Do you guys plan..

Emma · 08-17-2007, 01:14 PM

a dinner menu in advance? How far in advance do you do it and does help you stay on track as far as the food budget goes? I'm thinking of giving it a shot for the rest of this month and September. Maybe it will prevent Dh from ordering pizza on the nights I work

I looked at what we spent on food last month and it was $620 for eating out and another approx $800 in groceries and other stuff for the house. This is insane and needs to stop!

jillian1527 · 08-17-2007, 01:28 PM

I have thought about it. but I just am not good with fallowing through. and so many times does it get to be around 6 and I think I don't want to cook and we go out. . I really need to stop that, buckle down and do it.
good luck with it and you will have to let me know how it goes for you.

Terri · 08-17-2007, 01:28 PM

Don't kill me, but...................... my mom makes us dinner almost every night.

Are you shocked to hear that? I don't think I've ever shared that with you girls before.

My mom lives one block away from us and she works evenings (2pm-11pm) and since has to make dinner for my step-dad (he doesn't cook) AND she absolutely LOVES to cook (it's no joke), she always makes enough for us all to split. She even gets together at least 3 x's a week with her best friend who happens to be a French woman who use to be a chef and they cook together.

So there's no advance menu planning for me.

Callie · 08-17-2007, 01:33 PM

We plan in advance. It helps out a ton! It is said on average you should be spending no more than $100 per person on grocerys. That being said, it is quite hard to buy healthy food with that type of a budget. DH and I spend about $80 a month on food and another $15 on eating out but we are cheap, eat a lot of rice and something with it, and only have ds who still shares what we eat when we go out. I can't imagine spending that much on groceries.

Another big thing that can help is cutting coupons (don't use the ones you don't need), watching the ads, and making lists.

Emma · 08-17-2007, 01:44 PM

When I brought it up to Dh he resisted. He says we can't cut the budget on food because he doesn't want to skimp on healthy food. I know it costs more to buy organic and fresh produce vs. canned or frozen, but there has to be a way. He's also a big time brand whore. He freaks when I buy generic. You should've seen the look on his face when I bought generic cereal and generic chocolate syrup

Callie · 08-17-2007, 01:54 PM

what if you bought Generic and placed it in Name brand containers?

Koloe · 08-17-2007, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emma

When I brought it up to Dh he resisted. He says we can't cut the budget on food because he doesn't want to skimp on healthy food. I know it costs more to buy organic and fresh produce vs. canned or frozen, but there has to be a way. He's also a big time brand whore. He freaks when I buy generic. You should've seen the look on his face when I bought generic cereal and generic chocolate syrup

Organic is a good thing - but not all the other stuff is horrible either. Have you ever looked to see if their is a food coop you can buy shares of in your area? Basically you pay a annual fee and every week during the growing season you get a bunch of fresh produce - these are often organic too. I've thought about it, but haven't done it.

And are all the places you go to eat serving Organic food? I would think not (but I don't know where you eat out). Most Pizza isn't organic or that healthy.

Personally I buy a lot of frozen veggies. That way there are always on hand. Taste just fine to me. You can probably even find some that are "organic". I find frozen much better than canned. But not that different than fresh.

You DH should expand his horizons. Some of the generic actually tastes as good, if not better, than the name brands. Though some things are just better with name brand vs generic.

As for controling costs - my sister looks through the grocery store ads every week and plans for that weeks meals based on what's on sale. When she can, she takes 1 day of the week to make a bunch of food and freezes it. So then she can just pull out that days meal and pop it in the oven. She finds it saves her a lot of time in the long run.

I've been really bad about the food bill of late though and I need to crack down and plan ahead more because $200 is too much to spend at the grocery store in 1 trip IMO.

Though I also think food prices have been creeping up - what with the increase in transportation costs and all. And obviously not going out to eat so much will save you a ton of money.