Feed Your Family for $12.00 a Day: A Complete Guide to Nutritious, Delicious Meals for Less Money

I purchased this book because I needed help shopping and planning my meals. I work FT and I don't have the time or the need to bargain shop. The problem is I can go to the supermarket spend a couple of hundred dollars and not come home with any "food." We get snacks and a little of this and a little of that but I go to make dinner and there is no way that we have food for 3 meals a day for 4 people. This was a good planning book. Since money was not really an issue for us, I purchased slightly higher end items, like fresh whole wheat bread instead of day old white, soy milk instead of regular or kielbasa instead of hot dogs. I clearly ran over the suggested budget in the book but we: 1) spent far less than we normally do, 2) had "food" all week and a much better variety 3) felt more organized about what's for dinner issues. Regarding saving money, I think I was looking for a magic trick. At the end of the day, it's mostly common sense things like shop at cheap supermarkets and use cupons. For us, how to get your family organized with food was very helpful.

This book would be a good first read for people trying to cut down on their grocery bills, but if you've looked at other frugality books (Tightwad Gazette, etc.) you'll find much here that is repeated from other sources. That's not really a criticism of the author: Frugality in the kitchen is largely a matter of common sense, and she has managed to put together a good, basic primer. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is that the recipes, which take up half the book, were singularly uninspired. If you have very plain "Midwestern" tastes or picky kids, they might be appealing, but they wouldn't fly at all in this foodie family. Luckily, it's not all that hard to come up with easy recipes for fresh, frugal meals. Any of Jack Bishop's cookbooks will put you on the right track.

If you visit the publishers website, you will see that this book, "Feed Your Family for $12 a Day",... is an UPDATED version of her previous book,.."Feed Your Family for $50 a Week". It was not meant to be a NEW book,.. it is an UPDATED version of the previous book. You don't need BOTH books.

Most frugality-related books contain, at best, one or two chapters on saving money on groceries. Since food is one of the few flexible items in many families' budgets, it makes sense to devote an entire book to this important subject. Although much of the information is repeated from her previous books, there's enough new information to make it a helpful addition to any frugal bookshelf (even if you already own the author's previous books). BUT ... if you don't already own Barfield's other books, you'll want to buy this book right now! Your budget will thank you, your dinner table will thank you, and your family will thank you!