The family of origin part could be a whole other side tangent. Very interesting.
But wow, y'all managed to cover a LOT of ground here, and I'll be referencing some of these tips and resources. We have not been great about creating or tracking with a food budget (aka: we haven't) but we recently realized we've been spending a tonnnnn in the last year or two. It's been a bit stressful trying to rethink how to approach our food buying, prepping, and eating.... in order to be better stewards of our money, habits, and bodies.
Great stuff in here, ladies, and thanks for making this collaboration happen!
If it feels overwhelming to start, it can really help to just start by making yourself keep track of everything you spend on food. Just keep all the receipts for a month and then see if you can see trends. And simply limiting the number of trips you take is so helpful! Just see if you can go 2 more days before the next grocery trip. Those two things, along with a meal plan go so far. Also, planning to make the meal plan based on what you already have on hand, and sale items vs. what you feel like eating, lol. And repetition is not a bad thing! I have to remind myself that the only person in our house who gets hired by making the same thing is me 😆. My boys do.not.care. Granted, we’re not foodies, but we do like good food. They just want it to taste good, and have plenty of it. My husband hates going to gourmet restaurants because he always leaves hungry, and my nine year old out eats many adults.
Recently, we looked at our budget and thought WHERE DOES OUR MONEY GO?? Food. We do a budget, make menus, shop according to lists, and try to limit impulse buys, but the little leftover goes to food. We like quality coffee and dark chocolate and good cheese and meats (traveling through Europe on the cheap as newlyweds ruined us). We buy cheaper cuts of pastured meat and try to get it in bulk when available. But percentagewise, our family of five eats more of our income than spending it in any other category--and that's spending only about $150 more than the USDA low-cost monthly amount. (Thanks for that link by the way! Very interesting. Have you found one tiered to locality? We live just outside one of the most expensive places in the US.)
It's just super, super expensive, is the long and short of it. You're not doing anything wrong.
I really have found that the "temporary groceries compromise while trying to pay for the car repair" is helpful when you can't do much to reduce your regular grocery expenses but you still need to find a little extra money somewhere. More meatless meals and more eggs and more pasta for 2 weeks to get to the next paycheck without using the credit card helps here and there!
Those are all good ideas! We have a lot of carnivores in the family who don't tolerate beans well, so more meatless doesn't work well, but more egg and cheese-based meals would. Also, we do make sourdough bread (the easy, feed the starter a few hours before setting up the bread and then storing it in the fridge otherwise) and have upped how much bread the kids are eating as the go-to snack since it's pretty cheap (and healthy) to make.
This is THE reason I learned how to make GF sourdough (and yeast bread too). I just needed something that was fairly cheap to fill people’s bellies. So lots of bread and butter and peanut butter toast around here.
Egg casserole for dinner! Or pancakes or waffles for dinner. I’ll serve smoothies with a protein powder, or we’ll do a side of meat, but the meat is not the main course and you can even make your own breakfast patties from whatever ground meat you have.
We love a good quiche or breakfast casserole in the Dietz home, in terms of egg and cheese meals! And breakfast tacos as well. Both easy to throw some veggies, some carbs, some protein, some dairy... and scalable/flexible based on what we have around. (I'm "learning to like" beans myself, so I relate to this. My best friend uses lentils or beans to stretch her ground beef, and I'm hoping to give that a shot and see if I can taste a difference.)
Also, I often remind myself that while it sometimes feels wasteful to "eat my money", it's also not a waste to be providing growing bodies with good nutrition. We do the best we can, and try not to obsess, but it's so much easier to prevent major health issues through good stewardship of our bodies than it is to do damage control later.
Popping in to say that "Child of Mine" by Ellyn Satter is my go-to baby shower gift. Everyone reads all the books about pregnancy and sleep but then all of a sudden you have a six month old and you're like, "Solid food, maybe? But when? How much? How often?" She's just SO PRACTICAL, and I do love the division of responsibility. It was such a helpful guide to me when my twins were preemies and needed every calorie they could get but when I asked our pediatrician at their six month appointment about solids her only advice was, "Don't give them too many bananas, it'll make them constipated." . . . OK, noted? Got anything else? Full disclosure, my mother is an RD like Ellyn Satter so I am perhaps biased toward her approach because it best matches what I grew up with, but I do think it's very valuable.
Splendid conversation with wonderful - practical - insights! We are in a phase of food and family dynamics where growing teen boys are continuously on the hunt for more food, more protein, more of anything. When I am busy this means stocking frozen pizzas that they can throw in the oven for in between meals (yes, a whole pizza is now considered a snack); when I have time I bake a big batch of "pigs in a blanket" (quartered German sausage wrapped in bread dough), extra protein muffins, or their sister prepares them a batch of no-bake peanut butter-oat-dark chocolate protein bars. In order to keep costs down our menu is often dictated by what is on sale, and we buy things like oats, flour, nuts, etc in bulk from a local Mennonite store (it also helps that our older son now works at a butcher shop after school which provides employees a discount :) Thanks again for working together on this great series!
A whole pizza as a snack! You're making me shake in my boots, Ruth...and my 9-year-old son and his friends all already bragging to each other than they can eat half a pizza each.
Your pizza comment is such a good example of making reasonable compromises. Homemade pizza is probably somewhat healthier but when you accept frozen pizza, what you are actually doing is preventing countless spontaneous runs to Little Caesar's for a $9, even less healthy pizza! So you save money and you provide reasonable nutrition. I think that's so smart!
For similar reasons, I've begun keeping tater tots and frozen broccoli and corn dogs in the freezer, as i have found that having these on hand prevents me from spending $50-$60 (yes, it really costs that much for my family of 6 or 7!) for fast food on hard nights when I just cannot get myself to cook. We'd be eating junk foor either way, but this way it costs only about $12 (and we get the broccoli, to boot!).
We’ve been doing this lately with dumplings and eggrolls that I can toss in the oven or steam during naptime—when the alternative is not eating lunch at all (or eating, say, a handful of goldfish or Chex mix), it’s worth the comparative splurge.
Yes, the cost of eating out is astronomical, and I would rather buy a new pair of shoes or pants for them :) We will often make quick pizzas with naan bread and they have invented their own spectacular bacon-egg-deluxe bagels (which the youngest will happily prepare with great flair and even decorate with a little toothpick flag like in fancy restaurants). Teaching them to cook has definitely been very helpful, as I would otherwise spend more than half the day in the kitchen!
I need to get on this! I'm trying to have a "kitchen helper" and have them do things alongside me, but when the baby is also fussing and the toddler is whining I just need to do things FAST. Ha. Maybe a summer project...🤔
This is SO REAL! We took a date to IKEA a few weeks back, and happened to go on Friday (when the restaurant is 50% off) so it was dirt cheap ($7 for me, the toddler, and the baby)… and I swear our 2yo only ate the Swedish meatballs because of the tiny IKEA flag toothpicks.
I appreciate this article for several reasons. First is the bonding aspect of shared meals. This seems undervalued in our society today. I liked this: "Eating a limited diet is absolutely more expensive and sometimes this is so frustrating. But I also realize that I could pay for food that works well for our family, or I could pay for the consequences."
There is a wisdom to prioritizing food over home decor. You can have a museum quality cold house, or a warm home where families bond. I would think we don't often see the consequences of show over substance because they play out over years. In the end, what I remember from my youth, with a bright nostalgic joy, is Thanksgiving dinner. Not the plates, the setting, etc. The conversation and the communal joy of sitting as a family. That is what I remember.
What a beautiful insight, Mark. For so many people, food = warmth, because it is a way of caring for others and yourself. I loved the quote you pull out here: you either pay for food, or you pay for the consequences.
I thank y'all for this. I am trying to come off a diet that touted itself as promoting "food freedom", but it is anything but the more I think about it. It totally restricts sugar and anything "sweet" must be made with stevia or another substitute, which honestly, leads to kinda gross desserts. You also can't combine "fuels" (fats and carbs) in the same meal if you want to lose weight. It's not especially hard, per se, but sometimes (several times a week, that is) I want to eat a piece of sourdough bread with butter. I can't go the rest of my life denying myself that! I hate that as a culture we have become so unhealthily obsessed with food. Myself definitely included.
The family of origin part could be a whole other side tangent. Very interesting.
But wow, y'all managed to cover a LOT of ground here, and I'll be referencing some of these tips and resources. We have not been great about creating or tracking with a food budget (aka: we haven't) but we recently realized we've been spending a tonnnnn in the last year or two. It's been a bit stressful trying to rethink how to approach our food buying, prepping, and eating.... in order to be better stewards of our money, habits, and bodies.
Great stuff in here, ladies, and thanks for making this collaboration happen!
If it feels overwhelming to start, it can really help to just start by making yourself keep track of everything you spend on food. Just keep all the receipts for a month and then see if you can see trends. And simply limiting the number of trips you take is so helpful! Just see if you can go 2 more days before the next grocery trip. Those two things, along with a meal plan go so far. Also, planning to make the meal plan based on what you already have on hand, and sale items vs. what you feel like eating, lol. And repetition is not a bad thing! I have to remind myself that the only person in our house who gets hired by making the same thing is me 😆. My boys do.not.care. Granted, we’re not foodies, but we do like good food. They just want it to taste good, and have plenty of it. My husband hates going to gourmet restaurants because he always leaves hungry, and my nine year old out eats many adults.
Recently, we looked at our budget and thought WHERE DOES OUR MONEY GO?? Food. We do a budget, make menus, shop according to lists, and try to limit impulse buys, but the little leftover goes to food. We like quality coffee and dark chocolate and good cheese and meats (traveling through Europe on the cheap as newlyweds ruined us). We buy cheaper cuts of pastured meat and try to get it in bulk when available. But percentagewise, our family of five eats more of our income than spending it in any other category--and that's spending only about $150 more than the USDA low-cost monthly amount. (Thanks for that link by the way! Very interesting. Have you found one tiered to locality? We live just outside one of the most expensive places in the US.)
It's just super, super expensive, is the long and short of it. You're not doing anything wrong.
I really have found that the "temporary groceries compromise while trying to pay for the car repair" is helpful when you can't do much to reduce your regular grocery expenses but you still need to find a little extra money somewhere. More meatless meals and more eggs and more pasta for 2 weeks to get to the next paycheck without using the credit card helps here and there!
Those are all good ideas! We have a lot of carnivores in the family who don't tolerate beans well, so more meatless doesn't work well, but more egg and cheese-based meals would. Also, we do make sourdough bread (the easy, feed the starter a few hours before setting up the bread and then storing it in the fridge otherwise) and have upped how much bread the kids are eating as the go-to snack since it's pretty cheap (and healthy) to make.
This is THE reason I learned how to make GF sourdough (and yeast bread too). I just needed something that was fairly cheap to fill people’s bellies. So lots of bread and butter and peanut butter toast around here.
Egg casserole for dinner! Or pancakes or waffles for dinner. I’ll serve smoothies with a protein powder, or we’ll do a side of meat, but the meat is not the main course and you can even make your own breakfast patties from whatever ground meat you have.
Oh yeah! We do smoothies and peanut butter--PB cures all ills. :)
We love a good quiche or breakfast casserole in the Dietz home, in terms of egg and cheese meals! And breakfast tacos as well. Both easy to throw some veggies, some carbs, some protein, some dairy... and scalable/flexible based on what we have around. (I'm "learning to like" beans myself, so I relate to this. My best friend uses lentils or beans to stretch her ground beef, and I'm hoping to give that a shot and see if I can taste a difference.)
Also, I often remind myself that while it sometimes feels wasteful to "eat my money", it's also not a waste to be providing growing bodies with good nutrition. We do the best we can, and try not to obsess, but it's so much easier to prevent major health issues through good stewardship of our bodies than it is to do damage control later.
Indeed, it is the opposite of wasteful to put your money toward nutritious, tasty foods!
Popping in to say that "Child of Mine" by Ellyn Satter is my go-to baby shower gift. Everyone reads all the books about pregnancy and sleep but then all of a sudden you have a six month old and you're like, "Solid food, maybe? But when? How much? How often?" She's just SO PRACTICAL, and I do love the division of responsibility. It was such a helpful guide to me when my twins were preemies and needed every calorie they could get but when I asked our pediatrician at their six month appointment about solids her only advice was, "Don't give them too many bananas, it'll make them constipated." . . . OK, noted? Got anything else? Full disclosure, my mother is an RD like Ellyn Satter so I am perhaps biased toward her approach because it best matches what I grew up with, but I do think it's very valuable.
I’ve never heard of this book, but I’ll be putting it on our TBR pile immediately! Sounds like a treasure!
Splendid conversation with wonderful - practical - insights! We are in a phase of food and family dynamics where growing teen boys are continuously on the hunt for more food, more protein, more of anything. When I am busy this means stocking frozen pizzas that they can throw in the oven for in between meals (yes, a whole pizza is now considered a snack); when I have time I bake a big batch of "pigs in a blanket" (quartered German sausage wrapped in bread dough), extra protein muffins, or their sister prepares them a batch of no-bake peanut butter-oat-dark chocolate protein bars. In order to keep costs down our menu is often dictated by what is on sale, and we buy things like oats, flour, nuts, etc in bulk from a local Mennonite store (it also helps that our older son now works at a butcher shop after school which provides employees a discount :) Thanks again for working together on this great series!
A whole pizza as a snack! You're making me shake in my boots, Ruth...and my 9-year-old son and his friends all already bragging to each other than they can eat half a pizza each.
Your pizza comment is such a good example of making reasonable compromises. Homemade pizza is probably somewhat healthier but when you accept frozen pizza, what you are actually doing is preventing countless spontaneous runs to Little Caesar's for a $9, even less healthy pizza! So you save money and you provide reasonable nutrition. I think that's so smart!
For similar reasons, I've begun keeping tater tots and frozen broccoli and corn dogs in the freezer, as i have found that having these on hand prevents me from spending $50-$60 (yes, it really costs that much for my family of 6 or 7!) for fast food on hard nights when I just cannot get myself to cook. We'd be eating junk foor either way, but this way it costs only about $12 (and we get the broccoli, to boot!).
We’ve been doing this lately with dumplings and eggrolls that I can toss in the oven or steam during naptime—when the alternative is not eating lunch at all (or eating, say, a handful of goldfish or Chex mix), it’s worth the comparative splurge.
Yes, the cost of eating out is astronomical, and I would rather buy a new pair of shoes or pants for them :) We will often make quick pizzas with naan bread and they have invented their own spectacular bacon-egg-deluxe bagels (which the youngest will happily prepare with great flair and even decorate with a little toothpick flag like in fancy restaurants). Teaching them to cook has definitely been very helpful, as I would otherwise spend more than half the day in the kitchen!
I need to get on this! I'm trying to have a "kitchen helper" and have them do things alongside me, but when the baby is also fussing and the toddler is whining I just need to do things FAST. Ha. Maybe a summer project...🤔
The toothpick flag! Your're raisin' 'em right, Ruth.
One time I found plastic toothpicks shaped like swords in the cocktail supplies section of the grocery store. They were a huge hit!
This is SO REAL! We took a date to IKEA a few weeks back, and happened to go on Friday (when the restaurant is 50% off) so it was dirt cheap ($7 for me, the toddler, and the baby)… and I swear our 2yo only ate the Swedish meatballs because of the tiny IKEA flag toothpicks.
I appreciate this article for several reasons. First is the bonding aspect of shared meals. This seems undervalued in our society today. I liked this: "Eating a limited diet is absolutely more expensive and sometimes this is so frustrating. But I also realize that I could pay for food that works well for our family, or I could pay for the consequences."
There is a wisdom to prioritizing food over home decor. You can have a museum quality cold house, or a warm home where families bond. I would think we don't often see the consequences of show over substance because they play out over years. In the end, what I remember from my youth, with a bright nostalgic joy, is Thanksgiving dinner. Not the plates, the setting, etc. The conversation and the communal joy of sitting as a family. That is what I remember.
What a beautiful insight, Mark. For so many people, food = warmth, because it is a way of caring for others and yourself. I loved the quote you pull out here: you either pay for food, or you pay for the consequences.
I thank y'all for this. I am trying to come off a diet that touted itself as promoting "food freedom", but it is anything but the more I think about it. It totally restricts sugar and anything "sweet" must be made with stevia or another substitute, which honestly, leads to kinda gross desserts. You also can't combine "fuels" (fats and carbs) in the same meal if you want to lose weight. It's not especially hard, per se, but sometimes (several times a week, that is) I want to eat a piece of sourdough bread with butter. I can't go the rest of my life denying myself that! I hate that as a culture we have become so unhealthily obsessed with food. Myself definitely included.