View Full Version : That was revealing
Well, darn.
$1020 in our food category in January.
I haven't tracked things in several years. We tracked in January to get a better idea of where our money was going.
Can not believe I spent $1020 on food. This includes groceries, eating out, pets, and household items. And I thought I was spending $750 in this category.
I thought I'd post it here and hopefully I'll do better over the next few months. Already made one change. We were going to have a breakfast date this morning but after totaling our January paper....I made breakfast at home. My hashbrowns are better than the restaurants anyway.
Well, darn.
$1020 in our food category in January.
I haven't tracked things in several years. We tracked in January to get a better idea of where our money was going.
Can not believe I spent $1020 on food. This includes groceries, eating out, pets, and household items. And I thought I was spending $750 in this category.
I thought I'd post it here and hopefully I'll do better over the next few months. Already made one change. We were going to have a breakfast date this morning but after totaling our January paper....I made breakfast at home. My hashbrowns are better than the restaurants anyway.
How many are you feeding? Ages?
I separate food from non-food because we require food, we don't need most non-food items that can find their way into a lot of families grocery carts, and we don't have any pets. Occasional eating out comes out of our "walking around money" (allowance) and some gift cards we received as gifts. I spent $85.55 in January on food only, but we also have enough food in our home food storage for a year.
Packratona!
2-4-15, 6:56pm
I used to spend !,000 per month back when all 5 of us were home. Plus that was before I learned all the frugal tips I know now. That included household cleaning supplies toilet paper etc. plus cat food.
There are 4 of us; two are teenage boys....one of which is into bodybuilding so he likes a lot of protein. A lot of beef we get from my parents. I didn't raise meat chickens this fall so I've had to buy chicken. It was just interesting that I've said we only spend $750 when reality is more and we really didn't eat out as much as we normally do.
I know where I'm going from here so I expect a better number for Feb.
It's nice to be aware again.
Teenage boys eat a lot. So if you have 3 men, essentially, that can be expensive. See how much you are buying that is prepared food, which is way more expensive than the ingredients to make it yourself. Things like pasta sauce, snacks, frozen stuff, etc.
Even though there is only 2 of us, I do most of my food buying at Costco. The quality is great, and the savings really do add up. When you have really good quality food at home, the idea of eating out is less tempting.
Good luck!
Blackdog Lin
2-4-15, 10:41pm
Well, two teenage boys.....say no more! That can double a food budget. :)
You might consider further divvying up your expenditures so you can see what is actually going toward food. I categorize eating out, so I can see if we're getting too carried away with it (it can be a budget killer!), and I categorize pet expenditures so we can make sure we can afford a pet, and paper/cleaning goods so I can see if I need to get more thrifty or creative with frugal alternatives.....you get the idea.
Having more detailed categories might tell you more about where you can plug the drain.
lessisbest
2-5-15, 11:02am
Purchasing food, adding to and maintaining our home food storage, and planning healthy meals within a budget is work, and it takes time, preparation, and strategy. It's my mental aerobics each week. I make my biggest mistakes when I have to hurry through the store. Example: Dillon's had 1-pound boxes of butter on sale 2/$5, so I grab a couple in my haste. Meanwhile, butter is $1.88 at Aldi and I didn't bother to check my Price Book, so that's $1.24 I can't spend on something else. I had a coupon for ground turkey, but I forgot, and even though I found a package that was discounted to $1.99 for a pound, I didn't use the 60-cent off coupon. That's why I should take a few minutes before I head out for the store to look through the coupons. I also try to place a red "C" next to an item on my grocery list that I have a coupon for.
I try to include some kind of a "splurge item", or purchase the ingredients for making something special, a time or two each month when I buy groceries. As a society, we've gotten away from things that are "special occasion" items, and now pop/soda and chips that were for special occasions are everyday fare, along with any number of other (not really food) items. Maybe we need to add a little more "special occasion" back to our grocery habits.
Living off really basic food items and ingredients can get tiresome. As a special treat I might make a really great granola recipe that costs more than my standard granola - and enjoy every bit of it, or make some Trail Mix for a trip and add more expensive ingredients in it. If we think it would be just great to have a Butterfinger Blizzard at the Dairy Queen, I'll buy a carton of vanilla ice cream (with a coupon or on sale) and a Butterfinger Candy Bar and make a reasonable substitute at home in the old Hamilton Beech Drink Master or the VitaMix for less than it would have cost for two small Blizzards - AND we have a ice cream left (do I hear Apple Crunch made with dehydrated apples added to the menu?).
We don't do without, but we often do "different". Different brands, using something less often, or only using half as much.
Food prices are increasing so much, and most people purchase what they want/need without regard for cost, or without considering less expensive options, or even using less of something. Sometimes purchasing larger amounts of something will actually cause us to eat more of it, rather than being a money-saving strategy. We want fresh blueberries and watermelon in the off season and pay the price! How many people drink milk, juice, or pop/soda instead of water when they get thirsty? That's an expensive habit. There are many foods that I just don't ever purchase anymore, or only rarely, due to cost increases. It makes me more creative with my menu choices. That GIANT rump roast every Sunday, like my MIL always made, is a thing of the past..... We started a new family tradition of making a homemade pizza with leftovers works just fine!
There were several heads of iceberg lettuce reduced to 49-cents when I got groceries this week, so I bought a head, even though lettuce wasn't on my list, and I rarely buy iceberg. But that was a great price and I quickly changed a number of menu items in my head to use that head of lettuce this week, and didn't buy cabbage - which WAS on the list. I also quickly thought, cabbage will be plentiful and on sale next month (for St. Patrick's Day), so it will wait until March when it's a stock-up price. I also hope potatoes will be BOGO because I have some room for Freezer Mashed Potatoes if they are. Always planning ahead....
iris lilies
2-5-15, 12:17pm
When I read your post OP I thought" doesn't she still have 2 teenage boys at home?" haha, they DO eat a lot.
But back to more rice and beans, perhaps. Nutritious and filling and inexpensive. But you know the drill.
Food, household items, pet food, eating out/entertainment are all separate catagories in our budget. We spent $320 last month for food. My goal is $250 which I usually stick to but I buy on sale whenever possible so January must have been a good sale month.
it takes time
I do try really hard to eat at home and cook from scratch but as we are both still working full time 9 to 5 jobs, best laid plans don't always work. It's frustrating but I can only do so much to be efficient. I can see how running a truly efficient household is a job in itself.
Groceries, eating out and pet costs are all separate line items in my books. We spent $425 in the grocery category (which includes household goods) in January which I would love to reduce since it is just us two. Food costs just continue to go up and up however and I'm a little picky about certain items. I could probably eat on a third of what we normally spend if I were alone. For example, I love rice and beans, dh only tolerates it.
Teacher Terry
2-5-15, 3:28pm
WE had 3 teen boys at one point so 4 men in the house. My ex would do all the shopping & fill up his entire small car every 2 weeks. I never bought less then 3 gallons of milk at once. I feel your pain! We sometimes did breakfast for dinner, casseroles & soup & grilled cheese for dinner. I think Lessibest does a great job of minimizing her food costs but most people lack the time to do that.
You might consider further divvying up your expenditures so you can see what is actually going toward food. I categorize eating out, so I can see if we're getting too carried away with it (it can be a budget killer!)
Having more detailed categories might tell you more about where you can plug the drain.
As we go I will probably break up the categories. I really wanted to make it simple the first couple months as we get back into the habit of keeping track again.
I do mostly all my cooking from scratch but we did do a lot more of stopping for something quick this last month with our overlapping schedules.
I have a lot less waste by shopping every couple days instead of doing big stock up trips but I need to be better at sticking to my menu plan.
We averaged 718 last year..per month, 2 adults. So you are doing great if you can feed three guys plus yourself for $1000. We are trying to get our number down, but it is really hard in our situation. One thing you can do is to serve some big salads with plenty of olive oil---that olive oil may help satisfy some of the meat cravings for those guys and possibly reduce the amounts of needed animal protein.
We are close to $500/month for three of us. That's only food for us. It keeps dramatically increasing each year. I know this because I've been keeping a spreadsheet for years.
Eating out is the biggest challenge for the budget here. I do my best to have something planned at home for every meal, but a lot of the socializing we do is some external event and then food. I really enjoy this so it's a trade off - I want the experience, I'm not so excited about the bill that comes with it. None of our friends want to eat somewhere just because it would be cheap or we have a coupon, so ... well as I say, it's a challenge.
ApatheticNoMore
2-13-15, 2:54pm
Yea but you can't have it all. You can't for instance live in a tiny house and never go out to eat or somewhere to socialize (even a rental apartment doesn't work that well :)).
Eating out is the biggest challenge for the budget here. I do my best to have something planned at home for every meal, but a lot of the socializing we do is some external event and then food. I really enjoy this so it's a trade off - I want the experience, I'm not so excited about the bill that comes with it. None of our friends want to eat somewhere just because it would be cheap or we have a coupon, so ... well as I say, it's a challenge.
Same here, kib. My eating out is mostly combined with socializing of one sort or another, so some of that expense has to go under the entertainment column too. That's the world we live in.
Eating out is the biggest challenge for the budget here. I do my best to have something planned at home for every meal, but a lot of the socializing we do is some external event and then food. I really enjoy this so it's a trade off - I want the experience, I'm not so excited about the bill that comes with it. None of our friends want to eat somewhere just because it would be cheap or we have a coupon, so ... well as I say, it's a challenge.
Exactly. Where I live everybody is sharing small apartments and it just doesn't work to entertain at home. Esp. if for example "the girls" are meeting up, it's not fair on the husbands or partners to take over the apartment for a whole evening or afternoon.
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