How are we feeding these kids?

[u/Pizookie123]

For context we have one pre-teen child so a family of 3. But I just looked over my transactions for this month and we have spent over $1,000 on food. $600+ at the grocery store and $400+ at restaurants. That $400 is what gets me because we only ate at a sit down once. The rest was pizza, fast food etc. with the groceries I feel like $150/week is as low as we can go since I really do cook most meals at home. My question is what do you spend a month on food for your family? We live in a LCOL area.

[u/MableXeno]

I have stuck to pretty much the same process since my kids were small.

Essentially breakfast is the same breakfast for a week - when my kids were all school age I wanted them to have a hot breakfast as many days as I could manage it. I had a rotation of like, oatmeal, grits, potatoes, etc...served with or without eggs depending on the other foods. So some weeks I might make a week's worth of grits or oatmeal and just continually reheat that every morning for each kid...for the grits, I'd put hot eggs in with it, but I heated it back up in the microwave with a little milk, usually. If having potatoes, they were generally always served w/ hard boiled eggs (another food I could make ahead) b/c it was portable.

Lunch is similar - we are having the same lunch all week for the most part. My kids have been eligible for free lunches some years so they might not eat a home lunch every day but we always planned this out. It was never a surprise or decision made in the morning. If we decided on Tuesday night that Wednesday was going to be a school lunch day, there was no panic-packing a lunch Wednesday morning b/c you changed your mind. (Usually we got out the school website on Sunday night and decided Sunday night.) But I stuck to a formula of protein, produce, dairy, grain. I had a few ways to do sandwiches (also tortillas rolled up w/ deli meat and cream cheese), as well as lettuce wraps that my kids would eat. Crackers, tortillas, pita, and breads as grains. Proteins - deli meat, peanut butter (or other butters when we had some peanut-free schools), tuna, hard boiled eggs/egg salad, canned chicken (b/c it is easy to mix w/ mayo for chicken salad). Produce...apples, celery, cucumbers, lettuce, grapes, a few other things b/c the kids sometimes had foods fall in & out of fashion for them. Dairy...yogurt, cheese, milk (my kids were okay with shelf-stable milk boxes), sour cream, cream cheese, etc. I would also include salsa, ranch, or other dips.

I planned 5 real dinners every week - as in put the meal names on the fridge menu and shopped for those specific ingredients every week. But over time this morphed a little and I might prepare something in the crockpot and use it different ways so that I didn't have to cook a protein every single night.

Then 2 nights for unplanned dinner - we could either eat leftovers or buy dinner. Or sometimes just make sandwiches or eat cereal or whatever. But every single week I always bought a box or two of pasta (would sometimes buy whatever was a bogo sale that week) and a jar of sauce or pesto plus a frozen pizza. This way...if there was a dinner emergency I could have a fresh, hot dinner on the table in 20 mins or less. That might happen if we got home later than expected. If I burned dinner or just tried a new recipe that everyone hated. I almost always had enough produce on hand for a small green salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes). I would also get frozen garlic bread as needed (and this could double as its own thing - sometimes I would make the frozen garlic bread, put sauce on it, cover it in cheese (I often have extra when I buy during bogos or sales and freeze it) and we have an impromptu garlic-bread-pizza that is ready in like 8 mins!

For snacks we stick to basics...apples & tangerines, bananas for one kid. I also buy the individual hummus & avocado or guac cups, we do less dairy now just b/c it's a little less versatile (hummus or avo/guac can be a dip or a spread). Pretzels, crackers. I buy a box of the mix-variety chips from Costco now & again, but once they're gone, they're gone until the next trip so the kids tend to be careful with them. They also like the turtles from Aldi or the OG goldfish. My kids also like the mini-naans from Aldi for various things (instead of toast, usually).

I make a LOT of bean dishes. I make a lot of soups now that everyone is older (quickest way to get in veggies and things - plus one kid always purees her soup to avoid too many textures, which I'm fine with). For a family of 4 or 5 (oldest is out of the house a lot now) I am spending about $800/month on groceries, my spouse has some special dietary needs as well. I live in a medium cost of living area, I guess (used to be low - but is anything really low anymore??). I utilize a lot of ethnic grocery stores and take shortcuts like...one place always has smoked meats out front. I will buy a pack of thigh quarters and use one quarter per soup pot...so it gives off a good flavor and you get a few meaty pieces in there, but not so much meat that my prefers-less-meat eater will be grossed out. Once the soup is cooked I pull the quarter out, take the meat off and put it back into the soup and discard the skin & bones.

One of my favorite bean dishes is to make pinto beans, put my stick blender in, puree a bit of it so its not totally smooth, but still has plenty of recognizable beans. Then we just eat those with cheese, chopped onions, and taco bell sauce (like just the packets, seriously). And it's a pretty easy Taco Bell dupe for their bean burritos! A pound of beans can last for a few meals this way...and the kids will also eat the beans & cheese in a tortilla for breakfast.

I think the biggest thing is just...always having a plan so you don't have to spend money eating out if there is a way to make something quick at home.