Feed a Family of Four on $400 a month

[goldberry]

Family of 3, $600 per month, more if we are buying more fresh fruit/produce.  And, we are not big meat eaters, maybe once or twice a week.  

 

Admittedly, though, I buy what I want, and don't get overly picky about sales/etc.  

 

And YES! to the above question!  DH gets very active in the summer and starts becoming hungry all the time.  I have to buy far more "snack foods" such as granola bars, nuts, vegis for snacks, etc.

[Guest]

That is exactly what we do, because the processed meats are high in salt and sugar and very expensive for what you get. I buy hams and turkeys on sale during certain times of the year and stash them in our one freezer. Then I roast them and divide the meat into a few freezer bags, re freeze it, and defrost as needed for lunchmeat. It comes out closet to $1.50-2.25 per pound which we can manage much more easily.

I have done this, too. I don't do it all the time, but about half the time, i make a ham, roast beef or turkey breast and slice the meat as deli meat. Far more economical and avoids what is often an annoyingly time-consuming process at the store.

[gingersmom]

Yeah, I wonder about couponing, too. Too often it's stuff we don't buy or that is still cheaper in the no-name brand than the name brand with the coupon. I don't think any stores in my area double coupons either.

This past weekend I cut 17 coupons out of 4 circulars.

 

I am very brand specific about what I use (for example I only clip Colgate coupons or dawn dish washing soap).

 

I have not paid full price for dove soap ( we use liquid), toothpaste, dishwasher detergent, hand soap, dish soap, toothbrushes, dental floss or shampoo or razors, Tide Laundry detergent in years.

 

I also never pay full price for dog treats or cereal. Or spices.

 

Most toothpaste and shampoo I get at least 50% savings but tons of time we save 75% and their are times we have paid nearly nothing.

 

I'm not specific about razors I use for shaving. Last week at Wal Mart we got 12 ladies bic razors for 38 cents.

 

My store will double coupons up to $1.

[SparklyUnicorn]

That is exactly what we do, because the processed meats are high in salt and sugar and very expensive for what you get. I buy hams and turkeys on sale during certain times of the year and stash them in our one freezer. Then I roast them and divide the meat into a few freezer bags, re freeze it, and defrost as needed for lunchmeat. It comes out closet to $1.50-2.25 per pound which we can manage much more easily.

 

Do you have a meat slicer?  I really wish I had one.

[Tarreymere]

It can be done. We did it recently. It was not fun and I would not do it voluntarily. It helps that we are vegetarians who are not expecting meat and who are comfortable with beans, that we don't have food intolerances except to dairy, and that we live in an area where we could get some things in bulk. Mainly the menu was rice, rice and beans, and more rice. Yes, I know about how there is arsenic in rice. Rice is cheap in our area, so rice it was.

 

Most days we managed a little vegetables. I grow sprouts. I baked bread, tortillas, cornbread and flatbread. No drinks, no cereal, no snacks except of course rice. Lots of soup with beans and rice. You would be surprised what you can do with lentils. Lentils and leftover bread make a great not-meatloaf, and lentils fill in very nicely in most things for ground beef. 

 

We don't coupon. We don't buy actual brands of anything so no point. Baking soda serves for toothpaste and shampoo. The dollar store or the store that sells damaged groceries are still cheaper than any coupon deals around here. 

 

As soon as we had the chance we were at the store for fresh produce. And fruit. Like immediately. 

[Laura Corin]

 

You could roast your own meat and slice it yourself if you really are looking to save some money in that department. 

 

Yes - this is what I do.  It's better and cheaper.

 

I wonder about this. I've been typing in all our expenses since last year and I don't see any wiggle room in any other areas. Our bills are set. We don't have cable. We don't have a car payment. We don't buy clothes new (save socks and undies). We go out to eat about two times a month. I wonder what he would have us cut.

 

 

Well - there's the eating out.  I don't mean to sound flippant, but I grew up eating out once a year if that, so it's worth considering the habit.  When things were tighter for us, I preferred to spend a little more occasionally on a nice cut of meat than go out and pay a lot of money for something that I could make better at home.  I do get a rest from cooking, however, because Husband also cooks.

[Guest]

Do you have a meat slicer? I really wish I had one.

No, I'd love one as well but I couldn't put it anywhere - kitchen is too small. I just remove the meat from the bone and slice it up thinly or I use spiral cut hams and save the meat on the ham hock, itself, for soup recipes.

 

Sliders are on my gadget wish list if I ever get a bigger kitchen. *drool*

[SparklyUnicorn]

No, I'd love one as well but I couldn't put it anywhere - kitchen is too small. I just remove the meat from the bone and slice it up thinly or I use spiral cut hams and save the meat on the ham hock, itself, for soup recipes.

 

Sliders are on my gadget wish list if I ever get a bigger kitchen. *drool*

 

Yeah my kitchen is small too.  I keep my gadgets on the second floor front enclosed porch.  We never use the porch so... 

[Audrey]

Competition among mothers is such a sad thing. I would hate for something as simple as eating to add fuel to the fire. It seem that I can't go anywhere where my son interacts with others without someone commenting on something he does well or not so well compared to their son of similar age. I wish our kids (and our kitchens) could just be.

 

:iagree:

[ocelotmom]

Well - there's the eating out.  I don't mean to sound flippant, but I grew up eating out once a year if that, so it's worth considering the habit.  When things were tighter for us, I preferred to spend a little more occasionally on a nice cut of meat than go out and pay a lot of money for something that I could make better at home.  I do get a rest from cooking, however, because Husband also cooks.

 

Yes.

 

A food budget of $400 dollars a month for a family of four is roughly equivalent to $1.10 per person per meal. Even eating off the dollar menu at a fast food place is going to cost the equivalent of multiple meals. Eating somewhere halfway decent (say in the $7/plate range) is going to eat up several days worth of food budget for one meal.

[Guest]

Do you have a meat slicer? I really wish I had one.

I do have a meat slicer. It is a wonderful appliance to have. I keep it in the basement with my canning stuff. I realize I'm lucky with storage space, though.

[Guest]

I do have a meat slicer. It is a wonderful appliance to have. I keep it in the basement with my canning stuff. I realize I'm lucky with storage space, though.

*repeats to self*

 

I will not covet thy neighbor's slicer.

 

I will not covet thy neighbor's basement.

[happypamama]

Could I do it? Yes, I think so. We'd eat a lot more carby foods than we do now, so I wouldn't want to do it unless I was really desperate.

[texasmama]

I think $400 a month for my family of four is easily doable IF we started with a well-stocked pantry/freezer.  It's not an amount we could sustain for longer than a few months though as things would become depleted. 

This.

 

We are pretty well-stocked here and would be able to pull this off for a few months.  It would not be easy or fun (and our family includes two growing and hungry teenish boys), but we could do it.

 

It would not include any paper goods or toiletries.  Our special needs cat eats $30 of canned foot a month plus her special tuna at about $10 a month.  The dog food costs less than the cat food, and the dog is much larger.  Seem unfair.  lol

 

I would have to go every Saturday to the salvage grocery store and load us up for the week to make this work, but I could.  In fact, if I could get everyone on board for this, I would do it just to have the extra to put aside towards other things.  Alas, I will never get everyone on board.

[rebbyribs]

We spend about $600 per month on groceries for 7 people.  Our grocery spending is low because:

 

- our kids are all still young (5 kids ages 1 - 8)

- my husband's work provides his lunch and snacks at no charge while he's in the office

- we're vegetarians and 2 of us don't eat dairy

- we buy in bulk (from Azure Standard and Smart and Final)

- we grow some of our own veggies and I track garden costs with "home and yard maintenance" rather than "food"

- we don't use many disposable products

- most meals are cooked from scratch

- we eat take-out food about 1-2x per week, and that's a separate category (I think it costs about $50 each time, but my husband pays for it with cash so it's hard to track).

- neither adult cares for alcoholic beverages

 

Honestly, we could afford to spend more on food, and I've never particularly tried to limit our food spending.  What we're spending now doesn't feel like deprivation at all, although it does feel like I spend a lot of time cooking.  If we needed to cut back, we could.  

[La Condessa]

Our groceries/home goods budget is $500 per month. There are six of us, but the baby doesn't eat much, yet. And dh has a separate budgeted amount for lunches while at work.

 

It's not too tough, really. It was hard a while back when food prices, our family size, and our kids' appetites all kept increasing while our budget did not, but now I've gotten used to cooking a certain way. More meatless meals, more meals that stretch a little meat a long way, more soups, homemade baked goods and yogurt, complex carbohydrates like oatmeal and brown rice. I did lots of experimenting to find some meatless meals that my carnivorous husband would find satisfying. I also bought three turkeys at thanksgiving at sale prices (two extras was all I could fit in my freezer), and have stretched one turkey over many meals.

 

ETA: Of course, our kids our still young. I'm sure a budget like that would get more and more challenging as your kids get older.

[LucyStoner]

I'm in the food is the last thing to cut camp. I don't balance my budget on my kids' tummies.

 

Even with cooking from scratch, eating meat as a side/flavoring/garnish, buying in bulk, buying from small cheap upick places etc, not buying all organic etc, we still spend well more than $400 a month for a family of 4.

 

I am skeptical in the extreme of some of the budget claims I read online. Often, I think people aren't accounting for all their costs. For instance my brother spent $350-400 a month at Costco and thought that was basically his entire food budget. He didn't realize that the quick trips for milk and stuff were easily adding $50-100 a week. Other times I see people count the $200 they spend in a month but not the several thousand a year their sides of meat and farm share buys are. I know very well what a $200-300 a month food budget in my area would buy me for 4 people and it's not what I want to be feeding my kids. My sons have essentially unlimited access to fresh fruits and veggies.

[Arcadia]

I wonder about this. I've been typing in all our expenses since last year and I don't see any wiggle room in any other areas. Our bills are set. ... We go out to eat about two times a month. I wonder what he would have us cut.

 

Eating out but I won't cut that if that is your only fun thing unless you are really tight on money.

 

We managed to get our internet plan cut to a lower price same plan by bargaining with the service provider a few times. However we lived in an area surrounded by plenty of free wifi hotspots (libraries, Starbucks, Target, my city's utilities wifi which we are allowed to use for free) and have cut Internet a few times relying on free wifi.

[Jenny in Florida]

Oh, and this may or may not be related to food costs, but if you have family members who are extremely active with working out (eg. my dd dances 3 hours a week), etc., do you think that's going to up the food costs?

 

My son is a teenager and a dancer (dances 10 or more hours a week). He's now living on campus, and I find that my food budget for two adults is literally half of what it was when he was home full time. It absolutely ups the food costs.

[Tanaqui]

Eating out but I won't cut that if that is your only fun thing unless you are really tight on money.

 

We managed to get our internet plan cut to a lower price same plan by bargaining with the service provider a few times. However we lived in an area surrounded by plenty of free wifi hotspots (libraries, Starbucks, Target, my city's utilities wifi which we are allowed to use for free) and have cut Internet a few times relying on free wifi.

 

Ditto. Everybody should be able to enjoy themselves once in a while, otherwise you're not living so much as surviving.

 

 

[FarmingMomma]

We generally shoot for around $400 per month averaged out over the year for our family of four.  I usually spend about $200 or so on actual groceries at the grocery store per month.  The rest of the cost is processing for our beef (we raise), buying a pig or two from my cousin and the cost of processing the pig, and 2 or 3 times a year trips to Sam's club to stock up.  BUT...I don't have to buy milk or eggs, since I have two milk cows and the kids have over thirty chickens and ducks.  We grow a large garden and can/freeze/store everything possible.  I sometimes trade milk or eggs to other gardeners who have better luck with certain veggies.  I bake my own bread, cookies, biscuits, etc.  I buy in bulk at Sam's all the basics like flour, sugar, salt, yeast, coffee, tea, cheese, pasta, etc.  Our monthly grocery purchases are mainly things like cream soups, condiments, crackers, popcorn, fruits that we can't grow here (bananas, oranges), occasional lunch meat, etc.  With all that said, I just got done figuring up last year's expenses for tax purposes.  I was really lax last year about keeping track of expenses and bought things like cases of mangoes to chop and freeze (for smoothies), pineapple to chunk and can, an extra pig from my cousin, and other luxuries.  It divided out to over $600 a month.  Planning to stay on better track this year, and nudge that amount back down closer to $400.  

[3 ladybugs]

I have a baby that is 100% paleo 100% of the time due to allergies. We get meats organic when possible, eggs we are 50/50 organic. The rest is conventional mostly (we are paleo with the baby, just not as strict). We are in New Jersey and it doesn't matter if I shop at 5 stores (including aldi) or shop at 3 (my minimum) I spend about $300, then a week later $100, the following week $300 and so on. We use emeals for paleo meal plans.

[Kari C in SC]

I average about $400 a month for a family of 4. Some months I spend $300, others I spend $500. I shop Sams Club for all my meat and chicken and a lot of staples in our house. I typically always see if there is any meat marked down. If there is, I buy it even if I may not actually need that particular cut of meat. So, one month, I may buy a ton of meat and none the next month. Sometimes I end up having to pay full Sams price, but usually that is only for ground beef. The rest I shop at Publix buying only what is on sale. I buy enough of the BOGO to get us through to the next sale. My typical Publix trip is around $30 - $35 a week because I am only buying the sale items. I do use some coupons, but nothing extreme. And I buy produce at the veggie stand when open or sams in the winter. I will say that none of us are big eaters and I don't have to buy special dietary items. We only use milk for cereal, so about a gallon a month. And we do eat out on the weekend at least once. I don't know how I keep it so low really.

[Joker]

We spend $1200/month for four. One of my teens is anemic, two of us also have low B12 (runs in my family), and one is always told to gain weight. I do not cut down our budget in the food department. I already feel I could easily spend more but am budgeting to stay where we are now. That does include toiletries and stuff because I don't separate, but I buy those things at Costco and still spend the $1200 during months we are stocked on non-food items. I have to budget even more the months I buy those items and it's difficult. My dds and dh are skinny but they can eat. Dh is told every stinking time he goes to the doctor (usually only once a year for physical) that it would be good for him to gain five pounds. I have no idea how to do that considering how much he already eats. I can't imagine what would happen if I cut our food budget from $1200 to $400 a month for the four of us. :huh:

[ocelotmom]

Ditto. Everybody should be able to enjoy themselves once in a while, otherwise you're not living so much as surviving.

 

Except that, with a grocery budget that low and no wiggle room elsewhere, eating out is potentially impacting their ability to survive. Or, less drastically, their ability to enjoy food the rest of the month. If we assume $40 combined for both trips (and that is probably a low estimate), that's an awful lot of money that could be spent on things to improve the diet in terms of nutrition, quantity, and taste. 

 

I've been dirt poor. I get that you have to live and not make absolute perfect budgetary decisions every time. But I think that there is potential for more overall enjoyment by finding some way other than eating out to do this. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I do have a meat slicer. It is a wonderful appliance to have. I keep it in the basement with my canning stuff. I realize I'm lucky with storage space, though.

 

Which one do you have? 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Yep. We never eat out and that is not a particular hardship. There are other things to do that add to quality of life that don't cost what eating out with 5 people would.

 

It's probably the second thing I'd scrap from the food list - after drinks. Cut out soda and juice, and eating out. Cut down the amount of meat you buy. Don't buy paper products, except for toilet paper - buy that in bulk. Buy vegies and fruit in season, use a lot of legumes, make your own yoghurt, snacks and maybe bread ( do the numbers on this ). Bulk out meals with pasta or rice ( if able to do so ).

 

I almost hate eating out.  I always leave feeling like gee I could have made a meal that tastes better for way less money.  If we eat out it's usually stuff that isn't so easy to make at home.  Like pizza.  Yes, I could make pizza, but it never tastes like pizza from a good pizza place. 

 

Probably what I like most about eating out is having someone else wait on me and clean up.  I don't get that ever at home.  So that part of it I appreciate.

[marbel]

I almost hate eating out.  I always leave feeling like gee I could have made a meal that tastes better for way less money.  If we eat out it's usually stuff that isn't so easy to make at home.  Like pizza.  Yes, I could make pizza, but it never tastes like pizza from a good pizza place. 

 

Probably what I like most about eating out is having someone else wait on me and clean up.  I don't get that ever at home.  So that part of it I appreciate.

 

I am about the same way.  My big problem is planning meals.  I don't mind the cooking and cleaning up too much, most of the time.  It's figuring out what to eat that get to me.

 

But what really annoyed me were the days when we used to have 'emergency' dinners out.  You know... hectic day, no good combinations of ingredients in the house to throw something together quickly, and suddenly we're going out for Mexican food that I can easily make just as well.   I do keep some convenience foods in the freezer for those occasions now.  (Pasta and either frozen or jarred sauce is good for nights like that, but we are not a big pasta family.)   And once a year I buy a huge bag of paper plates from Costco.  We have a church picnic here each summer, so we use a good number of them, but the remainder last us the rest of the year.  It helps when I'm exhausted on a Friday night, and we pick up a take and bake pizza ($5.98 at our Sam's Club), eat it off paper plates, and we're done.

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I am about the same way.  My big problem is planning meals.  I don't mind the cooking and cleaning up too much, most of the time.  It's figuring out what to eat that get to me.

 

But what really annoyed me were the days when we used to have 'emergency' dinners out.  You know... hectic day, no good combinations of ingredients in the house to throw something together quickly, and suddenly we're going out for Mexican food that I can easily make just as well.   I do keep some convenience foods in the freezer for those occasions now.  (Pasta and either frozen or jarred sauce is good for nights like that, but we are not a big pasta family.)   And once a year I buy a huge bag of paper plates from Costco.  We have a church picnic here each summer, so we use a good number of them, but the remainder last us the rest of the year.  It helps when I'm exhausted on a Friday night, and we pick up a take and bake pizza ($5.98 at our Sam's Club), eat it off paper plates, and we're done.

 

 

I have a similar problem.  I subscribe to several meal planning websites and magazines.  I hate coming up with ideas.  Those help a lot. 

 

My go to "I don't know what to make" meal is usually a take and bake pizza or fried chicken from a local place.  Neither of those are too expensive. 

[morningcoffee]

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