14 dozen eggs
30 rolls of toilet paper
24 rolls paper towels
3 lbs coffee (mom and dad NEED this)
12 lbs cheese
3 lbs sour cream
8 lbs butter
9 gallons milk
15 lbs flour
12 lbs sugar
6lbs peanut butter
No that is not the list for a big party, it is part of my shopping list for the monthly grocery budget for a family of 7. I have been asked by a number of people recently what our budget looks like for large family cooking/household items and so I thought I would share our most recent break-down.
I cook/bake most things from scratch and I try to shop monthly except for weekly milk runs. I recently had to overhaul the budget because we hadn’t updated our grocery budget since baby #4 was born and we now have 5 kiddos plus mom and dad. So, coupling that fact with the increases over the last several years in grocery prices and we have been busting our budget monthly, it was well overdue time to re-evaluate.
The other thing to consider is that our family eats almost 21 meals at home. Yes, 3 meals a day times 7 days a week so around 84 meals a month, give or take. Because the children are homeschooled I have to plan for meals/snacks throughout the day, even when we are going our separate ways I typically pack their lunches/snacks to save money.
So, here it is…We have readjusted our monthly budget for food/household items and toiletries to a whopping $720 a month. That breaks down to $180 a week in groceries, toilet paper, makeup, shampoo, etc. This is a large readjustment because as I mentioned we haven’t re-worked this budget for about 3 years and we were constantly breaking it so it was time. Our previous budget had been $450 but that was also not including meats as we for years were blessed to be getting a side of beef from my parents. We are planning to re-visit and do a side of beef and a hog again as this is truly more economical for all large families (if you don’t do this you should DEFINITELY look into it as it is a cost saver and so much healthier too!) I am not sure that at this point that I could get the budget any lower, if you are a large family and your budget is lower than this, please share areas that you are saving on so we can compare notes.
Now for how I buy all this and what I do with it. I have for quite some time tried to shop once a month with the occasional weekly run for milk and maybe a few fresh fruits. For me it is just better to spend several hours at the store and a day or two after working on meals then to run to the store weekly with my crew of monkeys. So for the most recent run I spent 3 hours shopping (Costco, Aldi and Walmart). I then came home and spent the weekend on and off repackaging meats, making meals for the freezer, browning beef, etc.
Here is the back of my car after the Costco run…a whopping $495 worth of food and household supplies as well as toiletries (remember that is for the WHOLE month)
30 rolls of toilet paper
24 rolls paper towels
3 lbs coffee (mom and dad NEED this)
12 lbs cheese
3 lbs sour cream
8 lbs butter
9 gallons milk
15 lbs flour
12 lbs sugar
6lbs peanut butter
No that is not the list for a big party, it is part of my shopping list for the monthly grocery budget for a family of 7. I have been asked by a number of people recently what our budget looks like for large family cooking/household items and so I thought I would share our most recent break-down.
I cook/bake most things from scratch and I try to shop monthly except for weekly milk runs. I recently had to overhaul the budget because we hadn’t updated our grocery budget since baby #4 was born and we now have 5 kiddos plus mom and dad. So, coupling that fact with the increases over the last several years in grocery prices and we have been busting our budget monthly, it was well overdue time to re-evaluate.
The other thing to consider is that our family eats almost 21 meals at home. Yes, 3 meals a day times 7 days a week so around 84 meals a month, give or take. Because the children are homeschooled I have to plan for meals/snacks throughout the day, even when we are going our separate ways I typically pack their lunches/snacks to save money.
So, here it is…We have readjusted our monthly budget for food/household items and toiletries to a whopping $720 a month. That breaks down to $180 a week in groceries, toilet paper, makeup, shampoo, etc. This is a large readjustment because as I mentioned we haven’t re-worked this budget for about 3 years and we were constantly breaking it so it was time. Our previous budget had been $450 but that was also not including meats as we for years were blessed to be getting a side of beef from my parents. We are planning to re-visit and do a side of beef and a hog again as this is truly more economical for all large families (if you don’t do this you should DEFINITELY look into it as it is a cost saver and so much healthier too!) I am not sure that at this point that I could get the budget any lower, if you are a large family and your budget is lower than this, please share areas that you are saving on so we can compare notes.
Now for how I buy all this and what I do with it. I have for quite some time tried to shop once a month with the occasional weekly run for milk and maybe a few fresh fruits. For me it is just better to spend several hours at the store and a day or two after working on meals then to run to the store weekly with my crew of monkeys. So for the most recent run I spent 3 hours shopping (Costco, Aldi and Walmart). I then came home and spent the weekend on and off repackaging meats, making meals for the freezer, browning beef, etc.
Here is the back of my car after the Costco run…a whopping $495 worth of food and household supplies as well as toiletries (remember that is for the WHOLE month)
Here is my cart at Aldi $136.02.
And I forgot to take a picture of the Walmart cart, it was a smaller haul for $69.30.
Not bad, right at $700.32 which leaves me $20 for milk runs for the rest of the month.
And I forgot to take a picture of the Walmart cart, it was a smaller haul for $69.30.
Not bad, right at $700.32 which leaves me $20 for milk runs for the rest of the month.
I will share later this week what I came home and did with all that food (besides spending over an hour putting it all away!)
