Deborahmichelle:

The only thing I wonder is whether you are getting any other food sources like WIC or food banks that actually increase your available food.

From January- June, I spent about $300 a month, and had WIC that paid about $80 of food items, and the monthly free food site, averaging about $50 of food.  Some of this is offset by the fast expiration of the free food, much of it has expired already.  In July/Aug, we got some lunch and breakfast food for a lunch program for 7 weeks.  And at the end of June to now, I've had food stamps, with $550 a month, so no money out of pocket from the end of June to now.  I've stocked the pantry a little with the two months of stamps, and we did enjoy some of our favorite foods. 

I would have more money per meal starting today, as four of the kids will get free lunch for a while, but I no longer have food stamps, I don't think.  We'll have lots of cheap dinners this month, and I have stocked several boxes and bags of  cereal for cheap breakfast.  

 Edited to add- I completely forgot the kindness of friends- we have gotten this month a bag of brownie and cake mixes, some corn, some tomatoes. Last month someone gave us a few bags of canned goods.  At church someone had out some tomatoes, I grabbed 5.  This is not counted in the money, I could estimate, but it is unexpected gifts!   I try to bake for some event monthly, so maybe it evens out.  I bake for church snacks and the free dinner site.  

Also, my little girls don't eat adult portions, they eat a percentage of an adult entree.  I avoid feeding them what they won't eat, they start with a mini serving and can, of course, have seconds.  

Sunshine- can you please post that in recipes? That sounds like a wonderful recipe.  Warm and cheesy.

I haven't kept track of menus well enough to give an appropriately weighted average, but most of the dinners we make are in the $5 range for two people, although we often also have leftovers out of that.  I'd say the range is from $3 (quiche, lentil barley stew) to $8.  Part of the price is that we each have "issues" about certain things, so we're buying flexibility.  We spend $10-$12 per day, including snacks and meals out.

Wouldn't it be awesome if there were like an xml standard or something and Recipezaar, All Recipes, etc. all had API's where you could mash up your cookbooks with your price books and see how much stuff was and run data analysis on it all?  That would rock!

Chelle:

Wouldn't it be awesome if there were like an xml standard or something and Recipezaar, All Recipes, etc. all had API's where you could mash up your cookbooks with your price books and see how much stuff was and run data analysis on it all?  That would rock!

Chelle, what if you could put in your zip code and it would spit out your menu based on your favorites, using the personalized shopping list based on the best sales in the area? With links to your coupons?

Dear Chelle, There is a site that gives exact costs per serving.   Go to http://recipefinder.nal.usda.gov

Yours in Him, Deb

Yours in Him, Deb

latenightleader:

 

Chelle:

Wouldn't it be awesome if there were like an xml standard or something and Recipezaar, All Recipes, etc. all had API's where you could mash up your cookbooks with your price books and see how much stuff was and run data analysis on it all?  That would rock!

Chelle, what if you could put in your zip code and it would spit out your menu based on your favorites, using the personalized shopping list based on the best sales in the area? With links to your coupons?

 

 Yes, that would be an awesome application for it.  You see what I'm getting at.  If it were feasible to slurp the data out of different websites, people could set up services where you could use your locally relevant price data and the specific recipes your household uses.  Right now, there are recipe sites, and there are even price book sites, and some grocery stores put their ads online (not mine, unfortunately, and I am not driving out there an extra time just to pick up the ad), but none of the sites "talk" to each other.

Deb,

The recipefinder is pretty nice, and the prices seem pretty close to accurate--maybe they keep them updated with actual food stamp data or something.  But I've tried some of the recipes here and they were too "plain"--i.e. I ended up having to eat it all.  I'll have to look through the list again and see if there's anything else we want to try.  (8

Dear Chelle, I add spices/herbs & more veggies to the Food Stamps/USDA recipe-finder recipes.  Otherwise, they are just about exactly the way that I cook.  I have to , to be able to live comfortably under Food Stamps.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE I mean no offense to you!  It must be so hard for mothers w kids, or even married couples for that matter, to keep their families happy on a low food budget!  Yours in Him, Deb

Deborahmichelle:

Dear Chelle, I add spices/herbs & more veggies to the Food Stamps/USDA recipe-finder recipes.  Otherwise, they are just about exactly the way that I cook.  I have to , to be able to live comfortably under Food Stamps.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE I mean no offense to you!  It must be so hard for mothers w kids, or even married couples for that matter, to keep their families happy on a low food budget!  Yours in Him, Deb

No offense taken!  

We are very lucky to be so well off, even as students (I'm a grad student and he's a nontraditional undergrad, and we're on either side of turning 30), to be able to "not worry" about these things.  I can't imagine how much harder it is for other people; I begin to understand why we ate so much Hamburger Helper when I was a kid. But this forum is a big tent, and I think it's great that we have this site where we can all encourage each other whatever our situation is.

I try to spend less than $5.00 on meat for dinner.  Usually I can do that and I have so many veggies in freezer and my pantry is well stocked. I've never figured exactly how much for each meal.  I do want to tell about our weekend meal.  My mom came to stay while I recuperated from surgery and brought a turkey breast(with bone).  She said it cost about $8.00 and I didn't see the package for the pounds.  She baked in oven in browning bag with butter and we served 5 people Sunday lunch with veggies on side.  Then we took the turkey meat and made turkey pot pie for dinner on Tues and served with a salad.  Then we boiled the bones with onion and celery to make broth, took the rest of the meat off the bones and I am making turkey vegatable soup tonight with corn muffins on the side.  I told Mom that we probably could have stretched the meat and made another casserole to freeze.  Imagine what all you could do with a whole turkey!!

mmm that is a hard one.  some meals are pennies and some $6 a serving if we are having steak.  One box of  Kraft dinner feeds the 4 of us for less then a dollar if I don't add shredded cheese on top.   The kids don't eat alot maybe a cup to a cup and half of cereal in the morning.

I go more for average costs of meals trying to keep my grocery bill at about $100 a week.   breakfast and dinner aren't the most expensive it seems. It is lunches!  taking lunches to work/school/snacks.   all the single servings, sandwich meat, juices. still cheaper then eating out.  dh doesn't not go for tuna etc.  sandwiches are the main thing, not leftovers or heatable items.

Even school lunch program is 2-3 dollars a day.  Dinners can be a hot one pot meal like pasta and sauce, or tacos etc.  doens't work here for lunches much.

Our student has been here for 24 hrs and has had 4 cans of pop/juice, his packed school lunch, a frozen entree and a noodle bowl.  he slept though dinner. time change. didn't have dinner with us last night. don't know about the plane food. I am going to talk to him about the cans,  drink the juice/tea in the fridge instead (changed from before) and to save the cans for lunches.  the cost and the build up of recyclable cans is too much!   He doesn't eat breakfast or drink milk. 

With prices going up, have to watch meal costs more then ever.

Dear All, I got a sample copy of ALL YOU, & was delighted to see that the recipes list a cost per serving ....  Yours in HIm, Deb