Grocery Budget Dilemma: SOLVED.

Problem:  The rising cost of food ruins the joy of menu planning, eating and grocery shopping.

Why this matters: I really used to like all these things and then it got so expensive it made me sad. Being sad makes most people eat more. Then they have to go back to the grocery store. Vicious cycle. 

Failed Solution #1: Ignore problem and just buy the food we need. (Still sad and floundering around like a stressed out... flounder.)

Failed Solution #2: Full scale anorexia attempt lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes. (Even sadder and hungry.)

Failed Solution #3: Buy cheaper food. (Super sad and having daydreams about red peppers.)

Solution: The "Daily" Food Budget. 

On average, we have spent about $575/month for groceries for the 3 of us over the past few months. (This includes eating out which we do very rarely.) I settled on a daily food budget goal of $15-$20 per day which is $450-$600 for the month. Again, this includes out to eat and is the minimum amount that works for us with the types and amounts of food we eat. The point of this post is not how much you should spend but how to have FUN grocery shopping at whatever amount of spending that works for you. 

I have included a picture of a fake calendar that I made up... but I will still try to describe it. 

For every day I write the cumulative "Budget Amount" for that day in the month. I have been working with $15 but only filling it in a week at a time. That way if we were trending a little "over" budget of $450 I could bump up to $20/day for a while and still end up "under" budget of $600. So the 1st is $15, the 2nd is $30, the 3rd is $45...the 20th is $300. 

Then as we go shopping, I write down "What we spent that day". I live in a small town super close to the store and we buy a lot of fresh food, so I have been going every 2-3 days. When we get home from the grocery store, I just write it on there. If we went out to eat I add that in too. 

The third number "what we spent so far" is just taking the "what we spent so far" number from the day before and adding in that day's spending. Then with a quick glance at the calendar, I can see if we are under or over or on track for the month and keep that in mind on my next grocery trip!

Thankfully, I really like writing things down (and it's nice for Ralph to have access to this) but if someone wants to make an app for this, that would be super duper. And if my explanation is all complicated, the process isn't, app or no. It took me longer to write this post than it has to track our spending this way for the whole month. 

I know that a natural response to this is, just break it down by the week! And I used to do a version of this on a weekly basis but it didn't work for me because 1) mentally adding up $100 of groceries as I shop is annoying 2) we were making big grocery trips once a week and then "filling in" during the week - and those trips were not cheap and 3) I HATE HATE HATE unloading groceries, so coming home with lots of bags to deal with is not good for me or anyone around me.

So this is working for me. It is really working. When I go to the store and spend $15/day I feel FANTASTIC. When I spend less than $20, I go, that's fine... STILL OKAY. I have not enjoyed grocery shopping in ages and now I do. And even when we are trending "over" for that point in the month, I know that each day brings another chunk of food allowance!