FAMILY FOOD COSTS
Take a few minutes and enter on a spreadsheet or write down an estimated total monthly expenses for these items, house payment, loans, auto expenses, medical expenses , pet expenses, entertainment, cable TV, personal items, insurance expenses, etc. Then estimate your total food expense for a month including the cost of eating out. Determine what percentage your food cost is of the total income you receive.

If you are like most families “Food” might be the single highest item in your monthly budget? My wife and I prepare an annual budget and a monthly budget. Some months we do great in keeping within the budget but other months, when company comes to visit for week, or we have a party, the food budget explodes. Usually the cost for our groceries is about 20% of our income. We are retired and there is just the two of us except when the kids and grandkids come visiting.

When we know company is coming for a few days or a week. We stock up on things we think they will like not necessarily what we would normally buy. It is not uncommon for that visit to the grocery store to be about $250. We have a couple of celebrations and parties at our place in the high mountains of Colorado. One is the 4th of July when four of my children and their families come to stay with us for a few days to celebrate my birthday which is the 4th of July. That grocery bill can be as much as $400 or more for a single week. Each year before we leave the Rocky Mountains we have an Octoberfest party at our place and usually have 30 or 40 people attend. The cost of that celebration is usually about $400. So, it is obvious that food is a big item in our family. Costco has some real good deals but the temptation to buy other items we would not normally buy erases the price advantage of the necessity items that are reasonably priced.

What do you do to avoid these upswings in food costs? One way is to make a list and assign items to family members coming to visit to cut the food cost. Also do the same thing with parties get several families to participate in providing the food and have it a semi potluck type celebration.

When people work in the city or an area where there are restaurants, many people eat out at least a few meals a week. Some people do take a sack lunch each day but when the gang at work is going out to eat the sack lunch is forgotten. Families like to go out to eat periodically. Fast food restaurants can actually cost more than a family style restaurant that has a daily special. Be selective in where you take the family to eat and set limits each person can order.

CABLE OR SATELLITE TV COSTS ARE BUDGET BREAKERS

I just cancelled Dish Satellite TV after 8 1/2 years this week. We use Roku’s that operate off the internet and have a wide selection of programming at a very small cost. The only costs we have are Netflix, Amazon Prime, MLB Network, and Sling TV, the total of which is less than $70 a month. We were paying $160 a month for satellite TV and equipment rental. Figure eight years at almost $2000 a year for TV that is $16,000. Dish representatives tried desperately to get us to keep Dish. We are not under contract with them. If you are under a contract to get out of the contract can cost as much as $400 in the early months and goes down monthly.

The reason we can use Roku is we have Viacom Satellite Internet that has unlimited usage for $150 a month. When we had Hughes they limited usage to $50 GB and that cost $160 a month. Roku would have used 50 gb in less than a week. We had to pay $400 to get out of the Hughes two year internet contract but it was worth it to have unlimited internet and Hughes is a company in total disarray.

When we return to Arizona in September for the winter, we have unlimited internet usage with Airbeam for $79.95 and the Roku works great there. The end result is that we are saving $90 a month over what we were having to pay with Dish Satellite TV by using Roku.

Another interesting thing is that we have a new TV in the bedroom and it has HDMI hookup for Roku. Our Everest 5th Wheel has the TV that came in it in 2004 it has the three cables red, yellow, and while for hookup. I looked on the internet and when Roku first started marketing their product they had a Roku “1” which works with the three cables. I found a Roku “1” refurbished on eBay for $32, including shipping, Now we do not have to buy a new TV for the 5th Wheel living area. They do actually have Roku TV’s now with the Roku built in for about $200 for a 40 inch.

The ebook “Starting From Zero” is a great lesson in how the retail economy works today compared with the recent past. It tells you how to start a home business with a very small investment and succeed in the current economic environment. They will offer you other options and enhancements if you order the book, but just getting the book would be beneficial to most families.
To get your copy of the book “Starting From Zero” CLICK HERE

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