Is spending $10,000 on food in 1 year too much?

Saw a video of egg fried being prepared in one of those third world countries on Youtube. It's a cheap, healthy and delicious meal. The cook added some chopped veges. Carbs, fat, protein and vitamins.

I spent over 10k on DoorDash last year. thank god I stopped being poor after college.

What kind of dessert? Tapioca?

You don't eat out but 4-5 times a week? Okay then.

You might save money by cooking with an instant pot or pressure cooker. Chili is one of the 7 foods you live off of (thats a joke). Plus, stew, meat soup. Very healthy. Make several days worth and freeze. Also in this way you cook based on meat that is on sale.

To eat really healthy as a top performance athlete there is a lot of variation but anything in the $15 - 35/day range is pretty normal assuming eating out less than once per week. While grains, beans, and some veggetables can be cheap. Lean, healthy protein, nuts, and more specialty ingredients can be quite expensive. $10,000 per year puts you at $27 per day which is quite typical.

Are you asking because your budget is tight and you need to reduce expenses? Or are you feeling weird/guilty about spending what you feel might be "too much" on food?

If it's the second one, and you can afford it, then I would keep spending on what you like and find enjoyable. There is no right or wrong amount to spend. Nutrition is essential. Buy what you need, buy what you like, and splurge a little from time to time.

P.S. I have a family of 4 and spend about $300/week, but couldn't do $75/week just for myself. There is some economy of scale.

I spend about $3000/yr on food. I never eat out except some lunches. I spend about $18/yr for toilet paper.

Is $10k on food too much? You tell me. If you enjoy eating out, it's probably reasonable. Last year I decided to start watching my food expenses and cut my food expenses by over $100/week. These days I rarely eat out, and that's where most of my savings are. I also started cooking more and I buy stuff like beans, rice and flour in bulk. Groceries are more expensive these days but some convenience foods like frozen meals are getting hit the hardest, so I avoid that stuff. I also shop in cheaper stores and buy fruits and vegetables that are on sale - this week I found bananas @ 38 cents a pound and some 50 cent avocados so they went in the cart. This approach isn't for everyone but I just decided I'd rather spend that money on other things.

seems a bit high, even if you're living in an area where food expenses are a bit more inflated. having take out 4 time a week, lets call that $80 I feel like the rest of your groceries would fall around $80 too. thats $8,300 a year. I guess if I lowballed either of those figures, the math could change a decent amount. personally, I spend somewhere around $90 every 2 weeks on food. I don't eat out pretty much ever, but even then I can't imagine that the differences in our states food prices would explain me spending half as much on groceries. you're likely not being as efficient as you can be with your spending.

Take out, eating out, Door Dash, coffee shop trips, drive throughs, etc. all add up. Groceries are still a comparative bargain unless you are buying a lot of processed convenience items. I agree with the poster that suggested getting an InstantPot and a slow cooker. Both are very easy to use for inexpensive nutritious food and for meal planning. Learning to do some cooking will change your life for the better.

From a runner's perspective, a lot of great athletes from elsewhere get by on inexpensive staples such as rice, beans, ugali, potatoes, fresh fruit, vegetables, with meat, fish, or eggs. They also don't seem to have the weight challenges facing Westerners that subsist on corn syrup, canned items, microwaveable frozen foods, and other highly processed fare full of preservatives, sodium, and chemicals.

eggs aren't cheap anymore, time to buy your own chickens!

Eggs are not cheap, nor are fruit and vegetables.

Meat is especially not cheap.

Cheap?

My first summer with Igloi (1963), I was job hunting and so poor I was living on peanut butter sandwiches. The cheapest peanut butter and jelly and the cheapest bread. 2 sandwiches, 3 times a day.

Family of 5, close to ~40k on food and that's without much extravagance. Yes, we eat relatively healthy, yes we get door dash occasionally, yes we go out to dinner, yes we go grab Chipotle when we are slammed or after a game, yes we buy food we don't "need" but it's nothing that is over the top. So yes, $10k for an individual (*athlete*) seems about right...

$90 every two weeks must mean pretty cheap groceries. I don't eat out ever, make every dinner at home, and buy the cheapest things in the store (shop the sales and about-to-expire markdowns and use all the coupons), minimize junk food, and am at about $90-$120 every 10 days. So that's $10-11 per day/$4K per year for one person with a decent appetite, training 14 hours a week. The OP spending $11K seems reasonable for someone not on as tight budget who allows for eating out once in a while, and not afraid to buy the fresh steaks or salmon.

Here (moderately high cost of groceries area, but no worse than California last time I was in California), broccoli is $2.99/lb, apples on sale $1.99/lb otherwise $3.99/lb, a loaf of bread on sale $3.50, zucchini $2.59/lb, bananas $0.89/lb, tub of yogurt $3.29 for the cheapest version of the store brand, etc. And that's at the lower priced grocery store, Fred Meyer. I avoid Safeway because their prices are much higher than Fred Meyer.

Potatoes, fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish are not cheap where I live.

We use the American Express credit card that gives 6% back on groceries for the first $6000 you spend, so I can tell we've spent $5647 so far this year, probably a little more because I'm guessing at least once or twice my husband or I forgot to use the right card. Let's say $6000 over 3.5 months, so $1700 per month or $400 / week. We are a family of five, so that's about $4000 per person per year on groceries alone, and half of us are kids and eat less, and there's also efficiency in shopping and cooking for five people at once.

We also have pizza once a week and go out to eat once a week, at a cost of $150 / week. In addition, my husband spends about $60 / week on eating out at lunch. So let's say an additional $250 / week, or $2500 / year / person for eating out --> about $6500 / person / year for all food. Factoring in that our youngest is four, and my husband and I probably eat twice as much as she does, I'd say we're at closer to $8000 per adult for food for the year, maybe a bit more.

I'm actually surprised it's not more. We shop at QFC, and I definitely do my best to by whatever's on sale, and stock up on things when they do go on sale, buy store brand, etc., but I do enjoy some expensive items like raspberries, blueberries, smoked salmon, fancy crackers, etc.

I have an old school Presto-type stove top pressure cooker that works great too. My wife thinks it's like a pipe bomb but it's safe. I picked one up after staying with someone in Mexico who had one - they can help save a lot of time and money.

I live in michigan, I shop at either aldi or meijer. package of chicken, 2 for $32. 4 packages of noodles: $5. 2 containers of greek yogurt: $8. 3 tomatoes: $6. 4 green bell peppers: $5. 2 packages of fruit: $8. 2 dozen eggs: $7. Bread: $2. 2 gallons of milk: $7. Thats pretty much what I buy every time I go to the store. Quick math and that totals a bit over $80. There are some other items that I buy in bulk, namely rice, potatoes, oatmeal, chicken broth, and peanut butter that are purchased anywhere from once a month to once a year. Add those in and I average around $90 for a 2 week span. Sometimes I'll get a different kind of meat (ground beef, steaks, etc) in addition to the rest of my staples, but usually I'll just substitute it for one of my chicken packages. there are additional variable costs for things like condiments, or if I'm making a specific meal that requires ingredients I don't have. but I can pretty comfortably make enough food for myself off ~$45-50 a week. I will say, I'm very frugal as I don't have a lot of money, but I always make sure that I have more than enough to eat and my training load is decently high 7-9 hours most the time. even you spending a good bit more than me weekly, training more, living in a high cost state, you pay less than half of what OP does in a year on food. thats a large discrepancy.