So I’ve got a question for you, dear imaginary friends:
How much money, per month, do you estimate that you spend on groceries/food/eating out?
What do you think is a reasonable amount to spend, per month, on food? An unreasonable amount?
I’m working to really nail down our family budget. When Ben and I first got married, we never really established a ‘budget’. I mean we figured out who would pay for what, and tossed a little in savings, but we never designated ‘x’ amount of dollars for food, savings, necessities, etc. About a year ago, we realized we needed to step our game up. So we sat down and really talked about our money, and where we spent it. We calculated what we were spending per month on bills, food, etc. We analyzed our ‘must’ money (must spend on bills, gas, childcare, etc) and our ‘might’ money (entertainment, food, etc.) We decided to take a portion of our monthly income and put it in savings, every month, regardless. So basically we pretend that portion of our income was never there to begin with. We don’t think about it, we just pretend it wasn’t there, and automatically stick it in savings every month. We categorized money that we ‘must’ spend each month (bills, gas), and subtracted that from our monthly income (minus to portion we put in savings). The leftover ‘might’ money is what we can work with.
The leftover ‘might’ money is where I’m trying to get creative. I realize that if I can save a little more ‘might’ money, I can put more into savings. For us, the ‘might’ money includes food (food is must, but how much we spend on it is up to us!), products (toilet paper, household goods, etc), and entertainment (eating out, shopping, people-watching at Walmart).
I’ve already cut waaaaay back on the shopping, tear, tear. I’m trying to buy (mostly) necessities now. I can still trim this though. Products can be trimmed more, too. Entertainment has been scaled back as well, though we didn’t typically spend much money on entertainment anyway. I guess we just laugh at ourselves for fun 😉
But food. My sweet frenemy food. We like to eat in my home. I married a man who likes to eat. He married a woman who likes to eat. We gave birth to a boy who loves to eat. So I’m curious (nosey) how much others spend on food a month. How much is too much? Too little?
I would roughly say we spend between $350-400 a month on food/groceries/eating out. I say roughly because every month I’ve been trying to shop more wisely, use coupons, and meal plan a little more, so some months I’ve been able to get by on $275-300 a month on groceries. So hit me with it. Are we pigs? Do I need to call Dr. Phil? Schedule an intervention? I can dig…..
Soooo, now, because I’m nosey curious, tell me about you! What are you spending on food/groceries? How much is too much? Let’s all share our food/grocery secrets and be friends for life!
