Monday, July 11, 2011

Cheap, Not Easy

Blessings, Darlings!


Did you know that the USDA estimates how much it costs to eat? "The Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans each represent a nutritious diet at a different cost. The Thrifty Food Plan is the basis for food stamp allotments."  The site with ALL the links is here http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodPlansCostofFood.htm.


The most recent data - for May, 2011 - is available here: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2011/CostofFoodMay2011.pdf  (where they also have links to what they figure people will each on each plan.)  According to them a family of thee, one woman my age, one man my husband's age, one man my son's age, will need to spend $494.90 a month ON THE THRIFTY - the LOWEST COST - of the plans.

Right now my budget for all 'grocery' type items (food, cleaning supplies, cat supplies including Frontline but NOT including the vet) I'm spending $400 a month.   Which I suppose explains why I'm finding this really really hard to live on. That's rather a relief, as I had begun to think that I was screwing up somehow.


I could not do this without having a freezer - which allows me to shop sales and stock up on things.  And I certainly couldn't do this if I wasn't cooking almost everything from scratch, which probably means I couldn't do it if I had to leave the house to work.

1 comment:

  1. I wish that our benefits would do that. I think they randomly pull a figure out of the air that they think that people should be able to live off of. It's even worse when you have food allergies and they refuse to take that into account.

    I'm lucky that I, too, have a freezer, shop the sales, etc., and I actually keep a tight track of my budget with a spreadsheet so I can see where it's all going, and see if I have a bit left for anything extra.

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