If you are new here, my food budget has been $500 a month for the last year. The year before that it was $450. And the year before that it was $400. I have 6 kids aged nearly 14 down to 2, stair-steps. Here, I’ll prove it:
When we were working Gazelle Intense to get out of debt (in 2005,) Our food budget was $185 for 5 of us. My 3 children were aged 4, 2, and 1. Once we were debt free, I budgeted $50 per person per month, no matter their age. I gave myself a $50 raise when I became pregnant with the next little person. Even though I didn’t eat double (I gained weight like I was eating double!) I used the extra money to buy a few more convenience items to compensate for being sick while pregnant.
(Oh and this budget is just food–not paper products, not pet items, not soap….)
Over the last 5 years (hmmm what happened 5 years ago? I can almost put my finger on it…..) food prices have steadily risen about 60% (The average inflation rate is 2.9% food is a commodity and effected differently than normal inflation.) What used to cost $1 is now $1.50 and sometimes $2. So raising my expectations from $50 per person per month to this new formula made sense.
Under the new recommendations my budget would be: $550–which is plenty for us without allowing me to be extravagant.
But with our recent financial crisis, I wondered if I could spend less. (Interesting to note that I‘m not the only one spending less, and Americans in general spend less on food than most developed countries.)
So this month we dropped our budget down to $400 again. Oh, if you had heard my heart whine about this when I was at the store, we would both be embarrassed. Case in point:
“Excuse me, Miss. Come with me. I want you to live in a big house that has no finished floors, or a working kitchen. The bathrooms don’t have doors, some don’t have walls. But it’s clean(ish), and dry, and warm. You’ll work 4 mini-jobs and your husband one big one. (Oh, yes. We found him. He’s alive.) There will be enough money there for you to pay your bills, but not more. And here’s $400 cash–you’ll get it each month. Use it to buy food for your 6 children (Yes, they are all safe too.)”
Do you think she would feel sorry for herself? Me either. It puts it all into perspective for me.
So here it is, November 27th–only 4 days left in the month. And I’m looking in my envelope to see what I have left….drumroll….$100 and some change! We have bread, we have milk. We have a decent pantry. I don’t need to spend again until December. We are soooo blessed!
I did a terrible job keeping track of my receipts this month and can only find $103.60 of what I spent to document for you. I went to Aldi twice, Dirty Don’s twice, the Bread Outlet once, McDonalds once (I know…just being real), Dollar Tree twice, Walmart 3 times. I meant to go to Costco, but never made it there (Hmm think we discovered why I still have $100 :)) Some big purchases included a $9 spiral cut ham from Aldi (Which fed us for 3 meals and made us feel like kings.) I also spent $10 of the money to buy food related Christmas gifts for DH’s stocking and $15 to buy treats for school and our family worship gathering.
I’m planning on a grocery receipt envelope in my purse for December so I can do a better job documenting what we spend. Which will be likely to guarantee that I do a terrible job with my food shopping that month–but hey, we’re all real people, right?
There were a few meals that we didn’t have to cook: There was a Thanksgiving potluck at church and my mom brought extra so we could come empty handed; my niece’s birthday dinner; a date night we used a gift card for and friends served babysat our kids and fed them pizza. One night my Mom brought over Enchiladas; and one Saturday we worked at her place all day and she fixed us breakfast and lunch. She is hosting Thanksgiving for us, and when I asked what I could bring, she said “A lettuce salad.” That has eased our spending quite a bit. Starting to see how awesome my mom is, again.
I’m putting the extra money in a secret stash. I will use it to stock up on good food deals when I spot one.
When I write about what we spend each month, it raises a few eyebrows. I think anyone could do what we do. It gets tricky for those determined to be vegans, or gluten free (and buy a lot of prepackaged gluten free stuff), or refuse to eat anything not labeled organic, and those who follow every new “healthy” trend out there. But I don’t recommend anyone slash their grocery budget in half the first month and expect things to go well. Here’s a better way to get started.