Does anyone else have a hard time sticking with their allotted amount for groceries each month? I will freely confess that I do!!! I'm feeling pretty desperate. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to stick to the budget while eating as many whole foods as possible. I do some coupons and that does help, however I feel like being a mom often collides with this endeavor. Do you find it works best to menu plan? Do you have a certain amount to spend each week and then cut it off no matter what...even if you find a great deal on something? Do you try to incorporate buying local at all? Also, (if you don't mind saying) what percentage of your monthly budget goes to groceries (food, cosmetics, etc.). Thanks in advance!
4 comments:
I am AWFUL at this stuff, but after trying about every method I can feasibly do, I've just started planning my menu based on what's in my freezer/pantry (from stocking up ahead of time) or what I see in the Wednesday ads. If I can use coupons, great, but if not, I still usually determine to eat the whole foods we need (even if that means sneaking over-budget sometimes). I'm glad you asked this, though, because I'll be coming back to get some advice! I still have a hard time saying NO to a good deal. Because of that, I start borrowing from other month's $ and it gets so messy. I feel doomed to mess up every month :)
~ p.s. has anyone else noticed their grocery costs increasing at least 10-20% in 2011? crazy! I have to determined to be grateful that we have the means right now to even go shopping. There are so many out there who would love a job & some income.
this always seem to be a source of "conversations" in our house. AGH! especially because grocery prices keep increasing while my allotted amount does not. =)
I started shopping every 2 weeks and found that actually helped me stretch a little farther. (I do buy fresh produce every week though) of course that also means the last 2 days before shopping trip, our cupboard is quite bare. :) I do a detailed meal plan, I personally can't shop without it. And having meals planned for 2 weeks in advance definitely helps a LOT! I also use a calculator while shopping, so even when I go over at least I know it. :) we have talked about me just taking cash to the store, but so far I've vetoed that. =) I recently started doing a majority of my shopping at traderjoe's, which means I don't have to stop and peruse every label to find out what's in it. they have really great prices for wholesome & organic foods. I feel like it's always a difficult balance between feeding your family well, but not having to spend an outrageous amount to do so. but I am glad to know that I am not the only one who has a very hard time sticking to budget on this one! we can talk about it more this weekend!! =)
ohmydear. I have completely fallen off the boat on this subject. whoopsies;-)
I've noticed that we haven't been "good" lately on keeping track of our food spending. I generally know when I've spent too much and try to keep around the 10% mark of our budget for food.
We've tried to make a few changes to our food line-up in the past several months and those changes have made us tighten our belt concerning what we buy, I would say. For example, we wanted to make the change to organic, local meat and eggs. So, I find that we don't purchase as much "junk" food nowadays. I think a carton of ice-cream is about the only sweet thing you can find in our kitchen--which you know is amazing because you know me;-)
I'm not sure how my grocery shopping habits will change once Job arrives, but for now, it still works out for us to shop at 3 or 4 different places, depending on what we need.
All of our meat comes from New Seasons. All of our "staples" usually are bought between Winco and Safeway. And some snack foods and fun healthy stuff is bought at Trader Joes.
We've also been eating up the yummy fruit from our weekly farmer's markets.
hmm...... I don't think any of this helped ;-(
I don't have too much advice either - except that I'm really excited to see that women I look up to also have my problem, sometimes I think I'm the only one that spends so much each month. I'll be honest with you - we budget $300 a month to groceries ( I have no idea what percentage that is) (mostly b/c his income is always different). I have been doing better at staying within that limit. WE do get WIC also and that helps. But what helps the most is meal planning (I do it weekly) and not buying ANYTHING extra. I have stopped making elaborate meals which I hate. But usually we have a veggie and a main dish and that's it. (usually rice with some sort of veggie meat sauce or pasta or something). Then I buy same stuff for bfast and lunches each week. We hardly have anything in our house to eat other than our meal stuff. And that stinks when I want to munch on something. So I just go hungry. :( You would think I would be skinny. I do some coupons but mostly sales help the most. I've finally gotten into a ood rythym of matching sales with coupons for certain things like diapers, yogurt and little things like that. good luck! :)
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