Grocery Shopping

I recently read about a woman who spent $275 on food for one week worth of dinners and two weeks worth of lunches for her family of four (mom and 3 kids under 10). Her list of groceries included almost all prepackaged junk foods and processed sugary snacks.

This seems so foreign to me. My haul for two weeks, feeding hubby and myself and the occasional guest, cost $70 with tax which is 9.75% in these parts. For $70, I got tons of food, some of which will last much longer than two weeks such as dried beans, canned tomatoes, etc. We did have some pretzels and pop in the buggy as well as a 5 pound bag of sugar, however, we did not have anything else that would be considered ‘junk food’.

I budget $200 per month for my family. When the children visit, I add an additional $10 per week for them. We rarely use that amount entirely and so I buy items to stock my pantry and freezers with the remaining funds. We have been fortunate enough to have food available to help out our neighbors when the need arises.

How much do you budget for food? What sort of foods do you buy?