What percent of the household budget should go on ...

Americans spend about 10% of their income on food. Europeans spend from 15-17 percent. Where would you rather eat? In an American household or a European one (on avererage)?

We spend about 15 percent and we buy mostly unprocessed food. I've lost 10 pounds since I started doing this and feel much better, but it is labor-intensive compared to eating fast food and processed stuff. I imagine it would be even more challenging with children. 

I like to use The Department of Housing's (DOH) budget recommendations, and it's ideal.  The DOH recommends that 28 percent of your monthly gross income be allocated as the maximum allowable for your monthly housing expenses.  This figure also prepares future home buyers to be prepared when seeking home loans. 

So, essentially, if your monthly housing expenses totals 20 percent of your monthly gross income, (excluding groceries) then the remaining eight percent can be used for your monthly grocery expenses.

Source:  Fannie Mae Foundation's buget guidelines from it's Homebuying guide entitled:  Choosing The Mortgage That's Right For You on page 12.  Also, I attempted to copy and paste the page from the guide for you here in Yedda, but Fannie Mae only has a link to where consumers can obtain hard copies of the guidelines via the US Postal Service.  Although I have my hard copies here at home, I did find PDF files of them with a company in California whom scanned all of the guidelines onto their website. Here is a link to the PDF home buying guidelines:  http://www.ncahome.com/HomeBuyingGuides

It doesn't matter what percent of your budget you spend on groceries. When you set up a budget you will find out how much you are currently spending on groceries. Making sure you have enough to feed your family is the number one priority. When you set up your budget you will be able to figure out how much money you are spending on unnecessary things and cut those things out. When you cut those things out you will have more money for groceries and other things that you need each month. For more information on budgeting go to http://liveonbudget.com and get a lot of free information to help you learn to live on a budget.