Food Budgeting

"Budget" is the equivalent of a four letter word in our house.  Food budgets, in particular...you just go wash your mouth out with soap!  No, really.  I typically don't function on a food budget, but only because my husband and I (we will celebrate our 13th anniversary tomorrow, as a matter of fact) decided a long time ago that we would never, ever fight about spending money on food.  (Don't worry.  There is plenty of other stuff that we each spend money on that we disagree about.  If you know me personally, you know that my husband is a "collector" of "things" that "don't belong in either this hemisphere or in my house".) 

Despite my lack of a true "food budget", I do typically go to the store with savings in mind.  I clip coupons and I try to pay attention to those "daily deals" that the grocery store offers (buy this and get something else I would already have bought for free).  I am also planning to, today as a matter of fact, join a "buying club" that will hopefully allow me to purchase certain items (paper products, organic meats, etc.) in bulk, perhaps saving us a little more money.  I have just been feeling lately that we are spending massive amounts of money on food and I know I am not the only one.  Food prices are going up and as my children grow, so do their appetites.  My oldest daughter eats constantly (or so it would seem) and my son is literally going to eat us out of house and home by the time he is a teenager.  (Also, he eats fruits and vegetables like a fiend - not that I am complaining, mind you.  The girls will at least eat a fair amount of meat, but having a pseudo-vegetarian for a toddler is freaking expensive.)

I decided that the "buying club" place would be a good choice for us, in that I have also gotten pickier about the types of foods that I am willing to buy at the grocery store.  I have been buying organic meats (when I can find them at my local store) and the selection there definitely leaves something to be desired.  I decided that, in any given month, I am going to shoot for 50% of our meals being anchored by a meat dish of some kind and 50% of our meals will be vegetarian (or primarily vegetarian because I can think of a number of recipes right now that are vegetable based, but call for a small amount of pork products of one kind or another....bacon, pancetta, salt pork, etc.).  Planning for approximately 15 meals per month, I feel like I can go to the "buying club" store and purchase a 1/3 red meat, 1/3 chicken breasts and 1/3 chicken thighs with some fish (because my son can eat that now, yay!) thrown in.  (We are doing a shrimp food challenge the day after Memorial Day, so my fingers are crossed that we might be able to eat shrimp again after that.)  We will see if that kind of plan saves us any money, but at the very least, I should be able to find a wider selection of organic meats at this new store. 

So, we remain omnivores and I am unsure how this change will affect my "budget", but regardless, I am going to have to split my grocery shopping loyalties from now on.