Creating a Food Budget

How To Create A Monthly Budget For Food

Food is not something we can do without. Cutting back on your food bill, though, can leave you with a substantial amount of money left in your pocket at the end of the month. The problems is that most people do not know what they have to do to make that happen. By creating a monthly food budget can be a perfect way to save.

Take Julie, for example. She is a mother of two and is married to Christopher. They work hard but barely make ends meet. When the two of them sat down to determine just where their money was going, Julie was shocked to see that they were spending more than $170 a week on food. That was $600 on just food per month. So, they decided to do something that most would never do. They decided to track their food budget.

For the next month, Julie and Christopher kept a small notebook with them and any time they bought any type of food product, they jotted it down. In fact, it became a competition to see who was spending what and to see who was doing a better job keeping track. At the end of the month, the results were in. They had spent a total of $853 on groceries.

They found that some was going towards the grocery store, but they spent a considerable amount on restaurants, coffee shops and at the gas station when they just stopped in to get something for dinner. Now, what would you do with this information?

Julie did something she had not done before. She decided to create a monthly budget for food. What she found was that it was not difficult to do. Here are some steps that she followed.

• Track spending to determine what areas you are spending your money on.

• Determine ways to cut. For example, Julie invested $26 in a coffee maker and bought flavored coffees that she and Christopher enjoyed and saved the $58 they had spent on coffee shop money. Stopping at the gas station where things were more expensive was important to them as well.

• Make a basic weekly grocery allowance. Since they were already established, she had most of what she needed to cook available the first week such as spices and basics. By making a menu for each week, she saved herself time too. She knew what to pull out for dinner and have no worries about having to run out to pick something out. She found that she could cut her grocery budget down to about $100 per week.

• Later, she started to cut back on foods they didn't need and made them herself. For Sunday breakfast, she made French toast and made enough for another meal down the road. She also baked a batch of cookies instead of buying packaged and the kids loved it.

By taking the necessary time to track spending and then in making a monthly budget, Julie found herself saving money. They actually treated themselves to dinner out at the end of the month since they had save several hundred dollars and now could say they could afford it.

By Sandy Baker

Getting the Kids Involved with the Food Budget

Our children used to love having a certain brand of cookie or snack, but unfortunately they were also the most expensive. I wanted to teach them about a budget without making them feel as if they were missing out on something so we invented "Family coupon night".

I clip coupons everyday and then on Friday night we make a bowl of popcorn and put all the coupons on the table. We divide them into categories and each person takes a few.

Even our youngest, who cannot read yet recognizes the vegetables on the coupons and is excited about helping. We then go grocery shopping with our coupons on Saturday morning.

When home, I show our budget and how much we saved. The difference goes into a vacation jar and each year we use it to go someplace special, like camping. Everyone feels like a special part of the project and are proud of their contribution.

By Laurie from Biloxi, MS

Sticking to a Lunch Budget

I am not working currently as I am a care giver for my elderly parents, so I eat lunch at home. I have set myself a budget of 1 pound a day (approx. $2 American) for everything I eat, except for our main meal at night with my husband. It is quite possible to make 1 pound stretch, as I mostly live on snacks and fruit during the day.

I mentally calculate the cost of everything as I go along. I know that's a bit sad, but it gives me a sense of satisfaction to stick within my budget. If I do go over one day, I cut back the next. It's a bit like a diet I suppose. I can make a big bowl of mashed potato with grated cheese mixed in for about 50p, and this covers lunch for 2 days. Then I can have a banana, an apple, and a bag of crisps. There is no limit put on our evening meals, but we don't go mad! I am a great believer in looking after the pennies etc.

By econ o'miser