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Grocery Prices Oh, My!

Thanks to everyone who stopped  by and shared in the grocery pricing post. If you missed out- go here and check 'em out. It seems that the prices I pay are pretty low and of course, the good stuff, like organic and farm fresh always cost more $$ but I know its worth it! We don't have a source of raw milk around here and getting farm fresh eggs is hit and miss. [I've tried to talk my parents into getting chickens but so far its a no go and we aren't allowed here in town.] I make homemade bread here on the homestead for cheaper than I can buy it but we always like to have a couple of loaves in the freezer in case I get too busy to make any and Mr. Steady seems to prefer it for sandwiches. [I think what I really need it a bread machine that makes the long loaves. Mine makes them too tall for a good sandwich. But its a great size for toast!]
I figured the grocery prices would be across the board up and down and that definitely affects the food budget. We go through roughly 3 gallons of milk a week here and I'd croak if I had to pay $5/gallon! Oh, to think what that would do to my grocery budget- no more Oreos for the boys that's for sure!
Most of our other bills are fixed here so the grocery budget is about the only thing I can adjust as needed. And I have to say that even on our lean weeks I think we eat very well. In fact, I started breaking down the cost of our weekly menus in order to show Mr. Steady that we weren't "eating high on the hog." He was quite concerned that we were eating too well and spending too much. Sometimes when we sit down to a meal he will ask me what it costs and he gets such a grin on his face when I tell him!
The downside of this is that its even harder for us to go out to eat because we tend to think about how many meals we could make at home for the one meal we're sitting down to eating out! The cost of dining out seems horribly high when we can feed our little family of 5 for the cost of one (or less than one) meal out!
I remember when we were first dating and Mr. Steady and I would go to McDonalds for supper before a movie and we'd spend less than $8 for the two of us. Now to take out our family of 5 to McDonalds costs about $25. Yikes! That's half of my grocery budget for the week.
I guess I am a cheapskate! We actually found we were hardly ever eating out after I started planning our menus. Mr. Steady asked me to figure in a Take-out Nite (or sometimes dine-out) once a month in our menu plan and now we set aside an x amount for dining-out in an envelope (hold over from when we did the envelope system). We try to make eating out a special reward/treat for the family. We ate lunch out a couple of weeks ago when we decided to "go exploring" a local city's downtown area. The kids all were behaving so well and it was lunch time so Mr. Steady thought "Why not?" The kiddos thought it was the most wonderful, exciting experience. It reminded me of how special my parents made eating out- even at a fast food restaurant- just because we didn't do it often. If we took our children out to eat once a week or so it would not be anything special; it would be the norm.
I've never really wanted to be normal.

Frugal shopping

3:57 PM, 2007-Feb-6 .. Posted by kissesmomof4

My mother marvels over how well I can feed my family on very little money. Like you said it does take some planning though. It is great that your dh takes pride in how frugally you can make a meal, that is cool.

Ohhhh and the prices for eating out these days ARE mind boggling!!! The fast food joints are the worst and these are the places we go to the least. If we happen to be out at a meal time and go to one I usually just let everyone pick two dollar menu items for a snack until we get home and have another snack :/ My husband takes me out to dinner/gets take out once a week as a day off for me. It is nice but like you said it has become the norm and is not real special to anyone but me lol I kind of like being pampered by my dh ;)

Keep working hard on those menus and grocery bills!