What's your monthly Food Budget?

[tree3branches]

Hi Amy photo

This be Tree Congradulation on your good news. I love it when the kids help in the litchen. You got menoires in the making. You are lucky to found a place with fresh vegetables and fruits for 3 ilbs for a dollar. With just a few dollars you can make a lot of meals. Your little boy I bet is a heart breaker. My Kellie is 2 1/2 now. A strong will gal with a quick temper. But she loves helping. She works as hard as her brothers at the store helping and here at home. When you need her help or not LOL's.;-)

If you need to talk or need any thing just give me hollar. I linger among the post.

[kimmyo]

Amy it is so good to have you here! I thinks its wonderful that you are eating healthier and cooking from scratch! I love to cook! I haven't been over there yet this am, but make sure you check out our "Whats for Dinner" thread in this same Forum. It it one of the most popular spots on the boards and we have a lot of fun there! Again Welcome!

[amyphoto]

Thanks tree and kimmyo for the congrats and making me feel welcome! My ds Zachary is definitely a heart breaker, my dh says 'lock up your daughters'! Even when he does something that I really don't appreciate, I just look at him at can't stay mad for long! I'm sure our new baby will be just as adorable! Tree, Zack loves to help too! When I sweep the kitchen floor he gets very upset if I don't give him a broom too! So I usually give him the small dust brush and tell him to clean up another area (one that's already clean! ) Then once I've finished I give him the BIG broom! He just goes to town with it! I hope that he will be a big helper when the new baby comes even more!

Kimmyo, I will make sure to check out that thread, thanks for the heads up, I'm finding more and more stuff on these boards that are so interesting and helpful!!

[MrsManiac]

Hi amyphoto! My dk's love to help out, too. I'm glad you're working on making things from scratch--it really is a money saver in the long run, plus it tastes better, and you know exactly what you're eating! I make almost all our bread products from scratch--my dh likes to take subs for his lunches, and making the buns from scratch really cuts into the cost!!

For the four of us, I used to spend almost $400 a month. Now I'm down to about $150, including beer, soda, and snacks. I even make some snacks(cookies, fruit bars, etc) from scratch! I'm working on baked potato chips, but can't get them right--I can't seem to cut them thin enough, even with the mandoline

I had to laugh about your mom not cooking! My mom is queen of boxed meals and cans of soup! It has taken me a while to learn how to do some of this stuff--but now that I can, in most cases it takes me longer to whip up the prepackaged stuff!!

[momof4]

mrsmaniac - (I just love your name!!) I wanted to ask you a question! Are you able to spend $150/mo for groceries because you have a good "stock" of things or is that just what you've always spent? I find that I want to stock up but I go overboard and blow the budget! I'm always inspired when I read what people spend on groceries! It gives me a goal to work toward!

Thanks for everyone's suggestions! This is a great encouraging thread!

[amyphoto]

MrsManiac, do you have a bread machine or do you use your oven? I've baked muffins, cookies, cakes, but never bread! My dh says that his grandmother used to make fresh bread for him every morning, but of course isn't spoiled anymore, 'cause he hasn't had it in years!!
I've been putting together a recipe book since we got married, I have a 3 ring binder and tape recipies into it, and whenever I try something without a recipe I write it down! Whenever I do a new recipe from my binder or a cookbook I rate it with stars by how good it was! It's been really helpful! I also subscribe to a couple recipe newsletters that come to my email and I copy and paste them into word documents, I have almost a whole zip disk full!! My problem is that I don't use it enough, and I don't plan my dinners more than a day in advance!
momof4, I have the same problem sometimes with stocking up, my cupboard with my cans is overflowing, but I don't seem to be using much of what's in there! I guess that I just don't know of many recipies that I could make with the canned stuff I buy, whenever I look through recipies I have a hard time finding ones that I have the ingredients for!! I guess that's where the planning comes in, right? It seems to me like maybe the cookbooks have so many 'extravagent' meals instead of common ones for 'regular' people!
MrsManiac, do you have any other suggestions on how to get my grocery budget down?

[thezoo]

My budget is $150/month & I live in Ontario, Canada. We buy a roast of what ever is on sale or chichen legs and thighs and stock up varing from 69 cents a pound for chicken and around $5 for a roast. That roast for a family of 4 will last 4-7 meals. Part is used in a soup or stews the rest is served with rice, potatoes or pasta with vegies. We try to grow our own vegies (not many) and can everything. My kids ages 10 & 12 now love to cook and save money. Dessert is a treasured treat once a week thank God for Halloween. We have a pizza night every 2 weeks. My kids love breakfast of homemade pumpkin butter, or jams with toast. Don't get me wrong we do have eggs a few times as well or bacon & tomato sandwiches. We fish in the summer from shore a few times or can find it sometimes for 99 cents for a few fillets (stock up). We are not starved, in fact we are overweight but very healthy. Packaged foods are not here very often unless canned. I love you sites to mixes they help. I hope this helps. Happily married 17 years.

[MrsManiac]

Wow--that's impressive!! Especially in Canada--it seems everything is higher over there!! I have to sit down and figure how much I have spent this month--I pretty much have emptied my pantry and freezer, so I haven't spent a lot. I have lots of stuff I canned and froze that we grew in our veggie garden, and lots of hm jelly( a friend told me to use Juicy Juice--it's mainly flavored apple juice). That garden has saved our keisters quite a few times--I'm so thankful for it and the fact that I was able to save so much of it(this was the first time I've ever canned anything.)

My kids are FINALLY getting used to having "real food" as opposed to convenience food. Ds1 has finally accepted taking his snack to school in a vinyl lunch bag, drinking his juice from a thermos, and eating hm treats. He's even gotten a few other kids to ask their moms for a thermos lol--I know he loves those juice boxes, but they are pricey. I figure this year alone I've saved $30 by sending his juice in a thermos. I also got one of those Tupperware sandwich-thingies, so I'm not buying sandwich baggies, either.

thezoo--could you share the recipe you have for pumpkin butter? I have a ton of canned pumpkin and can only make so many pies lol!!

[thezoo]

3 cups Pumpkin
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Boil pumpkin and mush with hand blender. Can use canned if you just get it to that hot point. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low to medium heat for 20 minutes. Can in 250 ml jars. Hot boil jars for 15 minutes. Did I tell you that my kids won 2nd prize in a cooking contest against adults with this recipe.

[kimmyo]

Heres a great web-site that offers great recipes that are easy and usually convenient to make:

http://web.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx While you are there don't forget to sign up for their free magazine Food and Family Fun. Its really great!


And don't forget our sister site Practical Kitchen!

http://www.practicalkitchen.com/

Make sure you also check out all the Food Forums here at FamilyCorner because we have some really great cooks among us. These women can cook anything and can stretch a dollar like a rubber band!

Good luck in your cooking endeavors!