sharp Shopper list that said, “Other Deals $60 (this could be a 6 lb roll of cheese for $2.49/lb, etc.)” Hope that helps! Where do you like to shop?
We are a family of 9 and I’ve been (unsuccessfully) trying to use $640 a month for food and everything else (diapers, household items, cleaners). I think I’ve just been unrealistically budgeting. ? Trying to eat healthier isn’t helping either. Thank you for your post! Not sure how to do it with our budget. I think I need to get a job…haha!
Lots of great advice, seems overwhelming for one Mom.
Do you take family members to help load and carry groceries to the car?
I ask because in my community that’s what people do take the whole family.
I’d like to thank you great advice.
Do you do this all by yourself? Seems too much much for one.. Entire families help load and carry where I’m from.
My family helps me shop unless I go out with just a kiddo or two 🙂
Thank you for all the info. I have a household of 10, 8 kiddos ages 11,boy
the 10,8,7,6,5,4 and ,2yr olds all girls. We have a never really broke it down like you did and I’m glad there are many who can relate.. It has recently got a little harder my 4 year old is non verbal and autistic, so she not only is picky but has GI issues. So I have been buying her,her own groceries. so we total about 1300$ in food. That’s not household items My 4yr old eats gluten free,soy free, lactose free Carrageenan free. That’s like 350$ just for her and I would love for all my family to eat healthy but it’s so expensive to eat right. Any suggestions on short cuts?