It's another edition of the Backwards Works for Me Wednesday! You know...you usually give a great tip, but in the backwards edition -- you ask for them!
So...here's my dilemma --
What is a reasonable food budget for a week or a month? What do you do? What works for you in this area?
We are a family of five, and I always feel like I budget more than enough for the area of food (this includes both groceries and food from out), but we always go way over budget. So...it leaves me wondering if I am being unreasonable, or if we are just spending way too much.
On a side note, I just bought all of the e-books/audio files from Biblical Womanhood on feeding your family on $35/week (not because I thought I could do that, but because I needed some tips), but I haven't read/listened to them yet.
Any ideas on what you budget or ways that you really save on your budget would be GREAT! And, seriously -- feel free to share even if you think your budget/what you spend in this area is huge. I need some big spenders to post too! ;)
23 comments:
My friend uses an envelope system where each week she puts a particular amount ($75 for her) in an envelope. They know they only have that much money for the week which keeps them from eating out too much, and they are more frugal with buying things like snacks. Also menu planning definitely helps. Take an inventory of the stuff you have on hand and only buy things to complement the stuff you already have. That will save you money, and things won't go bad because you're aware they're there.
This is something that I also struggle with. I spend $150.00 a week for my family of four. There are three of us who have food allergies. We only eat fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meats. Nothing processed. I would love to know how much other families spend per week.
I try to shoot for $100/ week for our family of 6 (kids range in age from 9-2), but with the prices of milk and meat going up, husband not traveling as much-which means mac and cheese doesn't cut it anymore- and the baby eating and drinking more, $125 is more the norm. It might go to $150 if I'm making a meal for someone or diapers and non-food stuff needs to be bought). Another reason for the cost going up is that we can't get a lot of the generics we were getting at Wal-Mart because of new cross-contamination warnings for our food allergy.
I try to shoot for a few cheap meals (spaghetti gets us 2 days) when I'm having something more pricey, like pork chops.
We have a family of 3. But one of the 3 is only 13 months old - so he doesn't eat much. And we spend roughly $100/week on groceries on a normal week. I am not frugal most of the time, and we're pretty bad about letting leftovers rot in the fridge. But at the same time, I don't buy organic stuff unless it's cheaper than the regular stuff. When I need to, I can feed us for $13 at the grocery store using mostly things in my pantry - I wouldn't call that reasonable, because I can only do that every so often before my pantry really is empty. I do plan weekly menus (it's my post for today) and that helps.
We have 5 in our family, me, Honey, and 3 kids (ages 7, and 4).
We use the envelope system also. We get paid twice a month, so with every pay check I take out $340 cash. I break it down like this: $220 for groceries and anything else I buy at Walmart, $60 for eat-out money, and $60 for gas (doesn't include extra traveling, just my in-town errands and such).
I have also found that menu planning helps. I don't necessarily plan what nights we eat what, but I definitely have meals that we eat during that pay period that I buy ingredients for.
I have also found that if I only make one well planned trip to the grocery every pay period I spend less. I'm not a big coupon clipper, but I do buy a lot of generic.
The only times this grocery budget doesn't work for us is around the holidays.
With my food budget there are three big factors: eating out, menu-planning and shopping in bulk.
When I menu plan our family of 8 can eat on around $125 a week, if I don't it is closer to $200.
I am actually in the process of writting a longish post on this myself, hopefully I will have it up on my blog tomrrow.
I think it's getting harder to spend less. Here are some ideas.
1) Stay away from once-in-awhile recipes that call for special ingredients I won't use otherwise.
2) Watch meat prices and only buy the cheaper cuts.
3) Do all your shopping in one place. It cuts down on impulse buys.
4) Buy ahead where practical. Don't blow your budget though.
5) The biggie. Cook from scratch most of the time and avoid convenience foods. That includes breakfast cereals. I make bread a lot too because that helps fill my children's tummies nutritiously. (I'm big on whole grains and no preservatives or dyes.)
The government has a chart that lists several different levels of what they consider thrifty, moderate, and high for food budgets, go*gle will show it. I use cash for food taken out every two weeks as that is payday. Play with the amount until you find a low but acceptable level. It should be enough to buy some of the treats your family likes but low enough to stay within your income.
I budget $60 a week for our family of four (one is still partially nursing). Actual expenditure varies from week to week, but I can usually average pretty close to on budget. I shop at Sam's Club for milk, whole wheat bread, tortillas, butter, cheese, and some canned goods and baking supplies. I shop at Henry's (a whole foods market) for bulk flour, nuts, etc. and also for produce - we just buy whatever produce is on sale, usually. I use the Grocery Game (www.thegrocerygame.com) for my shopping at Vons, where we buy everything else.
If you have more questions about how we do it, or how the grocery game works, or whatever, feel free to email me through my blogger account. :)
Just looked up the Federal Guidelines -- very interesting. Perhaps I'm not doing as badly as I thought.
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodPlansCostofFood-CostOfFoodAtHome.htm
And, really...it would be much better though, if we could manage to have fewer meals from out!
I don't use a budget, particularly, for food. I do have a good idea of our weekly expenses, which run around $250 or so for our household of 10...it could go up or down by a good 50 dollars depending on any number of factors. That includes paper products, diapers, and such, and does not include eating out or bringing fast food home, which is not regular for us anyways. Our milk consumption is about a gallon a day, one of our higher costs, and we have 2 in diapers and a couple using pull-ups at night, some of our bigger weekly expenses. A year ago, our weekly expense for food was more in the range of 150 to 200, but prices seem to have crept up!
Some of the things I do to keep grocery costs down:
1. Purchase generics...I rarely clip coupons or even consider brand names, with a very few exceptions.
2. Shop grocery outlet/surplus type stores.
I get our bread at .50 to 1.25 per loaf, depending on what's available, and stock up when I can. I try to purchase large loafs, 10 or so at a visit, and freeze them.
3. Make it from scratch.
DD has been doing bread dough in the bread maker, and makes tasty rolls. We use the same recipe for pizza dough. For $10 we can do a decent pizza night (4 large pizzas with pepperoni and mozzerella), as opposed to spending 2 to 4 times that for less filling offerings of the local establishments.
We've even begun venturing into doughnut making.
Likewise, homemade soups are a good budget stretcher.
4. Inexpensive filler snacks...
Pretzels, Animal Cookies, Generic 'Nilla Wafers, Graham Crackers
5. Buy meats on sale when possible...
I try to stock my freezer when I can. I don't include expensive meat in the menu, but lately am finding that we enjoy a nice Sunday meal with a good meat as a highlight...so I look for those on sale in the weekly fliers.
Related to this, I use chicken breasts often as a part of a meal...with pasta or in soup or stirfry...it goes further, and the food is tasty.
We do sometimes pick up burgers on a busy day or treat the kids to a meal out. We found a good manager's special at our Sonic which allows us to eat at a reasonable price. If we get burgers at McD's or other similar places, we'll peruse the value menu, and just get burgers. For a treat, the McD's menu has the pies at 2/1$, which is a great little something for the kiddies!
Hope these ideas help!
Blessings!
The thing that has really helped me save money is my chest freezer. When meat is on sale, I buy as much of it as I possibly can. separate it and freeze it. I have saved so much money doing this, it is definitely worth it!
You know, I honestly don't have a "budget" per se. I do spend about the same amount every month from market day and schwans. For me, since we eat healthy, I find it has increased the amount we spend on food - especially stuff that isn't exactly in season. To save though, I tend to buy in bulk and freeze meat when stuff is on sale.
I feed my family of 5 (2 adults, 1 teenage boy, 1 preteen girl, 1 kindergarten boy) for around $125-150 a week. My in-laws and my parents spend the same just to feed 2 adults.
We live in New Jersey--I know that different areas of the country have different food costs.
We eat 1 meatless dinner a week, sometimes fish, sometimes pasta marinara.
I have a large upright freezer and large pantry, so I am able to "shop the sales" and store items until needed.
This includes lunches for the kids, since they rarely buy school lunch (maybe once a week each for the 2 younger kids and almost never for the high-schooler who's not willing to wait in line to eat!)
Menu planning is the best way I've found to make it work.
We are a family of 5 as well. We have three boys (ages 5,3 and 1). We budget $450 a month. We take that money and put it in an envelope at the beginning of the month. When it is gone, it is gone. Paying cash helps me not to over spend and it also helps insure we eat all that we buy. This budget also includes cleaning supplies, toilitries and diapers. I keep a list of 'have to have' items and make sure I always have those. Menu planning helps a lot too.
www.fullofboys.wordpress.com
Look at Store brands. I am a coupon shopper but many times the store brand can be even cheaper than the price after the coupons.
We use cash only for groceries. Groceries are a separate category from eating out. Household and baby items are also in separate categories. Our grocery budget was $250/month for a couple of years, but we moved to a higher priced area and the second baby came along, so I recently upped it to $325/month for a family of four. Try using a cash system for a couple of months and note how far you can get into each month before having to pull out more cash. Hopefully as you tweak your budget you'll also be developing shopping skills: start keeping a price book, learn to make bread, tortillas, etc. from scratch (cheaper and healthier), limit processed foods--a pound of apples is cheaper, healthier, and more filling than a pound of Twinkies! I rarely use coupons for food items--the exception is during the Holidays when there are plenty of coupons for flour, baking supplies, condiments, etc. Research which grocery store is the all-around cheapest (I love Winco) and which store has the best loss leaders (in my area, it's Albertson's.) Good luck!
I feed 9 people (ok. One is a nursling) and spend 20% of take home pay on groceries, food, and household stuff.
Most eating out falls in here unless it's a special occasion.
The cash system is AWESOME, BTW. I posted last year on feeding your family for a week for $26:
http://milehimama.blogspot.com/2006/11/twofer-works-for-me-wednesday-and.html
I generally spend around $150 a week for a family of six, including two teenage and one almost-teenage boys (they eat ALOT!). No diapers or formula though.
We almost never eat out -- maybe once a month and nothing fancy. I always plan my meals. I can't imagine going to the store without knowing what I'm cooking.
I shop at a discount grocer, but never a bulk store (I always spend more there).
I try to make sure we eat what we have before I buy more. Sometimes it's hard, and the kids complain, but it's such a waste to go buy more groceries when you have food in your pantry or freezer.
I always buy the sale meat -- almost never expensive cuts unless they are really cheap. Also, don't be afraid to try generics. I'm rarely disappointed. And many big grocers offer a guarantee on their store brand. Giant Eagle offers double your money back if you don't like their brand. And I've taken them up on it.
I usually spend $500-600 a month for the 4 of us. That includes any cleaning supplies, toiletries, dog food, wipes, candles, etc...
Thanks to everyone for your feedback! From what you all have said and what I am reading on other sources, I'm beginning to think that maybe I should be budgeting just a little more than I am. Really, I suspect our key needs to also be cutting down on meals from out -- that's a real issue with us (I always, however, have one meal out planned per week. But, it always ends up being another time or two -- sometimes that's for lunch -- in there as well.)
Angie,
I love eating out too. I solved that with the cash system. I put the week's cash for food in the envelope, and if there's money left over, then we eat out. It's an incentive to shop the deals, or go ahead and soak some beans instead of buying canned, or whatever.
Our food budget is our FOOD (and Household) budget - I don't have a separate restaurant budget.
The amount of cash (and my planning!) determines whether we get some cookies from McD's, a brunch at Shoneys, or whatever.
It also gives a clear tradeoff - if I buy Starbucks Cinnamon Coffee instead of Folger's in a can, then I won't be ordering dessert when we do eat out. If we splurge on a homecooked seafood dinner, than eating out might be Perkins on Kids Eat Free Night (Tuesday and Sundays!).
I have a hard time budgeting myself; but have recently learned from watching the food channel that when you cook Chinese, Koren, or Japanese food you can use the left overs as part of another meal the next day. Which is awesome because nothing goes to waste. Everything ends up as a Won Ton soup or other soups. Haven't tried it yet, but as soon as I get the tax rebate I'll be trying it. Should be cheap and delicious.
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