Wednesday, March 12, 2008

How do I cost breakdown meals?

Jennifer left a great comment on my last blog...

Jennifer said...I really like the way you break down the total cost per
meal!! How do you figure it out? I would really love to know!!
Well, I have a few strategies....


First, I look at the amount of contents in the bag. This bag of cheese contains 2 cups of cheese. I paid $1.50 for the bag, so each cup cost .75 cents. I write this amount right on the bag, since I usually cook in 1 cup increments.

By writing it on the bag, later calculations are a breeze. I also makes me visually aware of the cost of the food that I prepare. As a result, I am more hesitant to run through the drive through, if I know that I can make myself the same chicken sandwich for .58 cents!



I do the same with the 25 lb bag of flour I buy.
The Nutrition label states that there are 386 servings of 1/4 cup each. A little calculation ( 386 divided by 4) tells me that the 25 lb bag has 96 1/2 cups in the entire bag. I paid 7.59 for the bag, so that makes each cup almost 8 cents. Then I write that amount on the flour bag... (Because the original bag is so large, I split it into zip top bags and use one bag per month for several months, this helps our family stay on budget when shopping at warehouse store)




Other items I price by actual number of items, for example, I bought a 10 lb bag of chic
ken for 23.29. Instead of pricing this by the pound, I count how many pieces are in the bag, and price it per breast. This bag
had 40 pieces...so, 23.29 divided by 40= .58 cents each. Pricing it this way is so much easier when I am trying to plan out the cost of dinner.
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Now, things like sour cream, I price in 2 Tbsp
servings. I buy little cups at smart
& final that are 2 tbsp each. I can buy 250 cups for a little over 2 dollars. This makes measuring so much easier. It is worth the cost to get the cups.






4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Thanks Crystal for the breakdown!! I am definately gonna give it a try. How would you divide the cost of cereal then? by cup?

Crystal DuBois said...

Yup! I keep a 1 cup measuring cup right in the box. (sometimes the serving size is listed as 3/4 cups, so be careful with the math if you choose to serve 1 cuo instead. )

The milk too! (note, most childrens size cups are portioned at 1 cup already. Makes measuring milk a lot easier.

Although, lately I have gotten the cereal for free...which is my FAVORITE price!

Unknown said...

Where do you buy the chicken in the 10 lb bag? Love your blog!

Crystal DuBois said...

Thanks for checking out my blog!

I get the chicken at Costco.

Crystal