I hope I am not the only one who loves to see not only how other people feed their families, but what it costs. I can NEVER figure out how some people can have a grocery budget of about $300 for the **month** (family of 5 that I am thinking of). Um, how is that possible? Because my **weekly** budget is $450!!
Well, I decided to share what our groceries for the week look like, and their cost. Because, maybe I'm missing something!
I usually go shopping at BJ's and Walmart. Two years ago Aldis popped up, right in front of the Walmart I shop at!!! But I never really made it there, unless they had avocados on sale. Aldis has added a lot of good food items in those two years, and I have finally made the time to compare prices. In my defense, Merida was born just two years ago, and shopping with an infant is an IN and OUT as FAST as you can affair!
Aldis does have some great prices. Some are not too far off what I normally buy, but savings is savings. For example I save just ten cents on applesauce at Aldis compared to Walmart. However, for almond milk, Aldis is about 50 cents cheaper. After Jeremiah came home from BJ's I was able to see that Aldis mozzarella cheese, for the same amount would be 71 cents cheaper. It all adds up!
Here is the whole of Aldis, except for a 24 count box of gummies, which my children devoured the moment I got home :-) All of this cost: $82.05 Is it just me, or does that NOT look like 80 bucks of food!
Aldis broken down a bit more. Here are the fresh and frozen items I bought. Oranges for snacking; the frozen spinach, celery and one of the cucumbers are for my daily green smoothies; the two bags of peppers for two recipes; and the tomatoes, lettuce, and avocados, plus the other cucumber are for salads.
From the back, we have four cans of diced tomatoes for a couple of recipes; two jars of applesauce for snacking and for Merida to take her D-Mannose powder; one can of cashews for a recipe, a splurge, but they were only $2.99; two boxes of baggies; popcorn kernels (popcorn is a favorite snack around here); two blocks of cheese for snacking; two packages of cold cut meat and the sliced cheese, they are for sandwiches intended for Bella, though everyone dug in once I got home; one bag of shredded cheddar cheese for recipes.
Three loaves of bread (though I could make my own, I am taking some short cuts at this time in my life!); I bought two almond milks (just one pictured); peanut butter; salsa for chips; and two jars of jelly.
Two 12 count packages of Ramen (yes, I know they are unhealthy, but I try to grant them a couple of unhealhy food items, plus these cook up extremely fast if we are in a rush to get out the door); two packages of hamburger buns for a bbq chicken dinner this week; and two 10 count packages of tortillas for two different dinners this week.
The whole of Walmart's grocery haul. I actually went over the receipt because *all* of this cost $86.32! Not pictured is a 16 pound bag of cat food. I forgot to mention we also have to feed 1 dog, 2 ponies, 4 goats, 5 cats, 8 rabbits (though tomorrow we are selling them), and 30 some chickens on our grocery budget as well.
A close up look at Walmart items: One box of mashed potatoes, stir fry sauce and rice vinegar for recipes; three packages of noodles; spaghetti squash for tonight's dinner; radishes for my green smoothies.
From the back, 4 tubs of yogurt (one will be used to make two gallons of homemade yogurt); 4 cans of soft dog food; mandarin oranges for chicken salad this week; two cans of coconut milk for my smoothies (I can not have dairy or eggs); 4 cans of Walmart brand Rotel; two cans of chunk pineapple for a recipe; two bags of bacon bits (for potatoes); black beans; razors, medicines and bandaids; a bunch of silverware since ours seem to walk off all on their own!
Jeremiah makes the BJ's run on Saturdays, and this is what we bought for the week, though some items last longer than one week. For example the cocoa will last longer than a week. Last week we bought baby wipes, but this week we needed diapers. The total for all of this came to: $195.24
A close up look, from the back, two packages of 2 count whole chickens; three gallons of milk; Italian sausage; ground beef; two tubs of sour cream; bacon and pepperoni (can't wait for pizza night!)
Next up we have 6 packages of bananas (aprox. 3lb. each); children's Ibuprofen; cocoa.
Large bag of corn chips; 2-5lb packages of apples; 6 pack of romaine lettuce; two packages of mozzarella cheese; and cherries.
The package of diapers.
A quick stop to Whole Foods for some kimchi. I usually make my own, but needed some to try to knock out a sinus infection I have. These were about $13.
Saoirse enjoying a baggie of chips :-)
For any THMers out there, these are the special ingredients I use. I already had the gelatin on hand way before I started THM. I bought these neat blue containers at the Dollar Tree. After a bag of Super Sweet tipped over, which was not closed all the way....well I don't have to tell you that I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again!! I plan on finding or making some nicer labels, but didn't have anything on hand but plain ole paper and tape. So far we've been buying our xylitol at Whole Foods. Not sure if we are saving money or not, it was really a case of "we need some xylitol right now" situation :-) I did not need to buy any of these this week. I try to space these purchase out so I am not buying them all at once.
While I was taking these pictures I was sipping on my lovely army green smoothie. I try to mix up what I use. The base is the same, either almond milk, or coconut milk (depending on whether I want and "E" or "S" breakfast), a handful of okra, 1/4 pound of frozen spinach and a 1/4 pound of kale, collagen, sweetener, and most importantly for me: powdered spirulina. Then I add some of the following, all of which is frozen: yellow squash, carrots, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberris or cherries. I also may add the following, which are not frozen: radishes, cucumber, avocado or celery. I would like to get my hand on some beets to try those as well.
Below is my menu. Moira and I are eating using the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) way. It is easiest of we can all eat the same, and I try to keep it that way, though as you will see below there are a couple of exceptions. For breakfast I try to make a large green smoothie, but everyone else eats according to the breakfast items below. You will also see an S, E, or FP for reference for THM. For a crash course of what those letters mean: All meals are supposed to have a protein and then each meal will either fall more towards higher in fat, or higher in carbs. An "S" stands for, satisfying, a meal that has higher fat. The "E" is for, energy, those are higher in carbs. The "FP" stands for, fuel pull, which is neither high in fat or carbs.
You can see I have quite a few "E" meals in here, which means that on the days with lunch and dinner as an "E" I will make an "S" breakfast. And even though my kiddos will be eating the same meals, they will add cross over items, or have snacks that will be crossovers. Crossovers, for those that do not know are when you combine both fat and carbs in higher amounts. Again, this is a VERY simple explanation, but hopefully you get the idea of how it works.
My menu for the week:
Breakfast:
These are not scheduled, but I try to mix it up between smoothies, some type of eggs and possibly bacon, oatmeal or yogurt with fruit.
Lunch:
Sat: hard boiled eggs and roasted veggies *S
Sun: tomato chicken bisque soup *S
Mon: for the kids, cheeseburger rice/ for Moira and I, salad *S or E depending on how we feel that day
Tues: chicken salad *E
Wed: soothe your soul soup *FP
Thurs: rice and veggies, with shredded chicken *E
Fri: left overs
Dinner:
tonight, Fri: pasta with meat sauce, regular noodles for kids, and spaghetti squash as noodles for Moira and I *E
Sat: cashew chicken *S
Sun: bbq chicken with coleslaw *E
Mon: beef burritos, tortillas for kids, lettuce leaves for Moira and I *S or E depending on our topping choices
Tues: rice and sausage *E
Wed: slow fajitas, on sprouted homemade tortillas *E (if we felt we needed an "S" meal, we could put our fajita filling on a lettuce leaf and use sour cream, cheese and avocado toppings)
Thurs: pizza made with sprouted wheat *E
Well, I decided to share what our groceries for the week look like, and their cost. Because, maybe I'm missing something!
I usually go shopping at BJ's and Walmart. Two years ago Aldis popped up, right in front of the Walmart I shop at!!! But I never really made it there, unless they had avocados on sale. Aldis has added a lot of good food items in those two years, and I have finally made the time to compare prices. In my defense, Merida was born just two years ago, and shopping with an infant is an IN and OUT as FAST as you can affair!
Aldis does have some great prices. Some are not too far off what I normally buy, but savings is savings. For example I save just ten cents on applesauce at Aldis compared to Walmart. However, for almond milk, Aldis is about 50 cents cheaper. After Jeremiah came home from BJ's I was able to see that Aldis mozzarella cheese, for the same amount would be 71 cents cheaper. It all adds up!
Here is the whole of Aldis, except for a 24 count box of gummies, which my children devoured the moment I got home :-) All of this cost: $82.05 Is it just me, or does that NOT look like 80 bucks of food!
Aldis broken down a bit more. Here are the fresh and frozen items I bought. Oranges for snacking; the frozen spinach, celery and one of the cucumbers are for my daily green smoothies; the two bags of peppers for two recipes; and the tomatoes, lettuce, and avocados, plus the other cucumber are for salads.
From the back, we have four cans of diced tomatoes for a couple of recipes; two jars of applesauce for snacking and for Merida to take her D-Mannose powder; one can of cashews for a recipe, a splurge, but they were only $2.99; two boxes of baggies; popcorn kernels (popcorn is a favorite snack around here); two blocks of cheese for snacking; two packages of cold cut meat and the sliced cheese, they are for sandwiches intended for Bella, though everyone dug in once I got home; one bag of shredded cheddar cheese for recipes.
Three loaves of bread (though I could make my own, I am taking some short cuts at this time in my life!); I bought two almond milks (just one pictured); peanut butter; salsa for chips; and two jars of jelly.
Two 12 count packages of Ramen (yes, I know they are unhealthy, but I try to grant them a couple of unhealhy food items, plus these cook up extremely fast if we are in a rush to get out the door); two packages of hamburger buns for a bbq chicken dinner this week; and two 10 count packages of tortillas for two different dinners this week.
The whole of Walmart's grocery haul. I actually went over the receipt because *all* of this cost $86.32! Not pictured is a 16 pound bag of cat food. I forgot to mention we also have to feed 1 dog, 2 ponies, 4 goats, 5 cats, 8 rabbits (though tomorrow we are selling them), and 30 some chickens on our grocery budget as well.
A close up look at Walmart items: One box of mashed potatoes, stir fry sauce and rice vinegar for recipes; three packages of noodles; spaghetti squash for tonight's dinner; radishes for my green smoothies.
From the back, 4 tubs of yogurt (one will be used to make two gallons of homemade yogurt); 4 cans of soft dog food; mandarin oranges for chicken salad this week; two cans of coconut milk for my smoothies (I can not have dairy or eggs); 4 cans of Walmart brand Rotel; two cans of chunk pineapple for a recipe; two bags of bacon bits (for potatoes); black beans; razors, medicines and bandaids; a bunch of silverware since ours seem to walk off all on their own!
Jeremiah makes the BJ's run on Saturdays, and this is what we bought for the week, though some items last longer than one week. For example the cocoa will last longer than a week. Last week we bought baby wipes, but this week we needed diapers. The total for all of this came to: $195.24
A close up look, from the back, two packages of 2 count whole chickens; three gallons of milk; Italian sausage; ground beef; two tubs of sour cream; bacon and pepperoni (can't wait for pizza night!)
Next up we have 6 packages of bananas (aprox. 3lb. each); children's Ibuprofen; cocoa.
Large bag of corn chips; 2-5lb packages of apples; 6 pack of romaine lettuce; two packages of mozzarella cheese; and cherries.
The package of diapers.
A quick stop to Whole Foods for some kimchi. I usually make my own, but needed some to try to knock out a sinus infection I have. These were about $13.
Due to the truck being used this morning, and church tomorrow, I have to save our animal feed purchases for Monday. This week we will only need one 50lb bag of goat feed, and three bales of hay. That should come to around $45.
That brings us to a grand total of $421.61. There will be small things that pop up, like I didn't realize we needed some SOS pads, and some tweezers.
One of the great tips I got off of "How Jen Does It", was to put your bag of snacks into smaller bags. Brilliant!!!! This has truly cut down on wasted chips. With that large of a bag, and small children trying to handle said large bag...well, that equals lots of spilled chips.
Saoirse enjoying a baggie of chips :-)
For any THMers out there, these are the special ingredients I use. I already had the gelatin on hand way before I started THM. I bought these neat blue containers at the Dollar Tree. After a bag of Super Sweet tipped over, which was not closed all the way....well I don't have to tell you that I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again!! I plan on finding or making some nicer labels, but didn't have anything on hand but plain ole paper and tape. So far we've been buying our xylitol at Whole Foods. Not sure if we are saving money or not, it was really a case of "we need some xylitol right now" situation :-) I did not need to buy any of these this week. I try to space these purchase out so I am not buying them all at once.
While I was taking these pictures I was sipping on my lovely army green smoothie. I try to mix up what I use. The base is the same, either almond milk, or coconut milk (depending on whether I want and "E" or "S" breakfast), a handful of okra, 1/4 pound of frozen spinach and a 1/4 pound of kale, collagen, sweetener, and most importantly for me: powdered spirulina. Then I add some of the following, all of which is frozen: yellow squash, carrots, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberris or cherries. I also may add the following, which are not frozen: radishes, cucumber, avocado or celery. I would like to get my hand on some beets to try those as well.
Below is my menu. Moira and I are eating using the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) way. It is easiest of we can all eat the same, and I try to keep it that way, though as you will see below there are a couple of exceptions. For breakfast I try to make a large green smoothie, but everyone else eats according to the breakfast items below. You will also see an S, E, or FP for reference for THM. For a crash course of what those letters mean: All meals are supposed to have a protein and then each meal will either fall more towards higher in fat, or higher in carbs. An "S" stands for, satisfying, a meal that has higher fat. The "E" is for, energy, those are higher in carbs. The "FP" stands for, fuel pull, which is neither high in fat or carbs.
You can see I have quite a few "E" meals in here, which means that on the days with lunch and dinner as an "E" I will make an "S" breakfast. And even though my kiddos will be eating the same meals, they will add cross over items, or have snacks that will be crossovers. Crossovers, for those that do not know are when you combine both fat and carbs in higher amounts. Again, this is a VERY simple explanation, but hopefully you get the idea of how it works.
My menu for the week:
Breakfast:
These are not scheduled, but I try to mix it up between smoothies, some type of eggs and possibly bacon, oatmeal or yogurt with fruit.
Lunch:
Sat: hard boiled eggs and roasted veggies *S
Sun: tomato chicken bisque soup *S
Mon: for the kids, cheeseburger rice/ for Moira and I, salad *S or E depending on how we feel that day
Tues: chicken salad *E
Wed: soothe your soul soup *FP
Thurs: rice and veggies, with shredded chicken *E
Fri: left overs
Dinner:
tonight, Fri: pasta with meat sauce, regular noodles for kids, and spaghetti squash as noodles for Moira and I *E
Sat: cashew chicken *S
Sun: bbq chicken with coleslaw *E
Mon: beef burritos, tortillas for kids, lettuce leaves for Moira and I *S or E depending on our topping choices
Tues: rice and sausage *E
Wed: slow fajitas, on sprouted homemade tortillas *E (if we felt we needed an "S" meal, we could put our fajita filling on a lettuce leaf and use sour cream, cheese and avocado toppings)
Thurs: pizza made with sprouted wheat *E
10 comments:
I've always wondered about those posts where people spend $300 for the month. We have ten in our family too and probably spend a similar amount as you. I'm blessed because my husband does 95% of the shopping - I hate shopping, and he loves it. He does most of our shopping at Costco and then goes to Wal-Mart or a local grocery store for the items that Costco doesn't carry. We buy our eggs by the case from a local farmer at the flea market.
My oldest daughter and I are also doing THM. I try to make our meals work for everyone so I'm not cooking two meals. I don't buy a lot of extra "special" foods for the THM plan. I just don't want to be dependent on them, and some are harder to find here in Canada. So far it's working for us the way we do it.
Oh, good! I'm glad I'm not the only one trying to figure out how I could possibly cut back even more! We've tried to beans and rice deal, heavy carbs, since it was cheaper. BUT, it also made us sick, sick, sick. Like even sicker than we normally are, which is saying a lot! Ha, ha. How long have you been doing THM? We only started a few weeks ago. We gave it a go before the holidays, and even though I made it through the holidays with flying colors, I ended up crashing after that. Oh well, we got back up, and that's what counts.
I agree with not being dependent on a certain product. I've tried the sweetener available at Walmart and I got a bad headache. Thought it was a fluke. But it happened when I ate something with it again. And I'm the person who gets one headache every 5 years.
I don't mind my hubby going shopping, but if I have anything on the list that is not the norm, he doesn't always come home with what I expected him to :-) Plus I like getting out of the house. But I do not enjoy going shopping with just littles. That is stressful.
Blessings,
Kerri
Hi. I'm commenting from Australia so costs will vary but your budget doesn't look extravagant for the amount of people you have to feed. We are a family of 7 and I usually spend $240 at ALDI and $100 at Woolworths. But we also end up spending some extra so probably $350-$400 per week. But that includes everything. Cleaning and personal products. We probably buy more meat than your family but recently I've been buying mainly chicken, mince and maybe a roast leg of lamb. Steak has started to become so unaffordable lately.
Hi Therese. Glad I am not the only one with the same budget :-) Yes, we stick with chicken and ground beef mainly. We are able to get a good price on sausage, and we buy that about twice a month. Oh, my, the steak! Steak has always been expensive!!! Yikes. That is a very special treat we only have about once a year, if that.
Blessings,
Kerri
Wow! What a haul! Lol! I'm a THMer too! You mentioned you'd like some nicer labels...I know Sarah at Mrs. Criddle's Kitchen has made a free printable available for THM labels!
Blessings!
Dolly
Dolly,
Wow! Thank you, those labels are awesome!! I know I'll be printing them off soon.
Blessings,
Kerri
Wow! Thank you for sharing this with us. Our family is not as large and so I appreciated a look into a larger family budget for food. Unfortunately, food in general has just gone up! I am also counting pennies! Thank you for linking up to the Art of Home-Making Mondays this week :)
Hey, I represent that comment! :-) At least I'm willing to do the shopping; but like a typical guy, I'm on a "seek and destroy" mission, trying to get in and out as quickly as possible!
OY! I feel so guilty! Our budget is $500 per week for the 5 of us! But of course that is because we eat mostly all organic/natural. Our raw milk alone is $7 per gallon. 5 gallons a week! BUT with that said we actually have cut way back the last month. I will have to tally it up but taking out the cost for dog food (we were raw with them but switched to a natural kibble with organic canned dog food which cost the same as the raw), and factoring in that I now make our butter and kefir (hence the 5 gallons) and of course our own kombucha which was costing us way too much, I think I've only spent $400 each week lately. It might even be less. We are also going to buy a cow and a lamb to cut costs of meat for the year. Oh - and with that 5 gallons of milk, I actually make our own yogurt as well. I'm going to get stricter with our diet and that will help curb costs as well. Not easy, but long term, we are going to really cut costs way down - especially with our potted garden this summer. Found 5 gallon pots for less than $5 per piece in wholesale. Since we rent, I don't want to put in a garden so pots it will be this year.
Wow! You go girl!!! :-) You are doing an awesome job with your diet. It's great that you are able to make so many things on your own. Potted garden. Great idea. I actually did a wee bit of gardening, broke up some dirt, and put some compost in. Had to put a cage on top to keep out the chickens. But then I found a horse eating the straw that was covering the garden bed I just worked on. Plus, same horse is eating the branches of our fruit trees. Grrr. You want a pony? He's free :-) Ha, ha!!
love you!
Post a Comment