I live on the coast of the largest body of water on the planet, 110 minutes drive from the second vastest country on the planet. Gas prices, home values, taxes for me are more expensive than for someone in Gary, Indiana or Tulsa, Oklahoma. So my food budget is bigger too. If you gasp at $600/month eating-in groceries for a family of three, you are either a farmer or vegetarian or you can get a 4-bedroom mansion in your neighborhood for $175000. For $175000 one gets a two-bedroom condo in a 40-year-old multi-strata building in my neighborhood, and I live in one of the uh, more affordable areas in my city.
I have been fixated with $750 budgeted for food away and at home and now recognize this fixation is futile and wrong. If someone lived in Boston or Manhattan or San Francisco thought "I should be able to spend no more than $1000/month on a 2200 sq. ft. living area not situated anywhere near a toxic waste site. What am I doing wrong?" I would gently mention that costs of living vary by area.
Since adopting the YNAB software budgeting system, I must accept that there is no “normal” month for categories, and food is one of the most volatile. It probably has a beta rating of 2.4 in my household. December is when we splurge on stocking stuffers and little feasts and that is not normal. December 31 is not normal for us either: we spent $60, the three of us, eating out.
I’ve also just recently started to keep a price book, have not abandoned meat on our diet, and although I’ve cut down on my coffees out, or swapped two cappuccinos for three drips, in January it feels really good to have something hot down the throat while making those no-gas-day errands.
My son takes lunch to school.
I make soup but maybe not enough.
My husband eats at home most of the time he works.
We do whole and organic foods and shop at farmers’ markets, though.
I like seafood and know its health benefits but even being by the fricking ocean doesn’t stop mussels from being $4/lb and clams at $5/lb or halibut at $22/lb. What do we have? Salmon at $5/lb., sole at $7/lb, tilapia or snapper at $4.50/lb. And it’s not just me buying coffees, or chess meeting snacks, or hot chocolates.
I am now reading the flyers to stock up on good deals offered by any of the three major supermarkets and two discount chains I frequent. Probably it is too early to call this food-cost experiment a bust.
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January 1:
personal holdings
Precious Metals: $10800
HELOC: $14771
Liquid: $17500
Stock: $1800
Stockwatch - some I have, some have great expectations.
TGT: 51.25
MCD: 100.33
DIS: 37.51
FCX: 36.81
WAG: 33.09
PG: 66.71
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What I'm reading now: Burr, by Gore Vidal. The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean.
Mystery Home Science Theatre: Case of the Bloated Food Budget
January 5th, 2012 at 06:51 pm
January 5th, 2012 at 07:30 pm 1325791855
When you solve the mystery of the case of the bloated food budget, mosey on over to my neck of the woods (suburban Chicagoland where the cost of living is pretty high) and help me tame the food budget busters that are busting out everywhere. I sat here for over and hour with the ads/coupons and a supposed menu plan to stretch my grocery dollars until they scream. Well, they are screaming and I am too - apparently somethings gotta give - my hope to contain the grocery dollars, or the category has got to be given more money. BTW, I feed a family of seven, plus a dog, turtle and frog, and parakeets and fish.
January 5th, 2012 at 07:37 pm 1325792229
January 5th, 2012 at 08:42 pm 1325796125
No use beating yourself up for impossible expectations (regional) or for enjoying some splurges.
January 5th, 2012 at 10:35 pm 1325802939
January 6th, 2012 at 02:34 am 1325817257
January 6th, 2012 at 07:49 pm 1325879390
January 6th, 2012 at 08:02 pm 1325880122