Another food budget thread

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leonie

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Does anyone care to share a week’s menu and give their budget for that menu?

I’m a lousy cook, but I need to figure something out because our grocery bills are getting way out of control!!

Actually, I’m not very good at grocery shopping either. I’m not sure why God made me a girl since I’m so bad at this stuff. But, I’ll keep trying. 🙂
 
My husband and I recently started getting menus and shopping lists from e-mealz. You can easily get to the site by googling e-mealz.

We love it for a few reasons. Your weekly menu is available on the same day each week with a really well organized shopping list. The company has several menu options: kroger, wal-mart, low fat, low carb, publix, etc. You choose the menu that is best for you. Also, they develop each menu around what is on sale that week in that particular store. At the bottom of the shopping list you will see an approximate total, so you know about how much money you’ll spend.

The only thing we’re not 100% thrilled with is that the menu is only for dinners. So, you have to add some additional cost to the approximate to cover what you would need for breakfast and lunches, milk, coffee, etc.

The meals are easy to prepare, usually require few ingredients, are large portions, and there is always a great variety each week. There are usually one to two ‘easy meals’ a ‘crock–pot’ meal, etc.
The meals are great and my husband thinks I’m a great cook 🙂 Just an added benefit!

Just a suggestion! The ready made menu, recipes and shopping list were too great for us to pass up! The cost is $1.25/wk that is billed as 3mo/$15.

Hope you find something that works for you!
 
leonie said:
Does anyone care to share a week’s menu and give their budget for that menu?

I’m a lousy cook, but I need to figure something out because our grocery bills are getting way out of control!!

Actually, I’m not very good at grocery shopping either. I’m not sure why God made me a girl since I’m so bad at this stuff. But, I’ll keep trying. 🙂
Click to expand...
:rotfl:

I’m sorry, that’s not very sensitive of me, but I’ve had that thought dozens of times. I HATE housework, and I’m so bad at it. Really, I think, I would have been a very good man.

My weekly menu (keep in mind that I live alone):
Monday through Saturday: Wake up early, skip breakfast. Work on my Master’s degree assignments. Stop at the corner store and buy a can of coffee and a rice-fish-seaweed triangle (not sure what you’d call them in English) on my way to work at lunchtime. (cost - less than $2). Eat the snack provided at work around dinnertime. Go home late, and eat a snack in the late evening as I’m working on my Master’s degree assignments - I usually eat cereal, a sandwich, blood sausage, or one beer. (Hey, in the middle ages beer was called liquid bread!) (Again, cost is less than $2.)

Sunday: Wake up early, skip breakfast. Have a coffee and a pastry after Church. (cost - about $3) Head home around lunch time, work on my Master’s degree assignments. Have a late lunch / early dinner with my boyfriend and friends, either ordering in pizza or fried chicken or going out for barbecue. Cost (generally on me) is about $50.

Total food budget for a week: $75 for one person. Yeah, I’m pathetic, I know.
 
My weekly food budget for a family of three is about 30-70 dollars depending on what we need.
  1. Organic yogurt tubes 2.99
  2. Tortilla Chips 1.99
  3. Salsa 2.29
  4. Sweet Onions 1.50
  5. Organic Breakfast Bars 1.69
  6. All Natural Apple Juice 2.49
  7. Organic Cucumbers .89*2
  8. Organic Tortillas 1.59
  9. Asian Soup Mixes 6x .45 cents
    10 All Natural Ground Beef 3.50
  10. All Natural Chicken thighs 5.55
  11. Corn 5 for 2.00
    13.Tomatillos 3.80
    14 Diced Tomatoes (cannerd) 99 cents
  12. Apples 2.50
  13. light bulbs 1.29
Total around 38.00
20% discount
Total 30.40
 
maria29 said:
My weekly food budget for a family of three is about 30-70 dollars depending on what we need.
  1. Organic yogurt tubes 2.99
  2. Tortilla Chips 1.99
  3. Salsa 2.29
  4. Sweet Onions 1.50
  5. Organic Breakfast Bars 1.69
  6. All Natural Apple Juice 2.49
  7. Organic Cucumbers .89*2
  8. Organic Tortillas 1.59
  9. Asian Soup Mixes 6x .45 cents
    10 All Natural Ground Beef 3.50
  10. All Natural Chicken thighs 5.55
  11. Corn 5 for 2.00
    13.Tomatillos 3.80
    14 Diced Tomatoes (cannerd) 99 cents
  12. Apples 2.50
  13. light bulbs 1.29
Total around 38.00
20% discount
Total 30.40
Click to expand...
That’s very good.
 
When I was trying to get our food budget under control I used the Menus 4 Moms website. They send you a meal plan and shopping list for the week. I loved all of their recipes and still use them often!
 
hillbillyhousewife.com
Check out their $45 emergency or $70 weekly menus.
I don’t have an exact breakdown, but spend around $60-70/wk or so for 5 people. We cook everything from scratch, no convenience foods (unhealthy anyway) and buy everything on sale and/or in bulk. When we do get meat, we buy a 1/4 or 1/2 of a pig or cow from the Amish down the road. Much cheaper than buying each cut individually. Grow our own vegetables, or buy at farmer’s markets when in season to cut costs. Many meals based on dry beans, rice, or pasta.
You can eat very healthy and cheap if you just cook it all yourself instead of buying anything premade. I learned how to cook when I became a SAHM 2 years ago due to health problems. We just didn’t HAVE the money anymore, and I had no choice, so I got a cookbook and learned. 🤷 I bake my own whole wheat bread, make yogurt, the whole thing. Much healthier than the preservative laden stuff in the stores anyway, and tastes better!
 
Here’s our supper menu this week, Fri to Wens.

Roast and potatoes, veg
Hot dogs/french fries
Stir fry
Chicken and dumplings, veg
Meatball and veg soup
Scalloped potatoes and ham, veg

Lunch is usually a simple sandwich or frozen pizza,
and I’m the only one that likes bkfst, so for me it’s
usually a muffin or oatmeal, DH will just do some
lunch-y thing then too.

What I’ve found that helped me is to sit down and
write out all the dishes that your family likes. This
would be main dishes only. Go through your cook
books and add some new possibilities. Separate
these into lunch and dinner, also bkfst if applicable.

You might be surpised how many you have, when
you really think about it! Then I take the list and
further break it down into beef, chicken, and pork
categories, and rotate my dinner menu around that,
so we don’t have beef 4 times a week, or chicken.

This has greatly simplified my cooking life, and helps
save us money, b/c I can pick and choose the simple
dishes on ‘low budget’ weeks, and splurge a bit on
others.
 
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