$20 a Week on Groceries?

I promised two or so weeks ago about the start of a new series, how to only spend $20 a week on your groceries. And for the past two weeks, I have started a post, and then deleted it and put it off for another week. Why did I keep putting it off? Because I feel uneasy about promising that you can get your grocery bill down to $20 a week when everyone's situation and circumstances are different. I hate to promise that you can spend only $20 a week if you have a family of four. As most of you know, it is just hubs and I, so it is easy to only spend $20 a week on food. And that's just another thing. I'm afraid there have been some misconceptions about this $20...

$20 is the amount that I budget for the grocery store only and I never buy HBA/cleaning at the grocery. Food only. I allow myself extra money for Walgreens/CVS/Target deals. Not a lot, because I typically try to roll RR's/ECB's/Target gift card deals at these stores, but there is still that budgeted amount (typically $20 for WAGS/CVS combined and $10 for Target. And this amount rarely gets fully used due to RR/ECB/GC. The unused portion goes straight to savings). Plus, I consider these stores to be more of my HBA/Cleaning purchases more so than food. But I do get food when it goes on good sale.

So. after a lot of thinking and debating over this topic, I have decided to make this series more of a "how to cut grocery costs" instead of promising to help you get your grocery budget down to $20. It just rests easier with me and is something that people in all walks of life can do. So join along as we learn step by step, week by week, how to shave money off of that grocery bill!

This week's tip? Know what you use and know what you spend!

When setting up your grocery budget, you need to keep in mind what you typically go through in a week's time. For example, I know that each and every single week, I need to buy a gallon of milk each week and produce. Some families may need two gallons of milk. You may find that you need to buy eggs on each trip to the grocery (we only need eggs about every other trip). Write down what you need to purchase on a weekly basis, and that cost. Leave room for special purchases (i.e. markdowns, stockpiling a good deal, a special treat, etc.) and you will have a pretty good idea of what you should be spending/averaging each week. If the amount you spend at the grocery store is far more than that, then you have some cutting to do.

For example, I completely cut ice cream from our budget. Not only is it unhealthy, but it was an expensive budget buster. We still get ice cream as an occaisonal treat or when it goes on really good sale with coupon, we just don't budget to buy it each week.

So while this week's tip may not be very useful to some, or shave dollars off of your bill immediately, it is important down the road. You need to know what you spend in order to shave money from your bill. It's hard to shave that bill down if you are already buying necessities and necessities only. But if you are buying lots of extras, consider lessening how often you purchase them. Those extra's can get expensive, can add up very quickly, and are rarely an actual necessity. There is always a cheaper alternative. Don't worry, we will learn all of the alternatives throughout this series!