What does the government want you to spend to eat each month???

[Thystle]

Ok many people have seen the USDA site. I thought it would be fun to see what everyone "should" be spending according to the government.


http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publication...fFoodSep08.pdf






Add up the "thrifty" and the "luxury" plan for your family and post it.






: For us:


Thrifty: $718.00 per month / Luxury: $1400.20 per month

[lolar2]

That's not what they WANT you to spend. That statistic is based on a survey of what people ACTUALLY spend. They use it to help calculate food stamp allowances and things like that on a general population basis.

[Evenstar]

Wow! Our budget is only $30 over their thrifty category, but it feels moderate, to me. We buy mostly organic and have meat for almost every dinner.

[cristeen]

Yeah, our budget is between thrifty and low, and we eat almost 100% organic, local. I did recently cut our budget down, but even when I was working (and therefore not worrying so much about budget), I never got close to the high end of that scale.

[sofiabugmom]

I admit, we don't budget :, but I KNOW we spend less than this:

A USDA food plan for DH (37), me (38), and DD (6) costs between $481.00 and $941.22.

Admittedly, we live in a country with lower costs right now, but good gravy, that's more money than we'll spend when we go back to the States!

[goodygumdrops]

Our is 426.00. I think this is pretty much what we spend...however, we're not being particularly thrifty. Alot of organics and name brand stuff. We're going on DR plan so we're going to try and cut that in half with couponing, very limited organics, and no name brands.

[Amila]

Ours is pretty spot-on for the low cost family of 4- $150ish a week. I thought that was a lot, but I guess not.

[scrapadoozer]

Ours is something like $464 for the thrifty plan. I'd say that's about what we spend.

[bandgeek]

Thrifty: 295.75

Liberal: 569.25

We get $462ish in food stamps, which I feel is entirely too much. I can feed my family for about $200 and that's not on my "thrifty" plan. If I'm being thrifty, I can do it for $100 or so. Of course, our situation is a bit different because DS is only with me half the time (I accounted for that when adding up the totals above) and DD is tube-fed, on very few calories. When I was blending her food, it was only about $30 a month just for her. Now she's on formula and medicaid pays for that.

But, even when I was still with ex, feeding both him and DS full-time, and making DD's food, I still did not spend more than $400 a month.

I'm not the best budgeter in the world, but I do take pride that I can feed my family on very little when needed.

[ewp11100]

Thrifty for our family is :

122.13 per week 575.80 per month
This is spot on EXCEPT that includes all our tp, soap, detergents (all natural and extra for the house I clean), personal care products (toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors for dh). I don't think that they included those things in their survey And we live in a high cost of living area so I feel like I'm doing good now, lol. We eat little to no organics (unless on discount bin) and at least one veggie night a week.

[slsurface]

Geez!. I spend over $100 a month less than the thrifty plan!

[JessicaTX]

$897.20/$1761.10

I spend far less than that.

[onlyzombiecat]

We spend about $200 less a month than their thrifty amount.

[superstella]

Holy Crap! According to them, I should be spending (for the thrifty plan) $975/month.
:

In reality, I spend at MOST $300/month.

[AndrewsMother]

We spend about what the thrifty plan reccomends, $474, and we shop at Whole Foods. When thrifty is not in my vocabulary, I can easily spend $200 to $250 a week on groceries to feed my family of three.

[noahandlinasmom]

We also need about $200 less than the thrifty plan for our family...doesn't it make you wonder what in the world the average american is eating and how they are spending their money??? Their are families in are price bracket that are spending over $8,500 more a year than us- I could do a lot with that kind of money- that's almost as much as my mortgage for a year!

[rainbowmoon]

ours says;

thrifty-$615.80
liberal-$1016.10

I estimate $800 per month for our family of 4. When we were a family of 3 (before I got together with my partner) we spent about $600.

[oetien]

Most of the time, our budget is a little below the thrifty plan, but I can see myself spending more, and if I make twice as much money as I do now, I would double the budget. I don't see anything wrong with "overspending" on food if it means we eat better quality food. (we won't buy prepared junk food)

[Village Mama]

I have sure noticed the difference in the prices of food in different geological areas in the states and Canada since being on MDC. I would think that that makes a huge huge difference. I did mine anyways even though I am from canada and the low cost budget for my family would be around $750 bucks a month.( we are thrifty but gluten free so I bumped us up a category!) That seems about right. We have been trying for around 600 but it is super tight. That does include things like laundry soap, dish soap and toothpaste though.

Canada published something similar years back to see what it would cost to feed someone if you followed to food guide properly. It was really really high. People on assistance get so little here I think... i dont think that you could eat even remotely well on it.

[kalisis]

880 per month on the liberal and we spend half that.