[Barbara]

Why hire a maid to prepare food? You can prepare a whole meal from raw (and healthy...) ingredients in just 20 minutes.
How? Ask my hubby: he does it every day!!!
(Aren't these italians well trained? Wife is too busy to watch the evening news to cook any dinner!!!)

[BiGG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Barbara', 'W')hy hire a maid to prepare food? You can prepare a whole meal from raw (and healthy...) ingredients in just 20 minutes.

[eric_b]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', 'O')K, last year we spent $1136 per month on average for five people. Not sure that the people count is accurate though, there are plenty of other teenagers browsing my pantry on a daily basis, sometimes I don't even know their names.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

I spend $450 for four people. One pre-teen boy and twin 9yr old girls who still haven't stopped eating since their last growth spurt. Two of us are hypoglycemic so I have to stuff something in her mouth ever two- three hours.

[madison]

I spend about $50/week for myself and my two year old.

Plus $30 - 45 in diapers per month. I buy bulk toiletpaper, huge containers of shampoo etc to save money now that I have room! We use cloth diapers at home, too. Every little bit of savings helps.

And each shopping trip, I buy a Peak Oil "extra", something little, like a packet of seeds or a 12-set of canning lids - say that add's on another $10 per month!~

[I_Like_Plants]

I'd consider a "baseline" to be $10 a day for me, that makes $300 a month, but I'm spending more than that, I'd estimate maybe $400-$500 a month? I'm car-free now and if past experiences are any guide, being my own transport through leg and bike power won't increase food spending, if anything, decrease it a bit.

[linlithgowoil]

We usually have 2 trips per month to ASDA – (i.e walmart ASDA). Each trip we usually spent about £80 at most, so there is £160 per month (about $290).

But we also spent about £30 a week on fresh stuff too on average, so that’s about £120 a month also – giving a total of about £280 per month (about $520).

This is for me, my wife, our 2 year old son and our 1 year old son and includes everything – household cleaning stuff, bathroom stuff, food, etc.

The costs have increased recently for fresh foods, whilst as usual, all the stuff that is extremely bad for you just gets cheaper and cheaper. If I chose to eat only 100 organic healthy stuff, our food bill would likely double. So – we sort off have a mixed diet of nice fresh vegetables, but also some cheaper frozen foods and tinned foods. We always get lots of fruit and veg though – very important.

My guilty pleasure each week is beer though. 24 cans of tennents lager per weekend usually, which at present is on sale for £9.99, but the usual price is about £13. So that’s about £50 odd a month on booze. My wife doesn’t drink or smoke and I don’t smoke either, so that’s not too bad.