by Ashley
Remember how I went way over budget last month with grocery shopping? One of the worst parts was that I really had nothing to show for the huge overage (no stockpile of meat, canned foods, pasta, etc.). I literally had no idea where all the money (and food) went, but I knew it was gone.
But this month I was bound and determined to get back on track. Here’s what I’ve done differently this month to get my grocery spending under control:
- Meticulous meal planning. I always know that I save money when I stick to a meal plan instead of doing the whole “what should we eat?” (asked at 5pm) thing. That lack of planning had lead to many last minute trips to the grocery store to pick up “one or two” things for a given dinner (which, inevitably, always turned into 10-12 things by the time I was leaving). None of that this month! Not only have I stuck to my meal plan, but I’ve also purposely planned meals around items we’ve already had on hand and/or items that I could rollover into a second (or third) meal easily.
- Limited grocery shopping. One of my issues last month is that I was going to the grocery store a LOT. Like….5-6 times a week! How is that possible? I don’t even know. This month I refused to go grocery shopping at all during the first week of the month. Thereafter I’ve limited myself to a maximum of 2 trips per week (generally 1 larger trip at the beginning of the week, and a second much smaller trip to the farmer’s market for produce mid-week).
- Keep your eye on the prize. One thing that has helped with trying to really be mindful about my grocery spending is that I’ve been so focused on my debt-reduction mission this month. I’m trying to make some extra debt payments this month (above and beyond what I reported in my debt update last week), but the last extra payment is contingent upon my grocery spending. If I go over, then I have nothing extra to put toward debt. I’m SO, SO focused on knocking out some debts SOON that I am trying to squeeze every extra dollar I can find from my budget. It only makes sense to try to get some of that money from my grocery budget, particularly in light of having gone so far over in that budget category last month.
- Doesn’t hurt that it’s February. Can’t really claim any pre-planning on this one, but it sure helped that this was a shorter month than most. Whereas most months I’m left with more month than money, I still have money to spare in my grocery budget this month, even as the end of the month is fast approaching.
And although we still have a few more days left in February, so far the prognosis for my grocery spending is good. I did my last “big” grocery trip on Saturday and will probably need to go again mid-week (Wednesday-ish) for fresh fruits and veggies, but that is always a much lower-cost trip (maybe about $20ish). If that’s the case, then I should still have close to $60 leftover from my grocery budget. Combine that with little bits leftover from here and there and I should be able to scrape up about an extra $100 toward debt before the month ends. Fingers crossed! I know $100 doesn’t seem like much, but every extra dollar counts; every extra dollar is one dollar closer to paying off a lingering debt. Plus I’m getting so, so close to paying some debts off in full! I cannot wait until March because I’m really, really hoping I’ll be able to report a couple of newly cleared debts!!
How’ve you done on your spending and budgeting this month?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
We’ve done pretty well considering we’ve had a few things pop up. It helped that hubby had quite a few roof shoveling jobs. $100 per roof so that really helped. I’m surprised we did so well. We usually plow snow with our 4 wheeler but that died on us so we’ve been having to pay $30 per storm for the neighbor guy to come plow. This adds up since we’ve been have storms 2-3 times per week. Plus it wasn’t an expense that we planned on originally. So luckily those roof shoveling jobs paid for the plowing plus some extras.
Glad you’ve been able to get some extra income from the room shoveling! I cannot even imagine, I’ve been hearing all about the terrible weather on the News and its really frightening. Especially when all the snow melts and it becomes like a river! Eeek!
Yeah it’ll be a mess. Winter then it’s mud season or otherwise known as Spring LOL. Luckily I live on top a hill. We’ve just been getting pounded on though. Poor DH has lost 20 pounds just from shoveling roofs.
Oh my gosh, that’s crazy weight-loss!!! Please be safe (you AND him!!!)
Luckily he could stand to lose some weight. He is getting quite buff I must say!
I totally agree on the meal planning – makes a huge savings difference for us too! And I only go grocery shopping once a week, which also helps!
I love to hear about you scrapping together $100 for an extra debt payment – it sounds little, but it all adds up – great job!
Thanks! I totally agree – every dollar adds up!
I try to limit my grocery store trips to 3-4 per month. Usually 1 big one to Costco, 1 small one to Costco, and 1-2 to our local grocery store to fill in the gaps. This schedule has a lot of benefits for me. First, it saves us money because I have fewer opportunities for impulse purchases. Plus, after I started limiting my trips (I used to go to the local store multiple times a week), I gained hours back into my month. Finally, I really dread going to the store with my two young kids. It’s a pain to try and focus on what I’m buying and read all the labels (we have food allergies) while keeping track of them. It’s also really easy to track our grocery spending, which I try to keep under $500/month for the four of us.
SO TRUE about getting the hours back in your month! That’s no small thing! My question is, how on Earth do you do a “small” Costco trip!? I swear, it’s impossible!!! I guess that’s why I try to limit my Costco runs to once per month : )
I struggle with keeping the food bills down. We spend a thousand (or more) dollars a month on food, which includes a lot of eating out. (And we aren’t eating out at nice places either!) It blows my mind, especially since we are only a family of 3, including a toddler. While we are good at tracking our spending, we haven’t really tried to budget. We’ve made budgets but never found a system for sticking to them. I’m trying to go to the grocery store less, meal plan, and being proactive about packing lunch for my husband. Fortunately, my husband’s employer providers dinner in the springtime (He is a CPA and works long hours) so I don’t have to cook dinner during the week. And Costco is the worst. It is rare we can get out of Costco for under a $100 bucks.
This is how we used to be, too! We used to eat out probably 2-3 times per week plus spend a lot more at grocery stores buying all kinds of random stuff.
I swear the big change for me was the really careful meal planning. Now I ONLY buy what’s on the list and needed for an upcoming dinner. I also try to plan meals around items that are (1) on sale and/or (2) things we have on hand. That helps cut down on food waste while also lowering the grocery bill.
One other thing I did was to start making more things homemade or from scratch. I used to buy a lot of convenience foods (like frozen/packaged pasta meals or Chinese meals, etc.). Now I take the time to make the same foods myself. I feel like its healthier (not always, depends on the food, but often healthier) and it’s ALWAYS cheaper!