PeasandHappiness

I budget $600, but that’s for all household items, prescriptions, etc. And even at that, I’m not sure I stick to it every month. I mostly go to walmart, but also frequent Macey’s…which I realize you don’t have. SAMs club also sucks up a lot of my money…

I think I spend about $100 per week. I use only cash, and lump everything together with gas, along with household items as well as any entertainment for the week. So, I get $200 in cash every Wednesday, and buy gas (for 2 cars), and what I have left goes towards groceries, diapers, and anything else. Helps me to do it that way because sometimes I need more than $100, but sometimes I can get away with less and I can kind of plan around the weeks I’m going to need a monster pack of diapers or whatever. Or, if we go out to eat, I have to buy more frugally.

I haven’t been tracking this year, but last year I entered every single food receipt into a spreadsheet so that I could track what we were spending. When I included our summer CSA box (~$20/wk; Gathering Together Farm), the cost of a quarter cow (local, happy cow!), and alcohol (not much), we spent about $500/wk on food. We eat mostly organic and local as much as we can, so our cost was inflated by shopping at First-Alt and perhaps somewhat by the farmer’s market (although I tend to weight that by lower medical costs we will have in the long run). Our costs now are only inflated by the extra calories that I am eating while nursing, which isn’t much. $500 sounds like a lot, but when I posted about it on Facebook last year, I got a lot of comments from friends in CA that they were spending way more on food that wasn’t as fresh or as good. If you are spending $450 for your family, you are doing really well and not overspending (IMHO). As far as I am concerned, spending money on good quality food is one of the best investments that you can make. One of my goals for this year was to cook with more basic ingredients and less processed food, which should be cheaper and better for us. My success so far is mixed, but I am having fun and remain optimistic…

My budget does include eating out. I do all my shopping at the Coop but I get a 15% discount because I am a support-owner worker and work 2 hours a week there. Otherwise, we would not be able to stay in our budget. This does not include my payments to a CSA which will hopefully bring down the budget (I will probably make it up with tasties at the Farmers Market, like Zia’s burritos and expensive lemonade). Anyway, it is interesting to see what other people make happen. I probably should try harder. I mean I really didn’t need chocolate covered pecans and ice cream

Oh, Kara! Food budgeting has been a long-term goal of mine ever since I got into a fight with my sister. You see, we were college roomates and shared a food budget. On March 27th or so in 200-something we were in the store picking up a few last things we needed. I picked up two gallons of milk and she protested saying we were over-budget. Really? I said, as I muscled the milk into the cart. Milk? You are going to make me put milk back? Yes, she said, wait until April 1st. I proved stronger than she, however, to this day she has a food budget and I have never stuck to one. She has probably saved $10,000′s more than I. What would I do with that money today if I had it? Hmm. So.. I have seen my monthly spending range wildly from ~350 even up to 1200 (only once or twice) depending on the season. Summer is always more expensive as we are eating fresher food, more farmers markets, more canning and more entertaining. Winters are easier with a steady supply of soups, breads, pantry items and fresh oranges/apples for fruit. Now that we are in NYC – ah! Every item at the grocery store costs $5. Every condiment, every bag of whatever. I have not figured it out yet but would REALLY like to stay under $600 (including costco, diapers, etc. but without eating out/entertainment). I am planning on joining a CSA for the summer but am afraid they are much more expensive than in Corvallis – I mean, come on – not everybody in Manhattan can pay those prices. I promise. Really missing this part of Oregon…actually, missing the people first – then the farms and dirt.

The only way we’ve managed to spend less than $100/week is to focus more on the cheap staples like grains and beans. So if we are doing that, we can do $50/week, but the more fresh produce, the higher it goes. When we eat all raw it’s probably $130/week (4 people)

This is so interesting because I always wonder the same thing. I’ve talked to my friends about this before and we vary so much. I have one friend that spends $850 a month on food and one that is around $200. Anyway, Austin and I get our produce delivered every week through a CSA that runs year-round. So then I usually aim to keep it at $75 a week for everything else. But it is hard because Austin and I have made the decision to spend more on better quality food which means cutting out expenses somewhere else. But I set a yearly goal every year to add something to our diet. Last year it was local produce. This year I’m working on eating only local meet and local dairy. So that will change my budget. We will see how it goes.
Anyway, I”m also curious about your friend that does couponing on healthy food. I always thought couponing was for processed foods mostly, but if I could find a way to do it for good foods, that would be awesome. I don’t know if I could ever do hardcore couponing, but a little I’d be up for.

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$450 was so not even close to enough. I will have to do an update, but we need to reevaluate our food budget for sure!