Don’t have time to address the details of your post just yet, but regarding food, that was for food and household/toiletry items like paper towels, shampoo, soaps, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc. These costs do not include eating out. We’re a family of five, and I can assure you that our costs actually run higher than this for these categories, as do all of our friends’ costs when we’ve talked about it.
You might want to closely track your expenses for a couple of months to see what you’re spending. If you can manage to spend under $1,000/month for food/toiletry/household items for a family of four, please let us know how you’re doing it. Seriously, this type of cost inflation is killing lots of families. It costs around $5 for a gallon of milk if it’s organic/without hormones!
