What are your suggestions for figuring out a food budget for a family of five?

Question

I have roughly $300 a month to spend on food.

Answer 1

Here are some tips I use to save money feeding our family of 6.

Make a list of all of the meals that you and your family enjoy. List the ingredients and find out which items you use most. Find those items in bulk. Sometimes eating on a budget means adding carb laden meals (pasta, rice) Try to keep these meals to a minimum to keep everyone healthy! Also, use leftovers from one night to make a meal the next. My mother is amazing at this. Beef roast one night means beef and noodles the next night or night after. A pot of bean soup means chili the next night....and so on.

We purchase 1/2 a beef every year. We spent around 600 this year, that was the meat and processing. The price works out to around .52 per pound. Amazing! It's nice to have a freezer full of steaks, hamburger, roasts. The beef is so much better than anything you will find in the store and the price per pound is a huge savings. I also try to buy other meats in bulk and on sale. Making this a yearly expense instead of a monthly expense really cuts down on shopping time and cost.

Find a local discount bread store. I spend $.69 a loaf vs $1.30 a month at a regular grocer. With lots of kids making sandwiches and toast this can really add up quick.

Pack lunches. Big money saver and much healthier.

Stop buying packaged cookies. Baking is not only cheaper but makes the house smell great and no preservatives! Make extra dough and freeze it so you can have fresh cookies anytime.

Find an alternative to breakfast cereal. I found a great recipe for granola online and my kids love it with milk in the morning. Bake fresh muffins. Keep frozen fruit like blueberries around and make more than you need, pop them into the freezer. A quick warm up in the microwave in the morning is yummy. My kids and I recently found a recipe for pop-tarts and we'll be trying that soon.

When you find something that you use often on sale, stock up. A few extra bucks when something is on sale will save you money later.

Make breakfast for dinner every couple of weeks. Pancakes or waffles are pretty cheap to make and the kids love the change of pace.

Don't order pizza, learn how to make it! You can make a homemade pizza for about $3.00, ordering one (or two) at our house costs around $25.00.

Make your biggest expense fruits and veggies. My kids tend to snack on carrots, celery, green peppers, cucumber, apples, pears, peaches and popcorn. Buying snack foods can really add up and it's just not healthy.

Try to save money on other store purchases. I found that I was spending much of my budget on shampoo, soap, dish washing powder, laundry items, paper products. I started making a special trip to stores like Family Dollar and Sally Beauty Supply. You can get great deals on household items. I also learned how to make soap. It's a little involved but once you do it, not a big deal. I made a large batch last year, we used it, gave it away in baskets as gifts and I just recently ran out. The total cost to make it was around 15.00.

I hope that helps. I've found many ways to cut down expenses and put more money in savings. All you have to do is really take a look at how you do things now and make some small changes. It's a little more work but I think well worth it for the savings.

Good luck :)

Answer 2

Divide $50 by five (people) and that's $10 for each person per week. Divide that with 7 days and you would need to feed them $1.42 worth of food every day, no more. Divide $1.42 into three meals a day and you are spending $0.47 per meal for each person. I'm sorry but in this first world imperialistic country, it isn't possible. You should create a budget plan and see if you can spend around $3 per person for every meal, or at least two meals. You should try and sign up for food stamps, and ALWAYS use coupons when you can. Saying you own your own house, you should try to take shorter showers, and possibly take them in luke warm or cold water(I like taking cold showers, not many do though). Be sure to turn off lights when they aren't needed on, too. Over the months it will actually save you quite a reasonable amount of money. In this privatized country, things can become hectic and unfair. Good luck if you believe in it.

Answer 3

I want to know where these people live that they can make homemade pizza for 3 bucks...the cheese alone is 4 bucks here(and that buying the store brand, not shredded, which costs more per weight).
I have a family of 6...2 adults, and 4 children. I spend $150 per week..minimum. I sometimes have to jump from store to store to buy what's on sale, and cut coupons. I try to avaoid spending money on junk food.I find that if I plan out a menu, I can save money because I buy exactly what I need, and don't have to run back to the market for items if I choose a meal spontaneously. Also, when you're on a budget, wholesale shopping is difficult. If you buy a large quantity of something at one time, that you can't possibly use up quickly, you have less money to spend on things you need from week to week.

Answer 4

Well, I have 14 children. And my oldest is 16 and she just had a baby. Her boyfriend is over here constantly, so we have 18 people in this house pretty much all the time. I use roughly $450 a week on groceries. It just depends on what I have to buy that week, some weeks it will skyrocket to $600 some weeks it will only be $200. It averages out though. Tips: 1) use coupons! 2) cook a lot of casseroles (you can use left-overs the next night) 3) Order pizza for a night! every friday at our house is pizza night

Answer 5

That's about $75 per week, depending on the month.

Sit down and plan a week's worth of realistic meals that your family will eat. Find recipes that are casseroles or one-dish meals. You can usually stretch them farther. Plan lunches and breakfasts based on what you are now eating and try to limit the amount of junk food.

Try to stick to the menu when you go shopping. Shop for produce in season at farmer's markets; you can get better deals. Look for specials. Try to avoid packaged meals and pre-packaged food as they are higher in sodium and additives. You can usually cook from scratch a lot less expensively than buying pre-package. Look for economy size in items of which you use a lot.

A budget can be very helpful in curb tailing your junk food and impulse buying.

Answer 6

List 14 meals and plan to have each meal twice a month. Include lots of cheap and filling foods like potatoes, rice, pasta, noodles etc. Buy all your foods in bulk, for example try and buy a whole pig from your butcher and have it cut into portions for your freezer. Buy your fruit and veg from markets, and try and buy a bit twice a week so you do not end up throwing away rotting stuff. Keep your pantry full of dried foods, flour, sugar, cereals (nothing fancy here) etc and whenever you see it on special offer, stock up. Keep treats to a minimum too. Advanced planning is the key.

Answer 7

We are a family of 4 with a 4 & 5 yr. old and we spend atleast $100 a week on groceries! We are a mostly non junk food household and I find all the sales for the week. We also don't eat a lot of beef just turkey,chicken or sometimes pork chops. Things that have lower cholesterol,etc.. I don't think that is a big enough budget for 5. JMO

Answer 8

plan out your meals for the complete month before you go shopping. If you have a handfull of meals that need a common ingredient then buy it in bulk if you can. Usually large packages or quantities of things cost less per weight, though it's good to check and compare, just to be sure. And clip coupons, go to grocery stores that give you the most for them (around here is a store that doubles coupons on certain days). Other than that, be cheap, buy the no-name brand stuff.

Answer 9

I've really enjoyed using Kraft Foods website. They have a section where you can plan out a workweek of meals with the inredients that fit in one shopping bag. It's caled "1 bag, 5 Dinners"

Answer 10

Listen to Oracle...I thought I had everything under control....she gave me some things to improve on (especially the soap!!!)

and I wanted to add: don't forget beans! they're really very cheap, and healthy
Also: You may want to bake a few items in bulk to sell at a bake sale or yard sale to make extra grocery money (I know a lady who does this, people will pay 3x the cost if they don't have to bake their own bread but want it fresh)....oh yeah, if you buy/then mill your own grain you save BUNCHES of money...and it's lots of fun (my 4 yr old loves helping)

To save electricity money: bake all of your casseroles, bread, etc all in the same day then freeze (grilling out is supposed to save $ also, but I'm not sure about this)

Anyways, hope I helped, and thanks for asking...I learned something too!