food budget help

[gmarie]

We currently have our budget set to $250, but we have it down comfortably to about $200.

This does not include anything but food - no cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc.

We have a garden this year which has helped, and my DH cooks mostly from scratch. I also frequently get free lunches at work, and he is usually not home for dinner - 5 out 7 days, although he should be eating before he goes to work.

According to the USDA chart below, the most thrifty food budget for a family of two under age 50 is $80.40/ week!!

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publication...fFoodJun10.pdf

I'm curious about everyone's food budgets - and what you think a food budget should be for two adults?

Thanks!

[Momto5RN]

this will vary depending on where you live if you can garden alot what you if you hunt - what you have near you store wise- any special diets - food allergies etc .

i have a family of 7
myself dh; a 22 yo; a 18yo ;p a 16 yo a 13 yo and a 9 yo .
all with healthy appetites - no wt issues -
youngest dd 13 is newly allergic to shellfish- and after a reaction last night to a new popcorn dh bought we question if tumeric ( used to yellow the popcorn) may be an issue .

youngest ds 9 can only take so much dairy ( or soy ) until it becomes a GI issue and i watch red dyes with him still .

I have IBS - and my older ds also has similar GI issues with certain foods which we kind of treat as IBS diet wise . no / limited fried foods- / canola oil sets us off- if tomato sauce is too acidy it can set us off etc .
we don't do beans due to this no matter how frugal it can be .


i am also latex allergic which means no fruits that come from any trees that are similar to the rubber tree plant as they can carry oils that can cause an anaphylactic reaction ( bananas- pineapple kiwi mangos alot of the exotic fruits )

i also have fibromyalgia that i treat homeopathically which diet changes- we eat very little processed anything as far as meals
it also means reducing amts of chemicals i put into me - i avoid artificial sweeteners as they worsen symptoms - i have to watch sugars and carbs too much = flare for me .



with that background in mind ( now that i have bored you ha ha )

i get 400 a month for reg grocery shopping that i use when i need to doing the month for meals now or for stock up with a deal .
and we use another 160 a month for going to the fruit and veggie stand and picking up milk .( dh does this )

so 560 is our budget.

that DOES include paper - cleaning - beauty etc so if i take that away its at the least 60$ a month for 7 of us i am sure
so that would make 500 just for food at the most .

500 divided by 7 = 71$ per person a month or 17.85 a person each week for just food .

that said i go by what is the norm in the area we live in - not what other people do .

i know families of 4 in my area tends to spend about 200 a week on food . - so thats 800 a month for 4 which is 50$ per person each week .

a mom of a family of 6 told me 4+ years ago she spends 1200 a month - ( and all her boys are teens now so i assume its higher ) thats 50$ a person a week also .

so i figure if i am doing 17.xx when alot are doing 50$ a person - i am doing pretty good .

i also look at what i would get if i had no income and was on food stamps.
you can often go to your states .gov website and input $'s to get an answer to this .

if we had no income we would be eligible for 7 people and that would = 1,052 in food stamps - double what i actually spend.

food stamps allotment is 37$ a person a week to spend- 20$ more than i am spending now.

[imagine]

I spend less on food than the thrift plan alots for my family of four.

[gmarie]

Momto5RN- a relative says she spends $1200/ mo on her family of 7 (5 kids, 2 adults), all kids are under 8 and one is breastfeeding. she is buying organic but does cook a lot from scratch and her kids love rice and beans.

I wonder what she is going to do when they are teenagers!?!?

You are doing really well!!!!

[druthb00]

We spend $37.30 a week for 2 people, as a general rule. So $18.65 a person. I pack BF's lunch for work, and he gets free lunch on Fridays. I cook *mostly* from scratch, but I don't bake my own bread or can my own jam, things like that. Sometimes I am a little below budget, sometimes I'm a couple dollars higher if I can stock up on something. I think two of the biggest ways we save (other than my couponing) is by cutting back on meat and going vegetarian at least half the week, and by drinking mostly filtered water and sometimes milk. I don't buy juices usually, just whole fruit. I also rarely buy pop. I figure those 2 things combined saves us at LEAST $10 a week, if not more.

[Contrary Housewife]

I spend about $80 a week for the two of us. I feel that we have moderate food prices here in Kansas. That includes cleaning and toiletries but not cat food.

DH and I eat well, I don't buy junk food or a lot of prepared or processed foods. I do buy high quality cuts of meat, produce and other grocery items. We eat meat (which I get on sale or marked down) with most meals, we don't eat pasta and bean dinners because DH can't handle the carbs. I do a lot of scratch cooking, and we have a vegetable garden, though sometimes (like this year) the 'value' of it is really negligible.

I would really like to see what the USDA is buying with those dollar values and how they calculate the "averages" they use in their reports.

[happymomof4]

My budget is $600 a month for 3 adults and 1 part time adult(college student)and a dog. That includes everything(food, paper and cleaning products, hygiene products, dog food, etc)

[gmarie]

We spend $37.30 a week for 2 people, as a general rule. So $18.65 a person. I pack BF's lunch for work, and he gets free lunch on Fridays. I cook *mostly* from scratch, but I don't bake my own bread or can my own jam, things like that. Sometimes I am a little below budget, sometimes I'm a couple dollars higher if I can stock up on something. I think two of the biggest ways we save (other than my couponing) is by cutting back on meat and going vegetarian at least half the week, and by drinking mostly filtered water and sometimes milk. I don't buy juices usually, just whole fruit. I also rarely buy pop. I figure those 2 things combined saves us at LEAST $10 a week, if not more.

Wow that is impressive! Do you plan menus in advance? What are some of the meals that you make?

Also, what area are you in?

[AnW819]

DH and I can do $35 a week if we have to. We normally stay around $70 a week though for the two of us (ushally feed dad and brother on weekends) and this does include meat, produce, GMHBC, and cat food and litter.

[druthb00]

Wow that is impressive! Do you plan menus in advance? What are some of the meals that you make?

Also, what area are you in?

Why thank you and yeah, I do menu plan. I plan around the sales ads. We do BBQ'd chicken legs quite a bit because there is a gas grill down on the water at our Apt. complex that we can use for free. I also make hamburgers from time to time. Black Bean and Corn Quesadilas or salad, Potato soup, Lazy Lasagna (bite sized pasta and cottage cheese instead of ricotta, chunks of green pepper and onions instead of meat) and bruschetta, Salmon patties and homemade oven fries, Curried honey mustard chicken with rice or potatoes, Veggie Pita pizzas and salad, tacos with homemade shells using the soft corn tortillas you can get a pack of 36 of for a couple of dollars....and I could go on and on lol.

We live in Pinellas county Florida. Tampa Bay area.

[sunshine]

I budget $20/week/person. . . . but I include H&B, TP, pet foods, etc. in that amount.

We live in Central IL, and there are 3 of us here routinely. . . so I budget $60/week. Sometimes there are 4 of us, if dd's boyfriend comes from out of state, and sometimes I'll buy groceries for my MIL if I find items on sale that I know she'll use - and it all still comes from the $60/week budget.

OH - and dd has celiac like disease , and I'm allergic to milk/soy/cherries and a few other items.

[frugalfranny]

According to the USDA chart below, the most thrifty food budget for a family of two under age 50 is $80.40/ week!!

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publication...fFoodJun10.pdf

I don't think that is too bad of an amt. But it is probably only for food......no 'sundry' items, or animal items, counted........and no stockpiling which means going to the store every week...........UGH. It would also be 'multi-meals' for the meat which I do anyway.

[gmarie]

Why thank you and yeah, I do menu plan. I plan around the sales ads. We do BBQ'd chicken legs quite a bit because there is a gas grill down on the water at our Apt. complex that we can use for free. I also make hamburgers from time to time. Black Bean and Corn Quesadilas or salad, Potato soup, Lazy Lasagna (bite sized pasta and cottage cheese instead of ricotta, chunks of green pepper and onions instead of meat) and bruschetta, Salmon patties and homemade oven fries, Curried honey mustard chicken with rice or potatoes, Veggie Pita pizzas and salad, tacos with homemade shells using the soft corn tortillas you can get a pack of 36 of for a couple of dollars....and I could go on and on lol.

We live in Pinellas county Florida. Tampa Bay area.

You're making me hungry! We love mexican style food and those packages of corn tortillas do go very far and have many uses!

A few things that hurt us is that we buy expensive flour and olive oil and we both drink too much coffee. If we cut down on coffee and find King Arthur flour at a better price, we will save a fortune.

I eat dinner alone 5 out of 7 nights and I have been tired when i get home from work lately- so i would like to do more bulk cooking/ freezing... instead of resorting to pasta, which I tend to eat way too often! he will also make a big pot of rice & beans, but again that gets boring after a while. need more variety! and more protein!

[druthb00]

You're making me hungry! We love mexican style food and those packages of corn tortillas do go very far and have many uses!

A few things that hurt us is that we buy expensive flour and olive oil and we both drink too much coffee. If we cut down on coffee and find King Arthur flour at a better price, we will save a fortune.

I eat dinner alone 5 out of 7 nights and I have been tired when i get home from work lately- so i would like to do more bulk cooking/ freezing... instead of resorting to pasta, which I tend to eat way too often! he will also make a big pot of rice & beans, but again that gets boring after a while. need more variety! and more protein!

Mmmm King Arthur flour. You can make a mean Pane Toscano bread out of that stuff. It's the PERFECT bread for bruschetta. I'm with you on the expensive olive oil. I've recently fallen in love with Pompeiian, though, and it's not terribly expensive. Our store had it on Buy One Get One Free this week for $10.99 (32 oz.) and I had (2) $1 off coupons, so $4.50 for a 32 oz. bottle is really good IMO! My BF loves dipping bread in oil with seasonings, and I swear he goes through a TON of oil that way.

Chili is my go-to recipe if I don't want to have to cook for a few nights. You can eat it as is, throw it on a bed of lettuce for a taco salad, put it on hamburger buns like a sloppy joe, even put it in a flour tortilla. Plus, it's cheap if you use a couple different kinds of beans and not a ton of ground beef. Plus, it freezes really well if you're not crazy about eating it for a week straight lol.

[gmarie]

i love chili also...

I need to stop eating pasta & butter when I'm tired and don't feel like making an effort. Tonight I also had some corn tortillas heated up with some spicy dip. So creative.