Learning how to stick to a grocery budget is possible with a little dedication, purpose, and use of saving strategies.
Fresh out of college, and on my own for the first time, I was clueless about how to set up or stick to a grocery budget. I would go to the grocery store every weekend and buy a bunch of random food items without a plan. It never failed that I would still eat out often and on top of that within a few days I would find myself right back at the store trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to eat for dinner.
I was a mess and I spent a ton of money just trying to survive. 😉 It took me years, but I finally figured out how to feed myself and now my family without going broke. On top of that I have found that if we set up a food budget and stick to it, it can free up a nice chunk of money every month that can be used towards reaching a financial goal.
We all have to eat, but it is up to us to decide how much we spend or save when feeding our families.
Although there are factors that will impact our budgets like where we live, our family size, incomes, and even rising prices, it is possible to stick to a grocery budget regardless of the obstacles.
I hope some of these tips will inspire you to put in a little work, stay on budget, and save!
Have a Budget
This should go without saying, but in order to stick to your grocery budget you need to have a realistic budget that you can stick to and afford. If you do not yet have a grocery budget, check out How to Set Up a Grocery Budget and Stick to It.
Make a Choice to Stick to Your Grocery Budget
One of the biggest factors in sticking to a grocery budget is choosing to be disciplined enough to actually want to do it.
When shopping for food, it is really easy to convince ourselves that we NEED many of the items on our grocery lists. In reality though, that just isn’t the case. There may be many things that we may WANT, but we have to decide how valuable those items are to us.
We have to decide if we want the food items more or if we want to stick to our budgets in order to achieve something greater.
Without being committed to stick to a budget, it will be very unlikely that you will actually stick to it.
Know Your Why and Refer to It Often
From past experience, I know that grocery budgets can vary greatly depending on how well you watch your budget. When I first started using strategies to save on groceries and budgeting, I quickly learned how much money we could save every month just by implementing these two things.
Sticking to a grocery budget does take a little work. However, it results in savings that can be used toward financial goals. I am a huge advocate for having financial goals no matter what season you are in. When we have financial goals, we tend to work harder to make progress towards reaching those goals.
Whether your goals are to avoid going into more debt each month, paying off a credit card bill, building an emergency fund, saving for a car or home, paying off your home, or investing in your retirement fund, sticking to a grocery budget can help you to work towards those goals. Whatever your goals are, try posting them somewhere in your home where you will see them daily. You might even want to track your progress towards your goal. I like using Debt Free Charts. They have charts both for getting out of debt and setting goals as well.
By frequently being reminded of your goals and seeing the progress you are making towards them, you will be much more likely to put in a little extra work, stick to your grocery budget, and use those savings towards your goals.
Divide Your Money
Determine how often you want to grocery shop every month and divide your money evenly between each shopping trip.
So if your monthly budget is $500 a month and you like to shop once a week, then divide the budget into four weeks. That means you can spend $125 or less each week.
The key to making this work is making each amount a nonnegotiable. That means that you don’t spend more than $125 a week.
The reason for this is that if we try to spend a little more one week and say that we will only spend what is left the next week, it typically doesn’t go that way and we overspend.
If I spend $150 one week, it is unlikely that I will only spend $100 the following week.
Instead it is better to know the budget for a specific period of time and be disciplined to stick to it.
Take Your Job Seriously
Typically in every household, there is one person that is usually in charge of shopping for the food. If that is your job, why not treat it like a “real job”? In our house we like to call those the ones where you actually collect a paycheck.:) You might not get an actual paycheck for this job, but if you do it well, you will have more finances to use to work for you.
Hear me out. Let’s say that your grocery budget is $600 a month, but you don’t really try very hard to stick to it. So instead of spending $600 a month, you spend anywhere from $650 all the way up to $900 a month.
What would happen if you were in charge of running a business and regularly went over budget on a monthly basis? Over time, that could result in inability to pay utilities, vendors, or even meet payroll. Any of these examples would have a negative impact on any business. As a result, you likely wouldn’t last long in that particular position or your business would eventually fail.
So why not treat your household expenses like a business? If you are in charge of the food budget or even the household budget, act like a top notch CFO! Figure out a budget that allows your family to eat well, but at the same time doesn’t allow for financial waste and stick to it.
Meal Plan to Stick to Your Grocery Budget
Meal planning is a great way to not only stay on budget, but to even get under budget. The key is to do it in the right order. Rather than creating a list of meals and a list of items needed for those meals, do the opposite.
Start with your pantry and freezer and see what items you already have. Plan as many meals and snacks as you can with those ingredients. Then, see what items are on sale for the week. See how many more meals and snacks you can plan using other ingredients you have and sale items.
The goal is to create as many meals as possible for the week using items from the pantry, freezer, and sale items. When a meal plan is created this way, the list of items needed to complete the meal plan is typically very small.
By doing this, it frees up a large portion of your budget for stocking your pantry and freezer with items you use regularly when they are on sale. Or the unused budgeted amount can be put in a grocery sinking fund. This allows you to purchase items in bulk when you find them at a great price.
Take Advantage Of Grocery Pick Up and Online Pricing
One advantage of the pandemic is that it introduced a lot of us to grocery pick up. Most grocery stores offer this service at either no cost or at a very low cost that still makes it worth it.
If you are someone that has a difficult time sticking to a grocery list and you often find yourself purchasing a number of items that catch your eye, then grocery pick up is the perfect solution. Temptation to spontaneously buy things is eliminated when purchasing groceries online. It makes it much easier to go down the list and purchase just what is needed.
The other benefit of this is the online pricing that is now available. Now we can virtually look up most grocery stores and see the cost of any item they have.
Even when I am not putting in a grocery pick up order, I still go online and check out prices when I am making my list before I go into the grocery store. I quickly jot down the price of each item on my list and add them all up. If my total is over my budget, then I make adjustments to my list until I am back under budget. This is really valuable because I have found that I can easily make a few adjustments that overall have a low impact on our meals, but over time can have a big impact on our finances.
Create a Need Now and Stock Up List
Often when grocery shopping, we tend to purchase items we may already have or just pick up an item because we tend to use it often. We tend to think it’s not a big deal because we know that it won’t go to waste and we will use it eventually.
That may be a true statement, but it is also an easy way to go over budget.
Instead, try creating a Need Now and Stock Up list.
A Need Now list is all of the items needed to complete your meal plan. It also includes any regularly used items that you may have completely run out of.
A Stock Up list is all of the items that you use regularly that might be running low.
So, let’s say that your family uses almond butter on a regular basis. If you are down to one jar it would not be added to the need now list because there is enough to get through the next week or two. However, because it is very low, it would be added to the stock up list.
The purpose of this is to create a list of needed items and purchase them first. Then use the additional money in the budget to purchase any items on the stock up list that can be found on sale . Another option is to save that money to purchase items from the stock up list that may be on sale another week.
Put Off Shopping
Another way that we tend to go over budget is when we do our grocery shopping and then somehow find ourselves back at the store buying more items. In order to avoid this try putting off shopping.
So let’s say that you like to grocery shop once a week and you divided your monthly budget up so that you get the weekly amount every Friday. Rather than shopping every Friday and feeling like you can’t go to the store for seven more days, try waiting until Monday or Tuesday to shop.
It is much easier to know that you set the money aside for groceries whenever you decide to go, rather than spending all of your money on the first day and feeling like you can’t go to the store if you needed to.
Make Saving a Game
Spending money on groceries is a lifetime commitment for all of us. It is up to us to choose whether we are going to make smart purchases at the grocery store or continuously shop without a plan and waste hundreds of dollars every month for the rest of our lives.
Personally, I choose to be a smart shopper so that I can use those savings for so many other things. In order to do this and actually enjoy it, why not make saving a game?
There are so many ways to make saving money on groceries fun.
- Try to not spend all of your budget. Keep track of what wasn’t spent and try to beat it on your next shopping trip.
- Calculate the cost of your meals and see how small you can get them.
- See how many weeks in a row you can spend more on stocking your pantry and freezer rather than for your need now list.
- Try a no spend week where you don’t purchase any groceries and only eat from your pantry and freezer. Put those savings towards a financial goal you are currently working on.
- See how many days in a row you can go without going to the grocery store. In a month or so do another one and try to beat your old record.
- Challenge your grocery budget and see if you can get it lower than it already is without your family noticing.
- Try to save a certain amount of money from your food budget that you don’t spend every week and surprise your family with a special treat or a fun day out.
Be Creative
There will be times when your list of grocery items that you need will exceed your budget. It is much easier to just convince ourselves that we need everything on our list and there isn’t much that we can do about the price of groceries.
However, it is more fun and economical to find as many ways as we can to stick to the budget that works best for our families.
When we substitute or eliminate ingredients from some recipes, we will often find that it really doesn’t make that much of a difference. We can also save a ton of money by trying to recreate some of our favorite pricey meals and snacks for a fraction of the cost. Another great way to help us stick to our budget is to use what we have and come up with new recipes.
By changing things just a bit, trying to make some of our favorite things ourselves, or just experimenting on our own, we tend to build a little confidence, save money, and stay on budget.
Go Easy On Yourself
If there is one thing that I learned about budgeting is that no matter how hard we try we won’t always stick to it. Sometimes life gets a little crazy and we get off track. When that happens it is important to remember that it is ok then get right back on track!
If you are successful at staying on budget, save hundreds of dollars, and use those savings towards your financial goals ten months out of the year and get off track for two months, that is still a major win for the year! Compare that to never budgeting, overspending every month, and not having those extra dollars to work towards your goals.
Even if your budgeting game isn’t perfect, as long as you stay focused and keep trying, you and your family will be much better off for it.
Happy Saving!
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