Living a Communal Life: The Food Budget

Whether you live in traditional family, a dorm, frat house, have roommates, or live an alternative lifestyle, one thing you all have in common is that you all need to eat. And that means spending money.

How much money should one person spend on food?

If a person wants to eat a variety of foods, including snacks, $150 a month will provide just about anyone with all the food and variety that they need. However, this comes with a couple of caveats: the more pre-made pre-packaged foods you eat, the less of them you can buy for the money. And this is where the problem comes in, in regards to communal living arrangements.

The Problem

Suppose for a moment 5 friends, Jack, Samantha, Julie, Mike, and Patrick share a house. They agree that they will each kick in $150 a month for the grocery run. That's a whopping $750 a month of groceries. That can be a lot of food.

The problem comes in when all 5 people cannot agree on what foods they will be eating. Julie, Mike, and Patrick agree to share some cooking responsibilities and at least one meal per day together. On the other hand, Jack and Samantha live on pre-made microwave sandwiches, frozen pizza, chips, soda pop, and TV dinners. Just buying enough food for Jack and Samantha for one month would cost the group over $600. That's not fair, and it doesn't leave enough money left over to supply the other three people with the food they need for the month.

The cost difference between someone who drinks one soda a day, and someone who drinks one soda an hour, each and every day, is a huge and expensive difference.

Check out these examples of the typical cost of different eating styles -

Breakfast - a banana and two slices of toast with jelly, coffee. Cost - $0.60.

Lunch - a ham sandwich, pickle spear, an apple, a handful of pretzels, 1 slice of homemade cake, 1 can of soda from home. Cost - $1.50.

Dinner - Chicken breast, Linguine with butter sauce, green beans, salad, coffee, another slice of cake. Cost - $2.15.

Snacks - cottage cheese, hot chocolate, 3 homemade peanut butter cookies. Cost - $0.75.

Total cost of food for the day = $5.00. Right on target for spending $150 a month.

Now here is different example of what someone might eat in one day -

Breakfast - 2 pre-made toaster waffles with syrup, individual yogurt, an individual bottle of orange juice. Cost - $2.85.

Lunch - a can of Specialty soup, a bag of chips, a candy bar and a soda. - Cost $6.50.

Dinner - small frozen pizza, microwave french fries, individual ice cream treat, and a soda. Cost - $7.00

Snacks - a bag of chips, a candy bar, 2 sodas, individual fruit pie. Cost - $3.25.

Total cost of food for the day - $19.60. This person is on track to spend $588 a month for food. And this is assuming they bought these items in a package and then brought them from home. It would be even more if they paid full store individual pricing.

It is hardly fair for people who eat reasonably to have to subsidize lazy eaters food habits. So what can be done? Everyone has to sit down and go over some ground rules. I think

the best thing to do is make up two lists. Foods that should be excluded from the communal grocery list - this means that individuals need to buy these for themselves. The other are foods that are for everyone in any quantity - the staples of home cooking.

Foods to Exclude

• Soda pop, individually bottled drinks, fruit juices, etc. Even when purchased from a warehouse store these are still too expensive to be a group item. Especially since some people live on this stuff.
• Any type of pre-made pre-packaged dinner. These are always more expensive than taking the ingredients and making the entree for yourself. Even Mac & Cheese.
• Any pre-made pre-packaged frozen dinner or pizza.
• Candy bars, pre-made pies, pre-made cakes, individual ice cream treats.
• Lunch meat. Let's face it, 14 slices of ham are sandwiches for two weeks for some people and barely one sandwich for others. No one needs to support someone else's piggishness.
• Any other meat except hamburger. We need to face this also, there are some people who will sit down and eat an entire roast beef as though it were a steak. We're not judging them, but we shouldn't have to subsidize it either.
• Any specialty soup. Your basic original $0.99 Campbell's soups are ok, but stay away from those $4-$5 cans of gourmet soups.
• Vitamins

All these kinds of foods inflate your food budget and the fact is some people live solely on this stuff. Which is why they're broke all the time or want to be part of a group food budget.

So, what kinds of foods can we buy on the group's dime? Here is a list that anyone who chips in should be able to eat without concern:

Foods for Everyone

• Bulk vegetables, none of those little single serving packs. Get out the baggies and make your own packets to take to work.
• Bulk rice
• Bulk flour
• Bulk sugar
• Condiments- salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, mayo, , spices, etc.
• Bulk popcorn - not the microwave variety
• Bulk beans
• Bulk ground beef
• Bulk tuna
• Bulk ramen. The only exception to single serve purchases.

Using this as a guideline, and sitting down and discussing these issues you can avoid the situation Jack and Samantha found themselves in. They were the designated grocery shoppers, they spent the $750 grocery budget. And in the last month before a heated confrontation between them and the other three, they spent $1600 in one month. throwing in their own money, trying to keep everyone fed with what they wanted to eat. They just couldn't do it. And when the other three rudely and narcissistically presented them with a bill for the return of part of their group grocery money because they felt they didn't get their money's worth...well Jack and Samantha walked out.

Discuss things beforehand. Make sure the people you are going to live with are reasonable. If not, maybe it would be best to make other plans.

And remember, buy the staples, learn how to cook some stuff, and stop spending all your money on food just because it's easier to pay to let someone else make it for you. Homemade is better anyway.