The average American family spends somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 a week on groceries! That's $13,000 a year! This figure comes from various internet sources ranging from $165 to $346. This works out to be about $50 per week per person. In a way, that's not too bad because it's only $7.14 a day per person. But for a family of four earning $45,000 a year that 's over 30% of take home pay. Add to that sky rocketing energy prices, medical costs and housing and it's not a pretty sight. For the last 20 years most of us have turned to credit of one kind or another to pay for all the other stuff we want and need. But now that avenue has come to a screeching halt with the subprime mortgage mess. Many of us have to face the reality that we must attempt to live within our means. Meaning that we cannot spend money we don't actually have. That is a tough pill to swallow when we feel that it's in some way a basic human right to have the latest, greatest stuff. We are addicted to things and it's going to be painful to walk out of Target or Costco with only what we absolutely need.
We are a family of five (two adult and there children aged 16, 13 and 11). I was downsized seven years ago from a good paying corporate position after 18 years. I started a small business (a photography studio) but have never been able to pay myself what I was earning at my job in 1999. So every year I've taken a cut in pay and now earn less than 50% of what I was earning then! Add to that the alarming cost of individual health insurance over $650 a month plus over $200 a month in prescription drugs (don't get me started) and you can see that making ends meet has become a serious part of every waking hour.
About 15 years ago I picked up a book about whole foods. It was "American Wholefoods Cuisine" by David and Nicky Goldbeck and it changed the way I look at eating. The basic philosophy was that you should always choose foods that are closest to what they looked like when they were in their natural state. This is the least expensive and the healthiest way to buy food. The trade off is that it is more time consuming to prepare and it takes more cooking skill. The other basic principle was that grocery stores generallly put most of the whole foods around the store periphery. Think about your grocery store. The fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, dairy products and store produced baked goods are almost always along the edges of the building. Most of the products in the middle of the store are in some sort of more elaborate packaging. These products usually are more expensive and contain saturated fats, coloring, salt and additives that you don't need. Choose your canned and packaged foods carefully. Read the label. If it has colorful cartoon characters or scantilly clad women on it you don't need to buy it. The things you do need are the following: plain oatmeal (in the big round container), pasta, rice, spices (but really expensive to get in grocery stores, so best to find elsewhere), oils (mostly olive and canola), flour, tea, nuts (raw walnuts and almonds) dried and canned beans (pinto, black, northern, navy, garbonzo, etc. ). The things you don't need are any meat in stick form, any food that is flourscent orange, any beverage that claims that it will cure disease, help you lose 50 lbs or give you more energy (coffee doesn't count), any cereal that has a fairy or kitten as a spokeman and any cheese that you spray.
Next post will be about Starches.
By the way, my goal is to feed my family for approximatly $100 per week. That does not include toilet paper and dog food.
