How do we afford groceries for 13 people?
The number 1 question I get asked when strangers find out we have 12 kids is how much is your grocery bill? That can be a somewhat complicated question. We regularly have get togethers at our house, so the grocery bill can be a little inflated then. Andy and I are also on the carnivore diet and the kids mostly follow it as well. So, we don’t have a lot of options at mealtimes.
First off, we don’t do major meal planning around here. I’m not what you’d call a super organized woman. Despite my best efforts I’ve never been good at being consistent with that. So, our grocery purchase remains pretty mundane, as we get almost the same things every week. Andy and I have a standing Costco ‘date’ every Friday afternoon.
We spend about $600 weekly at Costco. We don’t purchase any snack foods. The only snack type foods we purchase are berries, cheese sticks and Greek yogurt. You’d be amazed at how much you can save not purchasing snacks. Years ago I made the decision to go the no snack route. Yes, I will occasionally buy them, but not regularly. I found that my kids would overindulge on the carb and sugar filled snacks and then not eat the meal that I had made. I also hated finding all the snack wrappers EVERYWHERE! When I say everywhere I mean everywhere: under the bathroom sink, behind the toilet (WHY?), under dressers, under mattresses, in the laundry, lying next to the trash can. I felt the snacks were being wasted and only being eaten out of boredom.
Bonus to no snacks, my kids love getting junk food for birthdays and holidays. We have a relative that purchases bulk size cereal for each of my children at Christmas. My counters are COVERED in cereal boxes for a month, but it’s one of the kids’ favorite gifts.
Andy is the official chef of the house. He loves to cook, and I don’t. A few years ago, he purchased a Recteq smoker (review coming) and it has been life changing here. Many people would rather eat something Andy has put on the smoker than go to a restaurant. We eat lots of pulled pork, steaks, hamburgers, salmon, and brisket. We don’t typically do sides unless we have guests.
What do we get?
I’m sure the other curiosity is how much of different items do we purchase.
Fruit is always berries. We buy 2 packages each of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. We don’t buy veggies.
Meat is usually at least 8lbs of ground beef. We either buy chicken wings or salmon, and we always get steak of some sort. That’s more Andy’s department on answering.
Dairy is 4 gallons of milk, 1 carton of heavy whipping cream (lasts 2 weeks), 120 eggs and one of the giant packages of Kerry gold butter
Then we get hotdogs, cheese sticks, Greek yogurt, and 4 bags of frozen pork sausage (kids favorite for breakfast, and a package of bacon, which I believe is about 4lbs.
Our backup meal in case we are super busy or a kid doesn’t like what we are having is PBJ. We go through at last 1 jar of peanut butter, 1 jar of jelly and about 6 loaves of bread.
On average, to cut the long answer short, our grocery bill every month ranges $2,500-$3,000, which after doing the math, is $7.50 a person, per day. Honestly, not too shabby in this economy. These numbers also include regular Sunday gatherings after Mass, providing the main course for 3-5 families once a week! Again, not too shabby.
I hope in sharing this knowledge with friends, family, strangers, and whomever, it can inspire and bring hope for potential big families all over! I am always reassured in any moment that money is tight, when one of our vehicles breaks down, or some emergency pops up, that God will provide for His faithful servants.
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