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Curious what the average is in general , include your household size..
it also depends on were you live.
were i live, just me and my husband, we could spend over a hundred a week.
But after doing shabbos shopping, you could add at least another fifty.My family of six spends about $165 per week. Not including Yomim Tovim. But then again, we shop at KRM Supermarket (lowest prices).
if u include all food takeout, bakery… a family of 6 kids 500 is the lower end – and it goes up & up
I would concur with the ranges given in the last two posts. I would even say it’s a bit more here in Chicago where we have food taxes which, if I understand correctly, they don’t have a New Jersey. Don’t know about New York. That definitely adds up when you’re talking about hundreds of dollars worth of food
Oh, also our school lunches are very expensive so we buy food for the kids to take to school. If you don’t have that expense I would assume it could make a dent and things
We’re a family of four and we spend 150 a week
Syag: Yeshiva school lunches is optional?
Why wouldn’t they be? It’s alot of money to throw out the window and then also pay for stiff to send
In NY as far as all the many Yeshivos I know, they all provide lunch to all students. There’s no system or checking whether they’re enrolled in lunch. The same lunch is made available to all students regardless.
You can get a general idea by looking up the maximum amount of food stamps available (i.e. to those with zero income) based on family size and whichever state.
Its a NYC law now that all kids get free lunches, it was because the kids who really needed it refused to take because of stigma, so they just gave to all students as the cost wasnt that much higher
I cannot belive people spend $150 a week for a family of 4., It has to be alot higher epsecially if you shop in jewish supermarkers (as opposed to regular supermarkers like Stop and Shop or Trader Joes)
The answers here are hilarious.
I don’t believe for one second that any Jewish family has only $150 a week and grocery bills. Not in this country.
I’d wager at 400$ for my family of k”h six. Tack on another 100 for shabbos, 150 for yomtov.
And “groceries” is a big word. I’m just referring to actual food in my numbers.
AJ: You spend $400 per week for a family of six children plus two adults?
Family of 7. About $400- $500 per week, shabbos alone is a good $200
Zdad,
We don’t have meat every day and this doesn’t include school lunch
@Joseph. In ours sons school they are all covered for lunches, they dont check. In our daughters school they are very strict you need to pay for lunches about 600 per child
excl: The girls will be refused lunch in school if the parents hadn’t paid?
xcel……if you spend $200 for Shabbos for a family of 7, that leaves $200 for the other 6 days or approximately 35/day for the family or $5/day per kid. I suspect you are either terrible at math or at risk of a visit from child protective services for child abuse. NYC spends about $8/day for food for its juvenile detention facilities.
Yerushalayim, family of 7, bli ayin hara. We spend about $650 per week on groceries
If your family is a heavy meat eater or a frequent Pomegranate/Gourmet Glatt/Breadberry shopper, it may explain some of the heavy spending described here.
Let’s talk numbers of possibility
Family of six children
Two Dozen eggs $2
Bottle milk $2.40
Cream cheese $4
Two boxes macaroni (constantly on sale at shop rite) $1.76
Total $10.16 and you’ve fed your family amply. Times five days $50.80 for the week
You can add whatever you want to this basic.
Brick of cheese $14
Bottle ketchup $3
Three orange juice $9
2 Family packs of chicken bottoms $24
Package of hot dogs $10
Fruits and vegetables $50
Total $160.80
Without shabbos.
Why is $150 so hard to be true for a family of four children?Monsey are family of 10 we spend 300-350 but technically could do a little less if necessary
I left out by accident
Three -2 pound loaves of bread (more than enough for a week)
So add another $10 to my list
Making the basic cost $60
Take off a family pack of chicken and you are still at the 150-160$ a week rangeI take back my earlier vote. It was at least $500. But thats probably not coumting all the return trips to the store for all the things you didnt buy in that weekly shopping.
@Joseph, I’m unsure if the school would actually go after far as to refuse a child lunch…I would hope not. However yes they are very strict and the kids know it. They watch and will bill you by the day if you dont sign up for school lunch. Personally we pay for school lunch, but at times the forms wernt sent in right away … the kids are aware which shouldn’t be the case
We figure $100 per adult per week for groceries. That means food only, No paper goods, cleaning supplies or other things you might pick up at the supermarket while shopping. We figure about $75 per child under Bar/Bat Mitzvah age when they spend vacations and the summer with us. This includes non-alcoholic beverages.
We buy no prepared foods and cook from scratch. We also live in a country like setting that affords us a large garden where we grow fruits and vegetables. We do can/freeze/pickle our harvest.
I think kluger yid forgot about shabbos
Thinking clearly
Your not reading clearly
(sorry don’t mean it nasty but too juicy to pass up)
I wrote in my post
“Without shabbos”Shabbos is tricky.
There is a huge discrepancy if you make or buy
Here goes, for home made
Challa, five pound of flour plus ingredients $5
Wine $5
Soda? $5
Loaf gefilta fish $8
Family pack chicken $15 (bigger pack for shabbos includes two pieces for soup )
Soup veggies $3
Home made cake $3-5
Shabbos day
Liver $8
Cold cuts (huge range) prepacked variety $15
Cholent meat $5
Rest of cholent $5
“Shalishudis”
Can Of tuna $2
Eggs $1
Dips $6Total $88
Of course the sky is the limit and beyond
I’m just showing it can be done, and I tried to be generous.
Even in this list there is plenty to cut if one needed to do so and still feed everyone to be full.
I’m using Brooklyn average shopping pricesWhat about spices, condiments, oil, drinks other than soda (in some places tap water is barely drinkable if drinkable at all, fruits and veggies for salads, nuts and other snacks, dessert, spreads for challah, coffee, cereal, etc.
Some people calculated 1 egg per adult for breakfast but it’s not enough. We eat 2, plus 2 slices of toast, plus veggies and fruit. We make it ourselves but I’m assuming it comes out to over $5 per person per meal, which is 60 just for breakfast for the week just for the adults. And so on.
I can go on and on but we spend way more than 400 a week for a family of 4, if you’re including pantry staples. Maybe were just bigger eaters than you all.
I live in Israel so we have guests frequently for the meals and yeshiva boys can eat a lot!!
Our biggest expense is probably produce because its the only way to keep healthy without needing specialty items.
@interjection
Everyone has different eating habits.
There is no typical FRUM family.
You write of the typical Israeli breakfast which is quite different than the American.I start the day with a cup of coffee and a toasted bread item with margarine (not fond of butter) cost less than $1, Mrs. CTL has a yogurt and a small glass of juice which costs about $2.00. Our grandchildren are apt to have a bowl of cold cereal with milk or a toasted waffle and juice. They grab a piece of fresh fruit to eat on the way to school. Eggs for breakfast tends to be a Sunday morning thing in our family
I assume we eat more meat than you do for lunch and suppers. In season we grow our own vegetables. Right now the apple tree by our swimming pool is yielding a bountiful harvest for eating, baking and canning apple sauce (for Chanuka latkes).
CTL, do you still serve rib steak as many times a week as when my family was at the compound?
Interjection
I didn’t forget
I personally spend way more than that
I was showing that it can be done as some posters claim it is an impossibility.CTlawyer
What type of apples?@KLUGERYID. your expenses are not accurate. You cant buy chulent meat for $5. Soup vegetables do not cost $3 lol!. Your numbers are way off.
I suspect that with really careful shopping (lots of Costco visits) and batch cooking, it would still be possible to feed a family of 6 or 7 for a month with a minimally sufficient nutritional diet on $500 but it would take lots of time from a talented “chef” to provide diversity, visually attractive and tasteful meals. I also realize that this may not be a matter of “choice” for many frum families so kol hakovod to those who manage well on limited means.
Reb Yosef: You were probably focused on your usual heilege endavors and missed the news several weeks ago when the Democratic controlled state legislature in Connecticut enacted new laws mandating a transition to vegetarian diets in the state by 2025 to help combat global warming (given that the red meat food cycle and bovine emissions are known to be one of the primary sources of methane). The law provided a narrow exemption for yidden for a de minimis Shabbos portion of fleishto satisfy Halacha and minhagim. CT Lawyer was one of the first to sign the pledge and commit to achieve compliance with the new statute and has banned steaks from his Connecticut estate (although he might indulge periodically visiting misphaca in Brooklyn). From now on its only tofu chulent and Impossible Burgers.
Excl
Why on earth not?
You can buy a pack of “cholent meat ” for ten dollars. Use half. Remember we are seeing if it’s possible
You can also put in a bag of beef bones, available for two dollars to give more flavor
Soup veg. ????
One onion one carrot a zucchini and a parsnip cost more that $3??
Are you shopping in “the orchard ” ???@Joseph
If it is just myself and Mrs. CTL, no. She is not very fond of beef. In the summer I order a couple of half cows and cut them down myself and re grill lots of rib and other steaks for the family and chashuva guests such as your family.
What is expensive is the fact that I introduced your daughter to lollipop lamb rib chops two summers ago.@Klugeryid
We have a huge MacIntosh apple tree, and two smaller trees, one that is McCoun and one Winesap. They are about 75-80 years old. Our home was built in 1803 as a farmhouse and the neighborhood carved out of the land.
There is still a berry patch with raspberry and blackberry bushes in the rear of the property. Sometimes we get the fruit, sometimes the deer eats them.Klugeryid: Let me try to figure out who and what you are feeding.
Let’s talk numbers of possibility
Family of six children
Two Dozen eggs $2
Bottle milk $2.40
Cream cheese $4
Two boxes macaroni (constantly on sale at shop rite) $1.76
Total $10.16 and you’ve fed your family amply. Times five days $50.80 for the week
You can add whatever you want to this basic.
Brick of cheese $14
Bottle ketchup $3
Three orange juice $9
2 Family packs of chicken bottoms $24
Package of hot dogs $10
Fruits and vegetables $50
Total $160.80
Without shabbos.
Why is $150 so hard to be true for a family of four children?
I left out by accident
Three -2 pound loaves of bread (more than enough for a week)
So add another $10 to my list
Making the basic cost $60
Take off a family pack of chicken and you are still at the 150-160$ a week range
*********************************************************
First are you feeding a family of eight with six children or a family of 6 with 4 children? You post says both .“Family of six children”
“Why is $150 so hard to be true for a family of four children?”What is the menu? Cream cheese sandwiches and scrambled eggs for breakfast?
Whats for Lunch? And not every yeshiva provides free lunch for its students.
Dinners ? 2 family packs of chicken bottoms yields 12 quarters – if it’s a family of six that’s two dinners. Last I looked there were 6 dinners in a week. Are you only serving pasta the other 4 nights with no protein (ie fish or meat?) 1 pack of hot dogs (8 pack or 16 pack?) Most people I know eat two for dinner. Family of six needs 12 so you will either need three 8 packs or 1 16 pack and 1 8 pack for two more dinners. Pasta 1 16 oz box is 8 servings 2 boxes might make 4 dinners for 6 people f they only eat the serving size.
No breakfast cereals allowed? No fats (oil, mayonnaise, butter margarine? Sugar, salt, spices?
What about non-food items – toothpaste, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, health and beauty aids (shampoo, soap, deodorant, feminine products, tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins).BTW., when you say children do you mean toddlers, under 10 or teens? Do you know how much teen boys eat?
As fort shabbos can of tuna (1 can for a family of 6?). %4 meat for chulent? I have to ask if your chulent is pareve as $5 worth of meat might be battul b’shishim to the rest of the ingredients.
I suggest you rethink your list.
First are you feeding a family of eight with six children or a family of 6 with 4 children? You post says both .
“Family of six children”
“Why is $150 so hard to be true for a family of four children?”
um…. my numbers work for a family of 6 children so for sure they can work for a family with 4 children
(if you cant figure that out, then just cook for six and throw out the extra 2 portions)
didn’t think question was including non food
it wasn’t posed as total household budgetNo breakfast cereals allowed? correct
Sugar, salt, spices? minimal daily
Cream cheese sandwiches and scrambled eggs for breakfast?no
scrambled eggs for breakfast
Cream cheese sandwiches for lunch
2 family packs of chicken bottoms yields 12 quarters – if it’s a family of six that’s two dinners. Last I looked there were 6 dinners in a week. Are you only serving pasta the other 4 nights with no protein (ie fish or meat?)
no. american cheese in the pasta. its called mac and cheese
quite tasty really
1 pack of hot dogs (8 pack or 16 pack?)i think for 10$ you can get a 16 packwhen you say children do you mean toddlers, under 10 or teens? Do you know how much teen boys eat? a mix of ages like a regular family
yes. some eat very little(1 can for a family of 6?) yes plus eggs and dips . not everyone likes/eats tuna
nope. its a half a pound of cheap meat
pretty substantive in a 5 quart pot of cholentany more questions your honor?
no. american cheese in the pasta. its called mac and cheese
quite tasty reallyNot in my opinion. Im not a mac n cheese fan. at least not american cheese.
(if you cant figure that out, then just cook for six and throw out the extra 2 portions)
How about being clear when you post! throw out the extra portions – ever heard of Baal tashchis.
There is no בעל תשחית In a hypothetical situation
KG:”One onion one carrot a zucchini and a parsnip cost more that $3??
My recipe calls for celery 2 to 3 carrots, 2 zucchinis and two to three onions and dill and turnip too. The children like the soup vegetables.. Oh i forgot under your budget plan the children dont get any extras of food they like. And where do you get a bag of beef bones for $2?i actualy saved my receipts for the past week a family of 6 kids it was $ 670 inc shabbos ( that inc. pizza one night , a little sushi when it was half off, kids snacks, dips.. and that was mostly KRM – yes some stuff was from freezer bag brocolli, container cashews…
Who can keep track? Have six kids and spending in the range of $400 weekly at least. It’s hard to keep track what with multiple stores (moishas shop rite butcher Costco and more)
Butchers used to give away beef bones. I don’t go to a stand-alone butcher so I don’t know if they still do. I suspect the $2 was for chicken bones.
Coffee addict and frum guy laid claim to 150-165 weekly
Zahavasdad said he can’t believe it
So I was trying to show it can be done
That’s all
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