Feeding a family for 100.00 per week..see article

Well said Christy - it's not some sort of contest to see who can spend the least - but rather spending what you're happy with and what you're able to. I think good food is one of the great joys in life and sometimes it's great to get the best ingredients.

It's certainly easier to live on $100 is you have time in your life to cook every day. Start throwing in ANY convenience foods, or any treats, then you'll blow past that budget easily.

We used to live on $50 and now $100-125 feeds all five of us and they are 10and up now, and boy are they eating!! Soda is a treat. Chips are for parties. My kitchen has nothing prepared, but plenty of basics to make something yummy with. My kids snacks are zucchini bread and banana muffins and homemade cookies. We eat very well, from the garden too of course, and we have our chickens now which pay for themselves just about with selling eggs. I must admit I have a pet peeve with the Food stamp money when I see what they are buying. I want to reach out and tell them "here let me show you how to stretch that a lot, lot further with some flour, sugar, cheese, etc", but that takes work! My favorite is seeing someone buy disposable diapers, but they tell their kids there is no money for fruit. I can almost understand if they don't have a washer and dryer that would make things rough, but all three of my kids were brought up in disposable diapers and they were my favorite load of laundry, so easy!!

Thanks for letting me vent along with you. Nevertheless, I love my life and I know I am doing right by my family by feeding them right from the onset and stretching our paychecks to where we can have a very comfortable lifestyle and own our home, something we would have never done without way of life. Not to mention it just feels right!

3 years ago, I was feeding 5 people on $100 a week, inclucing paper products and such.

Now, I spend $150 a week for 4 people, and I am more frugal now than I was then. It is just that all of our staples have gone so FAR up! And, yes, I do cook from scratch.

It is true that I COULD cut down on milk and fruit, but I do not want to. I would not unless I had to, and I do not.

I added in my feed, and dh meals out. I'd say labor averages 2-3 hours a day, ALL animal, garden, canning, and cheese making work including extra dishes and barn cleaning, etc.

I haven't a clue how much it would cost to buy all the stuff we make, produce in the backyard and gather from the gulches at the grocery store. If we had to buy all this stuff at retail prices I'm sure it would be way over their budget of $100 a week. As it is, since prices have gone up we've been shopping at the grocery store less and less and spending less money because we just aren't buying things at the prices listed. Mostly we go just to buy milk since I prefer fresh milk to reconstituted dry milk.

Yeah I agree, even with the above example with saying 2-3 hours per day, calculating at $5/hr (min wage is $8.50 here but I know it's a lot lower in other places) that's putting you at $87.50/week just in labor alone, not including feed costs for any purchased feed. So yeah, you definitely save a lot of money by being able to do stuff because you can use your own labor instead of paying cash. I definitely hope to be at that point someday when I am not a renter, but at this point I'm pretty much stuck and at $100/week for us 3 I don't think that's half bad

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Uncle Dutch Farms
Blogging from working city mom to homesteading housewife.
Rural Living Today
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I just got back from the grocery store and what a shocker! Keeping in mind I shop at the commissary so I get significant savings over regular grocery.

Today's bill was a whopping 310 after 19 bucks savings in coupons.

Holy mackeral.

That does include a large amount of laundry and cleaning gear since I was lower than I like to get in that stuff and also 3 bags of science diet or iams food for the dogs/cats. But 2 small bags and 1 large one. Cat litter too.

Some major differences from 2 weeks ago:
Vidalia onions up 1.20 for a five pound bag
White potatoes up 1.10 for a 10 lb bag
Science diet dog food up 4.00 for a 20 lb bag
Good rice up 1.29 for a 10 lb bag
Laundry soap up 1.00 for a 48 load bottle
Pot roast up .89 per lb for organic to 3.99 lb

That is just the ones that stand out. Good grief! Is anyone else seeing those kind of rises?

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

I think threads like this are helpful if you are having problems coming up with enough money to pay for groceries. If you see that it can be done at a lower price than you are used to paying, it can give you some incentive and encouragment.

Two adults, a dog and a cat. Our grocery bill averages $200 or less a month. We usually only go to the grocery once a month, so it's fairly easy to keep track of costs. And that's all the cleaning, household stuff included. We've been adding to our preps this past week, but so far that's only been $80 total, and we don't always do this. Just trying to keep everything in good supply considering this jumpy economy.

I'm not a good cook, but DH is and has always done most of the cooking and preparing of meals. Our meals aren't what I'd define as "made from scratch"; more like basic meat and potatoes and veggies. We always have plenty to eat; it just may not be the most exciting presentation. I love oldtime home cooking, but for us that's for holidays and special community cookings.

We don't eat a lot of bread, but do eat cornbread. We don't drink milk or use much of it in cooking, and it's not a big need for us. I sometimes buy a half gallon if I get a hankering for Cheerios.

We eat eggs, but can go without and have. The only liquid we have to drink on a regular basis is water, lemonade, tea, or beer.

Typically, no desserts here, unless there's some kind of quick mix box sale that I just can't pass on, like the 5 for $5 fudge brownie mixes I got last month.

We use cooking spray for any skillet frying. We don't typically fry our food, choosing rather to grill or bake. We do have a deep fryer that we use for fish and veggies, especially in the summer months.

I've often thought that DH and I could live a long time without a lot of food. We could probably get by on crackers and toe jam if it came down to it.

I've canned 90+ pints of green beans & our potato crop looks to be a bumper one. Pinto beans are doing great and the lima beans look good. Sweet potatoes also are doing great, have 6 huge red cabbages starting to head, cucumbers & cantaloupe, onions and tomatoes are only fair, but I guess we won't starve. So far this week grocery spending totals $3.89 for a gallon of milk and $5.63 at Aldies for frozen lemonade, turkey meat balls, a cantaloupe & package of cookies.

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This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

I imagine that if one figures in the cost of raising their own meat (feed, pasture inputs such as fertilizer and lime, mowing time for weed control, diesel for the tractor, etc.) and the inputs for gardening (seeds, fertilizer (even if it comes from your livestock there is still expense involved, not to mention time composting and spreading), making trellis for the beans to run, etc...

that those costs would also add to the grocery bill each week.

Christy - you are right..different people are able to afford to eat/buy more or less expensively than others based on income, where they live also determines access to more or less stores, and what they eat (organic, free range, or regular raised food). I got the impression that the woman in the article could not or did not know how to cook from scratch - perhaps she did not have time due to job/family issues. However, to say after less than a week, she never wanted to see certain foods again..seemed a bit strange to me.

Guess growing up in the south where a meal may not have any meat in it, just veggies or not much variety was normal to me, though my Dad always wanted meat of some sort for dinner. When he was on manuevers in the military, there were many weeks where veggies were the only thing served in order to save money on the grocery bill.

Breakfast was usually something like homemade pancakes or an egg with toast and grits.

I have two people to feed and manage to do it for about 50. per week depending on what I buy that week that is on sale. I use coupons and also hit the "buggy" where the items that haven't been selling well are placed. This week, I got a pound of Starbucks coffee beans for 3.00 - lol..that will last me for a couple of weeks. Normally I don't buy that type of coffee at it is over ten dollars a pound. I also racked up on some organic chocolate bars at .25 cents each that normally sell for 3.89 each (small bars too!). Around here, folks can't afford to spend much for groceries that are much higher than the "regular" stuff, so I frequent the "not selling well" buggy and get lots of organic food for less than what "normal" food costs.

I don't have a garden this year..no time to put one in and the kid is leaving for college so it will be just me here and no need to have a huge garden for just me. I can spend 10.00 at the local farmer's market or stop by my local farmer's house that has a market garden and get enough for ten dollars to last me two weeks.

I don't see it as a way to outdo others, but to illustrate that if one wants to cut their grocery bill, one has to change some of the inputs..either learn to cook from scratch, buy cheaper cuts of meat, etc.

I was just surprised that the lady was so vehement about how tired she was of certain foods and felt in order to have to save money, she had to learn to cook from scratch.
It's was only for one week, my goodness I could even eat LIVER (bane of my food existence) if I had to for one week..especially when I think of those that have no food.

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Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!

Just an idea....but have you ever contacted a small farm and offered to buy a side of beef to put in a freezer? I work out deals like this sometimes, with people who want organic meat. I have one guy, who wants a side each year, so the deal is: he will pay a butcher to butcher a whole yearling and I get half of the meat (anyway I want it processed) and he keeps the other half. I don't even charge him for the calf. It is a pasture raised one, organic, won't cost me much to raise it and that's how I will get my aged steaks etc. that I couldn't make as easy as home. I have another family that sometimes offers the same for a hog. Although I normally process my own...if someone offers to pay someone to do it for me, and it's an animal I didn't put alot of money into to begin with....I usually will jump at the chance to get it done and over with and in my freezer.

I think she lived in NY and I'm sure groceries are high there.

My daughter just mentioned she paid over $6.00 for a jar of peanut butter in the DFW metroplex.

THose are hard to pass up! I usually manage to ignore them, but sometimes I give in. Goodness! That's twice what I pay for organic peanut butter! Of course, I do buy it by the case through the buying club. That makes it a good, healthy, cheap protein source.

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If I spent 100$/week, I'd probably have to buy larger doors, and an industrial strength bed.

Heck, even when I was living in Alaska, and buying for months at a time, I'd rarely get up to 20$/week.

Now, even when I'm buying large prep buys, I never get to a 100$...

Are you a family of 4 or by yourself, though? For some reason I though you lived alone. Feeding a family of 4 including teenagers can make $100 disappear like * that!

Chickens:About the point of raising chickens. I have a work friend, Sam, each year they raise chickens. Last year she calculated feed and chicks and then taking the time to take care of them and then butcher them. She said the only good point about them was that they did not have any kind of medicines and they free ranged some...so almost organic. When she calculated the price she said it was definately not worth the price of chicks and feed and she didn't even add in the labor of taking care of them or butchering them. She told me she could buy them for less at the store and she didn't want chickens this year--but her husband did want them, so they have them again this year.
Competition on low spending: I pretty much compete up against myself for trying to spend less and make due with what I have. Last month I was reminded (by the news) that legumes are an excellent source of nutrition and I decided to make a bag of beans per week--1 or 2 lbs. By adding beans to our diets, we displace other more expensive things. Besides, it lowers cholesterol to eat beans. I doubled my garden this year and I'm putting up more stuff than before. My herbs and spices cost so much so I doubled my herb garden too.
The best thing I've done, is to truly stop shopping. I started working in purchasing at work and I have to do it for a living, so now shopping in my life has changed and I just don't enjoy it. I make a list, I let the list go for a week or better, I stick to my list and I only buy what I need, and only if it is at a reasonable price. If what I need is not on sale, I go without, it is possible and we still eat nutritiously.
I save by making my own soap and laundry detergent.
I wish all of you good luck and best wishes that you can make the most of your food budget. ~feather

I figured out that this family of five spends roughly $150 a month on just milk, eggs and bread. Our total grocery bill averages close to $900 a month and we don't eat out but maybe once or twice a month. With summer here, the kids are even eating more which raises the grocery bill up substantially.

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Joy at Secretplace Farm

Chickens for the most part, are the easiest to raise and you can always seem to get more than you put into them. Especially if they free range. A chicken will lay one egg per day for 6 days straight and then usually rest on the 7th (this is approx.) Anyway, if you calculate one dozen eggs @ 2.00 per dozen...that makes each egg your hen produces worth approx. 16.5 cents. That is, of course, supermarket white egg prices, not special organic brown egg prices, which are much higher. Anyway, if you then calculate a 50 lbs bag of feed at approx 10 dollars, then each pound is worth approx. 20 cents. And that is not including any free food they get on free range. So just with the eggs, you are almost breaking even, even if each hen really eats a pound of feed a day, that you purchase. If you free range you are close to profit, or you are already there. If they are also producing chicks for you, well there you go...they are worth it, IMO.

Now I am not including labor, time and butchering....but chickens are easy for the most part, compared to other animals...collecting eggs and feeding them is not much work. Hen house cleaning time is dirty, but not a daily operation. Butchering is a headache, but worth it in the end.

Again, just my own opinion. Can you tell I'm a chicken lover??

Dual purpose hens average about 5 or 6 ounces of feed a day if that's all they get to eat. If they have good range, they'll eat less purchased feed than that.

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