Then, we make a Google Sheet listing everything we need to buy at the store based on our meal plan. Breakfasts and lunches are mostly the same every week, so we just plan to restock on what we need for those meals. The other days are covered by left-overs (also planned), a frozen pizza (most weeks), and an evening of dining out. We typically plan for three dinners made from scratch every week. Every week, we decide what we’re going to eat for dinner. Like most good things in life, it starts with a spreadsheet. The same is true for food! You’ve got to make a food plan so you can stay within budget at the store, reduce waste and, most importantly, so you can make decisions when you’re thinking straight, not when you’re starving after a hard day at work! You’re not going to align your money with your priorities without a money plan.
Because the truth is, if you want to really cut back, it’s ALL about meal planning. Meal planning comes up just about every time we talk about reducing spending on groceries.
#AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD BUDGET FOR A FAMILY OF 4 DOWNLOAD#
Interested in getting your food costs under control? Download our free printable Grocery Planner templates. It will cost you some time and effort and, of course, you might not be able to buy everything you want! More on that later. Last, there are trade-offs if you want to cut back on groceries. Other stuff we get at the grocery store (cleaning supplies, diapers, etc.) are budgeted for separately. Fourth, our grocery budget is just for food. Third, we also budget $200 a month for dining out, so we’re just under $500 a month for food in total. Second, we live in a low cost-of living area. I’ve got a five-year-old, three-year-old, and a six-month-old who is so cute it hurts, but she only just started eating real food (pureed avocado and banana is the current favorite). Here’s a few caveats to put my situation in perspective. (And I’ve spent enough time in the YNAB Community to know that’s a lot of people!)
I don’t want to shame anyone! What I do want to do is offer some ideas to those who do want to find ways to cut down on their grocery spending. I also want to acknowledge that it might not be possible for everyone to budget this little for something so essential. The key idea to keep in mind is that the amount you spend on groceries is totally based on your priorities. But it also tends to make folks uneasy, because no one wants to feel like they’re spending too much, especially when they’re already trying so hard to cut back! I know when you start putting numbers in the headlines of blog posts, it gets attention. But then I told some of my coworkers that we live on $298 a month for groceries for our family of 5, and they freaked out! I realized that our situation wasn’t as normal as I thought. It was normal to me because it’s what we’ve always done. I think we eat very well.Īnd, to be honest, I thought our grocery budget was typical. We’ve had such big financial goals, it made sense to cut back where we could. My family has always lived on a pretty tight budget for groceries.
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