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How much to spend on food


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How much do you recomend each patrol spend on food for a campout? (say, 9 people, Sanck friday, 3 meals saturday, breakfast sunday) We want to have each patrol set a budget before they go shopping (and make sure they stay within the budget), but want to give them some ideas on where to set it.

 

Thanks,

Eric

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Our patrol grubmasters collect $10 per scout for a weekend campout. The patrol sets the menu and it is the responsibility of the grubmaster to make sure he stays within the budget. If any money is left over (not often), the patrols can save it up for new gear (frying pans etc,) or divide it back among themselves.

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Well for about $49.50 each, we can do lobster stuffed with crab meat, rib steak or filet minion rapped in bacon plus a couple of other nice meals...

 

don't know about your areas relative food costs but living a hop skip and a traffic jam south of the Nations Capital we find $10.00 a little 'light' for grub.

 

For the boys we TELL THE PARENTS that they should expect to hear numbers like $12-$15.00 per weekend (friday snack/cracker barrel through Sunday breakfast). Parents are continually told this, so if little 'jesse james' starts saying he needs $20.00 for the campout, questions can be asked. The boys make up their menus and shopping lists and the grubmaster plus two boys (or more) do the shopping (whole patrols shop most times for the NSPs as a learning exercise). Excess funds are returned pro rata.

 

Two cautions here if a boy signs up and pays and then does not show on the campout, the patrol does not return his money...food was purchased...

If a boy does not bring his grub money the meeting before the camp he must show up at the store with his contribution or food is not purchased for him...

 

As a troop we encourage good cooking adventures at most camps...camporees some times warrant more 'quick and easys' for breakfasts and lunches but we frown on 'crummy' meals at supper. If I were to guess, most of the patrols routinely hit $13.00 and the adult kitchen generally runs $15.00...but boy do the adults eat well!

 

Generally, we have the boys bring in $15.00 the week of the campout unless it clear that the meals are 'cheap'. We also try to make sure that there are a few dollars available for the grub master to buy ice Friday afternoon (so his parents don't have to 'subsidize' the patrol)

 

bon appetite(This message has been edited by anarchist)

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In our troop the only set "amount" for food is the following:

 

1. We tell our scouts to plan a simple 1 pot meal. They can save the extras for home (but we do allow deserts, smores, etc.)

 

2. We show them how to shop.

a. Look at quantities. Buy just enough

b. Comparsion shop. Don't need brand name. Bargin Shop

c. Look at the store you are going. Don't go to the Jewel,

Eagle, Kroger, find somewhere inexpensive.

 

3. After a new scout goes shopping for the first time we treat them to a beverage. We then talk about the key points that were learned so that he knows them.

 

With this said I have seen our scouts spend any where from $1.75 per meal per scout all the way up to about $5.00 (they had store bought fish and french toast on a "luxary" campout.) However the average is about $2.00 per person per meal.

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We have ours going around 6 or 7 dollars per weekend. THey brown bag it in on Friday nights.

 

Meals include sausage and egg type breakfast (or pancakes or ....some hot breakfast) Sat. Am. Sandwiches or hot dogs sat. lunch and they have done manwich (finally got them to break away from that) and speghetti for suppers with a cobler for desert....they are starting to try other sat. night meals.

 

Sunday - its usually grits and/ oatmeal....low cooking, easy clean up for packing up and going.

 

I had one scout to price the menu at 120.00 for 7 kids for a weekend. With the right shopping (which is where he received some mentoring), ,it was done for around 40 ...maybe 50.00.

 

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We rarely camp friday through sunday, mostly sack lunches for Saturday and good meals through Sunday breakfast with a possible lunch.

 

10 to 15 dollars is normal. We try to push the scouts to get inventive and come up with really good meals. Hot dogs and hamburgers are not allowed unless they are doing something really special. In many years no one has gone hungry or trying to do something extra and stay within the budget. Makes for some really good feeds.

 

yis

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  • 2 weeks later...

Like most we collect $10 per 2 night campout for food. We are lucky there is a small store near us that has chicken leg/thigh sections in 10lb bags that cost $1.90 per bag. This weekend our boys did Rescue Chicken, rice,and green beans for 8 Satuday dinner and it cost them $3.65 for all of them. The bags will have from 11-14 pieces depending on the size.

We also require them to cook something new each camp out. The only then that can be redone each campout is breakfast and they all like egg/sausage scramble. There are some great sites for camp cooking. I printed our boys off a folder of camp recipes and they use then. The other patrol did orange cake. Cake cooked in scooped out oranges.

 

Challange your boys to try different types of cooking, We did box oven cakes this time. Last camp out one patrol used the cajen microwave and roasted a turkey breast. But challenge them and make they learn different things. Not just PBJ or taco soup.

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The numbers posted surprise me. My son's patrol has been consistently asking $5/person for the weekend. They have had some creative meals and some basics. This weekend they ate omeletes and hash, sandwiches (lunch in the cave -- no cooking), loaded potatoes (they liked this one a lot... I expect they will use it again), and donuts (deep fried biscuit dough -- their favorite breakfast!) They rarely get all their food eaten.

There are plenty of cheap eats that work well for camping: eggs, pancakes, stews, spaghetti, etc.

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On average we charge $7 per weekend. If varies from one patrol to the next (each patrol shops for themselves). I have found that the patrols who take the easy way out (donuts or poptarts, hotogs, etc) usually end up spending more money then the patrol that cooks a healthier meal. If there is any money left over, it is divided equally among the boys in the patrol and put in their accounts.

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What happened to real cooking???

Home-made, three bean-four alarm chilli, D.O. pot roasts

biscuits, Stew from scratch with dumplins or biscuits on top, D.O. mountain man breakfast, Vegetables? Fruit? Real desserts? Part of this program is to help teach them to make balanced meals???

good grief..donuts? as a meal??? smores as dessert (is this girl scouts?)

 

While we allow meals to be tailored to the activities at hand ...busy time tables require quicker meals...Saturday night is not 'two cans of spaghetti sauce and pasta'...they cook real meals!

and I see a lot of 'TROOPs' collecting $$$s? I thought this was partol method scouting??? wassup?

 

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