How to Grocery Shop on a Budget Step 2
Before I write about Step 2…I have to tell you how THRILLED I am that Safeway had Kerrygold Butter
The Grocery Budget
I imagine that most people who read this blog need to set a grocery budget. I know that some people hate that word so you can call it a grocery “spending plan” or whatever you want as long as it works for you.
Our grocery budget is $100. I don’t put a lot of emphasis on that amount though. Some people may think that is really high, some people might think that is way too low. Some people go out to eat every week so their grocery budget may look low, but their “eating out” expense is really high. Some people include supplies, beer and “holiday entertaining” in their grocery budget – I don’t. Here’s the reason why:
STRESS
Stress on my marriage and stress on me. I’m a rule follower. If the budget says $100 a week, then I get $100 a week and that is it. If my husband wants to invite company over and it puts me over the $100 budget then I get stressed. Here is what works for us: I get $100 a week that I use to buy food for our family. If we invite people over, we use money from the “entertainment” envelope. During Christmas we buy expensive and weird food as part of our holiday traditions and we often times feed four more people. We have “holiday” money for that.
$60 Grocery Budget
When our grocery budget was $60 per week that’s all I spent. We didn’t have an entertainment envelope or any holiday money. This was back in the day when my husband was told he was going to get a raise and the next week they cut his pay instead. We had no extra money. When my husband started a new job (with a significant pay raise) he wanted to raise the food budget, but I had to work on a pride issue before I could do that.
In the eBook that I’m writing here’s what I wrote:
You must determine the amount of money necessary to reach your goals. If your goal is to buy all organic food, then your budget needs to be higher than if your goal is to drastically reduce your grocery budget. Many families have found that setting a weekly budget works better for them than having a monthly budget.
Grocery Results for the week of Nov. 18, 2011:
Click on the image below to see my grocery shopping details.
Note: You’ll see pictures of eggs, but it isn’t listed in the spreadsheet above. Anytime I don’t spend all of my $100 I put the money in a “pantry” envelope. The money for the eggs came out of the “pantry” envelope. I also bought bacon last week – that money came from the envelope as well.
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4 comments
Amy @ Pounds4Pennies
November 19, 2011 at 5:54 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Wow that is a lot of shopping this week. I really like your envelope idea. I am thinking of going to the same concept. Thanks for sharing you shopping at Pounds4Pennies.
Johnlyn
November 19, 2011 at 10:07 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Thanks for stopping by Amy.
I can’t believe how well the envelope system works for me. It’s such a simple idea, yet powerful.
Mary
November 19, 2011 at 11:59 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
I agree that it’s a great idea to be specific about what your food budget will – and won’t – cover. Otherwise it’s just a slush fund! We budget food by the week too. We use so much fresh produce that we’d never make it once or twice a month!!
If we run short (we did in the beginning until we got it figured out) you have fewer days to eat “beans and rice” from the pantry. I think it’s a more realistic way of approaching budgeting for groceries!
Johnlyn
November 19, 2011 at 4:31 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
I tried for so long to budget by month, but my head just can’t take in that much info LOL!
Thanks for the comment Mary.