Thrifty Food Plan: 2 weeks in

As previously discussed, we're tracking our grocery spending this month to see how hard it is for us to stay within the limits of USDA's Thrifty Food Plan, which allows up to $434.40 per month for a family of our size.

For the record, I don't think this gives us a real feel for what it's like to be poor, any more than making teenagers carry around an egg or a sack of flour for a month gives them real insight into what it's like to be a parent.  I know that it makes a huge difference not to really have to worry that my kids are going to go hungry if I don't leave enough money for the last week.  But it's a useful consciousness raising exercise.

When I last updated, we had spent $112.38 on food.  This week we've mostly been doing quick grocery runs when we're running out of food, and haven't really done meal planning.  Friday I spent $8.90 on milk, bread, eggs and tea at Trader Joe's.  Monday, I went to Giant, and spent $23.90 on rolls, bread, cheese, milk, eggs, butter, spinach, graham crackers, grape juice, and ice cream.  Today, we spent $22.95 on milk, chicken and veggies for stir fry, flour, cake mix (D's birthday is next week and the party is Sunday), and chocolate and marshmallows (D talked us into making s'mores).  So, our current total is $163.24, or $182.62 if we include the cat food and laundry detergent (which are pretty much necessities, but are not legitimate uses of food stamps).  Not too bad for halfway.  Except that I also went out to dinner with friends on Sunday, and then we bought part of our lunch on Monday, and I bought lunch at work on Tuesday.  So add another $28.25 to the total, for $210.87, just barely under half the budget.

A few comments about some of the choices that we've made this week.

• Mostly, we're eating the way we normally do, although with slightly less prepared foods.  I've made muffins and coffee cake from scratch, but that's something I do semi-regularly in any case.
• We're eating more eggs than usual, but some of that is because we've just discovered that the 15 month old adores them, and once we're scrambling them for him, it's easy to make them for us too. 
• I've been stunned at how much variation there is in the price of milk across stores.  The least we've paid for a gallon of milk is $2.35 at Shoppers Food Warehouse (cheaper than Costco); the most we've paid is $3.99 (at Giant).  I also don't understand why 2% milk is so much cheaper than whole milk. This is likely to affect our shopping patterns even after the month is over. 
• Monday, I was shopping with D and I let him convince me to buy ice cream, since Breyer's was on sale for $2.50 for a half gallon.  But when we got through the checkout lane, I saw that I had been charged the full price for it.  I went to the manager, who told me that only some flavors were on sale.  I returned the half gallon I had been charged $5.29 for, and would have left the store, but D was saying "you said we could get ice cream" and was about to burst into tears.  So we got a package of the other flavor, got back on line, and got it.  I probably wouldn't have bothered if I weren't watching the budget -- at least not with D in tow.

The most basic insight I've had is about how much of a privilege it is to be able to shop and not pay attention to the total cost of what's in your cart.  I've never been one to shop for anything without paying attention to the price -- I scrutinize unit price labels with the best of them -- but if I'm confident that each individual item is a reasonable buy, I generally don't worry about what the total is going to be.  That's had to change this month.

Unfortunately, it's no longer available for free on the New York Times website, but last summer, Adrian Nichole LeBlanc, author of Random Family (reviewed here), had a fascinating article in the magazine section about grocery shopping and attitudes towards money.  She wrote:

"That afternoon, I was trailing my book's main subject, Lolli, as she bought the month's groceries. She was a teenager, pregnant, homeless and already the mother of two children. Her young family subsisted on food stamps and vouchers from the federal subsidy program, WIC. The shield of my judgment rose when she passed right by the C-Town weekly discount flier and made her way down the dirty aisles with her shopping cart. She just grabbed things -- packs of chicken legs and pork chops, bags of sugar and rice, bottles of vegetable oil; in went cans of beans and tins of Spam. I stood, stunned, as she reached for the individual-portion cartons of juice -- with their brightly colored miniature straws -- ignoring the larger, economy-size bottles. No calculation of unit price, no can'ts or shoulds or ought-not-to's, no keen eye to the comparative ounce. By the time her stuffed cart reached the checkout line, my unease was turning into anger. Didn't she know she was poor?"

LeBlanc notes that one of the emotions fueling her anger was envy -- neither she nor her parents had ever shopped that way, as they had scrimped and squeezed the grocery budget in order to save for college.  But she also acknowledges that it's hard to imagine that any amount of scrimping was going to bring Lolli and her family a noticably better future.

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Next update here.

Comments

[amy]

My God, that sounds like an enormous amount of money for groceries. $434 for a family of four? That's thrifty? Look, our grocery budget is $250/month for two adults and a toddler, and that has to include cleaning supplies, which at this point are mostly eco-friendly things. We manage to eat nearly all organic, mostly-local produce/meat/dairy/herbs/grains on that budget, and aren't particularly careful about what we buy, but there's a lot of bulk items and not much packaged. Yes, I bake; yes, we cook, but not every day. There's lots of soups/stews and breads (tonight it'll be fish chowder, baguettes, nice cheese, and baby greens, plus challah and non-Manischewitz wine); mueslis for breakfast; pasta with meat sauces; casseroles....We don't buy much junk food, though. Bulk animal crackers; bags of chocolate chips...OK, I'm having trouble thinking of what else. I make enormous batches of oatmeal-raisin and butter cookies & freeze most of the dough....I don't think that's generally in our grocery budget. If we want junk food, we pay for it ourselves out of our own, non-family money. I buy gum and chocolate, mostly.

Man. Maybe the food prices are a function of where you live, I don't know, but that $434/mo sounds like a tremendous budget to me.

[Lauren]

I easily spend $400 a month for just my son and I, but I pay for every single meal and have to get some pre-made stuff to save myself some time. Inbetween working, schooling, cleaning, laundering, and everything else, I'd like to get out of the kitchen every now and again. The money is sacrificed for my time. It's just me and the little one, but I also live in an affluent community and know our food prices are higher than some surrounding areas. If I travelled forty minutes north, I could shop for the same things, in the same grocery chain, for probably half the money.

Ouch.

[Peyton]

I agree, we'd be hard pressed to spend only $434/mo. on groceries for my husband, baby daughter, and me. Of course, her formula (yes, I know breast is best, but I work full time and go to law school) is $100/mo. And we shop at Harris Teeter... OK, maybe we could cut it down. But honestly, with our insane two-working-parent and one-student household, I like going to the nearest store, throwing what we need in the cart, and getting on our way!

[Z*lda]

Sounds like you've set yourself a good challenge. Grocery stores carry so much these days that what NOT to buy can be a real test of character. I agree that it's cost-saving to avoid the pre-made foods. Historically ethnic menus tend to be the cheapest. Potatoes, rice, [fry]bread, there's a reason those foods endured.... Good luck on this venture.

[PGCist]

Aldi (Langley Park), Sav-a-lot (Bowie, Oxon Hill, District Heights) , Murry's (Bladensburg, Forestville), Weis (Laurel), Ollie's (Glen Burnie, Brooklyn) & Greenbelt Co-Op (Greenbelt) are MUCH more value-oriented than Giant & Trader Joe's. You could save a couple bucks by going to these places instead. Be careful to lock you car doors in the parking lot and prepare to see Independence cards used at the checkout. These stores probably don't carry fair trade coffee beans & organic apricots either ;-).

Last year, I had a self-imposed budget of $90/mo for groceries (2 adults). I met it every time by going to these stores. This included a healthy breakfast, brownbag lunch and a home cooked dinner everyday. Weis & Murry's are my favorites - both have equal or better prices than Shopper's Food Warehouse too.

[Rebecca]

I am not a parent nor do I buy most of my groceries (I am a lucky little 22 year old girl living at home after undergrad while I work and save for law school which I'll be going back to in August) but that budget sounds ridiculous. Even though I'm living at home right now I have supported myself financially since high school. I have lived on my own, paying for rent, food, car issues (gas, etc), utilities, school loan payments, yadda and yadda. I still buy my own lunch foods and any "specialty" foods I want here at home - my parents help me out with savings by buying things we ALL like to eat and making big meals - it's only us 3 right now so I'm not really adding to their groceries too much...and even knowing that I still feel bad when they ask if I want things when they grocery shop. I'll ask them to buy me yogurts or cereals if they're on sale. The point of all this babble is that even with them contributing I still go buy my own fixings and prepared foods for lunches and I go about every two weeks and usually wind up spending $100. So that's $200 a month for ONE PERSON, without counting the parental contribution. And I'm not going over-board or anything or shopping somewhere expensive. I eat a LOT, I have low blood sugar issues (like the opposite of diabetes) and stomach problems, so I stock up on crackers, string cheeses, veggies, fruits, pastas, cereals. I get as much "unpackaged" things as I can because I know that packaged foods you're really paying for the package. But being an on-the-go working 11 hours a day type I have to buy SOME things for work that are packaged. Even still I try to buy in bulk, getting packages of snacks for $.25 a package...that sorta thing. Much cheapier than vending machines. I consider myself a frugal and careful with money type, but I am hard pressed to stay under $200 a month just by MYSELF trying to eat a healthy and filling breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner! Sheesh - maybe I should track my spending and cut myself down ;)

I talk to much, I'm just really impressed by your tracking and efforts and think it's a really interesting way to see what exactly "welfare" in this country is like...I'll be watching ya' ;)