My husband and I spend $400/month on groceries. I do get some food that is more expensive b/c it prevents us from going out to eat. And, don’t believe what people here are saying: buying quality food does cost more money! I was just going through your budget thinking it looked a lot like mine.

Tricia – it would be so exciting if you could put $200-500 more on credit card debt each month. That could happen if you reduce groceries to about $300, cut out soda and some or all of the cigarettes, and stop spending on all/most unnecessary “wants” and “splurges”. Good luck!

Bob: the point of budgeting for groceries isn’t to consider yourself a success if you spend less than going out to eat. Comparing one expensive thing to another more expensive thing isn’t exactly fair. $500 is a lot because, as you’ve seen from other people’s comments, it’s easy to do it for a lot less and still have plenty of healthy food for 3 people. So, while trying to get out of debt, some people avoid spending extra money if it’s not needed. And while $2 might seem “cheap” to you, it depends what you compare it to. My breakfast of fiber cereal or oatmeal costs less that 25 cents, so that makes $2 seem out of control when trying to get out of debt.

Good Luck

I highly recommend them if you’re trying to get into menu planning. Their meals are healthy and nutritious and they have options for kosher, people losing weight, low carb, etc.

…for the meals we’ve planned in advance. However, even with just the
two of us, we usually spend about $250-300 a month on groceries. Part of
that is because we buy organic as often as possible, and so we budget
accordingly. As others have said, there is no “right way”. You’ll just
have to figure out what works for you.

I think that is probably the biggest point I would like to make. $60 for a bathroom remodel may not seem like a lot of money when you think about selling your house in a couple of years. But that is acouple of years away … I think you should focus on the self-discipline it takes to make the hard decisions about your financial future and your weight loss NOW.

Look at how you got where you are … why are you over weight? Why are you in debt? Because you didn’t make the hard choices. Maybe you should make them now.

It’s mostly up to the individuals needs and circumstances. There is NOT one magic way for everyone.

You aren’t trying to live as austere a life as possible until you pay off your debts, you are trying to learn life-long habits about saving. It’s like dieting. If you never ever allow yourself chocolate during your diet, the second you go off your diet, you start over-eating and then you’re back to your starting weight.

Instead, you want to make changes that will stay with you permanently, but that still allow you occasionaly to indulge in small ways.

But I do think that meal planning can help bring your grocery bill down, and bring it down permanently. Also, I’m not sure if you can convince your whole family to do this, but I limit myself to $10 a week of the “gas station” grocery- that is those little trips you mentioned- grabbing a Starbucks on your way to work, or a candy bar at the gas station, or a frozen yogurt. Those couple dollars for a coffee here or a soda there or a candy bar there really add up. Some days, you’ve had a bad day, and you really just want a frozen yogurt. I know myself, and I know that sometimes I feel that’s necessary. So I budget for it. Once I’ve hit $10 a week, I can’t buy more “gas station” grocery that week.

April 2007 Grocery Spending

The bigger spending is for our grocery trips to the store. The little spending is for a candy bar with gas…running to the store to get something small (but ending up getting more)…etc. The little trips are adding up and I’d like them to stop. All of that is recorded and counted as groceries.

We do not plan our meals, and that would help greatly. It would make sure we use all that we buy and we could work some menu items around sales. It will be interesting to take a look at how May turns out because I am eating considerably less! It’s one of those things you hate to say, but it’s true is that both my husband and I are overweight (I’m obese even). It costs money to maintain that unhealthy weight in more ways than one.

As for the bathroom, I admit that April was not the best month to spend the $60 for it. But, the changes made for that cost I hope will pay off when it comes time to sell our house in a few years.

And eating healthy absolutely does not need to cost more money. Stop buying processed and packaged food, and load up on healthy and cheap things like brown rice, oatmeal, lentils, beans, veggies, etc. It’s a myth that eating healthy has to cost a lot, although it might take more time to actually prepare real food. For example, for the cost of McDonald’s for one person (which you mentioned in your other blog), you could make a meal for the entire family of brown rice, broccoli, and chicken or tofu. And water is free and healthy compared to expensive and sugary soda.

Thanks for being honest and posting your financial information even when you aren’t thrilled with it. I hope next month you find yourself with more income and fewer expenses

The groceries have always been a spot to work on with us. I think at the lowest we got it down to $300 for a month. But then the next month is $400. The thing about the healthy eating is that once I decided to do it, there is some cost with going out and buying better choice staples when we already have some at home. Things like healthier cheese, mayo, etc. I’m going to look at the detail here because that will tell more.

Granted, I am turning 21 this week and spend more money eating out than I do on groceries, but still! Do you have 4 kids or something? Healthy eating cant be THAT expensive can it!?