Grocery budget

[shelby]

Am I crazy to think a family of 5 can have a weekly budget of $140? I think I am pretty good bargain shopper and we eat good fresh meals at home no eating out. This does include toiletries and cleaning products as well, looking at other peoples food budgets I feel like it is low.

[kittensaver]

If your family is happy and well-fed and getting all the nutrition they need (not eating a bunch of packaged junk and empty calories) - who cares if it seems low?

If you are preparing fresh foods on this amount, I think you should share your wisdom with us - seriously! It's just me and DH, and I rarely can get under $140 a week for just the two of us. AND I'm a serious urban gardener who grows most of my own veggies . . .

ETA: this weekly amount does not include household items, personal care products or cleaning supplies. It includes alcohol only when I'm preparing a recipe that calls for alcohol as an ingredient and I don't have it in my pantry. 

[The Captain]

Sept 9, 2015 16:50:41 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

If your family is happy and well-fed and getting all the nutrition they need (not eating a bunch of packaged junk and empty calories) - who cares if it seems low?

If you are preparing fresh foods on this amount, I think you should share your wisdom with us - seriously! It's just me and DH, and I rarely can get under $140 a weeks for just the two of us. AND I'm a serious urban gardener who grows most of my own veggies . . .

Yea that!

Before Meat and eggs skyrocketed I was feeding a family of three comfortably on $100-130 a week and I'm not a serious urban gardener!

Now I'm averaging $150 a week, but I have gone to only wild caught fish which is expensive (once a week).  We've cut back more on red meat also.

Note - that doesn't include personal care or household items or alcohol. 

[Blonde Granny]

Oh shoot, give me an F in grocery budgets. For the 2 of us, we budget $450/mo. I make no excuses, it's just what we usually end up spending. It was going down for a few days since DH now needs an extreme low sodium diet, but I see him slipping back into some behaviors that aren't' good for him.

[shelby]

I make healthy dinners most nights, chicken or ground turkey and vegetables lots of rice and pasta. For lunch I have soup or sandwich and I try to have a smoothie with spinach berries soy milk and yogurt at least once a day so that fills me up pretty good and I don't eat breakfast. We do buy tortilla chips and salsa the kids will eat. But I guess we do have some not so great but cheap habits the kids eat a lot of ramen, frozen burrito's, toaster waffles and bagels for lunch when off school. We don't do a lot of snack food like chips or anything name brand, for treats I love to bake so make something sweet like 3 times a week. My husband is not a big eater he will eat like twice a day. So maybe we are not eating as healthy as I thought. I do a once a week big grocery store trip and that is around $100-120 then small things like 2 times a week in between so maybe I am not honest about my spending as well. Just started tracking and trying to find a number, so I shall see.

[Deleted]

It is going to depend on the types of foods you buy, the regional price of food, and the composition of your family of 5 (any teenage boys).  I don't think I could do it where I am now, because groceries are expensive here and on top of that they are taxed at 6%. 

[kittensaver]

Our breakfasts are either fruit/veggie and protein smoothies (sometimes I throw a green tea supplement in there), oatmeal or 7-grain cereal (the old fashioned, hand-cooked kind) or homemade granola with non-dairy milk and fruits/nuts/coconut etc as condiments, or eggs and toast or eggs and potatoes (DH's favorite). Sometimes I even get crazy and toss leftover veggies into scrambled eggs and top it with salsa and avocado .

Lunches are hearty soups, green and/or grain salads with a variety of ingredients, sandwiches and leftover dinners.

Snacks are nuts, granola, yogurt (for me only), fruit, homemade hummus or ranch dressing (no chemicals or preservatives) with veggie sticks, homemade soy ice cream or popsicles, or quick breads in season (zucchini, banana, pumpkin, lemon and blueberry pound cake - whatever I have on hand that hits me that week). If DH gets a hankering for potato chips (his favorite), bagel chips, cheese crackers or other snack foods, I make them (again to avoid chemicals and preservatives). He will spend a few days eating his way through a big batch, and then will be satisfied and not ask for more for a while.

Dinners are usually a protein with a green salad and another vegetable. Sometimes also a grain like wild rice, quinoa or faro, or potatoes (DH's favorite, see a pattern here? lol). I also make a lot of Italian and Mediterranean style dishes with pastas, grains, meat and veggies. On holidays, we prepare traditional foods in traditional ways, but always fresh (not out of boxes, bags, cans, packages or jars).

Man I wish I could drive my costs down more! If anyone has suggestions I'm open to them! But this is what eating in a chemical-free (I have MCS) and dairy free (DH's lactose issues) household looks like. At least for us. YMMV.

[shelby]

I am pretty tight about groceries I get it from my dad , so I do make homemade hummus too because I think the store bought is too expensive. Aside from the initial expense of tahini I can make a batch for less than 2 dollars and my middle son loves it. Their favorite dinner is tomato soup and rotini pasta with cheese they also love rice and beans. We don't eat red meat hardly ever and we all would be happy to live off pasta and sauce forever. We just really don't have expensive food taste.

[kittensaver]

A sandwich spread *very* generously with hummus and chocked full of fresh sliced or shredded veggies is also very good

So are grilled cheese sandwiches with added veggies or fruits (tomato, pear, fig, arugula, spinach, kale - but of course not all at once!). I make them with soy cheese for DH. Your middle son might like one or both of these - and you could probably even teach him how to make his own, just sayin' . . . .

[Sam_2.0]

I think you are fine. Amazing job! $20/day for 5 people is pretty great. $1.66/meal/person.

We have 4 and I do about $120/wk. That includes lunches and special stuff for babysitters too (K cups, sodas, etc). We used to spend an addtl $700/m on restaurants. Seriously. Now DH is working out and watching his diet, so that is cut down to 1/3rd at most.

[sarcasticgirl]

We spend that and then some for just me and DH... And our dog, so kudos to you!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using proboards

[alabamagal]

Sept 9, 2015 16:58:38 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

Oh shoot, give me an F in grocery budgets. For the 2 of us, we budget $450/mo. I make no excuses, it's just what we usually end up spending. It was going down for a few days since DH now needs an extreme low sodium diet, but I see him slipping back into some behaviors that aren't' good for him.

$450/month is less than $140/week.

My budget is $250/week and I include all cleaning and personal items plus gas. We don't spend much on gas due to short commutes. That is for 2 adults and 2 medium size dogs

[Blonde Granny]

Sept 9, 2015 21:36:33 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

Sept 9, 2015 16:58:38 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

Oh shoot, give me an F in grocery budgets. For the 2 of us, we budget $450/mo. I make no excuses, it's just what we usually end up spending. It was going down for a few days since DH now needs an extreme low sodium diet, but I see him slipping back into some behaviors that aren't' good for him.

$450/month is less than $140/week.

My budget is $250/week and I include all cleaning and personal items plus gas. We don't spend much on gas due to short commutes. That is for 2 adults and 2 medium size dogs

YNAB budgeted amount:

Groceries is $450/mo. 

Diesel Fuel $175/mo but usually we spend about $100/mo

Household products $ 25/mo

Personal care products $ 25/mo

When learning to use YNAB we broke down every category instead of lumping them into one big one.  If I do buy paper towels etc. that purchase gets taken out of the line item for groceries and put into household products.  This way I know what we really spend.

[yogiii]

Sept 9, 2015 17:27:18 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

Our breakfasts are either fruit/veggie and protein smoothies (sometimes I throw a green tea supplement in there), oatmeal or 7-grain cereal (the old fashioned, hand-cooked kind) or homemade granola with non-dairy milk and fruits/nuts/coconut etc as condiments, or eggs and toast or eggs and potatoes (DH's favorite). Sometimes I even get crazy and toss leftover veggies into scrambled eggs and top it with salsa and avocado .

Lunches are hearty soups, green and/or grain salads with a variety of ingredients, sandwiches and leftover dinners.

Snacks are nuts, granola, yogurt (for me only), fruit, homemade hummus or ranch dressing (no chemicals or preservatives) with veggie sticks, homemade soy ice cream or popsicles, or quick breads in season (zucchini, banana, pumpkin, lemon and blueberry pound cake - whatever I have on hand that hits me that week). If DH gets a hankering for potato chips (his favorite), bagel chips, cheese crackers or other snack foods, I make them (again to avoid chemicals and preservatives). He will spend a few days eating his way through a big batch, and then will be satisfied and not ask for more for a while.

Dinners are usually a protein with a green salad and another vegetable. Sometimes also a grain like wild rice, quinoa or faro, or potatoes (DH's favorite, see a pattern here? lol). I also make a lot of Italian and Mediterranean style dishes with pastas, grains, meat and veggies. On holidays, we prepare traditional foods in traditional ways, but always fresh (not out of boxes, bags, cans, packages or jars).

Man I wish I could drive my costs down more! If anyone has suggestions I'm open to them! But this is what eating in a chemical-free (I have MCS) and dairy free (DH's lactose issues) household looks like. At least for us. YMMV.

You are my food idol.

I don't track closely but I think we spend 500/month for 2 adults and 2 little kids.  We batch cook dinners on Sundays and bring lunches to work.  The kids typically eat plain yogurt with fruit I add in for lunch or peanut butter sandwiches (if not at school).  During the week everyone eats plain oatmeal for breakfast and I add either fruit (bananas, apples) or raisins and nuts to it.  DH and I put a little sugar in ours, the kids still eat theirs with just cinnamon and fruit.  Breakfast on the weekends is eggs, occasionally pancakes, the kids will have bagels with cream cheese.  I really wish I could do more, sometimes I feel so lazy and pressed for time. My kids are starting to get to that age too where eating the same thing 3x per week isn't going to fly much longer. I need to up my game by making a list of meals we typically cook along with all the ingredients we need for them. In addition, particularly for next year when my oldest is in 1st grade, I will need more lunch ideas.

[shelby]

My Dad brought over eggs butter chicken coffee and toilet paper from costco today that will last a week. He has brought us the huge bag of chicken coffee and TP in the recent past too, so that is a big part of the budget taken care of. It was very generous of him but he does eat quite a few meals at our house a week so I don't feel so bad. I made chicken fajitas last night with peppers and onion which is the only veggies we had left as today is grocery day. I am pretty good at making meals of what is left over in the fridge, I made minestrone soup last week with a left over zucchini from the bread I made carrots onion tomatoes (I have a lot from the garden right now) spinach beans and pasta, it was so good and made enough for 3 meals probably cost around $8 all together. So hopefully I am not way under estimating, going to buy everything for the week today and see if it lasts and if I can stay at or under $140.

ETA I just realized the kids are drinking half gallon of milk a day  and I am lactose intolerant so I didn't have any of it....but I guess it is better than soda or sugar juice.

[kittensaver]

Sept 10, 2015 7:12:13 GMT -5 yogiii said:

Sept 9, 2015 17:27:18 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

You are my food idol.

I don't track closely but I think we spend 500/month for 2 adults and 2 little kids.  We batch cook dinners on Sundays and bring lunches to work.  The kids typically eat plain yogurt with fruit I add in for lunch or peanut butter sandwiches (if not at school).  During the week everyone eats plain oatmeal for breakfast and I add either fruit (bananas, apples) or raisins and nuts to it.  DH and I put a little sugar in ours, the kids still eat theirs with just cinnamon and fruit.  Breakfast on the weekends is eggs, occasionally pancakes, the kids will have bagels with cream cheese.  I really wish I could do more, sometimes I feel so lazy and pressed for time. My kids are starting to get to that age too where eating the same thing 3x per week isn't going to fly much longer. I need to up my game by making a list of meals we typically cook along with all the ingredients we need for them. In addition, particularly for next year when my oldest is in 1st grade, I will need more lunch ideas.

Thank, yogii. Sounds like you are doing a great job with your kids. We ALL get pressed for time and we all have periods where we feel lazy - - we just have to do the best we can and that just has to be okay!

Case in point: we rarely go "out" for any meals - we eat homemade food probably 95-98% of the time. We do it because of my health issues, and DH is happy to play along. This past weekend, over three days we canned 150 lbs of roma tomatoes for the coming year. For those three days, we ordered out for lunch AND dinner. There was just no way I could be a tomato processing machine AND stop to prepare meals to feed 5 people. As the Buddhists say - it is what it is. I did the best I could under the circumstances.

Here's a recipe I do with my "grandkids" (great nieces and nephews). They LOVE poking the holes in these crackers, and I love the fact that I control the ingredients and they get a snack food without artificial coloring, flavors, preservatives, fillers etc. I hope you will enjoy this with your kids too!

www.happysimpleliving.com/2011/05/13/make-your-own-amazing-homemade-cheese-crackers/

[haapai]

You might be pulling off that number or something close to it or you may be looking at a number that is just a happy accident due to the relatively short period that you have been tracking it.  My advice would be to keep on tracking it. 

Don't beat yourself up too much if that number turns out to be off by an amount that is significant to you.  It's still an impressive number. 

It's entirely possible that you've been drawing down a stockpile of stuff without being aware of it.  Non-food grocery store expenditures are notoriously difficult to track.  Laundry detergent, dish detergent, shampoo, bath soap, light bulbs, dryer sheets, TP, and saran wrap (actually store-brand food wrap) are easy to stockpile when times are flush but quite painful to buy when times are tight. 

Veggies are cheap to a nuisance during the late summer.  At other times of the year, they are annoyingly costly and seem to go bad overnight.  If you're using fresh vegetables to add zing to an otherwise starch-heavy diet, you may be surprised by how expensive it is to do so in the winter. 

You may be unaware how much food your father has been bringing into the house.  (Reminding yourself how much frozen food and restaurant meals cost may be helpful here.  It sounds like your dad lives alone and would be eating some pretty monotonous and lonely meals if he had to prepare and eat his own bargains.)

Yeah, there might be a lot of reasons why your short-term number could be deceiving but I don't think any of them are moral faults or foolish mistakes.  I also have no concerns about the nutritional quality of the meals that you are preparing on such a small outlay.  I've been told that the average American consumes about twice as much protein as their body needs. 

[ArchietheDragon]

We are a family of five. I just ran our grocery expenses from 1/1/15 through 8/31/15. It was $6100 which equates to $762 per month or $180 per week. We shop the sales and use coupons pretty well, but we certainly have room to improve, so I think you could get to $140 a week.

[Apple]

Sept 10, 2015 16:52:52 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

Sept 10, 2015 7:12:13 GMT -5 yogiii said:

You are my food idol.

I don't track closely but I think we spend 500/month for 2 adults and 2 little kids.  We batch cook dinners on Sundays and bring lunches to work.  The kids typically eat plain yogurt with fruit I add in for lunch or peanut butter sandwiches (if not at school).  During the week everyone eats plain oatmeal for breakfast and I add either fruit (bananas, apples) or raisins and nuts to it.  DH and I put a little sugar in ours, the kids still eat theirs with just cinnamon and fruit.  Breakfast on the weekends is eggs, occasionally pancakes, the kids will have bagels with cream cheese.  I really wish I could do more, sometimes I feel so lazy and pressed for time. My kids are starting to get to that age too where eating the same thing 3x per week isn't going to fly much longer. I need to up my game by making a list of meals we typically cook along with all the ingredients we need for them. In addition, particularly for next year when my oldest is in 1st grade, I will need more lunch ideas.

Thank, yogii. Sounds like you are doing a great job with your kids. We ALL get pressed for time and we all have periods where we feel lazy - - we just have to do the best we can and that just has to be okay!

Case in point: we rarely go "out" for any meals - we eat homemade food probably 95-98% of the time. We do it because of my health issues, and DH is happy to play along. This past weekend, over three days we canned 150 lbs of roma tomatoes for the coming year. For those three days, we ordered out for lunch AND dinner. There was just no way I could be a tomato processing machine AND stop to prepare meals to feed 5 people. As the Buddhists say - it is what it is. I did the best I could under the circumstances.

Here's a recipe I do with my "grandkids" (great nieces and nephews). They LOVE poking the holes in these crackers, and I love the fact that I control the ingredients and they get a snack food without artificial coloring, flavors, preservatives, fillers etc. I hope you will enjoy this with your kids too!

www.happysimpleliving.com/2011/05/13/make-your-own-amazing-homemade-cheese-crackers/

I make those crackers too  I use pepperjack cheese in some for a little extra flavor.  

[Apple]

$140 a week could be very doable, depending on where you live and food you eat.

It's just two of us, and I'm aiming for $200/month or so.  I buy a half-side/side of beef once a year from my brother, depending on how much room is in the freezer.  I also buy a ton of chicken breasts at once (80-120 pounds, then freeze and can it all at once).  I've even bought a side of pork.  Having a freezer full of meat helps keep my weekly grocery bills down since I don't buy meat from the store unless it's an awesome deal (I do get chicken thighs/legs, turkey on occasion, etc).

My parents have a big garden (we help with it).  We get fresh vegetables from there all summer, and then we can a lot as well.  I haven't bought salsa for two years, and still have a ton left.  This year we're skipping salsa and doing pizza sauce with the tomatoes.  We also do zucchini relish, green tomato relish (good way to get the last of the crop before the first frost, even though it's not ripe), peaches, cherries, etc.

I quit tracking over the summer since we were on vacation for 5 weeks and most of the food was eating out (we had a couple apartments where we cooked our own meals with whatever looked interesting at the grocery store).  I need to get back to it though.  I tend to stop at the grocery store once to twice a week, and usually the bill is under $25, so I think I'm doing ok.

After spending a month+ in Europe, I came back really wanting to get rid of stuff with high fructose corn syrup (I'd pretty much done that, except for pop).  I've cut down to maybe 1 Coke a week, so I decided instead of buying the canned stuff, I'd splurge on the glass bottles of pop made with real sugar.  It's more expensive, but we like it better and we don't drink much.  Keeping the rest of the bill down helps with that.

I love pasta, but my son doesn't, so I'm a bit jealous you can get away with it a couple times a week!

[shelby]

I did the weekly shopping, hoping it will last a week and came in at $129.95. I do have some extra shopping for food and beer/wine for a football party but I am putting that in my entertainment category. I also got motivated to make hummus and going to try homemade salsa.

[kittensaver]

Well Apple you sound a lot like me! We tend to buy in bulk (sides of beef, a dozen chickens, etc), preserve what we can't use from the garden and jump on preserving "found food" (like when my mom lays a dozen lemons on me, or my co-worker who gave me several pounds of plums this year). It's short periods of intense work, but it lets you open the pantry and freezer and instantly have a variety of meals at your fingertips, plus skate by parts of the grocery store for many weeks.

But I always include the cost of bulk purchases and the cost of preservation sessions in my budget calculations (the final cost divided by 52). It is one of the things that helps me keep a realistic eye on how much I've really spent. If I didn't do that, I suppose I could brag about how little I spend but it would not be the truth . 

[Apple]

Lol, yeah, I try to be honest about it too.  My "$200/month" that I try to stay at includes the bulk stuff.  Which means, after $300 in chicken a year, $400-800 in beef, and $300 in pork, I have just over $100/month for everything else.  One grocery store trip is usually around $10 (milk and produce), one around $25 (the other stuff).  

But, the bulk stuff does change each year, depending on how much I have left when it's time to order.  I was scared when I found out my brother might not have a cow for us this year, because I saw the price of hamburger a few months ago!    The buying in bulk has definitely helped me keep my prices down and ride out the peak price times.  I can't imagine how much I'd have had to spend if I didn't have it in my freezer.

I'm lucky, my area has coupons for produce and groceries in general ($3 off $10 purchase, $10 off $50 purchase).

Oh, and I rarely drink, so no alcohol to pay for.  I know from having an alcoholic ex that even cheap beer adds up fast.

[Apple]

Getting started on preservation can be a heavy initial investment.  I was lucky in that my parents already had all the canners and equipment we needed (some 50+ years old), I just had to buy a few jars at first (and got some of those used to save money).  I bought a pressure canner a couple years ago, so now the only "big" new money going into it is for the lids every year (and I wait until they go on sale, lol).

Oh, and I pay a month of their water bill every summer--that part makes me wish they were on a well!

[yogiii]

We've had good luck with these reusable lids
www.amazon.com/Tattler-Reusable-Regular-Size-Canning/dp/B0051PDXCQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441998248&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=tater+reusable+lids

[kittensaver]

Sept 11, 2015 14:04:50 GMT -5 yogiii said:

We've had good luck with these reusable lids
www.amazon.com/Tattler-Reusable-Regular-Size-Canning/dp/B0051PDXCQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441998248&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=tater+reusable+lids

Whoa! Awesome! I had no idea these existed.

Must. Try. Next. Canning. Session.

Many thanks!

[yogiii]

I believe this was our 3rd summer using them in the pressure canner for salsa.  Still going strong.

[Apple]

Sept 11, 2015 14:04:50 GMT -5 yogiii said:

We've had good luck with these reusable lids
www.amazon.com/Tattler-Reusable-Regular-Size-Canning/dp/B0051PDXCQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441998248&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=tater+reusable+lids

I went to a class with a lady who used them, she loved them, but said don't use them for pressure canning (they warped on her).  Just a heads up in case anyone was thinking about it (might try just one to see what happens instead of a full set).

How often do you have to buy the rubber rings?  I bought some of those just because I had some plastic lids I wanted to use for fridge/pantry storage, but they aren't air tight so can leak or let in air.  

[Apple]

Ah, just saw you use it for pressure canning...  wonder if it was the process time that did them in (you have to process chicken for over an hour).

[yogiii]

The rubber rings are reusable also.  We make sure to go over the top of the jar with a wet paper towel to clean up any inadvertent spills and so far we haven't had anything not seal.  If you read reviews, there are some people who think they stink, but I'm thinking it's just user error on their part.