How much is your food budget?

Tamiri

Fri, May 23 2008, 12:30 am

A lot of the foods are things that I make occasionally. I allow one bag of pasta a week (400 g) and make pancakes once/month or so. I used to serve a lot more pasta, but I worry about the long-term effects of eating "cheap". I would like to see high-quality foods for cheap :(
Are your children all thin, Pizza?

Pizza

Fri, May 23 2008, 12:30 am

The trick to making most of those meals cheap is PLANNING and Using What is Available or On Sale

If I used chicken breasts for the stir fry or lo mein, it wouldnt be as cheap, and I would need to cut out some of the ingredients that make it more attractive to my family. So, I use the chicken meat from off the soup carcass, and then I can toss in 1/3 bag of frozen broccoli and a red pepper.

If Im going to make a soup, I need to PLAN ahead to have an easy and yummy whole wheat loaf of bread ready.

Im not always good at that, and we do have our lousy meals; It depends on how much else is going on - did I need to put in more hours at work, how the baby slept (at night and nap time), how behind I am on laundry, etc etc etc

Pizza

Fri, May 23 2008, 12:34 am

I serve pasta more often than you, but I do try to keep it whole wheat. When I was shifting the family over to whole wheat, I would make meals with one bag of white and one bag whole wheat, and it was more palatable. I sometimes still do that if the budget is extraordinarily tight.

BH non of my kids are heavy - my 2 boys are a little chunky, tho - I have started discussions with the family as a whole about the 'appestsat' (is there really such a thing?) (sometimes my 10 year old will finish eating, but not clear off his plate - when I remind him, he tells me "Im waiting for my appestat") and I encourage them to go out and shoot hoops, pogo stick, roller blade instead of gameboy / sashaying around the house and peeking in the fridge every 10 minutes.

Tamiri

Fri, May 23 2008, 12:39 am

My kids are all thin. My eldest developed wheat sensitivities and milk sensitivities too. Maybe from too much pasta as a kid? Anyway, I want to limit wheat in general, which is hard. I don't believe there is so much diff in the white/whole wheat: there is something in the strains that affects people negatively.
Whatever - mission impossible.

miichal

Fri, May 23 2008, 1:27 am

im a total wreck, I have 2.5 adult meals for supper, and im crazy into protien so we have protein for lunch and dinner, I try for lunch to do tuna, or fish sticks and best of all, dinner leftovers, but meat and fish really gets expensive, I have a picky husband too. I try ground turkey and meat cause its much cheaper. and we always entertain shabbos, and I try organic and healthy ( and much more expensive) products. on a good week (when I still have stock in the freezer...) I do about 150-160 and on a bad week well go over 200. what I find is that the things that I forget or find I need to run to the local supermarket for are what add up, I never leave spending less then 25.

freidasima

Fri, May 23 2008, 7:44 am

When I think of food budget it includes a lot of non food items that we buy that are much more expensive here in EY than most foods: toilet paper, sanitary products for all the ladies in the house, shampoo and conditioner, laundry detergents, cleaning supplies etc. I would say that can easily be a third of the "food" budget...also depends upon how many people I am cooking for or rather they cook often for themselves at this age...one who only eats meat and not chicken (youngest ds), one who won't eat meat and chicken at all (middle dd these days), one who only eats fineshmeker food (youngest dd), one who will eat anything and tons of it (son in law), one who picks and chooses and is always watching her diet (oldest dd), and one who likes everything and will try anything (older ds)..

Then there is me who eats everything and too much of it but tries to keep it healthy, whole wheat, tevaof without hormones and additives, and then there is dh who doesn't eat much dairy, and eats tons of fresh veg...

I would say that there are months that we can spend 2000 NIS and months that it can go up to 4,000 NIS if there are yomim tovim or I am cooking chickens in bulk, or we have run out of all the cleaning suplies and they have to be refreshed...and depends, again, if the kids are packing their own food for lunch that month, or how many guests we have on shabbos, or whether I am giving food over to my mother to have, etc.

But today, even in the "good" 2000 NIS months" everything has gone up so much that those numbers are going to be a thing of the past...

Pizza

Sun, May 25 2008, 12:26 pm

I dont know how your bills are so low - we are 4000 nis on a regular month!

That is without lotsa treats, and with making a lot of our own stuff. Granted, it includes the health food store - whole wheat flour and pasta, but it is balanced by lots of whole grains and legumes... I dont know if I can reduce much more without making my kids feel seriously deprived. Like, I would be willing to change our yogurt policy (one per person per day) and buy only plain, with people adding their own stuff (jam, chips, vanilla sugar, etc) but I foresee a big mess and kids feeling poor.

We eat chicken only on shabbos, and ground meat or hot dogs once during the week. Lots of salads. Fish once every week or two.

I dunno, maybe I should just give up and serve them white bread w/butter for lunch and white rice w/powdered soup for a week or two just to get the budget down. Maybe then they'll appreciate the meals I make for them? What

freidasima

Sun, May 25 2008, 3:35 pm

Pizza, quality and quantity and budget are words that don't work together correctly.

We have no snacks except my cakes, the kids want something, they get it themselves. Same when they were younger. I never bought a bag of pretzls, potato chips or bamba in my life then...

Maadanim, I make my own cornstarch pudding. Galam powder plus flavoring of my own (cinnamon to the vanilla for example) and milk.

Soy milk though is expensive and I drink it...

Cola - one bottle on shabbos for everyone. When it's gone, it's gone. We add a bit of cola to orange juice or add water to orange juice to make it last. We don't throw out anything. It drives dh mad to see one of the kids leave over food, as he says, just don't take that much in the first place.

No ready made cereals, you can get oats to cook in the shuk. Healthy stuff..

Tefila

Sun, May 25 2008, 4:01 pm

Hmm perhaps then I am doing something wrong here. But I spend 1000,00 (not incl yomim tovim or Pesach or large amounts of shabbos guests or my teen boys ofcourse) monthly and that includes everything, that amount usually serves 2 adults and 3 little kids and incl shabbos Confused

I do buy everything no name brand too remember but still veg milk and chicken meat do add up Confused

mom21n2

Tue, May 27 2008, 12:57 pm

We used to spend way more on food than we do now. We have one shopping day per week. (Unless we need something for DS) We also try to buy only what we are actually going to eat. No throwing out food! Also, never go to the store hungry!! Paper goods and expensive things like that we buy in bulk online.

alpidarkomama

Tue, Aug 05 2008, 2:51 am

Love all the cheap menu ideas!!!! We spend about $600-700 for our family of 6 (kids aged 9 months to 5). We make homemade everything - yogurt, grape juice (INCREDIBLE!!), beans (never buy canned), baked goods (bread, muffins, desserts, challah, etc.), ice cream, soy milk, tofu (super easy!), jam, etc., etc., etc. And my husband daydreams about raising our own lambs and tilapia. Smile

We also generally only eat meat for shabbos + 2-3 other times per month. And weekday meat is usually used in a recipe that doesn't take much, like a chicken stirfry with lots of other ingredients. I still feel like we could spend less. Once in a blue moon I'll buy a convenience item like a pizza. (Literally once in a blue moon... a couple of times per year!)

We do not live in an area that has access to inexpensive kosher foods, but then we also buy primarily unprocessed ingredients so it's not much of an issue.

One other tip - I actually calculated out how much protein my husband and I each needed to have in a day, and that's what we eat! You'd actually be kind of surprised that most of us eat WAY more than our body needs, and protein is often the expensive part of the grocery bill (in addition to convenience items).

It does take a lot of work, but we're squeezing every ounce we can out of every penny we make since I'm home with our 4 kids.

Tamiri

Tue, Aug 05 2008, 6:17 am

workingmom3 wrote:

while we are all trying to cut down on our food budget , please remember that children need protein for brain development so try to limit the pasta evn though its cheap. it really should be a priority. I dont mean to preach so sorry if ir comes across as such

Go read up on protein and educate yourself on how much you REALLY need. It's an American myth that you need so much. No other country in the world consumes protein from animal sources the way Americans do. And, protein is found in many inexpensive items, such as legumes and tofu.

Marion

Tue, Aug 05 2008, 6:47 am

I think I spend about 1500NIS/month on EVERYTHING. And that amount includes diapers (although I'm hoping to toilet train my 2 y.o. when daycare lets out at the end of the week...), cleaning supplies, toilet paper, tissues. If you took all that out it would probably be about 1200NIS/month, which is about $400(?). I cook Friday morning and we eat Shabbat leftovers all week. And my toddler gets lunch in daycare and my 10 month old still nurses and eats "mush" (NOT baby food jars! Jars are expensive.).

Tamiri

Tue, Aug 05 2008, 6:50 am

Marion wrote:

That is amazing Marion! Are you eating out or bringing in ready-made food? How do you keep it so low? Do you actually keep track of everything you spend?

gryp

Tue, Aug 05 2008, 9:11 am

Quote:

We make homemade everything - yogurt, grape juice (INCREDIBLE!!), beans (never buy canned), baked goods (bread, muffins, desserts, challah, etc.), ice cream, soy milk, tofu (super easy!), jam, etc., etc., etc. And my husband daydreams about raising our own lambs and tilapia.

I would love to hear what you do. Care to share?

pinkbubbles

Tue, Aug 05 2008, 9:56 am

For DH and I, it is:

Â£30 to Â£40 at the kosher shop for things that need a hechsher: dairy, bread, frozen vegetarian foods, etc.

Â£50 for toilet paper, fruits/veg, anything I can get at the regular supermarket (Tesco)

Shabbat is: depending on the number guests, which we usually have a lot of..
meat Â£40 - Â£70 and about Â£20 more at Tesco, Â£20 more at kosher shops for dips, challah etc. if I can I try to make my own challah/salads/cakes but its not always worth it.