Budget. Ugh the dreaded budget. Let's be honesy, though, I love having a budget. BUT that wasn't always the case. I used to live paycheck to paycheck and there was literally a time when I took all the coins I could scrounge up into thebgas station and paid for less than $3 in gas with nickels, dimes and pennies. [Side note: the employee was an angel and filled my tank. He claimed it was an accident and that he punched in the amount wrong, but I still think he did it to be a blessing]. Needless to say, when I was young and stupid I was young and stupid. I had no idea how to handle money. My parents didn't teach me, my peers didn't teach me and my high school sure didn't teach me. And the bank that gave me my first credit card DEFINITELY didn't teach me. I've lived penny to penny, paycheck to paycheck, I've crashed on couches and slept in my car...and my reaction to a budget was one of pride and disgust. For whatever reason, a budget to me meant you didn't have your life together. It meant I couldn't do what I wanted and that I was controlled by money. Hah! Silly 18 year old me.
If you're not sure about having a budget, leg me tell you it's awesome! We know where the money is going, we can save towards different goals (buying a house, upgrading the house, vacations, kids, college for the kids, retirement...). We have more freedom with what we can do now than before we realized we needed a budget. Before the budget we were controlled by money. After the budget we are controlled with money. Does that make sense? Anyway, all that to say that Hubs and I have been talking a lot lately about budgeting and how to save more in some areas so we can give more to others...and usually the only place we can "find money" to move around is our grocery bill. I was recently talking to a friend who shared with me how much her family spends on food every month and I was shocked...I also would like to eat at their house everyday because yummy yum yum yum. Anyway, I brought this up with the Hubs and he shared with me that a large amount of people he interacts with have told him that they spend somewhere between $1000 and $2000 a month just on food and then basically explained that I live under a rock and have no concept of what people spend on things. Hahaha . I guess I'm in a bubble.
Sidebar: When I was pregnant with our oldest, I had horrible sickness for like 90% of my pregnancy. {{Let me math that out real quick: 23 weeks of sick. 31 weeks of pregnancy. 74.2% of my pregnancy I was violently sick. Granted, if we take away the 4 weeks I didn't know I was pregnant that makes it 85.1% of my pregnancy was sick.}} Anyway, I could eat very limited things without getting sick (AKA Jamba Juice everyday, Chic-fil-A lemonade, and pizza) which meant that our restaraunt bill went sky high and I panicked when I realized we had spent $800 on food because my preggo self couldn't hold anything down. And apparently that's like the average amount people spend. So, I guess we did ok there.
I found this out and I feel like I should share a little about how we budget for our food and how we try and save money in the food department.
1.) Look at the ads. Every week we get the ads and pull out the 2 places we shop: Sprouts (mainly for veggies and those specialty diet items) and Fry's. I check meat prices and see what's on sale and use that to help plan meals for the week.
If chicken is $1.67/lb, chances are we're buying a lot of chicken and freezing it for later.
2.) Meal plan for the week and go to the store once a week. This takes a little bit of time. I'll usually do it when kids are napping or when I only have one to entertain. The toddler loves "reading" my cookbooks so this is really fun for her and she gets to help talk about what we are getting.
3.) Make a list and stick to it. Resist impulse purchases. Do you really need all those oreos?
4.) Buy in-season fresh fruits and veggies. You can get a LOT of fruits and veggies for $20.
5.) Compare prices of store brand and brand name. Sometimes brand name is just worth the extra dollar, but sometimes off-brand is just as good if not better. Bonus: they are usually right next to eaxh other so you can see which is the better deal quickly.
6.) Learn what's a good price. This takes some time. It took me years, Burt now u know what my purchase price on some staples are and stock up. Barilla Pasta - $1/lb, Milk under $2, Chicken under $2, organic fruits and veggies when the price difference is nominal (like $0.10-$0.20 difference)..
7.) Take advantage of gift cards. Whether they are gifted to you, you buy them at Costco or cardpool (you can usually save around $10 on a place where you would normally eat anyway), or your taking advantage of a promotion - they're great. Target frequently does by X and you get a $5 target gift card. Well, if X is something you normally buy, then why not? Some places like Target or Albertsons also sometimes offer promotions like "transfer your prescriptions here and get a $25 gift card". Super easy to do and it's basically free money.
8.) Coupons. Now, I used to be a little bit crazy with the coupons. I once saved $60 using coupons. Not so much these days. I have 2 kids under 3 years. I can't dedicate that kind of time. But sometimes I see a coupon that's useful and I snag it. You can definitely use coupons without having to dedicate hours of time every week. :)
I'm sorry I'm so wordy, but hopefully that may help you cut down a little on your food budget. It's hard work though. We frequently go over our food budget. The main culprit is a lack of discipline and being tired. It's.so easy to throw in the towel and go to Chic-fil-A at the end of the day instead of cooking. I'm also a big fan of prepping meals ahead of time and making freezer meals (or buying freezer meals) as a meal backup. I hope you found something helpful there.
