Wednesday, August 15, 2012

My $300 a month food budget

We have about $300 a month for food. It is not much with two growing boys (especially with their food allergies and sensitivities.)

$300 a month is $10 a day or $2 for breakfast, $3 for lunch, $4 for dinner, and $1 a day for snacks.

An example of this:
Breakfast:
scrambled eggs (2 each, total 6) $1.00 (at $2 a dozen)
apple slices $.50 (1 large apple sliced, half for each boy, I go without) *
toast $.50 (homemade gluten free bread)
water

Lunch:
homemade rice and beans $1.00
raw broccoli $1.00
water

Dinner:
baked potatoes $1.50 (includes sour cream and cheddar)
grilled zucchini $ .50
spinach salad with croutons $2.50 (spinach, tomato, cucumber, croutons, and dressing ingredients)
water

Snack:
homemade gluten free peach muffins $2.00 (total cost of batch was about $8 with gluten free flour, eggs, butter, and peaches used, but that will last 4 days)
water

In this scenario, I spent less on lunch, but more on snacks. This also assumes I have staples like sugar, and spices already in house. Also these are non organic prices. I try to buy some items organic, but find it very difficult.

Thankfully I have family and friends who give us leftovers and produce and such to help supplement.

That way I can have a meal like tacos (Jason's favorite)
$3.00 1 pound ground beef
$1.00 tortillas
$1.00 sour cream
$ .50 salsa
$ .50 cheddar
$ .50 beans (to stretch the meat)
$ .50 lettuce / tomatoes



Strange how a $7.00 dinner is luxury.

How much is your food budget? What low cost, healthy meals do you serve?

~Becky

* apples are one of the things I still buy only organic as we can taste a difference in the non organic ones, so in reality 1 organic apple is about $1.00, but I used non organic prices for above scenario.



3 comments:

gameofthronesfan said...

My food budget is $300, but I had a deep freezer full of meat when I started with that budget. I'm always looking for ways to make that work for a family of 4. We don't buy a lot of snacks, that's for sure.

Becky R said...

Gameofthronesfan,

Welcome to my blog.

We don't really buy convenience snacks, but my boys get hungry mid afternoon and at night after dinner as well. So I like to offer healthy, filling snacks during these times.

Sisters of the Blog said...

I shoot for $300/month; that includes food for the kitties as well as the humans and everything we buy at the grocery store.

I bought a half a cow in February, so meat makes a lot of appearances at our house. The farmer i bought her from also offers CSA shares. Unlike a lot of other CSAs, Beth allows her customers to decide on a certain dollar amount they wish to spend, and they simply show up at the weekly farmer's market, go to her booth, and pick what they want. This is great for me, since we're a small household. If there's any balance left by the time the farmer's market is done at the end of October, the monies are donated to a food bank. She has eggs as well as raw milk (i can't drink pasteurized), and i'm picking up some #2 tomatotes tomorrow for canning.

See if there are farms near you that offer something similar. I still have 12 quarts of canned tomatoes left, and as my own plants didn't do well this year, i can use part of my CSA share to get some and put them by for winter.

megan