Budget, Encouragement, Groceries

The Good and Bad News of Overhauling the Monthly Grocery Budget

Posted by Melanie Anderson on

The bad news: a lot of the month’s budget is spent on food

The good news: a lot of the month’s budget is spent on food

Meaning, you’re in control of a dollar amount and that can be widely adjusted.

I thought before doing a grocery budget that being savvy with food for the family would mean me manically driving all over town to so many different stores to get a couple pennies saved. When actually, with primarily shopping for food at one store (with the addition of one other stop for eggs for cheaper elsewhere), with purpose, direction and focus, we’ve reduced our spending from $1,500 per month on food for our family of six to $233 per month on food for our family.  
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Ask

Something that helps first and foremost is asking, What do we HAVE for dinner? And what constitutes what we have is comes the clearanced food I’ve purchased and either have in the pantry or freezer.
A couple times a week around 8 AM when my local Kroger grocery store clearances their meat (do you know what time of day your local grocer clearances their meat? Call and ask.),  and I purchase meat that’s on better than normal sale or CLEARANCE. And then my husband researches tasty new recipes. supercook.com will take what you have in stock and give you optional recipes with those ingredients.
We had some Italian sausage last week I’d purchased pounds of (99 cents per pound). My husband made great meat balls and meaty spaghetti sauce. It was fabulous!

Planning But In Reverse

We don’t ask what we’d like to eat for dinner each night and write that out. We shop the steeply discounted foods, then go home and plan what will be prepared and eaten that week.
We’ve loved it. It’s transformed our grocery budget from $1500/month to $233/month. We’re trying new foods, eating tastier than ever and saving a lot of money.

Forget Dessert

Reduce dessert. We’ve limited dessert to generally twice a week – Fridays and Sundays. Dessert seems to taste better too when it’s not a routine item after every nightly supper.
As a result, we’re eating less sugar, enjoying the desserts we have, and saving money.

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