Budgeting for Nutrition

I didn’t fully realize the tremendous monthly expense for food until after a few years of marriage and especially after our kids became teenagers! Whether eating out or buying groceries, food is a significant outlay for American families.  

Unfortunately there are many families in our nation struggling to meet nutritional needs. I mentioned it briefly in last week’s blog, donating to local food banks is an excellent way to give back and invest in others. It is hard to understand how in one of the wealthiest nations on earth hunger is still a challenge many face.  

I suggest in my book Millionaire on a Worker’s Budget that a key financial truth to stretch income as far as possible is frugality. As it pertains to nutrition, this means watching the food bill each month very carefully in order to have enough left over for investing.

How can we meet our family’s nutritional needs yet still save a buck to invest? First, it is simply impossible if we eat out all the time. Also, the other comfort food purchases such as fast food, snacks and coffees must be kept in check or avoided all together.

Second, and most importantly, we’ve got to eat at home just about every meal and carry our lunch to work / school. Groceries aren’t as affordable as they used to be. Nowadays it seems inflation is gripping the price of food along with everything else. I’ve been surprised over the past several months every time I head to the store. 

Despite the rising prices, I think a decent starting point for budgeting food cost is around $10 per person per day or around $1200 a month for a family of four. Obviously each family is different, actual budgets may be higher or lower, just offering the starting point our family uses.    

$10 per person accounts for consuming the majority of meals at home with perhaps only one or two meals per month eaten out. The grocery list certainly might not be gourmet or organic provisions, but enough each day for nutritious sustenance.

Every family’s circumstance and nutritional needs are different. If you’ve got a house full of high school athletes, $10 per person per day may be a challenge for even the most price conscious grocery shopper! Again it’s just a starting point.

Getting to this level of food budgeting takes good shopping skills and also some reasonable skills in the kitchen. The frugal minded person must learn to reduce waste when cooking and love leftovers!

Let me offer a few examples. Spaghetti with meat (or vegetarian) sauce is one of the easiest go-to meals to prepare. An 8oz package of pasta is still around $1 and 1 lb. of lean ground beef is around $5. Sauce, an onion, maybe some chopped mushrooms would be another $4.

A vegetable on the side (we’ll go with chopped lettuce) for $1 and half loaf of French bread ($1) and you’ve got a balanced dinner for two at $12 with enough for leftovers in the next day’s lunch.

That’s two meals for two people for $12! Same holds true for breakfast. The price of eggs, milk and bread while rising, are still reasonably affordable. A nutritious breakfast for two of French toast is around $3. Double the above numbers for a family of four.

Our kids quit eating school lunches a while back and prefer the sandwiches mom makes. She makes a pretty mean sandwich, but I think it is also the personal touch my kids enjoy rather than the lunch offerings found at school.

If a coffee addict (like I am), bring a coffee maker to work and brew your own or, if not permissible, bring a large thermos of home brewed. This will save hundreds over ducking around the corner to the coffee shop and forking out $5 for a latte special every day.

If you are thinking “I can’t cook” and “I hate leftovers” then I recommend learning! Avoid gravitating towards processed foods such as frozen meals, lasagnas or “chicken” nuggets. These will do in a pinch but run up a grocery bill in the long run and are chocked full of unhealthy ingredients.

Our weekly grocery shopping is very simple and includes a variety of dairy, proteins, starches, fruits and vegetables (preferably fresh). Simple meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner at a reasonable expense.

Thankfully, we don’t snack a lot and we don’t drink sodas.  We do occasionally indulge a craving and will add a gallon of ice cream, bag of chips or cookies to the grocery list. I believe we probably eat healthier than many as we consume very little processed foods.

The trick to preparing tasty simple meals comes in learning the seasonings, sauces and preparation methods that add flavors the family enjoys. We always keep olive oil and butter (or margarine) on hand.  We will stock up at the “big box” store when our favorite seasonings and sauces are on sale.

Pretty soon, those $12 meals start to taste a lot more gourmet! Over the years, we’ve actually found we prefer our home cooking too much of the overly processed and sodium packed chain restaurant offerings.

I am not saying don’t ever go out to eat, we have to treat ourselves once in a while, but do so in moderation. We’ve found when we do go out to eat, we appreciate it more!

Lastly, fast food is the antithesis of budget minded nutrition. I used to suck down a lot of combo meals when younger. And now I take medication to keep my cholesterol in check!

The $7 value combo meal at the burger world adds up quickly if eaten 3 or 4 times a week and most likely takes some years off a life! We try to avoid fast food as much as possible.

It is unfortunate but food is an expensive part of our lives and therefore takes some serious budgeting attention to stretch each hard earned dollar as far is it can go. Make a conscious decision to shop wisely, eat at home and carry lunch to work or school every day.

Not only will this free up more money to invest, it can also lead to a healthier lifestyle which saves money down the road on health care costs!

 If you’re interested to learn more about financial truths that helped guide my family’s finances, check out my new book “Millionaire on a Worker’s Budget: Five Financial Truths to Build Wealth” on sale at Amazon!

The commentary provided in this blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a source of financial or investing advice.