On the journey of saving money and time on groceries, creating a grocery budget is the first step. Consider the grocery budget your map for grocery shopping. But how much should I budget for the month? How much time does it take to budget for each person in my family? Does this mean boring meals? Can I still eat what I love? These are all really great questions keep reading because the answers just might shock you!
Creating your Grocery Budget
Now you may or may not be new to grocery budgeting but if you're like the men below asking "what's a budget?", we are here to help clarify that. A budget simply is "a plan to show how much money a person or organization will earn and how much they will need or be able to spend", according to Cambridge dictionary. So a grocery budget is like a map that shows you how much you can be spending daily, weekly, monthly or annually depending on what format works best for you.
We recommend you have a monthly grocery budget strictly for groceries and other household needs (i.e. toilet paper, paper towels, pet food, household cleaners, light bulbs etc.). This makes it easier for monthly evaluations and not as tedious to keep track of for the parents working 60+ hours a week, but if the daily, weekly or annually grocery budget work better for you than we suggest you stick with what works best. We do NOT recommend having your eating out budget, such as fast food and other food venues where you eat outside the home, on your grocery budget because you will be able to better track your eating out budget to see how much you are spending every month. According to Globe News Wire, they found "30% of all consumers spend an average of $180 per week on restaurant food." That is $720 a month on eating out alone. We are gasping with Joey on that amount.
If your overall budget allows you to eat out as well as buy groceries, than enjoy the luxury of eating out when you do! We enjoy getting to eat out as well for the convenience and relaxation it gives by someone else preparing the food and cleaning up after it. We do; however, understand that there are families and individuals reading this blog that are living paycheck to paycheck just covering food, rent or mortgage, utilities and basic needs. This is why we created Saving Groceries to help consumers save money and time on their grocery needs so they can use that money for their needs and wants.
So how do I create a budget? We recommend place a monthly budget of $100 per individual you are feeding and supplying household products for whether that be a baby, spouse, neighbor, friend or teenager. This starts at $300 a month so whether you are just feeding yourself or you and another individual. An example of this budget for a husband and wife would be $300 a month or $75 per week. Another example of this budget for a family of four consisting of a Mom, Dad, baby and teenager would be $400 a month or $100 per week for groceries and non-food items (such as cleaning supplies, toiletries, batteries, etc.). If you don't have a budget in place, it may take around a month to get the hang of your monthly grocery budget but stick with it you've got this! If your overall budget allows, you can of course increase your monthly grocery budget but if you are living paycheck to paycheck and looking for areas to save money than the grocery budget would be the best place to look first.
You may be thinking you can't possibly be able to spend only $400 a month for your family of four on groceries and household items with the state of the economy right now but we are here to encourage you that you can. It may require having some staple cheaper meals two or four times a month such as pb&J sandwiches or grilled cheese with baked potatoes and purchasing less often or not at all flavored drinks such as tea, coffee, soda, alcohol and so on for water instead or for some it just may require discipline and diligence meal planning with the grocery items you've already purchased so you're using up what you have and working on having minimal food waste. At the end of your first month grocery budgeting, it may have worked out seamlessly for you (and that is our hope!) but maybe you overspent a little or it was very challenging. We recommend doing a monthly evaluation of what worked for you and what didn't as far as sticking to your grocery budget and try again next month. Again, this may take some time to get where you aren't overspending and it's a breeze for you - give yourself some grace. You are working towards either making ends meet without going into debt or working towards a vacation for yourself/or family or going to college or retirement or some goal and dream that means something to you and we are here to help achieve that goal and/or dream!
In Conclusion
We've shared what a grocery budget is, our recommendation for the monetary amount for setting up your grocery budget and briefly gave a few options to help you trim out your grocery shopping to help you achieve your grocery budget. In our next blog, we will be giving more examples of how to trim out your grocery shopping to help you achieve your grocery budget! Leave a comment for what you found most helpful and Subscribe so you never miss a blog! Stay saucy!
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