I’m trying very hard to write a post about how much our Grocery Budget is for 2011 for our family of six. Many of you are curious about how much money it takes to eat the way we do (especially with four growing boys) and I’d really love to be able to share.
My problem with giving you a “We spend $X on our groceries each month” statement is that I don’t feel like any number I come up with will be accurate. I’d say we probably spend an average of about $500/month for our family’s food needs. But some months I spend $400 on meat alone…other months I don’t buy any meat at all…sometimes my Azure Standard co-op order is really huge…other months I barely buy anything.
I rarely shop at a grocery store, so I hardly ever have a store receipt to guide me on our food budget keeping. We get milk and cream from one farmer, eggs from our friend, chicken and beef from a farm, venison from hunters, lamb from a teenager raising lambs, raw honey from a local bee keeper, maple syrup once a year at the farmer’s market, bulk wheat once a year from a big bulk order a friend organizes. We get sweet corn in a huge batch once during the summer and put it up in the freezer.
And so, our grocery spending each month depends on what we need and when we need it. (We are blessed to have extra freezers and storage space to support our bulk purchases.) If I were to buy what I need each month, then look at the budget and say, “Ooh goody…we have an extra $105 in our grocery budget that I haven’t spent yet…now I have money to splurge on extras like pizza and juice!” then I wouldn’t have enough the following month when we’re out of ground beef.
I don’t spend money just because I happen to have surplus in our monthly budget. I spend the money I need to spend at the time I need to spend it and that’s it. Sometimes I go over budget, sometimes I’m way under…it all averages out.
Does that make any sense at all?
In addition, we tend to feed a lot of company each month. We LOVE having people over for meals and do this regularly. The money for this sometimes comes out of our “Giving” budget instead of out of our regular “Food” budget, but it’s all food so it’s hard to keep track of separately.
So…this is why I’m having a hard time sharing what our grocery budget looks like. I apologize for being complicated. I actually feel like the way we do things is simple, because we just spend the money for the food we need when we need it. It’s fun and it’s delicious and I love knowing where our food is coming from. But it doesn’t look very pretty on paper…or rather on screen.
As best as I could I broke down our food budget for each month with a rough guess of how much I spend on average for our groceries:
- Raw Whole Milk and Cream: 3 gallons of milk at $4.00/gallon + 1 pint of cream at $3.00/pint each week =$15/week; $60/month
- Free Range Eggs: 4 dozen a week at $2.50/dozen= $10.00/week; $40.00/month
- Chicken, Beef, Lamb and Venison: $150/month
- Azure Standard order: $150/month
- Grocery Store/Walmart/Farmer’s Market (summertime): $75/month
- Bulk Wheat $210/year = $17.50/month
- Amazon Groceries
: Free with Swagbucks (more about this tomorrow)
- Garden Produce: Lots of hard work and sweat
We grow and preserve all of our tomato products, green beans and many other vegetables from our garden each year. We almost always have a chance to pick (for free) all the strawberries and raspberries and peaches and apples and pears and cherries we can get our hands on. We work very hard in the fall to can and freeze enough of these items to last us the entire year. This food is “free” but labor intensive. That’s okay, we get a big kick out of having dirty fingernails.
So, now that I’ve given you all of this information…I’d love for you to tell a little bit about what your food budget looks like if you care to share. Do you spend a certain amount on groceries each month, or do you just buy what you need as you need it? Do you feel like you should cut your grocery bill…or do you feel like you are buying high quality food at a good price?
Be sure to hop on over and read this too: No Grocery Budget Comparing Allowed
Tomorrow, I plan to address several questions I’ve received about eating Real Food on a very limited income. How can you eat a healthy diet when you barely have enough money for groceries?
I was just thinking about my grocery budget this evening because it’s not really working for us anymore. I used to spend $60/week on “conventional” grocery shopping. But these days I will go for a month or two and not step foot in a store. Some months I spend hundreds of dollars buying a grass fed cow and the next month I just buy milk, eggs, and produce. I feel like I need to get a better grasp on what we’re spending, though. I’m trying to decide if my mind set needs to be I’ll buy what we need or I’ll buy what I have budgeted — if that makes sense!
This is such a stressful issue for me. I feel like everyone else seems to be doing it so much cheaper than I can. I have a family of 7. My kids are big eaters. I try to do as much as I can organically and healthy. In my area, that’s not cheap. I do grow a large garden and we raise our own poultry. But this summer severe morning sickness hit right as our harvest came and I gave away a lot and didn’t get near what I should have to freeze or can from farmer’s markets to get me through the year. We do a cash system so I can pretty much tell you that I spend roughly $1200 dollars a month on food. But that does include some non food items like diapers/wipes and household items like cleaners/shampoo/lightbulbs, etc. Doesn’t that seem like an insane amount of money?? We seriously eat that all up! When payday comes I am OUT of food. And we hardly waste anything. I have been round and round on this issue and the only way I can do this cheaper is to make concessions on health or to greatly increase my workload (ie. no paper plates ever or such). I seriously do not know how I would do it on $500 a month!! Would love any advice you have :)
Hey, you do what you’ve got to do to make it work for YOUR family and YOUR situation!!! I struggled with posting what we spend because some people see my $500/month and think WOW she spends a lot…she must be rich. And others see the $500/month and think, oh I must be failing because I can’t keep my budget that low. We’re all in unique situations and it sounds like you’re feeding your family very well!!
I can understand that. Personally, I think what you spend Laura, is low. You get a great deal on the raw milk and cream, plus a lot of free produce!! I would die for that deal on the raw milk, I was paying up to $12 a gallon for two gallons. Since I came back home, I haven’t bought any because of the price. But for pastured eggs, I was getting them for $3 a dozen, and they are better than even store bought organic, which go for $5-6 a dozen. My one egg laying hen just laid two eggs and then decided it was too cold (I think she was happy I was home after being gone a month and laid them for me) and I have ten little pullets that are about 2 months old and will be laying in time for spring. Fortunetly, we will be moving to a house with half the rent in a few months (the house needs work, but has 7 acres), but it is smaller. I am hoping it will free me up to stock up good on the more expensive, one time a year type purchases such as at least a 1/2 a grass fed beef, and pork. I will raise enough chickens through spring-early fall to fill up the freezer with chicken.
I finally just came to the conclusion that it costs A LOT to eat well. It’s sad but tru!
And as Laura said, every single family is so different. Geographic location makes a HUGE difference, too. While I can find a lot of organic items at my grocery stores at a decent price, my ssister on the East coast has an easier time finding local produce and food.
If you can swing it, then keep going with it. The kids will be grown and gone soon enough and you’ll be wishing for those $1200 grocery bills again. :-)
For a family of three our monthly grocery budget is approximately $200 a month, but we raise and butcher one beef and one pig a year ourselves. We hunt and butcher usually 5 deer a year. We also raise our own chickens for eggs and meat as needed. We probably don’t eat as healthy as we should, but that is my goal for the new year is to try and make healthier meals without raising our budget… Thank you for all of the wonderful ideas!
We currently spend about $400-450 for our family of 4 (Daddy, nursing Mommy, hungry 2 y/o and 6 month old that hasn’t started solids yet.) I am able to get some organic produce, we can’t do dairy and I am working on buying at least beef organic but it’s hard to find in our area without buying a cow. I am hoping we can save money for a freezer and 1/4 cow over the next year. I also plan to seek out more local food and grow some of our own produce. I’m just hoping I don’t kill it all with my big brown thumb.
Some butchers have meat lockers that you can rent in order to make a larger meat purchase. Maybe check with your butcher and see if he does anything like that for those without the freezer space.
I am still transitioning from doing all my shopping at grocery stores to buying most of our food from farmers. I budget about $500/month for groceries, sometimes I spend it all, sometimes I don’t, other times we spend way more, like when we bought a quarter cow a few months ago. From what I have seen so far I am not sure that I can just pick a number that will be the same every month. I appreciate when people who have been doing this successfully share their numbers so I can get an idea of what I might expect.
I love the budget breakdown, even if it is just an average. Sometimes having a visual gives inspiration. My food budget has been all over the place for the past year. My husband separated from the military, all of a sudden we went from having a lot of discretionary income to going on a budget. I have $600 a month for food, clothes when needed, school supplies, household items and anything extra that pops up that month for a family of 5. When I first started budgeting I used coupons but quickly found I was spending more and getting less, having to dip into savings to wrap up a week. Poor planning on my part I suppose. So I started buying food weekly which has worked out ok, I am able to buy more fresh fruits and veggies but I am hesitant to buy meat, other than chicken. We aren’t vegetarians but I can’t justify high priced meat over fresh organic fruit/veggies for the boys. Each week I spend around $115 on fruit, veggies, cereal, bread, milk(for drinking and making yogurt) and 2 whole chickens. I will restock rice, quinoa and dried beans if I need to. If beef and pork are on sale I pick up some of that too but sales are rare. I guess my main problem is being able to stock our two small freezers with meat without feeling like I’m depriving the kids of fruit or getting that low on funds feeling. I’ve looked into CSAs but it just seems like it wouldn’t work out financially and I’ve tried making my own bread…I can’t get it right. We are in the process of planning our garden and I want to get a pressure canner to preserve what we grow.
It is sad to hear about your bread making attempts not working out…
I finally realized that a small thermometer goes a long way when baking bread. Yeast can be very temperamental.
If you try it again you might want to use this website for help!
Happy baking & shopping!
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/yeast_temp.html
Thank you! I think I made 2 or 3 successfull loaves,
the rest were either flat or very hard. I had a hard time wasting
the ingredients. I will try again!
I like to have a bread machine make the dough for me, then I bake it
in my loaf pans. I see practically brand-new bread machines at the Goodwill
and thrift stores often. I bought one for my mother-in-law for $6 and
it works just fine.
We spend anywhere from $150-200/month for our family of two. I coupon clip & have saved quite a bit that way. (shameless plug: living in the southeast, southernsavers.com has helped me a ton!) Laura, I love reading your site — I rarely comment, but thank you for writing details about everything. Canning, grinding flour, etc. I really appreciate it! I learn how to do things based off your details. :)
Here’s how I budget right now. I *wish* I could grow tomatoes! We buy almost all of our meat from one store, and our groceries from another.
http://www.milehimama.com/2010/10/13/real-food-frugal-food-working-the-budget/
We spend $600-700 a month to feed 10 people but it doesn’t break down exactly into a weekly amount, either This next year I am going to endeavor to shop every other week (just have to figure out the whole milk logistics, LOL!)
I was thinking we spend about 150 a week for a family of 7.
We try not to buy extras! But when you want the good stuff it does add up,but I consider it an investment in our health!
Wow…some of you guys are good! I know I prob spend around $1000 / month for our family of 6 but I am not sure where things like cleaning supplies end and food begins. We just moved to the Northeast and are renting…so no garden or or anything at home :( Raw milk is $7 gallon here but we just switched to Organic instead of raw and it is still $6.50-$7.00/gallon. Eggs are easily $3 dozen and don’t get me started on beef and chicken! The Absolute CHEAPEST I have found organic, free range chicken is $5.99 (costco) and grass fed beef is crazy! If I buy 1/2 a cow (which takes a LOT of money up front) I have found it for $4.90/lb. But that is really a lot of money up front. To buy it from a farm in smaller purchases ranges from $6.99/lb (ground beef) to $22.99/lb (steak) :( I am still working on figuring all this stuff out. I hope that as soon as we can have our own home and settle down, I can raise my own pig and chickens. :)
Right now our budget is $410 for the month. A goal for this year is to save for a chest freezer so I can purchase grass-fed beef from a ranch 30 minutes away. I am still looking for a good local option for healthier poultry. We live in a condominium, so we are very limited on what we can and can’t do. I have a container garden that gets taken in and out of our porch everyday so we abide by the rules. It’s not much, but we are trying to grow some of our own, like tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, strawberries, and a few herbs. Always an adventure!
We spend about $300 a month. I usually say $75 a week, but some weeks I don’t spend that much & some more. There are three of us, and we eat organic/natural MOST of the time. (nothing like you all – I admire your cooking habits!!) I do use a grocery store most time as our store carries a GREAT selection of organic/natrual prodcuts. I also have had qutie a bit of luck finding organic coupons (thanks to the internet.) And we use local farms when we can (our eggs almost always come from a co-workers farm, and in the summer we get the veggies & fruit we don’t grow from local farms.) Sometimes summer our budget gets a little higher so we can stock up on fresh farm items, but that’s becuase I freeze for winter.
I have a fairly large garden each year and try and freeze or can whatever I am able to plus we hunt all of our own meat and usually only buy chicken or pork when we want to splurge, but I would like to try and raise our own as well. We spend probably around 300-400 a month for a family of 4. I am still looking for raw milk the closest we have it is about an hour away and used to get it there when there were multiple families driving each week, but that isn’t working right now, hopefully again we will have that cuz boy does this girl miss that raw milk.
Thank you all for sharing. We are all blessed to be able to feed our families – no matter how much we are spending! Praise the Lord.
I have been tracking our spending meticulously to get a better handle on exactly where all this money is going. It seems like a fortune to be paying for food, although we do get a great deal on raw milk ($4.25/gal) and eggs ($2.25/doz). We spend about $800 a month right now for a family of 5 including 3 hungry boys. I hope to do more gardening this year which will help a lot with produce. Thanks for the breakdowns!
Thank you for sharing!!!! It is funny how prices are so different in different states! :) We are in Indiana and our raw milk is $5. Eggs are $3 (I found someone who has them for $2.50)
Where is a good place to place BULK nuts???
FUNNY that you should ask about bulk nuts…I am planning a post about this in just a few days!!
Oh do! I really want to find places for reasonably priced nuts to make our own nut butters, soaking/roasting for snacks, etc.
Country Life natural Foods has great prices on OG nuts and they are awesome!! Their shipping prices are good also.
Thanks for breaking this down for us. I would love to start adding more organic grass fed meats in our diet but it is hard to increase the budget and get less food (b/c of the higher prices!). Would it be possible to also let us know what you would consider a good deal/stock up price on the coconut oils? Tropical Traditions sends me “sale prices” all the time but I’m not really sure which one is the best deal.
Great idea…I’ll do a little research and write about this sometime.
Is this what you’re looking for?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EO5Q64?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwhip2saveco-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001EO5Q64
I shop very much like you do – we buy grass fed beef once a year from a local farmer. We buy raw milk each week from a local farmer (ours is $6.00/gal). I have 3 boys ages 9-15 and we go through 6 gallons a week so that is a big part of our budget.
We garden and can/freeze all we can in the summer.
I do shop at Restaurant Depot because they have great prices on bulk items. I go there about once a quarter.
We “average” about $900/month.
We spend approximately $100/week on food and other household items for our family of 5. We’re in the process of transitioning from white to brown and have pretty much eliminated all processed food from our home. It has been a struggle at times so far but definitely worth the work when it comes to our health. I have seen such an improvement in our youngest with his eczema. Thank you for sharing your struggle with Malachi’s eczema…it was very inspiring and a motivator to change the way we eat!
I do have one question…how do you get through a whole month with 4 boys on only 3 gallons of milk? We go through 3 gallons a week with our 3 boys!
Re-read what Laura wrote up there ~ They use 3 gal/week too =)
Yeah, I probably didn’t write that very well…it’s three gallons each WEEK, then I totaled it for the month. Confusing..sorry!
Thank you for sharing this! I’ve been looking for ways to decrease our food budget. I spend between $400-$500 each month between co-op orders and the grocery store (this includes toiletries and such)for my family of 10 (soon to be 11) and I try to buy as much organic/natural as possible. We grow a garden every summer, but we’ve already used up all the frozen veggies because the garden didn’t produce as well this year as in previous years. We have goats for our milk and chickens for eggs (their feed costs us another $40 a month). We were also blessed with 4 deer for the freezer (or canner) this year.
We’ve made a renewed commitment to get out of debt as fast as possible so I would love to be able to reduce the grocery budget. I asked for a grain mill for Christmas in the hopes of being able to buy spelt berries instead of flour, but that didn’t happen (we have to use spelt due to wheat allergies).
I think the biggest thing to remember is that prices vary so much from state to state and not everyone can have the same food budget.
I agree! Prices in different areas of the country vary greatly! A year
ago we moved from Colorado to Northern Nevada it’s been a hard adjustment.
I could get organic, cage free eggs for $1.99. Now I pay $2.49 for cage-free, non-organic. All the little things like that really add up!
For my family of five, I spend around $300 on food and toiletries. Unfortunately, that does not include as much whole food as I would like, but I just can’t spend more than that. There is NO room in the budget for more. I buy wheat, and raw ingredients wherever possible, but it is not possible to get raw milk without an hour drive and excessive expense, ad the same is true for a lot of options. We are in the process of selling our house to move onto 40 acres and a LOT of hard work to grow as much of our own food as I can manage.
For our 3 person family, we spend about $500 per month on organic, natural food. We usually go through 3 gallons of organic grass fed milk (can’t find raw milk) per week and milk is $8 per gallon (gulp). Organic free range eggs are $4/dozen (another gulp) and we go through 2 dozen a week. I work at a grocery store so I get a discount and that helps. My father provides our family with a couple of deer per year so we mostly eat free venison with some chicken and fish thrown in. I don’t like spending that much on food but since we can afford it, I do. I think the key is to do the best you can with what you’ve got.
We budget for $220 every 2 weeks for our family of 4. ($440/month aprox- give or take – I just got that raised from $200/2 wks a few months ago! Kids are growing, you know…)
All that includes: lunch fixings for 2 kids and hubby, toiletries like deodorant and shampoo, all paper products, and monthly bulk shopping at Sam’s. I’d LOVE to get a separate budget for those things! But there’s no money to take it from, really.
We’ve increased our fruit and veggies, I bake our bread, and I’ve stopped making a 9×13 when all we need is an 8×8 casserole and when push comes to shove, we do without. I’m squeaking by that second week sometimes!!! Good time to wipe down the fridge- it’s usually empty.
We are vegetarians, drink raw milk, eat no eggs, only use raw honey and maple syrup for sweeteners. Everything we eat is organic. We do not buy any convenience foods. We make a special trip 45 minutes each way, each week to buy our raw milk for $6.50 a gallon. We buy 4 gallons per week. We also put a hefty Azure Standard order in each month. This month it is $300.00. We also do a Bountiful Baskets (fruit and veggie coop) organic order twice each month which is a total of $106.00. We buy some organic food from Costco and other foods from Whole Foods Market. It is very expensive to eat this way. We spend at least $850.00 a month on food and often more. We have a family of 4 and have company to feed every
Sunday. It’s difficult spending all this money on food; however, we have considered the amount of money we spend on food to take proper care of our bodies to be of supreme importance to our family. We are investing in ourselves. It is very rare for anyone in our family to get sick. We spend no money on doctor’s visits or medications. We don’t eat out at all. We also do a CSA in the summer, buy from Farmer’s Markets as often as possible. It’s just very expensive to eat totally organic. However, we are all very healthy.
After reading all of Michael Pollen’s books and now reading Suzanne Somers “Breakthrough:eight steps to wellness”, I am scared to death for my health and that of my family. We make under 20,000 a year, a good year, for a family of 6. Yeah. So what do you do? I currently spend about $600 a month, half our monthly income on food. Organic? Please. I am just taking it one step at a time. My first step is giving up sodas and coffee, also concentrating on buying real food – nothing packaged or processed. Baby steps.
Coffee has been shown to have properties to fend off cancer and other diseases
It is not bad as everyone thinks it is.
You can feed your family well on conventional produce and meat. I do.
Most dairies have eliminated the nasty growth hormones, most advertise
that they don’t use it, so no worry about that. Just try to shop around
the edges of the grocery store, the produce, meat, dairy sections. Stay
away from the center aisles where all the processed foods lurk. If you
can find a bulk foods co-op where they sell flour and such, go for it.
Staying within your budget and eating healthfully isn’t easy but it can
be done. Don’t fret about organic and whatnot. Eat real foods and trust
that God protects and provides for His people. You are doing the best
you can with what you are given.
OH, and our budget includes all paper, cleaning supplies and pet food. Pretty much anything that is not a utility comes from the ‘grocery’ budget.
For a long time I said we had a budget of $400 a month for food. In 2010 I tracked every penny I spent on food. We spent a ton more than $400 a month. That $400 a month was what I spent at the grocery store. it didn’t include bulk maple syrup, 1/2 a pig, 50 lbs of ground beef from local farmers, bulk produce from the produce auction, CSA, etc. I realized that I feed my family much like you do. I order in bulk the local good stuff and that comes out of a separate budget. I am still spending a ton at the grocery store (I feel it is a lot) but I feed my family as much real, local food as I can. And I really wish Azure standard deliverd to OH. I would love to see you track it each month though to give us a better idea of how you handle it.
Thanks so much for sharing!
We spend about $500/month on food/toiletries/household supplies for a family of 3 (2 adults, 1 infant). Our LO drinks organic formula and I make his food from organic produce. I would love to find a farmer to buy a half or quarter cow, chickens, eggs, or lamb from, but I am not sure how to go about it.
Thanks to you, I have placed my first Azure Standard order! It comes in Monday, so we will see how it all goes. I’m hoping that will lessen our food budget or we can at least get more for our money and make less trips to grocery stores.
It’s funny that on budget articles I read food is one of the lesser costs, but it is one of our highest!
I have a family of 7 and unfortunately I do not live in an area where I can use Azure Standard. In fact, if you live in the southeast (I’m in GA), please let me know if there is a company like Azure Standard I could use.
Our budget has sky rocketed since we moved to real food. I also have a little one who has been having reactions to gluten, dairy, chocolate, and corn. Making food for him is super expensive.
I was hoping we’d be saving on doctor bills for illnesses, but so far that hasn’t been the case. Maybe we need more time for our bodies to heal from all the unhealthy foods we were eating.
Laura, thank you so much for sharing about Swagbucks. I think once I get enough bucks I will also be using Amazon for groceries. I can order Almond Flour and Coconut Flour from them.
I am from southwest GA and have trouble finding good sources of real food.
I would love to find some good places to order from online as well. I try really
hard to eat as naturally as possible, but its hard bc the best food i can
find comes from Publix, which is a 45 min drive. The farmers markets down here are a joke.
My budget is around 500 a month give or take for a family of 5 and i have never bought
any grass fed beef or bulk anything. I am relatively new to this way of eating.
I do have access to a local dairy(Sparkmans) that sells milk and butter but its not
raw or organic.
We spend what we need to on groceries each week/month. That is where we spend the most money. We don’t spend it on entertainment and such things. I see it as an investment in the health of our family and so does my husband. We buy some at a natural foods store called Earth Fare, some from our food co-op and some from a local grocery called Harris Teeter(they have a lot of store brand organic foods). I do want to go to farmers markets in the Spring and Summer, but we have very few organic growers anywhere around us and we have to go a pretty good distance to get to those. I grow some in a garden. Since we moved recently, I now have 1.75 acres so I can have more of a garden.
I don’t even look for coupons because they are almost always for junk. As far as meat goes, we buy our no hormones/no antibiotic meat from Horizon Foods and they deliver it to our door. It’s not cheap, but it is excellent quality.
Linda
I CAN NOT believe you get raw milk for $3.50 a gallon!!~!!!~!!~ The cheapest I have found locally is $10/gallon AFTER buyin a cow share for $100/gallon!
WOW! I am in shock and trying not to be jealous!
THanks for sharing your budget and method!
Just a wild guess, but do you happen to live in a state where raw milk
sales are illegal? We’re in a similar boat here.
We get our raw milk for $9/gallon after buying the cow share.
We probably spend about $700/month on groceries, but I have been buying
too many convenience foods for the past month or so. When we eat better
and less processed foods, we spend a lot less and produce a lot less
trash!!!
The word “budget” is sort of a joke at our house :-\ It has never seemed to work on paper, but we have yet to go hungry or sleep in a ditch =) God is good!
My goals for 2011…
Fareway (grocery store), Sam’s Club $480/mo
UNFI/Frontier buying club for bulk and wheat berries $50/mo
Vitamins (3 sources) $100/mo
Locker for processing our own beef $600/year ?
I could easily spend more in each category. ie, instead of my usual goal of $100 at Fareway, I spent over $150 last week. But I am resolved to do better next time by limiting myself to the cash in the envelope – ugh, discipline!
We are a family of 8 living in the midwest. I’m sure the family living in the NE paying $1000/month for groceris has a different income to go with the higher living expenses.
But just like comparing curriculum, it’s always interesting to see how other families manage their food budgets.
I just wrote a post about our why we choose to eat “real food” yesterday – it has been a journey – but I am thankful for what we have learned.
http://goodnessandgraceblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/real-food.html
We buy 2 gallons of raw milk for $52 a month no matter if there are 4 or 5 weeks in a month – eggs are $3.50
Our food budget seems pretty large for 4 people – so it would be good to learn how to scrunch it down a bit :) – my husband is so supportive of it, but scrunching is a good thing as we are trying to save money for adoption ;).
Thank you for all of your posts, Laura :)
I have recently started to switch from grocery store foods (prepackaged ect) to more whole, fresh organic foods. I too buy a lot of things in bulk from Azure Standard. I have a set budget of $275 every 2 weeks and I was just thinking to myself “what is going to happen when all the ground turkey runs out, or the lentils, oatmeal ect . . ) This is all pretty new to me and I am doing my best to figure it out. I want to purchase a grass-fed cow this upcoming summer, which is something I am also going to have to factor in somehow someway . . Making the switch to foods that are healthy for my family has been a great adventure and I love it, I just have to remind myself I cannot make all the changes all at once (for budget AND sanity reasons!)!!
I’m glad you put this out here. Because I have been working on a food budget, but if I look at it the way you do it makes sense. We live on a dairy so there are several months I go without buying milk and beef. I do buy more some months and some months really spend maybe $20 a week just on basics and veggies. Just keeping my goal of watching what I spend and trying to spend the least everytime makes a difference.
we spend about $650 on just food for a family of 5…hubby works construction and requires a lot of protein, a almost 14 year old girl and 11 year old boy, who are in sports and very active, and then a 4 year old girl who’s kind of picky.
i would like tosay I buy all organic whole foods, but sadly we are not there yet. I do try to cook from scratch,relying on the occasional frozen pizza or Hamburger Helper once every couple of months or so.
Im hoping this year we can have a decent garden and I can buy from the Farmer’s Market more often(we love their eggs but go through about 5 dozen a week so it’s expensive to pay that much all the time!)
Wow! I can’t believe some of you all spend so little for 6 or more people! We spend what we need and don’t go into debt, but I’d like to put more in savings than we already are, which means cutting spending somewhere else…Like others, everything that isn’t a set bill (utilities, house note, etc.) is in the “grocery” fund. Fortunately, my father-in-law raises grass fed beef and occassionally provides pork or venison…I make our bread, cutting down on processed foods…we’re trying to increase our garden intake and there don’t seem to be any good sources for raw milk around here…the farmer’s markets are few and far between…the lady we bought eggs from quit selling…and we live in an area that we can’t raise chickens, etc…appreciate all the ideas!!
Family of 3 – we spend $36.00 a month at CSA for 2 whole chickens and 4 lbs hamberger of all grass fed beef. That last us the whole month for meat. We don’t buy milk or cheese anymore – which is a huge budget saver and works for our family.
I’m then freed up to spend 105.00 a week on veggies/fruits and misc other items, including laundry and bath products. I buy only organic for those Dirty Dozen, then walmart for rest.
Just starting to use Azure in a few weeks so that should help as well. I do make my own bread, granola, yogurt (coconut milk), etc..and we are planning a garden in spring.
Do you serve meat everyday?? That seems like a small amount of meat for a whole month! The best ways for people to keep their budgets down is meal planning. But what type of meals people are making with their budgets would be helpful too. Living on beans would be much cheaper than meat etc.
No, we only do meat maybe 2X a week. The hamberger is split
to 1/2 lb when we use it. Plus, I usually get 3 or 4 meals out
on one chicken. So, it’s way more than we eat in a month, so
I have plenty left over.
Let’s say I do speghetti, most times without meat. Sometimes I’ll
add 1/2 lb hamberger. We do veggie pizza (we have pizza oven and I make own dough)
We eat tons of salads, green smoothies, soups (which really stretches budget)
We eat little bread, so one loaf will last a week for us. I do make the
pizza pockets found on this site too. We just eat a lot of veggies. A LOT!
We follow Dr. Fuhrmans advice and recipes (not 100% committed).
Oh and it includes dried beans/beans a lot too. Lots of fruit desserts, most are amazing and very
easy. And I agree about meal planning, one of the best things for budget.
Can I ask how you make your coconut yogurt? I’ve tried and not had great success!
Try this site, this is where I start. http://cindalouskitchenblues.blogspot.com/2008/04/coconut-milk-yogurt-at-last-dairy-free.html
I am actually about to order a yogurt machine too. But I do find coconut yogurt
is just not a thick as regular yogurt. I know someone else who adds
tapioca as a thickner. I’m ok with it as it is.
Good luck!!! Coconut yogurt is so yummy but so expensive at store. Azure carries it though and it’s much cheaper.
our family of 7 (15.9, 7, 3, 11 mos) spends about 700 dollars a month plus our beef and pork twice a year. I usually get pork (1/2 pig) for 220 dollars,beef (1/4cow) for 220, then I have to buy chicken at grocery store as I have yet to find a good source where we live. I pay 2.50 a dozen for farm fresh eggs delivered to my door. Milk here is 7.00 dollars for reg milk, 12.00 gal for organic milk and it is NOT legal to buy raw milk so i can not find any here. I make almost everything we eat, buy from the market when it is open but most are closed now and wont reopen until June, I can not figure out how to cut back anymore. My friend provides my wheat as her husband grows it 5 miles from my house so it is free! Organic evaporated cane juice is 4.00 a kilo, butter is 4.50 lb (thats not organic, organic is 9.00 a block) So there is more I would like to switch to organic but some things are just way too much money! If any of you readers are from PEI and you know someone who sells raw milk please send me a message!
You might want to check to see if there is a Horizon Foods delivery in your area. Their chicken is great! I quit buying
it from the grocer because if always went bad quickly. Horizon meat is flash frozen so it thaws easily in water
when you need it.
Very new here, and already I like the feel, you are like me, we don’t buy so much at the store so how do you figure out a budget. My husband hunts and fishes, we buy eggs from an Amish bakery, I grow a garden and freeze or can a lot of stuff, so its really hard to tell. I like that you cant come up with an amount and are honest about it, some people are down to the penny with what they spend, but real life doesn’t happen like that here, I have a 2 year old boy climbing on me as I type this, with three sons, I worry how we will feed them in 10 years, but with sites like this it helps. Keep up the great work you do.
I think for those who spend significantly more than you they need to keep in mind all the fresh produce you are able to get for free and preserve. Fresh (organic) fruit is very expensive if you purchase it at the store.
I think you’re doing great Laura since we spend that amount or a little more with only three small children. At this time in our lives however, we are not in a permanent location and are not able to get good deals on produce and can only have a very small garden. Hopefully, some day soon we’ll be back to planting most of our own produce and preserving it. I can’t wait to have dirty fingernails again :)
wow this topic generated a lot of responses! I have also been struggling with this. I spend at least $800 a month on food for my family of 6, and let me tell you, there isn’t always $800 in the budget, you know? I try to make as much as I can from scratch, but it really is a struggle to keep my grocery budget low without having to compromise on my food more than I already do…. Thanks for approaching this topic!
Semalee @ Nailing Jello to a Tree
$100/month for food for two people. Plus maybe $40/month eating out. We eat a TON of rice and beans (super, super cheap and still nutritious). We have meat once a week (usually ground beef bought on sale for $2.59/lb at our grocery store – not organic). I also eat at least one fresh fruit (not organic) a day plus canned veggies (usually green beans or corn) bought at Aldi. I know this isn’t as healthy as eating all organic stuff, but it is FAR better that all the completely processed stuff (which I got super cheap using coupons) and tons of baked goods laden with sugar that we were eating before. For people with super low budgets, I’d recommend a lot of rice and beans. Good, cheap, natural protein source. Sorry if this is a silly question, but is there such a thing as organic rice/dry beans or is what I buy at Aldi okay? Are they all the same? I haven’t read anything on here about rice or beans that I can recall.
Wow, I’m so thankful for our milk co-op. We only pay $2.50/gallon for raw milk and $1.50/dozen eggs. Your web-site has been such a blessing to our family as we journey to healthier eating. I’ve been taking baby steps for the past year, but as I look back, we’ve come a long way. I got a VitaMix for Christmas and am looking forward to my first grain purchase to arrive. We probably spend $400/month for groceries, diapers, toiletries, household items for our family of 4. We don’t eat totally organic, but have replaced most of our processed foods with homeade (although I don’t foresee giving up my Cheez-its any time soon!)
I used to coupon a fair amount, but the quality of the food I was bringing home was terrible! I really haven’t noticed much of a difference in our budget since switching to a more homeade, natural way of eating. We did a CSA this past summer, but next summer I just plan to shop at the Farmer’s Market and get what I want and need each week. It was pricey for what you get.
A goal for this year is to buy a cow and to get my pantry looking more like yours…so many canning jars of homeade food! I really enjoying seeing the video of your pantry…it was quite inspiring!
Thank you for sharing Laura. I’m with you, sometimes I spend more and other times I spend less, it depends upon what we need. On a month when I order from the co-op I spend more than my normal amount, then the next month I spend less. On average I’d say we spend about $450-$500 on groceries. We live in an apartment in an urban area with one of the highest cost of living in the country. We buy organic whole milk, but it is pasteurized and whatnot. All other dairy we buy conventional. In the winter we also buy organic eggs. But the rest of the year I barter my preserves and Christmas fruitcake with my dad for his nice pastured eggs. We buy conventional meat and produce. We get “natural” flour, sucanat, honey, maple syrup, and a few other things from a co-op.
I love to cook and make most of our bread products, and almost all of our food from scratch. Last summer I had really bad morning sickness and missed out on canning tomatoes, and this summer I will have an infant but I’m hoping to get a bunch of tomatoes canned, plus apple sauce and some peaches from the farmer’s market. My husband and I are considering buying half a cow in the fall, if we can justify the expense. We still need to sit and run the numbers, and also figure out if we can eat it all before the military moves us to our next duty station.
I forgot to mention that $450-500 figure is monthly, and we’re a family of 3, soon to be 4.
We’ve cooked from scratch/real foods for quite some time, but last year made the switch to the healthier fats, sugars and more organics. We live in an area with a short growing season, but do garden and keep expanding each year. With canning/freezing/buying 1/2 grass-fed beef each year, our budget fluctuates. Basically, we buy everything that we eat, except what we can grow on a 1/4 acre. Our milk comes from a small dairy with grass/hay feed cows. We have meat at every dinner–meat and potatoes kind of meals–very seldom do we have casseroles. In the summer we spend more for the extra for winter and beef is not included in the monthly. Monthly budget for 8 (2 adults, 6 kids –14 to nursing baby)is $800 winter and $1000 for 3 months in summer–averages out to $850+900/yr for beef.
this also includes toiletries, cleaners, etc.
Raw milk here in Texas is $7 gallon and cream $8.50.
We don’t buy premade food except the occasional tortilla, juice or cracker at costco. Still I average about 1000/month for a family of 7. Some months more, some less. We garden and have chickens, and buy in bulk. It just adds up with older, hungry kids. I used to stress about it, but life is too short and the kids too precious to fret so much. I resolve to do the best I can and then let it go! I like to have lots of fruit and veggies and tasty cheeses to snack on and I love food too much to scrimp too much. (We’re just the family with ratty clothes and home hair cuts. No wonder they always ask if I homeschool. ha ha. I’d rather scrimp on that stuff than food!)
:)
Sorry, I thought maybe that was offensive to fashionable homeschoolers.
We just happen to be the stereotypical nerdy fashion-less ones who have
no idea what is in style. I just always laugh when people say they
can “just tell by looking at us”. Tee-hee. Anyway, I hope I don’t make
anyone mad. Not trying to be a pain.
LOL! I was homeschooled K-12 and my hubby teases me that when I start
teaching our little ones (1 toddler and I’m pregnant) I have to go to
the thrift store and buy “the uniform” of denim dresses. I already have
a formidable old tshirt and slouchy cardigan wardrobe. LOL!! I know what
you mean. I know women who dress well and buy everything at yardsales
or thrift stores but really, I don’t have that kind of time to spend
shopping. I’d rather have fewer, but more practical, clothes. It means
less laundry anyway!!
I agree with Erica.
I don’t know any homeschoolers that look ratty. My homeschool group runs
50 families.I hope I didn’t step on any toes by saying that.
What part of TX are you in (you don’t have to be specific)…I live in the southeast part and haven’t found any places to buy raw milk/cream, and haven’t found many farmer’s markets without really crazy schedules or lengthy drives…am I just looking in the wrong spots?
Hi Alyssa
I’m outside Austin. My milk farmer delivers all over. He has a permit to sell raw milk in tx, which is rare. There may be a drop point near you. His farm is in schulenberg.
Check his website
Texascheese.com
His milk is delicious. The host of the drop point where I pick up adds 50 cents to each item to cover the fridge costs.
Hope this helps!
Erica
First of all, I would like to say hats off to all of you ladies! No matter the size of your food budget, you are doing the best you can with what you have, concentrating on feeding your families well. That is the best that anyone can do.
While I am sure that we all can improve in certain areas, I think it’s important not to beat yourself up over what you cannot do. We have never done a budget, we just spend what we can on what we need and hopefully it will be on sale. In the last two years, I have tried to get more healthy and organic foods into our diet. I have a long way to go in getting us on the right track dietarily (is that a word?), but any baby steps are steps in the right direction.
I so appreciate you turning me on to Tropical Traditions, Laura. Their products are wonderful and their referral program is outstanding. As I am typing this, I am looking at my TWO FREE jars of 32oz Coconut Oil that I got by referring friends. Cannot beat that with a stick! ;)
Here’s to making 2011 a better year as far as food choices and being wise stewards of our money.
Laura,
I am learning! Our family is transitioning into healthy eating and starting to order more from Azure and loving it. We are newer to Nebraska and trying to learn about resources here. I am in Omaha. I do have a question for you. I noticed that you purchase RAW milk & cream and would love to know your supplier if you could share that information (may not be anywhere near me, I’m not sure of your location, I’m new to this blog :) ) We prefer RAW milk, but I also have a daughter with a dairy allergy that can drink the RAW milk just fine. I make our yogurt out of it as well. I would love to know what source you use!!! And, are they Jersey cows?
Hello and thank you for this post, it was very informative and helpful! My goal this year is to find a local farmer to buy beef from and preferably other kinds of meat as well. I want to transition my family to a more Natural and Organic menu and it is definitely taking some researching!
Very honest and interesting post and responses. Laura: when I was reading all I could think about was “IMAGINE, if you didn’t have all the free produce”!!! Your monthly bill could probably double…
Wish we could get both Azure and raw milk out here in Ohio….
I love to see what everyone else does. I have a hard time keeping track of what we spend because it varies so much.
Like Laura, we buy from Azure Standard once per month (I have a Southern Oregon drop if anyone is interested-FREE shipping and I don’t charge to coordinate it).
We buy our eggs from friends and our milk from a family farm. I do still go to the grocery, but I would like to stay out of there. Around here, it seems like you have to go to several stores to get what you want, and it gets old. I really don’t have time for that.
I like the Grocery Outlet for some things, like organic cheese. Food 4 Less also has some wholesome choices as well, when I can get there. We also have a food co-op 45 minutes away that has wholesome meat and chicken. I just can’t get there more than every 3-4 months.
We do grow some of our own food and I dry/can/freeze it.
We spend anywhere between $500.00-$700.00 per mo. on food only. I know I can be more frugal than that. I just have to put in the work.
That is for a family of almost 8.
My grocery budget isn’t very exciting. I actually spend more on my cats each month than I do on my own food!
I’m single. I eat gluten-free because of anemia issues. I stop at Aldi’s about once a week and usually pick up $15 in vegetables. They have good quality produce at reasonable prices all year long. I love their packs of tomatoes-on-the-vine – they are always ripe and have a good flavor. I also get eggs there, usually way under $1/doz.
I get gluten-free flours, fresh butter, sucanat or raw sugar, spices and tons of other stuff at a nearby “Amish” style bulk food store – sometimes I go and spend $40 – sometimes I spend $5. I get yogurt and cheese using coupons, usually at Walmart because it’s nearby – even though I truly dislike the whole Walmart philosophy – but I’m in a college town and the grocery stores here (Copps, Pick-n-Save, Hyvee, Cub and Sentry) are very overpriced, even using coupons.
My biggest trick for saving on groceries? Buy the free stuff at Walgreens and use coupons. You actually make money that way, and I use that “overage” from couponing to buy staples like tomato sauce and other stuff that Walgreens carries. Any of the free stuff that I can’t use either goes to friends and family, gets donated to the pantry at church, or gets sold at flea markets to fund my grocery and household purchases throughout the year. I haven’t paid for contact lens solution, shampoo, lotion, soap, toothpaste or many other items in years thanks to CVS and Walgreens.
And I mooch off my cousin’s Costco membership to get good deals on gluten free crackers and other odd-ball items like Chobani greek yogurt (beyond yum!) 12-packs or their peach mango salsa (you must try it!).
I keep track of every penny I spend (I’m on a “back from the brink of bankruptcy” plan – failed business and job loss last year) so I put everything into paying off debt and spend little on “fun” stuff right now – but I truly eat well and do not ever feel deprived! I recently cut out what junk food was left in my diet and gave up diet pop when I realized just how much I spent on it last year.
You are so right – everyone’s situation is different. I have the time to “extreme coupon” (though I’m really not that extreme!) on my way to and from work each day – I just make a quick Walgreens or CVS stop and grab a couple of things each day – and it really makes a difference for me at this point in my life.
just wondering what the name of the amish type bulk store is. I have been looking to buy some things in bulk? Also, I love ALDI=)
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/grocerysavings/a/Amish-Grocery-Store-Locations.htm
The one I go to is an independent country store near Ft Atkinson, WI. There are lots of little independent shops just like the one I go to, see the link above or just goodle “amish bulk food store” and your city & state. I bet you find one nearby that you never knew was there!
Ha, sorry- “google”, not goodle. :)
Where do you get these Wallgreens coupons from?
In regards to the question about what to do if you live in a state where raw milk is not legally sold for “human” consumption. Look into local farms or farmer markets that sell raw milk for “pet” consumption. Just saying, that works here in south Ga. Same stuff, but they have to put a label on to abide by Ga laws.
We live in a state (Colorado) where it is illegal is “sell” raw milk for human consumption. To legally get around that, many famers offer “raw milk shares” where you can buy a “share” of the herd. That way you are technically (and legally) getting your own milk. We have to drive nearly 80 miles each week to get our milk but it is SO WORTH IT!!!!! Even at $8/gallon . . . our overall health has improved and that’s the only thing that’s changed in our diet. Even my husband can now drink a tall glass of raw milk now . . . and he is (was) lactose intolerant. Not to mention all the health benefits!
I have a local source for raw milk. Both of my kids have bovine “allergies”. Funny. I can feed them the raw milk and no tummy issues at all, processed junk from the store causes IBS flare ups….
Raw milk here is $5/gallon. I think cream is $8/qt.
I wish I knew free sources of produce like Laura has! I did make a commitment to pick more this summer and freeze it. And we greatly expanded our garden.
I’ll be trying to make bread more often also.
Like others, we’ve made a commitment to get out of debt and so we’re going to try to knock our food budget down because realistically, that’s the only place with any give left.
I have a budget of 150.00 every two weeks for a family of 4, but this doesn’t include the steer we buy or the pig. I also garden and preserve what I can. We also get eggs next door. ( plans are in the works to get our own chickens this spring) We also get raw organic milk and honey at a family farm about 30 minutes from us. I live near some bulk food store’s and a scratch and dent store. Some times I can get good deals at these places. Love to hear what others do.
While we’ve fought debt over the last 7 years our budget has ranged from $150 a month to it’s max ever which is $600 a month. We also live in a more expensive location than we used to. When it was lower, I had a garden but now our schedule and location doesn’t permit it so I spend more at the grocery store. I don’t have it broken down like you do, but I love the idea. It’s hard to me to know how much of each to buy + make sure they’re good deals to stay on budget etc. We aren’t even doing organic anymore but I’d like to get back to that as well.
Hi Tamara- Your situation is exactly like mine. We ate much healthier before we closed our business. 4 years later I have gained 30 pounds and feel terrible. Processed food is cheap but bad for you. We are learning to eat “clean”. Surprisingly, my two teens are the push behind this. We too miss organic food and products. We are slowly making our way back. BUT, food is extremely expensive where we live. No farms around. I do have room for a very small garden in my yard and have been experimenting. It is a challenge but I know we can make the switch to healthier eating. I read a great suggestion that if you have to shop only in the grocery store, stick to the outside walls- fresher and less processed items are there. Also, if your granny wouldn’t recognize it, don’t eat it! Still very blessed!
$4.00 a gallon for raw milk? Be still my heart! The cheapest we can get it here is $10 a gallon… and that’s from a family friend!!! (Maybe I need nicer friends???)
I appreciate this series and your site. It’s been very helpful.
I never knew how blessed I am to get raw milk for $2.50 a gallon in Pennsylvania Amish country. I am getting into canning and freezing this summer, hoping to buy produce from nearby farms and then preserve it for the winter. Exciting stuff!
Elizabeth, where in PA? I live in Marienville (16239)>
I live in Camp Hill and I spend way more
than $2.50 per gallon.
Where are you and what farm do you use?
Laura, I love your site! Thanks so much for all you do to encourage everyone.
I have one question. You said you do not go to the grocery store hardly at all. What about fresh produce like lettuce, spinach, celery, kale? I had one friend who said greens will keep even in the winter in a garden, but these things don’t last that long? How do you do something like this?
i don’t know about Laura, but we try to eat as seasonally as possible- which for us (in northern alaska) means no greens in the winter time. I sprout all the time, and we eat sauerkraut (made this past summer) which tastes fresh, and all the frozen greens from the garden this past summer. I thought I would miss it- but truly our taste buds have adapted so well that we went out to eat today and a side salad was supposed to come with my meal- it sounded so unappetizing (in the cold snow) that I turned it down:-)
ps- fresh sprouts satisfy the craving every time for us:-) you can also grwo mushrooms in the winter indoors
Question about serving company:
What are the stand-bys you serve company? Most other kids do not like my sucanat-sweetened foods.
Thanks.
Sucanat isn’t all that sweet. Works good in baking, like muffins, if you add a little dried fruit along with the sucanat for some added sweetness. Can you find raw sugar in your area? I buy it at a bulk “Amish” store for $1.18 a pound. A little goes a long way – and the granules are huge so I try to mix the sugar with whatever liquid I’m baking with so it dissolves before mixing. Otherwise I end up with crunchy food!
It’s not the cheapest option, but if you just use it for company it’s not oo bad, is coconut sugar.
I love your website and getting some great ideas. I am not able to garden because of where we live but do miss all of the fresh produce. I would love to pick fruit this spring and summer and can or something but not sure where I would store it all. We only have a large side by side fridge but my hubby keeps talking about putting in small freezer.
It is hard for me to know how much I spend on groceries because I get the bulk paper products, meat, etc at Costco and do have people over or are cooking something for my mom’s group or someone in need.
I would love to get my heavy cream, sour cream, and eggs free range and organic (besides whole foods) but still have to investigate where.
I have switched over to deli meats with no nitrates/nitrites and soda beverages without HFCS. My son and husband drink 100% but I try to have my son drink as much water as possible. My husband thinks it is funny that our son loves carrots and hummus. What is wrong with that.
I probably spend more on food than some people of a family of 3 but I love to cook. I also try to cook with whole ingredients, spices,etc as much as possible. i can’t get my husband to switch to whole wheat pasta…I have a challenge spending so much on organic or free range meat (we mostly eat ground turkey, chicken, and fish (tilapia, cod, or haddock) as this would skyrocket our food budget.
I’m thankful for your website and helpful ideas. Yes, we’re all in different places and comparing isn’t good.
We’ve also been working towards a more natural, organic way of eating. I have always kept my grocery budget low ($1300/year for the 2008 and 2009) but this year it jumped up to $2200. We have another eater and we have changed the meat we buy in a big way. I stress about it a bit, but know it is for the best! I’ve become a farmer’s market fan in a big, big way besides doing my own gardening on our tiny shady city lot! And we have way more food canned and a 1/4 beef in the freezer that we didn’t have at the end of the other two years. So, as my husband said (while laughing) “You are only $83/month over what you budgeted!” We are both on board with the change and I just keep working on making/storing/saving/gleaning wherever I can to make up the difference as our babies are growing and eating more. We are currently a family of 4.
I am grateful for all your suggestions, ideas and recipes!
Heather
I think you’re wise not to post your specific budget. Food prices vary by region, too. I’m sure potatoes are cheaper in Idaho than in places where theyr’e hard to grow. Lobster is cheap on the coast but expensive the central states, etc. Plus, feeling like you have to follow one set of rules makes things so grim. I mean, don’t we all have things that are pricier that we’re willing to splurge on – that’s what makes living on a budget enjoyable, afterall. I think it’s far more helpful to each other if we share our STRATEGIES – that’s what sparks motivation and inspiration. I just stumbled on your blog and I love it so far! Thank you!
Laura,
I feel the need to stick up for you. I think you made your article very clear that you didn’t want anyone
to compare themselves to you or each other. I also think you made it clear that prices and things do range
as do incomes so again you said let’s not compare. I appreciate your honesty and willingness to put yourself
out there. I just wanted you to know that.
Ah, now I see Jill said she thinks your wise. I thought she said you were not wise.
Sooo sorry Jill, I jumped the gun!!!! Please forgive me!
If you figure up 3 meals a day for 6 people, that’s less than $1 per meal/person. Not too shabby. Factor in snacks, even better. Add in the fact that you feed others (be curious as to how many extra plates you serve a month), this could be totally AWESOME! Don’t even mention how much better food this is than processed junk. Can’t even touch the price of this if you ate out somewhere! You’re spending between $16-17 a day for SIX people. I don’t care where you’re from, I think that’s pretty good. It’s difficult for two people to eat one meal out for that.
I’m kinda like you, I buy in bulk so it does vary. We buy when we need it. And we raise our own beef, so have no idea how much we would be spending if we bought beef. It’s hard to stick to a certain “monthly” amount due to this. I’ve been trying to do a little better about the monthly grocery trip (that really doesn’t include my “bulk” buying) and will be targeting that more this year. Actually eating from the pantry this month and just buying produce and milk (mainly). Even getting back into making bread so I don’t have to buy it ;)
Started the whole foods journey really a year ago and did a lot of splurges stocking up on the “good” stuff in 2010. I don’t mind spending money on that, it’s a good investment. I just need to get a better handle on a few “unnecessary” food items.
I am new to this “Real Food” diet concept. I am sick and tired of going to the grocery store. Every week it is like a chore to try to come up with more interesting meal ideas. I am in a rut. Also, like someone else posted, you have to go to two or three stores to get all your shopping done. I have an 800 dollar a month budget and that is to feed 4 grown people and 4 little people (8,6,4 and 1). I t is hard and I do get the concept that more nutritious food sustains one longer therefore less is needed. I am just having trouble making the transition. I took myself to the Walmart determined to buy only real foods, half way through I began to panic, not knowing what I was going to do with what I had in my basket and immediately started collecting the items I am more familiar with like pasta and meatsauce! Now I have meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy and some items like sea salt and butter bt I don’t know how to turn these things into good meals! Also, raw milk here in my area, I am in Texas (North of Houston), is 10.00 a gallon! I can’t force myself to buy a gallon of organic milk for 6.92 much less 10.00 a gallon! My husband and are in the process of buying a home with land so that we can garden, have cows, pigs and chickens, and I can learn to can and preserve our food. That is about 2 months away, what do I do in the meantime? Once I “get” a concept, I want to jump in headlong into it, I am not a patient person. Especially, when you hear how terrible the food is you have been eating! Once I read how bad sweetners are I went to my pantry and threw away a brand new box of Equal and many other things that I had read about. I had a trash bag full when I was done! So, any advice on what to do with this food? Azure is now delivering to Texas so I can began to partake of that option. Any books or websites to learn from would be great! Thank you!!!
Angel, I commented on this post myself below, but to your specifics,
I’ll jump in with a few. First, I’m not a patient person either, so I get it.
Recommend that you look at what you can do with the most impact. I can’t
tell from your post, but I’d say the first thing I would do is stop
eating products with high-fructose corn syrup if you haven’t already.
Then start looking locally. check out localharvest.org for sources. read
lots of blogs. Mine (non-commercial) is more about Central Maryland, but
the themes are there: http://www.faces-of-local-living.blogspot.com.
Books. I’d recommend Nourishing Traditions Cookbook, Simply in Season
as starters. You can get them from the library. Nina Planck’s Real Food
as a discussion of what really is good food. Your Big Green Purse is
another great book about transitioning choices, like you are making. Use lo
local harvest to find CSAs near you for the growing season; contact farms
and ask whether you can buy direct/visit; prioritize your shopping, maybe
milk is just a stretch too far right now. Good luck!
The best way to learn to cook, is to cook! You can follow along with any cookbook, just substituting the real food in place of whatever processed food the book suggests. For example, if a recipe says 1 cup sugar, use 1 cup raw sugar or whatever you have. Also start reading food blogs to see quick recipes every day – you can learn a lot just seeing what other people are doing.
Some that I love are:
Chickens in the Road
smitten kitchen
Nourished Kitchen
The Nourished Kitchen is a real food blog, CITR is a from-scratch blog and smitten kitchen is more of a gourmet blog. I take inspiration from all of them.
I guess it is the turning of the year that makes us all reflect on what we’ve spent where and how – I’ve been doing the same in my own blog in various ways. Our grocery store shopping has continued to go down as our local consumption has gone up. We are taking from the food I stored during the growing season and we are super lucky this year to have found a Winter CSA that’s not too too far away. I’ve written recently about the CSA experience and our food storage haul, as well as the beef purchasing process. I am most interested in how people like yourself (or like myself) make their choices between local, organic, the store, the market and the considerations they undergo. Delighted to find your site.
You are definately blessed to get milk and cream for such a price and so many free fruits and vegetables. That’s amazing!! My problem is, I’m a horrible gardner. I keep trying each year, and I keep failing. I just ordered my seeds for this year, and I’m going to try again. We also have really bad soil in our yard and we don’t have the money to invest in a raised bed system. Anyway, hopefully this year will be better!
Raw milk here runs $8+/gallon! I did find a local dairy that sells non-certified organic milk, low temp pasteurized, non-homogenized for a price comparable to grocery store organic, so th
How blessed you are to have real food prices so low where you live! Raw milk in CA is $8 a gallon and raw cream is $11 a pint. I shop mainly through Azure Standard so I can save as much as possible, but our raw milk products are really high out here, as is produce. we just have to make other sacrifices so we can afford to eat healthy. Appreciate your transparency to share how you budget. It’s all very relative and personal and dependent on where you live. When I teach meal planning classes, I spend a good amount of time on budgeting and providing suggestions on how to save money – one of the biggest is joining a co-op and also buying bulk. Things you certainly already have put into practice. Thanks again for your wonderful site. I find it truly inspiring and helpful! Blessings, kel
Hello, I am a newlywed, working full-time to put my husband through college. My mom never really cooked a whole lot and we were raised as “fast-food” kids. I am struggling, I save money when using some coupons, but usually its just the processed junk that is discounted. I have started buying in bulk from some of the members only stores, but I always feel like I didn’t plan well enough or I am missing key ingredients. I make my own yogurt, and granola, I freeze alot, but I can’t get the whole menu planning thing down, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to only have to shop once a month or even every two months. Any tips? What websites were you referring to? Any help will be appreciated!
Would you consider sharing a Master Pantry List of the basic and typical items you normally buy and keep on hand to help those of us starting out to have a better idea of what ‘normal’ items are in this healthier way of cooking? (Pantry, fridge, and freezer?) It would be a very helpful guide to those of us who feel to inept at doing this. Every time I go to the store I struggle with whats the good choice or not and feel like I’m floundering terribly. With no guide to follow I feel very unsure what are proper choices to change to. I’ve upped our produce purchases but honestly thats about it because I feel lost.If could do share such a thing it would be greatly appreciated!!!
Blessings
Shellie
I am trying hard to fit into our $600 a month budget…and that is trying to eat organic as much as possible and gluten-free (and that includes diapers for 3 kiddos too!) I just found a source of free range eggs (yeah!!!) and a group from church order from a co-op.
I saved 46% this week (according to my receipt) at the grocery store.
I have fit couponing into organic eating and a audio program I purchased to teach me couponing was Grocery University…you can read and purchase it at http://bit.ly/GroceryU2011
I live in Maine where I purchase raw milk from a local farmer at $3.00 a gallon. I skim the cream off of the top the next morning so that is in with the price. I grow a huge garden every year and try to can as much as I can out of that. I raise my own chickens and turkey and broiler chickens so eggs are free to me, Besides feeding the birds that is. And the broiler chickens cost me about $150 a year. I raise 30-50 broilers a year. i buy bulk through a local wearhouse that sales to public. Don’t quite know what that equals out to cost a month.
I have learned a lot from Laura about buying bulk.
Thanks Laura!
Thanks for sharing. I too am trying to “break down” our budget to really figure out how much I spend and where/when.
I wish raw milk was so cheap here. I was paying 5.50/gallon but have moved and now can’t find it cheaper than 7.50/gallon. Eggs I can get for $3 a dz if I look hard but the best tasting ones cost $5/dz. We’re in VA.
We had been a part of a CSA that really helped us keep our veggie and fruit cost down and we normally got enough food to freeze or can to help get us through the year. Unfortunately we moved too far from it! But we’re working on the veggies with our own garden.
Wow! Not sure where you are, but I was baffled how you could spend so little, until the part where you lined out your prices! I can’t even imagine being able to get those things so cheaply! For the milk, cream and eggs at least, we’d have to spend twice what you pay. Lucky duck!
yep! likewise! where we live, the cheapest raw milk is $10 a gallon, which is WAY outside our price range so we are settling for storebought whole.
I guess what I don’t understand is when you said in your post that you don’t just buy pizza and juice when you have extra money because then you won’t have enough money for ground beef next month- but then said, what I percieved to mean that you don’t have a set budget, so what i’d be curious to know is how you know if you HAVE extra if you don’t have a set budget??? I don’t mean that critically. i’m trying to figure this stuff out as we are in a place where we spend WAY more than we can afford to on food, i’ve not yet learned to manage the grocery budget well and with 9 of us, i NEED to. I like your idea of finding the best source for a particular class of food and always getting it there. I’ll be eagerly watching this!
Let me try to clarify (or confuse you more??). :)
We do have a set budget of $550/month. But, I spend a different amount each month, which AVERAGES to $550/month. Some months I over spend that $550, depending on what we need that month. And then other months, we don’t need to purchase much because we’ve got all of our staples stocked away – so we spend less than $550.
So, say one month we don’t have many big needs except for milk, eggs and produce and I only spend $200 for groceries. The remaining $350 will go toward another month’s grocery needs.
I said what I said about the juice and pizza because some people look at their budget and see that they still have money leftover, so they’ll just spend it. I can’t do that or I won’t have what I need for the months I need to go over our $550 amount.
Did that help explain better? :)
ah.. YES!! that makes perfect sense! thank you!
Just a quick question~ do you really only use 3gallons of milk per month? How often are you able to make yogurt/sour cream ect? and how much do you have for drinking? LOL my hubby just said “I could use 3 gallons of milk in a week!”.
Ha ha I just re-read it and you use 12gal a month!! Makes much more sense :)
Thank you so much to everyone for sharing your grocery budget. This is a very touchy subject in our house because of how much is spent on food. I was encouraged by some friends to do coupons as they would show me all of the money they saved and I would feel even worse that I could not save as much as they would because most of the coupons were for prepackaged junk I wouldn’t even feed to my animals, let alone my kids. I also cannot give an accurate number for what we spend, do to one month buying bulk at Sam’s Club or from the Natural Bulk Foods online order. All I know is that we are wanting to eat food that actually has nutrition in it to keep our bodies from getting sick and I am willing to pay more for that than to have to pay a doctors bill. We only go once a year to have their vitamin D levels checked–so eating healthy is worth it! Also, LOVE that idea of using the “giving fund” to entertain at home!!!:)I would stress out in thinking about having to buy extra in order to either take a meal over to someone in need or have families over knowing I had already spent my limit for the month. Love this website!!!
Hello – Mint.com just averaged my grocery purchases for this month – $822. I am a single person. I do not eat out even 1 meal (ok, sushi twice). Thanks for sharing your budgets everyone. I think I can do better than $800/month. Hopefully this is one of those “high” months, stocking up on staples. The month isn’t even over yet! I must eat gluten free, and have been stocking up on baking staples like agave and raw organic almonds. I used to eat on a budget when I was out of work for 3 years, but over the past 2 1/2 I’ve had a good FT job, and lost track of the grocery spending (telling myself it’s impossible to eat gluten free cheaply). I do have a tiny freezer, so that may be just one obstacle to eating well cheaply. I’m going to try to keep it to $700 next month. Thanks for the inspiration.
I currently am restocking a kitchen, freezer and pantry, so my budget is a bit wonky right now. Normaly it is about (on average) $450 a month. That is for 4 people. No boxed anything. I buy meats in bulk and freeze them. I have really cut back on my families meat intake too. I bulk up on beans and veggies (my husband didnt realize it until he helped me divide up meat once) Right now I am guessing that I am more in the $600 range. But we are restocking a freezer and a pantry after a big move. My husband moved 8 months ahead of the boys and I, so we got to start from scratch in the kitchen.
I know this post is very old, but I have a suggestion: how about keeping track of your groceries for all of 2012, then averaging the totals out at the end of the year? I’d be interested in knowing how this works out. Like you, we buy a lot of food one month, not so much on others.
Food here is so very exspensive but I am living on a island where everything is imported but what we grow. Food is our biggest exspense and I some time think it may not be worth the freedom that we have here. But doing yourself makes the difference and this site can help no matter where you live at.
I’m surprised you guys have such small food budgets. I would say I spend around $1000 per month on food for a family of 4.
I buy organic grass-fed raw jersey milk for $8 per gallon plus delivery and eggs for $4 per dozen. I can get milk from a local farm for $2 per gallon but it’s not as high quality.
I can get eggs for $2/dozen but I don’t know that it is worth the gas to drive to a farm just for eggs.
I think if my family cut back on meat we would spend less.
I shop mostly at grocery stores for what we use. Do you folks with small food budgets mostly eat organic?
Any suggestions?
(P.S. Farmers’ markets only go on 3 months per year here and they still charge a lot for their produce.)
We typically spend $1000-$1200 a month for a family of 7 in Columbus, OH. Food is our single biggest expense, (a third of our disposable income) even more than the mortgage.
We buy minimally pasteurized milk for $6.50 a gallon.
We get a winter CSA for $585. Our garden this summer was not very productive at all.
We buy things like olive oil, butter, eggs, 50 lb.beans, lentils, rice and oats from Whole Foods. They used to offer a 20% case discount; now it’s only 10%. We get meat there too, (though in the past we were able to order a side of a cow direct from the farmer. We were getting gallons of apple juice to ferment into hard cider, but it’s currently unavailable.
We get fruit and other odds and ends from the local natural market. We also get a 50 lb. bag of rye flour and make our own sourdough bread.
And we mail order big blocks of cheese from an Amish organic cooperative.
I hate having to ration fruits, and feel like we are choosing quality over quantity. One doctor said “at what price health?” But I feel like the amount we’re spending is breaking us.
Colby,
I feel your pain. I thought we were spending in the $900 range (still a lot) but no we are spending $1300 to $1500 a month. UGH!!! We are dairy free and gluten free. We rarely eat out. I pack the kiddos lunches. We make our own rice milk for the 2 year old and 1 year old. We drink water. UGH!!! I literally buy 2 packaged foods. One is veggie straws and then we buy nut thins. We don’t buy junk food ever. We are over spending on our budget by $500 a month. I can’t help but think it is our groceries that are killing us. UGH. I do feel a bit inspired to try some of the sites Laura posted. I think we could do quite a bit better on our staples. I would be thrilled at this point to save us $200 to $300 a month on food. Wish me luck.
I buy Organic on what we eat the peals on when it is in season and cheap. I also freeze it when I can get it cheap. I can too, so that helps. When it isnt in season I dont buy it. I dont buy raw milk. I really dont see the draw (and I cant get past the texture/taste thing) but milk isnt really my thing and my kids arent huge on it either. Eggs I get on WIC and we dont use all of what we get. When I need more there is a local lady that sells them for $2.50 a dozen so I try and go to her.
Things like bananas, avacados, oranges and what not. The things that cannot peal they are finding that it really doesnt make any sense to go organic on. I have felt that way for years. I generally have a garden in the summer that helps cut my cost. I buy frozen organic veggies then things arent in season (Grocery Outlet and Costco have some really good buys)and generally nobody knows the diffence. We had a friend living with us for about 6 months and until I said something she was clueless. I dont even defrost them if I toss them in the pan to saute them.
This year has brought some major changes to my kitchen. No more proccessed foods. Nore more frozen boxes (except Lasagnas for when the large family comes over, but hey I cant beat $6.99) I keep high(er) protien pasta or WW pasta in the house now. Mostly homemade beans and tomatoe sauce (a few jars and cans just in case) It takes practice and patience.
Thank you VERY much for the posts and for trying to explain the details. This is VERY appreciated and exactly what I’m going through and need right now. Many thanks to you Laura and those that post!
Fortunately my husband works on a dairy farm. We get a gallon of milk everyday for free. Also we get a half cow free once a year. We have to pay to have it processed but at 55cents a pound for whatever cut its so worth it.
I have a question semi-related to this. I got my first Azure Standard order, and with it 25 lbs. of hard, red whole wheat flour. Tried making my favorite whole wheat bread recipe, and it turned out terrible. Seems there is no gluten at all in this flour. Was runny and couldn’t form a loaf; also, crumbly and hard. Is there a better Azure flour to use? I like the store whole wheat, although it is not organic or anything, but want a similar Azure one. Thoughts?
Laura uses hard white wheat flour. That might help. :)
I would love to find out where I can get free peaches, apples, cherries, and berries. I have put up signs and posts asking to glean, with no responses. I am more than happy to do the work of harvesting, and don’t even mind a distance of travel to get to them. We live in Olympia Washington, if you have any helpful ideas. Also, how do I find out where to purchase raw milk and cream…I’m about ready to buy my own cow!!!
I post on Craigslist and Freecylce (check out freecycle.org) Also just drive around and ask people. If you know anybody that used to can, but has gotten a bit up there in years offer to pick the fruit and then give them a some. I ran into a lady at the grocery store once and got a ton of “wasp bitten” white peaches. Perfect for jam. Just start asking.
I wish I had your honey guy nearby. What a deal that is.
Thanks so much for sharing. This gives me a great idea of where I need to be sourcing and prices to think about as I try to be responsible with our money and health. So appreciate your blog chock-full of honest parenting/living and the Lord. I’ve been reading for about 5 years now and you are always a keeper in my Reader : )
I feed a family of Husband, myself & 5 growing eating machines, ages 14, 11, 8, 8, & 1. The twins are girls, the rest are boys.( they eat like there is no tomorrow, & all 5 are gluten free)
We grow a huge garden every summer & freeze, dehydrate & can, everything from toms, corn, kale, green beans, broc, onions, spuds, lettuce, herbs, squash, peppers, you name it we grow it. In the summer I get blueberries, peaches, apricots, cherries, & pears shipped in, for cheaper price than the grocery store. I have a cool room in my basement where I store my root veges from the garden & the 2000 or so quarts I can over the summer & autumn.
I barter homemade bread for organic raw milk that I turn into butter, yoghurt & soft cheeses.
We are vegetarian, I buy all my grains, nuts seeds, legumes & dried fruit through Country Life Natural Foods based out of MI, their trucks come through once a month.
I buy my non food items from Sams club.
I buy my fresh produce in the winter through a buying club, where we get OG cheaper than conventional produce.
I get soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, essentiel oils, herbs, spices, from another buying club through Frontier ( @ wholesale cost ).
Asian market for palm sugar, nori sheets, “celtic salt” ($2 per pound!).
I don’t shop at the grocery very much, usually for a few odds n ends I either forgot or can’t get elsewhere…
I try to buy mosty things OG, but sometimes I can’t. We live near 45 min from St. Paul, MN.
I spend on average $1000-$1,200 per month. $300-$500 a month from CLNF. $100 per month through Frontier. $300-400 a month fresh produce in winter. $50 a month sams club. $100- grocery store per month. Different months have different needs, so like I will buy & stock up more on bulk through CLNF in the summer as almost all our fresh produce is from the garden.
At times I wrestle with spending less, then I remember I am building strong healthy bones & brains, and that is pricelss
This is an area I’ve been working hard at cutting back in! It’s been enlightening to see what other people do to keep their budgets down but their food natural.
We’re a family of four (2 adults, 1 toddler and an infant) but even with such a small number I find groceries are really expensive.
We buy a freezer ‘meat pack’ for $60 every two weeks or so. It includes ribs, chicken (breasts and leg/thigh quarters) ground beef and pork chops. With some vegetarian meals thrown in there it will last us the two weeks.
I also inquire at my butcher’s for bones, which I can buy for $1 a bag and I use them to make broth. I supplement this meat with the occasional gift of a rabbit from a hunter friend, and I stretch it with beans, rice and breadcrumbs.
I make our bread using a bread machine to save labour. I also make tortillas and biscuits to save on yeast. I buy my flour for this on sale as much as possible, but this is an area I could really use some work in.
As much as possible I buy my honey at the local health food store, which is expensive, but I have heard that local honey helps with seasonal allergies, which my whole family suffers from.
I rarely buy produce that isn’t on sale. I buy potatoes in a 50lb bag for $8.99 and the rest from the 50% rack at the grocery store. I usually cook and freeze them immediately. When produce is in season (like zucchini) I buy as much as my little freezer can handle and store it.
I do my best to stay away from processed foods, but sometimes life is what it is. When I do buy them I focus on canned meats and fish, and canned vegetables that I can’t otherwise find cheap or frozen, like mushrooms. If there is any ‘wiggle room’ in my budget, this is where I spend the extra.
Ooops! Pressed ‘enter’ too soon. :-)
I meant to add that in terms of dairy, we buy whole milk at a local gas station that offers the cheapest prices in town but is still about $5.80 for 4L. I use this milk for cereal and drinking, but for cooking I make ‘cooking milk’ by watering down a can of evaporated milk.
We have two cats, and we buy them a urinary tract health no-name cat food and their litter in 50lb bulk boxes.
I mooch off a friend’s Costco membership and pick up some things there when I can.
When I’m in the city I also try and visit a bulk-foods dry goods store for pasta, legumes, etc.
Since my city trips are very infrequent (a couple of times a year, max.) I get most of my dry goods on sale. When I find organic brown rice I buy as much as I can afford.
I also visit the Dollar Store here in town because they sometimes stock foods I can use, like oats.
We have two children in diapers, and we use cloth diapers which we’ve collected over the past 3 years. I have ‘real’ cloth diapers (purchased second hand or gifts for the most part) and I’ve supplemented our collection with kitchen towels and recieving blankets as extra flats. We use cloth wipes made from cut up baby clothes that got stained.
The rest of our toiletries we don’t do as well on. We buy on sale when we can, but we still spend quite a lot.
Baking soda = wonderful facial scrub/cleanser, good tooth cleaner, good for shampoo (takes getting used to no suds). For general cleaning: it’s good for scrubbing sinks, tubs, pots & pans, etc. You can also sprinkle it on your carpet a few minutes before you vacuum to freshen.
Vinegar = absolutely fantastic fabric softener! I have been doing this since my babies were babies almost 40 years ago. I used to wash and rinse the cloth diapers twice. It dawned on me one day that cotton was very soft when harvested so why would it get crunchy/stiff when it’s made into clothing? Aha! SOAP RESIDUE ! So I could either rinse the load twice or use vinegar in the rinse water (I just put it in the fabric softener dispenser) to cut the soap residue. Sooo much cheaper than fabric softener ! My clothes are very soft, do not fade and have a very fresh & lasting scent (they do NOT smell like vinegar)…I line-dry whenever possible. Also my dryer is not coated with film from the fabric softener. And it’s so cheap. I use it to clean glass, freshen carpets & upholstery, etc. (vinegar+H2O in spray bottle)….I have house pets.
Mix Vinegar+BS+water = burnt on crust remover on your cook/bakeware.
If you just google you will find hundreds of NATURAL , inexpensive ways to clean your home, your laundry, your hair and body. There’s a book by a Dr. D.C.Jarvis that is very helpful in keeping you healthy with apple cider vinegar and honey. We used to drink this (1tsp. of each in a glass of water) daily as kids….and we were never sick. Just google Dr.Jarvis and you’ll find all sorts of info.
Also, look into coconut oil. Amazing product.
There is so much out there that it’s totally unnecessary to overspend for pre-made products. There used to be TOP JOB and MR. CLEAN. One was yellow, the other green. They were both the EXACT SAME PRODUCT but women bought 1 of each because one was for floors and the other for general cleaning. Crazy.
That’s all for now…before this becomes a book !
Family of three and animals we spend which now seems rather a lot… About 700 . Guess I could use these tips! We eat vegan but I grocery shop so likely pay high prices. I’m not much of a price warrior. Thanks! As for raw milk we looked into it here in Ohio they offer shares. It’s a bit too pricey for me just for milk. A share is some 25-50 monthly not including milk plus it’s like 40 minutes away. Still I enjoy soy milk very much.
I have exactly the same food methodology and have been following it for years. As for your grocery budget, thank you for sharing. We are also a family of six, and just in the beginning stages of establishing a sustainable and organic farm in NE New Mexico. However, for the first year or two we still have to buy wheat. I’m guessing that you, like me, bake EVERYTHING, so how much wheat do you order to cover a whole year? This past summer I ordered 50lb bags of organic wheat from Amazon (Great River Milling Co.) but it surely wouldn’t work out to anything like as inexpensive as yours. I’m guessing that if I have a clear idea of how much I’d need for a whole year, I could find far better bulk deals.
Thank you for your time and for the great, simple, and effective recipes!
I usually go through around 400-500 pounds each year.
Wow!! My grocery budget is something I constantly struggle with. We are a family of 6, and eat a very healthy but mostly “normal” diet. The kids aren’t horribly picky, but my husband has MS – which makes for some interesting dietary challenges (almost NO fat, absolutely no preservatives or weird chemicals, that sort of thing). He is also incredibly picky. LOL
Possibly the biggest challenge is that I work full-time out of the home AND am going to school full-time (online), so I don’t have the time I would like to devote to cooking ahead of time. Still, I aim for a budget around $800/mo – and consistently go over by $2-300. It’s disheartening and we really can’t afford it, but I’m having a hard time finding where all the extra is going!
What are the biggest “cost savers” you implement as far as buying and preparing in bulk that would be doable for someone with minimal time to spend?
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, wisdom and humor here – this has been one of my favorite sites and inspiration for several months now. :)
Not sure this will help you, but here’s a post I wrote on this subject: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/keeping-expenses-low-while-eating-a-healthy-diet
As far as having time to cook….I knew an extremely busy lady who used to cook a whole week’s worth of meals in one day. I think she did it on Saturday and involved the whole family. They had fun. The kitchen was a disaster. They froze the meals for the entire week. It was their own family ‘adventure’. If you don’t want to undertake such a massive cooking event, you might want to do the old “Cook Once. Eat Twice.” method….simply make a double batch. Eat one now. Freeze the other.
Look into Coconut Oil (google for more info)…it’s very good health-wise and beauty-wise.
Baking soda, vinegar and honey (careful….so many in grocery stores are mostly high-fructose corn syrup )…from a farmers market, etc. are all very useful for personal, home, laundry, etc. use…and are relatively inexpensive.