#30
Just because I mentioned I was semi-retiered you asume I ‘m up there in the yrs …………life has been better to some of us than others I’m 44 I sure hope you diden’t blow your budget for the week last night at dinner, or the local game beware ………….its a lovely afternoon I think I’ll pour myself a glass of tea and sit on my deck over-looking the lovely Lake Sherwood ahhhhhhhhhhhh now this is the life you’d be amazed!

Sorry about that I have a shared lap-top looks like ole wifey forgot to log out now were was I oh yes that tea lap-tops are a buetifull thing!!!!!!!

I’m 48 and earn about $63,000/year, but am very frugal. I shop at Dierbergs for my wife and myself and for one 11 year old girl. We spend appproximately $33 a week on groceries and health and beauty supplies. We only buy the loss leaders and sale items. We generally have 5 bags of groceries each week for that $33 we spend. We are just very conservative at home at what we use being raised in a Jewish family. We spend about $75 a week eating out.

Our bill— 1 gall organic milk—$3.50
1 loave wheat bread 1.50
1 gall orange juice 2.00
2 bags froz. veget 3.00 (lasts 4 meals)
2 lbs beef 5.00 (2 meals–sloppy joes, spagh & meatballs)
4 chkn breasts 4.50 (1 meal)
4 pork chops 4.50 (1 meal)
1 can salmon 2.50 (1 meal croquettes)
mostaciolli 2.00 (2 meals)
2 pkg toilet paper 4.50
TOTAL: $33.00

breakfasts out $25.00 (5 days a week) daughter’s cereal $2.50/wk
lunches out $50.00 (5 days a week) daughter’s school ($10.00/wk)

We also have extra fruit on hand as well as yogurt and bagels for light lunches for my stay-at-home wife. My wife eats fruits and bagels for breakfast as well. She is very fit and weighs 138 lbs. We purchase our shampoos and soaps and detergents about once every 3 months at Dierbergs also which costs an additional $25 every 3 months.

Harvey,
The bagels and yogart and fruit are not on your grocery list? Frugal and diebergs contridict each other, if you shoped a shop-save you might cut that 33$ in half. I have a family of 5, 3 kids two of them teens the other is 10 but he eats like his 16 yr old brother, very healthy kids, just keeping up with the fruit these kids put away is enought to break the bank! One orange is close to a 1$ I don’t by the off brand my kids won’t touch them so I’m not really saving any money now am I? So my bill hovers around 160$ to 180$ depending on the pets we also feed 2 large dogs a cat and a canary so with all considard I’d say I shop pretty well.

Marla–The fruit and yogurt and bagels I buy in bulk—

Bagels cost $2.00/wk
Yogurt costs $2.00/wk
Fruit–Bag of apples and Bag of oranges and grouping of bananas cost $7.00/wk

Adding another $11.00/wk. Most times the apples and oranges last 2 weeks though.

Dierberg’s is 1/8 mile from our house–closest store–saving on gasoline.

Some good comments above. There are some serious disconnects in the economy that are setting up a potential collapse. The huge amount of consumer credit that is out there, the number of people who are maxed out on credit is a disaster waiting to happen.

My primary concern right now is the cost of education. I’m one who believes that it is MY responsibility , as a parent, to educate my children. My deal with my 3 daughters always was, I’ll pay for the bachelors degree, after that, it’s on you. It is simply not possible to save enough for a college education these days. It’s not possible for an average family to provide higher education to their children without taking on debt. This is my reality. I’ve been paying college bills for 9 years, with 3 years to go. I’m really, really looking forward to the last college check in the spring of 2011. That’ll be the biggest pay raise I’ll ever see I’ve always encouraged them to dream big dreams and go after them.

By the way, the older 2 are both in graduate school, and will eventually both will have PhD degrees in their chosen fields of study.

The cost of energy will snowball across the economy in a myriad of ways, and eventually a new equilibrium will develop, just not for a while. I’m noticing lots of Escalades and Expeditions on the used car lots…which says something about the price of gas. I shake my head and wonder what people are thinking, lots of the time. The home builders who think a starter home is 2500 square feet with a bathroom for every bedroom and a huge kitchen with granite countertops aren’t building a starter home for someone like me. The car builders who think ‘good’ gas mileage is 25-30 mpg aren’t building cars for someone like me. The hotel operators who think an affordable hotel room is $250 a night aren’t inviting me to stay in their place. And so on. And, the people who are trying to buy that 2500 sq ft starter home, and the monster SUV, and take annual trips to Disney with the kids on a 2 earner, $12 per hour income each aren’t speaking my economic language.

hs, my children are 3 and 6. They both have more in college investments at this age than I had at 18 when I was walking out the door on my way to college. All of which was contributed by my wife and I. However, I am not one that believes it is my responsibility to cover their BS. In fact, they will be raised as if I’m throwing them out at 18.

The last time I checked, no college courses meet for 16 hours every day of the week. EVERY college student that isn’t a trust fund baby, should have some level of employment. Be delivering pizzas while school was in session and building retaining walls in the summer, I gradeeeeated from a state school completely debt free.

Lunacy, all of them worked as students, and during the summers. They aren’t trust fund kids, not by a long shot. I’m not going to go into a rant about the current college funding mess, as I said, I’ve been living it for the last 9 years. Good for you for setting up education funds for your kids at their young ages.

Just one mini-rant: I got this year’s FAFSA Student Aid Report back a week or two ago. It says that I can “afford” a heck of a lot more for my ‘expected family contribution’ than the numbers that are in front of me suggest. The formula they use basically demands that you have (a) no savings and (b) very high debt before you qualify for any form of need based aid. By the way, even if you ‘throw your kids out at 18′, unless you can prove that you provide absolutely zero financial support (help with rent, medical insurance, car insurance, a car payment) for at least a year in most states, they won’t qualify for financial assistance on their own. The formulas take the parent’s financials as the majority contribution to the kid’s education.

Our last child is a Freshman at SLU and thank the stars he is there on his brain cells or we could not of afforded that college. For all three kids the deal was four years were on us, higher education would be on your backs. The price of education is sky high and heading for the moon. You just cringe when you think of the debt most kids will be carrying by graduation. All of the above discussions have just made me feel gloomier!! Back to sticking my head in the sand for now.