Posted on 03/10/2013 10:04:56 AM PDT by sfimom
How much do you spend on food in an average month? Please include eating out. How many people are you feeding and what is your typical diet? What do you do to supplement your diet?
I used to track household costs like this when I was off from work and my friend was going through a divorce... I was coming over to let his dogs out mid day... and eventually he just asked me to move in.
Our arrangement had me buying fuel oil, groceries and doing stuff around the property like cutting the lawn, cooking, cleaning, installing a custom designed HVAC control for moving hot air from the pelletstove in the basement den to the rest of the house... servicing the oil burner on the water heater... all sorta stuff.
Well I remember tracking costs and I had the groceries and dry goods provisioning down to about $11 per day for both of us... plus, we did a shitload of entertaining at the farmhouse... and my groceries covered that too.
Granted, sometimes he would not show up for dinner... but I was making good healthy homecooked meals (other than chili cheese fry night... hahahaha!)... but it was a lot of work. I was constantly checking all the circulars for the sale items... constantly cutting USEABLE coupons for staple items... and being extra frugal buying stuff like cheese ends from the deli department (perfect for Mac-N-Cheese), produce that had tiny imperfections... or the bagels in the bulk bins went from 89 cents each to $1.99/dozen at 8:30pm... I made good use of the 1967 chest freezer that cost him $60 to run until I defrosted it... which hadn’t been done in 20 years.
Anyways... $11/day for 2 guys plus weekend entertainment of a houseful of lady friends.
“Buy bulk from Costco.”
How can you shop at that commie outfit and call yourself a conservative?
j/k but that’s the attitude too often that if you buy/watch/listen to any enterprise with a lefty you should hang your head in shame and you have forfeited your conservative bona fides.
That fact is, we can’t avoid them altogether. Kills me to shop at Costco, but I do it to the same $400-500/mo. tune as you.
that prepackaged stuff is what my old roommate would get when he went all ADHD and self medicated himself by going to the snooty Wegmans. Why buy Amy’s premade soup when you can have homemade I mean completely from scratch including homemade chicken stock... every week.
My specialty was cream of asparagus... when asparagus went on sale... I would think nothing of buying 5 lbs at a clip to make a HUGE batch. Amy’s? Pftt!
if milk were not price fixed by the gubmint it would be $7+/gsllon for grocery store milk.
Up until a month ago we had four additional grandkids with us plus the two usual ones (the extras were here for 7-8 months). My wife is from a poorer Asian country and knows how to economize. So I’d say she was doing it for around $350-$400/month for all of them, although school lunches for some of them distort it as do my $3.45 breakfasts at BK every day and other occasional fast food meals. My wife goes heavy on the vegetables and fruits although sliced turkey is one of the big items also. We buy gallons of 2% milk for about $2.49 here. The meals for the extra kids couldn’t have been too bad, since the kids all gained weight from their former scrawny selves. Now that they have gone back we expect the healthful eating to cease and the ribcages to emerge again :<( Best wishes to your family.
I wouldn’t give it to a child either, or an adult, except for external application where it is known to work against skin infections (or at least a proper preparation can). No science-based peer-reviewed experimental evidence exists that it can work internally against infections. Yeah, I guess it’s all a big conspiracy against home medicine and it really does work LOL.
Wait until they're teenagers. $600 will seem cheap.
So around $2500 a month on average for food.
Cooking a nutritious, full diet from scratch, an individual can be healthy and more active than most Americans on about $3 per day in our USA (others requiring higher calorie intakes—infantry soldiers, athletes requiring much endurance, and the like). Much less for those with livestock and gardens in arable areas with temperate climates. Study nutrition thoroughly, though (especially for extra calcium and protein for those who work hard).
About $650 a month and that includes TP and paper towels.
Two people , my wife and myself, but we feed the kids and Grandkids most every Sunday, that adds up fast.
We seldom eat out, we went out last Friday and spent $70 bucks on a meal, I almost crapped when I saw the menu, but we were there so we decided to stay.
The Food Lion is 15 miles away and we go to the local store that closer, for bread and milk when we have to, we get a royal screwing there.
Here’s a more specific tip for those who want to cut costs. Cook rice the day before breakfast. For breakfast, stir quite a bit of pre-cooked rice and a little cheese in with eggs to scramble. Maybe add a little black pepper. [I like red pepper, but most folks—especially kids—regard that as being way too hot and spicy.] Goes good with home-baked or biscuits or biscuits fried on a touch of butter.
There’s rice-cooking advice around the net for those who can’t get the stuff to be soft and non-sticky. Have fun. Enjoy the slide.
7 bucks?
Man I’d be living there....
same here - just me... i guess i avg about $200 month in food but i buy detergent, tp etc to last at least three months at a time so that's why my bill is pretty high sometimes i do all my shopping at wally's as it takes more time and gas to goto other places to save about what it takes in gas to get there
i only go out/eat out on fri nights and that usually runs ~$50... gotta splurge a little 8^)
I agree with the need to splurge a bit on occasion. Tried to convince the cat that at the end of a very long month she really can get by on an occasional bowl of cereal or an omelet for dinner but have a little trouble with that.
cats... 8^)
On principle I complete agree. It is just a matter of time when you only have 10 minutes to quickly throw something together and run. I usually avoid all the frozen and processed stuff but my wife and I eat completely different so she gets what she wants and I don’t bug her about it. She is in super shape so I’m not complaining.
Family of 4 with two athletic teens. Spend around $750 per month but I buy lots of supplements and extra protein drinks. I am happy to say that both kids have never had to visit a dr or emergency room in 18/16 yrs so we have saved big bucks in medical. oh and they both have nice straight teeth so that is a car right there LOL!
I’m sorry, do you think government intervention keeps milk prices low?
My Heart’s...is your colloidal silver solution pale yellow or clear? Do you generate your own?
I seen both colors rated preferred. Don’t know which is best or if there’s little difference.
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