What do you spend on food for a week?

[mamaKate]

Quote:
Raising kids as a singlemom , I used the pancake theory ALOT. They're all big healthy guys now, but none of them will eat pancakes on purpose.

 

[ChristmasKathy]

2 of us usally eats 50 a week but as prices gone up on meat we have now spent 60.
And that is just basic's. We cant afford much else.

 

[BettyR]

I LOVE pancakes!!!!

I really appreciate all the advice and there is some very good advice here.

I'm going to check out the hillbillyhousewife.com site and the coupon site.

I live in a very rural area...there's not a lot of people here so there's not a lot of stores. We have a Super WalMart which is a 20 minute drive and that's it.

We buy our meat...beef and pork...a side at a time from a local farmer (we raise our own chickens). He lets his regular local customers know when he has beef and pork that is ready for market and we get first dibs before he ships them off.

The beef is grass fed and it's $2.85/lb hanging weight which is not cheap but OH Lord is it good. I guess I should list that as a luxury.

The pork is pastured but supplemented with grain...also very good...a little cheaper than the beef but really another luxury.

I can see myself raising my own pork someday but not the beef...I don't have the land for it.

 

[runamuck]

We did things a bit diffrent.... We bought a pig and a cow at the 4h auction this yr for with processing 900.00 so that is our meat for the yr..... figures out to about 22 a week for meat . I spend around 150 more each week for other goodies . NOW .... The animals eat me out of house and home ( Thank goodness for hubbys good job!!!) they run me around 100.00 a week . ( ouch!!!) but.... eggs sales do help a bit and what ever they make goes right back to there care

I'm Also feeding two teens and the stragler they bring home

 

[patandchickens]

If you're serious about wanting to spend as little as possible, I'd actually suggest AVOIDING most coupons. Reason being, they are nearly always for processed 'value added' convenience foods that are just not an economical way of getting nutrition. On the rare occasions when you do see a coupon for, like, butter or flour or tuna, they're teensy coupons that give you like 2% off something that you could buy an equally good CHEAPER brand of for less anyhow

Try going a week without eating anything not made from original ingredients, and no produce that is not in season locally, see whatcha think. You can actually eat very 'normally' and well this way.

Pat

 

[banter]

I have been able to feed (2 of us and guests) and also ( chickens, geese, ducks, 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 ferrets, 2 parrots ) for about $150.00 a week with my veggie garden. I cook 99% from scratch and I think we eat very well. Thank God for the FOOD CHANNEL! I am lucky that with the variety of animals nothing goes to waste. We rarely eat fast food anymore and
go out to eat 1 or 2 time a month at the most.

 

[ninjapoodles]

If you're smart, you really CAN use coupons to good advantage. It's true that most coupons are for processed food, BUT, not all of them. You might have to wade through a bunch of junk to find the "good stuff," but it's there. Combine the coupons with store sales, especially in stores that offer coupon doubling, and stock up as much as possible (there are several pounds of brown rice in my pantry now that I got practically free after doubled coupons plus a store sale) on staples.

Also, even if you NEVER use a coupon for food, you can surely use the ones for health/beauty/cleaning items. Right now, under my bathroom sink, is an enormous supply of brand-name shaving gel, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. We ALWAYS get toothpaste free--our local grocery has 10/$10 sales several times a year on Colgate, so I save my 50-cent Colgate coupons until then, the store DOUBLES the coupon, and I come home with a load of free toothpaste (I collect several inserts from friends/family). My daughter is still using the dozen bottles of free L'Oreal Kids shampoo that was a tie-in with "Horton Hears A Who" last year.

My point being, the money that you DON'T spend on the items in the above paragraph is money that you CAN spend on high-quality, wholesome food.

If you don't have time to plot and plan and clip coupons, try The Grocery Game. They tell you when to use what coupon, so all you have to do is look at a list once a week, and buy from that list. They mark which items are free, and which are worth stocking up on.

 

[DomiHentrix]

Depedning on how much I am watching my budget between 80-125 for a family of four. If I didn't have wine with my husband twice a week it would most likely be about 30 dollars less than that.

I don't eat breakfast (not a Breakfast person). My husband eats two bananas and a V8 every morning. 10 oclock snack with kids is either goldfish crackers and plain organic yoghurt or goldfish crackers and plain unsweetened applesauce. Lunch is sandwhiches and fruit or sandwhiches and some type of cruciferous vegetables one day a week, and 3 o'clock snack is an apple, or applesauce, bag of popcorn, carrots dipped in ranch etc..

Dinner is homemade 98% of the time. Homemade Chili, homemade spaghetti, etc..one of our favorite meals when our budget is stressed is scrambled eggs/chopped onions/lean ground over rice with soy sauce. Another that I make almopst every week without fail is Velveeta shells and cheddar, lean ground, can of drained stewed tomatoes and half a bag cooked frozen veggies (Dh brings leftovers for lunch every day). We try to eat foods that are seasonal to keep costs down, for instance we are eating corn on the cob during our snack times like crazy because ears of corn are about 40cents each here right now, however in a month when it's not common we will be eating more cabbage and potatoes etc...

It's not easy to keep costs down especially with the economy today. My goal is to make my own bread and pasta, keep my own garden, have my own eggs and avoid most of the middles aisles completely.

Sorry for the long rant, I hope there is some info in there that may help you!!

Take care, Lara

 

[AussieSharon]

Mine really varies from week to week. When something is on sale I really stock up. This week was ramen noodles 10 for $1. I am now the proud owner of 200 packs!

Our grocery bill for 2 adults and 2 kids is anywhere from $100 - $150 a week.

 

[speckledhen]

$100/week for 2 adults. That includes all paper products and cleaning supplies, but not feed. Almost no beef and not much chicken, either.