Dinner for 4 - $10

[noobiechickenlady]

BBH, in short... Junk, junk and more junk. The vast majority of the stuff in their cart was boxed & plastic wrapped. Chips, sodas, that rabbit's "yogurt", boxed meals like rice & pasta dishes, the cheapest white bread you can imagine. I saw nary a leafy green or much fruit at all. The mom LIMITED her kids to a pear & apple each...

I HATE the way most of my friends eat. They always love what I fix when they come over for a meal, but I can't get them to see what they are really doing to themselves.

THAT is why the $10 is a "good deal", they think that they are eating better (which they are) for about what they spend on the junk, when they don't want to do the math or take the time to make meals from scratch. Doing it the food network way, they don't have to plan out a week or a couple of days ahead.

Dace is right, its microwave mentality.

 

[lorihadams]

The bulk of our food expense goes toward meat, milk, and fresh fruit/veggies. I have tried to freeze a lot this year and now that we have our first garden under our belts I'm hoping we can raise a lot more of our own food.

We end up spending around 100-125 a week on groceries. Sometimes I can make it stretch a little more but we go through A LOT of milk, and we buy organic which is $6.99 a gallon here. We go through 2 bunches of bananas a week, a bag of oranges, a bag of apples, and 3-4 bags of frozen veggies per week. My children and husband are grazers and eat all day long. I try to serve a veggie and a fruit at every meal and they will grab fruit for a snack too.

I constantly wonder where it all goes. I bought 2 boxes of strawberries and they were gone in 12 hours. Once box at dinner and one box at breakfast. Same with blueberries, can't keep them in the house. Bananas too. We easily go through 2 gallons of milk a week, sometimes more. I've stopped buying pre-processed stuff but replacing it with fresh foods has been more expensive, at least for me.

The nearest farmer's market is at least an hour away. We have a few little roadside stands but it seems like I never have the cash to buy stuff in bulk at the time.

I wish I could trim our food budget but I don't know what else to do.

 

[Dace]

I have the same problem Lori...not my kids gobbling up all the fresh fruit...more of finding it to be more expensive to buy healthy whole foods...that processed crap is cheap, but I think people eat more because they get on that insulin roller coater and need to keep eating.

 

[me&thegals]

Wow--$10 would be a LOT! I agree with all the above posts and am shocked at the amount of $ in food stamps. Yikes!

In winter, we spend more on food. Even though I use tons of frozen and canned food, for the kids' lunches I want them to have mostly fresh fruits and veggies. Sometimes soups using the frozen/canned veggies.

Keljonma--That is an incredibly low grocery bill! I should really pay attention to figure out ours. Does yours include soap, shampoo, etc?

 

[keljonma]

Keljonma--That is an incredibly low grocery bill! I should really pay attention to figure out ours. Does yours include soap, shampoo, etc?

Yes, it does...that is when it was closer to $150/month.

I try to buy non-food items throughout the year as they go on sale. Then I stock up, if there is money in the budget to do so. For food staples that I buy, I do the same thing.

Last year I was able to get 2 x 48 oz jars of Jif peanut butter for $5 total, combining a coupon and a store sale. DH and I both went through the line separately, so it cost us $10 for 4 large jars of Jif. It is really the only pb that dh likes, although Smucker's natural is a close second.

I make a large batch of laundry soap once a year. I buy bath soap and shampoo on sale. I use the laundry detergent for dish soap and add a bit of lemon juice to it. I just bought 4 bottles of Sauve shampoo at a local drug store for 50 cents a bottle. A bottle of shampoo lasts us a bit longer than half a year.

ETA: During this summer our grocery bill has been between $200 - $250/month because we have purchased extra veggies and most fruits for canning/processing to get us through winter.

 

[big brown horse]

Those are good tips keljonma.

I swear the crock pot is my best friend. I have two inserts (one I got extra at good will) so leftovers can just go into the fridge in the crock while I use the other one to make something else to add to the leftovers. In the evenings I just pop the insert full of whatever back into the crock pot and turn it on while I finish my chores.

Steaming veggies (and the cheapest ones are the most nutritious, cabbage, carrots etc.) only takes 5 minutes. If you have a big double steamer, you can also warm up leftover meat in the top compartment.

At the end of the week before grocery shopping for the next week, I do an assesment of what is leftover in the fridge. Then I make a traditional "Mom's GOOD soup" to get rid of it. Got it from my mom, who was raised during the depression.

My problem is freezing leftovers, for some reason I can't keep track of them. I suppose I should make that my new ss goal: label and date all my frozen leftovers and remember to USE them for future meals. Right now we just eat the same thing the next day to avoid having to freeze it...so far no complaints.

Having a preteen is like having a food vacuum in the house. If I am gone for some time the cabinets are bare and there are wrappers flying everywhere when I get home! So I just stopped buying that type of kid food...if she is that hungry, she has to prepare something herself from scratch...usually she just finishes the leftovers for me...then puts the container in the dishwasher! I am so blessed that she is not a picky eater!!

 

[ducks4you]

Now if they talked about feeding 4 for $1.50, that might be more like it. Or having a dinner party for $10

Although, you have to think about why they are doing that. The average family spends waaaaay more on groceries than most of us on this forum.

TOTALLY AGREE! We spend $150/week and it's more than the 4 of us (DH, me, DD, 26 yrs.old, DD, 21 yrs.old, and sometimes, DD 29 yrs. old) need, so we often stock up with the extra.
You really get used to planning for leftovers, freezing meat THE DAY of the meal, so it won't go to waste. And, of course, giving older veggies, meats and stuff to your chickens, horses, dogs and cats!!

 

[patandchickens]

Doing it the food network way

I love that phrase It so encapsulates what's wrong with 'modern' ideas of cooking.

Between that and the vast advertising leverage of the processed food industries, people have to be very strong-minded, and/or have what these days would be a fairly unusual background of other eating experiences, to NOT fall into the trap of spending hundreds of dollars a week on food that isn't really very good nor good for you.

It used to be, you ate what you HAD, what you COULD GET. Nowadays, the assumption is you should eat what you WANT. Big difference. (And the sad thing is, most people today, and even some past posts on this forum, seem to take it as a self-evident truth that 'merely' eating what is readily available, like produce in season, will be yucky and boring. Which is sort of the opposite of the POINT of good cooking IMHO )

Pat

 

[Dace]

Doing it the food network way

I love that phrase It so encapsulates what's wrong with 'modern' ideas of cooking.

Between that and the vast advertising leverage of the processed food industries, people have to be very strong-minded, and/or have what these days would be a fairly unusual background of other eating experiences, to NOT fall into the trap of spending hundreds of dollars a week on food that isn't really very good nor good for you.

It used to be, you ate what you HAD, what you COULD GET. Nowadays, the assumption is you should eat what you WANT. Big difference. (And the sad thing is, most people today, and even some past posts on this forum, seem to take it as a self-evident truth that 'merely' eating what is readily available, like produce in season, will be yucky and boring. Which is sort of the opposite of the POINT of good cooking IMHO )

Pat

OMG! That used to be me! I would browse the web and say hmm....what sounds good? Find a recipe and then go to the store. I literally went to the store everyday! What a terrible waste of money.

Now I avoid the store like the plague! I try to make what I have on hand work....and you know what I have found? It is more fun this way

 

[freemotion]

Yes, it is! I have everything to make a version of General Tso's chicken...for the first time....but without all the sugar....we will see if I like it!