Every time I've gone to the grocery lately, I lament about how the cost of food has gone up. I pay close attention to the cost of things and can usually rattle off the changes in costs for a pound of butter or can of tomato sauce over the past five years (I'm really fun to have at parties!).
I started looking back to see how much we're spending on groceries because it feels like a TON. Our quantities go up every few months since we've got some boys that eat, and eat, and eat (13 pancakes each, 11 muffins each, and don't even get me started on pizza!).
Bryan breaks our shopping trips down into different categories (food, household, clothing, crafting, etc.) The man is VERY detail-oriented. The only thing that goes into our "Grocery" category on Quicken, are non-taxable food items.
For the Nov. 2010 - Jan. 2011 shopping period, we spent $1225.88 on groceries. We shopped for a nine-week period, so it works out to $593.48 per month ($136.21 per week) to feed the 10 of us. That's not as bad as I thought!
Just to make myself feel good, I moseyed over to the USDA Food Plans. According to the government, on a "Thrifty Plan," I should be spending $1,324.62 per month on food for our family.
Kind of calls into question their budgeting and bargain-hunting ability. No wonder those numbers about the cost to raise a child seem so far from my reality.
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1 year ago
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WOW! I need to go shopping with you :)
ReplyDeleteMy costs are Way HIgher than yours!!! I probably spend more a month than you did for that 9 week period!!!! however, I do include paper products and health and beauty items in my budget along with food. I'm also feeding more adults. My 3 older sons (20, 18, 17) could bankrupt me in no time! ;) I also don't have access to aldi's where I live, and that used to save me tons of $$. I also think we eat a lot more protein than you. I always check out your menus, and they seem fairly carb-laden, which would NOT be good for me as I continue to try to reduce my weight. You are still Young -- but they may catch up with you eventually! Maybe you need to start a series detailing how you mangage to keep your costs so low -- I'd love to learn some tips from you! I do use coupons . . . . but I am pretty health conscious and refuse to buy things with certain ingredients, such as HFCS. I'm also trying to buy less and less processed foods -- so the coupons don't seem to help me as much as they do some people. anyway, thanks for sharing. I see that I have much room for improvement! :)
ReplyDeleteHi! I think I probably spend about what you do but I don't have quite as big a family at home. We have 4 teenagers at home all the time (and go through about 8 gallons of milk a week) and extended family a lot of the time! I really stock up when I can to make feeding other people fairly affordable!
ReplyDeleteI hope to see you at some 4H meetings soon! I hope you're doing ok with all this snow and ice!!
Blessings,
Beth
You amaze me. Do you eat much fresh produce? Do you make other, smaller, trips to the store for perishable items? I too, have noticed that you don't eat much meat in your menus. I wish I could convince Justin to try that sometimes! :cP
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