Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Grocery Budget

My grocery budget is one of the only variable costs that we have, and I have been trying like the dickens to get it down. I have found that making my food from scratch has helped a lot because I am not buying as many cereals for breakfast (I am making pancakes, waffles, french toast, etc...) and also because I am not buying snacks (instead I am making things such as brownies, cookies, air popped popcorn). For a while there I was spending around $225 a week - which for a family of 6 I think is quite a lot. I now have it down to around $200, but I would like to get it down to about $150. This has to be doable, right? To complicate matters a little bit, I only buy organic milk.  The eggs and meat I choose to buy are from a sustainable farm about 20 minutes away. My milk costs me $3.50 for 1/2 gallon and the eggs are $3.50 per dozen. The meat varies depending on the cut, but I would say that spending $25 a week on that is not unheard of (and that is just for chicken and beef. I do not buy any other kinds of meat). I shop at several stores - none of them being a big box grocery store anymore. I first start at Aldi's and then make my way to Marc's. I buy my milk from a local market down the street called Kreigers, and finally head to the farm for my eggs and meat. I would love to hear how other families operate food budget and what kinds of purchases they make and where. I will shout with joy if I could regularly get this budget down to $150 consistently.

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