I ' m a single parent with a single child , but my partner eats at my house at least a couple of times a week and he eats quite a lot so there are no leftovers on those nights . I ' d say I spend around $ 100125 a week . I aim for $ 100 but then I ' ll go back for a couple of things , or have the occasional treat or fish and chips for dinner etc . I have a vegie garden and chooks $ 25 a month for chook food is definitely cheaper than buying eggs for us so that helps a bit does ovolacto vegetarian mean you do eat eggs and dairy or you don ' t ? . Still , my groceries are more than they would be if I lived in a city , because I live in a town with only an IGA so it ' s quite expensive to shop there . I try not to buy too many prepared meals , it definitely adds up . It ' s such an easy habit to fall into though , especially when you ' re tired and busy with a toddler . My advice would be , if you don ' t already have a big freezer , get one , and then on weekends or when you ' ve got some time , cook up huge batches of meals and freeze them . Then you ' ve got loads of readymade meals ready . And you buy things when they ' re cheap and in season . Like in autumn you can get huge pumpkins for almost nothing , so make heaps of pumpkin soup and freeze it for the rest of the year soups are the easiest to make in massive batches . In summer you can get trays of mangoes for a few dollars , chop them up and save them for smoothies for all year . Look up how to make homemade oven chips , buy a $ 2 kg bag of potatoes and freeze them in small batches .