Friday, January 4, 2008
Weekly/Monthly Budget for Food
Amy brings up a good topic about food. I am curious what everyone budgets for food, because we also budget on the high side of eating. I try not to spend over $600 per month ($150 per week), but we go over that every month to around $950. Included in the food budget is all the extra things like dog food, cat food, diapers, soaps, laundry soaps, etc. So for your families, do you have two budgets; one for miscellaneous care and one for food? How do you account for dining out? Is that included in the food budget like our family? And what are some tips for keeping it on the cheap side when going grocery shopping? In other words, what's a weekly grocery cart consist of in your household?
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Take into account I have only one child, but our monthly grocery store budget is $350. It includes food, diapers, and all household supplies. We often overspend by about $50 but we try to stay under $400. We have a $100 a month "eating out" budget and this includes all eating out, fast food, work lunches, buying pop from the machine purchases. We usually stick to this one.
I'm lucky in that Hans doesn't buy food on his own and only buys lunch at work about 1-2x a month. I am the one who usually overspends in this category.
I stick to this budget by planning my meals once a week and posting it on the fridge and I only go grocery shopping once a week. I try to go to this grocery store here called, "Aldi." It is less expensive than any other grocery store, they only sell one brand of everything and it is all the house brand.
We eat at home a lot and we only do a sit down restaurant about once month, sometimes two. We get fast food for dinner or pizza about 2-3x a month. I tend to eat out more at lunch so I have to be careful about that.
Do most of your meals include a meat? I think staying away from the store will help me save money.
We try to spend $900/month for all food and household items and another $200/month for entertainment which is supposed to include all eating out, date night with the girls, etc. When I added up our three month average a few months ago, we were spending around $1500 for groceries and $400 on eating out! Very BAD! Of course, you have to remember we are buying double diapers so that is about $80-$100/month alone. I can't blame the little guys though because Nate and I are fully aware that our fat bodies are the culprit. Plus, I have to admit that since I started working as a lawyer there are a few things I splurge on, like Tide. I love Tide and even though it costs double no-name brands and probably doesn't clean any better, I always buy it.
I have recently tried Mary's tactic of shopping only once a week and this has helped to keep our budget down. I also don't buy too many treats or snacks which often caused our grocery bill to skyrocket. January will be our first non-holiday month real test, however, so I will be able to report better on sticking to the budget at the end of the month.
By the way, have you invited Mom, Hetty and Kathy to join? Kathy doesn't check her email often, but I think she would like it. So would Sherri.
Cindy -- we don't eat meat very often, and when we do it is ground beef or hot dogs. Sometimes I'll buy a ham, cook it, save some of the cut up meat, then make a huge pot of ham and bean soup for dinner and to put in the freezer. We eat a lot of stir-frys with edamame instead of meat or black beans in burritos and in other things where a meat may apply.
We don't eat very sophisticated meals, I try to make one thing interesting about once a week.
I invited Kathy and Hetty, but not Mom. She called me last night and asked to be included, so I'll include her too. I'll write Sherri too.
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