Budgeting for yomtov

cbg

Tue, Sep 13 2016, 9:05 am

Yom Tov. Is hard especially since it coincides with the start of the school year and there's lots of day in Tishre.

Food for a family of 6 I would say about $50-$65per meal, but there will be leftovers, and leftover ingredients. Fish, Chicken and Meat at every meal.

RH 4 meals , EYK 1 meal, Suk/Shab 6 meals, plus you have some Shabbatot in between, so approx 20 meals= $1000-$1300 in food. Not sure if my calculations are correct, but it sounds about right.

Clothes is relative. Where I live I can get something nice for Yom Tov under $75, but DH suit can be about $250.

mommy3b2c

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 11:21 pm

Lizajen wrote:

Thanx. How much do you spend on clothing for your kids for yomtov/ Chol hamoed? How many new outfits each? Shoes? Accessories for them: headbands, etc. jewelry ? Seats in shul for yomim noraim? Lulav abd esrog? Seats in shul? Succah decorations? Am I missing anything? Paper goods? Total? What is reasonable?

I buy my kids each three outfits for yom tov. I spend $100 to $200 per outfit. One pair of shabbos shoes. $90-$130 a pair. I do not buy chol hamoed clothing. They are all boys, so no accessories. My husband takes care of the shul seats and lulav and esrog. We only buy two seats as our kids are pretty young. This is our first year making a succah, so I'm not sure how much well spend on that or the decorations. Maybe $100 on decorations?
For paper goods I buy the fancy plastic "china" I don't think I spend more than $50.

boysrus

Thu, Sep 15 2016, 12:02 am

Lizajen wrote:

new clothing:
depends on what they need:

ds 18 - suit fits, spending about $25 on 2 shirts

ds 16 - new suit, got a beautiful one from Macys for $90 on sale, + two shirts = $25 . Old tie matches new suit, yay!

ds 13 - got new suit for bar mitzvah, needs new shabbos shoes, will find hopefully for between $40 and $60 at most

2 younger kids = nice outfits from Target or similar type of store = 1 new outfit each = maybe $25-40 each at most. Both need new shoes, will get from kohls I think = about $30 each.

Baby - 2 new outfits, I dont have anything for him yet = probably target/childrens place = maybe $40-50 altogether.
wow, now I added it up, I can see how much we will be spending Sad

arba minim is our big succos expense, we buy a set for dh, 3 sons over 13 which really adds up to about $240 - 300

seats in shul = included in our shul membership

succah decorations, we keep from year to year, plus new pictures that the kids make in school

paper goods -I spend way too much on this - maybe $200.....

So basically you can save money on clothing by buying at target and childrens place instead of the jewish stores
you can save money on food by planning your menu around a lot of vegetable dishes, it is the harvest season after all. Starters can be soups or salads, no need to make more than one starter unless you wnat everyone to put on huge amounts of weight over yomtov, mains can be cheaper if you stretch the protein, eg ground beef or chicken , eg stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers

cbg

Thu, Sep 15 2016, 12:25 am

If you shop around you could find bargains at the outlet stores"
I just bought my GD Yom Tov dresses for $30 and less, gorgeous at off fifth.
It was the same price for small and large sizes size 2-16.
They also had a lot of boy suits good brand names like appaman very cheap.
You can shop many of the outlet stores online now.