I ran across a link to the USDA Food Budget today for June of 2009.  I found it very interesting.  Four monthly food plans range from Thrifty to Liberal to choose from.  For my own family of 7, which includes my husband and I, 12 year old son, 9 year old son, 7 year old son, 4 year old daughter, and 3 year old son, even the Thrifty plan was hundreds of dollars over what I spend for us. The income we live on would probably be considered near the line of “US poverty”, but honestly, we have everything we need and live like kings compared to so many in the rest of the world.

The Thrifty plan is $925.90, the Low Cost plan is $1,212.20, the Moderate plan suggests $1,508.20 and the Liberal plan boasts of spending $1,823.20 per month.  Can you imagine spending that much money on food?  We’re a one income family and the Liberal plan would take up almost half of the paycheck.

I see the reason for this amount of money being spent on food is because of the two income working families.  What working woman has time to cook from scratch when you have a husband to love, boss to please, business to manage, kids to discipline and train, manage the household including laundry and cleaning, budgeting, and then all the soccor games to attend to? That doesn’t even include any other activity.  I, honestly, don’t think that is the load that women are supposed to carry, but some women are forced into these situations.

I’m not saying women can’t carry this load.  I think we’ve all proven that we can do everything men can do plus what we do.  But, isn’t it a little heavy?  Isn’t it a little overwhelming?  I’ve experienced both worlds of working outside the home and spending my time in my home managing it and raising my own kids. I’m not saying that I’m really, really good at everything I do yet (definitely not Martha Stewart), maybe some day, maybe not, but I will say that I have experienced a deep satisfaction that I don’t think can be found anywhere else being married with children that still need raising.

Now, what does that have to do with Food Budgets?  Well, because I am at home, I do have the opportunity to cook from scratch.  And not only from scratch, but using grass fed beef and organic chicken, raw milk and growing some of my own vegetables.  No, we don’t eat like this all of the time, but for the majority of the time we do.  It’s fun for me and when my kids get sick they are only sick for a day or two.  So, in the long run it will even save us money.

I am really digressing from what I wanted to say when I first started this article, so let me cut to the chase now.  I want to start keeping track of the money I put into my garden and the amount of money, figuratively speaking, that comes out.  I want to prove that putting in a decent sized garden, while still living in a regular metropolitan city lot (mine is about 1/8 of an acre, maybe a little less) is profitable, both for my family’s health and for our pocketbook.

So, over the next few months I will not only be showing what I will be doing to the garden area, but also what I spend and the amount of veggies that actually come out.

I have never kept track before, so this will be a fun experiment for me.  I hope you all will join me on my upcoming adventure!