Let's Talk Money

 

We try to eat healthy for the most part and probably do better than most people but you know what?  It costs a small fortune to eat the way we all know we should be eating!  I'm cheap.  My friends know that I live to find a good deal on pretty much anything.  I rarely if ever buy anything brand new for our almost 1 and almost 3 year old.  That being said I'm seriously the laziest bargain shopper there is.  Couponing is great and all but I'm never going to do it.  Sale ad papers make a lot of sense but they go straight from the end of the driveway into the recycling bin.  Still, grocery shopping is a huge part of any family's budget and although it is something you just can't do without we can all do better.

I try really hard to find foods that taste good and hopefully won't make anyone grow a third arm or worse in twenty years.  I try to buy some things organic like strawberries and peaches but don't care about all of it being organic.  I am pretty particular about using non-GMO as much as I can but let's be serious I'm not looking at every single label.  We buy hormone free eggs and I really want to start buying hormone free meat but since Matt eats so much we would have to triple our food budget to make that happen.              

My neighbor is doing a paleo diet right now.  She picks up a food box made at Saskatoon's every week, skips breakfast and pays $150/week.  Plus she still has to buy for the rest of her family so if I had to guess they are easily forking out $350/week for 3 preteens and two adults on top of her meals.  Our gym has a pre-made paleo meal service but at $22 for 2 adult meals that adds up to $300/week in no time at all.  For 2 people.  Plenty of friends with families of 4 tell me they spend $200/week on groceries and still eat out 1-2x a week.  I would die if we spent that much.

Honestly, we usually spend right at $50/week on regular groceries and then around $100/month on meat and a few other things at Sam's.  If we go over $350 it was a big month.  We hardly eat out or get takeout.  Maybe twice a month and that's considered part of our "entertainment" budget.  Matt has a pie chart for life.  It's an app.  I digress.  I never really thought we ate that cheaply until friends started talking about it and realized that yes, most people spend closer to $150/week for a family of 4 not including eating out.  Yowza.  We can do better.  All of us.  And we will.