The Skinty

Learning The Cost of Food

It’s a personal goal of mines to not only have the majority of my meals prepared at home, but also to do so in a way that I’m allocating my funds to other areas. My excuse for eating out so much use to be the idea that it costs just as much to eat at home as it does to buy out. The reality of it was that I wasn’t a frugal shopper not that the costs were equal. I’d go for all of the “name brand” goods, where as it’s advised to buy most of your food on the outer aisles, for healthier choices, or above and below the shelves for more affordable deals. I’d spend most of my time within the aisles and primarily at eye level nothing that would require bending down or looking up. And I would be nothing less than surprised each time my bill came to well over what I intended to spend, just to find myself back in the market a week and a half later doing it all over again.

Now I’m doing pretty well where I have my cost down and the food that I buy lasts at least up to two weeks and that’s with me purposely shopping for an amount that will last until pay day with the need of replacing necessities when I do go. Now I’d like to put focus on having a budget each time I go and knowing what I’m going to buy before I go. I’ve never been a fan of making lists all stems from going shopping for mom (still recovering if you notice me twitching prayer is appreciated:)) And I’ll cut out coupons but 9 times out of 10 I don’t take the ones I need or because I don’t have a list and I’m just free styling all up and down the supermarket aisle, rarely will I pick up that which I have a coupon for. So needless to say these are two areas I’ll be working on. Which brings me to the purpose of this article, in relation to planning out what I’m going to buy setting a budget and all of that good stuff, I’ve come to find that the USDA has a pdf on their site that shows how much food should cost, based on gender, age, and household size. The provide a column for everyone from the thrifty shopper to the liberal as it’s put on the sheet.

I’ve included a sample below, this particular sample pictured is for the thrifty shopper. The image below is not the full page so to view it in full, visit this link.

I’d fall into family of 2 19-50 years old so according to this chart, under the thrifty plan my cost for groceries would be $77.50 a week. So I’m actually doing better than they have outlined here being that I’m spending less than this every two weeks. However if I factor in still eating out on occasion, my daughter currently being fed at school, the amount of eating that’s being factored in and things of that nature, this sounds about right (and not forgetting this will vary from state to state).

At any rate check it out if you will, this particular chart is from December 2007 and is the most current they have available on the site.