[MonkeyMama]

WE are about 500/month for groceries, paper goods, toiletries, all our soap, etc.

I have been trying and trying to cut it down to no avail it seems. But overall I Am happy with it. We eat in 99% of the time.

family of 4 - kids are small but they eat like horses - LOL - growing toddler/preschoolers. I can't even think about the teen boy years - hopefully we will have more money then - hehe.

We have started stocking up on whatever we see on sale, more coupon clipping, & trying to cook more with what is on-hand. Our bill has not dropped much but we are eating out a lot less so it probably reflects in that we are eating overall for less.

We actually eat really well - if you check the recipe section on my blog you see what we eat in general. we made a concerted effort the last couple of years to cut out the junk. Dh buys chips and salsa endlessly on sale and I get chocolate stuff once in a blue moon, but I think the key to keeping a budget down is no junk. Lots of fresh fruit instead. We actually eat a lot of meat, but we can usually find it pretty cheap on sale.

Oh yeah with the little ones about 1/4 of our budget is milk and cheese. So I know that is going down with time as the baby weans off so much milk. I think $450 is realistic for our budget in the long-haul - $400 for the food portion. I was tracking by category for a while and I noticed we weren't spending much on meat but man the milk was HUGE - LOL. We do actually spend a lot on crackers too. The processed stuff will stick it to you, even if it is not "junky."