Exactly where to start with grocery budget please!

[makalani]

Thanks in advance for reading and helping me!! Help me please!!! I have spent way too much time online and asking friends on Facebook and I am at my mental sanity limit! I tried to search this forum but found no search option. I scanned several pages and then settled on just asking for help I am trying so hard to set and stick to a grocery budget but I need a resource to tell me how! I am up for any websites, books, forums, etc. that will help me. Here is what I want to know:

1. How to set the correct weekly or monthly budget amount for my specific family dynamic. I have spent countless hours reading google search results and have read many different suggestions but how do I know what is right for my family? Everyone is so different, how do you know where to start when deciding on a dollar amount to stick to? I have consulted the USDA website on this but it seems like rocket science to me for some reason. I don;t know which of their "plans" is my family. Isn't there an easier way than to figure out how many grams of whole grains I use each month? And their numbers aren;t specific to my state and the living costs here. How do I adjust for that?

2. I have so many questions on putting a budget into action, for instance: Short of calculating out each ingredient you use every day for a week, how to know what you are spending when you shop for bulk and canned items at a Costco type store? For example, I know what the case of black beans cost me when I bought it but how does that factor into my weekly budget if I use a can here and there in my cooking for the next month or two? If my envelope is empty because I went Costco shopping for goods that will last more than a week, than what am I supposed to do? Maybe I actually do NEED to write every single item down each day?

I really want to make this change for my family and want to start with food budget and recreation budget but there must be a resource out there that is accurate and free that other people endorse!! Please tell me what it is!!

Thanks for your help!

[makalani]

Me again, hubby is standing over my shoulder and suggested I other "situations" that leave me feeling frustrated when I am trying to trach what we spend to eat! Such as:

1. Flour! I bake a lot and so I buy a big bag of flour, 10 pounds usually. It will last me over a month so how do i track what i use short of calculating whjat each cup costs and recording every single cup I use? Is that what I need to be doing?

What about bulk shredded cheese? I buy a 5 poubnd bag and freeze smaller amounts in ziplock bags. I don't measure what I use to make lasagna for example because I have made it for so many years that I just "add it". So I make lasagna this week, do I need to measure out my exact cheese use, decide how much that amount cost me and deduct it from my weekly budget?

These bul items are throwing mer for a loop and makes budgeting feel impossible! Makes me want to crawl in a hole!!

[eggsandpancakes]

Save your receipts for a month or two. It's not so much important that you know how much the serving per person is, as it is you know that you spend $350 at local grocery and $40 a month at the fruit stand.

[cappuccinosmom]

I don't know about others, but I do things "backwards"

When it's time to re-evaluate the grocery budget, I go over the previous month's grocery reciepts to see the monthly total. If I knew that I was lax with planning and not careful shopping, I notch the budget down and set up a better meal plan for the coming month. I don't do weekly budgets, but monthly.

If you do quite a bit of bulk shopping, I might separate the bulk items from the rest of the groceries. So you're taking inventory and say "Oh, I'm going to need flour this month, and cheese". Those will come from your bulk category. But weekly milk will come from the regular grocery budget.

IMO, rather than trying to follow someone else's plan, spend a few months "tinkering" and come up with somethign that works for you and doesn't confuse you. I've found that the articles and blogs only help so much. Good money saving tips, and that sort of thing, but we don't all think about things along exactly the same lines, so what's "easy" and "simple" to one person is downright overwhelming to another.

[Delicateflower]

I would figure out what you're spending now, figure out what you can afford, then try and live within that for a couple of months. If you're feeling deprived maybe it could be higher, if it's easy maybe lower it.

IME of reading on here the range goes from $70-80 per week (which I can't imagine coping on) to most people on here around $125-200 for two adults and two kids (bearing in mind most people on here probably buy more fresh food and a higher amount of organic than the average family).

The way I even out the bulk purchases (I buy a ton when something's on sale, or a lot on a costco trip) is to have cash for groceries, and the cash rolls over from week to week. If you need more control than that, set aside some amount from each week's budget and put it in an envelope for costco. Or make the first weekend of the month costco day and you have $x to spend.

When I get out of control I go back to making a list for each store and only buying from that list for a few weeks. You could maybe start with that. If you're anything like me you really buy the same things over and over.

here's a thread I started that had some good advice in it.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1074416

[LaLaLaLa]

I don't have a Costco membership and don't buy a whole lot of stuff in bulk, but there are a handful of things that we buy that are significantly more expensive than the rest of the stuff on our list. I tend to try to stagger them, buying one expensive item a week, instead of having to deal with all of it at once.

When I started trying to budget, it was simply a game at first. I'd bring along a pen and paper, and calculate as I shopped. Can I get from one end of the store to the other on only fifty bucks? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and over a period of a couple of months I was able to determine what a reasonable weekly amount was that didn't leave our family feeling totally deprived.

It's overwhelming if you try to follow a website's calculations for what you spend. If you have a little time and a little wiggle room, just start tracking yourself and you should be able to come up with a baseline figure.

[lotus.blossom]

Can you do a bulk shop once a month? On a separate day from your regular weekly grocery shop? I have found it impossible to stick to a budget and until recently I was spending $150-180/week on groceries. I have cut that literally in HALF by couponing/shopping sales/shopping rite aid for personal items. I spend right around $75 on food and $25ish on personal care (and not every week). But right now I am also stocking up on things to throw into my pantry/freezer for winter and I have a lot of produce coming out of my garden so it will likely change a bit this winter.

I highly recommend looking into some blogs on the subject of couponing that would be local to you. People say- Oh I don't use products that have coupons but you'd be surprised at what you can get for free or cheap that you normally buy. Doesn't exactly answer you question but its along the same lines of finding a way to stick to a budget.

[2lilsweetfoxes]

What we did was go over the sales flyers each week and see what is on sale and plan our meals around the sales and specials. Then, we take $160 (for a family of 5) for the week's spending. We average about $100 on groceries, then have $25 for tithe, and the remainder for gas/fun.

[zebra15]

I know what funds I have available to spend then I make it work from there.

I shop at costco/sams and usually vist one of them every 2 weeks or so. DS loves deli meat and they are so much cheaper. Plus bags of chips, produce and a few other things.

I do not calculate per meal or per person but I know a 5 lb bag of cheese should last so many weeks etc. So I work in the cost of that cheese monthly.

[makalani]

So happy to find all of these wonderful responses this morning! I so greatly appreciate all of your input and I feel much better about diving into my budget! I have all of my receipts and I am going to see what I can come up with!

As for the cuponing advice, aside from my local flyers, is there a resource online that is good for finding cupons? I have done a bit of cuponing here and there, mostly frozen veggies and pasta since that seems to be the only things we eat that I see cupons for in my local flyer. Thanks! I will san the forum too to see if there are some threads on cuponing as well.

[applecider]

I agree with PPs. It really doesn't have to be too complicated. I just kept track of what I was spending each month and then averaged it out. If times are lean, I try and tone it down a notch.

[HappyMommy2]

Amy Dacyczyn's "The Tightwad Gazette" has lots of frugal ideas. And great cheap recipes. You can also find lots of cheap recipes on these boards.

Her budget allows her to stock up when things go on sale, and also to buy things like flour in bulk. She has a number in her head, and logs food expenditures for the month. If she is getting close to the top, she just eats from the freezer/pantry for several upcoming meals.

There is a great thread about eating from the pantry. Also - I always try to go 2-3 more days before going to the grocery store. If i do this a couple times a month, it really lowers the budget. I will have my hubby stop at Cumby's and get a gallon of milk, sometimes, and that gets us through the extra days. Plus it is great to clean out the freezer and pantry to make room for new things.

For your situation, I would agree with doing it "backwards". Figure out what you spent last month, and then try to trim some off of that. Maybe $50 or $100. You don't want to do too much at once or everyone will get frustrated and quit. Then next month, you can take another $25 off, as a goal.

There are tons of tips on here. Once of my favorite thing is to do planned leftovers. Make a roast one night, and use the meat in something else tomorrow. Like roasted chicken, and then bone broth with noodles/veggies. Pulled pork and then pork enchiladas. Beef roast, then stroganoff.

[lotus.blossom]

A couple online sites for coupons are redplum, smartsource, and
coupons . com Sometimes its the same thing that is in the newspaper insert. Also there are some blogs that you can follow that will do sale/coupon matchups for you and do the legwork for finding internet coupons from the manufacteror. Do some googling and you can find one that will post the deals for your local store of choice. oh and make sure you find a store that will double coupons. I made the switch from a more popular chain to a less popular chain because of doubling. Double coupons + sales will often get you free stuff (for instance I'm getting paid .10 for buying Goldfish this week because of a sale and coupon double)

[Amys1st]

I can totally see your point about pulling from so many different places, its impossible to figure out where to start.

Can I suggest jumping in on the latest and greatest pantry challenge? There is always someone trying to cut back or just use up etc and when they started several years ago, it has taught me how to really see what is in my house and how to track my use of food plus spending.

We have a xeroxed calendar on our fridge to aid our meal planning. This idea was taken from my MIL who has done it for years. She claims my way is better even though 20 plus years ago, I saw her doing this...LOL

We pencil in a few days out what is for dinner each evening. Pencil, because things change as the day and/or week go on so it can be changed. Everything is also what we have on hand, so it can be swapped with another day. It also makes sure I use up stuff as well instead of trashing it.

I make enough at dinner for some leftovers the following day, which DH takes with him to work.

I also track every penny spent on groceries per month or 30 day period. It gives me an idea where I am at.

Shop loss leaders and stock up on sale items. Such as chicken goes on big time sale about every 5-6 weeks or so where I live. We stock up on either several whole chickens or whatever is on sale. Trim, cut up etc and freeze in invidiual sized chicken pieces. Right before holidays, baking needs and ingredients go on sale. Buy what you need for your meal and stock up on extra so you have it.

Places such as Trader Joes, dosnt have sales, but distance out time between each visit and stock up what you buy. It saves a bit of $$ from not going several times a month but just once or twice.

[GuildJenn]

You can look at it as a process, not a day you start your budget wham forever.

For us I kind of run it a few ways in my head and adjust as I go. The three main steps that save me money are:

1. Meal planning (including planned leftovers) and planning meals that aren't reliant on expensive stuff like those boneless skinless chicken breasts all the time.
2. Shopping on sale/loss leader as much as possible, especially for regular, non-perishable stuff.
3. Avoiding stores which are higher priced or which encourage me to buy a lot of other stuff (Costco fits into this category for me although we did rejoin this year to make a couple of purchases.)

So I sit down with the flyers each week and plan the meals based on the fresh things that are on sale or anything 'main'. I don't spend too much time going from store to store - I pick one or two that have what we want on sale -and- where prices are generally reasonable if I'm also picking up non-sale items. If nothing we really eat is on sale then I go to my "cheap and delicious" meals that are always reasonably priced. So if steak is on a great sale, hey, we'll have steak. If not, we'll have lentils and rice.

After that I add in the kind of non-negotiables (milk, eggs, etc.). And then after that I stock up on regular/pantry items that are on sale.

If that all goes over budget then I just weigh a few things. Like diced tomatoes are on a great sale but I have 7 cans already, so I'll let that sale go this time. Or the steak really was extravagant. If there's extra we just save it.

I don't really run budgets per serving or per meal, but I do sometimes run a minor/quick calculation in my head just to compare or to crow about my amazing skilz.

For bulk I either track sales or just know what's cheaper (generally) at Costco. Like nuts for baking I almost always buy at Costco, also almond butter and a few other things. For things like flour the sales here are pretty predictable - flour goes on sale next in the pre-holiday baking season.

I'm not that into coupons - if they come my way and it's really something we use I use them, but we don't have double coupon days or anything that really makes it worth my while.