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How much do you spend on groceries each week? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American family of four spends around $177.00 per week on groceries. That doesn’t include eating out. If you eat out three times, the total amount spent on food can run over $300.00 per week, which means the average family spends over $1,200.00 a month.
The average family also throws out $600.00 worth of food per year, not counting leftovers. In fact, 40% of all food produced in America does not get eaten. You know how our parents always said, “Don’t let your food go to waste, because there are starving children in the world.” Apparently, we didn’t listen.
So, how do you feed your family healthy food while reducing the costs? By controlling portion size, utilizing leftovers, and doing just a little extra work in the kitchen.
Here a sample of a week’s worth of meals for a family of four (lunch and dinner), at the average cost of $10.00 per meal. I have only included the shopping list this week since most of the recipes can be found in previous articles. Next week’s article will include the remaining recipes.
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Leftovers and sandwiches play a big role in this menu. If you can get two meals by cooking only once, you could quickly cut your food budget almost in half, which would save you around $7,200.00 per year. That is an extra $600.00 per month you could use to pay down credit cards, save for the kiddo’s college, or spruce up your nest (I know a website where you can get some great ideas).
As always,
Stay hungry my friends
I really love the idea of cooking once to get two meals out of it!!
Wow, I didn’t realize that people spend so much on eating. Every two weeks we budget a total of 220 for groceries and eating out. I guess that puts us ahead of the curve.
Leftovers are definitely a big part of our lifestyle.
Great article!
Excellent. I read a great blog (CheapHealthyGood) recently on making 17 meals with one chicken. It’s all about being resourceful. These are some great ideas too. I love a ready made shopping list!
Great tips. Another suggestion might be to have one night of food be meat-free – it’s cheaper and better for the environment as well!
The convenience of the menu sure makes this post a print-off-and-keep-it one!
I tried this and it worked great!! I changed up the sandwich hum drum by toasting the bread one day, using spicy mustard another day and making “grilled” turkey sandwich on Friday. Saving $$ just takes a little effort. Thanks!!
We’ve been really cracking down on this. We started using relishrelish.com to help plan our meals and I’ve also been couponing. A husband who is in law school, you find all kinds of ways to save money and this is one of the easiest ways!
This is excellent. I’m taking notes. We spend about $160 a week for two of us! I don’t even know what it would be if we had kids. I started eating paleo so we do waste less. And anything we do throw out (minus chicken and eggs) we feed to the next door neighbors chickens. I always wonder if the pad thai changes the flavor of the eggs.
Buying lots of something (ground beef, chicken breasts, bacon, etc.) when it is on sale and then cooking even seasoning it before you store it (possibly in the freezer!)really helps on money and time!