Money spent on food....$50/Month goal

[boefixepa]

Food is one of those odd things. It's something we have so much control over. We can't do much about mortgage, insurance, gas and such. At least what we can do won't effect us much. But food, food can vary greatly and it is 100% within our control. I think that is what makes it different. I could spend more, but I see a better opportunity to use that money elsewhere, so I'm making the choice to make a change. It's been fun and challenging, but I have not felt deprived in any way.

DivaJen, thank you for your concern. I do understand where you are coming from, but I have been very careful. With an average frame I am still on the upper end of the ideal weight range for my height (131-151). I still have about 25% body fat, though my scale says 33%, but I refuse to believe that. Money wasted on the scale that gives body fat too....grr.... I am shooting for 1200 calories a day knowing some days I will blow it, and that's okay. For my age 30, weight 145-148, and height 5'8".. 1200 calories a day should maintain with some splurges. If I dip below 143 I will eat a little more, but I'm more concerned with making sure I stay below 150.

The chart says 132.50 a month for me, but I'm guessing they expect you to buy some convience foods, and I doubt those numbers include eating out. I'll have to do some reading on that site. One of the conditions of my goal is to cook from scratch.

[abowers]

I don't smoke, but I know a carton of cigarettes would cost a lot more than $6 if you were in NY. They tax the pants off of cigarettes because the know people are still going to buy them. It's probably more like $5-6/pack in NY.

[lrjohnson]

The chart says 132.50 a month for me, but I'm guessing they expect you to buy some convience foods, and I doubt those numbers include eating out

The footnote says all meals eaten at home, so doesn't allow any meals out. It also says "For specific foods and quantities of foods in the Thrifty
Fod Plan, see Family Economics and Nutrition Review, Vol. 13, No.1 (2001)"

I was able to find that issue, and found a dry article that does have menus and a food list at the end. There was a surprising lack of convenience food-some, but really very little compared to what I see in the average grocery basket. You have to scroll down to the very end.
Article with menu plans based on the Thrifty Plan

[Funky Frog]

Very impressive!

My family of 4 averages $400 for groceries, doesn't include eating out. I'm working on getting it lower and spending less on eating out...you are my new inspiration!

[boefixepa]

Um...did I read that dry article wrong or are these charts baised on 1999 prices! If that's the case then current numbers would be at least 10% more.

Items on their menu that would not be allowed on mine.
Box Ceral - of any kind.
Bagels - I am assuming the bought them and did not make them...I've tried it's rather complicated and not really worth it for me.
English Muffins - Again convience food
Store bought bread - Convience Food - I'm picky when it comes to bread. I can make better than the cheap-o bread or day old bread.
1% Milk - I do powdered or soy....mostly because I can't use a gallon before it goes bad.
Cole Slaw - Again convience food...not to mention I hate it..lol..
Buns - Convience food...
Baked Beans - Border line convience food - dried beans are less expensive and not hard to make into baked beans...but it's not like baked beans in the can are expensive.
White Soft rolls - Convience food - Plus mine are sooooo much better...promise!!
Fench Bread - Convience food

From the looks of things it pretty basic, they just don't seem to cook any bread products from scratch. There are also many things I just don't buy, like popcorn, juice, pudding, fruit drink mix, jello. I also tend to buy more frozen than fresh veggies/fruits. More to so with the single aspect of not being able to use it before it goes bad.

Overall though, not a bad menu plan for those on a tight budget. I think the dollar vaule is still high, but I buy in bulk (less expensive), and I'm sure it's an average US price, my region may be less expensive.

Again though, those prices are at least seven years old.

[cashqueen]

Wow, that would be impressive if you could do it. Following that, my family should be able to do it on $150/month or $50 per person. I think we spend that (sometimes more) in a week. Though I am about to crack down considerably on our food budget.

[lrjohnson]

Um...did I read that dry article wrong or are these charts baised on 1999 prices! If that's the case then current numbers would be at least 10% more.

The food items and menus are from a 99 article. The prices are updated every month. So click on April 2006 for the latest numbers. Don't add 10 percent.

The USDA Food Plan Levels

Again though, those prices are at least seven years old.

They are not seven years old.

[boefixepa]

Good to know thanks...I was worried there.

[getforfree]

We spend on average $270/month for 3 adults and 2 kids. That includes diapers for my DD, cleaners, laundry supply, toiletries. The food alone would probably be less than 250/months, so that will put as even below the trifty plan chart.
Yes, for the diapers alone its like $25/month, so the food must be like 230/ month. I put all of my grosseries on my card with rebates, so I know the totals for each month.

[getforfree]

So if the goal is $50 per month per person, that would be like $150 for 3 adults and because my kids are 1 and 3, they don't eat much, +$50 for both of them, that should bring me to less than $200/month. Need to look for ways to lower my food bill for another $25. And because I get wic for both kids, I buy less milk and eggs, but food like cereal or cheeze I would never or rarely buy because they are too expencive. So assuming I would have to buy the eggs and milk instead of getting it from wic, I would spend additional $16 or so.
That will give me $200-16=184.
$184, that's my goal for the next month, but I never base my food bill just on a month, because I stockpile, and sometimes I spend like $400/ months, sometimes less than $100. It depends what's on sale and if I have the coupons for the same items. But i think if I would use less meat for cooking and include more rice and beans, it will save me some money.

[Thrif-t]

I've been watching our food budget since the beginning of the year and can feed a family of 5 for $250-$300, this is 3 kids under age 10. It really is fun to save money this way. Like one poster said we can't control our mortgages or some other bills but this one is definetely controllable. And hey I like this board glad I stumbled upon it.

[getforfree]

It might seem that little kids need less $$ to feed them, but in my case it's not exacly like that. Even though my each kid eats less than me or my dh, but thy usually get more expencive stuff like juice, yougurt, nuts, some expencive fruits and veg, that I don't buy for myself. They need more nutrition than I do.[font=Arial]

[miclason]

We are spending $75/week for a family of 4 (5 if you add the nanny!)...I was managing to do it for $40/week, but, prices have gone up so incredibly fast!....I'm trying to at least bring it back to $70!...

[faspina]

I have been trying for weeks to get a price book together. But I have 4 kids, both me and my DW do the shoping. It's hard to fill the pricebook in at the store with the kids and afterwards the reciept don't often show Units of measure.

Anyone have a excel pricebook they can send me just to get started.

Frank (faspina@gmail.com)

[jaksilee]

I am single and my budget is $50 per week. Now some weeks the paycheck is smaller and I only have 10-25 so I tend to stock pile a lot of things...closeout meats, pantry goods and the like. I don't make my own bread (I do bulk bake buscuite once a month and freeze for suppers)and I drink a lot of milk. When I have weeks that I don't spend all the grocery money it goes into my emergancy cash fund. Then if something goes wrong I have money on hand to cover it. In the last month and a half I have saved over $100 in that fund. Once that fund hits $500 it will be put in the bank for my EF (which I don't have now) and I will start over again.


Also to note...I right now have about 2-3 months of food stockpiled for if something happens.

[Ima saver]

I don't stock pile food, if I do, it goes out of date. We eat out a lot, so I only have 2 of everything we use a lot.

[cschin4]

Wow. You all seem to have a good handle on your grocery costs. I have a good handle on all my finances expect groceries. In fact, I really don't have any idea what it costs for groceries for our family. How do you track this? My husband does most of the grocery shopping so he would have to keep receipts, etc.

[lrjohnson]

cschin:
I've used Quicken to track all my spending since 98. It really helps me to know what I am paying for things to help me reduce costs. There's Jesse's (JMJJ215) advanced spreadsheet at YouneedaBudget.com. A lot of people just keep track simply in a spreadhseet or on paper.

You need to decide how to start breaking it down. For me, groceries is only groceries; I put toilet paper, shampoo, etc. in another category. I do put dirt and seeds and starters for edible plants in my grocery budget.

A really low key way to do it would be to just have your husband stick all the receipts in one spot for 2 or three months. Then spend a little time adding up those receipts.

You can see from the widely varying expenses that there is a lot of flexibility in the food budget. I think it's the area where people can get the most savings per month if it's an area that haven't been watching before.

[cschin4]

Yes, I really need to take a look at that. But, alot of things get lumped in with groceries such as toiletries, etc. We are not in debt so whatever we are spending now is fine. And, I do try to shop for bargins such as BOGO's and cook more which is more cost effective.
We don't eat out alot because with 3 kids, who wants to sit in a restaurant anyway? And, fast food doesn't sit too well with me, though we will get an occassional pizza or Subway. If i had to guess, I would say we spend at least $500 per month on groceries.

[tgavin71]

We spend US$160 a month for a 2A and 2C that includes cleaning products and toiletries as well. My 9 year old eats more than I do so I'll class him as an adult. My 7 year old is very fussy and eats hardly anything. Luckily she will drink veg juice but at US $3.30 for a litre it is very expensive. I dilute it half half with water. She also takes a multi-vitamin. The cheapest that she will actually eat is about US$9 for 60 tablets. It will last her two months.
I am going to include her as an adult as well.

$160/4= $40 a month per person.