My household has always operated under a budget. A very tight budget.
Like many, my husband and I started our life together in undergrad, which put us under a lot of pressure to live … “lightly”. Our adventures following undergrad also demanded light living as we started out working modest paying jobs, trying to save up money for my husband to attend law school. Our time in law school demanded was the lightest of all as we tried to limit our student loan debt as much as possible while at the same time welcoming a baby into our home.
Our then-monthly food budget of $150 only increased after baby #2 joined our family, by which time my husband had graduated and secured a decent job, allowing us to spend a little extra on our groceries while we juggled paying rent in an outrageous Idaho market and paying off his student loans. It increased to $250 for food and groceries every month to support our family of four.
I’ll give you just a moment to wrap your head around that dollar figure in case you are struggling.
$250. Four people. And grocery prices were on the rise (looking at 2021/22).
For reference, an article published by U.S. News on Aug. 17, 2022, "How Mush Should I Spend on Groceries?"
averages that a thrifty budget plan for a family of four should spend about $217 per week ($940 per month)
on groceries. Click here to read the full article.
Living on a budget –- a tight budget –- is hard. Really hard. It is stressful and frequently frustrating.
But it is doable!
So HOW. ON. EARTH. were we able to make it work? How were we able to eat satisfying, tasty, healthy meals on such a limited food budget???
Planning.
The Event of Shopping (Grocery Shopping, that is)
In my home, grocery shopping is not just a casual stop on my way home from work. Grocery shopping is an event.
An event with a lot of planning and forethought before I ever walk out the door.
I claim grocery shopping to be an event because it hits all the qualifications of being one. It takes: planning, scheduling, a budget, and time.
And I argue that is really how we should perceive buying groceries. Not that it has to be a dramatic event — in fact, most of us want as little drama as possible, especially if we are toting littles along with us to the grocery store! — but we should view grocery shopping with as much significance as it has on our overall monthly budget.
We should be thinking about grocery shopping as an event that requires:
- Forethought and planning
- Scheduling adequate time to get it done time efficiently and cost effectively
- Consideration of our overall budget and the significance that a trip to the grocery store has on that budget
A Quick Math Tour Tangent
If you’re thinking that buying groceries or spending money on food in general — whether bought at a grocery store or picked up at a restaurant — is not that significant to your overall budget, let’s go for a quick math exploration, shall we?
If your average monthly budget is around $2,500, and the average person spends about $250 each month on food/beverage expenses, that is 10% of your total monthly budget.
That is significant!
It is especially significant if you consider the large chunk housing will take from your budget, and then the portion your grocery bill will steal from what is left of your budget paying for overpriced housing. Spending $250 on groceries each month might be closer to 20% of your monthly spending budget.
Let me explain that one:
A small home or apartment in most Idaho cities (which is where I live) is $1,200/month. Easy. So let’s say that out of your $2,500 paycheck (your net monthly earnings), you spend $1,200 on that wonderful rent check that pays for a roof over your head. Leaving you $1,300 left for living expenses. Out of that $1,300, consider how significant is your total grocery bill. Is it 10% ($130), 20% ($260), higher?
And how much does that leave you to put towards savings, or other needed living expenses such as electricity, water, transportation, etc.?
Trust me, the amount of money you choose to spend each month on food matters in your overall budget. It does.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out how fortunate we are to live in a time and place where food is so inexpensive. I realize it may not always seem inexpensive when the teller reads out your total at the checkout, but compared to other times throughout history and other places throughout the world, the cost of food at the grocery store almost anywhere in the United States is, for the most part, both inexpensive and affordable.
Getting Back on Track ....
As I said in my introduction, grocery shopping is an event. And while I hope reading this article will help you transition the way you currently think about grocery shopping, I also hope you don’t get to the end and suddenly think shopping for grocery shopping is more complicated than you ever realized. It’s not.
Grocery shopping doesn’t have to be complicated.
And to prove that grocery shopping doesn’t have to be complicated, we’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks to help you in your next grocery shopping adventure.
Grocery shopping doesn’t have to be complicated
4 Tips for Shopping at the Grocery Store
Know Your Budget
Make a List
Schedule Adequate Time
Review the Trip
#1 Know Your Budget
I feel like this is such an obvious tip, and yet I am frequently surprised how often I learn of people – even people I’ve known for years – who shop without a limit to their spending or any notion as to what they intend to spend at the grocery store.
Until the day I figure out how to grow a legitimately stamped and printed money tree in my backyard, I will be forced to live within a budget. And that budget does not include an endless supply of cash to spend towards groceries.
I have to live within my means – within the budgeted funds available to me to spend towards buying food, no matter how unrealistic those values may seem at times.
If you don’t already have a monthly budget set up for your household, stop reading right now and hash out on a piece of paper a generalized budget.
The goal of any budget is to find out how much you can comfortably and realistically afford to spend on both essential and nonessential living expenses.
This article specifically is focused on how much you can comfortably spend on groceries, but a written budget should demonstrate how much you can afford to spend on other living expenses as well, such as electricity, fuel, clothes, etc.
New to budgeting?
If you are new to living on a budget, then keep in mind you will need to allow yourself and your household some time (not too much) to adjust to find a realistic and comfortable place of existence.
There are some expenses that we can plan for in a budget that won’t change, like rent or insurance costs, those are fixed expenses within our budget are ones we can always plan to be consistent unless we are notified otherwise. In general, rent will cost your household the same amount in December as it will in March and July. The same with health and vehicle insurance. Those types of expenses are unchanging and will not change with your monthly spending.
The variable expenses, though, are the expenses that you can live and die on. How much money are you choosing to spend each month on fuel, food, electricity, clothes, etc.?
Life should be enjoyed while we’re here – we don’t want to live forever on an $0.88 package of hotdogs each week nor do we want to walk around our apartment in January dressed in quadruple layers complete with beanie, mittens, scarf, and snow coat – but we also don’t need to eat sushi on a weekday, buy new clothes every season, or walk around our 90 degree January apartment wearing shorts and spaghetti straps.
We each need to find our happy medium.
How can we comfortably live life without feeling like we are completely missing out, while at the same time live modestly so it doesn’t rock our bank account.
People should not be putting themselves into debt in order to live a lifestyle. Instead, live a life that you love within a budget that loves you.
That said, if you are new to life on a limited budget, then you may find yourself going through a time of trial and error.
Perhaps you underestimated how much money you do need to spend on groceries. You thought you could make it on just $100 for yourself, but realize you actually need to spend closer to $150.
Or perhaps you find yourself over time weeding out areas you could cut back on.
People should not be putting themselves into debt in order to live a lifestyle.
Keep a Cushion
Earlier in this article I made the claim that for the first six years of my marriage, my family was able to live off of just $150/month. While this is true, I must also confess that I always kept on hand an extra $50 that I could spend if I happened across a good sale on chicken breasts, bacon, hamburger, or any other meat item in the grocery store.
The money wasn’t there to be spent every month. I estimated spending about $50 extra each quarter.
In my annual planning, I budgeted for $2,000. This would give me $150 to spend on food each month, plus the additional $50 each quarter for special meat deals (or a canning season since I enjoy home canning).
With that planning, I always assumed I would spend close to $200 (my budgeted $150 plus my extra $50) in November and/or December to buy a turkey or two for Thanksgiving dinner and a Christmas ham.
By keeping this cushion, I was able to stay within my budget, but also benefit from a well priced deal at the grocery store.
This cushion was also helpful sometimes in paying for non-grocery items. There were some really tight times for my family in those first five years, and when a vehicle needed repaired, that extra $50 that I had seemed like a lifejacket in helping pay for either the vehicle or other household expenses.
#2 Make a List
Before you grab your car keys and purse and head out the door on your way to the grocery store, make sure you have a plan on what you intend to buy.
The three worst mistakes a budget shopper could make:
- Shopping while hungry
- Planning to just “know what you need” when you see it
- Shopping without looking at price tags
Whether you shop weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, you need to have a list of what you plan to buy. And you should have an idea on what those items on your list will cost you.
In my home, I keep a running grocery list pinned on the front of our refrigerator so that I can add items to the list throughout the month (because I mostly shop monthly) and also so I always know where my grocery list is.
A lost or missing grocery list does me no good.
Step 1: Keep a Running a List
There really doesn’t have to be anything fancy about the list, either. Mine is on a magnet paper pad that sticks to the fridge. Or, more frequently now, written on the back of one of my daughter’s drawing pages or a random sheet out of a steno notebook.
It doesn’t matter what you write it on, just keep a running list.
And don’t feel bad if you start writing a new list for your next grocery trip the day after or even the same day after going to the grocery store. We all forget things. And it’s better to write it down right away than to hold onto it for a few days hoping to accumulate more than one item on your mental list before hanging up that sheet of paper.
Write it down somewhere you can see it before you forget what “it” is.
Step 2: Organize Your List
In this step of our Making a List Tip, we are going to review and rewrite before we go to the grocery store.
Throughout the week(s) or month, you’ve written down items on your grocery list as they come to you. If your list looks anything like mine, it is a disorganized mess! At the end of the month, my list will have dairy products written next to toilet paper, followed by dog food. It is a mess that needs cleaning before I head into the store, otherwise I will spend twice the amount of time wondering around the store multiple times rounding up all the items on my list in the order they’re written, or I will forget certain items trying to browse through every item I think is in a section of the store.
It will save you time and stress to rewrite your grocery list in the order you will come to the item in the store. Do this before you go to the store — whether that’s at home before you leave for the grocery market or sitting in your car before walking in.
If you have kids, particularly young ones, shopping with you, I cannot stress enough how much of a game changer shopping with items listed in order can be.
This step is well worth the 5 minutes it will take. Trust me!
Rewriting your list will also help you review the list to make sure you didn’t miss anything or duplicate items on your list.
Santa Clause makes a list and checks it twice — well so do we!
It will save you time and stress in the grocery store if you rewrite your grocery list in the order you will come to the item in the store before you walk into the store.
Step 3 : Price Estimate
This step can come before or after Step 2 (Organizing Your List). No matter where you decide to do this in the order of making your grocery list, just make sure you do it.
This is not a step you want to overlook or undervalue.
For this step, you will simply go through each item on the list and write down your best estimated guess on what each item should cost in the store. I prefer to do this in pencil.
Be generous in your estimates.
Remember to consider sales tax if applicable in your town or state.
If you’ve gone grocery shopping a handful of times in the past few months, then you likely have at least some idea on what items cost.
#3 Planning Ahead by Scheduling Adequate Time to Shop
As a young girl enjoying a delicious home-cooked meal, I would never have imagined the legitimate struggle of timing my parents had to go through in order to get that great-tasting plate of food in front of me.
Not only was the timing of the meal preparation a true struggle (an article for another day) but the precursor struggle of collecting all the food can also be a major wrestle.
Do I go shopping on my way home from work and somehow manage to still get dinner to the table on time?
Do I go shopping on Saturday? I swear half the population attempts to stuff themselves into the same handful of grocery stores each Saturday morning, and by the end of the day shelves are lacking products because of how many people chose to shop that same day.
Do I go shopping over my lunch break? Been there. It’s a workout, trust me. You’ll get a nice dose of adrenaline pumping before that grocery run is over as you constantly check your watch and worry about getting back to work on time.
Do I go grocery shopping after the kids are all in bed?
Do I hire a babysitter so I can grocery shop without it appearing like the circus has come to town with me?
# MomLife
Grocery shopping was an event for me even before having kids. Now, with kids, it requires a whole new level of event planning.
Going the Distance
My husband and I have spent half of our married life living in very small, often remote towns. And as much as I advocate for supporting local businesses and business owners – which certainly includes the local grocer – my purse can’t always support that passion.
In order to stay within budget, I have found it well worth my time and fuel to travel the distance to a larger grocery store that offers lower prices – whether that be a 40 minute drive or a 2.5 hour drive.
I personally choose to grocery shop only once a month, with a possible second, smaller, grocery run mid-month.
My main grocery trip (my large run) is where I often travel, depending on where we are living at the time, to a larger, more affordable grocery store. This is where I do the bulk of shopping, where I purchase 90% of the food my family will consume.
If I require a second grocery trip, it is usually to restock on milk, lettuce, and other perishable items that our family consumes frequently. And it only becomes an option if I have the extra cash leftover in my food budget.
For those of you that were thinking about fuel costs when I mentioned traveling such a distance to do my grocery shopping – this is how I can both afford and justify traveling such a distance to buy my groceries.
- I only “travel” to the grocery store once a month
- If I were planning to go grocery shopping every week, I could not justify the cost of fuel to drive the distance to a larger town every week to pick up a week’s worth of groceries. Which leads me to #2:
- The bulk buying pays for the gas
- If I were only buying a week’s worth of groceries, the total cost of my purchase would not justify the money I spend on fuel. The quantity of my grocery buying justifies my cost in gas (or diesel, depending on which vehicle I drive).
Because I am spending such a large sum on groceries while purchasing a large quantity of groceries at a lower price – but doing so only twelve times a year – I am able to not only afford but easily justify my time and fuel cost in traveling to grocery stores that offer lower prices.
Make a Plan
Trust me, making the trek to a different town, especially with little kids in tow, takes a lot of planning and scheduling before I ever walk out the door.
Not only are there traffic and weather conditions to consider, but also nap times and meal times to avoid.
And then there is the actual time needed INSIDE the grocery store.
Personally, I am not a shopper. I know women are stereotypically thought of as lovers of shoppers – be that department or grocery store – but I very much defy that stereotype.
I honestly do not like shopping.
Ask my mom. Ask my sisters. Ask my husband. Shopping is just not my thing. I’m a “get in, get out” type of person, with as limited dawdling as possible.
But as much as I want to get in and out of the grocery story as quickly as possible, I do not want to feel rushed. A rushed grocery run often results in forgotten items, unplanned for purchases, and overspending.
A rushed grocery run often results in forgotten items, unplanned for purchases, and overspending.
I want to plan for adequate time to review my entire grocery list and double-check the prices at the store to make sure I can still get every item I need without going over budget.
#4 Review the Trip
No need for a formal or extensive review. After you have purchased your groceries at the checkout counter and are pushing your full grocery cart back to your vehicle, take a quick minute to question yourself over how your trip went.
Number one thing to think about: Was your total at the checkout more, less, or on target with what you estimated it would be?
Number two thing to think about: Was the trip to the grocery store a chaotic rush (due to kids, lack of time, etc.), or did it run smoothly?
Monetary Review
Much like looking at price tags of items in the store, I am frequently astonished at how many people pass up getting a receipt of their purchase.
Reviewing the monetary portion of your grocery trip is so important. How can you expect to live on a budget if you fail to pay attention to your spending?
Were you over budget? By a lot or just a few dollars? Why?
This is where getting your receipt is so important.
How can you expect to live on a budget if you fail to pay attention to your spending?
Even if you were right on target with your purchases, it doesn’t hurt to do a quick scan of your receipt (sitting on a bench in the store or in your car after unloading all your purchases) to check your calculations.
This visual review will assist you the next time you go to calculate how much you plan to spend on individual items.
And if you did go over budget – if the total read out by the cashier demonstrated a major miscalculation on your part – then, honey, you better review that receipt!
Find out where you miscalculated.
- Did you guess wrong in how many pounds of something you put in your cart? (I am horrible at actually weighing my produce on the provided scales. I can usually guess pretty close to the end result. However, there have been occasions where I have bought 12 lbs of bananas, but thought I was only buying about 5 lbs worth. A big error because the total cost for bananas at the checkout was more than double my guestimation).
- Did you error in your mental math somewhere along the way? Forget to include tax?
There are so many ways we can miscalculate, large and small, but the important thing is to find out where you went wrong so it doesn’t happen again.
And hey – a review of that receipt might also show an error on the store’s part. Though less common than our own mathematical errors, there are times the store miscalculates or fails to include a sale price on an item.
I remember as a girl, my mom would watch like a hawk as the cashier scanned each item; ensuring that each item rang up with the correct sale price in addition to membership or coupon discount. With my own burgaid of kids to juggle at the checkout stand, along with bagging the groceries, I am rarely able to stand and watch the items ring up on the monitor. So my after-shopping-in-the-car-review of my receipt is my main way of checking myself and the store.
Traffic Flow Review
This is simply a mental review which can be done on your drive home from the grocery store or even days or weeks after the trip. But really do put some thought into how the grocery trip went.
After completing your monetary review of your grocery trip, if you were over budget or just surprised at the cost of a certain item when it rang up, consider if there was something in the flow of the trip that could have changed the outcome.
Were you rushed for time? Should you maybe have double-checked on a calculator the total cost of something rather than relying on your mental math?
Were you paying attention to what you were doing/grabbing, or was your mind preoccupied? Perhaps you were busy juggling kids at the store (young or older … I’m told teenage shoppers can be worse than toddlers), or talking on the phone while strolling around with your grocery cart.
Just a tip: try to limit your phone talk while at the grocery store. Your phone conversation will likely distract you. Not to mention, I think we sometimes get lost in our over-the-phone conversation and forget that the strangers we are sharing the store with can hear (at least one side) of the conversation. I’m sure I am not the only one who has turned pink from comments someone has said while picking out a head of lettuce. And Tip Number two: don’t video chat your mom or sister while you’re shopping. I can’t really place the “why”, but it somehow comes off as rude – not to mention annoying – when other shoppers are holding up their phones video chatting their relatives as they make their way through the store.
Review the trip, and then make a mental note to adjust the next time you are in the store. Life is all about progressing towards being better, and I am a believer that that philosophy for life applies as much to a trip to buy groceries as it does to faith and social reform.
