How much "should" your food budget be??

Here is something to think about. We all have different ideas as to what constitutes a good food budget. It, of course is dependent on the type and amount of food we buy.

While browsing the net for nutrition guidelines, I came cross the Australian Government’s ” Eat for Health” website. The site has the (current) official dietary guidelines. It lists some sample menu plans for Men, Women and Children, as well as a really good guide to what makes a “serve” of various foods.

As an exercise, I decided to take the sample meal plan for women and price it up to see what the Government suggest we spend on a healthy diet. Here is what I came up with… ( to download a pdf of this table click here )

This sample meal plan is for women aged 19-50 years of average height, healthy weight and light activity.
Meal / Food	Weight / portion size	Food group and number of serves	Costing	Explanation of costs
Breakfast
Wholegrain breakfast cereal, with reduced fat milk	60g cereal	2 grain serves	$0.09	Home Brand Oats (900g pkt @$1.39)
Wholegrain breakfast cereal, with reduced fat milk	1 cup (250ml) reduced fat milk	1 milk/yoghurt/cheese serve	$0.25	$1 per litre milk
Reduced fat yoghurt	100g yoghurt	½ milk/yoghurt/cheese serve	$0.36	Coles Brand Yoghurt (1 kg@ $3.60)
Morning break
Coffee with milk	200ml (small coffee)	¼ milk/yoghurt/cheese serve	$0.10	Home Brand powdered coffee + milk
Lunch
Sandwich with salad and chicken	2 slices bread	2 grain serves	$0.15	Home Brand Whoelmeal Bread @ $1.50
	40g chicken	½ meat and/or alternatives serve	$0.40	Chicken fillet meat @$10.00/kg
	1 teaspoon margarine	5g unsaturated spread (½ serve)	$0.01	Home Brand Spread @$1.60/kg
	1 cup salad vegetables	1 vegetable serve	$0.30	Based on an iceberg lettuce @ 2.00 each
Apple	1 medium	1 fruit serve	$0.30	Banana @36c or 1/2 Orange @ 53c
Afternoon break
Unsalted nuts	30g	1 meat and/or alternatives serve	$0.80	scoop’n’pack Almonds @$23.75/kg
Coffee with milk	200ml (small coffee)	¼ milk/yoghurt/cheese serve	$0.10	as above
Evening meal
Pasta with beef mince and red kidney beans, tomato and green salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing	1 cup of cooked pasta	2 grain serves	$0.15	Home Brand Pasta (1kg pkt @$0.72)
	65g cooked mince	1 meat and/or alternative serve	$0.60	Mince @ $8.00/kg
	¼ cup kidney beans	½ vegetable serve	$0.19	1/4 can Coles Kidney Beans @ 75c
	1½ medium tomato	1½ vegetable serve	$0.50	Tomatos @ 35c each
	½ onion	½ vegetable serve	$0.25	Onions @ 50c each
	2 cups green leafy salad	2 vegetable serves	$0.60	as above
	2 teaspoon unsaturated oil	14g unsaturated oil (2 serves)	$0.03	Home Brand Vegetable Oil 2L @$4.80
Evening snack
Plums and reduced fat yoghurt	1 cup stewed plums	1 fruit serve	$0.80	Plums @ 38c each
	100g yoghurt	½ milk/yogurt/cheese serve	$0.36	as above
		TOTAL $$	$6.34
		x7 days
		WEEKLY TOTAL	$44.38