Homeschool World Forum

I was just doing some budgeting, and I was wondering if we spent more or less on groceries a month than other families do.

There's 3 of us, with occasional grandparents for dinner (eating, not being eaten). I reckon we spend about $400-$500 a month... but I also have 2 extremely picky eaters on my hands. The DH and DS are persnickity.

I of course, realize that a bigger family will spend more.

Just curious is all.

you all speak of eating organic and non-processed foods, that is pretty expensive!!

My husband was a bachelor dad with little cooking skills for quite awhile and he's gotten to the place where home cooked meals aren't his cup of tea. In fact, it seems the more time I work on a meal to make a nice meal the more he gripes about it. Now, if I throw fish sticks in the microwave and give him a bowl of corn and a dish of mac/cheese - he's thrilled to death. He had my 7 y/o during his learning to eat years alone and now that's all the 7 y/o wants. If it is remotely "home-made" he has a fit.

I get so tired of processed foods and crappy food like that. I often feed them that stuff and myself a nice piece of meat and a baked potato and lettuce and they think I'm just being gross. I just hate that.

$100 a month!

Where do you get these coupons? Surely we can scale back if you are able to get by with $25/week.

We love rice, too. The price has skyrocketed and sometimes the store has none at all.

I search the computer for them and in some cases write the companies and ask for them. Really though the biggest thing that I do is buy clearance and I shop at Aldi's. For instance, the other day I bought post and general mills cereal. I got chocolate chex, kix, and one other, I can't remember what it was right now, and they were on clearance at Wal-Mart for 50 cents a box. They were regular sized boxes just on the clearance rack. I also got myself a box of kashi cereal on clearance that day for 60 cents. They had canned cheese spread for 25 cents a can so we got 4, my kids love that stuff. THey also had speghetti for 30 cents a pound, Welch's grape juice for 75 cents for a big 64 oz bottle, Kraft pasta salad double pack for $1.00 and crackers for 25 cents. Those are the deals that I use to stock up and then I only have to shop once a month, except for bread, milk, and eggs; those are weekly or biweekly purchases. But milk is rationed at my house, you get just enough for your daily needs and if you eat cereal w/milk you better drink that milk because it counts toward your daily limit. We also eat a lot of beans and use the turkey ham that is around 1.79/lb, at my grocery store anyway. With an appx. 3 lb ham I can make at least 5 meals. You just have to cut it up small or slice it thin. At our house food is fuel and not fun. I try to make it enjoyable to eat but we can't afford more than just the basics. We have to eat the poor man's meals and most people I know don't want to eat this way. In fact, unless it is on clearance, I don't even buy red meat. Luckily, my Food Lion clearances out their meat! The other thing I do is buy bulk and make my meals and freeze them, I just have to plan ahead.
I also can, freeze fresh beans and corn, and bake my own bread when I have the opportunity. This year I canned onions, pickles, and pickle relish. Last year I did applesauce and apple juice. I did enough of each that I could skip a year or two between the different foods because I can only afford do one type of food a year.

Here is my recipe for the meal that uses one chicken breast:
one 1lb box of pasta (your choice of shape) I like bow tie or cork screw for this
1 or 2 shredded carrots (wash and leave the skin on)
about 1/2 cup frozen peas
<any other veggie you want to add goes here>
1 chicken breast
either 1 envelope of ranch dressing mix or 1 bottle of 99 cent ranch dressing

Cook chicken and chop with chopper until crumbly or put through food processor to make crumbly (there should be no big pieces) set aside
cook pasta w/veggies-drain
combine pasta/veggies, chicken, and dressing mix or dressing (usually takes most of the bottle)
add any cold veggies like cucumber or tomatoes if you have them.

We eat just this for our meal and usually have a little left over. If I have it I might add a side of some kind of fruit but I usually don't have extra to spare.

i'd say we'd be in the middle of that range, we are 5 in the family... we're trying to save as much money as we can because of the current state of the economy...