How can I track what we spend on food?

[ElsieLC]

This is such a basic question I am almost embarrassed to post.

We pay for groceries with credit cards (which we pay off each month). Sometimes DH does the shopping, sometimes me. I'm a SAHM, so most of the food prep and planning is my job. I also have time to go to extra stores to chase down hot deals.

Every few months, DH pulls our credit card spending info into Quicken and produces a report of how well we stuck to our budget...six months ago.

I'm looking for a more immediate way of tracking our success at being frugal. I suggested we could save our food/grocery receipts, and then...umm...write them on a piece of paper and...uh...then what? I'm not worried about strictly sticking to a monthly budget (I don't care if it averages out over a couple months), but I do want some feedback (without waiting six months). I would be much more motivated to work on this if I could track my own progress.

[texmati]

Don't feel embarrassed-- on paper, we look fiscally responsible, but I don't understand this one issue. How to track? Not just food, but all money spent on discretionary items-- clothing/entertainment/gifts.

I feel like in this day of pda's and auto payments, there should be a way to do this auto-magically.

[aturnbg]

I'm a huge tracker of my family spending and do all the bills and put all the reciepts into Quickens myself.

1. Do you know how to use Quickens yourself?
2. Are you good w/ Excel or microsoft spreadsheets?

You can do it in either one honestly. I made subcatagories in Quickens for my purchases - like Groceries - a. Food b. health and Beauty c. paper products d. baby diapers, etc., etc. You can make as many and taylor it to your needs. Then at then end of month make a report of your grocery expenses.

You can do something similar in Excel or a spreadsheet. Just make a weekly line and put your amount you spend in a catagory.

[Alyantavid]

Can't you look at your monthly bill? Or keep your receipts?

I'd keep a list of what you spent on a spreadsheet or something like that. You could even break it down by what you're paying for each item.

[Malva]

You could check out PearBudget even if you only use it to track your spending. It's online and I think it's free for the first 30 days.

[sunsetdancer]

Can't you download the info yourself? Or have your DH download it monthly. From the times I've used that feature from my credit card or bank, it's been pretty easy.

Otherwise, it would be easy to set up a budget in Excel and just plug in the receipts after each trip (or any other interval that works for you). Just get into the habit of putting the receipts into an envelope when you get home from the store. There are various online programs that could do the same thing as a basic Excel spreadsheet.

[luv-my-boys]

when I first started working with a budget when we got married I used various tracking software (there are now some grocery ones online) where you literally plug in the numbers and it helps produce a chart or graph for you. For instance it would tell me actual dollar amts and % that I would spend on produce, toiletries and the like. It helped me see where in my grocery bill I was spending the lot of our money. I agree with others make a envelope and put your receipts in it, I usually put the amt on the outside so I can keep a running tally month to month.

[stardogs]

I used Excel to track expenses when I was on my own - I'd save the receipts and at the end of each month put them into a new page with sections for my main spending categories. I'd total each category once everything was entered.

Now DH uses a program for tracking the same info and we still do it once a month, but he uses receipts, credit card statements, and info from our various bank accounts to ensure accuracy. I'll see if I can get the name when he gets home this evening - it's not Quicken, but similar.

[cappuccinosmom]

If your Quicken is attached to your credit card and bank accounts, spending should show up pretty much immediately.

Otherwise, at the very least you should be able to see your credit card statements online every month, and they will detail where the money is spent.

But really, there's nothing wrong with keeping reciepts and totting up the numbers monthly. I have a basket with my budget folder, and I just toss reciepts into there every time I get them. Then 1-2 times a month I sort through them and look at my spending.

[Denvergirlie]

it's as simple as saving your reciepts and adding them up.
Or as others mentioned, update Quicken more frequently.

[GuildJenn]

I download from our bank and it goes into Quicken - I just have to categorize certain expenses. I use debit (Canada) but Quicken knows all the grocery stores I shop at so categorizes them automatically.

If it's all on one card, I'd just add it up from the statement probably.

[phathui5]

You could write it down every time you spend money on food.

[Poddi]

How about save all the receipts and put them all in a box? Then you can add them up by the end of the month. I myself use a separate bank account for food purchase. I just log in once a month to check the balance.

[brennasmom]

I just post my totals in an excel worksheet. Keeps it easy!

[OkiMom]

Something thats been really helping me keep track better (Im really bad at forgetting reciepts or leaving them places where the kids can get to them) is I got a planner that had a zipper front and I put all my reciepts in there. Also comes in handy for the shopping lists and coupons when I go shopping so I don't forget my list anymore.
Im glad I got the planner when I did, they had it on sale and I figured I wouldn't find another one I liked that would work for what I needed (planning, homeschool stuff and tracking) so I might as well pick it up. Cost me 4.00 a lot better than the one my DH wanted to get me that was over 20.

[*MamaJen*]

This is an easy one...use mint.com. I'm totally addicted to it. I use my debit card for everything, and it links with your bank accounts or credit cards and charts where the money is going. It's a free program. Very cool.

[A&A]

Look at your credit cards online, daily. You can see how much you're spending at what stores (and just dedicate one card to grocery/food spending.)

[matthia]

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Originally Posted by ElsieLC

This is such a basic question I am almost embarrassed to post.

We pay for groceries with credit cards (which we pay off each month). Sometimes DH does the shopping, sometimes me. I'm a SAHM, so most of the food prep and planning is my job. I also have time to go to extra stores to chase down hot deals.

Every few months, DH pulls our credit card spending info into Quicken and produces a report of how well we stuck to our budget...six months ago.

I'm looking for a more immediate way of tracking our success at being frugal. I suggested we could save our food/grocery receipts, and then...umm...write them on a piece of paper and...uh...then what? I'm not worried about strictly sticking to a monthly budget (I don't care if it averages out over a couple months), but I do want some feedback (without waiting six months). I would be much more motivated to work on this if I could track my own progress.

We have an exact budget for food that we try our hardest to stick to each month. This amount is split in two because my husband get paid bi-monthly. In an effort to keep us on track, we have a dry erase board on the fridge and every single time we do any kind of groceries we write the amount down on the board and keep a running total. We put EVERYTHING on credit cards, which I go over at the end of the month, so I keep track of our monthly budget that way. But having an in-you-face running balance at the fridge means I don't have to try keep track in my head throughout the month. At the end of two weeks, I erase it all and start again.

I SUCK at keeping receipts and when you throw in my husband, it just never worked for us. Writing down each amount as we're putting things away is pretty dummy proof for us. We almost never forget or "lose a receipt" anymore.

I find it REALLY helps to keep on track too. If it's Wednesday of the first week and we've already spent 100$, it's time to dig into the pantry and fridge and make do with what we have. Not only does it make us more financially responsible, we also tend to waste less food now than we were because we are more aware of what's in the fridge. It really works for us.

[Kyamo]

At the end of every month, I look at the credit card bills (and bank account statement, for debit transactions, bill payments, etc) and add up what we spent in each category. Doing it for 6 months ago doesn't work for me, because I'll see a charge at Canadian Tire or some other store that sells many categories of things, and I won't remember if it was for house repair, food, a gift, household, "fun" spending, or whatever else. But if it was less than a month ago, I will usually remember what we bought and be able to put it in the right category.

ETA: And I enter the totals of each category into an Excel spreadsheet (each column is a category, each row is a month) so I can track the average spending of each category.

[redvlagrl]

We used to do the same (pay off credit card each month, use for groceries etc) but we decided that we couldn't track accurately.

We decided to go to a cash system because essentially we were a month in arrears (we paid the previous month's bill while we were in the next month). We also didn't have absolute control or transparency about where the monies were going. What if we went to a store and bought groceries and clothing? How to track that?

So we are doing a cash envelope system and we love it. We have some student loans that we want to pay off faster so it is helping with that, especially with me being at home this year (and not getting any pay). This way we absolutely know we are within our means.

We use an excel sheet to budget. Before we did cash I used to use excel and used it like an old style ledger with colums for each type of expense. I would type in each receipt at the end of the day.