by Ashley
I’m typically pretty good about keeping up with my budget. I have a set amount designated for each budget category, and I update my purchases frequently to see where I fall within the parameters I’ve set for myself.
The last couple weeks have been a bit of a blur, though. The kids were on Spring Break for a week, and I had a major deadline at work that kept me super busy with work (early mornings, late nights, and all in-between). I finally had a moment to catch my breath on Sunday and when I added everything to my budget – welp! – I’m way over on my food budget.
Looking Back: How Our Food Budget Has Changed
When I first started blogging here, I’m pretty sure my budget for food was $100/week! We mostly cooked at home, and had a tiny budget for take-out (typically cheap fast food), so our entire monthly food budget was only $500 for a family of 4. To be fair, my twins were much younger at that time and didn’t eat as much as they do now. But still. $500 for the full month!
Creeping Costs
At this point, our budget for food has expanded significantly. First, I now buy higher quality foods. Instead of planning meals around the cheapest budget-friendly recipes, I buy locally sourced meats and (mostly) organic produce. This is all more money, but I have decided to invest in our health that way, and we now have a higher income, so I feel justified in doing so.
Add to that inflation (hello – eggs are $6 a dozen in my area! How about you?), and growing kids who are now pre-teens but eat adult-sized portions of food. Obviously our food bill is going to go up. I now budget for $800/month for groceries, and another $200/month for eating out, for a total food budget of $1,000/month. Literally double what it used to be 10 years ago.
Oops! A Budget Wake-Up Call
And even at this much higher price point…..this month we’ve gone over. By quite a bit, actually. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that we’re sitting right about at $1,500 spent this month on food! And we still have a week to go! I know that’s a ridiculous amount of money! It’s a full 2 weeks worth of pay for many! And I’m not feeling good about spending that much on a consumable product that we now have nothing to show for. This week, it’s back to the basics!
I saw a Facebook post (I think in a Dave Ramsey group?) where someone posed the question: “What’s one ‘poor’ meal you’d eat even if you were rich?” Many of the responses mentioned things like spam or bologna. For me, I’d answer spaghetti and tacos. I’m also thinking about a breakfast-for-dinner meal one night. Yes, eggs are expensive, but still cheaper than most meat!
What are some other budget-friendly meal ideas that you would still enjoy even if you were “rich”?
Seeking Advice
How do you get back on track when you suddenly realize you’re way over budget in a category? I don’t mean, how do you balance the budget? I can pull money from other categories to cover the over-expenditure in my food budget. I mean more psychologically, how do you get back on track? It didn’t even feel like we were over-spending! I do think I got take-out a couple extra times due to my long work hours. But it didn’t feel like we were being extra extravagant. I was honestly quite surprised by how much we’ve spent and it feels daunting to go for a full week without going back to the grocery store (or just getting bare minimum like milk and fresh produce), because I didn’t even realize we were so far over-budget!
Any tips to recover from a bloated budget month? And send me your favorite budget-friendly meal ideas, too!
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
Meal plan! Include options for phone it in night too. Frozen pizza, sandwiches, snack dinner like salami, cheese, crackers, cottage cheese, fruit, etc.
Such a great idea to plan ahead for the “phone it in” nights!
For figuring out the budget wise – I look at the USDA food cost, they have 4 levels of cost and you can see about how much you should spend on avg for food for your family, based on age and gender.
For going over in a category – I always take from another category, but we use YNAB so it’s quite easy to do in the program. Luckily we have usually some categories with money left over to spare, but if we have nothing we’ll take out of a savings category
Wow! I have never looked at the USDA Food Cost site before! This was fascinating! Using the moderate-cost plan with two 12-year-old girls and two adults in the 19-50 range (1 male, 1 female), the estimate is $1315/month! That shocked me because I would’ve guessed it to be lower! Granted, we share 50-50 custody of the kids so it’s probably a better estimate to cut their food costs in half, which gives us an estimate of $1,005 – almost exactly our normal budget! That definitely gives me some peace of mind when I’ve felt a bit guilty about the budget creep with food costs!
How’s your freezer? Mine usually has some random chicken or ground meat in it and it’s a good way both lower a weekly shopping tab while using up your stored food before it gets forgotten. One of our cheap and easy is chicken, beans, and salsa: empty 2 cans of (drained) beans (kidney, pinto, whatever you have) in a baking dish (like 11×7), put 2-3 chicken breasts on top, depending how big they are, and dump a 16 oz jar of salsa over everything. Bake til the chicken is done. Frittatas or omelets are also easy ways to use up frozen vegetables or last bits of leftovers. It’s also ok to give yourself a budget of $50 or whatever this week to replenish milk/fresh fruit and veg, or to get something small you need to use up some pantry or freezer stock.
Great meal ideas, thank you! Luckily we do have frozen meat so that will certainly help keep costs down. My goal is spend a bare minimum just to get us milk and some produce – exactly as you mentioned!
I LOVE tuna casserole and breakfast for dinner! As well as a “everything” soup (all veggie leftovers, chicken, pasta, etc.
Oh I haven’t done an “everything” soup in ages! I should definitely plan for that because I always enjoy it!