Budget and Prices

An online friend asked me about our shopping trip. The load of groceries in the back of the van consisted of about 90% of a month of groceries. Added to this is restocking of milk, night time protection for a few bed wetters(aka off brand goodnights), off brands "pullups" for the potty trainer(for use at night or when needed away from home....or when I am too tired of washing up icky clothes), and any great deals on meat. We spend about $550 a month on average for household spending. This includes food, cleaners, paper products, chicken and dog food... Sometimes we hit $600 and sometimes it's $500 but it averages out to about $550. We have the seven children, ages 16 down to 2, and we eat all meals out of our kitchen except for about once a month we'll hit Little Caesar's or get dollar burgers. We have church fellowships we attend as well. Usually about once a year(twice maybe) the whole family will go out for a sit down meal. It's a big treat!

The picture of the produce from the farmer's market was taken of our first trip there.
The whole family had a blast going to the Farmer's Market! We should have tried it sooner really. Here is a broken down list of what we bought. Total we spent exactly $100.

50 pounds potatoes $12
50# sweet potatoes $12
50# cabbage $12
50# onion $15
1 bushel squash $10
1 bushel grapefruit $12
1 bushel tomatoes $12
5 cucumbers $2
1 bushel apples $13

I am hoping for us to go about every other month to restock our produce. I would not have bought tomatoes or squash if our crop had done better. We grow a sizeable garden each year but this past year's didn't come out so well. Fortunately we had beans canned for last summer and my parents gave us a lot of peas and squash from their garden. If it weren't for the love of gardening and the children's experience with it, I'd be tempted to just do farmer's market shopping. :) I am happy to have our diet consist of a lot of produce and less meat. We do have meat at almost every main meal but not as much as the average American family.

More maybe later. I have to catch the two year old. :)