Grocery Bill?

[Sccritterkiller]

I have 16 and 11 year old boys, at least 2 gallons of milk and 2 loaves a bread a week..we do butcher box and whatever fish and game we can bring to hand for protein and we have a garden every year and can what we can. Just pulled all my Brussel sprouts out of the garden this evening to vac pack and freeze. But yeah it's expensive.

 

[92xj]

I appreciate it. We are pretty similar except your meal plan probably helps a good bit. I does look like we probably eat more food. My boys are tanks and I probably break even at 2500-2700 calories a day.

Yep.
I’m a recovering fat kid plus had open heart surgery 2 years ago at 36. So, I am trying super hard to keep the weight down and be healthy. It’s tough with a food addiction so that meal plan and prep is huge for me. The plus side of the meal plan and prep is the weekly grocery bill is pretty dang consistent

 

[cnelk]

Single. I have my own chickens.
I budget $80 every other week for groceries

A crockpot is your friend

 

[Azone]

It’s been pretty rough lately. Family of 5 and we’re running about 900 to 1000 a month. We have definitely stepped up the meal prep game and have been finding bulk deals. This years vegetable garden will hopefully ease the sting and a couple more plump and fat wild hogs in the freezer will help as well. We’re already down to a deer and half left out of the four we killed last year. Definitely feeling the sting of no elk being tagged last year.

 

[southLA]

Single. Used to spend around 250-275 a month but now spending 300-350 a month (post Covid). That’s groceries and eating out.

 

[Michael Rankin]

Wow, this is an eye opener

My wife and I budget 600 per month for food including go out to eat! We have a 2.5 year old daughter.


I can definitely see adding a teenage kid or two can send the bill way up.

If there’s a few friends/family bbqs the bill goes up, but I don’t know if that would be counted in most peoples family food budgets.


Lots of game meat in our meals. No premade meals that we buy. We don’t really buy premade snack stuff.Most things I cook have leftovers for lunch the next day or two or another dinner.


Breakfast is either a couple eggs, Turkey sausage

Or we buy bulk rolled oats. Cook that, add a 1/2 banana or other fruit, dash brown sugar and milk.
Way cheaper than cereal

Lunches are usually left over meat from dinner with rice and veggies.
We also do a lot of the salad kits you see at the store. My wife and I split on for each lunch, so $2 each. We buy a $6 rotisserie chicken from Costco and shred it as soon as we get home. 3-4 oz portions of that goes with the salad. Good cheap lunch, lots of varieties of the salad kits.
Snacks with the lunch might be some sliced apples, some orange slices and or hard boiled egged

If we’re not eating game meat for dinner, it is typically value packs I bought at the store when there were sales. When chicken breast is 1.99 per pound I stock up, and vacuum seal it in sampler packs at home. Same with tri tip or chuck steaks. If it hits 3.99-4.99 on sale I stock up on some big family packs, and vacuum seal at home in smaller places.

Wild game spaghetti, wild game stew, wild game chili all good options to be below $3 per person per serving

If pork shoulder roasts go on sale, I make a huge batch of Kaluah pork. Make some cabbage, and steamed rice. Easy to be under $3 per person per serving.

Lots of options

 

[WV Mountaineer]

I live in Central Texas and am married with two elementary age boys. We pack their lunch for school everyday and the wife and I both eat out of the fridge. 80% of the meat I eat is ground deer. Our monthly grocery bill is $1471. From my best recollection it was closer to $950-$1000 two years ago. We eat fairly healthy with lots of fresh fruits and veggies and a few speciality items but nothing crazy. Is this insanely expensive or about average for y’all?

I buy a 1/4 or 1/2 a beef every year. Last year it was half a beef. The guy raises them right. Only grains them about 2 weeks. Hangs them for 14 days. Cuts and wraps them. I got 181 pounds of steak, burger, and roasts. I paid an average of $5.80 ($1050 total), per pound cut and wrapped.

Between that and the 3-4 deer, fish, and other wild game, we don’t buy a lot of protein from stores. I usually make our breakfast sausage with ground deer, brats and other sausages with ground deer. When I catch Boston butts on sale for .89/lb, I buy 50 or so pounds and grind it. I freeze it and mix it in with the ground deer.

Every January, I thaw and make this stuff. We really don’t buy much except eggs, butter, milk, a little chicken from time to time, occasional loaf of bread, spring water, fresh veggies and fruit, paper plates, trash bags, paper towels, and plastic utensils.

That really drives our weekly food costs down. Plus, it’s just me and the wife. Neither of us has a big sweet tooth. When we do sweets, it’s homemade cookies or cake.


Last year, our weekly food costs averaged less than $105/week. $420/month. If we didn’t eat so much fruit we could easily get it to $85-$90/week.

In todays world, it’d be hard to get much lower than what we pay. But, we rarely eat out. We cook on Sunday. Breakfast, lunches, and dinner. I usually cook a breakfast casserole when cooking dinner on Sunday. I cut it into servings, store in sandwich baggies, throw it in the microwave every morning, cover with salsa and eat. We pack lunch every day. Tonight was the first night since Sunday we didn’t heat up left overs for supper. We oven roasted brats and potatoes. You get the point, We live simple in this arena by choice so we can spend the money we want having fun.

I remember raising kids. Their pickiness wasn’t something we fed. They eat what we cooked. And, we didn’t buy cases of soda or junk food. When a kid eats clean, they eat a lot. But, Whole Foods aren’t expensive. So, the savings far out weigh the amount they eat.

It’s like everything else, there is compromise. But, if you could cut out the stuff that most households with kids buy for food, you could save thousands and thousands of dollars a year.

Look at the average buggy in the supermarket. It’s stuffed full of expensive, processed foods. It certainly adds up to a lot of money. But, replace or discard a good bit of that junk and you’ll save a lot of money. Good luck.

 

[4rcgoat]

Single. I have my own chickens.
I budget $80 every other week for groceries

A crockpot is your friend

And lots of leftovers

 

[tony]

Whew!
I spend more on beer than I do food I'm realizing now.

My GF and I both work nights and usually opposite weeks, when I work shes off, vice versa. We try and "meal prep".
No kids, so we eat out a few times a month. I usually will do lunch meat for work. Quick skillet meals, (hamburger helper). Use deer meat, turkey, sausage. Something I can heat up at work.
She spends a damned fortune on supplements. Closet looks like a vitamin world!
I really don't pay attention to what I spend, $75.00 a week or week and a half.

Girl I work with says most this chicken thing is bullshit, as she raises a pretty big flock as a side gig. No idea, but if the government says something I'm suspect. Kind of like these meat plants mysteriously burning down over the last few years.

 

[NDGuy]

@eamyrick from personal experience cutting back on buying Ingram knives helps with grocery bill

 

[FLATHEAD]

In the midst of building n 8 x 10 chicken coop
because I like eggs and fried chicken.
Garden time will be here soon.
And we go through 5-6 gallons of milk per week.

 

[Michael Rankin]

It’s strange the egg thing is on the news non stop.I also just bought boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.99 per pound 2 weeks ago in the family packs.

It obviously must be regional. In Oregon an 18 pack is about 3.99. The last 5 dozen box I got was $9.99. Lions like it’s $14 for 5 dozen right now

I watched news stories where people are renting chickens and chicken coops for $100 per month.

The politicians and have really jumped on the eggs are way too high bandwagon also.

I can spend significantly more or less depending what store I go to within a 15 minute radius of my house also.

Going to the wrong store can easily add $20 - $30 per week for my small family

 

[*zap*]

Things are not good at all, wish you folks raising kids good luck.

 

[Beendare]

Admittedly I only pay attention to a few things that I eat and my wife doesnt, stuff like Ribeyes, wild Salmon.

The price of beef has gone bonkers….

Inflation and stealth taxes are killing the middle class much worse that some of the numbers show. Heck, the primary inflation stat excludes food and energy. Thats crazy.

The current crop of grandstanders, “WE ARE GOING TO TAX THOSE BIG BAD CORPORATIONS” is a stealth tax on consumers.

Corp taxes are a pass through expense that raises the cost of goods and services- and all of the grocery stores and big food Corps are paying higher tax under Biden- so prices go up on Food ( and everything) and our Gov gets more money to spend on their agenda. Of course these corp taxes contribute to inflation.

Dems use it as way to hammer consumers without them realizing they are getting taxed. Some ignorant voters literally think these tax and spend politicians are helping them < face palm>

 

[FLATHEAD]

For me, it's not only the cost of groceries but the real possibility
of certain groceries not being available.
I dont want to take for granted that there will always be food in the store.
I have a relative that just bought 100 chicken peeps.
They grow em out, slaughter, process and put em in the freezer.
Just good insurance.

 

[insanelupus]

Definately have seen an approximate 30-40% increase in groceries the last 2 years. Pretty insane at this point. I focus mainly on lean proteins, fruits, veggies, eggs, milk, & cheese with occasional treats. But it doesn't seem like anything has escaped the price increase

 

[Theringworm]

Family of 6. 9-18 yoa. Two oldest boys. We do Butcher Box for the organic chicken. We won’t eat non-organic chicken it’s simply disgusting. Besides that , lots of ground turkey, and elk. Everything is as low carb/keto friendly as my Wife can make it. We may eat out once a month if that. My wife is an amazing cook. We have a home cooked dinner every night. Breakfast and lunch is whatever is convenient for each individual. We are heavy on egg whites, and egg beaters. A gallon of milk will last 3-4 weeks. Only my boys really drink it but not much. The whole idea you need milk for the calcium and your bones blah. blah blah schtick is entirely unfounded and unproven. Actually studies are showing it can increase your risk of heart disease. And there isn’t an animal on this planet that drinks milk in adulthood so…. Anyways, we go through a carton of almond milk in 4-5 days. Lots of fruit, veggies, pre-packaged snacks that are low in sugar, low carb. Nuts, jerky peanut butter. Lots of salad. Kids are very active in sports so, the snacks and drinks kill the pocket book. We budget $3,000/ month for all food expenses but are typically in the $2500-2700 range. We hardly ever do soda. Only special occasions. No coffee or alcohol. It’s the keto/low carb organic garbage that is pricey. I hate thinking about it.

 

[ODB]

up about 35% from a year ago.

 

[Corey Paulsen (teamkabob)]

I just bought another freezer! I used to get wild game away every year when freezer got full of last years stuff. Not now! Bulk buying

 

[displacedtexan]

Just my wife and I but we eat on about 100 per week. Up from about 60-70 per week a year or two ago.

We only eat out once a month and it’s usually 30-45.

We eat a lot of pork as it’s cheap. We double everything we make and take it for lunches or leftovers for dinner in a couple days.

About the same on groceries.

Let's not talk about eating out. Lol