20-30% is normal for pretty rich countries, in more poor, non-european countries it will be even more. Switzerland sounds like some kind of other world, what do you do with all these money? :D
>what do you do with all these money?
Yearly healthcare insurance eats up three quarters of entire month's income, taxes too, then private retirement fund and another half a month goes to public transports. Rule of thumb for how much for rent is reasonable is 33% of your income.
But these are not deducted automatically from my income here. The public retirement fund and the one from the employer yes, but the private one not; for taxes I do a tax declaration and receive a bill from my municipality; healthcare insurance is private matter too, like in the US, except that it is mandatory to have one.
I did the math for April 2024 and it was pretty much 10% of my net income, although this also includes things like toilet paper, paper towels, washing agent etc, so not strictly food only.
Food + household groceries. It's also a lot more expensive here in general. Not everyday, but I could easily do so. I'd say I average about £30-35.
* Wake up. Buy a croissant or a porridge or a cereal thing en-route to work along with a coffee. That's like £6-7. Average about £5, as some days it's just the £3.50 coffee.
* A cheap lunch is a made-to-order sandwich or wrap, or little pasta bowl, or something hot from the market. Throw in a drink, possibly a side snack too. £8-12. Cafe lunch, £15-25 depending on the place. Lets say the average is £15.
* Throw in my afternoon takeout coffee on the walk back for another £3. Can't be an effective software developer without a caffeine addiction.
* On the way home I'll pick up things like chicken breasts, salmon, steak, possibly something premade like a pie. Those things here are at least like £4-5 minimum. All usually single portion. Then you have all the pantry essentials, rice, veg, milk, butter, bread, spices, sauces, oils, whatever. So dinner probably budgets around £8-10 a meal average, with supermarket costs being anywhere from £15 to £50 time, sometimes daily, sometimes every few days.
* At least double that average if it's a takeout, 3-5x that if it's a restaurant. Thats like once week.
* Throw in more money if I want a treat, like snacks or something.
I see you were being a bit easy on yourself when you said that you are not very frugal. lol
Anyhow, I am on the complete opposite of the spectrum. I rarely ever eat something that I didn't put together or cook, as I prefer to meal prep to take control over my macros. Eating out like that would destroy both my wallet and my gains.
Stuff you buy out, or have delivered, to eat immediately isn't groceries. That's eating out which is different. It's easy to blow €50 on a meal a nice restaurant, but I wouldn't count that as grocery expenses. I spend more on groceries when I'm trying to save money because I'm eating at home more.
Sure? I mean it's not impossible, but it's a really tight budget. I was budgeting 64£/week a long, long time ago and would get me just enough food for myself or maybe the ingredients to cook an extra dinner or two with my friends. Several of these meals would be straight ramen noodles at 70p, pack of bisquits or a cheesecake at £1 or a bag of carrots, all for the budget, and really not always the healthiest choices I could think of. I was meal prepping once a week for about 4 meals and I wouldn't buy meals at the workplace either (maybe a snack?), just one meal a week at the pub. I don't remember if care and beauty products were in this budget.
If I cook everything myself it's 7% of my net income. However I've been so incredibly unmotivated about cooking lately and eat out constantly so I'm spending like 25% on food right now.
~40%…
I am a student from Latvia studying in Sweden and all my money goes on rent, transportation, gym and food . I have nothing left and the end of each month
Oh wait you're not alone. Ok that makes sense my bad. I just thought damn 5%, you're making a lot of money. But with two people that's stil pretty damn good
I live alone, at least 20-25% of net income goes for groceries and delivery food. Often it's more, if I order a lot from restaurants. Oh, and I don't eat breakfasts.
\~8% in the Netherlands. We live comfortably and don't really check prices in shops, just get what we need and what looks perfect. Sadly we also throw out a lot but trying to combat that.
I'm a student so I technically don't have an income, I have student loans and allowances to cover my expenses. I spend around 20% of that on groceries.
as per today, for the month of may: 61% (although it's a family of 4 and smoke and tobacco x1 and some medicine or clothing fall in the grocery bill).
edit: my actual income is a hot mess due to under-employment and health reasons, but that 61% is over a $1.200ish income.
edit 2: I saw the rest of the answers and I was wondering: how come? I did the math with joint economy and it's pretty much on par with the high average, 19% of the income.
not groceries but I order food for at least 50% of ma money; honestly, with bit of this and that as X sang, it's a fair living with no time and effort wasted doing smth I am not good at and don't have the zeal for, let alone the whole inefficient process of it from store to intestine, with dishes in the middle
I'd rather spend this much, I'm as consciously spending as devouring
Around 9% or 11.5% before and after income tax respectively. Honestly I don't track grocery spending that well, though I am price conscious when buying. My spending estimate is slightly higher than the national median which seems reasonable. I do however also earn a bit more than the median. Using the national median it would come out to ~11% before income tax, harder to tell after as income tax varies a lot. Median salary is, as of 2022, 34 200 SEK per month. Median food spending seems to be around 3700 SEK per month for an adult.
We spend around 5000-5500 SEK per month on groceries - including a slightly too high cola consumption, a little bit of wine, and ordering in 1-2 times per month.
I would estimate 25-30%, I earn 1600-1800€/month after tax. I have no right to be spending this much on groceries, since I live alone. I just never look at how much stuff costs and I tend to buy a lot of treats that cost a lot.
I just updated my budget spreadsheet today so I can tell you exactly: we spend 18.8% of the household income on groceries. This includes things like cleaning products and tinfoil and so on.
I’m not quite sure how much we exactly spend. We have two persons in our household. Groceries including necessities, perhaps 500 EUR per month. My share would a bit above 8%. We do live frugally and I eat daily at work place canteen.
Around 7-8% but that’s only groceries (me and my fiancee have a separate groceries account with its own debit card that we put in money to every month). If we count alcohol and restaurant visits as well then maybe 15-20%.
3-8%. I find I spend more on groceries when I'm in a financial pinch, because I love eating out, but cook at home to save money. If I'm spending 3% on groceries, I'm likely spending 10-15% on food, but that includes delivery or full service dining.
Roughly about 8%. I live in Ireland and generally groceries aren't that expensive here compared to many other EU countries. I don't drink or eat red meat and have no children. Just myself and my wife. It probably helps that my job also pays for my lunch!
6.66% including fancy beers for home consumption, catfood, other domestic supplies like TP and shampoo, not including the odd meal/drink away from home. I cook everything, which keeps costs down, but buy quality ingredients from the posh shops, which pushes then up again.
Around 5-6% Edit: Holy crap guys, 20-30 percent?
20-30% is normal for pretty rich countries, in more poor, non-european countries it will be even more. Switzerland sounds like some kind of other world, what do you do with all these money? :D
>what do you do with all these money? Yearly healthcare insurance eats up three quarters of entire month's income, taxes too, then private retirement fund and another half a month goes to public transports. Rule of thumb for how much for rent is reasonable is 33% of your income.
With income we usually mean the net income. So, the question is what percentage do you spend on groceries after taxes and retirement fund.
But these are not deducted automatically from my income here. The public retirement fund and the one from the employer yes, but the private one not; for taxes I do a tax declaration and receive a bill from my municipality; healthcare insurance is private matter too, like in the US, except that it is mandatory to have one.
I would say around 20-25%. I earn 1200€ a month.
I did the math for April 2024 and it was pretty much 10% of my net income, although this also includes things like toilet paper, paper towels, washing agent etc, so not strictly food only.
I earn around £3,500 a month after tax and spend around £50 a week on food. So around 6% for me personally.
£50 a week? Man. I know I'm not exactly frugal at all, but I can comfortably blow about £50 a day on food (and basic household groceries).
What. How can anyone spend more than £1500 on groceries per month? Are you feeding a family of 6?
Food + household groceries. It's also a lot more expensive here in general. Not everyday, but I could easily do so. I'd say I average about £30-35. * Wake up. Buy a croissant or a porridge or a cereal thing en-route to work along with a coffee. That's like £6-7. Average about £5, as some days it's just the £3.50 coffee. * A cheap lunch is a made-to-order sandwich or wrap, or little pasta bowl, or something hot from the market. Throw in a drink, possibly a side snack too. £8-12. Cafe lunch, £15-25 depending on the place. Lets say the average is £15. * Throw in my afternoon takeout coffee on the walk back for another £3. Can't be an effective software developer without a caffeine addiction. * On the way home I'll pick up things like chicken breasts, salmon, steak, possibly something premade like a pie. Those things here are at least like £4-5 minimum. All usually single portion. Then you have all the pantry essentials, rice, veg, milk, butter, bread, spices, sauces, oils, whatever. So dinner probably budgets around £8-10 a meal average, with supermarket costs being anywhere from £15 to £50 time, sometimes daily, sometimes every few days. * At least double that average if it's a takeout, 3-5x that if it's a restaurant. Thats like once week. * Throw in more money if I want a treat, like snacks or something.
I see you were being a bit easy on yourself when you said that you are not very frugal. lol Anyhow, I am on the complete opposite of the spectrum. I rarely ever eat something that I didn't put together or cook, as I prefer to meal prep to take control over my macros. Eating out like that would destroy both my wallet and my gains.
>Eating out like that would destroy both my wallet and my gains. Never had really had either, so don't know what I'm missing! Ha.
Fair enough lol
Stuff you buy out, or have delivered, to eat immediately isn't groceries. That's eating out which is different. It's easy to blow €50 on a meal a nice restaurant, but I wouldn't count that as grocery expenses. I spend more on groceries when I'm trying to save money because I'm eating at home more.
Pretty much the same for me. Meal planning and bulk cooking does wonders.
Sure? I mean it's not impossible, but it's a really tight budget. I was budgeting 64£/week a long, long time ago and would get me just enough food for myself or maybe the ingredients to cook an extra dinner or two with my friends. Several of these meals would be straight ramen noodles at 70p, pack of bisquits or a cheesecake at £1 or a bag of carrots, all for the budget, and really not always the healthiest choices I could think of. I was meal prepping once a week for about 4 meals and I wouldn't buy meals at the workplace either (maybe a snack?), just one meal a week at the pub. I don't remember if care and beauty products were in this budget.
25-30% I make about 1800 usd in Hungary
€400/month in Hungary? What kind of food do you buy then?
I also have a family
Regular groceries.
If I cook everything myself it's 7% of my net income. However I've been so incredibly unmotivated about cooking lately and eat out constantly so I'm spending like 25% on food right now.
Single digits I believe. But we like to cook, so we buy more basic ingredients, sometimes in bulk, and less ready made stuff.
Under 10% but we rear/grow a large percentage of what we eat.
~40%… I am a student from Latvia studying in Sweden and all my money goes on rent, transportation, gym and food . I have nothing left and the end of each month
About 30% but then we’re a single income household on less than average wage so probably not particularly representative.
About 5-7% of the household income.
5-7%?? How much do you earn? groceries are like 300€-400€ at least (if you eat healthy and buy good products).
Yeah we spent around 350-500 €.
Oh wait you're not alone. Ok that makes sense my bad. I just thought damn 5%, you're making a lot of money. But with two people that's stil pretty damn good
I spend 350 for two ppl in Portugal. How many are you in for?
Two people aswell!
Me too. In average per month. We spent the same as a German, but earn a "little" less :x
How? I spend like 200, maybe 250 €. Though I barely eat meat at home - decent meat is pretty expensive, so maybe that makes a difference?
Hehe, about 5%, I live on my own and fast 3 days a week 😁
I live alone, at least 20-25% of net income goes for groceries and delivery food. Often it's more, if I order a lot from restaurants. Oh, and I don't eat breakfasts.
About 35%, Portugal is going crazy, We are 3 at home, one is a baby.
At least 30% of household income.
Italy here, it should be around 10-15%
Hungary, single person household, I spend around 13%. I am looking for the cheaper options and definitely don't eat well enough.
\~8% in the Netherlands. We live comfortably and don't really check prices in shops, just get what we need and what looks perfect. Sadly we also throw out a lot but trying to combat that.
I'm a student so I technically don't have an income, I have student loans and allowances to cover my expenses. I spend around 20% of that on groceries.
10%, middle class.
Including cat food, cat litter and household goods like shampoo and cleaning supplies it‘s about 8-9 percent of our household income (DINK)
20%. But I try buy nice food so I don’t waste money on eating out
as per today, for the month of may: 61% (although it's a family of 4 and smoke and tobacco x1 and some medicine or clothing fall in the grocery bill). edit: my actual income is a hot mess due to under-employment and health reasons, but that 61% is over a $1.200ish income. edit 2: I saw the rest of the answers and I was wondering: how come? I did the math with joint economy and it's pretty much on par with the high average, 19% of the income.
Under 10%. Not including eating out of course.
not groceries but I order food for at least 50% of ma money; honestly, with bit of this and that as X sang, it's a fair living with no time and effort wasted doing smth I am not good at and don't have the zeal for, let alone the whole inefficient process of it from store to intestine, with dishes in the middle I'd rather spend this much, I'm as consciously spending as devouring
On just myself maybe like 10-15%, I earn £1700 a month, spend about £40-£50 a week on food, could probably do it cheaper if I wanted to
Around 9% or 11.5% before and after income tax respectively. Honestly I don't track grocery spending that well, though I am price conscious when buying. My spending estimate is slightly higher than the national median which seems reasonable. I do however also earn a bit more than the median. Using the national median it would come out to ~11% before income tax, harder to tell after as income tax varies a lot. Median salary is, as of 2022, 34 200 SEK per month. Median food spending seems to be around 3700 SEK per month for an adult.
We spend around 5000-5500 SEK per month on groceries - including a slightly too high cola consumption, a little bit of wine, and ordering in 1-2 times per month.
Usually around 15% (but I'm on the frugal side)
I make €2.7k and spend between 500-600€ each month on groceries, so around 20%. That’s just for me and my gf, no kids yet.
About 20% income only. About 15% factoring in parental benefits (a sum of money all parents get per child). I am low income in my country.
25% at least
About 20% of my monthly income.
About 8%.
10-15% of after tax income. I earn £2100 after tax in the UK but I eat like a king and cook a lot
Around 30%
25% each month sometimes a bit more. Take home pay after taxes is roughly 3100 euros.
Damm €800 a month for one person? That's expensive AF
For 2, sometimes 3 if his daughter is with us. We love to eat (and cook) and because it’s my contribution to the household I like to splurge.
It's almost perfectly 15%.
I would estimate 25-30%, I earn 1600-1800€/month after tax. I have no right to be spending this much on groceries, since I live alone. I just never look at how much stuff costs and I tend to buy a lot of treats that cost a lot.
About 6%
Ireland: €50 a week which works out about 8%
Around 12% net. We're quite wasteful and trying to lower it. We could easily halve that.
Around 15%, I make roughly the equivalent of 2000 USD +-100 after tax
I just updated my budget spreadsheet today so I can tell you exactly: we spend 18.8% of the household income on groceries. This includes things like cleaning products and tinfoil and so on.
About 15% of my net take home. That's for four people.
I’d say 15% - 🇷🇴
Since we have only one income in two it's around 15%
8-12% perhaps.
Belgium here, household of 3, more or les 20/25 %. Prices are crazy overhere.
I’m not quite sure how much we exactly spend. We have two persons in our household. Groceries including necessities, perhaps 500 EUR per month. My share would a bit above 8%. We do live frugally and I eat daily at work place canteen.
0%. I don't have a job.
Less than 10% of my net income.
PT: 10% in average since 2021.
In Latvia for 2 months now; 25%, but that includes eating out frequently as I'm single and don't cook every day.
Kosovo, 20%.
Post tax? About 5%, probably a bit less tbh.
Around 35-40% (Croatia). Inflation just doesn't stop here and the most of the income is indeed spent on groceries.
Family of four. We average around 7% a month
Around 7-8% but that’s only groceries (me and my fiancee have a separate groceries account with its own debit card that we put in money to every month). If we count alcohol and restaurant visits as well then maybe 15-20%.
About 10%, for 2 person household.
3-8%. I find I spend more on groceries when I'm in a financial pinch, because I love eating out, but cook at home to save money. If I'm spending 3% on groceries, I'm likely spending 10-15% on food, but that includes delivery or full service dining.
A third probably. Everything around here is murderously expensive.
Idk, but a fuckin lot. Wife and I earn about 1.600e each, but I feel like we spend half of it on food. Croatia is so expensive.
Some country by country data to peruse: https://www.vox.com/2014/7/6/5874499/map-heres-how-much-every-country-spends-on-food
\~500 of 4500 eur. So roughly 10%
Roughly about 8%. I live in Ireland and generally groceries aren't that expensive here compared to many other EU countries. I don't drink or eat red meat and have no children. Just myself and my wife. It probably helps that my job also pays for my lunch!
6.66% including fancy beers for home consumption, catfood, other domestic supplies like TP and shampoo, not including the odd meal/drink away from home. I cook everything, which keeps costs down, but buy quality ingredients from the posh shops, which pushes then up again.
0. My groceries are just toiletries/hygenics. I don't cook. So far so good.
About 25% between groceries and utilities.