Thrifty Thinking: Budgeting for 2012 Part 3
Do You REALLY Know How Much You Spend on Groceries?
Do you have a set monthly or weekly grocery budget? Do you know how much you spend on groceries and toiletries? Whether you have a budget or not, do you really know how much you actually spend? My challenge to you this week, if you don’t already do this, is to record how much you spend on groceries.
What we spend on groceries is different every time we go to the store. If the grocery budget is the place that contains the most variables (i.e., it’s not a set amount like a car payment or mortgage), it’s important to track our patterns. I have been tracking for about five years. I don’t track every grocery receipt every month, but the last couple of years I tracked our grocery bill for two months, around the month of September. It gives me a really good idea of what I spend. We typically buy groceries with cash, so I track our grocery spending on a Google spreadsheet. The first few years I just did it on a Post-it Note. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just do it! I would highly suggest you try this for a month.
It can be eye opening to find out the reality of what we really spend on groceries. In ours heads we may think we are spending a certain amount, when in reality it could be much greater than that. Hopefully it is less….
The following is our actual average spending/week on groceries and toiletries for each year the fall:
- 2007: $ 42/week =$168 for 4 weeks
- 2008: $55/week =$220 for 4 weeks
- 2009: approx. $67/week=$268 for 4 weeks
- 2010: $ 74.89/week =$299.56 for 4 weeks
- 2011: $84.25/week =$337 for 4 weeks
Here is an example for the first two weeks that I kept record in the fall of 2011 (I even kept track of snacks or toiletries I might buy at Walmart or Kmart):
Week 1: Date Amount Weekly Total: $90.24 WinCo 9/11/2011 $41.25 Albertsons 9/13/2011 $0.80 (it must have been a double coupon day) Albertsons 9/13/2011 $7.45 Albertsons 9/13/2011 $1.62 Haggen 9/13/2011 $10.00 Alb 9/13/2011 $3.21 WinCo 9/14/2011 $25.91
Week 2: Date Amount Weekly Total: $88.42 Fred Meyer 9/19/2011 $46.50 Fred Meyer 9/20/2011 $3.24 Bartell Drugs9/20/2011 $9.24 IGA 9/20/2011 $6.15 Trader Joe’s 9/21/2011 $14.64 Albertsons 9/24/2011 $8.65
There are three factors I believe has helped to increase our grocery bills each year:
- In 1/07 and 6/09 we added one (small) mouth to feed which probably led to VERY minimal increase since I nursed my babies. So every year they eat more, and it costs a bit more to feed them incrementally.
- We have desired to eat healthier, so we’ve been buying more produce and natural products. For instance, we now buy way more fruits, vegetables, and items like Maple/Agave Syrup in lieu of Breakfast Syrups with high fructose corn syrup.
- The Gasoline Effect (I call it) has caused a surge in the price of all consumables, especially groceries.
Do any of you track your grocery spending daily, weekly, or yearly? Do you mind sharing how much you spend? I would love to hear how much an extreme couponer saves (which I am not). We’d love to hear how much you spend if you care to share.
Are there places you can save, like making your own hand soap, laundry soap, granola bars, snacks, yogurt, or meals in general? Are you paying a lot for convenience items? The more I explore, the more I realize you can make a lot more things that are not only money-saving, but just plain better for you. What kind of money-saving ideas do you like to employ to save your family money? I am currently researching how to make dishwasher detergent…we’ll see!
Did you miss Budgeting for 2012 Part 1 or Budgeting for 2012 Part 2?
Have you read How Do You Get the Best Value for Groceries?
On an average week, we spend $170/week on groceries, including toiletries, household items, and pet food (we have 3 cats and 2 dogs, so that’s not a small expenditure). I agree that making as much as possible from scratch helps to keep the expenses down. We make half of our dog food (pressure cooker chicken and veggies) and buy very little that isn’t considered whole food. Still, as you mention, if you try to buy good fruits and veggies, it can add up. I try to stock up on sales, but coupons don’t really do us any good because we buy so few packaged things except for things like garbage bags and tin foil. 🙂
We are definitely using less and less coupons. The less packages the better!! Thanks for sharing.
I track my expenses through the free excel spreadsheet download found here: http://thecouponproject.com/ I am on my third year of using it and I love it! I input every receipt and my savings are consistently 50% or more when I shop sales and use coupons. It helps me evaluate if my work in couponing is paying off, and yes…it is! My family consists of my husband and I, and three kids ages almost 10, 6 and 22 months. We spend right around $400. Not over, but sometimes under. It used to be that I could spend $300 a month, but my oldest now eats more than I do. 🙂 I think it’s great to have a budget but know that at times it may have to be altered. Still, there are so many people that have no idea what they are even spending, I agree with you! Every family is different, but if you don’t set a goal you’ll probably spend too much, that’s what I’ve found. Love your blog!!
Awareness of what we spend is key to getting a hold of our finances. Every year our grocery bill creeps up, but we know it. We want to buy better quality food, and the souls we are feeding are growing too, so that brings our costs up (but we want that)! I’ll check out the spreadsheet. Thanks for sharing!!
Sure! It’s something I’ve just found that I love!