Q&A: How much should a family of eight spend on groceries?

If you spend $40 a week on groceries, what do you think a family of 8 should spend on their food bills for the week? -Kate

My goal price range is $0.25-0.50/person for breakfasts and lunches and $1.00-$1.50/person for dinners. Basically, I shoot for it to cost around $2/person per day for food and household items. However, we don't actually spend that much since we have two adults and two little children and only spend approximately $38-40 a week on food and household items.

As our children grow older and we have more children, I'm curious to see how much we'll need to adjust our budget. Since we have not raised our budget by much in spite of our expanding family, I'm hoping we can continue to keep it low.

I would like to never go above $75/week--no matter how many children we have (and we're hoping for at least eight or more!), but I have to test that out with a brood of children before I can say for sure! One thing I do know is that the longer I bargain shop, the better I become at stretching our dollars.

When you are first starting out with creating a budget and a menu and sticking with it, I suggest you begin with something very doable. If you've never had a grocery budget before, just sticking with the same budget every week is a new challenge. Start somewhere but don't make it too hard at first. Keep it simple.

For a family of eight, maybe you could try to stick with $150/week? That would be about $21/day or about $2.60/person per day ($0.87/person per meal). Your eventual goal might be to cull that down to around $100 or less, if possible, but start out with something manageable. This is supposed to be a fun process not a stressful process! If $150 sounds way too low, try starting out with a $200/week budget. As always, starting somewhere is better than not starting at all!

Whatever you do, choose a budget amount that you think is possible, but might be a little bit of a challenge. Keep in mind your family's eating preferences, where you live and what the prices are in that locale, what your husband likes to eat (don't scrimp there!), how often you have others into your home for meals, and how much time you have available to spend cooking and planning.

I also think it is good to not have the budget so low that you can't splurge on certain things sometimes. We splurge every week on organic hormone-free milk and eggs from a local dairy. We also often use our overage from CVS to splurge on "fun things" like dark chocolate and ice cream. Always remember that the purpose of saving money is not to deprive yourself, but to make the most of what you have!

Once you feel comfortable with your current grocery budget and feel like you could do better, try shaving off a little more and a little more until you get your budget down to where you'd like for it to be. Remember, if at any time in the process you stop looking at it as a fun challenge and start seeing it as a stressful frustration, back off a bit and allow yourself a little more wiggle room.

As you gradually improve at your bargain-hunting skills, are able to stock up on good deals, and start planning your menu more based upon what is on sale at the store and what you already have on hand, you'll find it becoming easier and easier to lower your weekly budget.

What is your weekly budget and how many does that regularly feed? Do you include your household items in that budget? Are you satisfied with your budget or do you think you could improve it?

Comments

[Jackie]

For our family of four my husband budgets $75.00 a week, but since I have found this website I have only been spending anywhere between $60. to $65..:) And this includes household items. This week because of Meijers good sale I spent only $100.00 for two weeks:).

[Donna]

I feed 2 adults full time and 5 kids ages 8 to 5 half the time on 600 dollars per month. We eat very very well and occasionally we eat out. Treats and snacks are pretty basic (apple, banana, string cheese, granola bar). We do eat breakfast cereal if I can get it for less than 1.00 per box, and I do pack lunches for everyone. We don't eat beef or pork more than 2x per week usually (unless there's been a spectacular sale). I do buy hormone free milk and organics when I can afford it. Coffee is Starbucks brewed at home.

It is very doable but it does take some practice; I will be working to get my bill down by a couple hundred dollars a month.

[Tahsha]

We are a family of 6 - all of which are "regular food" eaters. (My 18mo. old just weened. :( ) Before couponing I thought I was doing pretty good with a food/ toiletry budget of $125/wk. We have cut that down to $60/wk. B/c of Publix, I've spent less than $30/wk on everything for the past month and a half or so, but I'm leaving it at $60 as we will be moving soon to a town with no Publix or any other great "coupon" stores. $60/ wk will be quite the challenge there as we will also have 1 extra adult added to the household numbers. - Might have to raise it to $70-$75 for the 7 of us as there will be a lot more entertaining as well. We'll see.

[Tami]

Hi, Crystal!

We are a family of eight (Dad, Mom, DD - 17, DS - 13, DS - 9, DS - 7, DS - 4, DS - 2) As you can see we have a lot of boys. What I can say about them is that they can really eat! Currently, our food and sundries budget is around $80 week, but we are not buying beef at the grocery store. We purchased half of a cow in the spring, so that has helped us lower it tremendously. I would estimate that we were spending $125 a week before we purchased the beef.

Our savings strategies are, as follows:

- Using coupons and sales (I get info from here, The Grocery Game, and Hot Coupon World)

- Buying in bulk at Aldi's or Sam's

- Eating fresh vegetables from our garden

- Raising chickens for eggs

Hope this helps! Tami in NC

[E.M.C.]

my husband & i got married in March & so we haven't had too too much time to figure out exactly how much our grocery budget should be. however we spend $28-$30 per week on groceries, but we are trying VERY hard to even lessen that since there is just two of us now. i guess when you do the math for $28, that does work out to exactly $2 per person. so maybe we are doing better than we think! =)

[Leyte37]

We only have a family of four... me, husband, teen son and my mother-in-law.
Before my MIL moved in with us, I could usually get by on a budget of $40/week. And I didn't use coupons at the time.
But when she got here... all of a sudden we were spending $100-$150/week!!! I couldn't handle it... didn't understand what was going on! Then I figured a couple of thing out...
1) she wanted meat at EVERY dinner!
2) she was buying VERY pricey/brand name items that I would NEVER buy.
3)Her breakfast and lunches were about $3 each... daily!
I finally had to put a stop to this. I took control. I started couponing... and planning meals... I told her that we would NOT be buying the "convenience" items (unless marked down, coupons, sales or I said so! lol)
I have gotten the weekly budget down to about $50-$75/week... and will continue to lower the budget. You have been a HUGE inspiration and help to me and I greatly appreciate everything you do! And to all the other readers and bloggers.... thank you for all of your ideas on deal making also!

[mommy to 5 angels]

We are a family of 7 (8 in 20 weeks). We live in Oklahoma. None of the stores around take internet printed coupons.
I budget $600 a month. That includes our household items and birthday presents that are not for our children (like cousins). Most of the time I can stay even lower than that by shopping at Aldi and Crest(a local discount grocery store). I try to avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible.
I do use CVS alot. This really helps with toothpast, shampoo, etc. I would love to lower it even more, but without the help of printed coupons I don't know how to get it any lower.
I take the paper and use those coupons though. And I do shop the ads to see if there is anything worth driving to.
I am anxious to hear what other people say.

[cavamil]

We are a family of eight, kids all under ten years old including one infant and one toddler, and we spend anywhere between $160 and $200 each week (that includes household items like diapers, paper towels, etc.). Occasionally that will also include material from the "craft" department that gets used for clothing instead.

In all I shop at four stores: a big box superstore, a discount bread store, a fairly well-known grocery store that has great sales on produce, and a health food store for bulk items like seeds for sprouting and items for my two older children who have special needs.

Our goal as a family lately has been to have every meal at home or from home. This means making sure my husband likes the foods I make so he won't be tempted to eat out, making sure food is on time (i.e. it's ready when he comes home) and adding in sweets, which is something we had been phasing out to improve our health.

After we get to the point where we rarely if ever eat out, I'm going to try lowering the weekly cost to a steady $160 each week.

One thing to keep in mind is that I have two children in the autism spectrum, and that means a greater amount gets spent on fixing things, cleaning things, as well as some food items that others might consider a luxury but that we consider a necessity because of our childrens' reactions. For example, we cannot have any sugar in the house because our oldest has a tendency to have anxiety attacks and the other kids become much too hyper. We've found honey is the best substitute, but obviously honey is much more expensive than sugar. So, in order to keep to our budget, sweets are kept to a minimum.

Anyway, that's my and my family.

[E.M.C.]

Whoops...just realized I made a miscalculation. We actually spend about $29-$35 per week. (Still trying hard to lower it.) Which in the end, for the two of us, works out to be about $2.30 per person per day. Sorry about the mistake!

[Ruth]

Hello! We are feeding a family of 6. 5 adults one 2 year old. We usually spend $80 to $50 a week. Most times $80. I do include house hold items in with that. I think we could do much better. So at $80 thats .63 a meal per person. Sounds low but we still can't afford it.

[Mary Ellen (Carolina Momma)]

Our weekly grocery budget is $100 for 6 people (3 adults, 3 children - 5yo, 3yo and 1yo) and 2 cats. That includes food, cleaning products, baby items and pet items. A few months back we increased the budget from $75 a week to help boost the stockpile as well as add more fresh fruits and veggies in our diet. To help stay within budget, I coupon (we have doubles & triples here), shop sales, stockpile, menu plan, eat 2-3 meatless meals a week and cook from scratch.

In the short term, I would like to work our budget to include trips to Whole Foods for some staples and fruits/veggies. In the long term, we may look at ordering organic fruits and veggies from a CSA.

[Mindy]

We have a family of 6 and I am trying to spend only $140 a week, but I usually go over budget. My goal right now is to stick to the $140 and then start to bring that down. One of the issues we have is that 3 of the kids are teenagers. You wouldn't believe how much they eat! A few weeks ago I kept track of how many gallons of milk we go through in a week. Believe it or not we drank 10 1/2 gallons of milk! That's over $30 just for milk. We also go through lots and lots of water and lemonade too! I must have very thirsty kids.

Another issue for me is that we don't have any major chain grocery stores (we do have Walmart but I haven't had a lot of luck there), we have a few smaller local stores and they don't have a lot of loss-leaders. I have been CVSing and that has helped a lot. (with 3 teens, we go through a lot of soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and deoderant! I just love it when I can get it for free!)

Anyway, bottom line is that right now I'm aiming to keep my grocery and household budget at $140, and eventually I'd like to bring that down closer to $100.

[Elizabeth Rehn]

I have a family of 8, and we spend around 150.00 a week. This includes everything household and groceries. My children are small the oldest is 8 and the youngest is 6 months. But also I have two in diapers right now. I can see that I will have the expand my budget again in a few years to feed my boys, some days they eat more then me, but getting a lot of free snack food, does help keeping the budget down. I have only been coupon shopping for a few months now so I don't have a huge stockpile yet, but I am working on it. I sometime use my stockpile of thigs for people at my church. The free toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and things like that. We deal with a lot of homeless people, and offer them free shower and meal on Sunday.

[René]

I grew up in a family of 9 in Oregon, and our monthly Costco bill was $900 month. That was not including the occasional walks to the grocery store around the corner for a little extra milk and bread. We would sometimes fill our huge extra freezer by buying 1/2 of someone's cow or pig they butchered, and that was helpful! But with all of that, I don't remember eating all that extravagant! I recall a lot of oatmeal & PB & J....
Now I live in California and I have a family of 4 all my own. Things are a lot more expensive down here, and though I do clip some coupons, I can't get past keeping the budget at $100 a week! That includes diapers, TP, shampoo, etc. Maybe part of the problem is that I don't see a lot of the coupons that are mentioned on the site??? And I only have time for 4 stores- farmer's market & grocery store one week, Costco & Walmart the next. Any tips??

[Ruthanne Genco]

We are a family of seven and I have been trying to narrow our weekly budget down to $80. I'm not there yet. About five months ago, I was spending around $200 - $220 a week on groceries. Last week, I spent just $127.

I'm not sure if I'll make it to $80 or not. I buy six gallons of milk a week - which is around $20 - $25 dollars, depending on the price that week.

[Tami]

I am shopping for a family of 6 and I never spend over $100. Most weeks I spend between $50 and $75. My grocery budget is $100 but I usually have money left over to do something else with (like yard sales or thrift stores).

[Kristie]

We are a family of 4. 2 Adults, 1 teenager, and one hungry growing boy on his way to being a teenager.

I try to keep our food budget under $50 a week. When I am able I try to shop every 2 weeks for around $80-$100.

Of course this number really isn't set in stone. So sometimes I do go a little over. But I am trying to be a lot more disciplined regarding my budget.

So, a family of 4 - $50 a week.

Kristie

[Dana]

I'm always amazed how you can survive on such little. What's the secret? I think we eat too many snacks - maybe that's what is killing my grocery budget.
What I'd love to see is if you could list your grocery receipt items and what your menu is. Thanks! Great post!

[Brandy @ Savin' Some]

Our grocery budget is $25.00 per week, and we have two adults, a 4 year old, a two year old, and a 5 month old. This only includes groceries, and not household, but with shopping at CVS and stockpiling when things go on sale the only other things that I have to buy weekly are diapers.

[T Urban]

We have two adults and three children (ages 12,9,7) in our family. When the kids were younger, it seemed easier to work with about $100 a week. A few years ago, my husband and I tried to switch to a slightly healthier low-carb diet (and include mostly whole grains as fiber). That raised our costs. I cook almost every night, and we are spending about $120-150 a week. Currently, I have noticed the price of groceries rising. I try to buy a lot of produce and meat at a small Sun Harvest store that is close, and most of the rest I buy at the local HEB. We don't normally buy a lot of junk food, but I feel that we are spending more than I would prefer on food.

[Rose]

We are a family of 7, with 5 children ages 11 and under. My grocery and household budget is $75 a week. I do struggle with this some weeks - my husband is a meat-lover and is um, to put it nicely, 'not interested' in any vegetarian meals. To make it slightly more difficult, he does like meat to be a main item in our meals (not just in casseroles, etc. like Crystal suggests). Additionally, we live in a rural area, have only have 1 chain grocery store and a Super-Walmart about 20 miles away, and none that double coupons (I was spoiled in the previous place we lived), so it's a constant challenge to stretch our money. Overall, my goal is $300 per month, but honestly I'd say we spend closer to $350 a lot of months.

[Sheri]

We are a family of 9 (children ages 15 son -6mos). In a typical month we shop on the 1st and 15th of the month. On the 1st we do regulare shopping and Sams. I will spend $200-250 regular shopping and about $250-300 at Sams. On the 15th I spend around $200-$250. This does include some stocking up, toiletries, paper goods (no diapers), and any cooking gadgets/utensils from Sams. I have found they have great storage containers, cutting boards, and utensils that are affordable and hold up well with a large family. So I am gradually redoing my kitchen. I could probably do better on my budget, but we love veggies and fruit and eat of lot of it. We don't have a garden this year because we are moving. Next year I plan on a big garden and that will cut costs on the budget.

[Jodi]

Thanks to your help, Crystal, I have been able to bring our weekly grocery bill down from $100/week to $50-$60. This is for a family of seven including three adults, two teenage boys and two growing girls.

I am not the mother. I am the third adult who has been unofficially "adopted" into the family for the last ten years. I work from home helping with the home business, cooking, cleaning, shopping and home schooling. The father of the family recently quit his regularly paying job to work on the home business full time.

Thank you for teaching me about CVS, Aldi, and couponing so that I can be a blessing to the family who has been such a blessing to me.

[Miranda]

Our grocery budget is $75/pay check, which is every two weeks. We usually stick to budget. If I have a little left over from other catergories and I see something on sale and worth it I get it but for the most part we stick to the budget. We only have two children at the moment though. So like you it may go up as our family goes up.

[Nancy]

Our grocery budget is normally $70-$100 per week, depending on sales and what we actually need. This includes extras like toiletries, laundry items, and paper goods, not just food. Weeks when we don't need all the "extras", I can usually get about 2 weeks worth of main dish meals (breakfasts, lunches, and dinner) and one week's worth of weekly items (milk, bread, eggs, produce) for $100 buy shopping at Aldi and using coupons for sale and BOGO items at Publix and Kroger. I am fine with this budget, since we can get quality food and have a variety of items at Aldi at a low cost. We usually are able to get chicken, several kinds of fish, shrimp, ground turkey, etc.

We like food, and trying different things. I don't want to sacrifice having delicious meals just because I can get beans and rice cheaper. I have found that by shopping at Aldi and using my coupons wisely, especially in conjunction with BOGOs, I don't have to sacrifice the quality of the food I buy but am still able to stay within a very economical budget.

We have three in our family. I am 5'10" and active, and my husband is 6' and a gym rat. We have very hearty appetites. lol We are also carnivores. My son is almost 12, and is a bottomless pit. He is already 5'6" and 126 pounds. His projected height is 6'4". So my goal is to stay at the same budget during these growth spurt years. I am hoping that is possible. lol

I probably spend 40-50% of my budget on meat, and that is fine with me. I buy packaged frozen items like chicken, tilapia, salmon, shrimp, and ground turkey (lots of ground turkey) at Aldi unless they are on sale cheaper somewhere else. I use the ground turkey ($0.79 for a 1 lb. roll) in everything from chili and tacos to stir-fry and meat sauce for pasta. I always look for marked down beef that I can freeze. We love beef, but only eat it once a week at most. Every once a while we splurge and get steaks for the grill. We also eat a lot of imitation crab meat in stuff like seafood marinara and quiche.

At $100 per week, 21 meals per week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) per person, it breaks down to $1.58 per person per day (that's $0.52 per meal). My son will start eating at school when that starts back, but my husband usually comes home to eat at lunch, and I almost always take either leftovers or something else from home for lunch.

So, I guess my point is that you can still serve awesome meals and stay within a tight budget.

[carla Sorensen]

We are trying a new budget system ourselves right now. Our children are grown, so it is just my husband and myself now. However we have four (yes 4) cats and their food and litter have to be taken from our budget as well. We are trying $200.00 a month. We live in a very expensive area of the country, at least I think it sounds more expensive than some areas.

I hope everyone has success in their journey to live on a budget and be good stewards.

Carla

[Mary Jo]

I shoot for around $55 each week on groceries and household items. I'm working to slowly decrease it. I started at $65, got comfortable there, went down to $60, etc. I want to continue to lower it as much as I can, while making sure we have plenty of fresh produce and healthy food. I am about 11 weeks pregnant with our first child, so now is not the time to scrimp on healthiness! I would eventually like to get it to $50, and maybe even less.

[mary b]

We are a family of 4, plus 2 large dogs, and our current budget is $60/wk. That does include dog food, paper goods, cleaning and toiletries.
In the past we spent (gasp) $120-$150/wk on all that.

[Barbara]

This is a very timely topic for me. I just did several posts on my blog about this. Basically I was budgeting $70 for a family of 6 plus 1 breastfeeding baby. My budget covered food, toiletries, paper products, cleaning products, and children's supplies. The majority of the budget goes to food since we use cloth as much as we can. I have also been able to save a lot by using gift cards and coupons at CVS and Rite Aid.

But, when I ran my actual numbers, I found that instead of spending $280 monthly, we averaged $521. I set a new, more realistic goal of $90 weekly with $20 of that set aside for BJ's and a local baking supply store. Typically we get our whole bean coffee, romano cheese, yeast, and a few other items at BJ's monthly. We're taking a break on two unnecessary trips - Panera Bread and Trader Joe's, though I'd rather treat the kids to yogurt from Trader Joe's than stuff from McDonald's.

We also garden and grown fruit. As I work on refining my shopping skills with the new budget, I'll be making sure we use our homegrown stuff first before buying other stuff.

I'm giving myself four months to try the new budget. When I was running my grocery numbers, I found that my time spent couponing which isn't much has been very profitable. I'm going to work on that aspect a little bit more.

[Kristin]

I have used your grocery budget as a basis for my own. We purchase a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, which can be quite expensive, but our grocery bill is usually $60-80 a week for a family of seven. I don't include household items in this, but that is usually about $10-15. Personally I think this is great for a family of seven living in our area.

[Alison @ This Wasn't In The Plan]

My budget is about $55 a week and includes household items like toilet paper, laundry detergent and toiletries. I don't usually buy the household items each month, so sometimes I'll be slightly over, and then the next month below a little bit. It all averages out, so that's where I keep it for the time being.

I think it is important to factor in eating out also. If I'm remembering correctly, your family likes to eat out regularly. This is going to lower your weekly grocery bill. If a family eats at home every day and spends $60 on groceries, they are more or less spending the same as a family that eats out once a week and spends $50 a week when you factor in not buying groceries for one entire meal and probably being able to eat at least some restaurant leftovers for another meal.

[JadeMerie]

With our family of 9 I try to stick to $400. There are some months I can do it for $300 and some months when I end up spending more because the deals just aren't there.

[Kristen]

There are 7 in our family, and I generally spend about $400/month on groceries and household items (we don't really budget for eating out, since we only do that about once every 3 months). I really wish I spent less, and think I could if we were in different circumstances. I am 30 min from all the stores, and so shop every other week, which means I can't always hit the good sales on the off-weeks. And we are in a 1200sf home with no pantry and few cabinets, so I cannot stock up much from Sams or good sales, etc. But, I have gotten better than before after using some of your tips here! Thanks for all the good advice!

[Stephanie]

I just started the coupon game, so I'm working my budget down slowly. It's amazing to me how much I didn't pay attention to the price of the items I bought... I just bought them because we "needed" them! Now, my goal is to not buy anything that isn't on sale and have a coupon for. What a drastic change!! My husband is quite pleased with my new perspective on spending and stretching his hard-earned dollar. Our weekly budget at this time for groceries, toiletries, and household items is $80/wk for our family of 5. Sometimes it creeps to $100/wk, but it's still better than the $150-$200/wk I used to spend!

[Carol]

We are a family of nine with the two oldest being teens. Before finding Biblical Womanhood and now, Money Saving Mom, we were spending close to $1,000 per month. But in the last year, we have gradually reduced our spending to less than $500 a month for all of our foods and household needs, including diapers for two! Typically we spend about $450- $475 a month. My goal is to get down to below $400, if possible. Thank you, Crystal for allowing God to work through you. Our family has truly been blessed by this great ministry you have.

[S]

Family of 4 here. DH and I and 5 YO DS and 2 YO DD.
I budget about $100/week but that includes guinea pig stuff (about $35/mo) and DD's special gluten free foods.

[Jessica]

We average $75/week for two adults, a toddler and 2 cats. My daughter is still breastfeeding. This also includes cleaning supplies, non prescription medicines and vitamins (prenatal for me, multi for him), cat supplies, paper products, diapers, and health/beauty. My husband drinks a lot of milk and eats a lot of yogurt and cheese and a meal is not a meal without meat, in his opinion. I do use a lot of ground turkey, and my dad is a deer hunter and gives us venison regularly. I like fresh fruit and veggies (though will get frozen if that is most economical). I've built a stockpile over the past 2 months, and started the drugstore game about 2 months ago as well, so even though before I spent little on toiletries, now it's down to basically $0!

[S]

I wanted to add, we don't have CVS or publix available. Only Safeway, Smiths, Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Target. While I haven't been able to score a lot of stuff for FREE, your site has been helpful in finding things for cheap. We have a cupboard full of toiletries I paid pennies (or less) for and a cupboard of cereal I got for $1.10/box. While not free, those savings DO add up!
Thank you!!

[Katie]

Am I the only one who feels ashamed that a family of 6 or 8 can eat off my budget for a family of 2?
We've budgeted $50/week for groceries and household items. We do count our pet supplies as part of the grocery budget. Some weeks we only spend $20 but other weeks (when Meijer blesses us with Meijer brand week or good 10/$10 deals) we spend our full $50.
Another justification of the budget is that we've never done this before. I really enjoy coupon clipping and bargain hunting so grocery shopping is my favorite time of the week. Because we're new at this, it is taking some time to learn better how to match coupons and plan a weekly menu.
What we spend on other parts of our budget is completely out of my control so I love knowing that I can be as aggressive or passive with the groceries as I want.

[jenni williams]

until i found this site (thanks crystal!) i was spending between 70-100 a week for a family of 5, we have three hungry boys 7,5,3. I have only set out to lower this budget in the last two weeks. last week i spent 55 for the whole week including toiletries but we do have a little meat stock piled. when i meat runs out i will go to the local butcher and stock up again. my dh will not even entertian the idea of meatless meals. i do buy it at albertsons when they have great sales i am hoping to stay around 60 a week once i get good at couponing.

[Laralee]

What a "family" spends will depend upon the size, ages, location and needs of each family's children. We are a family of 11 people with 8 in their teen or adult years and 3 children under 10.

We do our best to eat healthy, fresh and home made. I do not buy anything with high fructose corn syrup in it and avoid personal body products with chemical and questionable ingredients such as parabens and sulfates (eliminating many coupon opportunities).

Up until 4 years ago, our food budget was very low. I was able to shop the different sales and different stores and our children were not eating quite so much then.

I bought in bulk and it lasted for a long time. I also bought the cheapest body products not understanding the cancer-causing ingredients they contained.

When the 2 older boys hit their growing years and started doing lots of physical labor, our food bill shot through the roof overnight. In addition to that, we moved to a rural area where there is no shopping competition and prices are what prices are.

We do not buy processed foods. We do not buy pre-prepared foods as a norm - only as a special needed basis. We do buy fresh fruits and vegies. We do buy whole grains in bulk. We make our own bread unless time just does not allow. We make whole grain pancakes, waffles, oatmeal or egg sandwiches for breakfast.

We have our own milk goats and free-ranging chickens. We are growing our own beef, but that food project is still all money outgo and no product, at this point. Lord willing, we will have a fall garden this year to provide us with some produce. God has provided some fruit trees for planting but they do not produce fruit at this time.

In a week's time, we can easily go through $20 of apples, $10 of potatoes, $10 of salad greens, $10 of bananas, $10 of pb&j, $10 of cheeses, $5-10 whole grain noodles, $5 of toilet paper, $10 of butter (mostly for baking), $15 of frozen fruit (for smoothies and goat milk ice cream), $8 carrots, $5 in onions, $8 in tomatoes, $10 in natural sweeteners for baking and home made goat milk ice cream (honey, organic sugar or agave nectar) and these are just some of the basic staples.

In a month's time we will use up to 100 pounds of wheat which is currently around $60 in our area, 10 pounds of rice, 5-10 pounds of beans and 20 pounds of oats.

We are looking forward to the day when our freezer is stocked with our own home grown meat. But until then we purchase meat in family packs and only on sale. When I buy a reduced family pack of meat I buy two of them per meal. I used to split them up into several different meals. Not any more!

When we cook a large turkey it makes 1 meal with enough left over for a few sandwiches or a casserole. We then cook the carcass and make soup or chicken and dumplings. I used to freeze ziplocs of frozen turkey and get 20 easy meals out of 1 turkey. Now we get maybe 5 meals from 1 turkey only because we cook the carcass too.

Remember, I'm feeding approximately the equivalent of 10 adults many of whom do a lot of physical labor.

Due to our travel distance to shopping, I am not able to take advantage of most coupons and sales. However, I do take advantage of what sales are running when I am there.

I don't have the opportunity while in town to go from store to store. There's just not enough time in a day in town. So, I learn where the best everyday prices are on items that we use and do my best to purchase items at the store that sells that item for less. And when I find a good sale, I buy it all or as much as I can at the time.

Two weeks ago I bought 10 boxes of raisin bran for $1 each off the clearance rack. I usually do not buy cereal. This would last most families a very long time. Even with rationing, we now have 1/2 box left and it's been 2 weeks. But it was a nice out-of-the-norm treat and helped on some very early and busy mornings.

We food shop at Costco, HEB and Sun Harvest. The only other option here is Super WalMart and their produce is vastly inferior so I generally do not shop there.

There are a couple of Super Targets and one Whole Foods here but they are not conveniently located and their prices just are much higher. I have used coupons to get good deals at Super Target, but I seem to spend more time & money on printing the coupons and then not getting into town in the time frame to use them than I save when I do use them. It seems to be a drain on my time and resources to spend time on them.

I also shop online when I can, in order to save the time and gas of driving to town. I buy supplements and organic shampoos through VitaCost.com and we use coconut oil for a healthy moisturizer and hair conditioner. Their shipping if $4.99 regardless of how much you purchase. Much cheaper than gas!

We make our own laundry detergent and save about $10 per large bottle. This is a tremendous savings as we do LOTS of laundry. We use vinegar as a softener and hang out to dry as much as possible, depending upon weather and line space.

Even with as much as we do to save costs and not buy frivolous things, our household budget is still anywhere between $1000 to $1300. Some months I shop more and some months I shop less, depending upon our income, sales and our pantry stock.

This averages to about $100 per person per month or about $3 per day per person. This does not include the cost of raising our own milk, eggs and meat. And these figures are going up daily as we speak with the cost of food, animal feed and gas rising.

I cannot believe that we spend that much as I used to spend so very little. But the little people God gave us became big people. Big hard working people eat lots more! Our food costs are like a mortgage, which seems so incredible to me.

Even with how much we do spend, I know if we shopped as the average family today shops, we could easily be spending double what we spend now.

Even with the rising cost of food for our family, God still provides. Even without a weekly income from a stable job, God is still providing for us.

Don't let our figures scare you into thinking that if you have a large family you won't be able to provide. We are living examples of how GOD provides for His children.

In Him,
Laralee
aka The Tent Family
http://PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations

[Sarina]

When I lived in Southern California I had a $500 a month budget (roughly $100 a week with room for other misc items) which did NOT include gas ($60+ a week due to the distance required for our son's school) nor our prescription needs (we are roughly $200 a month for our entire family and that doesn't include the ones that are not regular monthly ones) nor our medical visits.

While I have been able to stay under the 100 in cash I had every week for groceries (since finding this site and others) it was still a very tight budget with a mortgage and rent in a VERY expensive town! Now that we have moved back to CO and no longer have rent to pay, I have a $700 a month budget and I'm hoping I can fit EVERYTHING under it. Should be interesting...I lost my short lived love affair with CVS so now I get to learn the Walgreen's Game and maybe Rite aid...but I also get to take advantage of all the Walmart and Target deals that are mostly for the Supers! It's an adjustment but I am hopeful :)

[Julie]

I have a family of two & my budget is $100 per week. I just started couponing & am hoping to reduce it to $80. I started w/ toiletries because that seems to be the easiest area to cut back. I want to stock pile free & really cheap toiletries so I won't have to spend so much (or anything) at BJs anymore. Grocery spending will be harder to reduce since my husband insists on meat-centric meals & we both prefer organic everything.

[Bren]

Family of 5 in the southeast. 2 adults, 3 kids aged 2-7, one dog. I could just ditto what Kristin said above, actually!

$77 is automatically deposited into a special "grocery" account with its own debit card every Wednesday. That includes all groceries and household (like cvs/meds/toiletries).

It's working, and I feel we've found a balance between healthful, enjoyable, and frugal, but I admit I'm finding it difficult and time consuming. If I get lazy I could easily slip into spending 160 a week like I used to. Well, maybe not that much - I've learned too much - but it does take constant work to maintain that budget. I feel like I went through an initial phase of buying stuff we didn't need just because I was dazzled by the sale/coupon savings, too, but that is correcting itself.

It happened slowly. I went from 160 to 130 to 110 to 90 and then to 77. Over the course of maybe 9 months or so. I think that's my limit for now. But the baby steps were necessary. Also having a weekly budget rather than a monthly one helped. And for me, having the debit card with only the amount in my budget on it also helped. And it all started at this site. Thanks!

[Merrimom]

Right now we are at $100 per week for a family of 4. This includes non food items such as tp, shampoo, etc. We live in the land of no CVS - and only have one Walgreens, so they are often out of the "deals and steals" that so many mention...too many people reading the deals, and competing for the 4 bottles of shampoo that the store keeps in stock, so I have given up on that too. We are also big "meat" eaters, and since that is the one thing my husband truly enjoys, I tend to spend more on that than anything else. I do watch for sales, and usually have overage on my other items that helps pay for the meat (at least a little). I am looking into buying 1/2 a beef to help out. Just trying to compare prices to make sure I can't ge tit cheaper in the grocery store.

[Charlene]

Our budget is 75/wk for a family of 4 (baby almost 1 yr old! and 100lb dog) That includes forumla and diapers and good quality dog food. We are hopinh we will be done with formula soon and can cut back even more. I'd love to get to 50.00.

Crystal: Do you think it is possible to be super frugal even in an outageously expensive place- like CA- with no IPs and no doubling?

[Gerb]

I budget about $100 a week ($400/month) for groceries for my family of 11 (2 adults and 9 kids ranging in age from 3 months to 15 years). This includes diapers for 2 kids, toiletries... pretty much anything you would purchase from a grocery store. I plan my weekly menu based on what I can get on sale at the store and I never feel like I am having to scrimp too much. We have a good amount of food storage that we use to supplement our meals and replenish that supply when things are on sale.

[Jennifer]

Does anyone purchase their groceries once a month? I have just recently began being conscious of how much we spend each week, especially running out to pick up a "few things". I thought I was doing good at $80 per week (Wal-Mart)for a family of 4 until I started keeping up with every penny I spend through the week. This month, I made a menu and went for the entire month. Of course except for perishables and CVSing. I hope it is going to work better. I spent $233.80,which includes CVS for this week. Anyway, Has anyone had sucess once-a-month shopping?

[mommyonabudget]

Your budget per week will depend on a variety of things. #1 =Local stores. We have no Publix, ect in our town and Walmart & CVS are about it. #2 is your children's ages and appetites, #3 are your standards. My husband has high standards, esp. for meat as he is a certified chef. He likes to cook with lots of ingredients. #4=Planning.

Before getting into couponing and CVSing my groceries were costing me very near $800 per month. I am feeding two adults and 7 children with hearty appetites. I am now down to below $400 per month in a good month and below $500 in a bad month. I am pleased with my savings but would like to save more. However, I am quite aware of the fact that it is much harder to find great deals in my area of the country. Costs are high for many things other than food esp. utilities. So, to the people who are trying to live on Crystal's budget, take a look at your area and your kids ages, it does make a big difference.

[Alesha]

You ladies are all amazing, I now know that my goal of 60-80 a week for a family of 6 is reasonable and attainable. I just started budgeting, making a menu, and couponing. And right now I am spending 140, but I am also building my stockpile right now. My goal for September is 100 and each month I want to try to get it down further.