All that has changed drastically in the past two years.
Here are the reasons I've been spending more on food:
1) We have more mouths to feed and those mouths are growing and eating more.
2) I've been buying more fresh fruits and veggies which are more expensive than canned/frozen.
3) I stock up on items with low unit prices which drives the monthly bill up.
4) I don't always take the time to plan our weekly menu thoroughly which results in last-minute trips for missing ingredients.
5) I used a debit card to pay for groceries and didn't really *feel* the expense. I even stopped keeping track of our monthly food consumption all together!
SO, we're going to a cash-only system for our grocery buying. Should be interesting. The first week of January we stayed on track but this second week is definitely going to be higher than the allotted $75. That's due to my birthday coming up and a special more-expensive-than-usual meal I'm planning to make.
I'm wondering if our $75 per week budget goal is too low. What do y'all think? Also, do you have any budget lowering tips/tricks to share?
4 comments:
I'm right there with ya--trying to lower the grocery bill! I think $75/week is a good goal. Toward the end of last year, I was trying to keep ours to around $50/week, but it often ended up being closer to $75. I did stick with cash for a while, but usually end up going back and forth between cash & debit. I think it does help a lot when I use cash (and a calculator) though! It "hurts" a lot more to hand over a chunk of cash than to zip a card. :)
I do need to work on buying more fresh fruits and veggies. My family loves fruit, but it can really get expensive so I don't buy it too often. We get apples, grapes, tangerines, etc. when they're on good sales. I also stock up on stuff like meat when it's on sale, which drives up the monthly budget, like you said. And we buy cheese in blocks at Sam's Club, which does the same thing. That frustrates me, but as my hubby says, sometimes you have to spend money to save money in the long run . . . Anyway, I don't have any great tips, but here's to lower grocery bills this year! :)
I'm working on lowering our budget too! I am going to go back to my monthly meal planning based on the items in my house already, and then plan around those. We've moved to a cash only system as well, and we have it $200 every other week since we're paid that way. That includes my husband and myself, Eli (3 1/2) and Ethan (almost 1), also 2 dogs and a cat! Also included in that $200 is our eating out money. So, the more we eat out, the less we'll have on groceries, so that makes us more mindful and careful.
Last week my goal was to spend $65 because I knew we had a lot in the house already. I ended up spending $60! It's like a game to me now, and fun! We do buy a lot in bulk at Costco and Sams, but we don't figure that into the grocery budget as we already had that set up to do 3-4 times a year. That helps with the budget too.
I have no advice. Sometimes I think we spend way too much on groceries. I get frustrated that coupons are not readily available for the things that are best to build a healthy diet around but I still do my best to use coupons & shop sales. I would probably be better off to try a monthly menu plan so I'll probably try that. Also, we have Kroger stores here & I use their store credit card b/c they will send me coupons for their brand items & name brand items plus you earn cash back store coupons as well as a fuel discount. That takes away my guilt for not trying the cash only system :-) Good luck!
Sitting down and planning a menu deffinately helps. Also if you save your reciepts for a while and get an idea of what certain things cost. Then you can add it all up ahead of time. Another thing you can do is take a calculator with you, or keep a running total in your head.
Fresh fruits and Veggies will get you every time. Also anykind of snacks. I try to plan no more than two snack items or desserts per weekly visit to the grocery store.
I have kept a calendar menu of our meals in the past. This allowed me to plan meals that cost less during the week. Then I would plan a more expensive meal for Sundays.
You should be able to keep your budget under $75 a week if you watch it. Sticking to a budget is a difficult thing. It's an admirable quality for those who are able to do it. What a great goal.
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