family food budget - advice pls

[Anonymous]

I have a family of 5 - DH and I plus 3 kids under age 8. Our food spending is way more than I want it to be. Currently, I don't budget and meal plan and am just starting to look at what we spend. I'd like that to change.

Does anyone have a similar family size and feed their family for 600$ a month? What about lower? Can it be done? If yes, how? Where do you shop? What do you prepare? If no (or yes), what is your budget? What do you eat? Ideally, we would eat fresh and frozen fruits and veggies, a variety of fish/meat/vegetarian. Organic not essential--though I'd like to keep the organic milk. Thanks for any advice you can give.

[Anonymous]

There have been a lot of food budget threads here over the past years with great informatin. I'll try to hunt some up for you.

Quickly -- I think $600 is pretty bare bones for a family of 6 for a month. I don't know that you could go much lower than that without milking your own cow and growing your own produce, that kind of black belt tightwad thrift. I assume you mean food only, not including diapers, shampoo, and lightbulbs?

[Anonymous]

op here. yes. food only. not even restaurant food included. that is what I am thinking. we are way above that right now - maybe it is not really possible. thanks for the clue regarding other threads.

[Anonymous]

Do you have access and time to garden your own vegetables and herbs?

[Anonymous]

meal planning and sticking to the plan always helps. Less waste and if you are smart you can use leftovers for lunches or the base of the next meal.

more vegetarian meals. more of the calories from whole grains than from meats. find recipes that use less expensive cuts of meat (ground beef, the tougher cuts). A crock pot can really be your friend here.

If it makes you feel better, our family of three spends approximately $150/wk at the grocery store. We don't follow most of the tips I just gave. We eat the more expensive cuts of meat. Vegetarian maybe one night per week. Few grains other than sandwich bread and morning bagels.

I know a lot of people who visit multiple grocery stores in a single week (CostCo, BJ's, Trader Joe's, Safeway, Giant) to score the best price on everything. I don't have the time or patience to do that, or even clip coupons.

[Anonymous]

i hope to start a small veggie garden soon.

[Anonymous]

I have a family of 5 (kids ages 2 to 11) and feed them for under $600 per month. I buy milk, eggs, produce, lunch meats, cheese sticks, yogurt and most meats and fish at Costco. I also use some canned and frozen items as well. I buy things like spaghetti, cereal, snack foods and Hamburger Helper (yes I do serve this because my kids love it) at Walmart. Everything I can't buy at Walmart and Costco comes from the grocery store. Mainly, the stuff from the grocery store is stuff for the grown ups (lite foods and special coffee creamer).

Like somene earlier mentioned, I plan meals so that there is no waste. If we eat chicken and have some left over, we might have chicken tacos later in the week to use up the chicken. I count the amount of produce I buy so that I don't throw it away.

You should know that I am not a great cook, so I don't buy many unusual ingredients. Also, this doesn't count eating out, which we do once a week. We pack lunches though so lunch out is only occasional.

[Anonymous]

We're a family of 4, and though we have some months under $600, they're often when we're also doing some traveling so not around to eat as much. On average, we're more at $800, and we do buy organic milk and some organic fruits, vegetables, and meat.

Honestly, if you say you're at much more than $600, I'd look at where you are and try to make incremental changes. Switching over to rice and beans every night might make a huge difference to your budget, but it would probably make everyone resentful and ruin your efforts.

We do most of our shopping at Safeway or Harris Teeter. Some things we love to get at Whole Foods but it's so expensive that we try to save it for special occasions.

Breakfasts--cold or hot cereal. (The hot cereal is really key for keeping one of our kids full through the morning. We use Bob's Red Mill blends, steel-cut oats, or oat bran, not the more expensive instant packets.)

Lunches--sandwiches, fruit, crackers, etc.

Dinners--In addition to our family favorites, I use Six O'Clock Scramble to help us add in variety that is both fairly inexpensive and healthy.

We do have an herb garden but don't have much light so vegetables aren't really an option. Our tomato plants are pretty much the same size as when we planted them weeks ago, so we're not exactly expecting a bumper crop this year...

[Anonymous]

What keeps our budget down is buying chicken when it is on sale, cutting it up and freezing it into portion sizes (I do whole breasts, chicken tenders, and stir-fry). It also helps with food prep.

For veggies, I'm a real fan of fresh, so I try to buy what is in season. In winter, I do resort to frozen for some things.

Planning out a week's meals really cut down our budget. You plan out a week and only buy what you need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op here. yes. food only. not even restaurant food included. that is what I am thinking. we are way above that right now - maybe it is not really possible. thanks for the clue regarding other threads.

Of course you can reduce your food expenses! Just paying attention to what you spend and what you waste will help tremendously.

Here are some of the earlier threads: (more useful ones first IMO)



http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/90046.page

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/84017.page

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/46757.page

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/49382.page

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/42501.page

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/13857.page

[Anonymous]

My husband and I spend about $500 per month on food and another $100 on household goods (toiletries plus paper/cleaning supplies). We buy all organic (from My Organic Market, rarely from WF) and belong to a CSA. We also don't eat out pretty much at all (maybe twice per month, and that comes out of the $500) and we rarely eat meat (maybe twice per week, and usually turkey burgers or chicken). We also don't eat much dairy, which can also be a big ticket item (minimal butter, I don't drink milk, and neither of us eats cheese regularly).

It does take a lot of work to prepare all your own meals, but with the CSA (which is also organic) we only go to the store for staples (grains, oils, coffee, sugar, etc.) and that makes it easier to resist the temptation of prepared/packaged foods and snacks (which I don't object to inherently, they just bust the budget!). We could eat less expensively, but since this budget works for us and I can afford all organic, I choose to spend our money that way. We also manage my husband's cholesterol through diet, so I'm willing to do more cooking and prep to avoid having him go on Lipitor at age 40.

[Anonymous]

Farmers markets are open now, that's a very cheap way to get your fruits/veggies. It really depends on how much time you want to devote to food prep. If you don't want to spend that much time cooking, then your budget will be higher for prepared foods or quick to make foods. If you have time and don't mind cooking then making from scratch is the cheapest (and healthiest) way.

[Anonymous]

Do you find Farmer's markets' to be very cheap? I always spend a ton of money there!

[Anonymous]

9:29 - what CSA do you use?

[Anonymous]

i always find farmer's market to be a lot more expensive. butler's orchard was charging 3.99 for cantelope. i believe it was 2.59 at shoppers and 1.99 at sams club. is the farmer's market produce that much better?