So, how much do you spend on food in a typical week? Total - groceries, eating out, treats, the vending machine, the whole shebang. And how many are in your family?
I'm wondering if my food expenses are growing too much...
And POLLY!!! I'd like to hear the most you would pay in weekly food costs back when you had mega kids at home - the height of it all, if you please.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
Food does seem to be getting more expensive. Milk has gone up, as has ice cream (the other staple dairy product )
I have heard that the drought coupled with the rising demand for biofuels has lessened the supply of corn available for feed. That is making meat and dairy products more expensive.
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I'm not voting for Ron Paul because it's not expressly prescribed in the Constitution.
That's going to be a hard number to figure out. I tend to lump non-food expenses like toiletries and diapers (and other non-food items that can be found at Walmart and other stores like that) in with groceries in my budget. Besides, I wanna know what your numbers are, Coco. And how much they've gone up in what length of time. Why? Just because.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
When all 5 kids were home my budget was $175 every 2 weeks and that was for everything:toilet paper, laundry soap, toothpaste, foil, etc and food. And yes I fed us all quite well. Everything was made from scratch and dh took leftovers for lunch. Now that there is only one kid left at home we're down to about $100 every 2 weeks. I shop a lot at Sam's club and I shop by the sale ads for the 2 other stores I like to shop at. Plus, since my big milk drinker and cheese eater has been out of the house for 8 yrs, I don't seem to go through as much milk and cheese which helps the budget.
Right now our grocery bill is about $150 a week, and I agree that food is MORE expensive than just a year ago... That feeds essentially 5 adults who all make lunches for work and school. We don't buy many convenience foods, we also take advantage of leftovers from dinner and little is wasted around here. I spend an additional $150 a month on food storage/staples, cause that is what we eat all the time, so rotation is part of our weekly usage. Beans and rice are big winners in our home. As long as we have beans, rice, cheese the stuff to make tortillas and salsa... no one starves around here. Son1 makes some GREAT Carne Asada, since his mission, which is one of the most expensive meals we eat. We also eat plenty of pastas, and salads.
Our all time high for groceries was about $260 a week, counting staple maintenance, about 4-5 years ago... That was when all the adopteds, who are mostly boys and many are approximately Son1's age were always around..., when most of them went on missions and the girls headed off to college, our grocery bill dropped to $100 a week. But again, kids around here have always eaten lots of beans, rice and pastas... popcorn was the main "snack"... I also remember going through a LOT of #10 cans of peanuts. We make our own jerky, have lots of local friends that have chickens so we get eggs pretty cheap and have for some years now... They baked cookies instead of buying them... etc. We limit milk consumption and often mix it with dry... until a couple years ago we never bought old cereal... we fed the kids what they lovingly call "gruel"...
the price of oil (shipping and farming both are oil based industries), and labor prices are rising... as politicians get more involved the price will only continue to soar.
--Ray
-- Edited by rayb at 13:19, 2007-08-25
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
We do probably between $100-150 a week. Close to $450 a month. That's including 2 kids' worth of diapers and all the other non-food stuff. Although the past few months have been a little out of control. I need to get back to planning menus...and stop shopping hungry. (Except I'm trying to lose weight, so I'm always hungry. )
We probably spend $100 to $150 per month too. At least I try to keep it at that. Sometimes I don't always manage that. I think if I become more diligent at planning menus that number might come down.
Actually, that's the amount we spend per WEEK. Hiccups pointed that little error out to me. Thought about leaving it like that to see if any of you would wonder if we really only spent that much per month. But, I thought NAH!
See, I'm starting to follow the plan of "If you have food, they will come" like I think Polly was saying about her kids and having their friends over... which is how I'd like to be. Keeping stocks of ice cream and chocolate milk for Magic Bullets is getting expensive!
At least our eggs are "free." Except the chicken feed...
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
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