Today I’m sharing with you a plan for how to feed your family and stick to your budget. We plan our monthly budget and everything goes great, but then one day you need to go to the grocery for just a couple things. You get there and remember five more things you need. Then you get to the checkout and you owe around $50 (or more). Well, that messes up the whole budget, doesn’t it? So, how can we save money on food?
I have to confess that I struggle with this all the time. It’s really difficult for me to keep our grocery spending under control. So, I decided to make a better plan for staying on budget in the food category. I’m going to share with you today my new plan/experiment for feeding my family on a budget. I hope you’ll give it a try, too, and let me know how it works for you.
MY PLAN FOR FEEDING MY FAMILY ON A BUDGET
- Determine our weekly food budget. This will be the amount we spend on food for the week. This doesn’t include household necessities like paper products, laundry detergent, and things like that. To use as an example, let’s say our weekly budget will be $200. (This is just an example and not really our budgeted amount.) Your budgeted amount really will depend on your family size and income. It can be as low or as high as you choose.
- Determine our daily food budget. So, you would obviously take your weekly amount, which is $200 in our example, and divide it by 7. That would be about $28 a day. Now we know we need to keep daily food amounts to that amount to stay on budget.
- List the typical daily foods into categories. I decided to categorize them by breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks.
- Determine how much of the budget will be needed for each category. For example, if our budget is $200 a week, we then need to divide that up and decide how much we will need for each category. I figured this out by listing a typical weekday of meals and the typical cost for each meal. So, if we spend $5 a day on breakfasts, we take that amount times seven and that’s how much we need weekly for breakfasts. Do the same for lunches, dinners, and snacks. If we come below or over budget, we make some adjustments until it works out to the amount we want to spend.
- Make a master grocery list with a budgeted amount for each category. To do this, we need to make a list of typical foods that we buy for each category on a weekly basis. Beside each item, we write a price that we usually spend on each. Then we total the cost under each category to make sure we stay in our budget each week.
EXAMPLE OF THE NEW BUDGETED FOOD PLAN
For a weekly budget of $200:
BREAKFASTS: $40/week
- Coffee $15
- Creamer $8
- Bread $2
- Cereal $3
- Milk $3
- Juice $3
- Eggs $2
- Miscellaneous $4 = $40.
LUNCHES: $40/week
- Bread $3
- Peanut Butter $2
- Lunchmeat $8
- Cheese $3
- Fresh veggies $4
- Bananas $3
- Yogurt $7
- Miscellaneous $10 = $40.
DINNERS: $100/week
- Meats $55
- Potatoes $3
- Rice $2
- Pasta $2
- Vegetables $14
- Condiments/Spices/Recipe ingredients $5
- Dessert/Fresh or canned fruit $10
- Dessert/Pudding $2
- Miscellaneous $7 = $100.
SNACKS: $20/week
- Fruit $5
- Crackers $3
- Cheese $2
- Pretzels $2
- Cookies $3
- Miscellaneous $5 = $20.
GRAND TOTAL = $200.
Please, please, please, remember this is just an example. I am not suggesting that you use these exact dollar amounts or food choices. Your budget and grocery list will depend on your own budgeted amount and what your family likes to eat. Also, remember to switch up the types of food you buy within each category, so your meals don’t get boring. You can still do that and stay on your budget.
TIPS FOR STAYING WITHIN BUDGET
- Plan meals in advance. Plan each meal so that it is within the budgeted amount for that meal.
- Spend your money on healthy food, not junk. Of course, you’ll want some treats, but make sure the majority of your food budget is for real food.
- To stretch dollars in each category, try store brands, sale items, and buying some foods in bulk, especially meat.
- Make some foods from scratch instead of buying expensive convenience foods.
- When you run out of something, try your best to substitute something else instead of running to the store.
- Don’t waste food. Use fresh produce and other perishables soon after they’re bought. Get creative and use up leftovers before cooking something else.
- If you have a week where you need to cut back more than usual, try cutting back a few dollars in each category, and you will probably still have enough food for the week. Or you could try cutting back on snacks and special treats.
Now that I’ve got my new grocery list ready, I can’t wait to see how well I save money. How about you? Are you ready to try this experiment? If so, please leave comments below and let me know how it works for you. For more tips on saving money on groceries, check out my post, 10 Ways To Save Money On Groceries.
Happy grocery shopping!