Budgeting help

[FruitsAlive]

Ok, this may sound a little stupid but I'm having a hard time getting my head around some household budgeting. I'm not a spendy person, but, I have been making a few too many trips to the grocery store. I thought it would be smarter to make small weekly trips for things like fruit and vegetables and one big monthly trip for meat/roasts. The problem is that the small trips add up more than I had anticipated. I've stopped buying the boneless/skinless/labor free cuts of meat, and make a roast every sunday to last throughout the week.
The question is, how much do you think should be budgeted for groceries in a two person/four pet household? I've started supplementing the dog food to make it last longer and save a lot of money that way...and the cats only add up to thirty dollars every six weeks or so. Any suggestions?

[donleyk]

Do you end up with things in your weekly basket that isn't on your list? That's a fast way of things adding up.

My other comment would be how convenient is it to shop at a farmers market for your fruits and veggies? It should be much cheaper there.

I can't help you budget-wise. We are a 2 people household also but DH travels a lot. Between that and our garden I'm not spending a lot this summer. Corn, tomatoes and cantaloupe is a typical meal for me.

[Meganator]

Do you end up with things in your weekly basket that isn't on your list? That's a fast way of things adding up.



Good question. Also, do you end up throwing out any perishables that you don't use up? Are you buying much processed/prepackaged stuff? Do you have room to store and/or freeze items bought in bulk? Do your grocery bills include items like wine/beer, cosmetics, etc.?

There have been a couple of threads in the past year or so (on the Food Board, I think) about how much people spend on groceries, and the variation is huge, and also varies by where you live. Only you can decide how much you "should" be spending, based on what type of food you want to have, whether or not you can/want to/have time to cook, and how much food costs in your area. But there are a lot of strategies available if you really want to or need to decrease what you are spending...

[Grace]

Well, I guess your budget would depend a lot on how much you can actually afford.

We have had several threads on how much people spend on groceries - you might want to do a search for those just to see how many people spend a lot - it might surprise you and it might make you feel a little better that you're not alone. :)

That said, I really can't get away with less than $500 a month for groceries (2 adults, 2 dogs). I actually usually spend a little more than that. I have changed my habit of buying everything I need at the "regular" grocery store to making 3 menus a month (every 10 days), and then making 3 different lists to buy the items I need to make those dishes. I buy what I have to at the "regular" grocery store, I go to the local produce market for all my fruits/vegetables/ethnic items (I save a TON doing this), and I go to Costco and Trader Joes for meat and odds and ends (cheese, etc.). It saves me probably around $150 a month (or more) doing this.

The biggest help (even if I didn't go to several different stores) is just planning what we will eat for 10 days at a time. I used to shop every week and just buy stuff that looked good to me, and then figure out what I was going to make each day at the last minute (and hope I had all the ingredients, which I usually didn't, so it meant another trip for some odds and ends). I would also end up throwing out stuff that never got used. By making menus, I only buy those things (and snacks and staples like milk, juice, bread, cereal, etc.). My system isn't so rigid that I have to make any particular dish on any particular night, but when I come home and need to decide what to make, I have 6 things to choose from, and I know I have all the stuff to make those six things. So I don't buy extras that don't get used, and I don't need to make any extra trips to the store.

[Chefzhat]

How much are you spending on food?

Feeding and caring for 4 pets gets expensive, expecially if you are buying cat litter. Sometimes litter/food is great to get at a warehouse store (Costco) for savings.

Costco is also good for the once a month meat shop.

I think for our family of 4 I spend around $500 a month. I cook A LOT. And the boys go through milk, eggs, bread and cereal like crazy. I go to the farmers market every week to stock up on fresh produce.

[tamawrite]

DH and I average about $325 per month on food for the two of us, a 50-lb dog, and 5 cats. (We won't talk about what the 8 horses eat!)

We do a "big" shopping trip once monthly; that's when we stock up on pricy things like coffee, hard cheeses, meats, wines, etc. as well as canned goods and produce.

I make meals featuring the fresh produce before it goes bad. Then, I switch to meals based on dried beans, rice, canned tomatoes, etc. until we make our monthly...

"Medium-sized" shopping trip! This is when we restock on lunches for work (frozen veggies, applesauce, museli) and anything staples we're running low on. And a bit more produce.

I think the keys to our system are planning ahead for meals, knowing what pantry basics I need to keep in stock, and shopping in two monthly trips and hardly ever buying groceries any other time.

[LakeMartinGal]

Funny -- DH and I were just talking about how much I've improved at this, and ways to improve more!

I agree that planning is the best way to cut down on inventory, and make it cost-effective. Do planned-overs, too. A roast, like you said, can make several different meals, but they don't all have to be in the same week. You can freeze the leftover roast and use it as an ingredient in another recipe... same for chicken. Make your list, and stick to it.

Do you use coupons? Stocking meat and canned goods also works, then plan your meals around what you have on hand, and buy only what you need to make those meals. Shop the ads, use the coupons when stuff is on sale anyway. Some use grocerygame.com, and I use The Coupon Master to buy my coupons, since I don't get a Sunday paper. Pick and choose the ways that fit your budget and menu, but resist the impulse buying... the more you're at the store, the greater the temptation! ;)

[SusanPC]

This is a little bit of a tangent but if you are disciplined enough I would suggest using Quicken or some other sort of financial software to track all of your expenses for a couple of months to see where you could trim to tighten up and set a realistic budget.

I have my DH trained now. We rarely ever use cash, everything goes on the CC (if you carry a balance this may not be the best idea but you could accomplish the same using a debit card) and monthly I download the data into quicken and classify everything. The software "remembers" vendors so the whole excerise is painless generally. And, at any given time I can run a ton of different reports to track spending, who we are spending with, what categories we are consistently overspending in, etc.

You can also set up a budget and run budget variance reports if you are really disciplined!

Of course, then you have to do something with the data. We now know our meals/entertainment are out of whack...but all we do is look at the report and say....wow, we need to save there...(like it is a shock ever month :D ).

Hope this is helpful.

[blazedog]

What others spend on food really isn't relevant since food budgets are almost entirely discretionary based on what is available.

You can eat well for not much money by eating beans and grains and eschewing pricey animal protein -- or eat animal protein and stick to the less expensive cuts -- and/or eat the Chinese way in which animal protein is a small part of the actual meal.

I am not even mentioning the obvious -- oatmeal is cheaper than cold cereal and cooking saves money.

If you shop often you will spend more -- if you want to get a handle on food costs, shop as little as often and from a food list based on what is on sale.

If you want to budget, take an evening or a Sunday and figure out your net income -- then add in those amounts which aren't discretionary -- rent/mortgage, insurance, utilities, car, savings at the recommended level of 10% because everything else is really a matter of choice -- clothing, recreation, travel, phone service above a minimum level.

Also take a look at what I call Starbuck leaks in your budget -- i.e. small cost items that add up over the cost of a year -- Do you want to spend $1000 after taxes on coffee and/or bad lunch food or vending machine snacks.

The range of what people spend on foods has been enormous -- and is a product of income and choices -- both of which differ enormously.

[FruitsAlive]

Thanks for your input everyone. I downloaded a great free budgeting tool yesterday - Accounts & Budget by alauxsoft. It's actually a good program with just a slight learning curve. (I'm saying this as a former database/network specialist of course.) When I looked at the last three months, I've spent an average of $700 at the stores. Some of this has been stocking up on essentials since I quit work and became a housewife, but, even with a quarter of this being household supplies and non-grocery items I am embarassed that I have spent so much. I definitely need to come up with meal plans...I think I have a mental block surrounding it. If I see a really good deal on something, I will buy it and tell myself that it's almost out of season, blah blah blah. I also end up discarding some produce I don't use in time.
I shop at several different stores depending on their weekly specials. I clip coupons, but I rarely use anything prepackaged/processed. I make my own marinades, sauces, etc. I have gone to our farmer's market here (my golden loves it), but it's a bit of a tourist attraction so the prices aren't that good. I think I need to venture to one of the less popular ones to get good deals. I also stock a constant supply of heinekin light, which probably accounts for at least $40 a month.
LakeMartinGal - I love your planned over idea...why haven't I thought of that?

[LakeMartinGal]

I clip coupons, but I rarely use anything prepackaged/processed. LakeMartinGal - I love your planned over idea...why haven't I thought of that?
You don't have to use pre-packaged items to use coupons. There are coupons for deoderants, toothpaste, etc... Also, I have coupons from Perdue and Tyson for $2 off a package of chicken! Definitely worthwhile.

As to the planned-overs... that was a concept my mom used pretty faithfully, but DH doesn't like me to do that, so we make 3 servings of things, and he has the extra for lunch. But I have seen people do extra chicken, and make salad/tacos/bbq and beef hash/sandwiches, shepherd's pie, pork bbq, etc... Glad to have been a help! ;) :D

[mbrogier]

I shop at Costco, Trader Joes, and SuperTarget for my groceries. I get my produce at a neighborhood produce/ethnic market. It's made a large difference in how much we spend each month on groceries. I've also been paying attention to how we eat. My husband and I are happiest eating bistro type food with lots of greens and a bit of meat. For lunches we're happy with a nice piece of bread and cheese with fruit or a sandwich. I also buy groceries for larger "meat and potato" type suppers a few times a week, but a lot of what we were buying wasn't being eaten.

There are no hard, fast rules of what you have to do. I think some of the depression age housewife mentality still exists nagging in the back of women's heads sometimes. I'm not saying eat yourself into the poorhouse, but just because it can be done for less, should it be? We have to eat, so why not enjoy the day in, day out tasks to the fullest? We only go around once, and the time is way too short. I prefer the French mentality on that. ;)