[moondiapers]

I'm TTC and my grocery budget has been growing, lol. We're only eating the basics, cooking from scratch etc......but boy oh boy is my grocery bill growing. I think I've estimated on the high side. I'm going to budget this amount for next month since we got our tax return, and then keep all of my reciepts and see what we actually spend. As you can see I'm not really buying extras... This is for one whole month, 4 in the family, TTC. This feeds daycare kids too....except I can't feed them raw dairy.

raw milk90
eggs40
CSA125
Farmer's Market100
Cheese50
Organic Chicken80
Organic Ground Beef/bison35
rice/grains20
beans, legumes10
flour30
oils50
sugars(honey, rapadura, etc)20
extras (coffee, cocoa, tea)20
canned (tomato sauce, coconut milk50
spices20
supplements50
Livers (chicken, beef)20
totals810

 

[moondiapers]

Oh, I meant to ask....does this seem reasonable?

 

[moondiapers]

Oh, and next month we're going to start getting fresh, raw goat's milk in trade for my homemade bread.

I think I'll learn to make cheeses with it.

 

[kylatay]

I know for my family of 6 (husband often not eating at home) we spend about $950 to $1000 on food a month. Its seems like so much to me and I'm still trying to cut it down. I make most things from scratch.

 

[hummingmom]

This sounds pretty reasonable to me, especially since you're feeding the daycare kids.

In another thread, I added up how many calories our family of 5 needs (around 10,000/day), and figured out that even if we ate the cheapest possible TF-ish foods -- organic oatmeal with Kerrygold butter, 3 times a day -- it would still cost about $350 a month. And that's just for our energy needs alone. It doesn't include any fruits and vegetables, animal protein, high-calcium foods, etc.

In reality, we're grain-free at the moment, and we live in an expensive area, so I suspect that our grocery bill is well over $1000.

 

[velcromom]

What quantities are you buying in? Many times, price per unit drops a lot if you purchase in bulk. I buy one 25lb bag of a basic staple each time I order from the co-op and seal up 5lb portions in vacuum bags or bins with lids. I am thinking that during the summer, it would be good to continue this concept & get flats of fruits & put up by drying or canning.

You might want to compare prices at AS to what you are buying now, especially on things like grains, legumes, flour, oil/butter, sweetners, supplements. Stuff that is not available locally. I order through a local drop point and there's no shipping.
www.azurestandard.com

 

[sisteeesmama]

Thee are three of us, one is 15mo, and we spend about $600/month. My other friends budget so little for their food and buy lesser quality, but I can't bring myself to buy cheaper meats/dairy and if I really had to I would rather eat beans than buy the cheaper meat.

I try and cut things out that seem excessive, but I seem to float at the $600 mark lately.

I agree on the bulk if you can. I also buy my meat direct and in bulk and usually we butcher it ourselves now. That has been cheaper for us, but our area is rich with animal farmers.

 

[moondiapers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by velcromom What quantities are you buying in? Many times, price per unit drops a lot if you purchase in bulk. I buy one 25lb bag of a basic staple each time I order from the co-op and seal up 5lb portions in vacuum bags or bins with lids. I am thinking that during the summer, it would be good to continue this concept & get flats of fruits & put up by drying or canning. You might want to compare prices at AS to what you are buying now, especially on things like grains, legumes, flour, oil/butter, sweetners, supplements. Stuff that is not available locally. I order through a local drop point and there's no shipping. www.azurestandard.com

We order through AS with our CSA sometimes, but it's not been cheaper than getting organic at the grocery store.

 

[cristeen]

Honestly, some of those numbers seem high to me and some of them seem low. I don't know how old your kids are, though, and that can make a big difference.

Like you're spending 115 on meat, which is low compared to what I spend, but 90 on milk, which is alot (so I have to assume you go through a lot of it). What are you getting at the Farmer's Market that you aren't getting from the CSA? Is it possible to adjust your CSA portion to cover that excess? 50 each on oils and canned goods seems high, as does 20 on spices and sugars. Grains, flour and beans seem high to me as well, so I have to assume you're eating them pretty much daily.

I'd say shop around - see if you can buy any of your canned goods by the case - and any of your dried goods in bulk. I would also question how much of what you purchased with that 810 was left at the end of the month... in other words how much of it was what you ate and how much was stockpile. And how much wound up getting thrown away? Those questions can also tell you a lot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moondiapers raw milk90 eggs40 CSA125 Farmer's Market100 Cheese50 Organic Chicken80 Organic Ground Beef/bison35 rice/grains20 beans, legumes10 flour30 oils50 sugars(honey, rapadura, etc)20 extras (coffee, cocoa, tea)20 canned (tomato sauce, coconut milk50 spices20 supplements50 Livers (chicken, beef)20 totals810

 

[moondiapers]

Thanks....
5 gallons of raw milk is $90. I get it UPS because there isn't a store near me (read within 50 miles) that doesn't also get it UPS and charge even more. For meat, we eat one chicken per week, one roast, 1 lbs ground beef/bison. The canned goods includes the $2 per can of coconut milk. Sugars are so high because we mostly use raw honey, which is expensive. I do stockpile for emergencies, but that's mostly built up allready. We eat a lot of legumes and grains, have oatmeal everyday etc. Coconut oil is $8 for a smal 12oz jar, and we use organic olive oil a lot too. Then add in grass fed butter with the oils!!

: I haven't found a better deal that wasn't almost a wash because of shipping. We spend so much at the Famer's market because our CSA doesn't know what we're getting a head of time and is always really low on fruit. I can't make myself double our share when I don't know what we'll be getting, and I'll still have to go somewhere else for our fruit. We live in a rural area in northern california without any large towns nearby. $35 of our milk order is shipping.

Edited to add: some of the prices are rounded up for those months that seem like they are 5 weeks long because of where payday falls.

 

[mbravebird]

Can you buy more ground beef and less chicken and roasts? I think that might cost less for more protein value. If you need the chicken stock, you could just buy chicken backs, feet and necks for that. And eggs are a cheaper protein source than chicken, too.

Do you use everything you get from your CSA?

 

[moondiapers]

Here's a typical week:

Dinners:
roasted chicken and brown rice with LF veggies
chicken burritos with HM tortillas, cheese, and beans
Chicken soup with yogurt biscuit dumplings
Meatloaf , mashed spuds and veggies
Pot-roast with potatoes and veggies
Left over pot-roast meal
Spaghetti sauce with sourdough pasta

Lunches:
salmon patties, mashed spuds and greens
chicken livers, fried potatoes
PBandJ on homemade soaked grain bread
Chili made with black beans and with leftover bits of meat from meals, cornbread
scrambled eggs with cheese, hashbrowns, fresh fruit
Left over spaghetti
Meatloaf sandwiches and LF veggies

Breakfasts:
oatmeal with peanut butter and coconut oil
baked oatmeal with yogurt and fruit
over night french toast
fried eggs and toast with fruit
rice pudding/custard
pancakes topped with peanut butter and applesauce

snacks:
fresh fruit and yogurt
raw veggies and hummus
fruit and dip
hard boiled eggs
cheeses and soaked crackers
frozen berry and yogurt smooties

We go through 1.5 gallons of raw milk a week, when we run out I make coconutmilk tonic until the next shipment of milk comes.

 

[moondiapers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbravebird Can you buy more ground beef and less chicken and roasts? I think that might cost less for more protein value. If you need the chicken stock, you could just buy chicken backs, feet and necks for that. And eggs are a cheaper protein source than chicken, too. Do you use everything you get from your CSA?

A whole organic pastured chicken is $12-$15.....organic pastured ground beef is $7/lb. We eat about 2doz eggs a week. The roast we get isn't organic or pastured, but it a Sunday tradition that we enjoy as a family. Besides the liver, it's the cheapest meat we buy

The liver isn't organic either (not available). We do use everything we get from our CSA , but dd and I eat most of it....dh and ds hate veggies. I'll ask the butcher if he has organic feet backs and necks, but I doubt it as they sell pre-packaged whole fryers. When the farmer's market starts up again in a couple of weeks I'll ask the egg and chicken lady there if I can get chicken parts for stock. Chicken and the sunday roast is the only meat we really enjoy eating though. The other things get flavored and hidden in things. My meatloaf is half soaked oatmeal and eggs. I think I'm going to add another pound of ground meat per week though because the weather is warming up and soup won't go over so well then. DH and I can't really eat raw veggies (we've both had weightloss surgery). I think everyone is right though, we need more meat in our menu. I feel best when I eat more meat. We're just so limited on what's available here.

 

[hummingmom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cristeen Honestly, some of those numbers seem high to me and some of them seem low. I don't know how old your kids are, though, and that can make a big difference. Like you're spending 115 on meat, which is low compared to what I spend, but 90 on milk, which is alot (so I have to assume you go through a lot of it).

From what I understand of traditional societies, children don't generally eat much meat -- often just broths, marrow, and small servings of organ meats. Eggs and dairy are thought to be better suited to their needs.

For a family with two children, eating a European or North American style diet, 1.5 gallons of milk a week is actually quite low. That's about 1.7 cups per child per day if the OP isn't drinking any herself, or 1 cup each if she's drinking it too. We can easily go through two or three times that, especially if I'm pregnant or nursing, or someone's gearing up for a growth spurt.

 

[hummingmom]

Assuming that the children are getting ample protein (which they likely are, by the standards of both Dr. Price and mainstream medicine), I'd be inclined to cut back on their meat portions, and increase their dairy. Here are the numbers that I came up with, using "nutrition facts" that are available from various web sites:

Ground beef:

1 extra lb. of ground beef @ $7 = 1000 calories (this is for 85%/15% meat, and assumes that you're consuming all the drippings)
140 calories/$1

Chicken:

1 extra whole chicken @ $13.50 = 2500 calories (this is for an "average" chicken -- whatever that is! -- and assumes that you're consuming all the skin and fat)
185 calories/$1

Milk:

1 extra gallon milk @ $11 = 2400 calories (this is for Holstein-type milk, with 3.5% milk fat; Jersey will have more)
220 calories/$1

This doesn't include any extra shipping charges. If shipping is an extra $2.50 or less, the milk is still cheaper than the chicken (again, that assumes that there's no waste with the chicken). And if it's $5.50 or less, it's cheaper than the ground beef.

Another option worth considering would be to get some pasteurized but non-homogenized dairy, bring it to a quick boil, and culture it. The boiling is a common practice in some cultures, and I've read that it breaks down the proteins and makes it less allergenic than pasteurized milk. Since cultured dairy products have inherent value, this seems like a reasonable alternative to cooked meat, nutritionally speaking.

Cream:

We can get raw heavy cream for around $10 a pint, which works out to 164 calories/$1. If you can get it much cheaper than that, adding extra fat to the milk could be an economical and healthy option. The African nomadic cattle-herders drink milk that's naturally 10% butterfat... pretty much like our half & half.

Butter:

Butter is 3200 calories/lb. If your raw butter is $12/lb, that works out to 270 calories/$1, which is the best value energy-wise of all the foods so far.

Pasteurized grass-fed butter is even cheaper -- and, as with the cultured boiled milk, one could make the case that it's just as healthy for children as an extra serving of cooked meat.

The great food value of butter certainly gives some insight into Hindus' great reverence for the cow.

 

[moondiapers]

I have a pretty great stockpile of grassfed butter right now. It was at the grocery outlet for 98cents for a 1/2 lb. I bought 15lbs and put them in the freezer. With shipping, our milk is $18 per gallon!!! and that's if I buy 5 gallons at a time. It's more per gallon if I buy less because the shipping per gal. goes up. The nearest raw diary is organic pastures and it's 5 hours away! I'm hoping to add raw goat's milk in at the end of next month. I found someone that was THROWING their excess milk in their vineyard!!!

because they couldn't find anyone to give it to!!! Right now their nanny goats have kids though and there won't be any extra milk until the end of next month. Then they'll be getting home made sourdough bread from me each week for their excess milk.

:

I make yogurt myself using conventional dairy (non-**** isn't available here). I can't get the kids to drink dairy kefir, but they enjoy water kefir and they like yogurt with honey in it. Right now I have 3 half gallon mason jars in the fridge with LF asparagus packed into them, 1 half gallon jar of kraut, 1 large peanutbutter jar of preserved lemons, and I have two more half gallon jars of asparagus started on the table, 2 jars of pickles, 3 jars of beets, and a huge crock of cabbage all fermenting.

Tomorrow's dinner is ceviche, roasted potatoes tossed with creme fraiche, and beet greens sautee'd in butter. DD and I will be in heaven, DS and DH will fill up on potatoes then eat PB&J. They are SOOOOO picky!!! Tonight they had roasted chicken, saffron rice, and spinach.

 

[Jimibell]

too bad your milk is so expensive! what a complete drag..... have you considered moving?

I think your menus sound similar to ours....at first your numbers seemed high but once you broke it down it makes sense....the good things just cost more...
I have to use all of my willpower not to go crazy with cooking because I enjoy it so much and I get bored doing similar things over and over....but I've found it is cheaper this way or else I buy things like capers and cherry liqueor and only use them once or twice.....
at this point, with my above-stated willpower we are somehow managing to keep things around 1,200$..... (down from about 1,700$ just a few months ago)
we go through 3 gallons of milk a week, and we're usually done by Friday

I am always trying to think of ways to spend less but honestly I suck at it so I probably can't be much help. One thing I can say is that I have been trying to just cook less stuff. I want to eat healthy so I would rather compromise quantity than quality.
Simplicity is the key for me.....

 

[TzippityDoulah]

if you're doing sll you reasonably can to keep costs down and eating healthy foods - well there isn't much you can do.

I am in the same boat - except we re CF/GF in our family so this costs extra in trying to curb those things. it's SO easy to add in a sprouted whole wheat grilled cheese sandwich to stretch a dollar! but we can't do that. ugh. some short cuts just aren't available to us.

so we live paycheck to paycheck... but i don't know what else to do. we don't eat this way b/c it's fun - but b/c if we don't we all end up sick! I worry so much about the money we spend, but I can't seem to cut it down by much. the lowest I have gotten would be $800 a month!

 

[Mere]

I spend about what you do for a family of 5 (although ds2 is 22 months so he doesn't eat too much yet). I don't expect to get my food bill much lower until I can start growing our own food (garden currently under construction) and buying dry goods (rice, beans, coffee, oats, etc.) in bulk. I am also working on making our own bread, which should cut costs a little once I can get that perfected. Oh, and once we get our chicken coop going and the hens are a-laying that will save me $40/month in eggs.

 

[cristeen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moondiapers A whole organic pastured chicken is $12-$15.....organic pastured ground beef is $7/lb. We eat about 2doz eggs a week.

You mentioned you have a freezer available - is there enough room to be able to buy meat in bulk? I know there are lots of pastured farms in this part of the state, and most of them are cheaper than that (for beef).

Do you have enough space to keep chickens for eggs?

If you're getting 5 gallons of milk for that $90, then you're not paying a whole lot more than I am for the same milk. In the city, at WF, OP is $16/gallon.

I would start buying CO in bulk though - it keeps for ages, and the price to buy a small jar at a time is ridiculous. Even a gallon at a time is cheaper, but 5 gallons is still cheaper.

Do you get any of your grains or legumes in bulk? That can save quite a bit.

Are there any other CSAs in your area? Or can you form relationships with any of the sellers at the market to take their leftovers at the end of the market for a discounted price?

Just some random thoughts...