Cannibalism is fiscally responsible, but creepy

Question - How much do normal people spend on food? Because for the first time I'm seeing how much we spend, and holy cow.

For most of our (admittedly short) married life, Zach and I just never bothered to do any sort of finance merging. We each had our own bank accounts and debit cards and what not. We still though of all of that money as collectively ours, so it wasn't really a big deal who paid for what, we just had no way of really keeping track of what the other person was doing. Overall it worked fine (ignorance is bliss). Sure, we would occasionally come this close to missing the rent deadline because we each thought the other person had taken care of it. We're responsible like that. But hey, everything always got taken care of, so I just assumed that the system worked.

Recently we decided to get a joint Costco American Express card, mostly because we were seduced by the grand promises of 1% cash back, but also because we figured it would just be less hassle and good for budgeting and unity and it just seems like one of those things married people do. We're still not sure how this whole married grownups thing is supposed to work, so we largely just try to copy others who seem like they have things figured out. It seems like a sound strategy.

Anyways. So we now have a joint card and can actually see what each of us is spending. Aside from severly cutting down on my internet purchasing (when Zach would ask how much my pretty new things cost, I was in the habit of going on about how they were marked down x%, and I got such a good deal, and never actually say how much they cost. That is less effective now that he can actually look at the card statement.)  this also has the nasty side effect of being able to actually see how much we spend on food and other so-called essentials. I knew we spent a decent amount, but since I only saw what went on my card, it didn't seem to outrageous. I think I had managed to convince myself that I paid for things much more often than I actually did. 

Because I was looking at the balance today and I just can't figure out how we spent over $500 on groceries in the past month. I suppose we did eat out once or twice, but no place expensive. And that does include a big Costco trip, and some prescriptions, and we've run out of a few more things that usual this past month. But still. Is this normal? We are in DC, which is expensive. And we do like to eat things like fruits and other fresh, expensive things. And Whole Foods is much closer than other grocery stores, and so much nicer...I know its more expensive but I had no idea it was this much. I don't feel like we eat anything amazing. Lots of potato based dishes and rice and beans and the like. Not really much meat, just chicken breasts from Costco and some sausage from time to time. What are we doing wrong? This just doesn't seem right!