Please Talk about Food Budgets with Me

[TheAutumnOak]

I have been looking at how much money we spend on food for our family of 5...I know this has been talked about on the Hive, but I can't find any of the old posts and really need realistic advice...

 

After looking back through our expenses, I discovered that we have been spending about $350 a week on food ($1400 a month)...We really need to budget better, as my boys medical expenses are increasing...I have a son with epilepsy, and another who has breathing problems at times and has already spent time in the hospital twice during 2014...My boys also play baseball, and I would hate to have to stop them because we can't afford it...I don't know if I need to realize that that is just the cost of feeding a family, or if we can make it spending less...

 

What I want to know is if it is realistically possible to spend much less than that a month?...$1000 would be ideal, but I don't know if I can cut $100 a week out of the food budget...

 

So tell me, is $1000 a month possible or not?...I know it will vary by family, but I would love to hear from people who make it happen, or realize that would never work for them...It is helps to know, we have 3 boys, ages 14, 10, and 8, my husband and myself...All are homeschooled, so the boys and I are home during the day...

 

Thank you to anyone who answers...I appreciate your advice...

[bolt.]

I fit easily within that budget, but I live in Canada, and my DH and I only have two small girls. The cost of food varies massively by location.

 

I think you will have better luck by asking how to spend less than you already do, based on consuming less, or consuming more economical foods. But, of course, to do that, we'd need to know what kinds of food (and other consumables) you already buy -- so that we can assess what you can live without.

 

You can live without pop, juice, gatorade, koolaide, pretzels, crackers, cookies, candy, granola bars and chips.

You can live entirely without paper towels (if you invest in 2 dozen cheap washcloths) and kleenex (if you creatively use toilet paper as 'mini kleenex').

You can live on cheaper cuts of meat, and smaller portions of meat-per-meal.

You can live on considerably more rice, barley, oats, potatoes and home made wheat flour items (breads, rolls, muffins, loafs).

You can live with a lot more beans, lentils, eggs, soups, and stews (from scratch).

You can do without organics in everything.

You can buy the cheap margarine/butter and cooking oil options.

You can do without nuts.

You can buy more veggies and fruits from the frozen section.

You can use the cheapest hair and body products, and probably a lot fewer of them.

You can re-think your use of vitamins and supplements.

 

How many of those things do you already do? Probably plenty of them. (I'm certainly not doing all of them!) The only good type of budgeting tip is the type that you aren't already doing -- hopefully you will get some.

[J-rap]

It is possible.   You may have to adjust your eating habits, but honestly, I think that's a good thing for kids to learn.  Fifteen years ago, our budget was $50/week for a family of seven, NOT including milk and juice (we got those from our milkman), nor ANYthing else (cleaning products, etc.).  Of course inflation would change that amount.  It was not easy, but we could do it, and we felt completely satisfied.  We bought mostly legumes, cheese, eggs, milk, veggies, and other basics for baking.  We ate a lot of legume (vegetarian) dishes, but actually, there's so much you can do with legumes.  We didn't miss meat, although we would still allow ourselves to have it once or twice a week.  We made our own bread.

 

Since we've been off that budget, our food expenses have increased drastically, just because they can.

 

 

[TheAutumnOak]

I fit easily within that budget, but I live in Canada, and my DH and I only have two small girls. The cost of food varies massively by location.

 

I think you will have better luck by asking how to spend less than you already do, based on consuming less, or consuming more economical foods. But, of course, to do that, we'd need to know what kinds of food (and other consumables) you already buy -- so that we can assess what you can live without.

 

You can live without pop, juice, gatorade, koolaide, pretzels, crackers, cookies, candy, granola bars and chips.

You can live entirely without paper towels (if you invest in 2 dozen cheap washcloths) and kleenex (if you creatively use toilet paper as 'mini kleenex').

You can live on cheaper cuts of meat, and smaller portions of meat-per-meal.

You can live on considerably more rice, barley, oats, potatoes and home made wheat flour items (breads, rolls, muffins, loafs).

You can live with a lot more beans, lentils, eggs, soups, and stews (from scratch).

You can do without organics in everything.

You can buy the cheap margarine/butter and cooking oil options.

You can do without nuts.

You can buy more veggies and fruits from the frozen section.

You can use the cheapest hair and body products, and probably a lot fewer of them.

You can re-think your use of vitamins and supplements.

 

How many of those things do you already do? Probably plenty of them. (I'm certainly not doing all of them!) The only good type of budgeting tip is the type that you aren't already doing -- hopefully you will get some.

 

We drink a lot of juice and tea...We buy paper towels and mostly organic foods...I usually shop at Whole Foods, BJs and Wegmans, and I go to a health food store for bread...I buy raw milk in the next state over (it is illegal here), so it costs us $4 for half a gallon...We also get take out sometimes and eat pizza a couple of times a month...I buy a mix of fresh and frozen veggies...

 

[Ottakee]

I feed a family of 5-6 on $125/week plus the $600/year we spend on bulk beef.  That includes paper products and dog food but does not include any going out to eat.

 

Prices though vary GREATLY from area to area.  I am in the midwest and prices are quite cheap here.  I shop Aldi a great deal and Walmart for almost everything else.  I know I can get better prices on x or z if I clipped coupons and shopped certain stores on certain days and/or used their store dealy thing (card you scan, code you type in, etc) but honestly, I just want the basic price every day on every item so I dont' have to think about it.

 

We buy mostly generic/store brands and am happy with that for almost everything.

We eat a lot of skinless, boneless frozen chicken breasts and then our 1/4 cow we buy.  I don't buy a lot of other meats-occ. some fish or shrimp or ham but not often.

I buy frozen veggies and stock up when the store has them on the endcap for 50 cents a bag (new package design was coming out).

I often use 1/2 as much meat as a casserole/soup/stew recipe calls for.

I use my crock pot a LOT.

We do eat snack foods but I don't buy a lot of it and the generic/store brands.

I buy the $1 bags of cereal that Walmart has in the aisles........but I don't buy boxes of cereal at $4/box

We only go through 1 gallon of milk a week so that is a lot less than most families

 

 

[Ali in OR]

I keep track of grocery expenses (including Farmer's Market and U-pick berries in summer) and for $2014 we averaged $836 per month, though the second half of the year averaged $864. I budgeted $875 for this year but won't be surprised if we hit $900. But we have girls instead of boys and I think they would all be classified as relatively light eaters. We stay away from most processed foods for health reasons but don't buy organic. The very expensive raw milk would be very easy for me to drop, but you may have health or other reasons why that would be one you want to keep. For me, I would look at shopping at Whole Foods less--I don't know the other chains you mention at all. Even if you can't hit the $1000 mark, just dropping it to $1200 would make a significant difference.

[SparklyUnicorn]

We drink a lot of juice and tea...We buy paper towels and mostly organic foods...I usually shop at Whole Foods, BJs and Wegmans, and I go to a health food store for bread...I buy raw milk in the next state over (it is illegal here), so it costs us $4 for half a gallon...We also get take out sometimes and eat pizza a couple of times a month...I buy a mix of fresh and frozen veggies...

 

 

Well, I think this here is why you are spending what you are spending.  I'm spending probably around $225 per week for a family of 4 (this includes pet food, cat litter, toiletries, etc.).  But I don't shop at places like Whole Foods.  I don't buy all organic.  I do buy plenty of meat (I eat lower carb), but I shop sales and buy the standard supermarket meat.  One of my kids eats like a bird.  I don't buy beverages except for a rare treat.  I buy some of my staples from Aldi (eggs, milk, coffee, cheese, nuts, butter, etc.).  I do buy some snacks, but at Aldi where it's half the price or whatever is on sale. 

 

If I shopped at the places you shop, I know I'd be spending probably $300 a week. 

[Runningmom80]

We are a family of 5, one with multiple food allergies. We are at 1,000 - 1,200 a month, in a low COL area.

 

The best advice I've gotten to lower a grocery bill is to do it gradually. Don't try to chop all 400 off the first month, you're more likely to have a hard time and the change won't last. What I did to get our groceries down was cut it down $100 a month. My goal now is steady at 1,000, but as you can see from above, I don't always stay on it.

[regentrude]

We drink a lot of juice and tea...We buy paper towels and mostly organic foods...I usually shop at Whole Foods, BJs and Wegmans, and I go to a health food store for bread...I buy raw milk in the next state over (it is illegal here), so it costs us $4 for half a gallon.

 

 

This sums up the reasons for your high grocery costs. Whole Foods and health food stores are really expensive.

The people who manage on a much smaller budget don't shop there.

 

[Ottakee]

Another thing we do is just buy mostly the basic store brand cheeses.........chunks of colby or mild cheddar and shredded moz, taco cheese, etc.  We don't buy fancy cheeses, or deli ones, etc.  Yes, I know the other ones might taste a bit better but not enough to justify the cost most of the time.

 

Occ. when we are in Shipshewana we go to an Amish bulk grocery store and get fancy cheese there for under $3/pound.

[happypamama]

I spend less than that to feed seven people, so your costs seem high to me, but I don't buy paper towels, and I rarely buy organic.

[Laura Corin]

This sums up the reasons for your high grocery budget. Whole Foods and health food stores are expensive.

The people who manage on a much smaller budget don't shop at these locations.

 

 

Yes.  If you have an Aldi nearby, I recommend having a look.  When we were pushed for cash, I bought almost everything there.  These days, I buy there the things that they do really well and just top up at a more expensive shop.

 

FWIW, I spend about £5 per person per day, including all supermarket goods.  That's about USD 7.50, so for five would be about USD1,100 per month.  From what I read here, most food is more expensive in the UK.  We tend to eat less expensive forms of protein about half the time (lentils, beans, chicken liver...) and I rarely buy meat that is not on special offer.  

 

I do buy paper towels, but only use them for really yucky tasks (cleaning out the bin, or wiping around the toilet bowl).  For everything else, I use washable cloths.

[SparklyUnicorn]

We recently got a Whole Foods in the area.  I went to look around out of curiosity.  The prices bowled me over.  If I insisted on shopping there, something else would have to give.  I'd have to cut out cable and violin lessons or something.  Not dissing you for shopping there and if it is important to you it is important to you, but yeah the prices are probably close to double on a lot of items compared with regular grocery stores.  I think under the circumstances your bill isn't shocking at all. 

[mellifera33]

Do you have a Trader Joe's nearby? Just switching from WF to TJ would probably save you a significant amount of cash.

[SamanthaCarter]

It's possible. Kroger has quite a few choices in organics now that might help keep you out of Whole Foods. And maybe making your own bread will keep you out of the health food store? Your raw milk is a pretty good price and since you are driving across state lines to get it, I get that it is important to you to keep. Less meat, cheaper cuts. More consistent rotation (I use a two week meal rotation) so that you consistently use the same ingredients Then you can take advantage of sales for those ingredients and know that you are going to use them up. Taking advantage of sales for things you don't ordinarily buy doesn't really make much positive impact on your grocery bill. Same with coupons. 

[wendyroo]

I'm in the mid-west, and I average about $200 a week (including cleaning products, toiletries, night time diapers for two kids and over the counter medications).  I have a price book (actually spreadsheet) so I can easily compare how much things cost at different stores.  On an average week I will do the bulk of my shopping at Aldi and then stop at either Sam's (we have a free membership) or Meijer to get anything else I need.  I also use Amazon Subscribe and Save for some things; I find it to be very hit and miss - some things are good deals if I reach the 15% off rate and other things are outrageously more expensive than at any local grocery store.

 

We eat a lot of meat around here, but but not much beef other than hamburger.  We eat a ton of produce (75% fresh, 25% frozen) - never organic.  We only drink water.  We do not buy paper products.  Our most common snack foods are popcorn (popped at home) and fairly inexpensive tortilla chips.  The fact that allergies force us to eat gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free and food dye-free, actually helps with the food budget because there are very few convenience foods or snacks or store bought treats that we can indulge in.  A couple years ago we invested in an extra freezer for the garage which allows me to take advantage of store sales and buy, cook and freeze 3 turkeys at Thanksgiving and 3 hams at Easter, etc. 

 

Wendy

[Chris in VA]

Do you buy all organic fruit and veg? You can buy regular of the Clean 15.

[EmseB]

We drink a lot of juice and tea...We buy paper towels and mostly organic foods...I usually shop at Whole Foods, BJs and Wegmans, and I go to a health food store for bread...I buy raw milk in the next state over (it is illegal here), so it costs us $4 for half a gallon...We also get take out sometimes and eat pizza a couple of times a month...I buy a mix of fresh and frozen veggies...

 

Just for perspective, I only shop at WF for specialty items (one kid who can't have dairy, eggs, or nuts) because it is at least 25% more expensive than any other grocery store (probably clise to 50% more on most things), we all pretty much drink milk or water unless it's for a treat (juice is basically sugar water anyway), you're paying almost double what I do for milk, and probably double on bread.

 

If it's important to you to buy organic, you can even do that at regular grocery stores cheaper than the places you're shopping at currently. All the stores you listed have the highest prices in our area.

[TheAutumnOak]

It's possible. Kroger has quite a few choices in organics now that might help keep you out of Whole Foods. And maybe making your own bread will keep you out of the health food store? Your raw milk is a pretty good price and since you are driving across state lines to get it, I get that it is important to you to keep. Less meat, cheaper cuts. More consistent rotation (I use a two week meal rotation) so that you consistently use the same ingredients Then you can take advantage of sales for those ingredients and know that you are going to use them up. Taking advantage of sales for things you don't ordinarily buy doesn't really make much positive impact on your grocery bill. Same with coupons. 

 

Yes, that one is important to keep...My husband who loves milk is lactose intolerant, but he can drink raw milk without a problem...

 

I would be willing to buy less organic and shop around for better prices...Even cutting out juice, or just having it either with dinner or breakfast only...

 

Thank you everyone...I am starting to feel like we can cut costs...I wasn't sure if my goals were reasonable or not...

 

My teenage son does eat a lot though :sad: ...All three of my boys eat more than I do, even the 8 year old...

[Sandragood1]

Well, I shop the same stores you do OP, and I tobably spend a bit less. I prefer organic but will only insist on it for the Dirty Dozen. I shop Costco for fresh fruits and veggies and frozen fish. I hit Wegmans for my other groceries except beef (bought bulk from a friend) and raw dairy from a farmer. Whole Foods is a once per month trip for items unavailable elsewhere (only 1 or 2 things). Trader Joes for relatively healthful prepared frozen foods.

 

You will have to lower your requirements for organics probably to save money. You might look for a natural foods buying club. Cook from scratch most of the time if you don't already. Make sure nothing goes to waste. Freeze leftovers and make soup. Buy only whole chickens and use the bones to make broth.

 

Start a vegatable garden but only grow things your family eats. Especially expensive things.

 

Are you in No Va? Just wondering.

[TheAutumnOak]

Do you buy all organic fruit and veg? You can buy regular of the Clean 15.

 

What is the Clean 15?...I would gladly buy them non organic ;)

[mamaraby]

I just spent $138 yesterday for a week of groceries for my family of five. We don't eat meat or dairy and I don't buy organics on purpose. Sometimes I need something in particular and it's only available in organic, but that's the exception to the rule. I still buy paper towel, napkins, and a few treats every now and again. We don't do chips, crackers, store bought cookies, and if we buy cereal it's the whole grain, no sugar added, plain variety.

 

Hands down, the number one thing that saved my food budget was going vegan. And before anyone chimes in to say that they could never... Just cutting down on the amount of animal products you eat can save quite a bit of money. Meatless Monday is a good way to start.

 

If it were me, I'd drop the raw milk and skip the organics. Cutting down on the number of places you shop saves gas, too.

[TheAutumnOak]

Well, I shop the same stores you do OP, and I tobably spend a bit less. I prefer organic but will only insist on it for the Dirty Dozen. I shop Costco for fresh fruits and veggies and frozen fish. I hit Wegmans for my other groceries except beef (bought bulk from a friend) and raw dairy from a farmer. Whole Foods is a once per month trip for items unavailable elsewhere (only 1 or 2 things). Trader Joes for relatively healthful prepared frozen foods.

 

You will have to lower your requirements for organics probably to save money. You might look for a natural foods buying club. Cook from scratch most of the time if you don't already. Make sure nothing goes to waste. Freeze leftovers and make soup. Buy only whole chickens and use the bones to make broth.

 

Start a vegatable garden but only grow things your family eats. Especially expensive things.

 

Are you in No Va? Just wondering.

 

I am in New Jersey...

 

What is the Dirty Dozen?

 

[SamanthaCarter]

Clean Fifteen/Dirty Dozen http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/

[Tsuga]

We have a family of six. One is a teen girl, mostly done growing, one is a boy about to hit puberty, and two smaller children who eat unpredictably but don't eat much meat yet.

 

We love food and work very hard to eat as healthy and whole as possible. Working outside the home and kids in public school means that we do buy snacks. We probably spend about $1100 a month on food not including eating out which we do at times--that adds up ridiculous amounts.

 

We do the following:

 

1. Whole Foods buys from almost all the same farmers as Safeway. It's just marketing in the vast majority of cases. I shop at Safeway or Kroger's. Whole Foods is just ridiculous. I don't get it. No offense, but they were late to the health-food game, and yet... somehow... they seem to have convinced people they have healthier food although it's exactly the same food in most cases. 

 

2. No pop, juice, or flavored drinks.

 

3. Frozen veggies, fish, and meat.

 

4. Costco.

 

5. Vegetable soup or lentil soup twice per week for dinner.

 

6. One night is leftover night to prevent waste.

 

7. Buying prepared foods saves us on eating out BUT costs way more than preparing our own food.

 

8. Store-brand organics at Krogers and Safeway, woot woot. Many organic farmers sell to Organic Valley AND store-brands! You know it's not like farmers have brands. It all mixes. Nix the brand names whenever possible. It's a waste of money. You're literally paying them to advertise to you. Pay attention to who does the organic certification, NOT the brand.

 

We could save a lot more eating less meat. We probably should. I've been trying to do veggie at least three nights a week. We also need to eat out / buy pre-made less but with four kids in music and sports, something's gotta give. And we make dinner a good 5 nights a week! That is a lot for two working parents.

 

[TammyS]

I haven't read the thread, but I can tell you that I spend about $500 per month on groceries (which is loosely defined as anything I can buy at Walmart, so dog food, shampoo, etc is included in that). We have a 16 year old boy, a 4 year old boy, and me and dh.

 

What I don't buy: drinks (other than 1 cup of coffee per day and milk for the kids), hardly any beef, many cleaning products (just soap, water, and rags does it for most things), any fancy shampoos or soaps or whatever (we use basic stuff: dial, suave shampoo, etc), snack foods (we snack on fruit or bread and butter, mostly).  I guess what I'm getting at is that most of my savings is in what I simply don't buy.

 

Some things that I do to save money:

 

When meat goes on sale around holidays I buy lots.  I bought 6 turkeys and hams at Thanksgiving.  We can easily eat 1 every other month without getting sick of it. 

 

When I buy meat, I almost always buy bone-in and make soup from the bones/carcass. 

 

I add beans to lots of things to stretch the meat (so chicken enchiladas get black beans, taco meats gets black beans, chicken soup gets white beans, etc).

 

Ribs, pork loin, steaks, etc I don't buy. 

 

I don't buy lunch meat.  If we want meat sandwiches I buy meat and cook it.

 

I get my bread at the Entenmann's outlet nearby ($3/loaf at Walmart is 3 for $4 at the outlet). 

 

I don't buy cold cereal.  Breakfast is either oatmeal (rolled oats, not instant) or sausage/egg on an english muffin.  This doesn't appear like a savings at first, but my two boys can eat a $5 box of cold cereal just for entertainment, and then want breakfast.

 

For us, really, it's just about not buying much in the way of premade of good cuts, hardly ever.  It does take more time in the kitchen (though not as much as you'd think if you are willing to keep your meals simple), but time I have and money I don't.

 

Also, I keep emergency meals on hand (frozen pizza or a doubled recipe in the freezer) to avoid "dinner just blew up in my face/I'm exhausted/I'm sick" trips to the fast food places, which are a HUGE money suck if you let them be.

[MEmama]

Actually, I have always found that Whole Foods has very competitive pricing if you shop like-for-like items and don't get sucked into all the pretty things. :). Plus the quality is so, so much higher there really is no comparison.

 

The coffee I buy there is $6.99/lb. It is organic and fair trade. An equivalent coffee (but not as fresh and lower quality) at my local natural foods market is $11.99/lb.

 

I recently bought baby bok choy for $1.99/lb, vs $4.99 at my local Hannaford.

 

They regularly offer fantastic prices on fresh produce that my local stores don't carry (lacinato kale, for example). I buy a bunch and freeze it when it's on sale.

 

The soap I buy is $1.00 cheaper there than elsewhere.

 

The milk I buy there is a couple dollars less than the equivalent elsewhere.

 

The house tortillas are so yummy and have only a few ingredients. Looking at the lengthy list on the back of a tortilla package from Hannaford guarantees I won't buy them there. Plus, they are 2$ cheaper at WF. Same goes for any bread product, really, unless it's locally made.

 

And as much as I also like Trader Joes, they aren't really comparible. TJ's is mostly packaged stuff (yummy, but packaged) and offers far less fresh. Still, there are things like their fire roasted frozen peppers that I will stock up on because they are super handy and less $ than buying peppers fresh in any season (here, where they barely grow).

 

I know thus doesn't help the OP, but I'm not sure that it's fair to assume she's paying more at WF than wherever else she has available.

 

That said, I'm listening in on the conversation. Always looking for ways to have to shop less frequently and save where I can.

[Truscifi]

i would pick one thing to change at a time, and start with giving up juice. It's not really great for you anyway. Once everyone has adjusted to that, maybe make a take out/pizza budget of less than you spend now, perhaps once a month. Once everyone has adjusted to that....

 

In the meantime, shop around to find better prices than WF.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I spend $550- $600 per month for food. I have started ordering my sundries (paper towels, TP, cleaning supplies) from Walmart, (there are no bulk type stores near enough) that's an additional $50-$75 per month.  I get them delivered to cut down on impulse buys while in the store. 

 

I try to buy organic for the "dirty dozen", I shop at Aldi's, Meijer, and Kroger (all 3 are 45 minutes away!)1-2X per month and I'll pick up stuff at our local grocery/Walmart store otherwise(sadly lacking in choice/quality).  I have a family of 4 with DS 13, DD 11, and myself at home 24/7.  We try to eat out only 1X per month and at home we eat a lot of chicken. I cook 90% of our meals from "scratch"  and I try to make a weekly/monthly plan based on sales.  We always have meat but rarely as a main course and I include 2 vegetables at dinner(because there is no vegetable that everyone eats). 

 

IMO you could easily feed your family on $1000 per month but you'd have to cut back on the Whole Foods shopping, raw milk/ everything organic.  I mean $350 for a weeks food from WF/health Food store is actually low in my experience.

 

I would try to stay in a budget of $5-$7 for b-fast (eggs, fruit, grains, yogurt etc....)

$7- $10 for lunch (sandwiches, soups, veggies with dressing, fruit, LEFTOVERS)

and $10-$13/15 for dinner (casseroles, tacos, soups, stews, veggies, grains, fruit)

that's about $22- $30 per day for $150-$200 per week. Fill out the remaining $50 -$100 with stuff you can stock up on and snacks/quick easy meals for when you don't feel like cooking and paper products.

[Ottakee]

Certainly check out Aldi if you have one semi near you.  They do offer a lot of organics and they have some higher end cheeses, chocolates, etc. that are quite reasonable.  Almost everything is their own private brand.  Prices on the few name brand things they do have can be higher than other stores, but can also be much lower---so watch that closely.

[SparklyUnicorn]

The coffee I buy there is $6.99/lb. It is organic and fair trade. An equivalent coffee (but not as fresh and lower quality) at my local natural foods market is $11.99/lb.

 

 

I don't buy fair trade organic coffee, but to put things into perspective, if I bought coffee at that price at the rate I drink it I'd spend approximately $364 a year verses the $143 I approximately spend.  If I were looking to save money, that would save me right off the bat making that one change.

 

I realize the coffee I buy is not comparable.  Not suggesting that.  And to each their own what they decide to spend money on or not.  The regular grocery store I go to doesn't even have organic free trade coffee.

[DawnM]

I *can* cut it down $600/mo including toiletries for a family of 5.  It isn't the way I like to eat (we like salmon and steak), but we can do it.

 

We buy 90% of our groceries at Costco and if I am not watching the budget, I spend about $800-$900/mo.  

 

I really need to cut it back to $600 for a few months and catch up with some budget stuff.  I can do that partly with a pantry eating challenge as our pantry is quite full.

 

We don't buy all organics though.  And we do eat what I consider to be healthy, but will have tortilla chips and sometimes potato chips.  And we do eat boxed pasta some.

 

 

[momto10blessings]

I spend about $250/week for a family of 12, so it is possible.

[Artichoke]

About the milk -- if your WF carries local milk from a local dairy, your husband might be able to tolerate it. We've had to stop getting raw milk but the local dairy milk is from grassfed cows, and my dh is able to tolerate it. It's still pricey, though. Dh has also started to drink almond milk which is less expensive in place of cow's milk.

 

Making your own pizza isn't difficult and is much cheaper than take-out pizza. We use leftover vegetables at the end of the week for our veggie pizza. It also saves to buy mozzarella cheese in bulk at Costco. Leftover meats and veggies are also wonderful in fried rice.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Edited: All of my ideas were posted while I was typing. LOL So I deleted to avoid repetition and eyes glazing over. Yes, you can lower your budget and still feed your family healthfully. It's a matter of math and choice.

[abacus2]

With three boys including a teenager, your food bill will be pretty high. That said, you can save money. Consider getting meat in bulk. Buy a half cow or join a meat CSA.  I can buy grass-fed beef as a portion of a cow for about $5 a lb, but this includes the more expensive roast and steak cuts.

 

Price your common meals and common snacks to find your less expensive options. You might discover that some of your meals cost three times as much as others. Fix more less expensive meals and/or make fewer portions of an expensive main dish and fill in with inexpensive sides.

[JennyD]

Actually, I have always found that Whole Foods has very competitive pricing if you shop like-for-like items and don't get sucked into all the pretty things. :). 

I know thus doesn't help the OP, but I'm not sure that it's fair to assume she's paying more at WF than wherever else she has available.

 

That said, I'm listening in on the conversation. Always looking for ways to have to shop less frequently and save where I can.

 

 

Last year I did a detailed cost comparison of the prices at various local food stores, and I was flabbergasted to discover that Whole Foods' pricing for -- as the pp said--  like-to-like  items was essentially the same as non-sale pricing everywhere else nearby.   Also, Costco turned out to be not especially cost-effective across the board, although it's great for some specific things.  

 

We're not especially frugal, but I can definitely recommend the cost comparison exercise.  It very quickly became clear to me that to reduce our grocery budget, I needed to focus primarily on *what* I was buying rather than *where* I was buying it.  As others have mentioned, cutting back on meat is perhaps the easiest way to bring down the bill.   

 

[JennyD]

 Consider getting meat in bulk. Buy a half cow or join a meat CSA.  I can buy grass-fed beef as a portion of a cow for about $5 a lb, but this includes the more expensive roast and steak cuts.

 

 

 

Not to take the focus from the OP, but I think about doing this every year.  But I am worried about (1) power outages; and (2) that we would wind up eating more meat simply because it's already in the freezer.   Just like I am convinced that we use more paper towels because my husband insists on buying the big packages at Costco.  

 

Do you worry about power outages, or do you have a generator or something like that?

 

[Katy]

Well if your goal is to eat organic, and raw milk, etc, it's going to be tricky.

 

The classic advice to make meals cheaper is to add healthy starches, especially ones high in fiber, so everyone is satisfied with less food.  It also helps to add a soup and dessert course to every meal, because you can serve smaller quantities of pricier items like meat and dairy, and everyone will still be satisfied.   It can be both cheaper AND healthier, but to be honest it's going to add a few hours to your daily cooking unless you want to cook marathons on the weekends.

 

You start with a bone broth base.  You can buy soup bones or you can do the traditional way and save the leftover bones from dinner and things like veggie peels, veggies going off, onion skins, etc, in a bin in your freezer.   When you need broth, you brown the bones in the oven, then dump them in the crock pot with a little vinegar, a lot of water, and some veggies- onions, carrots, celery, any peelings you have from your bin, some salt, some spices like parsley or bay leaf if you wish.  Set on low overnight.  Come back in the morning and strain all the fat off.  Strain out the broth from the veggies and bones.  Some people here reuse the bones several times until they're very soft.  Use this broth as a base for cooking and soups.  Limit your consumption of it to about a cup per day because it's VERY high in calcium and magnesium.  Learn soup recipes.  Make a pot of whichever kind you want using your broth.  Make two pots and freeze half.  Do this repeatedly and fill your freezer with soup.  Learn to can with a pressure canner if that would be easier for you.

 

For your main courses, whatever it is, find a way to include half a cup of beans in every meal.  This could be in the soup, cold or pickled beans on a salad, a side dish, or blended up and used in the brownies for dessert, but they are cheap, they are full of fiber and phytonutrients, and they will fill your family up for very little money.

 

Also find a way of including a potato in every meal. Starchy, yes, but also the very best source of potassium.

 

Add a main dish - meatloaf perhaps, and another starchy vegetable - carrots, peas, squash, corn.

 

Have some homemade bread with every meal too.  It's time consuming but delicious and cheap unless you need to eat gluten free.

 

And then a dessert.  With boys I'd probably do something baked.  A simple example is a sprite cake- where you take a bag of frozen fruits, a cake mix (you can make these from scratch to save money and put them in mason jars in advance), and mix it up with a diet sprite.  You can also make cakes, brownies (from cocoa not chocolate), applesauce, or even a fruit salad, or go 1950's and put fruit in jello.

 

Anyway, not many superfoods in there, but plenty of nutrition for not much money.  It helps a lot to plan meals in advance so you're never at a loss for what to do. If you want to go that way I'd plan out at least two weeks at a time, do all the shopping and as much of the cooking as possible in advance (or at least pre mix the ingredients together so it's as simple as a mix), and promise yourself to stick to it for at least two weeks so you can see if it's something you can realistically stick to or not. 

 

IME, boys really like 1950's style multi-course dinners.

[Katy]

Not to take the focus from the OP, but I think about doing this every year.  But I am worried about (1) power outages; and (2) that we would wind up eating more meat simply because it's already in the freezer.   Just like I am convinced that we use more paper towels because my husband insists on buying the big packages at Costco.  

 

Do you worry about power outages, or do you have a generator or something like that?

 

We do this.  We have a freezer alarm that we got from Amazon. We have had a power outage but it only lasted 5 hours, and the deep freeze is kept so cold that nothing got above freezing in that time.

 

Since then DH figured out a way to use a trickle charger to keep an old car battery charged.  He can hook the freezer up to an inverter connected to that battery if we have a whole day long power outage.

 

Otherwise we'd be calling everyone we know and giving them beef.

[FaithManor]

Some thoughts with three teenage sons, BTDT and got the t-shirt! LOL

 

NO juice. Water is healthier anyway. They can have a glass or two of milk per day, but we don't buy juice except at the holidays.

 

Meat is used in smaller sizes and beans become the greater share of the protein along with cheese.

 

Do not buy expensive cheeses. Mozzarella for homemade pizzas and spaghetti topping, cheddar cheese for tacos, sliced co-jack for sandwiches. Maybe some parmesan.

 

I do insist on real butter because of the trans-fats in margarines.

 

Seconds of vegetables and salad or potatoes at meals, not meat. The meat dish will not have seconds or everyone unless it is heavy on beans.

 

I fed the family the other day on just two chicken breasts plus a quart of chicken broth, packet of taco seasoning, finely diced veggies, and 2 cups of rice all tossed into the crock pot, stirred, and allowed to cook on low until the chicken was shredded and tender. They topped with a small dollop of sour cream and loved it. Lots of veggies, lots of rice, reasonable amount of meat.

 

I feed them this way a lot. Unfortunately, teen boys are like a flock of wild vultures on road kill. Give them a roasting chicken, and it will be picked clean in seconds! LOL...so I only RARELY do something like roast chicken, roast beef, etc. What I do get a fair amount of mileage out of is a nice turkey breast when it goes on sale. I get the largest one I can, slow cook it, shred it, and fill quart size baggies for the freezer, and I also freeze the broth for gravy. One quart bag made into meat and gravy served over a large serving of mashed potatoes along with salads or a couple of simple cooked veggies really sticks to their ribs.

 

Breakfasts always include eggs because they are cheap, and if the boys start the day with protein they do better about not ravaging the cupboards for food all day long. A favorite that works well is sauted veggies and cubed potatoes cooked to tender, add eggs and scramble, fill a tortilla, and put a little sprinkle of cheddar cheese plus a small dollop of sour cream, and then have toast and a piece of cheap fruit on the side. I try to buy whatever is in season fruit wise so they eat a lot of apples in the fall, citrus in the winter, berries and melons in the summer.

 

I do not make desserts so keep very few baking items in the house. Not baking has actually saved money. We do not eat a lot of bread. Have some around for sandwiches sometimes, but do a lot more with chef salads.

 

I buy cheap paper towels for quick clean up, but paper plates and the like are no nos, and the boys chip in doing dishes.

 

Beans, lentils, potatoes, and rice as the basis of healthy casseroles, with lots of veggies which are much cheaper, and meat in small amounts goes a long way and help the grocery bill out a lot. Frozen veggies are cheap, even organic ones can be reasonably priced, and these tend to be picked more ripe than the ones shipped fresh to the store. But, if you see a big sale say on really nice heads of organic broccoli or something, instead of buying just one, get four of five, chop up and freeze so that you can take advantage of the savings in the future.

 

Snacks are nearly always veggies, fruits, low priced nuts (we don't have allergies here), and homemade granola...about the only baked item I make. I don't make it in bars. It's a crumbly one with some chocolate chips but very low in any kind of sweetener. They love it and eat it like cereal. It really fills up their hungry bellies.

 

When all else fails, hope grandma invites them over for her big endless pot of spaghetti some night! :D

 

[regentrude]

and homemade granola...about the only baked item I make. I don't make it in bars. It's a crumbly one with some chocolate chips but very low in any kind of sweetener. They love it and eat it like cereal. It really fills up their hungry bellies.

 

 

Would you please share your recipe?

[Runningmom80]

We recently got a Whole Foods in the area.  I went to look around out of curiosity.  The prices bowled me over.  If I insisted on shopping there, something else would have to give.  I'd have to cut out cable and violin lessons or something.  Not dissing you for shopping there and if it is important to you it is important to you, but yeah the prices are probably close to double on a lot of items compared with regular grocery stores.  I think under the circumstances your bill isn't shocking at all. 

 

Our whole foods is definitely more expensive, but it's not anywhere near double the price.  Produce is expensive if you don't buy in season, but I find most of the in season stuff to be on par with other grocery stores. (Aldi's and Marc's not included.) A lot of the boxed crap is more expensive, but it's not healthy anyways.  The 365 brand beans, canned and frozen veggies, and pastas are either the same price or cheaper than our regular regional chain grocery stores.  Most of the meat is also more expensive, but it's higher quality. Their bulk stuff is cheap.

 

 

I stopped shopping at Whole foods for a few months to see if that's what was breaking my budget, and it wasn't.  I saved roughly $50 a month and that's mostly because I bought Trader Joe's wine instead of Whole Foods wine. :lol:

[skimomma]

 

 

 

We're not especially frugal, but I can definitely recommend the cost comparison exercise.  It very quickly became clear to me that to reduce our grocery budget, I needed to focus primarily on *what* I was buying rather than *where* I was buying it.  As others have mentioned, cutting back on meat is perhaps the easiest way to bring down the bill.   

 

 

This is so true!  We do not have a WF so I don't have any experience with them.  But I do buy raw milk and mostly organic everything else.  I am feeding three big eaters in a high-food-price area and our costs (including cleaning products and toiletries) is about $150/week.  If I extrapolated up to five big eaters, that would be about $1000/month.  So, it can be done even without cutting out organics using the suggestions already offered above.

[zoobie]

Not to take the focus from the OP, but I think about doing this every year. But I am worried about (1) power outages; and (2) that we would wind up eating more meat simply because it's already in the freezer. Just like I am convinced that we use more paper towels because my husband insists on buying the big packages at Costco.

 

Do you worry about power outages, or do you have a generator or something like that?

Check with your homeowners' insurance. Sometimes it is covered under the base policy, sometimes you can add a separate rider.

[JennyD]

Check with your homeowners' insurance. Sometimes it is covered under the base policy, sometimes you can add a separate rider.

 

 

That never would have occurred to me!  Great idea -- I'l check.  

[TammyS]

 

 

Do you worry about power outages, or do you have a generator or something like that?

 

If you keep your freezer full, it would take a long (days) power outage in hot temps before your stuff would be in danger.  A full freezer is essentially a block of ice (and you should always keep your freezer full, even if you have to add jugs of water when you take stuff out), so it doesn't thaw readily.  Think of the piles of snow that you see in parking lots still there for a looooong time after all of the other snow has melted away.  Same principle.

[TheAutumnOak]

If you keep your freezer full, it would take a long (days) power outage in hot temps before your stuff would be in danger.  A full freezer is essentially a block of ice (and you should always keep your freezer full, even if you have to add jugs of water when you take stuff out), so it doesn't thaw readily.  Think of the piles of snow that you see in parking lots still there for a looooong time after all of the other snow has melted away.  Same principle.

 

This makes a lot of sense...There is still piles of snow in parking lots even in July!...I need to grab some of that snow from outside and put it in the freezer! :laugh:

[KrissiK]

We have a family of 7, you can see the ages in my siggy. We average $700/month. I don't really have any advice. I grocery shop at Walmart and Costco. I make most of our food from scratch, except breakfasts.

[FO4UR]

Ditto to Aldi. I feed a family of 6 on 1000/mo.  When I don't make it to Aldi, our budget hurts.