Gordy Gronkowski says he spent $600/wk feeding 5 boys in 1980s

[Anonymous]

DH ate 4000 calories a day when we met in college. His grocery bills were outrageous. The vast majority of his food intake was meat, vegetables and nuts.

Side note- it's hard to eat healthy cheaply in America. We subsidize corn and sugar instead of vegetables.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1980’s?

He was a teen in the 00s.

Gronk? I’m 43 and turned 13 in 1990 ....

Gronk was born in 1989 and turned 13 in 2002.

[Anonymous]

I have four boys (14-20) but they aren't that athletic. They still eat a lot--we probably spend about $350/week when they are all home (older two are away at college now.)
We rarely eat out though Things like McDonald's, Panera, Starbucks--just don't happen in our house.

[Anonymous]

I have two and we spend around 2k/month but we eat super healthy. My 13 y/o can eat $40 worth of grass-fed beef tenderloin or fish for dinner and then he makes himself an Amy's pizza before bed and eats it all too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1980’s?

He was a teen in the 00s.

Gronk? I’m 43 and turned 13 in 1990 ....

Gronk was born in 1989 and turned 13 in 2002.

But he has 3 other siblings who were teens in the '80/90s, no?

Outside splitting hairs and literal interpretation of "$600 groceries/wk to feed the kids..." I think the sentiment is that it was tough to keep up with a big bustling family. And there weren't places like Costco, Amazon, and the like to make grocery shopping easier and affordable back then.

I totally get it. We have 4 kids (teens and tweens) and food is one of the highest monthly expenses for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean if they had their own baseball diamond, tennis court and pool, sounds like affording groceries was not a problem?

They were in Western New York. Doesn’t cost much for a spread like that.

Here’s the original article: https://www.esquire.com/sports/interviews/a29000/gronkowski-family-athletes-0614/

They were going through20 ga llons of milk a week.

That seems like a lot -- 4 gallons per week for each boy? That's almost 10 servings of milk a day per boy. I had five brothers and my parents used to buy them a gallon or two a week. They each had their own bottle so one didn't chug it all the first day. If they were really going through 20 gallons of milk a week, they were feeling all the neighborhood boys.

But I can EASILY see spending $600 a week feeing 5 boys even in the 80s or 90s, particularly if you are not worried about coupon cutting or budgeting (ie., buying cheap cuts of meat, avoiding premade frozen stuff which is expensive, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean if they had their own baseball diamond, tennis court and pool, sounds like affording groceries was not a problem?

They were in Western New York. Doesn’t cost much for a spread like that.

Here’s the original article: https://www.esquire.com/sports/interviews/a29000/gronkowski-family-athletes-0614/

They were going through20 ga llons of milk a week.

That seems like a lot -- 4 gallons per week for each boy? That's almost 10 servings of milk a day per boy. I had five brothers and my parents used to buy them a gallon or two a week. They each had their own bottle so one didn't chug it all the first day. If they were really going through 20 gallons of milk a week, they were feeling all the neighborhood boys.

But I can EASILY see spending $600 a week feeing 5 boys even in the 80s or 90s, particularly if you are not worried about coupon cutting or budgeting (ie., buying cheap cuts of meat, avoiding premade frozen stuff which is expensive, etc.)

It's probably a bit of fuzzy memory RE: 20 gallons milk/week. I'm guessing it wasn't THAT high, but probably still a lot of milk they went through. And milk is used for cooking/baking/and other things too so just b/c the kids weren't chugging a gallon every day doesn't mean that the family as a whole weren't consuming it.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t realize all the gronks played professional football. Those are some good athletic genes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1980’s?

He was a teen in the 00s.

Gronk? I’m 43 and turned 13 in 1990 ....

Gronk was born in 1989 and turned 13 in 2002.

But he has 3 other siblings who were teens in the '80/90s, no?

Outside splitting hairs and literal interpretation of "$600 groceries/wk to feed the kids..." I think the sentiment is that it was tough to keep up with a big bustling family. And there weren't places like Costco, Amazon, and the like to make grocery shopping easier and affordable back then.

I totally get it. We have 4 kids (teens and tweens) and food is one of the highest monthly expenses for us.

Yes there was. Price Club existed in the 80s/90s. Not sure how Amazon provides cheap food? Either way, Gronk was a teen in the 00s so by then Costco had long since bought Price Club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t realize all the gronks played professional football. Those are some good athletic genes!

4 in pro football and 1 in pro baseball. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean if they had their own baseball diamond, tennis court and pool, sounds like affording groceries was not a problem?

They were in Western New York. Doesn’t cost much for a spread like that.

Here’s the original article: https://www.esquire.com/sports/interviews/a29000/gronkowski-family-athletes-0614/

They were going through20 ga llons of milk a week.

That seems like a lot -- 4 gallons per week for each boy? That's almost 10 servings of milk a day per boy. I had five brothers and my parents used to buy them a gallon or two a week. They each had their own bottle so one didn't chug it all the first day. If they were really going through 20 gallons of milk a week, they were feeling all the neighborhood boys.

But I can EASILY see spending $600 a week feeing 5 boys even in the 80s or 90s, particularly if you are not worried about coupon cutting or budgeting (ie., buying cheap cuts of meat, avoiding premade frozen stuff which is expensive, etc.)

We go through 7-8 gallons of milk a week for 2 parents and 3 kids under 8. I could see teenage boys drinking 3-4 gallons of milk per week if it was available, especially when it is in a focused athletic setting (lots of sports, weight lifting, etc) since it is good for hydration, nutrition, and recovery.

[Anonymous]

I guess if he was feeding them filet mignon and caviar.

But a $500 weekly grocery bill in the 80’s for ordinary food staples is pretty hard to believe.

We have two older teen boys in our home, plus the two of us, and we don’t spend even half that in a week, three decades later.

Smells like total BS to me.

[Anonymous]

Consider that all 5 are huge and athletic, I'm sure the amount of food they ate was insane. Also, as the mother of 2 boys I can only shudder to think about the number of "fun" wrestling matches that turned bad in that house. It had to be constant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess if he was feeding them filet mignon and caviar.

But a $500 weekly grocery bill in the 80’s for ordinary food staples is pretty hard to believe.

We have two older teen boys in our home, plus the two of us, and we don’t spend even half that in a week, three decades later.

Smells like total BS to me.

The oldest brother was born in 1983 and the youngest in 1993. They would have been at peak grocery bills in the 2000s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consider that all 5 are huge and athletic, I'm sure the amount of food they ate was insane. Also, as the mother of 2 boys I can only shudder to think about the number of "fun" wrestling matches that turned bad in that house. It had to be constant.

They covered the walls and floors in the basement with mattresses for that. 😆😬