On changing grocery budgets
Recently, I had some temporary trouble sticking to my $150/week grocery budget, and quite a few readers asked me about whether I'd consider raising my budget.
Here's a somewhat representative question:
I'm curious at what point would you consider changing your budget, food or otherwise? I'm guessing you spend more on food with six people in the house than you did when it was just you and your husband, and I'm sure your kids' food intake has changed over the years. But when did you officially change the number?
Natalie
Back in the day, I spent between $80 and $100 per week on groceries. This was partly do-able because my kids were all smaller and less hungry, and partly because I was a whole lot more careful about what I bought.
Because Mr. FG's income has gone up, and because our kids are hungrier now, we felt like it was appropriate to bump it up to the current $150/week level.
This allows me to buy more food, and also allows me to venture beyond the very cheapest things at the grocery store.
As a result, we eat more cheese, fruits, nuts, vegetables, meats, and seafood than we did before, which is lovely.
I could definitely spend less than I currently do if I focused more time and energy on my spending and also if I changed what we eat. But at this point, we can afford $150/week, and normally I can stick to that fairly well without pouring a lot of hours into grocery savings.
So, that seems like the right amount for us. But if I start to consistently struggle to stay at $150, I'll rethink that amount.
On that note, how do you know when to change your budget?
- If you haven't changed anything with your shopping/eating habits, and it's getting really hard to stay within your budget, it might be time for a change.
(Growing families and rising food prices can make this happen!)
- If you are at a point in life where you have more budgetary wiggle room, and you'd like to not think so hard about grocery spending, you might want to bump up your budget.
- If you've decided to change your eating habits (dietary needs, a renewed emphasis on healthy and/or local eating, etc.), you'll probably need to rethink your budget.
Of course, this assumes you have some wiggle room with your finances.
If you don't have extra money to throw at groceries right now, look at some other budgetary categories. Is there some other expense you could reduce or get rid of entirely? If so, you could use those savings to increase your grocery budget.
Readers, how did you decide on your grocery budget amount? And how do you know when it's time to change it?
P.S. On a related note, here are my top ten ways to save on groceries.
So many different factors go into grocery budgets. I’m shooting for $150 a week for my family of 4, right now. That doesn’t include my farm share, but it does include our household cleaners and most personal care stuff. Some parts of my budget I could probably lower by changing brands, but we like buying the locally made peanut butter and the organic whole wheat bread, and good olive oil is important to me. Other parts of my budget are more difficult to change, because my younger daughter has food allergies. For us, $150 “feels” right and do-able, but I don’t make myself crazy if I go a little over, because right now we can afford it.
We don’t have a grocery budget. After years of scrimping and saving, after we got jobs the biggest freedom in the world has been to be able to get whatever we want at the grocery store. It also keeps our eating out costs down. (We spend $400-$800/month for a family of four and two cats, including cleaning supplies and toiletries, mostly organic, so we’re not breaking the bank even if costs are half or double some months.)
Great answer, Kristen! I think our grocery budget has gone up after Mr. FAF got a job too. We eat more fruits besides the cheap options like apples and bananas.
I think growing kids also add to the food expenses too. I think our 3yo easy even more than my MIL!
We've set a budget ($1000 per month for a family of 4) so that I can plan meals, go to the grocery store, and buy the food on my shopping list. As long as I'm not buying salmon or beef tenderloin more than twice a month, I don't really need to worry. Occasionally in the last week of the month, things are a little tight, but that just means planning carefully and buying fewer snacks. There are many foods, such as flour and pasta, where I buy only one brand, because the others do not taste as good or work as well in recipes.
It's a matter of priorities. I think huge variety in what fruits and vegetables we eat is very important for good nutrition, and so can't just fill up on the cheap stuff. I also thing a healthy diet is about half plant foods and half animal foods, and the animal foods are much more expensive than crackers or bread. I'm not willing to comprimise my family's nutrition for the sake of the budget, so we've set the budget so that I can buy what we need.
Our budget is $150 a week for a family of five, including toiletries. It’s tough, but necessary... We’re a single income home, and have debt to pay off. On the plus side, our kids are still young. By the time we have three teenagers, we should be able to up the budget accordingly. 😉
The hardest thing has been giving up the “elite” foods I cane to believe were necessary... At the end of the day, a conventional apple is better than no fresh fruit at all - vs buying all organic and barely scraping by every week.
We dont keep to a budget but our grocery bills have definitely gone up now that I’m pregnant with twins. It’s my first pregnancy and I really did not expect how hungry I would be ALL THE TIME.
Congrats on your pregnancy!
Congratulations! My twins just turned 13 this weekend.. and YES.. the hunger is there early on in the pregnancy. The further you go you will not be able to eat near as much at a time.. so you will often feel like all you are doing is snacking! And that is FINE! If you have not already.. up your protein! Increased protein has been correlated and connected to multiples pregnancies carrying longer and babies being bigger and healthier! Obviously there are MANY factors you cannot control.. but every effort helps!
Best of luck!
We are a family of 5: me, my husband, two boys (8 and 6) and a girl (10 months). Our budget for a long time was $500 a month and I didn't really go by weeks because some weeks I would spend more if something was on sale. But in the last few months as our daughter has begun eating solid foods, I felt like every week I went over and the last week of the month was extremely stressful. What I did to figure out how much to change it was to look at the last year (thanks, Pearbudget!) and how much I had gone over and finding the average of what we had actually ended up spending. It came out to around $540/month, so that's what we've raised our budget to. This is the first month we've done it and just $10 extra dollars a week has really helped! We adjusted by cutting down our eating out category (which had been $100) to $45 which means we can all go out to eat once a month, with a few treats thrown in throughout the month.
We are a family of 5 with kids 13-18 years old. Oldest off at college this year for the first time. He is my biggest eater. I consistently spend about $180 a week. I don't have a hard and fast budget and we do eat out a couple of times on the weekend. I have been surprised that my grocery bill hasn't gone down more with my son being away. I think I've just had more food waste to be honest. It is something I need to get a better handle on, but I feel like I deserve a medal for actually meal planning, shopping and cooking most of the time. I don't really want to spend any more mental energy on it.
I hear you! Medals all around for people who cook dinner.
We budget $550 for two adults. Some weeks we spend less, some more. We are a bit older and when my husband got a new job we decided not to worry so much about the numbers. The more we spend at the grocery store the less we eat out, and since we are trying to eat healthier, this works out well for us.
We are a young couple and we average $100-$125 per week including toiletries. We eat pretty cheaply and rarely go out. We eat healthy by eating a lot of frozen vegetables which are fast and affordable.
It's my first time living alone, and right now I do have a bit of wiggle room in my budget, so what I'm doing is trying to cook and eat good, balanced meals, keeping in mind the principles of frugal eating (eat at home, cheap-ish ingredients, don't buy more than I need, etc). I shop at my cheapest local grocery store, and I track how much I spend. Since September, I've been able to come up with an average of about 45 dollars a week. I'm moving in few months, so right now I'm trying to shop my pantry, which will bring my bill down.
That's a smart idea! It's a pain to move food, and you'd hate to throw it away...so, better to just eat your pantry down.
I'm sure I mentioned before that we shop organic, from-the-farm, etc., these days, so our grocery bill is high for two people. However, I include cleaners and toiletries in my grocery budget, which I need to stop doing -- I can't tell how much we actually are spending on food.
When the kids were home, I'd say I also altered my budget when I saw I consistently went over budget, no matter what I tried. If I couldn't make from-scratch, basic meals for every meal with what I had budgeted, and I knew I wasn't buying a lot of snacks or any junk food, then the budget had to change. Also, when I saw that the ground beef, milk, fresh fruit, and staples prices were consistently higher and not going back down, then I knew the budget was going to have to change. I kept a price book for years -- I wish I still had that old thing, because it really told the "tale of the rising prices" over time on my scribbled pages.
I'd like to read about what a price book is. I think I have seen it mentioned but don't know what it is. Do you write down the prices of things you often buy and how much it costs at different stores?
I first read about it in TheTightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczen. (I think I am pretty close to how her name is spelled. Lol) Basically you take a notebook and go around to the stores writing down their non-sale prices on the things you buy. With Instacart-type services now you could maybe do this online? I don't know if the prices are the same. Anyway, then you have a reference point for the best non-sale price on this or that. That allows you to not only buy things at the store that has them for the best price, but also you can recognize a truly excellent sale price and stock up. I haven't done one in years but it helped a lot and made me a lifelong "multiple store" shopper. My typical trip is a circuit of Aldi's, Fresh Thyme and Meijer or Kroger. Once a month I go to Whole Foods for meat and local honey.
Chris, thanks! I think I have many prices in my head, but this would be helpful! Maybe I will google it to see how to best set it up.
I have not done one, as I don't have many shopping options, yet have read about the system. Depending how you set it up, it might also include sale prices as many sales are cyclical or annual.
I'd also encourage you to make a note of great sale prices, the date, and the store. It's a good way to start getting a sense of when the sales happen. It's also useful to be able to look back a few months and see if a current sale is really a deal or if there's a chance a better sale will pop up.
Another way you can start your price book is to go through your receipts and note prices. You probably already have a good sense of the main items you usually buy. When I first set up a price book (years ago...thank you Amy Dacyzyn), I made a little notebook. Now I keep prices on my phone. I think it's better to do it by item, though. So have a page for milk (or ground beef, or tofu or whatever), and make a note of the brand, size, and price for each store you shop at. Then create a page for the next item. I don't worry about every single thing I buy, just the stuff I buy regularly that can vary the most in price.
Well for me, I like to go bare bone and to the minimum of low. Eventually though, after 2018, I imagine we would have to loosen up as food isn't getting cheaper so it's a bit dumb but we go by year! Just annual year to be rigid (dumb I know).
I've been struggling with this, too. We've made the switch to all organic produce and meats after some health issues. I was confident we could stick to $80 a week, but holy smokes, it's been a real challenge. We've been a lot more mindful of our cost per meal and budget, so I'm hoping we can get closer to our $400/mo goal. But yeah, it might be time to bump it to $500/mo.
We're making a lot more money now than we were when this budget was set. We really wanted to prioritize organic-only eating for our health, and for the health of future kiddos, too.
We're at $75 a week for a family of 3 and inflation has caused us to struggle with this number. The good news, at least, is that our restaurant spending has been almost nil this past year (when we have gone out we've used gift cards.)
So far this month I'm definitely within budget but I also need to get my flour supplies restocked so we'll see how we do.
I use the government's thrifty food budget level to cover both groceries AND mea l s out for the month. It works out well with a little extra wiggle room.
It took a lot of trial & error to come up with a budget. I was spending 500-600/mth for a family of 4. That was half my income. So, I decided to only buy what was needed and have come up with $300. I'm doing ok with it so far. I budget $100 for incidentals and if that isn't used, I can use it for food....
We are a retired couple with four cats (one of them an indoor cat), so our budget includes food for them as well as for ourselves. We budget $75 a week, which also includes toiletries and cleaning supplies. It works okay except on the weeks that I need to buy the big bag of dry cat food and cat litter. I try hard to buy all meats on sale and also to buy fruits/veggies seasonally. I grow a small garden, shop farmers markets, and use coupons when they're for something I buy regularly. So far, so good. We'll see how things go for the next six months or so. If prices continue to rise, I may have to become more diligent about preparing lower cost meals.
I love reading what you and the other folks are doing to control food costs.
Diane in North Carolina
I see people buying lots of tolietries. I shop at Sams and do a big stock up 2x yr. I also never buy cleaning agents. Just some vinegar and bleach for toliets. Cheap and enviro friendly. Dog food at Sams also. I do not have a budget for food, but go to Aldis for all my stuff. Usually $200/mos for 3 of us.
I don't budget. I shop ads and sales, garden and can a wee little bit, keep general track of whose store has the cheapest xyz (but still good and healthy), and avoid organic; and we raise our own beef. Some weeks I make one trip to our nearest grocery store for maybe $45 (mostly milk and produce), and some weeks I drive 40 miles and shop at six-ish stores for $300 or something crazy like that. I don't have the patience to track it, to be honest. 🙂
That’s us too, though it is a 90 min drive and usually the $45 week comes after the $300 Tj’s plus wf run. Mint tracks for us and I tend to take note of the end receipt each week as a habit leftover from our broke days.
I struggle with my budget of 200.00 per week. But we literally eat every meal and snack at home or pack for work. I keep a well stocked pantry to make bread, rolls, cookies etc from scratch. I still think it should be lower.
We also eat all meals and snacks at home, and I bake almost everything from scratch to accommodate food allergies. Our budget is lower than yours (4 people--including one teen boy and one 20 yr old young man), but I think it really depends on what part of the country you live in, what you eat, and where you shop. We used to spend a lot more, but managed to make a significant dent in it by trying different stores. Since organic is a high priority for us, we used to shop mainly at Whole Foods. When Sprouts opened, they had great prices, but mostly conventional. Once they added more organics, I found it was A LOT cheaper than WF. Now there are other stores closer to me than Sprouts that also have great prices, but sometimes WF is the cheapest. If you have a few shopping options, you might find better prices than what you're used to.
We too are empty nesters. I budget $75 a week (we eat mostly vegan-me, not DH, but he eats what I make.) We rarely eat out. I am just underwhelmed by most restaurants around us. I meal plan, shop the sales, eat within the seasons and stockpile as I can. Eating good, but simple food has been the key for us. And I try to make at least one new recipe a week.
Each time I feel like our budget is no longer working for us, I reference the most recent USDA: Cost of at Food at Home at Four levels (thrifty to liberal) to identify cost per person per week at the low-cost plan and start there, adjusting as appropriate. I've done this as we've moved about the country and as we've added kids to the mix. The changes have been incremental: we started at $80/wk for 2 of us, and now we're at $150/wk for 4.
I have just started budgeting (back in December) and we are a family of 4 (2 working adults, 1 12 year old boy, 1 15 year girl, and a dog). We budget $150 a week on groceries and shop at Walmart since it seems cheapest. But this includes cleaning, toiltries, paper products, etc. And it is HARD to stick to that. Do others do a separate cleaning/toilitires/paper products budget and keep the food budget separate?
And those of you that have a smaller budget--and still buy organic and lots of protein--how are you doing that? The fruits and veggies and protein are some of the most money we spend.
It really helps to live in the South or near California or Mexico.
Aldi is my answer!
Well..we have two teenage boys and a nine year old boy that is about 5' 5" and eats more than the 15 year old. My grocery budget has gone up steadily! With just a 5 year old and 2 year old in 2007 we budgeted $415 a month. That was AMAZING.
Now the budget is...deep breath...$250 a week. Our oldest needs to be grain free, dairy free, low sugar and artificial everything free. My husband is diabetic. Another son is underweight and drinks daily homemade weight gain shakes. I make bread, mayo, sauces, desserts and almost every meal from scratch. We eat out once or twice a month, at most. The oldest just came home and is about to eat 3 baked potatoes, an apple and an almond muffin. As a snack. He will be starving by dinnertime and he is skinny as a rail.
I have manipulated the budget and the diet six ways to Sunday since 2007 and it just keeps going up. It is a season we are in. Fortunately, we have paid off our house, own our cars outright and so forth, so having the grocery budget equal an average mortgage in our city is just the way things are for us. In most households it is the first place you can cut. In our house we use several pounds of almond flour and local honey every month, not to mention great quality meat and tons of coconut oil just to meet our basic needs. Almond flour and good honey hover between $8 and $10 a pound!
My friends who also have special needs kids and I all commiserate about our grocery bill. Lol! It is a nearly universal issue.
Oh yes, special diets mean you need a higher budget for sure! No guilt...you gotta do what you gotta do.
Special dietary needs makes budgeting tough! Special any-kind-of need makes budgeting difficult, I imagine. Have you checked Sam's or Costco for Almond flour? I got a 3lb bag of Bob's Red Mill Almond flour/meal for $12 from Sam's around Christmas. I've never seen it that cheap, and I don't know if it's routine, since I only buy it for fun things (macarons), but a membership fee would be worth it if one of those bulk stores carries it at that price a few times of year.
Yeah, I feel you. Two adults and 3 college age kids...I cook at home, from scratch...we eat all organic, free range meats, no flour, dairy or sugar and my monthly bill is $2000. Whenever I hear people talk about a grocery bill under $1K, I get a bit jealous!!! But we are all very healthy so I can't complain.
Thanks guys! It is just a thing for me. I would LOVE to bring our budget down but I won't give my son, with all of his intolerance issues and etc., the cheaper versions of things. I have done so in the past and really regretted it as I have seen him start to have eczema again and his allergies ramp up and the stomach issues...ugh. So. I will live vicariously through all of these great low budgets. 😉 One day my sons will start eating just 3 normal-size meals a day and the budget will recover from this super-spendy time.
One thing I can say is that instead of being strictly frugal with our food (though I do buy the best deals I can find) we are frugal in other areas to make it balance out. We haven't had a mortgage payment in almost 10 years and things like that make a major difference. Getting out and staying out of debt is the most frugal thing any of us can ever do!
We have a very loose grocery budget but we are deb-free empty-nesters. We had a very tight grocery budget while we raised our family. Now I feel like one of life's greatest luxuries is to be able to buy whatever I want at the grocery store & I pretty much do that.
Still I do try to stay at $100 a week for 2 adults & one little dog plus cleaning supplies & toiletries. We keep a meat budget separate from that but much of the time I don't access it. I try to buy most of our meats on sale.
We do eat very well. The vast majority of my budget goes to fresh produce, meat & dairy. We eat no/low carb so I rarely buy the filler foods I used to buy.
The filler foods are such moneysavers! My budget misses them. Ha!
Our usual budget is $600-$700 per month for seven of us, with the five kids being ages 8 to 17. We don't buy a lot of organics these days (some, like apples, spring mix, and spinach) but do stick primarily to whole foods. We do not include pet food in this budget as we have quite a few critters to feed. Milk comes from a local-to-us place (Braum's) and we have chickens for eggs.
I spend around $25 a week at Aldi for fruits n veggies, another $60 or so at Meijer or Kroger. I don't really keep any budget with groceries but I do keep a budget with restaurant meals because they add up so quickly. I also spend $100-150 at Sams or Costco but that includes dog & cat food.
For eating out we either hit a local grocery store that does pizza for $6 or $7 depending on toppings or a local restaurant that does breakfast for $3.49 to 4.99. Heck 2 to 4 of us can have breakfast and walk out under $20 with tip. We only go out to more expensive restaurants less than once per month. That usually includes a gift card from Swagbucks so another savings there.
Grocery shopping is such the balancing act, weighing nutrition, flavor, environmental sustainability, and price! I try not be be rigid about any one criteria so that I feel ok about the balance in the end. I just realized I'll have to up my budget soon, as my boys are eating more as they get bigger (7 and 12) and I'm not having as many leftovers to pack for my own lunch. 🙂 I increased my budget last year when I got a raise and decided to put some investment into buying more organic, which feels good. I've also started ordering from Thrive Market too, their prices for sustainable and organic products are often better than the grocery store, especially the snacky type of stuff and fair trade coffee. It is definitely more expensive to buy organic, organic milk is literally almost twice the price, same with eggs! But on the weeks when I have to buy more things I don't buy every week (like detergent or parchment paper, etc.) I buy more conventional than organic to balance the budget.
I feed a family of four adults, including my MIL who has Alzheimer's. I do not budget. You know that saying, "Set it and forget it"? That's my grocery strategy. I chose the stores with the best pricing on the things I buy most and then buy what I need/what they have from each. First stop, 99 Cents Only Store, second stop, just across the street, Grocery Outlet, third stop, around the corner and up a ways, Costco. I am more of a Pantry Principle shopper, a la Amy Dacyczyn. I scoop up the deals at each place and complete my list at Costco, where I also fill the gas tank. I do this about every ten days. I do small fill-ins as needed at a nearby Sprouts, preferably on double dip Wednesdays.
When I am near one, I lurves me some Winco, especially their bulk bins. I try to hit one at least quarterly. Also we have a getaway place that has an Aldi nearby, so I go crazy there when we visit. Woot! I wish both of them were closer, but I can't complain about the resources I do have.
When I first got married (and got all three humans for the price of one, lol) I made a list of the things I buy on my phone. I then listed them (on paper) and compared prices (another nod to Amy D). I did this just to have an idea of what things should cost, so I know when to load up. Now I just check off what I need on my phone list before I go shopping. Easy-peasy. Unlike dear Kristen, I do not meal plan. My life is crazy enough as it is. We are blessed with a large pantry and an extra refrigerator and upright freezer in the garage. Silly as this sounds, I use my shopping list to count my blessings that I no longer need to squeeze every penny.
I grocery shop twice a month as I drive an hour to the store. I had a budget of $150 every two weeks ($300/month). Of course there are only 3 of us (mom and two kids). My oldest has moved out and got her own apartment. So now there is only the two of us. I'm looking at dropping the grocery budget down to $200/month or less. We do grow a lot of our veggies in the summer so that helps. But I'm finding myself throwing more food out to the chickens and pigs. So I'm definitely looking at reducing the budget. I'm actually looking at under $50 during the summer when our veggies are in full production. Any savings I can do helps me to pay off debt faster.