Oh Wait, You Eat Too
I have two children, which most of you already know. My son is 4, and has been eating us out of house and home (yes, I know, it only gets worse from here 
) for a very long time. Longer than I’ve been writing this blog, so he’s always been a factor in my grocery budget here. My daughter, on the other hand, is not yet 2, and when I started this blog was not yet 1 and nursing was her major form of nutrition. She did eat solid foods, but I made them from the food we were eating and the volume of it was so insignificant compared to the whole, she barely added a dollar to our grocery bill a week.
Not anymore.
I’ve been going over the numbers again and again in our grocery budget. I’ve been shopping using the circulars to buy what’s on sale at the right time, I’ve been cutting coupons, carefully looking at our purchases and keeping impulse buys to a minimum, and yet, our grocery spending continues to go up. Part of that is the continual rise of grocery prices. I know that, and I’ve been tracking it. But it seemed like I was missing something else. And then it hit me. My daughter. She eats.
Not that she’s never eaten before, but over the past 4 or so months, she has certainly upped the volume she’s eaten considerably. Looking over my purchases in more detail for the past several months, I’ve been consistently buying a larger volume of food each week, almost all attributed to my daughter. She eats kid-sized snacks, she eats kid-sized portions of dinner, and realistically, we’ve gone from shopping for three to shopping for four.
Sometimes the answer is staring you right in the face, if only you can see it. Time to think a little more about the grocery budget.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 am
LOL when my son stopped nursing, I couldn’t believe how much he started to eat regular food. He often out eats both me and my daughter at meals.Our grocery budget went up a good $15/week for him.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
Wait til they hit the teen years…good grief! They can eat like horses! My teenage DAUGHTERS can eat more than my wife and me. And my son, who’s 9, is right on their heels. They brown bag their lunches at school, but by the time you figure in a sandwich, some chips, a piece of fruit, some snacks, a granola bar, and a drink of some sort, TIMES THREE, it gets expensive. Fortunately my wife is very frugal and has a knack for reducing school lunch costs. I couldn’t do it without her!
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
I have been thinking about how much kids eat. I don’t have any kids, you see… so I was wondering… when we do…will our grocery bills go up at all? I was thinking, nah, not possible, kids barely eat. but i guess I’ve got my answer now.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:10 am
My son, almost nine, eats more than I do. He’s like a bottomless pit…but I prefer to say he has a hollow leg. The left one. He can eat over 1/2 POUND of spaghetti in one sitting! AS we’re vegetarian, and rely on fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, I’m finding that my grocery bill has nearly doubled this summer!
I think we’re going to wander out to the produce distributer on the west side of the metro area today and stock up for the week! Use it before winter comes and they close it up!
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
You should definitely consider checking out your local farmer’s market. My wife and I have been doing our shopping there for a short while, and we’ve been able to buy all our produce at less than half the cost of the grocery store. The only drawback is that you can’t find items that aren’t in season, so you’ll still have to get those items from your grocer.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
For my two boys we buy allot of “filler foods” mostly in the form of snacks like popcorn. Then we do allot of cooking and stay away from the prepacked throw it in the microwave stuff. We cook allot of ground beef and store to mix with other foods over the next few days.
Preschool Costa Mesa
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Funny how that keeps happening
Good luck with the budget!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I’m due next week, and besides the fact that it’s healthy for the baby, one of the reasons I’m nursing is the financial impact of buying all that formula.
Maybe over the next year she’ll make up for her grocery costs by potty training and reducing the diaper budget
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Too funny- I could totally relate. My girls are 6 and 7 and still eat like birds when it comes to certain meals (they’re not big fans of meat on the grill, so those steak tips go a long way) but I am flabbergasted by the amount of dairy products our household consumes. And I love the title of your post.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I remember when I came to this realization when my son was about that age. It’s probably about time to up the budget due to the baby (who isn’t so much a baby anymore) eating more real food too.