Well, please don’t forget everything – just the parts I shared a few years ago about how I can feed my family of six a whole foods diet for less than $500 each month.
See, I thought my kids ate a lot of food at that time (2011)…because they did. They’ve always been very active and have had hearty appetites. But now? Well, we can polish off 2 pounds of meat, 2 pounds of strawberries, 1 pound of frozen vegetables, 5 pounds of potatoes, and a half gallon of milk – in one meal. An hour later they’ll need (and I do mean need, not want) more food, so we’ll eat a bowl of apples, four bowls of popcorn, and a hunk of cheese.
The boys who used to look like this:
Now look like this:
The little one who loved dressing up in costumes and climbing on my bulk groceries…
Can now eat his weight in bulk groceries. And he’s the youngest one of the bunch. You should see his 6’3″ brother eat. Those 50 pound bags just don’t stretch as far as they used to.
The food portions we put on our plates at meal time still look like this:
But that’s just a warm-up. An appetizer. A teaser plate. They polish that off and go back to heap more onto their plates, twice, or maybe three times – if there’s anything left. I typically have to act quickly if I want seconds (or firsts as is the case at times).
I love this. Feeding people is fun for me, watching my family eat great food is a joy, and observing healthy appetites does my heart good. Bring on the food, bring on the appetites, bring on the healthy eating!
But it does come with a price tag – an ever growing price tag that sometimes shocks me, especially when see the shopping cart, the bulk co-op purchases, the cases of food delivered to my door – and I know how long the food will (won’t) last.
This is what my grocery cart usually looks like (weekly) – filled with fruits and veggies to go with the farm fresh meat, eggs, and milk – plus all of our bulk food purchases.
Do I really mean for you to forget everything I’ve ever said about how to keep a low grocery budget while still feeding your family a whole food diet? No way. All of my tips and tricks still hold true. Our grocery budget would be increasing whether we were eating whole foods or not. I don’t even want to think about how much I would be spending every month if we were eating large amounts of processed food. I believe eating healthy whole foods is what is keeping our food budget as low as it is right now. Therefore, we’ll continue to:
- Make as much food from scratch as possible
- Buy food in bulk to cut cost
- Avoid eating out much
- Do freezer cooking
- Find great deals online
- Shop through our co-op
- Take advantage of Amazon Prime/Mom/Subscribe and Save
- Eat less expensive foods like rice, potatoes, beans, and pasta
- Grind our own grain to make whole grain flour for our baked goods
- Drink mostly water instead of purchased drinks
- Avoid wasting food (as if there are ever any leftovers to waste)
- Watch for sales on items we buy at local stores, then stock up
Our grocery budget increases, but only because we’re eating more food, and there’s not much I can do (or want to do) to change that. If they are hungry, let them eat. Just save some for me, boys!
To accommodate the changes in our grocery budget, we’ve had to shuffle some numbers around in our overall budget. Eating is not an option. The money has to come from somewhere, right? So where has it come from?
Well, as we’ve taken a look at all the line items in our budget, it can look at first glance as if there is no flexibility. After all, we try not to spend money on anything we don’t feel is necessary, so what can we possibly cut out? Nothing, really. And while I’m on the subject, can I tell you how nice it is to have a clearly itemized household budget so that we can put a name on every dollar we earn and spend? There is so much comfort in this, even if there are sometimes question marks about how to adjust those numbers.
What has worked for our family is this: Our boys are now able to earn money by doing various jobs such as mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, babysitting, and other miscellaneous jobs people call on them for. Our two oldest boys are licensed soccer officials, which means that in the spring and fall they are called to the soccer fields 4-5 days/evenings each week to referee games. They are good at what they do, they enjoy the work, they earn nice paychecks, and they are good savers. So guess what? In an effort to both help our household budget and teach them how to manage money, our boys have become more responsible for purchasing many of the items they need.
As a result, we’ve been able to shift some money from our clothing budget over to our grocery budget. We let the boys pay for their own outings with friends, church youth functions, part of church camp costs, etc. Aha! It’s a win-win. The boys get to continue eating (you’re welcome, children), plus they learn about budgeting for themselves.
I’d love to hear how you manage your grocery budget, how you cut food costs, and how you teach your kids about managing money.
Also, I want to encourage you to take advantage of what BudgetFocus offers in the area of setting us a specific (but simple!) household budget. I love this resource! Through Mother’s Day, they knocked down the price of an annual plan to just $19.95 – a super deal!
Now let’s talk grocery budgets. How are you holding up with growing appetites at your house?
My 4 boys are younger than yours (10-2) but I know those teenage appetites are coming. Thanks for reminding me to prepare for it now!
Sounds like it’s time to add more fat into the diet!! (Keeps you full for longer periods of time…)
I’m still trying to figure out the whole food budget thing. After my husbands accident, things got thrown up into the air and I haven’t had time to collect them all again yet. And now being pregnant, everything has gone out the window!
But the one thing I do know is that eating the good, health, nutrient dense food we have been eating since my husbands accident and brain injury has kept us from completely falling apart. It’s probably a saving grace in our life right now and we’re ever so grateful for the inspiration we received to switch our family to this lifestyle.
Funny that you say that – you should see how much butter and coconut oil we go through! It’s almost comical. We love healthy fats around here. :)
Praying a blessing on your pregnancy and your husband’s healing.
Really?! That doesn’t look well for my future then! We’ve got 3 boys 10 and under right now…I keep thinking (hoping) that feeding them fat by the spoonful (not really, but basically) will help out somehow. :) I guess there’s just no help for it!
And thank you. :)
I admit to struggling with getting and keeping the grocery budget in-line. What was a generous food budge 2 or 3 years ago is barely making it.
My oldest daughter has never shown much interest in the kitchen, but has decided that she’s a mostly vegetarian and has been looking up recipes and learning to cook. It has introduced Quinoa to our diet which is crazy expensive. I tell myself that she’s in the kitchen and she’s caring about what she eats so be happy!
My husband is still stuck on processed foods and Pepsi. There isn’t always time to cook a week of snacks for my son who can go through 3 boxes of crackers in a week if we don’t watch carefully.
I buy organic fruits and veggies when I can, but the amount we go through in a week can be cost prohibitive.
Funny about the fats: I’v e had my son to see an endocrinologist because he doesn’t gain weight ( 11 yrs old weighs 60 lbs.) and she said he could handle having more fat in his diet. He already eats cheese by the pound and drinks whole milk. He hates peanut butter! I cook with butter, coconut oil, and olive oil. What a challenge! At the same time I know that God is in control and will see that we are able to eat in a healthy way.
Thanks for the post. We all need to be reminded that we are not alone in our food budget struggles but that we will be so glad in the long run that we made the effort to feed our families well.
I’m not sure if you have access to Costco or not, but you can buy a four pound bag of organic quinoa for around $10 there. I buy lots of bulk organic so cheap there.
You make me smile Laura! We’ve got four girls so food consumption is no problem. God obviously thought you were the perfect couple for your growing healthy boys :).
With 4 boys of my own, ages 11mo-8 yrs, I’m where you were not so long ago. I’ve already seen the appetites growing! I wanted to say thank you for sharing all that you do here. I keep coming back for your recipes as well as your words of wisdom. Your willingness to share what you do is a blessing to me…and many others I’m sure.
I have said many times lately that I am glad the kids are all grown and feeding themselves now that food is so much more expensive. We raised 3 boys and 2 girls and our girls could always eat twice what our boys could eat and our boys were big eaters. I am always shocked at how much food it takes to feed our kids’ families when they come home to visit. We have been able to hold the budget at $250 for 2 people and we do not eat anything extravagant. That also includes the times that we do have family home. We have found that our Sam’s Club membership is really helping us to save and adhere to the budget. There has been so much talk around the web that a membership is not worth having and I believed that for a long time. But, I am not finding that to be true.
Thank you so much for posting this! Lately I have been sort of freaking out that I can easily spend $200 a week at the grocery store and that does not include our weekly dairy purchase, or our bulk Azure monthly purchases! My boys are right around the same ages as yours and man, they can pack it away sometimes….especially if they really like what I am making…guess I need to start doubling my meals…if it is not eaten, to the freezer it will go…they will eat it at a later date I am sure! Thanks also Laura SO much for doing what you do and sharing it with everyone! Most of my whole food knowledge and cooking has come from bloggers like you! Have a blessed Easter!
Yep – same thing in our house – and I only have one 11 yr old son!! But he eats and eats and eats! I really struggle with snack ideas that will fill him up – and I need to be making more for meal times – I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when he’s 15/16!!
Hahaha! I have been reading your and other real food blogs for some time now. I have been greatly amused by some of the budgets I’ve read about–in almost every case those super reasonable budgets fed families with younger kids. As an older mom now who has already been through the years feeding teenage boys, I’ve been kind of shaking my head thinking that ya’ll might be in for a surprise when you see how much teenagers eat. I actually added a second refrigerator just to accommodate a week’s worth of food! That afternoon “snack” you make for little kids coming home from school? It turned into a small whole meal. Then the big dinner. Then what used to be a small bedtime/evening snack became another whole small meal. And, no, they were not chubby past that little bit at 11 or 12 or so just before the growth spurt. Mine are not even particularly tall. Teens just need to eat…a lot.
Once they were out of the house, after years of doubling and tripling recipes,I have had to completely relearn how to shop and cook on a small scale.
Isn’t it crazy how little you have to cook now that the kids are gone? It is a REAL learning curve!
It was quite strange for me trying to cook for just two or three people when I moved into my first college apartment. I had learned to cook using recipes sized for my family of 7 – including two teenage brothers – so I had trouble believing that such a (comparatively) tiny amount of food would be enough!
I miss leftovers!! I comfort myself that real foods means that they get nutrients right away and are not eating and eating searching for those needed nutrients within junk food. But it’s like literally watching them eat money :) Easy come? Easy go!! And popcorn is our go to for snacks. Cheap and filling and it still seems to stretch. My husband is a bit horrified at how much natural peanut butter we go through though. I made my own which is delicious but it took so MANY peanuts and wear and tear on my blender that I just don’t think it’s worth it for us. Always looking for food budget savers, though. Thanks for the post.
I have to wonder if any of you are going to raise a garden? Even if you don’t have a lot of land, its quite easy and very economical to grow your own vegetables. I even grew sweet potatoes in a big tub last year, had one sprouting so I’d pull the vine off and stick it in soil and it would root and then just put in the tub, end of season, dump the tub and had lots of sweet potatoes to lay out and cure and store for winter. Lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, its not hard!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that in my list. We raise a garden, which does help stretch the budget a little bit!
Love the honesty in your food budget! It drives me crazy when people talk about how much money they save by eating real food/cooking from scratch. Their kids are more satisfied, eat less, etc. I spend $50-60 per week on produce and most of that isn’t even organic. Not to mention 3 gallons of organic milk, and other dairy. We have 3 girls, but they can still put away food and in an effort to have half of our plate be vegetables, we encourage more produce when they are STILL hungry at dinner.
Everything you said is true. What helps me? We have a garden year round and that helps a lot. We also have blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries. We have chickens to provide the 3 dozen eggs per week I use. People are shocked how much these three tiny boys can eat. I cook from scratch but keep joking that we need to get a second job for my husband just for groceries. I can’t imagine what teenage life will be like.
We sent three of them to college ;-)
Which doesn’t necessarily help b/c then I mail care packages of food and have to pay the USPS as well as the grocery store…
Actually our 12yo dd is the current ‘big’ appetite — must be a growing time for her!
We were just having this conversation a few weeks ago as it seems our groceries are disappearing as soon as they make it into the house! I’m thankful for healthy boys and the ability to feed them well – but wow, can they ever eat! Our sons are 14-6 {four of them}. From the ‘family food budget meeting’ we came away with this: We will grow and preserve as much food as possible this growing season. I’m adding a flat of canning jars to each grocery store trip in preparation for the harvests. Can’t wait to see how the Lord provides! He always does.
Why not buy your canning jars secondhand? Waaaaaayyyy cheaper!
So are you going to tell us how much you have to spend now? ;-)
Hmm, well I hesitate because I recognize how different food costs are in different regions. $800-$1000 each month depending on the season, if we buy a cow, etc. :)
We just re-worked our food budget today. We live in Alaska and have three children and we’re spending $1200/month! A year ago living in Kansas City, we spent $500 and felt kinda bad, but knew we were eating well. Our kids are only 2,4, and 6. They do eat a lot, but for us a lot of it is feeling more frazzled with moving and our kids growing at lightening speed and needing us every second of the day (what’s with THAT!? *wink*). I haven’t done a great job of increasing our meal sizes enough to have leftovers for my husband, so he’s grabbing pizza at $5/slice. And we’re drinking too much tea/coffee to cope instead of water. It adds up fast. So important to look at it regularly and make changes to get to a healthy place for your individual family!! Our goal is going to be $1000/month from here on out, but I’m actually hoping we can get below that if we’re careful. Wish we could garden! How I miss the abundant produce in the midwestern Summers! At least we have cheap fish… ;)
My grocery budget is crazy! We have had to raise it so much over the past 2 years, and my boys are 11, 9, & 7. My 11 year old would eat pretty much non stop over the past year, and he’s not into sports or that physically active, but is so skinny. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing with all that food until I realized he grew about 6 inches during that time. My 9 year old will eat an entire cantelope as an after school snack. My 7 year old doesn’t eat quite as much as his brothers, but he is very active so I fear for his teenage years. I cook from scratch and buy in bulk. I buy very little junk or processed food. My yard is not conducive to growing much in a garden or containers, so we cut back in other areas to feed our little men!
Finally! I have wondered for some time why my guys went through so much more food than yours. We have one in college this year, but when he comes home, he can clean out all the food in the house. I’ve talked with friends for years about the amount of food we go through. Produce is so expensive when going through such large amounts in a few days, but I too am happy that they like to eat healthy.
Thank you, Laura, for all you do and post.
Blessings on you and your family.
Happy Easter!
I love your blog, Laura! I have two boys, ages 10 & 8, and a one year old daughter. Our monthly food budget for our family is $600. Sometimes we’re under, sometimes we’re over, but we try to stay close. We plant a huge garden of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and corn. Besides enjoying the fresh veggies, I turn our bounty into salsa, spaghetti sauce, tomato soup, and pickles by canning them. We also planted 4 peach trees and blackberry bushes and can’t wait until we get fruit from them. In the meantime, I buy “seconds” by the box at the closest orchard and freeze, can, or make jam from the fruit. We have chickens that provide our eggs. My husband wanted us to enjoy fresh, hormone free, grass fed beef, so he decided to raise them for us (As a hobby. He’s a police officer full time). After a few years of patience, we butchered our first steers last year. We rarely buy processed food. I buy in bulk, cook from scratch, shop sales, and price match. We have a grain mill and grind our own wheat and make our bread and baked goods homemade. We’ve been on a “real food” journey for a few years making changes and improvements as we go. I love cooking and really enjoy the recipes you share with us!
Oh how true this is! My 4 boys are 19, 17, 12 & 10. Oh.how.they.eat!
I’ve decided that I just won’t eat & the food seems to go further….LOL!
We’re actually feeding fewer now that the kids have grown up and moved up. But when they were home, not only were we feeding them, but also their friends. I spent lots of money on snacks and soda. But it was important to me to provide that stuff for them. Plus we frequently had visitors for dinner. My budget was high but it was just something I considered important. It’s lower now but I miss those days!
I just remembered something our neighbor said to me recently that has helped with their grocery budget. They have started shopping on Monday instead of Friday. That way the kids have to finish up what is left in the house before they buy a new stock of food and the things they did not really want to eat are not wasted. I thought that was a really good idea.
I know you feed your family good wholesome foods, and I know that growing boys need lots of food, but I thought I’d mention that they may needing so much food because their bodies need more minerals! Food and water don’t have as much minerals as they used to! You might try adding more minerals to their diets (via bone broth and/or trace mineral supplements) and see if that helps any.
Oh, Laura, I know what you mean! My son started eating when he was ten and hasn’t stopped. I didn’t think he could possibly eat more, but then he got a part-time job that requires a lot of physical labor and I found out that he absolutely could! My entire family likes meat-based meals, but in order to make the budget work I’ve switched to more mixed dishes (casserole, stir-fry, etc.) bulked up with pasta or rice and have started serving more meatless meals that use beans or eggs as a source of protein. I’ve also started substituting cooked lentils for half of the ground beef in many of my recipes, particularly those that call for lots of flavorful spices. Thanks to you and to everyone who shares their good ideas here! It’s so encouraging and helpful to learn how others are handling rising food costs.
I know this is the same for our family of five. Kids ages 9,8, and 5 and they eat like adults. I buy a minimum of 15 lbs of bananas and 20 lbs of apples a week plus other fruit and about $75 worth of veg except when the garden is producing. We dont even eat organic, just basic unprocessed home made food and if I can keep it under $800 a month I am lucky!
Post like these always make me so excited for our growing family. I can’t wait for my heart and my house to be so full. Like you, feeding healthy, fresh food from scratch makes my heart happy!
This post is exactly why I read your blog. I don’t feel as if you are ever trying to pull one over on us. You tell it like it is, with humor.
I have noticed our grocery budget increasing dramatically over the past two years. Although my children are 14 and 12, their appetites have not dramatically increased. Yet. I am reading for the imminent future with interest.
Thanks for running such a great site!
Oh, I am right there with you! We have five boys, 17, 14, 13, 11, and a 1 year old blessing. Those four older boys – shoot, I thought they ate a lot when they were toddlers! And they did! But nothing compares to tall, skinny, active teenage boys, it is just insane what my grocery budget has become over the last few years, as I add more and more and more (and soon to be more!) teenagers. I have followed your blog for many years, feeling you are a kindred spirit with your sons. I am so happy for you to “get real” about your grocery budget. It is a short season of life, I suspect (much like those fleeting toddler years!) but it is definitely intense. I find so much health, both physically and also emotionally, from providing my growing boys with nutritious food, and plenty of it. It is worth the money we spend, and I count myself blessed beyond reason we are able to meet those needs. But yeah – intense, for sure!
This post encourages me so much! I have been feeling like I must be doing something wrong with my budget being as high as it is for food. I make everything from scratch, buy in bulk, don’t eat out etc. I never considered that the ages of the people that you’re feeding would have such an impact. But it makes sense that it would now. I have three teenagers ranging in age from 14-19 and it takes a good portion of our money to keep them fed and happy. I’m relieved I’m not the only one who has this issue:)
I have a 10 year old boy (eats like a linebacker) and a 14 year old girl. He probably eats twice what she does. I joke that when he is a teen he will need a loaf of sandwiches. We were actually just talking about this at dinner. He is a super active hungry boy :)
The biggest challenge is the fresh produce for me. I have decided that cutting just one pineapples is “why bother”. I need at least 2 to make it worth it.
We are also going to garden this summer and hoping to pick and freeze lots of fresh berries. Our fresh berries from last summer are nearly gone. **sniff**
Hello!
We have very little in common, religious or age-wise, but I have to tell you that I ADORE your blog. I’m in the process of switching my boyfriend and I to a more whole-food diet and it’s going well! It seems like at least once a week I go to make dinner and think “OH MY GOSH THERE WAS A RECIPE ON HEAVENLY HOMEMAKERS FOR THAT” and it always turns out amazing. Your family reminds me a lot of mine as I was growing up and I really appreciate your candidness and wholesome humor. THANK YOU!!!
I really appreciated this post, and you being willing to share so openly about how you’re able to afford it. I have 3 boys(6,2, and 13 months) plus 2 girls, and they definitely eat a lot already. I think it’s wonderful that you’re teaching your older boys to work and budget! :)
We have ten, soon to be 11 children and my husband and I were just reworking the budget to funnel more money to groceries. We have four teenagers, although one has a feeding tube. His formula is expensive though. We raise chickens for eggs and meat, rabbits for meat and goats for milk and meat, plus a huge garden. I am thankful to hear someone else say their budget had to increase. I have to admit I was feeling discouraged at my perceived failure to stay on budget. Thank you for your transparency.
We have a very limited budget…we wouldn’t make it on my husband’s income without a large income tax refund each year…and still wonder how the bills get paid. We have three kids (6, 3.5, 1.5) and want more. We eat a whole food diet. Almost never eat out. And eat very simply. I don’t buy much organic but do buy raw goat milk in season ($4/gallon), farm fresh eggs when we can get them ($2/dozen) and pastured chickens ($13/chicken…we get 4-5 meals from one chicken). We eat more grains/breads than I would like, but their cheap and fill you up. We spend around $600/month for groceries and household expenses…probably closer to 500/month on groceries alone. This is more than our mortgage! God provides…that is all I can say. He always takes care of us and always provides plenty of food to eat! And for all of our other needs too!
Beth, if you claim more dependents on your husband’s w4 than the irs takes less tax out. The goal is to have $0 returned and $0 owed to irs. Right now the irs is borrowing your money interest free. Check with your accountant or HR at your husband’s job about the # you should claim. Blessings!
Thanks for the advice…but we get back much more than is taken out in taxes. Once all the credits are given (Earned Income Credit, Child Tax Credits, Standard Deduction, Etc.) we somehow each year end up with a large credit. We are considered quite a bit below the poverty level for our size of family but do not use any government aid (WIC, food stamps, Medicaid, etc), so maybe that is why we get so much back? However it happens, God has used it to bless us and to provide for our family! As we follow what He has put on our hearts for our family (my husband’s job, me to stay home), He provides all our needs and even many of our wants!
I am so glad you shared this post!
Some months, I seriously think, “what am I doing WRONG?” in terms of our grocery bill. And my children are only 3.5 years and 19 months old! (with #3 coming soon.) Sometimes my budget seems blown out of the water with all the fruits, veggies, bulk food orders, and online/amazon food orders I am placing (all those things you mentioned). And of course prices just keep going up, up, up.
But what helps a TON is sites like yours that share good deals on the coconut oils, and sales on amazon that other families can take advantage of.
So, thank you!
We are a family of seven…..with five kids (6-10 months) and two adults. Some days it seems like our kids are bottomless pits and they always remain skinny. (Wish it was that easy for women! LOL) Most of our food is unprocessed, but some days I just can’t do it all with this many little ones. We buy in bulk (Azure), eat lots of veggies and fruits, potatoes, rice, and pasta. I buy chicken breasts from Zaycon foods, but only till we get our own chickens (in the process). We also have a garden and fruit trees which helps a lot. We spend about 400 dollars a month on our regular groceries and about 50 dollars on our coop order every two weeks. We don’t use Amazon. For some that might seem strange, but that is because we will not order from a place that offers Sunday delivery. (Sunday is the Lord’s day. Amazon is big enough and we are sure they make enough money they don’t have to offer this!) Anyhow, we do what we can….and the Lord always provides with exactly what we need!
Whoa, I’ve never heard of or had Amazon deliver on a Sunday before. They outsource their deliveries to UPS or USPS, so I only get their orders delivered Mon-Fri, and the occasional Saturday.
I think about this often! I don’t have 4 boys but I have 2 and already they eat a lot, even still young.
My parents did a similar budgeting thing w/ us kids when we were in high school. It really helped me learn how to budget my money, how to make choices (if I spend here, I can’t spend there/do that) because we never can do/buy everything, how to make wise choices, when to splurge and when not to, how to live within my means, and how to find a bargain. It also gave me control over my money, which gave me growing freedom/responsibility (in a good way).
oh what i have to look forward to!!! i have 5 boys (and am pregnant with a little girl), and we go through food so so fast. in fact, this year alone, we had to up our grocery budget by $150 and we never waste food. i love that we do real food and i agree that it saves us money. buying 1/4 cow at a time, getting large produce boxes with added fruit on the side every week, ordering through azure 50# of gluten free oats every month… and such… i could never make it for what we do simply using the grocery store. i love costco too, and will probably love it more and more as my boys grow up.
We are a family of six (two adults and four kids ages 1,3,7 and 9) and our whole foods grocery budget has probably increased by $200 a month over the last couple of years. My older two eat as much as I do. In fact our groceries cost more than our mortgage each month! Thank you for being honest about what it costs your family to eat healthy. I always feel like I’m doing something wrong when I spend $200 a week at the grocery store. I know I could probably make more from scratch (I used to before baby #4 came along) but we just make eating healthy a priority in our monthly budget. Who needs cable TV and Starbucks, right? Lol. Anyway, thank you for your honesty! This blog post really encouraged me not to give up feeding my family the best we can provide.
I wanted to add that we do use Amazon Subscribe and Save to help with costs on specialty grocery items, and we will again be raising ducks for eggs. But honestly, I can’t do anything else right now without losing my mind so from scratch snacks and a big garden will have to wait until next year…or the year after!
My oldest is only 5, so she doesn’t eat as much as an adult, much less a teenager (yet), but she still packs away a lot more food than her peers. (I’ve seen what other kindergarteners bring for lunch. For her, that would be a snack, not lunch.) With three kids and a hungry husband, I do fear for the teenage years – especially since we live in a small house for 5 people, which makes it really tough to store bulk food purchases.
I don’t have growing children at home any longer. There are just two of us now. But for the last two weeks I have been suffering from sticker shock at the increasing price of groceries.
This week I am rethinking our menus and recipes to see where we can cut more. It is going to take a little more time, but it will be worth it to eat healthy and keep our grocery budget under control.
I am so glad you posted this! I always wondered how blog-families did it! They seemed to eat great food for practically free! I thought I was doing something wrong… I have an 8 and 10yo who are good eaters (We are also a GF/DF family, which adds to the budget.) We can eat an entire bag of apples in a day and at least 2 hands of bananas a week! We order a side of beef every year and I’ve noticed that it doesn’t last as long as it used to. I’m thinking about canning a few things this summer to cut back on the food budget in the future.
Thanks for being honest about your food!
Thank you SO much for this article. I wished I would have had it a few years back. My boys are around 20 and I have been still trying to feed them like they were teens I guess. They always are saying lately, “Is that all there is?”, but I don’t think it registered with me that I need to be making more than I have been. This article has shifted my mind to be conscious of that. Better late than never, I guess :) Thanks again!!
Oh my…I’m seeing my future! We always say that we’re not saving for college, just for feeding 4 teenage boys. (There’s only a 5 year span, so we’ll have 4 teenage boys for several years. Possibly 5…we’ll know that in a couple of weeks. :) )
Reading this also reminded me that it’s my job as a parent to be willing to adjust with grace to the changing family and individual kids’ needs. For me recently, that’s been cutting back for a little guy who can’t eat as much as his big brothers. I’m sure it could apply to other things besides food though too!
Oh…This will be me in the near future! Thank you for the fore-warning. We have 4 boys and 2 girls. Oldest 2 are boys, 9 and 11. They are very active and they eat as much as hubby already (more sometimes)! It should be interesting since Dad is a self-employed arborist, we can’t have a pre-planned budget (except for knowing amounts I don’t want to go over). I never know how much will be coming in each month…or when it will come in! Got any ideas for people in that sort of situation?
We are also self employed with a fluctuating income each month. What works best for us is to simply spend what we need to spend, and rarely any more. That way, when we have extra, we sock it away for months there is less income. It all balances out very nicely. :)
I know what you are going through! We have 12 children, only 8 left at home now. I remember when my big boys first jumped that hoop over into eating A LOT, boy it was eye opening! LOL! Right now I have boys – 2 teens, 1 preteen and a little boy still eating large…plus girls – one teen, one 9yo and one 4 yo plus a baby girl. My tips for you are:
Have pbj, or honey sandwiches available at the table with homemade wheat bread for after the meal if they are “still hungry”.
Every dinner meal, serve a soup course before the meal. If your dinner is soup/stew, serve a salad before the meal. For some reason, breaking the meal up into courses seem to fill them up better than if you just plate it all up.
Always, serve a salad in a bowl on the side rather than on the plate with dinner. (You may already do this.)
The teen boys do need a snack midafternoon so pbjs and honey sandwiches or cheese chunks (serving size) and fruit. Pairing a protein with whatever your snack offering is will keep them satisfied longer.
Always have homemade bread at the table. A loaf.
Lordy….I appreciate your being honest and doing an update on your grocery budget! You are doing a great job, I am sure!