Why food is second only to housing costs in our budget

Sounds crazy, but it's true. There is so much I have yet to put into practice to save money in the food category aside from couponing; namely meal planning. More specifically, planning to use up everything we have in the fridge before 1/3 hit the curb on trash day. But even though we eat out usually only once a week, I like to have variety in our dinners that run across most continents it is really the amount of dinners we share with guests, as well as the sheer number of guests that we are blessed to have come through our home each month that help inflate our grocery column, but we couldn't be happier about it.