Anonymous
Post 05/29/2018 13:26     Subject: How much do you spend on food per month?
So is Aldi really that much cheaper? How are the meat and produce quality? Do they carry organic meat?
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2018 12:47     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
I’m the recipe lady. Here’s tonight’s dinner:

Marinated pork (came marinated in a sealed plastic bag from aldi). Was $4.99 but had a $2 off sticker in oven with veggies I’ll add: carrots, onions and celery. A box of stuffing (on sale at aldi a few weeks ago for .34 a box) made along with sautéed onions and celery. Steamed califlower (on sale at aldi - don’t remember the amount).

Again, around $5 for dinner.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2018 12:36     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We do have fruit. Tonight it’s cherries (the last of last week’s sale at our local Giant - $1.99 a pound). If someone wants a handful of nuts, slice of cheese, more fruit or steamed veggies they have it with dinner or about an hour after dinner. Is the above poster saying (who did the recipe analysis that my dinner is or isn’t adequate)? Seems fine for us.

I forgot I also added 2 onions. It made a huge portion. I needed two casserole sized dishes to put it away.


Any chance you could post a picture?

I don't think people believe that 2 chicken drumstick/thighs + 3 sweet potatoes + 3 Yukon Gold potatoes + 2 onions + 3 carrots could adequately feed 2 adults and 2 preteens (with enough left over for someone's lunch)

Not PP, but why is this hard to believe? With broth in the mix, cutting up that amount of veggies would produce a huge volume of food. Throw in the extras like baguette, and I can totally buy this. Meat goes much, much further when you cook it in a stew. And potatoes take up a lot of volume and don't shrink much at all. These are pre-teen boys, not teen boys. And my guess is the parents don't eat a ton. I don't relate to PP's need to be so frugal with food, but I can totally believe she is able to be so frugal successfully.

We buy mostly organic and don't worry about sales, etc, but because we don't eat red meat, we eat a lot of veggies, and we eat vegetarian one day a week we don't spend a ton of money either (maybe $100-130/wk for a family of four). If I bought only sale food items and regular (not organic) dairy, we would spend much, much less.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2018 12:31     Subject: How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:About $200 for groceries (family of three)


per week? yeah, I believe that.

per month? No way. Not possible.


It is true - I shop at Aldi

I spend $80~/week - two adults, 1 toddler, 1 baby. I do shop at Aldis and totally believe the woman above.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 21:49     Subject: How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:About $200 for groceries (family of three)


per week? yeah, I believe that.

per month? No way. Not possible.


It is true - I shop at Aldi
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 21:08     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:1 chicken leg (thigh plus drumstick) is about 5 ounces of meat.

PP's soup menu would add up to:

10 oz chicken
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
3 sweet potatoes
3 white potatoes
chicken fat
baguette
(probably some butter?)

I did a recipe analysis of this and divided by 4 it comes to 670 calories per serving, not counting any butter for the baguette or any drinks.

Protein is 27 g per serving which seems adequate for a dinner?

Fiber is only 10 g. Probably add some seasonal fruit on the side.





You forgot the bone broth. I looked at the carton: 40 grams of protein in the carton. What’s funny is my cousin stopped by earlier so she had a bowl and a piece of toast (baguette is gone). She said it was delicious and asked for the recipe. And... the kids did have milk.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 18:36     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Oh and this is the main meal for the next two days in my son ‘s lunch - not all he’d eat.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 18:35     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
1. I have no idea how to post a pic

2. Dinner is done and it is now much smaller.

3. Guess how much I care if people believe me? I posted the recipe for goodness sake - pretty specific.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 17:39     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:We do have fruit. Tonight it’s cherries (the last of last week’s sale at our local Giant - $1.99 a pound). If someone wants a handful of nuts, slice of cheese, more fruit or steamed veggies they have it with dinner or about an hour after dinner. Is the above poster saying (who did the recipe analysis that my dinner is or isn’t adequate)? Seems fine for us.

I forgot I also added 2 onions. It made a huge portion. I needed two casserole sized dishes to put it away.


Any chance you could post a picture?

I don't think people believe that 2 chicken drumstick/thighs + 3 sweet potatoes + 3 Yukon Gold potatoes + 2 onions + 3 carrots could adequately feed 2 adults and 2 preteens (with enough left over for someone's lunch)
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 17:27     Subject: How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:But She isn’t dividing it by 4. She’s dividing it by 5 since she said her son is taking the leftovers for school the next day.

It’s borderline. Not enough to label irresponsible, but the kids are likely eating more whenever they can. And, like me, they may end up growing considerably more in college once they are away from mom.


No, it's perfectly fine for a dinner. A preteen only needs about 45 g of protein and that can be spread across all meals and snacks.

I didn't even add in the calories from any oil (usually people saute the onions etc in some oil) and of course probably they put butter on the bread -- 1 t butter is another 100 calories. She probably has her kids drinking a cup of milk -- 1% is another 100 calories per cup (plus more protein).

Say 1 hearty serving chicken-root vegetable soup, two slices of baguette, plus 2 t butter, plus 1 c 1% milk = 575 + 200 + 100 = 875 calories. A cup of cherries is another 75 calories so 950 calories for dinner.

If her kids are active in sports etc they might still need more for dessert or also some hearty snacks. But it isn't irresponsible to feed a family a stew based on sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and some chicken.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 17:16     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:About $100 a week, 2 tweens and 2 adults. I cook 95% of our meals so eating out is minimal. We eat a lot of produce which is one of the biggest costs each week.


You feed four people on $5,200 a year?? How??


Here is an example of tonight's dinner:

I had a package of chicken legs (thighs/legs attached) that came with 4 pieces in it from Aldi. It was $3.50 for the package. I used two pieces for dinner on Thursday and froze the other two. I defrosted them and two are for tonight's dinner. I put them in a large pot (like a paella pot) in the oven with 3 cut up carrots, 3 celery ribs cut up, 3 sweet potatoes cut up, 3 white potatoes cut up, garlic and a carton of bone broth from aldi that was $1 (discount) + water. The bolded veggies were in sold like $.99 for carrots, $1.29 for celery, etc. I got a bread (bagette) there that had a sticker on it for $1 off and it was originally $.1.69. Dinner of warm bagette. When it finishes, I'll take the skin off, take the chicken off the bone and we'll have soup with bread for dinner. There will be plenty left over and this will be my son's school lunch for Monday and Tuesday.

I'm actually what most people would consider wealthy, but I don't just go into a grocery store and buy whatever I feel like buying. I try to steer towards items that are on sale, even discounted so long as still fresh. Grapes are on sale this week? You're eating grapes. You like raspberries at $3.99 a carton...you'll have to wait on that. I have plenty of money for the "raspberries" in life that aren't on sale, but I HAVE that plenty of money because I've alway watched what I spent. I'll go to Aldi when possible. So, yes, I have been watching my receipts for awhile and it is absolutely around $100 a week.


That is NOT enough chicken for two adults and 2 tweens. Stop it!


+1

Previous poster, please admit that you all must be starving if this is truly what you do.


Are all of you underweight? That meal would be an appetizer to my DH. You can’t possibly be getting enough calories in that soup for dinner.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 17:14     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1 chicken leg (thigh plus drumstick) is about 5 ounces of meat.

PP's soup menu would add up to:

10 oz chicken
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
3 sweet potatoes
3 white potatoes
chicken fat
baguette
(probably some butter?)

I did a recipe analysis of this and divided by 4 it comes to 670 calories per serving, not counting any butter for the baguette or any drinks.

Protein is 27 g per serving which seems adequate for a dinner?

Fiber is only 10 g. Probably add some seasonal fruit on the side.



. We do have fruit. Tonight it’s cherries (the last of last week’s sale at our local Giant - $1.99 a pound). If someone wants a handful of nuts, slice of cheese, more fruit or steamed veggies they have it with dinner or about an hour after dinner. Is the above poster saying (who did the recipe analysis that my dinner is or isn’t adequate)? Seems fine for us.


I did the nutritional analysis. I think it is fine. Certainly your kids aren't going to be starving because of it!
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 17:03     Subject: How much do you spend on food per month?
But She isn’t dividing it by 4. She’s dividing it by 5 since she said her son is taking the leftovers for school the next day.

It’s borderline. Not enough to label irresponsible, but the kids are likely eating more whenever they can. And, like me, they may end up growing considerably more in college once they are away from mom.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 16:45     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1 chicken leg (thigh plus drumstick) is about 5 ounces of meat.

PP's soup menu would add up to:

10 oz chicken
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
3 sweet potatoes
3 white potatoes
chicken fat
baguette
(probably some butter?)

I did a recipe analysis of this and divided by 4 it comes to 670 calories per serving, not counting any butter for the baguette or any drinks.

Protein is 27 g per serving which seems adequate for a dinner?

Fiber is only 10 g. Probably add some seasonal fruit on the side.



. We do have fruit. Tonight it’s cherries (the last of last week’s sale at our local Giant - $1.99 a pound). If someone wants a handful of nuts, slice of cheese, more fruit or steamed veggies they have it with dinner or about an hour after dinner. Is the above poster saying (who did the recipe analysis that my dinner is or isn’t adequate)? Seems fine for us.


I forgot o also added 2 onions. It made a huge portion. I needed two casserole sized dishes to put it away.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2018 16:43     Subject: Re:How much do you spend on food per month?
Anonymous wrote:1 chicken leg (thigh plus drumstick) is about 5 ounces of meat.

PP's soup menu would add up to:

10 oz chicken
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
3 sweet potatoes
3 white potatoes
chicken fat
baguette
(probably some butter?)

I did a recipe analysis of this and divided by 4 it comes to 670 calories per serving, not counting any butter for the baguette or any drinks.

Protein is 27 g per serving which seems adequate for a dinner?

Fiber is only 10 g. Probably add some seasonal fruit on the side.



. We do have fruit. Tonight it’s cherries (the last of last week’s sale at our local Giant - $1.99 a pound). If someone wants a handful of nuts, slice of cheese, more fruit or steamed veggies they have it with dinner or about an hour after dinner. Is the above poster saying (who did the recipe analysis that my dinner is or isn’t adequate)? Seems fine for us.