Food Costs
What are you all averaging a day on food costs per child? And what is your weekly budget for food?
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$600 a month pays for all paper products, all food, formula, garbage bags, etc. My husband and I are on the keto way of eating (almost all meat/cheese/some organic veggies but not much) but that includes the higher cost of that in there, too.
It feeds 6 daycare kids all week, breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks daily, and all meals for my husband, son, and myself. We don't buy processed crap. I couldn't do it without Aldis. Even Walmart adds an extra $200 a month to our bill. |
Originally Posted by midaycare: I admire you! I spend around $350/week for 10-12 kids. I buy a lot of organic foods and do a lot of farmer's markets. Plus, I bake most of my own breads. It's getting to be too expensive to buy organic though. We started our own garden to cut some costs and I cut back on servings too. |
And that's just food! ^
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Oh I totally forgot about Aldi. We have one here now. Definitely going to use them.
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Eight dcks and myself, B, L, and Snack. I usually spend 120-140 a week. That includes paper products and cleaners. I do buy my bread products at an outlet store, much cheaper than the grocery store. I admit I don't buy organic or shop Farmer's Markets. :(
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I spend $500 ish a month to feed 9 kids breakfast, lunch and snack. That also includes paper towels and a few other items like that.
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around $5 per day for a child.
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I spend so much more than everyone here. I don't understand how you do it. I always feel like I'm going as cheap as I can, too. For example, what yogurts do you use? What eggs? I have to buy really good yogurt - brown cow. And I do free range (not cage free) eggs. I feel like I get generic sugar, flour, canned beans... Chicken, I do buy free range or sometimes when I feel the bills are just too much, I buy conventional chicken... Do I just have to drop all that to make it work? Bread, I use Milton's whole grain. Cheese, I do buy shredded cheap cheese for the sake of time and money. Cold cuts, I buy, again, pricey ham which is like Applegate or similar - it doesn't have all the additives or anything. I do buy generic whole grain pasta and generic brown rice. I don't usually buy organic fruit and veg, too expensive. We have no Aldi's and our TJ's which people say is supposed to be equivalent, just isn't equivalent! TJs costs more than others and their produce is always bad. Help me learn the magic ways of spreading my food dollars!
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Originally Posted by CalCare: |
Originally Posted by CalCare: |
Originally Posted by Snowmom: I have 12-14 kids daily and I spend roughly $150-200 a week on groceries and I also buy organic and lots of fresh farmer's market items. We also grow alot of our own too but that is usually just extras on their plate and not always a required component. We don't eat much bread so I don't buy alot of it and I don't make it myself. |
Originally Posted by Blackcat31: Organic milk for dck's alone costs me $30/week. We recently had two new grocery stores pop up in my neighborhood and my thoughts were: "Great, maybe we'll see some deals now that there's more competition". Nope. Costco is my best bet here. But I really hate setting aside time to portion and freeze. Then, when I'm buying bulk or growing foods, I'd like to can what we don't eat right away. And... that's not creditable on the FP. Neither is dehydrating foods. So, what's the point. :/ |
Originally Posted by Snowmom: |
Originally Posted by Snowmom: I don't know how many gallons of milk you go through but we only do milk for lunch. I don't serve breakfast and it's water only for snack so that helps alot! Originally Posted by midaycare: |
Omg ha! Our organic milk gallon is like 5.99-6.99.
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Cost of living in a small town....eesh, lol
$1000 per month for 6-8 kids, plus my 17-year-old, myself...and my 7-year-old. Food program covers about $500 of that consistently. Our grocery prices are higher because of fuel surcharge...we don't have any major highways or a freeway through our county. |
Originally Posted by CalCare: The only yogurt that it flavored that meets the new food program regs in Oct, that doesn't have artificial sweeteners and is available to me is Chobani. Otherwise, I have to flavor the plain stuff myself. I save money by serving mostly vegetarian meals and cooking from scratch. I save the meat proteins for fishy Fridays and my own family's dinner. The kids eat a lot of eggs, cheese, beans, yogurt, for their protein. Then on Fridays, I rotate between tuna sandwiches (tuna melts in winter) and salmon patties. After standing in the aisle and reading forever, I found a cereal that is 100% whole grain and has less than 6 grams of sugar per dry ounce (new regs) that's generic. It's the Safeway brand bite sized frosted shredded wheat. The kids will also eat Chex, and the babies are willing to eat plain Cheerios but my older kids just go hungry if I serve it. In winter I make porridge...Old Fashioned Oats, Cream of Wheat, etc. |
Originally Posted by CalCare: I am mostly vegetarian here for cost reasons. For protein Monday is eggs, Tuesday beans, wed cheese and then usually another cheese day and Friday is sometimes a meat or eggs again. |
Originally Posted by Controlled Chaos: |
The cheap milk that the kids won't drink...and neither will I, is just under $4 a gallon. The midline good milk is 5.99. Organic is 7.99
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Originally Posted by hwichlaz: |
Around $100-$150 per week for 12 children (1 is our own), my husband, and myself. That includes gluten free items for my own family since we have Celiac Disease (daughter and myself) and are gluten intolerant (husband). I was doing a good job of making Paleo meals for my own family and then it kind of went into the toilet these last few months due to exhaustion. :lol:
SOME of the items are organic. I shop at Aldi and Sprouts (their sales for organic produce are GREAT!). Someone else is right...if I shop at Walmart my bill is A LOT higher. Milk is around .99-2.00 a gallon depending on time of the year. Eggs are around .30-1.75 depending on time of the year. Buying only seasonal produce saves me a TON. I am only open 4 days per week and most children are not present for breakfast (only 1-4, MAYBE). So, we only go through 2 gallons of milk per week since it's mostly at lunch and my own family doesn't drink it. |
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