Welcome to The Receipt, a series documenting how Bon Appétit readers eat and what they spend doing it. Each food diary follows one anonymous reader’s week of expenses related to groceries, restaurant meals, coffee runs, and every bite in between. In this time of rising food costs, The Receipt reveals how folks—from different cities, with different incomes, on different schedules—are figuring out their food budgets.
In today’s Receipt we follow a 40-year-old physician making $850,000 a year in Piedmont, California. Keep reading for his receipts.
The finances
What are your pronouns? He/him
What is your occupation? Physician
How old are you? 40
What city and state do you live in? Piedmont, CA
What is your annual salary, if you have one? I don’t have a salary as I do my work through 1099 contracts, but I earn roughly $850,000 a year. My wife earns $105,000 a year doing marketing work.
How much is one paycheck after taxes? I do a lot of shift-based work, so I look more at my monthly income. I gross around $70,000 a month and after setting aside money to pay the tax man, I pocket around $46,000, some of which goes into retirement accounts.
How often are you paid? (e.g., weekly) Biweekly. Some contracts pay monthly.
How much money do you have in savings? $700,000
What are your approximate fixed monthly expenses beyond food? (i.e., rent, subscriptions, bills)
- Rent: $6,600
- Mortgage on a rental house: $2,200
- Student loan payment: $1,600
- Gym membership: $70
- Car payment: $1,150
- Miscellaneous monthly subscriptions: $30
- Total: $11,650
The diet
Do you follow a certain diet or have dietary restrictions? No red meat in general and typically no meat at home, though I do eat a lot of seafood. When I go out I sometimes make exceptions to these rules. I also eat minimal dairy. The bulk of my diet is plant-based.
What are the grocery staples you always buy, if any? Berries, mushrooms, tofu, nuts, avocado, almond milk, oatmeal.
How often in a week do you dine out versus cook at home? We generally cook at home five nights a week and eat out twice a week.
How often in a week did you dine out while growing up? Very rarely. We would occasionally order in fast food or Chinese takeout. Otherwise, going out to restaurants was reserved for special occasions. Even then, we would usually go to generic chain restaurants.
How often in a week did your parents or guardians cook at home? My mother cooked almost every night. She was and is a very good cook.
The expenses
- Restaurants total: $720.08
- Groceries total: $116.06
- Most expensive meal: Dinner at Pomet in Oakland, $317.52
- Least expensive purchase: Persian cucumber from Berkeley Bowl, $0.62
- Restaurant trips: 6
- Grocery trips: 2
- Total: $836.14
The diary
Monday
6:35 a.m. I just got back from a long weekend in San Diego visiting friends. This means there’s not much in the house, and I’ve also got to get into the hospital early, so no breakfast today. I brew a pot of hot water in my gooseneck kettle and weigh out and then grind my newly obtained Kawa Coffee beans ($26/200 grams) in an excessively priced burr grinder. I’m making myself a v60 pour-over with a jug of distilled water ($2.38/gallon) I’ve added a Third Wave Water packet ($1.58/gallon) to. I take my morning pour-over ritual entirely too seriously.