What's your food budget?
I feed our family of 5 (including Big Brother, the Teenage Bottomless Pit) for about $125-150 a week. That includes food, lunches for everyone but TheDad (the kids mostly bring lunch to school), paper products and cleaning supplies.
According to the USDA, if I follow a "low-cost" plan, I should be spending $209.70! YIKES! For that kind of money, we could eat fresh fish, organic meat and all kinds of gourmet treats. On the "liberal plan" I'd spend $270! But I really don't think anyone is feeling deprived by what's served here.
And apparently the USDA guidelines do not include "nonfoods" like dish soap, shampoo, Comet and tissues--but all of those are included in my budget.
H/T to Angie at Many Little Blessings.
After posting that I spent $140 this week for groceries, I checked what we could be spending on the USDA calculator. The low-cost plan had me spending $240 and the liberal plan allowed for $368 -- per week! I wish the government paid for that kind of spending -- oh, the yummy things I could buy!
ReplyDeleteI try to spend about $125 a week for our family of 6 - including pet foods, pull ups, soaps - non-food items. Does the USDA include regional differences?
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