Budget Help!

[beebop25blue25]

Food is our biggest expense, other than our house payment. We are a family of 7 and all our kids eat like horses!! I'd say we spend near $700.00 a month on food. That includes grocery store purchases and going out to eat. All my boys, (there are 4 of them) and my daughter play sports, so we are on the road sometimes more than we are at home. I find that going to McDonalds and using the dollar menu is cheaper for us than packing a lunch for them all. I make them drink water and they share fries. Everyone comes out full and we only spend around 15.00 dollars. I don't think that is too bad for a large family of 7....it averages out to a little over $2.00 a piece. I think that fair.

[locolorenzo24]

WOW!!! a family of 7!! OUCH. I spend around 200 a month just for me, but around 60 bucks of that is just for the bread/milk/snacks/fruit section. My meat/main & side dishes usually come in pretty cheap. In fact, somedays I can just make a spinich salad and I'm good to go! Or a noodle mixup and eat for 4 days! Just the frugal gene I think I got from my dad....

[LittleGopher]

We're a family of 6 (2 adults & four daughters 15,13,10 & 8.) We spend about $700 a month, which is actually more than our mortgage, taxes and insurance. I include all cleaning products, health (anything non-prescription) and beauty/hygiene items, plus meals out. We're in the process of attempting to reduce this amount, while at the same time incorporate more whole foods into our diet.

[PRICEPLUS]

Family of 4 and we are spending about 650 a month. We are working on lowering that though!

[ChillPhatCat]

3 Single guys in our houshold, I share my food with one house mate and vice versa, the other is a vegetarian so he just shops for himself. I spend about $30 on average a week on food, sometimes I grab a steak or some ingredients for something tasty, but that always ends up as a couple days worth of food. Milk, Eggs, Tomato Juice, Bread, 1 lb Cheese, some sauce mixes, a couple cans of soup and Cereal are all I need for a good weeks worth of food.

I think a big part of saving money is knowing how to cook cheaply, I can make the following from scratch... Spaghetti Sauce, Mac & Cheese, Stroganoff, Chili, Multitudes of Cassaroles, Any steak any way, sauces for pasta and meat and other odds and ends. My mamma taught me to cook

[contrary1]

Most sources say you are to figure $100 per person in your household & then add $100 to that to reach your monthly grocery expenses. I can't imagine spending that much!!!
Seems excessive to me, even for a month that includes a ton of holiday meals/cooking and entertaining.
I remember refinancing our house once & the person doing the figuring on the loan automatically used this figure for our food expenses...........I had been keeping great records & could prove to them it was WAY lower than that. But, then he had never heard of making things from scratch or canning..........

[acezz4e_tish]

i love mac and cheese. that is my favorite cost cutter. one night you can have plain mac n cheese, another nite add burger and its hamburger helper, add a lil season all and it tastes like it. another nite you can add a can of tomato soup right from the can no extra milk or water. changes it up a bit, and makes it so filling. the price just went up on our always save mac n cheese, its 25 cents, thats up six cents. but still worth it. when you add something to it, one box is enough for a side dish for all five of us and a lil side left for daves lunch.
another tip that i love using. a 2 litre bottle is just bigger then 2 quarts. theres an extra glass worth in there. you can make a 2 quart of koolaid in a 2 litre and the taste isnt degraded and you get an extra drink for the kids. with a 8 quart can of koolaid, thats an extra four glasses.
aldis has thier own noodles n sauce. i love thier alfredo. i buy one for like 59 cents, add a can of diced toms and can of mushrooms and peas. thats a gr8 and filling side dish too. i make that alot when were out in our rv, cause i can toss it all in a container and put it in the convection oven and done in 12 mins. i have a basket with handle in the fridge, with small bottles i got in the walmart trial size section for 50 cents each and i fill them with all the condiments and thats easier too, less waste. they cook dogs on the pit while i cook rest inside and get stuff ready for the table.i have a lil plastic box for sliced cheese, and about 12 bottles of stuff in that basket, and it saves time too, i fill em before i head out, i grab the handle in the fridge and its on the table. they can have what they want for thier food.olives are all that i dont have in a bottle, they come in a long tall glass jar tho and it saves space in the basket. i fill one extra and keep in the door of ketchup and mustard, all others the one bottle is all we need on a trip.

[acezz4e_tish]

i bought the same bottles with diff colored caps for cleaning supplies and shampoos. in our walmart they have green, red, blue, pink, orange and white caps. they fit gr8 in the rv cabinets. like they were made for it. i invest about 8 dollars in those bottles and it saved me loads, the rv shops want that much for a couple bottles that size.

[flash]

I think your advisor is right, or even high.

How are you doing on getting it down?

One way to track where it's going. For one month, NO cash. Nada. I would NOT recommend that in most instances. But stopping the cash/ATM/money flow forces you to think differently about routine purchases like coffee or lunch. It also gives you a specific receipt for how much and what. Save all receipts, and at the end of one month, sit down and separate out every purchase into categories. Food for home, cleaning supplies, OTC meds, fast food, whatever yours break down into.

Total up things, and you should see where your money is going, where you can cut, and how to budget it.

[abowers]

It was a lot cheaper when I lived by myself and didn't make full meals all the time (maybe $25/week).

Now, with me and my boyfriend we spend about $70-80 every week to 10 days. We buy lots of fruits and veggies, and make most of the meals for the week at our apartment. So this usually includes 2 or 3 meats/chicken for during the week and coldcuts for sandwiches for lunch.

[acezz4e_tish]

thats not so bad. it would be worse w/o you making your own lunches. double that at least. i found dave, those lunchmeat packs of ham, turkey and beef, usually 2 for a dollar, i get them at aldis for 25 cents each. i throw one in his container, with bread and slice of cheese still wrapped and its fresher then making it in advance. and he has all his lil packettes to chose from that we saved from eating out. i spend prolly 20 a week on his lunches. for variety and such. lil packs of chips, pnuts,crackers, meats sandwich size cheese slices, mac salad or pasta salad, and wheat bread.

[Fizgig]

I live alone and spend about $200/mo on groceries, not including toiletries or cleaning supplies. Lunches and dinners out are about $120/mo, even though I've been saying for years that I want to get that down to $80.

It's hard to imagine spending $200 a week at the grocery store. Do you cook or buy the premade stuff? I like to cook monstrous vats of soups and stews and then freeze them in 1 qt bags for I-don't-wanna-cook emergencies. Same goes for roasts, spaghetti sauce, etc.

[Ima saver]

I am no help, I eat dinner out every night but sunday.

[markio26]

we bake several things in the oven, like robex does and try to have good healthy
snacks on hand...
we spend more for groceries when it is triple coupon week at tops.. and bogo deals
at giant eagle.. i have no idea, how much we spent in jan and feb.. we did so much
rebating using the original receipts.. i will have to peek at my discover statements and post it.
one of my friends told me that the allotment for one person for foodstamp
program is $180.00 a month.. i don't know how true that is.... so, i will have
to go over to www.stretcher.com and read their thoughts.

[acezz4e_tish]

i do both homemade and prepared. as for spending 200 on grocieries tho, i have 3 kids at home, me and my partner Dave.i call him hubby at times, but were common law.lol

[frugalfarmwife]

Our grocery bill is usually 100 a month for the two of us but we also grow our own beef and veggies so that saves a TON, included in that 100 is a trip to the bread thrift store to stock the freezer. I shop at Aldis.

kj

[Firefly]

We spend $400 a month and it is just me and DH. But he is diabetic so we have to buy special foods and healthier items then we used to.

[acezz4e_tish]

The sugar angle makes it harder to budget. Im hypoglycemic and my mother is diabetic. She orders her meat in home delivery. it comes vaccuum packed and when cooked dont even need salt and such, they are very flavorfull. she loves schwaans fudgecycles.lol she can have those. they are sugar free. she also gets thier milk jugs of juice, they have lots of choices and you mix them with water. I am not sure what they cost, but its all delivered for her and she enjoys that too.

[Tightwad Kitty]

Well I don’t know if I can help you here, but here are my figures including dining out, grocery food items and non-food items. Single household

2003 annual $1823 weekly av. $35
2004 annual $2071 weekly av. $40
2005 annual $2295 weekly av. $44

I do bulk and multi buy, I have had storage pantry all my life and kept it up, buy adding $10 per pay for top ups. This is included in the above figures.

I allow a budget of about $1500 per year for grocery food per first person, and for 2nd person 85% then 50% per each other member of that amount on my pension this is a must do. I have alway tried to be under these amounts too!

[markio26]

we spend about forty bucks a week for 3 adults at home... right now everything is free, we are living from our stock pile.. i hope to do this for a month and then just add necessities...so, far it is working out nicely.