How much do you generally spend on food per person. (not including booze and snacks) I just tallied the receipts for our trip and it came to approximately $40 a head for a monday through friday trip. I threw a few extra bucks in for the water filter and for ridiculously expensive vacuum sealer bags. (I vacuum seal every thing down, just for space savings and water proofness.)

$25 ballpark for a week-long trip.

about $20 for a 4 or 5 day trip. that amount includes our snacks (gorp, power bars, jerky) etc. because those are our lunch. our gatorade and koolaid mix are also included in that amount

That's close for us. Maybe a little over. We usually bring back a day's worth= too. This includes steak,chicken breasts(1st & 2nd nights' supper, bacon & fresh sausage for the first 3 days breakfast. The rest is probably 2/3 freeze-dried (Cache Lake, Richmore etc.) and 1/3 grocery store "just add water" stuff/pasta etc.

We always figure $50 per person for food and peripheral items related to the trip. That could include fuel for the stoves, an odd cooking accessory or whatever else we might need. The bottom line is it's not just for food, even though the vast majority of the $50 is for groceries. We generally go with six guys.

For the two of you who can do a week-long trip for $20 or $25, I'd like to know how many people are on those trips and see how you figure your per-person amount. For somewhere between 15 and 20 meals (depending on length of trip), that's $1.50 or so per meal TOTAL - not per person.

I would almost say that's impossible, but I'm curious to see how you do it.

Jackfish - I'm no mathematician, but...

$25 per person x 4 people = $100 / 20 meals = $5 per meal for 4 people. Totally doable (at least it works for us) especially if you throw in a couple of fish meals with just a side and mainly oatmeal breakfasts. Fuel is included. First night's steak dinner is not - we each buy/bring our own steak/shrimp/lobster/whatever and a large potato for frying.

Our group doesn't really do 3 squares a day. We just don't find it necessary. We do more like breakfast and then a lunch or dinner depending on each day's activities and how much snacking we do. Snacks are each person's responsibility. So stuff like granola bars, gorp, sweets, jerky and powdered drink mixes are up to the individual (same as the original poster).

We certainly eat well, have a good meal variety and never go hungry :)

$40-50 per person for a 5-6 day trip. All inclusive snacks, fuel, breakfast, whatever.

Also in the $40-50 range for five days, including all snacks, main meals, and fuel. The only thing we don't include when we do the grand reckoning is the cost of the scotch, since each person seems to bring her own stash!

$7 per day per boy scout when I plan for my troop. This has enough to cover white fuel and ziplocs. Vac bags and water filters throw a wrench into the math depending if we use them or not.

I just returned from a 4 adult man 8 day trip. We used exactly $8 per person per day. This was 3 meals daily of "all you can eat" style cooking and all drink flavorings including water purification. We had biscuits & gravy, pancakes & bacon, omlettes and banana nut muffins for breakfast; chicken salad wraps, summer sausage & cheese, etc for lunches and fish dinners every evening with side dish and a dessert like fudge or brownies or pudding.

While personal tastes vary and each menu is different, I can't imagine needing much more than that for a budget.

Everything was dry food purchased from the local grocery - no freeze dried.

I figure $40 per person for a 5 day trip for all food and cooking related items such as oil, spices... Obviously that's high compared to what others have included here, but we don't skimp. The biggest single item included in this cost is the steak for the first night which is probably $8-10 per person. I don't remember what I buy, but it's not cheap. I also make a gourmet GORP with a lot of dried fruits that jacks up the cost--dried cherries go for $10 per pound. I could probably get it down to around $25 per guy if I cut some stuff out, but I think I'd hear some grumbling.