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one of the topics that comes up the most when I mention I’ve been doing weight watchers is the cost of food. I think many people have seen the Weight Watchers products in the store and think you’re required to buy them like with Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem. There’s no doubt some of the WW products are expensive, but you definitely don’t need to buy them. There are some products that I do like – mainly those sold at Centers (smoothies, mint crisp bars) – for which I’ve never found a comparable alternative but I don’t buy those that often.

I had a feeling that my food spending had gone down since beginning Weight Watchers, but I couldn’t swear to it. This morning I decided to look at my Mint data to see if my hunch was true or not. To be consistent, I’m going to use the two six-month periods going back to September 2009: six months pre-WW and six-months since joining WW.

9/1/09 – 2/28/2010
Category Spending
Restaurants $1,062.71
Groceries $439.10
Fast Food $310.72
Coffee Shops $20.89
Alcohol & Bars $10.88
Total $1,844.30

3/1 – 8/31/2010
Category Spending
Groceries $1,039.19
Restaurants $963.34
Fast Food $66.48
Coffee Shops $20.36
Total $2,089.37

Some notes:

• Fast Food is 7-11 when I don’t have water bottle for the gym & concessions at Yankee Stadium/Citi Field. Much improved over daily trips to Duane Reade for soda and candy (!!).
• Groceries includes WW center shopping for products, but not monthly membership fees.
• Not in the first six months ~1.50/day in soda from the guys in my building because that was paid in cash.

It’s not an exact science because there’s some holiday-related restaurant spending in the first six-months, but it’s close enough because it’s also balanced by some vacation-related restaurant spending in the latter. The reality is, eating out is a fact of life and restaurants in NYC aren’t cheap so this will always be higher than I might like.

So I’ve spent approximately $250 more on food in the last six months. That’s slightly surprising but not overwhelmingly so. The groceries are skewed high from initial stock up on basic things I didn’t have and early spending in Food Emporium, where I now try to limit my spending. Still, it has given me some goals for the next six-month window.

Sept 2010 – February 2011 Food spending goals:

• Cut back on the Subway habit. This is two-fold, actually. As my DPs go down I cannot keep spending 11 points on lunch. I just can’t. It’s so part of my routine, but it’s time to break it. If I can’t totally, I need to at least make one sandwich last two days. That would help with the money spent as well as the points spent.
• need to cut back more on lunch at work. I’ve done better in general as I very rarely order out for lunch or weekends, but when I do I spend far too lunch (Europa $13 salads, I’m looking at you)

One of my many abandoned blogs is a personal finance one. I’m always cautious on spending and have really been trying to reduce money spent. I don’t monitor it day-to-day but I’m pleased to see that groceries were about what I had “budgeted”. I’ve been making good progress with weight loss as well as my spending. Another reason to be happy.