How much do you spend on food?

[abifae]

I'd take the hard work. I prefer physical labor over desk jobs any day. Most days. Lol. I love good food mostly.

 

[tamlynn]

I have no idea. Some weeks I'll only spend about $30 at the grocery store, others well over $100. Recently I bought 50lbs of raw almonds so that bill was huge, but the nuts will last a long time.

Eating out is the real budget killer for us. We have done better lately though.

 

[ORChick]

I don't keep track any more. I have always been a comparison shopper, and used to be able to keep the food bill very low, but in these last years (especially, but not entirely, since DH's cancer year) I pay more attention to quality rather than price; organic, where possible. Also more bulk foods, which makes it hard to calculate on a monthly budget. My rule is to buy the best that I feel that we can afford, and, if there is a choice of 2 or more, all else being equal, I'll choose the cheaper. For keeping the budget under control my choice is to cut in other areas rather than food; this way I may be spending more on food, but like to think I will, in the long run, pay less for healthcare. (This is not to say that we dine on filet mignon every evening ; I cook frugal even if I don't always buy frugal)

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Actual cash for groceries per month is less then $200.
Still need to find out what we are spending on feed. We buy in bulk for our goats and poultry.
We hunt and fish and raise our own, and we garden.

I'll ask DH for a rough estimate later today...

 

[FarmerChick]

I'd take the hard work. I prefer physical labor over desk jobs any day. Most days. Lol. I love good food mostly.

I am 1/2 and 1/2 on that one LOL

I had a great desk job being a computer programmer making tons of money....then finally I was a farmer making way less money and working way more hard lol--but it was fun

now hitting 50 I want my money to come easier for me somehow

 

[yourbadd]

My grocery/household stuff bill averages 100-150 per week for a family of 5. I've been slowly cutting it back by switching to cloth napkins and rags instead of paper towels. Once I get a return on my garden, it'll drop a bit.

I am challenging myself to keep the total to under $100 a week for the next 4 weeks. Hoping I can do it!!

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Ok, here is a better idea of our expenses.
We buy all our feed components in bulk. 3 tons of Barley at 250 per ton.
And the fishmeal, BOSS, Alfalfa pellets and oyster shell are purchased by the 50 pounds sack.
And then we have hay at a range of $5-10 per bale.

All told, feed costs are about $3,000 per year. We are feeding 5 goats and 50 or so chickens and 2 turkeys.
We run a cow share co-op for a local farm, so we get lots of raw milk and heavy cream for free. Now that we have goats milk, we will just get the cream as soon as we have enough to go around.

We should be close to getting enough food from the garden for winter storage and use as well.
So, it looks like we spend about $400 per month on food. With the potential of that dropping even more soon.

 

[Crooked Gate Farm]

For my family of four we spend about 300 a month on groceries. No idea on the feed for all of the animals. My hubby does that shopping. This year hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will have loads of food from the 1800 sq ft. garden. Add that to the meat birds we have growing out back, pigs coming next week. Layer chickens and goat milk we consume. Well in a few months I'm predicting that I will be spending about 100 a month on food for us.

 

[anniem]

What I just figured was about 18% (~$10,000/yr). And that's only including feeding our family of 4 (kids are 3 & 6) and the chickens since they are food producing. We also have a dog and a horse.
Some of the expenses are big 1x a year ones, like a half a cow. And picking lots of fruit in the summer to freeze (we're too wooded to grow much of our own food). The CSA is $36/wk, year-round. I order from a local on-line place and usually spend $15/wk. Grocery store shopping is $50-75/wk (I could probably keep it under 50 if I was more careful and didn't take the kids with me ). Chickens are up to $30/mo for feed, scratch, and bedding. And we eat out here and there, but it sure adds up quickly when dh has a beer or 2 and all 4 of us go out!
Oh, I forgot about beer...when dh brews it's maybe $20/mo, but it's probably more like $20/wk when he doesn't have a homemade stash.

 

[Marianne]

Some of these posts are just amazing! Especially for those with a houseful of kids.

I had to do some more thinking about what we usually buy. My husband is a huge milk drinker, so we go through up to 4 gallons a week. With milk running around $3 a gallon, that's a fair size chunk of the monthly grocery bill right there.

The man never has figured out that plain ol' water is okay to drink.. and I use dry milk when cooking.