Feeding a family for 100.00 per week..see article

[sidepasser]

Here is an article which reminded me of how thrifty homesteaders are..

seems that the person in the article felt "deprived" eating what most of us eat every week..lol..

an interesting note..she said she had to make dessert from scratch..poor thing..

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...n100AWeek.aspx

[Rocky Fields]

Hey.

This woman was used to spending $250 a week at the grocery store. She must be experiencing lobster and caviar withdrawal symptoms...

RF

[chickenista]

I couldn't spend $100 at the grocery store if I tried.. I could if you counted stocking/prepping, but not just to eat on the spot!

[CookingPam777]

We spend $50 to $80 for a somewhat big family 5 adults one 2 year old. I would love a $100 grocercy budget wouldn't have to stretch our brains so hard.

[Trixters_muse]

Wow... to have $100 a week to spend on JUST food, no paper products etc... and not including prep items and she couldn't do it? And her kids are small, I can feed two growing teenagers, (son is thinks he is starving ALL the time) myself and my niece on way less than that. We eat well, we don't eat just rice and beans and we don't feel deprived. We don't do alot of desserts, but we always have healthy and tasty snacks.

And what's wrong with carrots and pretzels? My DD would have a stroke if she couldn't have at least one of the two every week, lol. That puffed rice cereal is one of my faves with some fruit on top and I even use it like rice krispies to make cereal treats.

My sisters are spoiled... if they can't have a prime cut of meat at every meal a decadent dessert afterwards and eat out at least twice a week then they feel like they are starving and deprived. GEESH!

[mandidawn]

Well, for a family of two, I spend $80/week**.

I think that it takes a while to be able to spend that little (although many people on here I'm sure think that's a huge amount!!)

If I was the type of person to spend $250/week, I would think I'm also the type of person who does not have a stockpile made up. About 4 years ago, I was that person (not quite that much, but you get the idea) and I went cold-turkey, down to $70/week. The first month was hard - can you justify buying 15 rolls of paper towels because their on sale when you are really light on food? But I did, and now I am quite happy with my stockpile. It's as big as my house will allow, plus all my canned goods are stored at my mom's (we can over there and she just has more space than me). So - I give her credit for trying, and succeeding from the sounds of it.

**That includes all paper products, shampoo, ect and dog food for my two dogs, plus pop and snacks, which I think is quite expensive. If we needed to cut our budget, we could cut this down about $20/week I think, but at this time, our budget is just fine

[simplefarmgirl]

I feel really bad for that lady,, sound like she had to come down a nd live with the rest of us.. We rarley spend 200.00 a month, but that incldues stuff we cant grow, paper products and dog and cat food. Yes we have a garden and raise our own.. So to just buy food from the store and eat normal 100.00 week would still be pretty easy for us. We eat healthy now, I think trying to buy just healthy food from store now with all the recall and poison going on would be hard.. I'll stick to my home grown foods at least I know one will get sick from them or starve.

[Callieslamb]

I appreciated from the article how hard it was for the writer to accomplish that task. I absolutely know how hard it would be given the rules she was given to follow. I wonder if each of you follow those rules too.....? You can really live on that little food without a garden, without shopping at discount or warehouse-type stores, or raising your own meat? And still have nutritious meals? I don't count puffed cereal as nutritious....are they? I was awfully glad she didn't have to buy her paper products on that money too!

I am one of the ones that spends $200 a week, including all household items - like paper, cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc. And I DO have a large, well stocked pantry. I cook from scratch almost every meal - boxed dinners. DH takes a lunch to work from leftovers. We don't eat steak or shrimp or caviar either. I do shop at discount places and the Farmer's market. And I don't have a ton of kids around. We do watch our nutrition. We don't raise our own meat. We do have eggs. We don't drink sodas or even fruit juice very often, but we do eat out once a week usually and that mostly is Chick-Fil-A - not an expensive restaurant. I do not see how you can do it like that writer did on less than $100 a week!,especially with today's prices going up and up and up. Congratulations to you!

[Terri]

Being FORCED to change your spending habits will make ANYBODY think they are poor!

I learned a lot of my recipies because the budget was too tight. The knowledge that I gained while we were broke has been helpfull, and by continuing with some of my good habits we have been MUCH! more prosperous than we would have been.

It will take hpeople some time to see that this is a good thing, but, it IS a good thing! In the long run, anyways!

[bgraham]

Well, my budget is $100 / week for a family of four.

This includes all paper, toiletries, personal hygenie, cleaning supplies and food for 4 cats and a dog. It also includes prep items.

We have a large stocked pantry, 2 refrigerator/freezers that are full and a full deep freezer.

Of course we raise almost all of our own meat, all our eggs and at the moment we are getting lots of produce from the garden.


Beth

[doozie]

"By midweek, we were all a little sick of rice and potatoes. By the end of the week, I never wanted to see another raisin, carrot, pretzel or piece of puffed rice again. "

My first thought is She cant cook! / By Midweek it was too much to take???

I think she should have tried going 2 weeks or more. Maybe she would have been able to be more creative with her cooking.

[GoatsRus]

Callieslamb, I'm with you. We're a family of 2 also and we spend about $140 - $170 a week. We don't raise our own meat, but then again, I buy very little meat. I do buy fruits which tend to be expensive since I lost my fruit trees in last years frost. We get some things out of the garden, but I work full time and so does DH, so there is no time for canning, cooking from scratch etc.. I dehydrate some things. My weekly grocery money also includes paper products and dog and cat foods etc...

[ChristyACB]

Wow, I'm a little surprised at the responses.

I spend about 200 bucks every 2 weeks at the main grocery shopping, but that includes all the stuff for cleaning, animals and not just food. That also includes prep items that are often stocked in our commissary as bulk packages for good prices, like peanut butter, pepper, septic safe tp (not stocked at all places here). It usually is about 50 bucks per trip for things like that.

I probably spend another 100 in that same two weeks on the small items that come up and I go to a local Farm Fresh for (their prices are higher than the norm around here).

And I don't feed that many people. Just 5 animals and myself with my sister's kids thrown in on an ad hoc basis.

When my sister and her kids lived with me last year, I was spending about 250 a week, primarily because they wouldn't eat food that hasn't been processed (don't worry, they are much changed after living with me!) On top of that, probably another hundred in sundry items between trips.

I think that I spend too much, but I do eat very well and use organic meats which command very high prices here. To come down to such a low number with the restrictions placed on her would be exceptionally hard and I give her props for it.

(Yes, I'm doing my preps. Yes, I'm changing my habits slowly and used coupons for the first time since I was a poor college student in the last month. Yes, I'm growing a garden but it takes time to get good at it. No, I'm not a snob who eats caviar.)

[Pony]

Interesting article, and now that I've read it, I realize that I've let my budget slip away from me recently.

Time to batten the hatches and tighten the belt.

Pony!

[Madame]

I suspect the hardest part was that it was an abrupt change. She obviously didn't have the expertise that HT folks have. Too bad MSN didn't visit some of our posters to see what the norm can be.

[Mid Tn Mama]

Callieslamb and others who feel they have trouble spending less than they do now--read through the tightwad tips thread and you may find some ideas of how folks do it. Some suggestions may seem extreme, but as my pms over the years attest, some folks MUST live this way because that's all they have. If you really want to learn something--ask someone raising a big family on one income, or a retired person living on nothing but SS but who learned how to do things during the GREAT depression. What we are feeling now is NOT the horrible GREAT depression. Better to learn now--before we HAVE to.

[Vashti]

Ugh..I spend way too much on groceries, but then I'm feeding 8 people every day. My parents live with us, and I have four children...thats a lot of mouths to feed every day. We eat mostly cheap meals, and I spend about 15-35 dollers per meal usually. Most of my dinners have leftovers that will feed three people on leftover night, so I spend about $.45 - $3.18 per person per meal. Every once in awhile we'll have salmon or some other expensive treat - but I cook it myself, and we NEVER eat out. My grocery bill is horrendous so I wont share it, but I do all that I can to avoid overspending and to feed my family in a healthy manner. We keep processed food to a minimum. I think that may be that woman's most difficult challenge. It sounded to me like a lot of the food she was accustomed to buying for her family was processed and premade. I feel that processed food is extremely bad for my family and I refuse to put them through that - I enjoy cooking which makes that whole transition easier, and I stay at home so I have time to plan meals and cook all day if I wanted too.

[rootsandwings]

I feed two adults, two active hard working teenagers, and a pre-teen on a "grocery store" cost of about $110 a week. (actual tracking over the last 25 weeks which has included some stocking up) this includes all cleaning products, paper (not much!), soap/shampoo/contact lens solution, cat food (one cat), 1st aid supplies and OTC meds, some school supplies, film developing, alcoholic beverages, and occasional kitchen "gear" (jars, lids, replacement can opener...).

It does not include feed for the chickens and goats who provide us with eggs, milk, and cheese. that's another $25 or so a week. I sell the extra eggs, but we won't take off for that. I also have a garden.

pretzels, cereal, and raisins are "luxury items" at my house. We eat mostly vegetarian.

dh eats out lunch 5 days a week - sometimes on the company, but usually in the cafeteria on us for about $5.

so call it $160

[Windy_jem]

I find that that lady is either lazy, can't read a cookbook, or just can't cook period!

[sycamore]

Sob, sob, sob. Yes, she can't cook.
Now really waffles do not have to come out of a box in the freezer!!!!
I make them easily and cheaply....

I can take a good 5-6 pound chicken, I raised my self. Feed the 3 of us an excellent roast chicken meal, make soup and a big pot pie. 3 main meals from one chicken!!! maybe even leftovers for lunches.
Boneless chicken breasts? what is that? pricey for sure.
puffed rice cereal, yuck.......

sad state of affairs in the rest of the country....