How much do you spend on food?

[lorihadams]

I would love to get into couponing but I just don't use a lot of the stuff they have coupons for. I am GF so a lot of the processed stuff is out for me. I don't use toothpaste, I use baking soda. I use goat milk soap for bathing and cheapy suave for shampoo for us and the kids. I buy staple items like GF flours and sugar and a lot of our expense goes for organic produce and dairy products. We only buy pork and hot dogs as far as meat goes and that is usually once a month, the rest we raise and process ourselves.

I end up spending $100-$200 per week for our family of 4. Most of that is honestly produce and yogurt and cheese. Our garden is not doing well at all but I am hoping I can get something out of it. I have windows to use for a greenhouse project so hopefully we can grow some stuff in colder weather.

Our weaknesses are tortilla chips, salsa, almonds, dried cranberries, good coffee beans, and granola bars. Lord we go through 2-3 big "family size" boxes of granola bars and at least 15-20 cups of yogurt each week. I am just not getting enough extra goat milk to do all our dairy product needs but at least I'm not buying $15 of organic cows milk every week anymore.

I buy peppers, bananas, pears, nectarines, grapes, strawberries, watermelon, pineapple, apples, oranges, plums, carrots, lettuce, green beans, cabbage, yogurt, cheese, and broccoli almost every week. At least my kids eat healthy stuff.

 

[AnnaRaven]

I would love to get into couponing but I just don't use a lot of the stuff they have coupons for.
<snip>

Our weaknesses are tortilla chips, salsa, almonds, dried cranberries, good coffee beans, and granola bars.

Every one of those has been on some GREAT coupons and specials this spring. So have several of the almond milks if you use those.

If you don't want to coupon, don't. But don't say it's because you don't use the stuff they have coupons for - cuz all of the above (except maybe the dried cranberries - I don't use them so don't know) have been on coupons AND on specials at the store in the past 3 months.

ETA: Mllk and yogurt have also been on coupon too...

 

[lorihadams]

I know, but we go through so much and our store limits the number of coupons we can use so I can't stock up when they are on sale.

It always seems like I have a hard time finding coupons online....does anyone know of a good free place online to print out coupons that isn't too complicated. It seems like every site I go on either doesn't have that many or it is all for medicine or vitamins or processed stuff that I'm allergic to.

I also have a hard time finding organic coupons too....anyone know where I can get that kind of stuff. We usually do organic salsa and organic dairy stuff without hormones in it too. I also don't like that everything has high fructose corn syrup in it too....I notice a difference when my kids eat it, that and dyes too. I also don't do well with MSG.

I wish I could find coupons for GF stuff too. It seems like our sunday paper circulars just have coupons for junk or chemical laden cleaners or processed stuff. I feel like I'm looking for a needle in a haystack sometimes. I can find some coupons for stuff we could use but then I get to the store and read the label and I can't eat it.

I really do need to make more of an effort about toiletries though cause that would help save a lot.

 

[Veggie PAK]

I spend 26% for groceries, fast food, pocket money, and garden supplies. I allocate each portion of each receipt to the appropriate category on my Excel spreadsheets. The Excel program let me build the spreadsheets so they automatically total each category on a summary sheet for monthly and annual expenditures.

 

[hwillm1977]

And that money dont go very far. You cant even buy hamburger here for under $2.70 a pound. Any other form of beef is more than $3.50 per pound. The cheapest chicken is 1.09 a pound. It is very hard to eat healthy with barely any money.

Yeah, food prices can vary a lot... Chickens are on sale this week (whole regular grocery store chickens) for 1.99/pound, and that's 50% off. Medium ground beef is about $4.00/pound. Milk is $7.20/gallon (regular milk, not organic)

I can't even imagine being able to eat for $50/week and there are only two of us... we probably spend about $125/week and that will go WAY down in the summer because 80% is fresh produce that will come from the garden. Fresh baby spinach is $5.99/pound and we eat three pounds a week... I LOVE spinach salads

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

I spend 26% for groceries, fast food, pocket money, and garden supplies. I allocate each portion of each receipt to the appropriate category on my Excel spreadsheets. The Excel program let me build the spreadsheets so they automatically total each category on a summary sheet for monthly and annual expenditures.

VPAK! great to see you here!


hey does everybody know Veggie PAK? i know him from the blog world - he's got a great site.

welcome!

 

[Veggie PAK]

Thanks! This is a great site! There's so much information here, and I really enjoy seeing that so many people are trying to live life the right way. It's great!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

This is something for me to perhaps map out on a paper and figure....very good thought.
I really don't know and it would be complicated to figure because some of the 'things' I do are income generating. I find I spend a lot on food, but I get a lot of food bartering for eggs. Plus I no longer purchase poultry @ the grocery because I eat my roos when they old enough...after selling their sisters, so the pullets pay the feed for the roosters, etc.. Its complicated. I don't need much seafood because one of my customers I barter with is a trawler and another fishes tuna. I don't need much red meat because 2 of my customers hunt deer.
Its something to think about though. I will save a week or 2''s worth of cash register receipts and see what I do.

 

[Leta]

We are a family of me, DH, DD 5, DS 2, and sometimes DSS 13, who will be here in a matter of days, yay!.

In May, we spent:

$164.68 on food, including roughly $10 in bottle deposits, which, of course, we return and lowers the total of future orders. It also includes the $22 that we spent on 20#+ of produce from SHARE. Forty bucks a week isn't bad for us, but it'll go down once the garden is productive. Not in June, though, because DSS will be here, and we will need to spend $150 on pastured chicken, $60 on strawberries, and God-only-knows-what on a case of butter.

$51.12 on eating out
Ugh. I want to eliminate this entirely. I think I'm going to compromise on my prepared food stance just a bit and stash a few things in an insulated bag in the car, because in every instance, we stopped and got food because both children experienced a simultaneous, precipitous drop in blood sugar and we really needed to stifle the screaming- when you are thinking "OH PLEASE MAKE IT STOP" you aren't going to stick to your budget. It's just science.

$32.13 on durable goods.

I know exactly what was included here. Chicken lights and bulbs for starting seeds, clothes hangers, a garden journal for DH, sandals for DS and DD, and I found a great clearance deal on my favorite pens and bought them all.

$125.12 on non food consumables

This is high for us, the normal total is usually $100.

May is the first full month that I have been couponing, and I really bought a lot of stuff. In May, I bought a year's supply of paper goods (which isn't that much, since we are an almost-all-cloth family), a year+ supply of Magic Erasers (the only commercial cleaning agent I use), plus about 3 dozen dental flosses/toothpastes/toothbrushes, a year+ of contact solution, 200 Ziploc bags (I'm looking at you, garden), a ton of first aid supplies, 6 months+ of trash bags, and some razors. So I'm hoping the non-food consumable amount goes way down in subsequent months as we work through these stockpiled items.

This category includes pet food, which runs us $20-$30/mo, two six packs of beer, and $25 for the potting soil for this year's gardening.

We also get WIC, so we get $6 to put toward produce, 3 gallons of milk, 2 boxes of cereal, 2 packages of tortillas, a jar of peanut butter, 2 bottles of juice, and a pound of cheese at no cost to us. In theory, we also get a dozen eggs, but the WIC eggs (only store brand white eggs are permitted) are just gross, so I never get them. This is about $45 worth of food, but I wouldn't get tortillas, bottled juice, or cereal if I was being my regular shopping self, the WIC foods are very specific, down to the brand. (I don't understand why I can't just get a bag of whole grain flour, frozen juice concentrate, or oatmeal with WIC, but I can't.) So WIC effectively decreases our food expenditure by about $25-$30.

 

[AnnaRaven]

I managed to get chicken at .99 a pound today - leg quarters. It'll make good stock and taco meat/dog food/chicken soup.