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Recommendations for a Roth IRA?
If you have cash that you want to invest. Please consider Treasury Series I Savings Bond (Electronic). Interest is 7.12% right now. While it's not guaranteed that the 7.12% will remain until next year, it's still a good deal.
My SO and I just invested 20k (10k max per person even married).
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_ibonds_glance.htm
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If it brings you joy, continue. Life is short
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^ agreed. It’s a lot of money but it’s also what you love to do (cook and enjoy high quality food). OP sounds fiscally responsible so sure you could lower expenses but it doesn’t sound detrimental to your current life.
In my household in Manhattan, groceries are about $400/mo per person ($800/month total). Eating out is another $800/month. Delivery about $200/month. So my total is $1,800/month.
Are you shopping at Whole Foods and only buying organic? Switch to regular (non-organic), stop buying prepackaged snacks, and stop buying gourmet everything.
Also, are you two overweight? The best way to lose weight is to eat less, and it’ll have the bonus effect of cutting down your grocery bill.
I personally separate groceries from my socializing/entertainment budget. I consider going out as a form of entertainment. If you think a restaurant is simply for sustenance, it’s better to stay home and cook your own dinner.
I budget $1,600/month for all entertainment combined, which means comedy clubs, restaurants, movies, concerts, theatre and cocktails. I often pay for my S.O. or my friends.
My grocery budget, for myself, is $400/month, and my takeout/delivery is around $100/month.
$1200-$1500/month on groceries for family of 6. Eat out we try to keep it under $500/month.
I hope you’re optimizing which credit cards you use to get the best cash back or points/miles for the restaurant and grocery spend.
Chase sapphire
Yea, spent around 2300 for a family of 4 with 2 young kids
Family of 3. We spend about $700 on groceries, including Costco runs. About $400 on eating out/ takeout. We eat very well. Mcol location. We could easily cut back all food related expenses to about $600 if we really wanted to.
We just spent $500 last week on groceries for a family of 5. This was the basics really to get us by and encouraging us to eat more at home. We will continue on this path through whatever recession is coming to help protect us from the shocks that are likely to come.
Enthusiast
That’s alot of money for food. Find cheaper alternative or buy in bulk. I spend $980 a month for food including groceries and eating out for a family of 4. We eat mostly organic but I dont buy them all from whole foods.
$12k a year as a single person. I’d like to cut back on Uber Eats but…
Most of these amounts are out of control. I live in London, which is globally the 4th most expensive city to live, and I spend £195/mo for one adult (including dog food). I rarely eat out so it’s not worth adding that amount in (a few times a year maybe). Compared to friends I think I spend the most on food (groceries) by a lot, even twice as much as some.
I don’t buy much junk food, no meat, no dairy, no eggs. I cook with tofu, beans, tins of tomatoes, and generally don’t have to budget anything when I shop. I also just buy a lot of extra of things when they are on sale, assuming they won’t go off and I have space to store it.
I’m from the US, so I know how subsidies work (in both places). The US also has them — mostly for junky food additives. It doesn’t mean that food shopping for 1 or 2 people automatically costs 1, 2, 3k/mo.
That's actually very reasonable. I budget 400, 00 for groceries and even less for dining out.
That is not expensive
Family of 5 and our food bill is about 3000/month
groceries - $800 (family of 2, high-quality expensive food), $100 - for eating out / deliveries. $200 - pet food (2 cats, 1 dog).
I’m guessing when I was in my 20s, I averaged $50+ a day on food and alcohol. Enjoy your life man. If you want to save, I’m sure you can cut some stuff back. I regret nothing.
Oof. Last year, about $8k in groceries, $5k on eating out. It was definitely an eye opening discovery, since I hardly ever cook at home. Where are all these groceries going? 😂😳 (single, SF Bay Area)
You said you own your home and have no student debt, so if I understand that correctly, you’re not paying any mortgage. If that’s so, then given your HHI, you are probably at a very comfortable spot and can afford your food budget. My mortgage alone is 4.5k, if I didn’t have to pay that, I’d probably splurge more (although I already do). Life is short, enjoy it!
My wife used to give me crap about order a take out. Now she has her full-time job and finally understand what I mean by "too tired to even think of what to cook". We now relies ok takeout more, so we can have leftovers for a few days to save time from cooking.
Costco frozen food also helps diversify the weekly meal as well.
Where is OP? Is it HCOL?
I spend $2500 a month to live, and pretty comfortably too with cross country flights and travel, although in a LCOL area. AND I feel like I need to cut back on my food spending because I'm eating out and ordering in too much for non social reasons. So definitely too much money spent in that category for you folks
I am curious as to your monthly good expense - how much of the 2500 is coffee related stops and pickups ? Starbucks certainly can add up
$0 I have a breville barista touch that we bought two years ago. Was a 1k initial investment but worth it, to your point saves us thousands and the coffee is way better than Starbucks
I LOVE GOOD FOOD! If you have the income and enjoy it, why not! If your really tring to cut back, try different methods of shopping and cooking. A fun way to get into cooking, is try getting creative with what is in your kitchen already instead of buying what's on a recipe for what you feel like eating. Also being the host for a BBQ can be expensive, try potlucks and not being overtly generous with food and drinks. Quality meats are a thing for us as well. Local butchers have great meat but I know they are expensive. Have you tried buying a whole cow, pig, or bulk meats from a local farmer and freezing it? As for fish or seafood....its hard to find fresh quality fish for a decent price...and I live in Florida.
HHI $150k, MCOL with a household of 4.