Comments on: 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget: Yes, You Need a Budget

By: Monroe on a Budget

Monroe on a Budget — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:41:15 +0000

Here’s a nifty way to figure out a reasonable grocery budget.

Go to the USDA’s Cost of Food site: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm

Then use the charts to look up the demographics of your family. You want your food groceries to be at or near “thrifty” range.

By: sara

sara — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:30:47 +0000

I have a $50 a week grocery budget for my family of five-this also includes toiletries/HBA and household goods like paper products and cleaning supplies. I also bring in cash at the store-our checkbook and debit cards are locked in our safe We now eat much healthier than when I had a bigger budget-I’ve really cut back on the junk food and processed meals. Great series!
sara http://myfrugalfunlife.blogspot.com/

By: 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget: The Buy Ahead Principle :: Money Saving Mom

31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget: The Buy Ahead Principle :: Money Saving Mom — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:01:23 +0000

[...] when it is at it’s rock-bottom price. Instead, I purchase as many items as I can afford in my grocery budget to tide me over until the next sale. For many people who are used to buying only what groceries [...]

By: Joanna

Joanna — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:25:05 +0000

I have a question about your budget (and I hope this isn’t redundant from an earlier post, etc) – does your grocery budget include only food, or household items as well? I feel like I spend so much each time I go to the grocery store but I’m realizing I don’t actually spend that much on food – a lot of what I consider grocery spending is actually on household items. Anyway, I’m following the series and hoping it will help, but was curious about that. Thanks!

By: Suzie

Suzie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:05:47 +0000

Thanks for the motivation! I have 5 children.. and our grocery budget is OUT OF CONTROL. I will be coming back for more!

Suzie
http://www.asktheebayqueen.com

By: 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget: Menu Planning Saves Your Sanity--and Your Budget! :: Money Saving Mom

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:25:38 +0000

[...] Crystal on March 4, 2010Missed the first posts this series? Read them here.Not only do I believe having a set amount to spend at the grocery store is imperative for lowering your grocery budget, but I also believe menu-planning is a must.Menu [...]

By: LeaDawn

LeaDawn — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:15:46 +0000

@Nan15, There are only 2 in my family, but we have been able to save a ton on personal care products by playing the drug store game. Register Rewards deals paired with coupons has allowed me to pay pennies on the dollar to stock up on personal care products & medicine. This has left a lot more wiggle room in our budget for foods.

By: LeaDawn

LeaDawn — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:08:55 +0000

@Melody, Good work!! My husband and I are preparing to go to 4 years of vet school. We are hoping to pay off any loans we get as soon as we can after vet school. It is so motivating to see others who have worked so hard to pay off their loans.

By: LeaDawn

LeaDawn — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:05:04 +0000

@Reesa, Reesa, I totally agree! Somewhere in our strict, money saving budgets we have to add a little room for us. Saving money should be an adventure for the whole family. Once a budget becomes something fun it is much easier to stick with it!

By: Margaret

Margaret — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:08:52 +0000

Great post – thanks.
I started couponing last June and I’ve already seen some huge savings. I am tracking my monthly expenses.
We were spending WAY more than the tiny budget mentioned by some of you super savers – but I’m working on it.

I love the idea of challenging yourself to a lower budget. I think this is my next step in lowering my budget!! Some small incemental changes over the next 6 to 12 months will really make a difference, I’m sure!

By: Crystal

Crystal — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:45:18 +0000

Yes, stayed tuned for the rest of this series. We’ll be talking about a whole lot of things you can do besides coupons.

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:11:02 +0000

@Andrea, Barb, I bought an Entertainment book and found GFS coupons in there!! I decided the book MORE than paid for itself with just a couple of coupons used, and also have been buying White Cloud tp (4 dbl rolls) at Walmart for $2 a pkg. I combine that with $1 off coupons, and get the equivalent of 8 rolls for $1, plus about 10 cents per coupon. So I will spend $22.00 for 20 packs of tp (8 roll equiv. in each) and the cost of coupons. That's 160 rolls' worth for $22. Better than GFS.

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:06:12 +0000

@Andrea, Andrea, I feel you on the shampoo! I bought a ton of it last year for maybe 10 cents a bottle, and am stocked up. It doesn't go bad, but like you, I won't go get more unless it's completely free. We have a budget of $100 per week for a family of 5. This doesn't include tp or diapers, etc. Just food. But in actuality, we only need about $75 a week to provide us with our needs, so that extra $25 a week goes toward buying up bulk food and spices/teas. If you put away just $25 a week, you have $1300 extra a year to buy up canned chili when on sale, or bulk-purchased potato flakes (I just paid only $40 for a 40 lb bag, will last a year.) It's tempting to pocket that $25 a week for something else, like a vacation, and I guess you could do that. For us, it makes more sense to treat the household like a business. You roll over the funds into future investments to save money.

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:45:41 +0000

@Shelley, I agree with you, Shelley! We average about 75-80% savings with sales and coupons. It’s only that amount because we also buy produce, meat and milk that don’t have coupons…otherwise, if we only tallied the sale-with-coupon items, we’d probably be 90% or greater in savings. I get a whole lot free or almost free. I can always find a place to store the food…even under the bed is fine for canned pineapple or tuna! I set a budget, of course…and then I get what I will need for that week/month and whatever is left over is used for stocking up. If I trimmed the amount to only cover what we need to eat and survive that week/month, I will find myself paying more on food because I won’t be buying up at rock-bottom prices. I find that sale items generally do a 3-month rotation. If you only buy what you absolutely need, you won’t have anything to fall back on, either, if you should lose a job or something happen to impede your grocery shopping. In our house, we have stocked up so well and so cheaply that if we did lose a job, we’d be able to eat from the freezers and pantry for months, until DH could find a job. In this economy, you almost have to, to have some peace of mind.

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:33:42 +0000

@Cathi, What helped me to start stockpiling was to take a small amount of money and put it away, every week. You won’t miss it. Then, when you see Tide on sale, with a coupon, you can stock up–but it depends upon how good a deal you got…I bought All detergent, big liquid bottles, with $2 coupons and only paid $.97 each for them. I bought 20 for that price, (there are many sources for free or cheap coupons, including the product’s page on the web) and so we won’t need detergent for close to a year. Now, having said that, I also got coupons for Finish dishwasher compound and paid only $1 per box, which washes about 30-40 loads. Again, stocked up for a year. You keep adding to that fund, and rolling the money over. The money you won’t spend on All or Finish for that year can pay for stocking up on something else. You also can’t be too brand loyal and really save the maximum. You must be flexible. So if that Tide had $1 off but you could get All for half the price of Tide without a coupon, try the All. You may be surprised at how little you have to spend to achieve the same results.

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:24:59 +0000

@Tara, You guys are going to hate seeing me on here, I have commented so much! Here it is: I cook a 6qt crockpot full of chicken one day, and one of hamburger the next (or I will use two crockpots) and when it’s done, I bag the meats up into serving sizes in freezer bags and freeze. I write the date and the contents on the bags. This cuts WAY down on prep time when I am rushing. I also wash my produce and chop/grate while I am watching tv. Again, I store the veg in the fridge. Depending upon my menu ideas for the week, I will cook up a big pot of rice and/or pasta and store in fridge. When I am looking for something quick to make for dinner, I defrost that pkg of shredded chicken and set out sour cream, cheese, drained bought-on-sale tomato dices, lettuce and a jar of salsa…then I heat up the chicken in a pan with some fajita seasoning bought in bulk, and heat tortillas or open a bag of store-brand tortilla chips. You can even add a few cans of corn in a dish and microwave. I mean, it’s easy to make a quick meal this way. I bought a book on mega-cooking…way too much cash outlay and way too complicated for me…and… It doesn’t take much time to throw raw meat in a slow cooker or scoop it out into freezer bags…I noticed that many times I had resorted to tv dinners/frozen lasagne or even takeout, it was because I had no meat thawed and it was just too complicated. We eat so much better now!

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:11:13 +0000

@Crystal, The only thing I would interject is that if you are setting up a grocery budget for the first time, consider realistically what you actually live like...if you eat out a lot because you are always being a chauffeur for your kids' sports, then loading up on flour and raw materials for cooking is not going to work. Figure out what sort of lifestyle works for your family. If you ARE the mom would drives thru for dinner because you feel you have no time, buy a nice crockpot and go online for recipes. Buy a pressure cooker, esp the new electric ones. Don't set yourself up for failure by expecting to have the same financial results as your neighbor, who is a stay-at-home mom and has more time at home to cook from scratch. Do the "semi-homemade" idea. Then you can prep veggies when you get home from the store on Sunday (or whenever you shop), cook your meats in the crockpot/pressure cooker for the WEEK so they are quick to assemble and actually save money while eating better. But don't put undue pressure on yourself to whittle that budget down to a particular amount. You really CAN'T eat out 5 nights a week cheaply, esp not as cheaply as just cooking good food quickly. You'll eat better and have less stress. Your food in a crockpot can cook while you are out. Hope that is not too confusing!!

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:55:20 +0000

@Bethany, Yes, Nan, and also, if you know in your mind that you can go over the set budget because you have your card or checkbook, you will. If you only have so much cash with you, you will COUNT those items and tally the bill before you go to the checkout so you don't get embarrassed and have to put stuff back because you went over the budget. It definitely makes you more accountable.

By: Crystal Freeland

Crystal Freeland — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:48:47 +0000

@Reesa, You all are so right! I have been getting things free or nearly free for years and have decided that when I am budgeting, I am not only buying for now, but for later...as in, stocking up my pantry, with coupon-and-sale bought items! My secret is that I take a portion of money from my tax refund every year and use it as a fund for stocking up on super-cheap items. I have resources for bulk foods at rock-bottom prices, and will not hesitate to buy what I will use for 6mos-1yr. We have a large family, and also have found that buying/investing in an electric pressure cooker (or a regular one, esp if your children aren't small) is a great idea. You can bake a whole chicken in the time it takes your kids to watch Spongebob. It's quicker, cheaper and better than delivery pizza and worth the money you'll spend for it. You won't feel pushed into take-out or delivery if you can fix dinner so quickly!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:04:06 +0000

We have been living on a budget for the last few months and my grocery bill either busts my budget or I feel stressed a lot of the time because I know we’re almost out of money in that area. I buy almost no processed foods and I’m wondering if that is why my monthly groceries are so high. We’re a family of 6 (the youngest on formula and 2 babies in diapers – cha ching!) and I’ve got a $600 a month budget for this area. The normal coupons that circulate don’t help me very often…do you have any suggestions for staying with our healthy eating and cooking while still saving money? Thanks a ton!