Comments on: An Introduction To Cheerful Frugality

By: misty

misty — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:25:59 +0000

I have to say that I don’t know how you all do it. We struggle with $600 a month just for food. There are four in our family. My husband eats a lot. My six year old is always hungry. We have a two year old son. My family does not eat any meat. We do eat fish once a week. We eat whole grains and try to eat organic produce. I buy only organic milk for the kids. They drink at the most two glasses a day, preferably only one. We rarely use coupons as I do not purchase products that offer coupons. I am trying to move more towards a macrobiotic diet. Our splurge is a dark chocolate bar a week and organic macaroni and cheese for the kids once a week. I make most everything from scratch. Ideally, I would like to have 800-1000 a month for just food.

By: Clare

Clare — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:36:21 +0000

We spend 350-450 a month for two adults and a 16 year old girl and a 14 year old girl. If I could have an unlimited food budget I would buy more fresh veggies, fruit and a better selection of meat. We buy chicken, fish, hamburger and occasionally pork on sale. We don’t have any food allergies so that helps. I wish we could double our coupons here in Canada. I coupon when I can but usually only save 2-5 dollars but all that helps as well. I do try to keep a stocked pantry for the tight months when our car insurance goes out every 6 months. Clare

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:53:47 +0000

Our food budget is $300/month for my husband and me. It covers all grocery and household items (toiletries, cleaning supplies) plus eating out. The eating out category really doubles as our entertainment category, since we love trying new and exciting meals, and appreciate the work that good chefs put into their craft. We eat out about once a week.

A large part of our budget goes to milk; my husband averages 5 gallons a week just by himself, but he grew up next to his uncle’s organic dairy farm and dearly loves good milk. I try to get locally-made, minimally processed milk as often as possible, but the cost is unfortunately a little prohibitive. We average 1.5 gallons of local milk (at $3.75/half gallon) plus the rest in grocery store milk. If we went to all local milk, we’d need to push our budget to $400/month.

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:51:53 +0000

I budget about $700 for our family of four, plus any other loved ones who drop in at mealtime. I try very hard to buy in season, local produce, and I buy our dairy & meat products from a local organic ranch. Having grown up in California, we also have a nice glass of wine with dinner almost every night. I could do just fine spending less, but I enjoy cooking and experimenting with new recipes to share with friends and family, so I’m frugal in other areas of the budget.

By: Cheerful Frugality and the Grocery Budget | Frugal Hacks

Cheerful Frugality and the Grocery Budget | Frugal Hacks — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:26:36 +0000

[...] to everyone who commented last week, we’ve seen a wide range of grocery spending. Actual budgets for some of you are ideal [...]

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:07:40 +0000

I average around $300 a month for my husband and I and a picky 2 year old for groceries, toiletries, paper, and cleaning supplies. $40 a month for almost-raw whole milk (2 gal. a week), 50 – 60 bi-weekly at Aldi for yogurt, sliced cheese, cereal, etc, and most of the rest I spend once a month at Sam’s Club. I do get personal care items at Walmart, we get organic whole wheat bread at the bakery thrift store, usually for 49 cents a loaf. We shop our local Ingles for some items that I cannot get at Sams or Aldi, or for sale items or things that I might have a coupon for. I very rarely coupon and since I work full time, I don’t care to spend a lot of time grocery shopping. I have a garden and get a lot of organic seasonal produce that I can and freeze.
Quarterly, I do a freezer filler. For a Saturday’s worth of work, I put approx. 40 meals in the freezer. They are ready to thaw and cook. This really cuts down on the eating out, which we might go out once every month or two. It also cuts down on waste, since I portion the meals out to enough for dinner for us and maybe a little for leftovers for lunch the next day. I also plan a menu for the week.
We don’t eat totally organic, but do stick to mainly whole foods, with meat at least once a day. My husband doesn’t care for chicken, so we use lots of roasts, ground beef, and pork. If I had a few extra $$ I would buy all organic meats, but there isn’t much else I would change. We have tons of food in the pantry and freezer and eat very well.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:08:41 +0000

Hi, just came here from your blog! Well, I can save a lot with double coupons and sales, sometimes as much as $60. But, I have found that we eat better when I shop at Trader Joes. There is a smaller and healthier selection. The prices are less than store prices without coupons and best of all there isn’t too much to get tempted by. Costco can be great, but again there is a lot there that I get tempted by. So I try to just get meat and freeze it. If money were no object I would shop at Whole Foods, buy locally/organic from the farmers markets and buy fresh and not frozen meat.

By: Amy W

Amy W — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:48:00 +0000

Our grocery budget is $50/week for a family of 5 (2 adults and 3 children 10 and under). Sometimes it is a stretch to keep within the budget. We have always had to budget very tightly- I think a comfortable budget for our family (with the cost of dairy etc. climbing higher every day) would be more like $350/month. The thought of an “unlimited” budget just about boggles my mind. What would our budget be if we could set it for any amount? What would I do/purchase differently? Well, I know one thing I would purchase would be organic milk- as much as I would like to do so now I just can’t justify it in my budget. I’d also probably purchase better (and more) meat selections. I would also purchase more of a variety of fresh fruits. With a higher budget I bet that I would probably be tempted to make more than 1 trip every other week to the grocery store.
All in all, it’s probably best we are budgeted where we are at right now.
I actually [usually] enjoy the challenge of being creative with our food budget and menu planning.
I also look forward to reading you here every Monday, Meredith. Good Luck and God Bless your cheerful frugality!

By: Ann

Ann — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:05:06 +0000

Hi,
I also live in Canada and agree with Celina as to coupon shopping. We might save $1 or $2 dollars a month if we come by the right coupons. There are four of us left at home full time, but we have had a male student living with us for part of the year, as well as my daughter being home from university for the summer. I am currently spending $600CAD per month for everything. We do try to grow some of our own produce and preserve it for the winter. I buy most of our meat from a butcher, but we usually go light on the meat content in a meal. We eat a lot of homemade bread for filler for our teenage boy. I try to buy what is in season.

By: ArdenLynn

ArdenLynn — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:33:12 +0000

I budget $600 a month for food and $75 for tp, diapers and girly stuff.
We are a family of 9. All meals are eaten at home and I cook, cook, cook.
Dinner last night was 1# bacon, 1# sausage, 12 eggs, 1 doz. cinn. rolls and 2# grapes. There were a few pieces of bacon left so I put those on sandwiches for the older childrens lunch.
We don’t eat out and we don’t snack much. I could go cheaper without the sausage and bacon but then they are hungry again in an hour. Plus, a skimpy meal is depressing. I even it out over the course of a week.