Homeschool World Forum

We are a family of four and spend at least $550 a month. I have two teenage boys who think they are starving all the time, but I cannot afford to spend much more on groceries. I also have a 10 year old daughter.

I could not figure out how to place my vote. Maybe the voting is closed?

Voting was limited to 15 days. I just changed it to run infinitely, let me know if you can post now.

We are a family of 5 (6 when my DD21 comes home), and we spend $800+ a month on food.

I don't buy any junk food or alcohol. We don't buy any convenience foods, I cook everything from scratch. We eat soup several nights a week to save money. We eat a low carb, low fat diet with a lot of fresh veggies and lean meats. I aim for two vegetables or a vegetable and soup/salad with a lean meat for dinner.

I plan meals a full week in advance and go shopping once per week. I shop at Grocery Outlet before going to my regular grocery store. I use coupons when I have them but don't buy something just because I have a coupon. I try and save money but obviously I'm doing a bad job.

I have no idea how some people can feed a family for less.

If you have a farmer's market near your house, you can often get loads of fruit, vegetables, etc. for fairly cheap. Rice is also fairly cheap, and possibly the best fuel you can put into your body. Meat is expensive, but you only need a little bit to spice up your soups and rice and so on. I suppose you can also troll the local restaurants and pick up leftovers for half-price or quarter-price, I know of at least several locations near us that sell bread, fruit, etc. for cheap when it's just a bit too stale to sell to regular customers but still perfectly fine for eating.

We could probably cut our grocery bill in half if we put in some hours of extra time each week, but everyone's so busy that we don't bother. If your time is worth like $40/hour it may not be cost-effective to spend the time to scrimp, but if it's $20 or less then that's a totally different situation. There's always ways to save money if you're willing to trade time for it.