Grocery Budget: A Different Perspective

 

One of our goals this year is to get our finances back on the fast track. For the most part, my husband handles the finances in our home. And we're both okay with that! It stresses me out too much, but he actually enjoys it. I do almost all the shopping in our home, so I'm in charge of the grocery budget.

I hate to say it, but I wasn't exactly great with the grocery budget last year. I'd make two weeks worth of menu plans and the grocery list. Then, off to the bank for the budgeted cash before shopping. I tried to make sure to allow some wiggle room, in case we needed anything else before next pay day. More times than not, I would eventually spend that left over cash. Then, before pay day, I'd ask Hubby to stop at the store on his way home for a quick thing or two I "needed." So, yep, I realize I've been slacking.

A Different Perspective

A couple of weeks ago, I read a book called The American Frugal Housewife. This book was written in 1832 by Lydia Maria Francis Child. A lot of the book I skimmed through. Much of it consists of recipes that are hard to understand because of ingredients and methods that no longer exist. But, one of the things I read that really stood out was when she was talking about home economy. I'm paraphrasing, but Ms. Child said if you have 1 dollar to spend per day, spend no more than 75 cents.

Hmm. I obviously know what I have to spend every 2 weeks. And it's not difficult to work out the math to see what the monthly grocery budget is. But each day? Maybe I'm the odd one out, but I've never broken down the grocery budget into daily terms. When I took my bi-weekly budget and broke it down into 14 days, I was amazed. I looked at what three-quarters of that every day would look like, as Ms. Child suggests. It seemed more than enough! Granted, with my grocery money, I fit in everything. Food, paper products, toiletries, cleaning products, supplements, and cat and dog food. But still, I'm not always going to spend the full allotted daily amount on food alone. I can even say most days I wouldn't.

My New Plans

I found with my old way of doing things, we were wasting quite a bit of food. Fresh produce bought for 2 weeks worth of meals would go bad before we used it all. Forgotten leftovers were often moved to the back of the fridge, only to be tossed later as well. I wanted to find a way to reduce all that waste. Because we live very close to all the stores I frequent, I decided to do a trial-run of a 3-day plan. I will expand it to a week once I am confident that this will work for us.

1. Make menu plans for 3 days
2. Write shopping list
3. Take 3 days allotment of cash shopping
4. Try to only spend 3/4 of cash

I had my first go at this yesterday, and it worked out so well! I'm excited to see if I can keep it up. I actually spent under the 3/4 of the cash for everything I needed for 3 days! So, I will be able to put away the other 1/4 of the money and save the rest for those just-in-case moments. Plus, I'm hoping shopping more often will encourage a lot less waste!

Obviously, if you live far enough away from where you shop that gas is an issue, the 3-day plan is not going to be very economical. So make sure you work out a schedule that is not going to cost you more than you save. But, if you've never figured out how much you have for a daily grocery budget, still take a look! It may seem like such a small thing. But sometimes, just that slight change in perspective can make a huge difference in how you think about something!