We spent how much on food?!

There was some drama on the farm this morning.  I looked at the bank account and added up all the money that had been spent at grocery stores in the month of June.  $840.  The month is not over yet!  Holy &*%$!  The farmer says that cannot be right and does the math himself.  $737.  One charge from Walmart - he went there, I didn't - was not for food.  Add to this, the $565 we spent on our CSA share for the season.  $1,300 spent on food in a month.  *thud*

We agreed that this is too much.  He shops too often.  We need to limit it to once a week with an agreed upon list.   The more you visit a grocery store, the more you will spend.  One of the secrets of saving money is to stay out of the darn stores.

So then I start wondering what is reasonable?  Google is my friend and pulls up one of my favorite sites:  The Simple Dollar. 

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/09/01/whats-an-appropriate-home-food-budget-for-a-family-of-four/ 

That was back in 2008.  What about now?

 The USDA still has a calculator.  Updated March 2010

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2010/CostofFoodMar10.pdf#xml=http://65.216.150.153/texis/search/pdfhi.txt?query=cost+of+food+at+home+2010&pr=CNPP&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=500&rdfreq=500&rwfreq=500&rlead=500&rdepth=0&sufs=2&order=r&mode=&opts=&cq=&sr=&id=4c228ebfea

For our family of three, with two adults and one child, the grocery budget numbers look like this:

Thrifty: $443     

Low cost: $575    

Moderate cost: $713    

Liberal cost: $876

Wow.  I really thought that we could eat well on about $400.  I guess I owe the farmer an apology.