Food. It’s necessary for survival. It’s good for you. It’s bad for you. What used to be good is now bad…what used to be bad is now good. Knowing what to feed your family can get confusing at times! And expensive.
Rather than re-write how we go about grocery shopping I thought I’d post links to past articles I have written. The process hasn’t changed except now we have 11 people in our family and our grocery budget has increased from $100/week to $150-$200/week.
Posted in order of how they should be read:
How I Meal Plan
Planning a Menu
A Well Stocked Pantry
I just don’t know if I can possibly be that organised. Seriously. I have four kids and plan on having more, and I wonder if chaos will just be a permanent fixture in our home! You are an inspiration. 🙂
When I tell people that I feed our family (very well I might add) for $300/month and I only shop once a month, they are astounded.
It’s not hard or impossible.
I hope someday (if they ever send me some adopted children) when my family is large, I can keep it up like you. AND, I hope I can keep my sanity like you! 🙂
I’d love it if we were as good (frugal!) as you ladies, but we’re not there yet. Then again, we have 13 people in our house, including 3 teenage boys and 2 teenage girls, not to mention a pregnant mom, a dad, and six younger siblings.
We do not eat any processed food, we cook everything from scratch, and we only buy food on sale (we plan according to sales, chasing the loss leaders at each store) or at the bulk store. (And what we buy in bulk is things like cheese and butter.) We LOVE our local fresh fruits and veg market where we can fill a cart to overflowing and still have a bill around $30. (A perk of being so close to Mexico and California, I guess.)
We spend around $1000 a month, and since we have lots more teens growing for many years to come, I don’t see it shrinking any time soon! LOL! I still feel like we do a pretty dang good job, anyway. 🙂
Thanks for this post. I have read the articles you suggested and I have taken several notes. I need more of your recipes. Am I missing them on your blog? Thanks for your great example!!! you are pretty AWESOME!!!
Shelly
I was just leaving you a novel of a comment and accidentally deleted it. 😛
A super BIG THANKS for this post and the ones you linked to. They are inspiring and educational. I’m making it a goal to do an inventory of my food storage to determine what I need to get still and how often I need to add to it to keep it up.
And your comment about the chocolate chips made me realize that prepping for desserts and treats is also an important part of food stoarge. Thanks!
this is such an inspiration, i need to do better! i’ve been reading your blog for a long time, but i’m kind of a lurker, not making many comments. we both comment a lot on Misty’s blogs though. i say this because i just got together with one of my fave cousins so we could sing together in a couple of wards on sunday while she was in town and i found out she dated your brother-in-law Ben. she was recommending your blog to me because she knew i was planning to homeschool and when she said the title i just laughed and said, “i’ve been reading her blog for years!” Her name is Mary and i thought i’d pass on that she really thought you and your family, and your brother-in-law, were awesome people!
We think Mary is pretty amazing too! I wished I had the sense to ask her to sing for us when she visited. I’ve regretted that ever since.