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Lisbet
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| Posted: Sept 28 2009 at 9:20am | IP Logged
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I have been reading lots of blogs and talking among friends with big families, trying to gauge an average weekly cost of running a big household. I came across a mother of 10 that feeds them all for $75/week - I was amazed! A good friend of mine has 11 children and feeds them all for $100/week - equally amazed.
I consider myself pretty frugal, I shop ALDI, stick to my list, and cook much from scratch - but I still find myself spending $250/week to run the household!!!!
Now I'm thinking that part of the issue is that the above mentioned ladies are quoting their weekly food cost and nothing else. I am counting my van gas, food, household supplies, cleaning supplies, soap and other toiletries, and anything the children need. (underclothes, shoes, etc...)
So when you are asked "What is your weekly grocery costs?" What do you include?
Another question - We are purchasing a side of beef for the first time every next week. It will cost us about $700 for around 300# of meat. I am also looking into farm direct chickens and a bulk cheese purchase. While all of this will save us $ in the long run - I am unsure as to how I will balance my weekly money now - kwim? Those of you that regularly purchase in bulk - how do you figure your grocery budget? Thanks!
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sewcrazy
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| Posted: Sept 28 2009 at 9:44am | IP Logged
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I think when people say they have a "grocery budget" they are simply referring to actual food costs.
Our bulk items are budgetted out over a year. We keep several savings accounts for big purchases. One is for large food purchases. So that money isn't out of our weekly budget.
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LeeAnn
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SusanJ
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My family is still pretty small but I include anything I buy at the store in my grocery budget. Especially when I go to Costco that definitely includes things other than food. This annoys dh to no end and I need to come up with an easy way to keep better track for him.
I buy regularly in bulk and we find that it does start to even out after awhile. If you move towards getting more in bulk you will probably find that you are making some kind of bulk purchase each month. We seem to be always restarting our bulk-buying at the time of a move so we're sort of putting a strict budget aside anyway. But I'd just try to shoot low for several weeks and try to establish your "new normal." We aren't super-strict budgeters, though, so I don't know how helpful my advice is!
Susan
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Bookswithtea
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I am sure the extras are part of what the difference is. Our food budget includes cleaning supplies and toiletries, but does not include children's clothes or gas money. Those are separate categories for us.
We buy several things in bulk like you are talking about, and raise our own chickens for meat. What I do is to trim my budget by about $200 a month (buying only the minimums, eating what we have, being extra careful etc) to cover the cost of the bulk purchases. So it'll take me about 6-8 weeks to save the money to buy 1/2 side of beef, for example. I try to look at my food budget (every 2 weeks) so that 1/4 of the money goes toward bulk purchases (either saved for the future or bought immediately, like when I buy oats in bulk). Once I have the extra meat paid for, its fairly easy to only spend 3/4 of the budget on weekly stuff since I don't have to buy meat.
I would *love* to buy cheese in bulk. I didn't know that was an option!
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Sept 28 2009 at 10:30am | IP Logged
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| I would *love* to buy cheese in bulk. I didn't know that was an option! |
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This is the cheddar we buy for our co-op. The minimum order is 20 lbs. So good. I get it in the ten pound blocks and it is 4.58/lb. It is the best cheddar I've ever had (we like the xx sharp version).
Larayesville Cheese Factory
Article about the company
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JodieLyn
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Well I don't buy my cheese in bulk but I got rain checks from safeway during a recent sale, lucerne medium cheddar for $3.99 for a TWO pound block.
My budge also has any household items, clothing is seperate, and bulk purchases are seperate.
When all my buying is basically from the two local grocery stores.. it's really hard to seperate out soaps and diapers and toilet paper and medicines (except for herbal) from the rest.
But that said, what you eat will also make a large difference in your budget. And the proportions.
And how much your particular family eats. Some families are smaller people or less active or lower metabolism or whatever.. and simply may not eat as much as your family, and the opposite may be true, some families are a bit bigger people, very active, live on a farm and do hard work most of the time and they eat like they do.
So while numbers help compare, it's not the "end of the line" so to speak.
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Bookswithtea
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It also doesn't always work to compare if you are in a different geographical region. My grocery bill was significantly lower in CA than where I am now. I understand why veggies and fruits would be cheaper in CA, but I do not understand why a roll of paper towels or a jar of spaghetti sauce is cheaper. 
I always get really discouraged when I think about how some people feed their large families on $300 a month (not counting toiletries or soaps, usually). Amy Dacyczn's food budget in the 90's was amazing. I don't know why I can't do it on double what these families accomplish. My budget is $800 a month for 8 people, including 2 children above the age of 12 and a toddler who eats more than my 4 yr old. 
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JodieLyn
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CA is also on the coast so near shipping, major airline hubs etc. Anything shipped is cheaper near those.
It's cheaper to buy stuff if we just go to the next biggest town.. except that that town is 130 miles away. I don't see how the few cents here and there really saves you money if you figure in gas prices to get there. My guess is that most people don't, they use it as an excuse to get out of town and they enjoy that so..
Instead I shop as cheap as I can in town. Which means shopping more often and stocking up but I can get eggs for 99/doz instead of 1.20/doz.. and whole chickens for .49/lb instead of .99/lb and on and on.. and then people ask my dh how we can afford to shop in town. He generally just tells them that I'm good at shopping sales. 
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Rosesinsummer
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I'd like to see the recipes and types of food for $75 or $100 per week!
Do they have a large garden for freezing/canning/storing, chickens, cows, etc. to help cut the costs? We live in a townhouse right now, so that kind of thing is out of the question.
I'm embarrassed to say how much we spend on a family of four. 
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DominaCaeli
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| I am sure the extras are part of what the difference is. Our food budget includes cleaning supplies and toiletries, but does not include children's clothes or gas money. Those are separate categories for us. |
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This is us too. My husband developed the categories for our budget, and he puts most disposable things under "grocery," so that includes all paper products, cleaning supplies, office supplies, etc. Clothing (which may end up being disposable, depending on how hard the kids play in it ) is another category, as is gas for the car.
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CatholicMommy
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My family is currently TWO (myself and my 5 year old). We are small and don't eat THAT much, but we spend more money on food per month than we did when I had family daycare with 2-5 children in my home at any given moment (I provided childcare just about any time), and had my neighbors over routinely for snacks and meals. I truly mean dollar for dollar, we spend MORE. Part of it is the area, but most of it the type of food we purchase, the fact that I can't grow anything at all where we are now, no bulk purchases, very little bulk cooking, etc. etc. etc. Very frustrating.
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Paula in MN
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Our grocery expenses are staples like flour, sugar, milk, butter,toilet tissue, and dog food. We are blessed to have 5 gardens and my dh hunts and fishes. I probably spend less than $100 per month on all that, including eggs at my neighbors. Chickens and goats are coming next year!
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mom2mpr
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Rosesinsummer wrote:
I'd like to see the recipes and types of food for $75 or $100 per week!
Do they have a large garden for freezing/canning/storing, chickens, cows, etc. to help cut the costs? We live in a townhouse right now, so that kind of thing is out of the question.
I'm embarrassed to say how much we spend on a family of four. |
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I am embarrassed, too. And we don't live in a townhouse. Our garden was a bust this year. Some invasive mold on the tomatoes, bugs on the other stuff.
We eat well, produce, dairy, and meat are the bulk of our groceries. I have read that eating the perimeter of the store is more expensive. I consider it health insurance (?) That is what I am trying to convince myself. I would love to get the weekly bill down maybe $50. But hard as I try, I can't figure it out. I do menu's and lists, stock up when I can, go to WalMart for the center of the store items. Yes, I shop the expensive store for produce and meats but I want produce I can eat.
Anne
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MelissaClaire
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I include anything from the grocery store or drug store in my "grocery budget", but the drug store stuff doesn't cost me anything out of pocket typically because I shop at CVS and I use their extrabucks and gift cards I get from prescriptions to get the stuff for free.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Grocery Budget or Household Budget?
