Food Budget

[Koala]

This. This This This THIS!

Well said. They practically glamorize poverty.

[skankbiscuit]

And as someone mentioned earlier, she complains about her food budget but has internet and spends time blogging. She wastes so much time pontificating to others, she could put her energy into planting a garden and canning. And bitch, you don't lock the pantry, you set out some healthy, reasonable snacks such as PBJ and cut off the snacking an hour or so before meals. It's not hard. Even us ebil heathens manage to provide our children with healthy snacks whenever they are hungry, keeping an eye on things so they don't go crazy snacking. I think sometimes these fundy women have so little to do they make issues that the rest of us people out living normal lives just deal with on a day to day basis.

Here's my house: If it's right after school and they are hungry: Give them a choice of fruit, cereal, or pb&j, if they don't want any of that they aren't hungry, IMO. Easy. If I'm in the process of preparing them a meal, then I do have them wait, so they don't get full before the meal. Don't most people just do this automatically? Why is this an issue with her? Why the locks on the pantry? Don't these great Christian mommies have children who will automatically OBEY if you tell them not to get into the pantry? Kelly has failed as a Christian super mommy, she obviously has raised children that cannot be trusted around cereal, granola bars, and goldfish. Even as a ebil heathen, if I tell my children to wait until dinner and not have a snack they will do it, no locks required. And I have never raised a hand to either of them and rarely yell.

Disclaimer: I am on Percoset.

[LaydNimue]

To the person who asked about milk, the monthly shoppers freeze it. I don't like milk that has been thawed out, ew...

I'm not a monthly shopper but I do buy a lot of almost everything at once because I hate shopping. I freeze milk because my boys drink several gallons a week and I refuse to go to the store for just milk; no one has ever complained. I don't drink milk, don't like the taste, and my doctor calls it "cow mucus".

[skankbiscuit]

I know lots of people who freeze milk and it's fine. I barely like milk anyway, it makes me gaggy, and I just remember it tasting weirder when it had been frozen first. I'm a weirdo though - I wasn't trying to say people shouldn't freeze their milk, sorry if it came off that way. I should be grateful I wasn't forced to drink powdered milk like my husband was....

[FundiesInMyFamily]

I spend $100-$120 a week for Jr. and myself, so about $500/month. This includes all my 'household' stuff (paper products, soaps, cleaners, detergent, ect). My biggest expense is diapers and dog food - I don't feed my child crap and I won't feed my dog crap either, so these first 2 items alone is about $25/week. With Jr being almost 18 he eats constantly and I will never say no to him, if I'm in the process of making dinner and he's "starving", I'll make him a salad to eat while things are cooking.

I find it ironic that the "family values" crowd thinks it's a badge of honor to starve their kids.

[LadyBlue]

Man, I just tried to make a food budget work for 11 people for $150 for a week.

Drinks: Milk: 6 gallons, $3/gal average = $18

Breakfast: Quaker Oatmeal + cinnamon + brown sugar. Costco sized oatmeal (110 servings) was $7.50 when I bought it a week ago; brown sugar is $1.50 and cinnamon you can get for $1. That's also like 10 days worth of servings for them, so we'll approximate and say they have some left and it would cost an average of $7 for a week.

Lunch: PB&J, carrot sticks, ranch dressing, grapes. Peanut butter $4 (can get usually $1 off with coupons), Jelly $2.50 (also could get this cheaper with coupons), Carrots $10 for 25 lbs of carrots, Ranch $2/bottle (you can get this cheaper with coupons - usually $1), 9 loaves bread $10 (judging by prices where I live) and 10lbs of grapes $10 (this week). $38.50

Dinners: Beans and rice ($3 assuming they own spices) + 2 cans veggies ($1.50),

Chicken stir fry (costco bag = $6, chicken= $7, rice= $1),

bean burritos (2 packs of tortillas - $2, onion $.50, cheese $3, beans $1.50, iceberg lettuce $1, tomato $2 ),

chicken pasta (chicken $7, sauce $2, 2 boxes pasta $2.50)

Loaded baked potatoes and green beans (Potatoes $6 (costco), sour cream $1, cheese $3, bacon $3, green beans $2)

BBQ Chicken drumsticks, peas, mac and cheese (Chicken $10 (costco price - 2-3 drumsticks per person), bbq sauce $1, mac and cheese $3 (boxed), canned peas $2)

Total: $74

$134.50

Snacks: 10 lbs canned pineapple slices ($5.50 - costco) , 1 3lb bag craisins ($6 - costco), cinnamon-craisin homemade bread ($1, maybe?)

Total: $147 + tax

Ok, so I cheated a little but that was HARD. Really hard. And the milk is assuming only her youngest 6-8 kids would drink it. Why the hell does she think she could do this all the time??? That's not even really a balanced diet, just as many veggies as I could fit in, and no paper products! She is a total moron!

No wonder I can't get my grocery costs anywhere near as low as Americans can. For starters, it's hard to get coupons here and there never seem to be any for stuff I actually use, but the prices are so much lower there!

Just for a few examples from your list, peanut butter was about $5 for the big jar at Costco last winter. It's now nearly $9. Milk is about $3.60 for 2 litres (about 1/2 a U.S. gallon). That's just regular milk, not organic. If you buy it in 4 litre jugs it's around $6, I think. I don't buy them that big because we don't drink a lot of milk. A large jar of generic jelly/jam is around $5.50. Bread at Costco is $5.49 for 3 loaves of 575g (approx 1.3lbs). I'd like to buy sprouted bread, but that's over $2.50 a loaf for smaller loaves. Chicken was "on special" today for 6.99/lb at Safeway. I bought a box of frozen instead for $27, nearly 9lbs of chicken. Costco's prices aren't much better. I got ground pork. It was on special, so it cost around $3.50 for 600g

I spend $800-$1200/month for 2 adults, 4 children. Baby just started solids, the others are 3, 7 & 11. They eat a lot, especially the incredibly thin 7 year old.

I don't have garden space, so the last 2 years I've tried container gardening. Last year I got a few baby tomatoes, a couple carrots & a pea pod. This year, I won't get anything. Completely flooded.

[Black Aliss]

Kelly could use some lessons in home economics. I wonder if she'd like this older woman to mentor her, because this post and a more recent one make me feel downright titus-two-ish.

So I “budget†the food, (that sounds better than ration), down to thinking about how much cheese I can use in a dish to make the bag last as long as it needs to.

This tells me she's too lazy to buy a block of cheese and grate it--she's paying almost twice as much per pound to buy the shredded stuff. There's no excuse for that when she's not cooking dinner after a full day in the office and an hour's commute each way. I'd break her of that habit pronto. Next we'd move on to healthful dishes made from dried beans (not canned), whole grains, and vegetables. Oh, and get her started baking her own bread. I buy my bread flour in 50# sacks--a loaf of sandwich bread costs less than $.50 that way. She needs to double or triple the size of her garden, maybe add a small flock of chickens. If I can work at a career full-time and still tend a garden and fruit orchard, and preserve the harvest she certainly can do those things. They can eat a lot better for the same amount of money and she won't have kids complaining that they're starving, either.

[LaydNimue]

I know lots of people who freeze milk and it's fine. I barely like milk anyway, it makes me gaggy, and I just remember it tasting weirder when it had been frozen first. I'm a weirdo though - I wasn't trying to say people shouldn't freeze their milk, sorry if it came off that way. I should be grateful I wasn't forced to drink powdered milk like my husband was....

Oh, I don't think you came across that way. Some things do taste different after they're frozen, maybe milk does but my family can't tell any difference. Powdered milk used to be cheap, my mom would mix it with regular. I use it now for baking and I think it's quite expensive. Hamburger used to be inexpensive too. Now I can't think of much that can be bought cheaply.

Because of the weather (heat and lack of rain) here in the US, I've heard that food prices are going to soar. I think a lot of fundie kids are going to be even hungrier. I do wish they learned more about providing nutritious meals. Michelle Duggar could be an ambassador for healthy eating and positive family budgets if she choose to do a little learning and change her ways, what a world of good she could do for hungry kids! Of course, she's too lazy to do that. How in the world any woman can have so many kids and not learn a thing or two about healthy cooking is beyond me.

[rock_girl]

I spend about $120 a week for one person. I like out of season pineapples, prawns and olives stuffed with cheese that will clog my arteries though. If I cut down on the veg (I can easily pack away a few kgs of raw veg a day), stopped buying free range meat and eggs and ate more legume based meals I could easily eat on $50 a week. If I wanted to cut further I could probably knock my costs down to $30 a week and live on lentils, rice, beans and frozen vegetables.

Feeding 11 adults and children on $600 a month? Maybe. I know that I could get a big meal of rice, lentils, fried onions and spices for less than $6.66. Could probably also throw in a kilo of carrots as well. But then I shop at Indian grocers for lentils, and can get them for around $3 a kilo, and even though I don't care for white rice I've seen big sacks of it at the Asian grocer for $10/10kg. Cooking up a 750g bag of rolled oats in the morning and serving it with milk reconstituted from powder and brown sugar is a cheap, nutritious and filling breakfast. Fresh fruit would definitely be rationed. I'd buy the cheapest cage eggs and make spinach omelettes from a box of frozen spinach and the milk. I've studied horticulture and love gardening so I imagine I could keep a garden going through summer and our fairly mild winters which would eliminate having to buy vegetables. All of this would depend on knowing how to shop and living in an area with stores that sell huge bags of cumin for $2 as well as being able to cook, to garden and to resist the temptation to blow a large chunk of my grocery budget on pizza when I got sick of watery milk and yet another bowl of lentils and rice.

I can see why these people love cream of gloop and tube meat casseroles. Small pleasures. Still, with low food prices in the US they could eat really well if willing to make a little effort. You can do a lot with shin beef, root vegetables, canned tomatoes, herbs and homemade stock. Sure, it takes more time than frying up a tube of trimmings and entrails, but more time cooking=less time making new blessings. It's win win.

[B5SnowDog]

This tells me she's too lazy to buy a block of cheese and grate it--she's paying almost twice as much per pound to buy the shredded stuff.

That's not necessarily so. It's actually cheaper per oz. to buy store brand shredded cheese at my local grocery store than it is to buy it in block form. I have no idea why.

[Clementine]

Wondering if 'bread' is a mistranslation and means something like bruschetta? But it still strikes me as odd. In warmer areas of Europe such as Spain and Portugal, breakfast often is just some bread and fruit, but lunch will be substantial. This definitely doesn't sound like the Western European norm (which aside from in Britain and Ireland tends to be a light breakfast, a substantial lunch and an evening meal that's lighter than the US norm). Toast and fruit sounds like a normal breakfast to me but only if lunch is pretty filling.

It could be Norway or Denmark. We eat a lot of bread in Scandinavia and in Norway and Denmark they usually have some kind of sandwich for lunch. They don't serve school lunches in Norway, even though it's a very rich country, so parents have to send a lunch box to school, usually with sandwiches. (No wonder they are so skinny in Norway.)

The Danish sandwiches that are served at lunch are more rich in protein though. I ordered a classic Danish "sandwich plate" when we were in Denmark a few weeks ago and got three open sandwiches with thin dark sourdough bread: one with a hamburger and mayonnaise salad, one with smoked salmon and sour cream and one with pickled herring and a hard boiled egg. It was really filling and a lot more protein than I am used to having for lunch.

[Cannelle]

My husband is Belgian. One day, he said he was having bread for lunch. I kind of gave him a :? look, thinking, "Who the hell just has bread for lunch?" Turns out he meant he was having a sandwich. Really not sure where he got that one (he's very, very fluent in English). So maybe that's what that person meant?

[charizbarb]

My husband is Belgian. One day, he said he was having bread for lunch. I kind of gave him a :? look, thinking, "Who the hell just has bread for lunch?" Turns out he meant he was having a sandwich. Really not sure where he got that one (he's very, very fluent in English). So maybe that's what that person meant?

Quite possibly, especially if that poster has open sandwiches (which are very popular in parts of Europe and might not translate to 'sandwich' so easily).

[Jinderella]

It could be Norway or Denmark. We eat a lot of bread in Scandinavia and in Norway and Denmark they usually have some kind of sandwich for lunch. They don't serve school lunches in Norway, even though it's a very rich country, so parents have to send a lunch box to school, usually with sandwiches. (No wonder they are so skinny in Norway.)

The Danish sandwiches that are served at lunch are more rich in protein though. I ordered a classic Danish "sandwich plate" when we were in Denmark a few weeks ago and got three open sandwiches with thin dark sourdough bread: one with a hamburger and mayonnaise salad, one with smoked salmon and sour cream and one with pickled herring and a hard boiled egg. It was really filling and a lot more protein than I am used to having for lunch.

It could be The Netherlands too. We do eat sandwiches at breakfast and lunch and veggies/meat/proteines at diner. We take some fruits in between. I don't think that it's a bad diet at all, we get everything we need. I'm actually pleased our children don't get served a warm fat-loaded lunch. I think my homemade-lunchboxes are much more healthy. Today my daughters went to school with an apple for their morning-break and a bottle of water, 2 cheese-sandwiches and some little tomato's for lunch.

[luckystone]

It could be Norway or Denmark. We eat a lot of bread in Scandinavia and in Norway and Denmark they usually have some kind of sandwich for lunch. They don't serve school lunches in Norway, even though it's a very rich country, so parents have to send a lunch box to school, usually with sandwiches. (No wonder they are so skinny in Norway.)

The Danish sandwiches that are served at lunch are more rich in protein though. I ordered a classic Danish "sandwich plate" when we were in Denmark a few weeks ago and got three open sandwiches with thin dark sourdough bread: one with a hamburger and mayonnaise salad, one with smoked salmon and sour cream and one with pickled herring and a hard boiled egg. It was really filling and a lot more protein than I am used to having for lunch.

We don't have school lunches in Australia either and most kids have sandwiches. We're quite fat.

Bread twice a day isn't healthy at all on its own (and I'd argue toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch isn't that healthy either) so I'm hoping that's a mistranslation.

Also food is less important to Europeans compared to Americans? Has this poster ever had an Italian dinner?

[pixydust]

That's not necessarily so. It's actually cheaper per oz. to buy store brand shredded cheese at my local grocery store than it is to buy it in block form. I have no idea why.

Where I shop block, sliced, and shredded cheese is the same price per ounce, so I do buy the shredded or sliced or whatever it is that I need. I plan well, so if I want to make something that will only need a small amount of cheese, I will plan to make something else that week that will use up the rest of the cheese, or just freeze the extra.

[BravaAmica]

This. This This This THIS!

QFT!!!!

[BravaAmica]

Also food is less important to Europeans compared to Americans? Has this poster ever had an Italian dinner?

I think the original poster meant that Americans are surrounded by food at all times. In the States, you can get food EVERYWHERE. At my local Home Depot (hardware store). I can get a hot dog, chips and a drink from the guy who sells them out front. Or I can get a candy bar, soda or drink inside. At Best Buy (electronics/appliance store), I can get candy, soda and chips. There is food and drink at 90% of all retail establishments in the US- even a small boutique gift shop will have some chocolate bars for sale. It's crazy. I can see how someone new to the US (or even just seeing American tourists) would find Americans obsessed with food: We have a lot of overweight and obese people and a huge diet industry.

Sitting down to an Italian dinner in Italy- where you will get appropriate portions of fresh, exquisite food- is different than the Never Ending Pasta Bowl meal deal from The Olive Garden- where the server brings you a basket of white bread with your drinks, salad drenched with a high calorie dressing and then a meal made of refined, lab altered carbs in huge portions.

[charizbarb]

I think the original poster meant that Americans are surrounded by food at all times. In the States, you can get food EVERYWHERE. At my local Home Depot (hardware store). I can get a hot dog, chips and a drink from the guy who sells them out front. Or I can get a candy bar, soda or drink inside. At Best Buy (electronics/appliance store), I can get candy, soda and chips. There is food and drink at 90% of all retail establishments in the US- even a small boutique gift shop will have some chocolate bars for sale. It's crazy. I can see how someone new to the US (or even just seeing American tourists) would find Americans obsessed with food: We have a lot of overweight and obese people and a huge diet industry.

Sitting down to an Italian dinner in Italy- where you will get appropriate portions of fresh, exquisite food- is different than the Never Ending Pasta Bowl meal deal from The Olive Garden- where the server brings you a basket of white bread with your drinks, salad drenched with a high calorie dressing and then a meal made of refined, lab altered carbs in huge portions.

Alllll of this. When having an Italian dinner in Italy (just as an example), it would be eaten at home, not on the move, and be home-prepared. It's the eating processed food on the move rather than sitting down for a proper meal and taking the time to enjoy it that's bad for you. Think about the difference in the amount one eats at a Dennys and then the amount one eats at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

However, all of this is as much down to politics as it is to individual decisions, and food poverty (both in terms of food volume and food nutrition) is a serious issue in the US. The consumer never decided to put HFCS in everything.

[Sumeri]

I think some of these fundy moms have let their fear of other cultures and colors warp their brains somewhat. Some of our older boys have flown the coop, so our grocery bills have gone down significantly. But I still shop at cuturally appropriate markets for my food (25 pound bags of jasmine rice, noodles, nori and condiments from the asian store - tortillas, beans, etc. from the Mexican one). We are also fortunate in my town to have a Hutterite owned turkey store that sells what they can't use after processing (wings, wrong sized drumsticks, breasts that are too large to be sliced for sandwich meat) so we eat turkey in place of other meats. I shop around for milk - somewhere usually has it on sale. We have a day old bread store, or I make my own when I find the time. In the summer I grow what vegetables I can manage - this year was tough due to drought - and when we can't afford fresh veggies for every meal I do frozen. We ALWAYS have fresh fruit for the kids and use what's seasonal to cut costs down. Eggs from the Hutterites. Cheaper and better and I can reuse those freaking cartons to get them out of my hair.

I work full time and have done since my kids were babies - sometimes more than one job. During one particularly lean period involving medical issues for husband and braces for a teenager I worked three. If I can find time to cook everything from scratch and make sure nobody in my house goes hungry, surely these women who pride themselves on nothing but being a thrifty homemaker can figure it out? It's not that hard.

[luckystone]

Alllll of this. When having an Italian dinner in Italy (just as an example), it would be eaten at home, not on the move, and be home-prepared. It's the eating processed food on the move rather than sitting down for a proper meal and taking the time to enjoy it that's bad for you. Think about the difference in the amount one eats at a Dennys and then the amount one eats at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

However, all of this is as much down to politics as it is to individual decisions, and food poverty (both in terms of food volume and food nutrition) is a serious issue in the US. The consumer never decided to put HFCS in everything.

I agree, though this does depend on the individual families and their habits. But the poster said "important" which has different connotations.

[smores]

No wonder I can't get my grocery costs anywhere near as low as Americans can. For starters, it's hard to get coupons here and there never seem to be any for stuff I actually use, but the prices are so much lower there!

Just for a few examples from your list, peanut butter was about $5 for the big jar at Costco last winter. It's now nearly $9. Milk is about $3.60 for 2 litres (about 1/2 a U.S. gallon). That's just regular milk, not organic. If you buy it in 4 litre jugs it's around $6, I think. I don't buy them that big because we don't drink a lot of milk. A large jar of generic jelly/jam is around $5.50. Bread at Costco is $5.49 for 3 loaves of 575g (approx 1.3lbs). I'd like to buy sprouted bread, but that's over $2.50 a loaf for smaller loaves. Chicken was "on special" today for 6.99/lb at Safeway. I bought a box of frozen instead for $27, nearly 9lbs of chicken. Costco's prices aren't much better. I got ground pork. It was on special, so it cost around $3.50 for 600g

I spend $800-$1200/month for 2 adults, 4 children. Baby just started solids, the others are 3, 7 & 11. They eat a lot, especially the incredibly thin 7 year old.

I don't have garden space, so the last 2 years I've tried container gardening. Last year I got a few baby tomatoes, a couple carrots & a pea pod. This year, I won't get anything. Completely flooded.

It's hard to define food prices nationwide here - many places are more expensive than this. I have experience shopping and couponing for their region in places like Kroger, Walmart, Costco and more, so I can figure that their food costs are close to mine (which are the cheapest in the country, I believe) in Cincinnati.

ETA: The price for chicken quoted would be for 6-8 large skinless breasts at $1.88/lb that I can find locally, which are at least 2 servings per breast. The drumsticks from costco are $.99/lb and have at least 24 legs per pack, averaging around $10.

[Pretzel]

...and this is why I am definitely not surprised by Josh Duggar's eating habits. I think he eats just because he can. 3-course-rice dinner? Uh uh, not anymore. I am convinced they eat as a form of rebellion and catching up on what they had to miss out on during their childhoods.

Btw, I need to get this off my chest:

I think a great deal of Americans have lost perspective on what makes a properly sized dinner just because the servings are so over-sized that normally sized European lunches and dinners seem like servings made to starve people when truly they aren't.

Additionally, what someone else here said: In America more people are up to eating WHILE they are busy doing something else or on the way to wherever or in a 5-minute-break. That can't be healthy, IMHO.

[desertvixen]

Here's my house: If it's right after school and they are hungry: Give them a choice of fruit, cereal, or pb&j, if they don't want any of that they aren't hungry, IMO. Easy. If I'm in the process of preparing them a meal, then I do have them wait, so they don't get full before the meal. Don't most people just do this automatically? Why is this an issue with her? Why the locks on the pantry? Don't these great Christian mommies have children who will automatically OBEY if you tell them not to get into the pantry? Kelly has failed as a Christian super mommy, she obviously has raised children that cannot be trusted around cereal, granola bars, and goldfish.

This. I think the "bragging" about locks is to show how hardcore her devotion to being an awesome mom is... it just has the opposite effect on most people with working braincells.

[BravaAmica]

...and this is why I am definitely not surprised by Josh Duggar's eating habits. I think he eats just because he can. 3-course-rice dinner? Uh uh, not anymore. I am convinced they eat as a form of rebellion and catching up on what they had to miss out on during their childhoods.

Btw, I need to get this off my chest:

I think a great deal of Americans have lost perspective on what makes a properly sized dinner just because the servings are so over-sized that normally sized European lunches and dinners seem like servings made to starve people when truly they aren't.

Additionally, what someone else here said: In America more people are up to eating WHILE they are busy doing something else or on the way to wherever or in a 5-minute-break. That can't be healthy, IMHO.

I have found this to be true. When I first moved to Europe after college, I was shocked that the first meal I ordered in a restaurant was so small. I thought about ordering two- but couldn't afford it. So I ate it slowly to "make it last" and- quelle surprise- I was full. And stayed full until dinner, five or six hours later.

And I've noticed that a lot of Americans often have drinks in their hands, like a huge Starbucks coffee drink or a smoothie (which have enough calories for a meal) and will "eat on the go" because they're so "busy." Honey, if you're so busy that you can't spare five minutes to sit down and eat (while not starting at your phone or the TV or computer), reevaluate your priorities. (I get that there are occasions where one must grab a bite and keep walking, but they shouldn't happen all the time)