How do I *make* a food budget work?

[Sheila1019]

I am trying to figure out what is a reasonable amount of money for my food budget? There is dd, dh and I. I just don't know where to begin.

I know I could go but not till next month bc of dh getting paid 3x to the local meat market spend $100-$150 and get a ton of meat that will last us @ least 4 plus months.

We have a local fruit and vegetable store that I can go to and in addition to a super Walmart I found an Aldis.

Infact I went to Aldis today and got 10 pds of flour, 10 pds of sugar, vanilla extract, instant coffee, 3 of their version of gatorade, a pack of juices (6 in the pack) for dd, 2 cappuccino drinks, 3 with 3 in each pack of plastic containers, a bag of apples and 2 cans of cherry pie filling and bought 3 Aldi shopping bags for $36.10. I don't know if this is good or not????????

I want to *try* to stay with a food budget nomore than $300 per month for the 3 of us and dd is still on formula plus her regular food. She gets @ least one bottle per day still(she is almost 15 months)but I feel better bc when she came home she was rather small.

I don't know if I can do this but I HAVE to do it.........

Sheila(36)
Dh Joe(38)
DD Braya (15 months)

[peanut]

I feed 3 adults for $400cdn/mth. and we eat probably half organic.

I think I'd take a day and cruise the various stores doing some comparison shopping. Maybe take a grocery list, buy a few items on it, and price the rest while you're there. And of course check the flyers before you go. Thing is, where I live, there are often unadvertised in-store specials. So it doesn't make sense to shop strictly from the flyers. I also go early in the morning to check the clearance racks.

Looks like you've got a good start! Hopefully combining your ideas with cooking from scratch will save you a lot of money.

Jean

[lisettelovebug]

It sounds like you could try $300 a month. This is my budget for a family of 5. (myself, dh, dd9, dd whose 20 mos and ds whose 5 mos)

Do you use the expensive formula? You could try a store brand. I use Walmart's version of Enfamil nextstep on those days when dd (20 months) just didn't eat very much. Around here it runs around $13, compared to the $25 or so for the emfamil. I think that is 24oz or so. It is just as good as the expensive stuff.

Sounds like you did really well at Aldis. It would have cost you more at other places. Do you have a Sam's or Costco nearby? You may want to check out their prices. I get 36 (I think that's how many there are) juiceboxes for dd for $9 at Sam's. This has went up recently because last time I bought them I think they were about $7. They also have the smaller juice boxes there for like $7. (100% juice). These will last dd a long time because we use them in the diaper bag and she only drinks them when we're not home. For home we buy a bigger jug because it costs much less. Before we got WIC, I use to buy apple juice alot because it would be on sale quite often. you can also look at getting concentrate. I also water our juice down - 100% can be quite strong. and it makes it last longer.

I would say save up for that meat and then go get it. 4 month's worth is a lot of meat. I would try to have it so it's less than $2 a pound when it's averaged.

Check the flyers in your area. Shop the sales. Lately, where I live 2 of the store have had nothing on a good sale, so I don't shop there. We go to a small grocer for our meat - about $2 a pound for chicken breast and $2.50 for ground beef. ANd we go to another small grocery store for their sales - they have awesome 1 day sales. A few weeks ago they had Kraft mac n cheese 3 for $1 (Tops was on sale last week for $1!!), cereal for $1.67. I've also gotten Stroehmann's dinner rolls for 25 cents (bought 2 and stuck in freezer) and Huggies Supreme diapers for 5.99 and I of course had coupons to go along with them - they were ds's size and I snatched all they had (these are usually the ones that are $10 plus)

You can also use coupons. Join the coupon train on here next week for the month of May. You will get a lot of coupons sent to you that you normally do not get. Also, you can use coupons combined with store coupons at Target, Walgreens, RiteAid and I think CVS. Target is really good about putting things on clearance for no real reason. You can use coupons with these too. The other day I was in there I got a package of Kotex pads for $3.75 on clearance, had a $2 manufacture coupon and a $1 off on the Target coupon card. Got them for 75 cents.

Start a stockpile, with foods you eat a lot. I have a small closet and bookcase in the basement where I keep my stockpile of foods. I get them on sale and with a coupon if I can. When I get a good price I stockup. Some of the things you may want to stockpile: dry pasta, rice, jars of spaghetti sauce and other tomato products, boxes of cereal, peanut butter, juice, (I also stockpile soda - specifically Pepsi products - when I find them on sale for $1 or less. No way I'm paying $1.50 plus for a 2 liter. I like my soda but not that much!!!)

That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure you will get plenty more good advice on here.