More Expensive by the 1/2 Dozen

When people find out that we have 6 children, one of the first comments we hear is “You must spend a ton on food!” It may surprise you to know that groceries are actually one of our least and best controlled expenses. By using a little organization, and preplanning, we have been able to keep our weekly food bill from $120 to $150 for this family of 8.

Having grown up in a family of 7 children, although I didn’t learn to cook I did appreciate the effort it took to feed an army. I also heard over and over about those starving children in Africa and though we never did mail them my unfinished dinners it did make me aware that food was a gift that should be appreciated.

As a parent, it is my responsibility to now teach my children the food skills they will need to survive on their own someday. With all the fast food and poor nutritional food choices out there, one of the more important skills I can teach is to make sure they know how to make healthy food choices. What we’ve discovered over the years is that when you make healthy food choices, you also lower your food costs. What a wonderful cause and effect. Some of the tips and strategies we use to keep our food bill down follow.

Plan the Week’s Menu
Every Sunday on a rotating basis, we sit down with one of the kids and plan the food menus for the entire week. By having a family member help us, they assume ownership and are more likely to be involved in the final product. For each meal we try to include a vegetable, some kind of starch (bread, potatoes) and a protein.

I keep a notebook with ‘kid-friendly” dinner suggestions (Mac and cheese, pigs in a blanket) which helps the kids to make choices. There are a few rules, we try to have fish one day during the week and we try to insert a new recipe based on what is on sale that week. This week, for example, we are all discovered what Kale was and how it could be used in recipes. Incidentally we, we also discovered after trying to eat it that we never need to buy Kale again.

Go Food Shopping as little as possible
Once we have the menu for the week, we create a shopping list. We usually do the shopping late at night without the kids, which avoids all of those requests for brightly colored sugar foods. For the most part we don’t use coupons, by buying the house brands and what is on sale we can keep our costs down. We also don’t buy in bulk, instead we buy what we need and we use what we have.

We only buy enough fruit and vegetables to last for half the week and then replenish the fruit and vegetables halfway through the week. This avoids spoilage and ensures that the produce is as fresh as possible.

Go easy on the Drinks
My kids are lactose intolerant so we don’t buy milk. That in it ‘self is a great money saver. Recent medical research has indicated that kids are gaining weight because they have access to too many high sugar drinks like soda and fruit juices We do buy juices but the kids are only allowed to drink two glasses per day and then they have to switch to water.

Use Meat as a flavoring
We save a lot by watching meat portion size and by using meat as a flavoring instead of the main part of any meal. 1 pound of ground beef is enough for chili and shells and beef. 2 pounds of ground beef mixed with cheese, onions, sauce, purred vegetables and stuffing can make enough meatloaf for two meals. ½ pound of ground sausage is enough to flavor any casserole.

Learn to bake
We make one to two baked goods a week. Even if you use mixes, you save a lot. A 99 cent box of brownie mix can make enough for a snack and still leave enough left over for lunches. A box of quick bread can make enough for a breakfast. Cookie from scratch are not as difficult as you might imagine, especially when you are making larger batches and freezing half of them for use later.

Snacks
Everyone is welcome to snacks in our house. Cookie portions (about 4 cookies) are passed out after school and then the kids have to switch to “healthy snacks”. There are always apples, bananas, and oranges. We often have pretzels and several of the kids will fix themselves a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We also have nuts available and sometimes there are cheese sticks on which to nibble.

Watch portions
No one needs a heaping plate of food. Kids are picky eaters and we are more likely to get them to eat different foods if we include small amounts on the plates. I’d rather have my kids eat a little of a lot of different foods than eat a lot of only a few foods.

We watch portion sizes and try to stick to them. For us, a bag of potato chips is enough to last us 2 or 3 meals. Chips are not a staple and a small handful is all you need with a meal. A few carrots, 3 tablespoons of corn, a few leafs of lettuce, if the kids eat all of that then not only are they getting their vegetable allotments but they are also getting nutritional diversity. You are not doing any one any favors by heaping a child’s plate up with food.

Use Leftovers
At one point in my life, if we had any leftovers I would simply throw them out. I’ve since learned to use everything. Roasted vegetables get put in the freezer until I have enough for a stew. A roast chicken can provide two additional meals (chicken pot pie and chicken stew). Leftover meatloaf gets used for sandwiches and crumbled into pasta sauce. The old adage waste not want not comes to mind here. If you truly use what you have, you might be surprised at how much you really need.

Control those Treats
Although we do have treats in our house, they are not available on a daily basis. We do not have dessert after dinner unless there is a special occasion. Candies are passed out in moderation, certainly not every day and only when meals have been finished.

Of course holidays and celebrations are a different story. Some of our fondest memories are around special foods that we have during celebrations times. It is expected and appropriate to have holiday foods and treats as long as there is an end to those foods when the holidays are over.

Read Labels and Understand Food information
We have discussions with our kids about the calorie and fat contents of foods. Burger King has recently come out with a “Kong Burger” that checks in at 1230 calories. My older kids understand that for the average person, that is enough calories for the entire day. They understand that French Fries and heavy sauces contain a lot of fat. Our point is not to scare our children about food but rather to educate them about what they put into their bodies.

Pre-processed foods do not have the nutritional value that fresh foods have and are much more expensive. Food surrounds us everywhere. It’s used for celebrations, comfort, and for marketing reasons. By educating our kids now, it is our hope that when they move out on their own they will be able to make healthy food choices and avoid some of the health consequences of eating expensive foods that do not nourish their bodies.

Be Grateful for What You Have
We try not to take food for granted. In our house, even if you think you are not going to like something, you still have to take a thank-you bite of everything to acknowledge the effort of the person who prepared your food.

We also have discussions about people around the world who are not fortunate enough to have food on a daily basis. We have shown our kids what 500 calories of rice looks like and they know that for far too many people, that is what they get to survive on. Good healthy food is a gift and something of which all should be appreciative.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.