Family of 6 or 7 Food Budget of $1200/mo?

[newsmaker]

I tell my kids "This is not a restaurant". Another take on "Take it or Leave it"

[8 Bit WWBG]

I had some brussel sprouts recently that were damn good! I was never really exposed to them as a child, but I know they are on the "ewwwww" list for many men. Doubly so if the only way men remember them is as soggy overboiled globs.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Doubly so if the only way men remember them is as soggy overboiled globs

It was a battle to get DH to eat vegetables becuase this is EXACTLY how he grew up eating them.

We constantly had the battle of "I don't like that" till it dawned on him that vegetables do not come gray and mushy, you actually have to subject the poor things to that fate.

[Deleted]

I've recently fallen in love with brussel sprouts. Turns out they can be something other bitter mush balls.

I was chatting at knitting yesterday with the other ladies and we were talking about how grocery prices really seem to have gone up. Safeway had a single green bell pepper for $1.99.

[Tiny]

Yeah, I grew up with gray mushy veggies - they were all gray didn't matter what they were (or so it seemed).

I have long since discovered the joy of a correctly cooked veggie. Sometimes the mutant veggies at the grocery have little or no taste - which is unfortunate so even getting the cooking right doesn't make them taste good they just have a taste. But, atleast they aren't gray and mushy.

On a funny note... a couple of weeks ago I was headed up to the Corporate Cafe to get a hot veggie side dish to go with my brought from home chicken and rice lunch (I was tired of brocolli and greenbeans my usual side). The Corporate Cafe has a Chef and the food is always good the veggies are always tender but yet somehow firm (al dente?) and tasty. So, on the elevator up to the Cafe, a couple of older ladies are discussing eating more veggies and complaining about how hard and undercooked the veggies are. I was thinking "wow... maybe someone really does like gray mushy veggies..." and then " why why why would anyone want to do that to poor defenseless veggies?? "

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Sometimes the mutant veggies at the grocery have little or no taste - which is unfortunate so even getting the cooking right doesn't make them taste good they just have a taste

I won't buy fresh green beans at the supermarket because of this, not to mention the price.

I eat them when they are in season at the farmer's market. When the season is over, no more green beans till next year.

I have discovered that canned green beans are awesome if you rinse them, saute them in bacon fat and add a splash of red wine vinegar. Not something I want to make a habit out of eating though.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

For the record, ALL FOOD is awesome if sauteed in bacon fat. ;D

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

If we cooked bacon with bacon we'd be able to travel back in time!

[973beachbum]

First what is HBA?

Sorry Crone. It means Health and Beauty Aides. I used to work retail and we used it to describe everything from aspirin to shampoo to toothpaste. But in this case we were using it to also describe cleaning supplies and paper products.

I buy fruit cups and pudding packs for my kids lunches. I do have big boxes and will make it for at home. But trying to put it in a container and pack that is crazy. My son would have the time throw the thing out and the times he didn't were the times it broke open inside his backpack. Seriously thing about that.

I can get them for about a buck for 4 pudding packs and 2 bucks tops for the fruit. In the winter when a crumy looking apple is 50cents I will just use the fruit cup.

[marvholly]

I was also of the take it or leave it dinner menu school w/one exception: They could make themselves a PB & J but they HAD to eat the veg, salad and/or fruit I had prepared.

Drama
Late DH would ONLY eat corn, lima beans, carrots & peas & green beans when we married. Salad??? NO WAAAY. I am a salad every day person-at least 5x/week. I prefer veggies like broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, cauliflower, stewed tomatoes, zucchini………MAJOR battle to get him to eat.

[Agatha]

Mar 3, 2011 15:26:36 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Sometimes the mutant veggies at the grocery have little or no taste - which is unfortunate so even getting the cooking right doesn't make them taste good they just have a taste

I won't buy fresh green beans at the supermarket because of this, not to mention the price.

I eat them when they are in season at the farmer's market. When the season is over, no more green beans till next year.

I have discovered that canned green beans are awesome if you rinse them, saute them in bacon fat and add a splash of red wine vinegar. Not something I want to make a habit out of eating though.

LOL, I got my son to eat green beans when he was little with a similiar recipe but instead of vinegar I added a splash of catsup and a few bacon bits. No worries, btw. . .he's off the bacon and bacon fat now; he turned vegan ten years ago. ;D

[Tiny]

Drama, try buying the Italian Green Beans and then drain and rinse them. Heat some olive oil in a pan, add minced or crushed or thinly sliced garlic (fresh, from a jar, whatever you've got). Watch the oil and garlic stirring just until the garlic gets alittle brown. Carefully add the the drained greenbeans (you may need to remove the pan from the heat for a few moments before doing this so you don't spatter the hot oil). Mix/stir the greenbeans into the oil and garlic (return to the heat) just until the greenbeans are heated thru - a minute or two. This is pretty heavenly...

You can actually use any kind of cut canned greenbeans but the Italian ones are more "festive". In times of desperation you can even used powdered garlic (just heat up the oil, add the drained beans and shake on some garlic powder while coating the beans with oil...) Not as good as the other kinds of garlic - but it still works.

[marvholly]

I was reading an older post on cheap, healthy,good this am and a reader commented that she fed her family of 7 (H, W, 5 teen boys) on $500/month. Add another $100 for cleaning supplies/laundry/paper goods. Add another $50 for pet stuff. Total $650 like I suggested MUCH earlier.

[happyscooter]

Another one here for the supper is on the table, take it or leave it. And we usually had one big bag of chips and cookies to snack on. I didn't buy more because it would be eaten just out of habit not hunger. When my kids packed their lunch for school, I could get snack pack pudding cups at the dollar store 4 for $1.00. That's how I kept my prices down. Fruit cups when fresh fruit was out of season. I buy one carton of ice cream a week or ice cream bars. Yes, they did eat more when they played sports but it was sometimes cut up veggies and dip. Sometimes a scrambled egg or a bowl of oatmeal after practice.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I was reading an older post on cheap, healthy,good this am and a reader commented that she fed her family of 7 (H, W, 5 teen boys) on $500/month.

Food prices in the US vary wildly from one region to the next. I live in the midwest and my food bills run roughly 50% of what they are on the west coast, where my b/f lives. Since I cook both places, I see the variation in prices.

One great example here is dairy and eggs. Where I live, I rarely pay much more than $1/dozen. Here, I *may* be able to get eggs for $2/dozen. Most canned foods are more expensive here, as are frozen goods and most meats. In fact, the only thing that's consistantly cheaper here is seafood - which makes sense since I'm landlocked and he lives on the water.

Online, there are some COL calculators out there that look at the prices of living in various places of the US. Some calculators break it down by grocery costs and you can see how much of a difference there is.

[marvholly]

mich1
People on the WIR Grocery Challenge thread also post about the value of the coupons they get in the Sunday inserts and that they shop stores that routinely DOUBLE the coupon face value.

I do NOT get either in metro Chicago so I suspect the higher shelf prices balance out if these factors are taken into consideration.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Sorry, I don't buy it. I don't get double coupons where I live and I don't see it here either. Between working, school and trying to deal with a disability, I have neither the time (or importantly, the energy) to go to several different stores to get my errands done. I do my shopping on Sunday and try to stick with loss leaders for the most part.

However, I'm looking at the price of produce, meats and dairy. Milk is regularly more expensive out here, butter is obscenely more expensive, as is eggs. Other dairy products (like cream cheese, sour cream) are regularly about 50% greater than what I pay.

Go take a look at the grocery thread in Market Talk

notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=moneytalk&action=display&thread=2274

You'll realize that with the 10 items on the list, there is a low of $23 and a high of over $40 for the same 10 items. That's almost a 100% variation across the US (and even higher if you factor in the Canadian contributors). Seeing this thread will give you a true idea as to the variation of prices in the US, which means that someone spending $1200/mo for a family of 7 is not out of the realm of possibility. Could they do it cheaper? I'm not going to comment on this because I do not know the stores where the original link is at, nor do I know if this family has any dietary restrictions (I have a friend who is gluten intolerant and her food bills have doubled). However, I do remember reading that they live in Virginia and IME, it is NOT an inexpensive area of the country.