what's your average per meal cost (B, L, & D)?

[caedmyn]

I'm trying to figure out what a reasonable per meal cost is for the kids and I. DH usually eats his own stuff even for dinner. So...how much (on average) does your breakfast cost for your family? Lunch? Dinner? And what style of eating do you do (cheap as possible, whole foods, traditional foods, SAD, etc).

[fierrbugg]

That's a very difficult question to answer for us. I tend to go as cheap as possible, but with standards if that makes sense. I follow several blogs online to stay current on deals, shop at sometimes unconventional places for groceries (CVS, Walgreens, etc.), do Sunday paper and printable coupons and am lucky to live in a place where there are 5 grocery chains + WalMart (blech) and Target and some local farmers markets to boot. At the very least, we insist on Organic Milk and Organic coffee. I have set "buy prices" where if something that we eat alot is on sale for X amount or less, I stock up. Keeping that in mind we have alot of cereal right now that I got for a screaming deal (.25 - .50 ea box). So, breakfast is super cheap around here right now.

I spend about $60 a week on 2 of us, and save around 60% over regular prices. Before I got smart, I can remember dropping that much or more on one meal. We don't follow meal plans perfectly, tend to eat leftovers for lunch often and do tend to have a small bit of food storage in the pantry so I would say we spend about $8 a day on meals for 2, give or take a few cents. Of course dh is a paramedic who works 10, 24 hour shifts a month on average. Because he's out and about he spends considerably more on food those days, and generally I just eat cereal or leftovers when he works.

idk if it does, but hth.

[beansmama]

Well, our budget is $260/mo for groceries (okay, well...for 4 weeks, actually) and that's for a family of 3 (actually 4 but Ds isn't even 1, he does eat...just not a lot, so I wont count him, lol!).

So for 90 meals a month that's about $2.80 per meal...for 3 people. Actually, it's a little lower than that though, because our budget includes snacks as well as just meals.

We eat a cheap as possible, vegetarian, mostly whole foods diet. I don't buy organic (unless it's cheaper) and I purchase small quantities of what I need from the bulk bins at Winco. We always have a big bowl of fresh fruits and I always have fresh veggies to offer my family. We absolutely do NOT skimp on the produce, it's the bulk of our purchases.

That $2.80 per meal is only do-able because I never have a completely empty pantry. While I don't stock pile like a lot of people do, I do always have a pretty consistent amount of canned tomato products (that's the only canned thing I typically buy), flours, legumes, beans, grains (all dried) and spices.

So typically on shopping day I only need to get fresh produce, some things I'm running low on (like beans or rice or oats) and some tempeh, tofu, etc - and other randoms.

I doubt I could feed my family interesting and varied meals, $2.80 per meal (NOT per serving, the $2.80 covers all members) starting from scratch.

[yukookoo]

wow im impressed!

I shop mostly at whole foods, i tried shopping at several stores, but after 2 months i saw that i spent way more that way.

We get raw milk at one store though and we have a csa for vegies and meat, thats 80$ a month for vegies and 30 for meat, sometimes more
We eat lentils once a week, tofu once a week.. most of our meals are rice, a vegie and meat, lentil, tofu or cheese as protein

i would say about 10$ a meal for 3, but im pregnant and have gone completely crazy with food, im 15 weeks and still having a hard time eating so i eat whatever i crave and i am having a really hard time cooking so we are doing a lot of pizza and pasta and easy things like that.

breakfast is usually: home made muffins or bread, or store bought bread. Yogurt for dd, cereal, for me cucumber, tomato, sour cream, olives on toast

lots of snacks during the day. DD tend to find one thing she likes and want it all day for a few days then move on, she doesnt really do meals so lunch often same as breakfast

i cook 1 meal a day either lunch or dinner and it usually lasts for 2 meals for each of us, depending on how hungry dh is, he can eat like a horse

so if i do rice, baked tofu and greens lets say, which is a common one, it will feed us all for 2 big meals for about 10$

[nola79]

I feed our family of 4, well 3, one is a baby, on $100/wk. Give or take $25 either way. I shop at a regular grocery store (not whole foods, we don't have one). I buy some things organic, but not all. What I spend each week includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

[MCsMom]

I spend about 600 per month for our family of 4 (ages 5 and 3) on food. It is pretty rare that we go out to eat, and then it is most likely DH eating lunch out or a coffee and muffin for the kids and that would be on top of the 600. We eat a traditional local organic diet including raw milk and are not able to grow much ourselves.

[youngwife]

Having a large family (eight hearty eaters in all) and living in the area we do, we are not able to do much organic.

So, for us we tend to average about $1-$1.50 per person per meal. That would be about $8-$12 per meal. Probably is actually less for breakie, and a little over for dinner.

$5/ meal for a family of eight would be really ideal, but would be very little veggies and meat with mostly starch.

Plus, we can't bake in our oven at this time, so my menu options are a bit limited.

[BetsyS]

For a while, I was figuring out a few dinners a week as far as cost. We average about $6/supper. There are 4 of us--one pregnant, a 2 year old, and a 4 year old (2 adults).

My grocery budget is $300/4 weeks, and roughly $170 is supper meals. Then, I'd say lunch runs about $2-3, depending. Often, we have leftovers from supper for at least one of the adult meals, and I just leave that amount already figured from supper. So, that adds another $70, for a running total of $240.

That leaves $60 for breakfasts and snacks.

We eat some organic, but not much (chiefly from the farmers' market and our garden; not much organic from the store). Probably a typical American diet (4-5 nights a week, we have a variation on meat, starch, veggie). We eat a fair amount of produce every week. I try really hard to buy in season produce only, with rare supplements of other stuff (making exceptions year round for onions nad bananas). I use some coupons, but I'm not a coupon queen. (and we have stores here that make couponing really easy--they all double, there are blogs that do the matching for you, and I live in the suburbs, shopping mecca, so no extra gas money).

We eat oatmeal for lots of breakfasts, lots of peanut butter (kids) and tuna (me) for lunch, and lots and lots of Mexican variations for supper (everyone loves this--tacos, alambre, gorditas, mole, lots of fresh salsas, grilled stuff, etc).

[lunarlady]

Our grocery budget is $240/month in the winter, $200/month in the summer. I have a huge garden, and preserve quite a lot of food during the growing season. Otherwise, it wouldn't work. We are 2 adults and one child. So we run an average of $1/per person/per meal.

It isn't easy, but the big things are buying mostly whole foods like produce, beans, rice, flour, grains, etc., then making our meals from scratch. We eat simple most of the time, like rice with greens, beans (from dried), and corn for dinner. We eat mostly organic produce, so that takes a larger bite out of the budget than conventional produce would. We also only eat organic meat, so obviously our meat consumption is very low, maybe once or twice a week.

To keep costs down, I buy many things in bulk. I love the bulk bins at our local Sunflower Market and Sprouts stores, and buy some things (like oatmeal and cheese) at Sam's Club. When we eat meat, I do preparations like stir fry with veggies that allow me to use one piece of meat to feed everyone. I'm a sale hunter too, and clip coupons. I also joined a CSA and work on the farm to get a discount on our share. In the end, we eat pretty healthy and well for not much$$.

[Drummer's Wife]

I'd say about $10 a meal/$30 a day - to feed 6 people.

[OkiMom]

Our food budget (including eating out, household supplies, vitamins and anything else I get at the store) is 250 for 4 weeks. Thats for 4 people, DH (a Marine, he also takes food to work for lunches), me (Im pregnant and fickle when it comes to food while Im pregnant), a 3 year old (who out eats me) and an 18 month old. If you break the 250 down it would be:
62.50 per week
8.93 (approx) per day for 3 meals and 2 snacks
which is about 2.98 per meal
or .75 cents per meal per person. This doesn't count in snacks.