Out Of Food

Let's talk about food and cooking and grocery shopping, shall we?

I went to Costco yesterday and spent $200 on food. And as I look over my meal plan for the week and think about school lunches and snacks.....I realize I will have to go back to the store before the end of the week.

(This was my freezer years ago....not today!!)

The most common phrase I hear towards the end of the week is "There's nothing to eat!" or "We're out of food!". Now that Andrew is eating mostly table food it seems like we go through so much food!

It's not like my kids even eat that much. They really don't. But they do eat a LOT of CERTAIN types of foods (ground beef, chips, cheese, apples, yogurt tubes, cereal, granola bars, etc). Yes, we go through a ton of snacks....and I would rather my kids eat less at snacktime and more at mealtime. But with baseball season upon us, that makes it hard.

 No matter how much food I buy, it just seems to vanish.

I bought a 12-pack of fig bars on Friday and it was gone by Sunday. A pound of ground beef is no longer enough to feed us all for dinner. A bag of chips or crackers will be opened and emptied in one after-school snack session. I made 24 mini-muffins yesterday and today there are only 5 left.

Keeping our house stocked with food is just one more thing that I'm starting to feel perpetually "behind" on. Back in the days of 1 or 2 kids, I was the freezer meal queen. I loved keeping our freezer stocked with delicious meals. See blog posts here:
http://nullybabyblog.blogspot.com/search?q=freezer

But here's the thing about freezer cooking. Yes, it saves time on the night when you eat the meal. But you still have to spend time up front cooking the food! And I am struggling to find the time for big-batch cooking. I'm thinking that doing smaller sessions of cooking may work for me. Like cooking up a bunch of taco meat and then freezing it into dinner-sized portions. I don't know.....the fact of the matter is that I have 6 people to feed multiple times a day, and it just takes a lot of time and money.

Speaking of money.....what is your food budget? I am always curious about how other people budget for groceries. My budget each month for a family of 6 is $800. But oh man, it is so hard to stay under that! And that number doesn't include household items like toiletries or diapers. Just food eaten at home.

Once a month I go to Costco and stock up on our favorite bulk items. It is rare that I get out of there for less than $200. Then once a week I go to either Safeway or Trader Joe's. I also go to Grocery Outlet maybe once a month. And then there is the occasional walking trip to Savemart for random fill-in items (it is literally around the corner from us). It all adds up really quickly!

So I guess my point is this. Food costs a lot of money. My family eats a lot. Its hard to keep our house stocked with food.

What is your grocery budget and how do you keep your kitchen stocked? Does your family complain there is nothing to eat? Do you do batch-cooking? Please share!