Setting Up A Food Budget And Grocery Budget

If you want to be sure your bills all get paid when they are due and set aside some money for savings and retirement, you know that you need to establish a budget. Many expenses are fixed, such as a mortgage payment. However, your food budget and grocery budget may have more flexibility to it than you think.

The two terms are related, but not identical. A food budget is just what it says. It covers what you actually spend on food. On the other hand, a grocery budget encompasses everything you spend at the grocery store. There will be a lot of things included in this category that are not edible. These would include paper towels, laundry products, and household cleansers among others.

An unrealistic budget will fail, so you need to make sure your budget is attainable. This means that you must first determine how much money is actually needed. Begin with the items you buy weekly but which are not food. List the costs beside each item and include such things as over the counter drugs, soda pop, cleansers, and paper products.

Next, record food purchases that are made periodically, such as once a month. This category would include products like margarine, sugar, coffee, and flour. You will then need to set aside funds to buy them when needed. For example, if you normally buy them monthly, place one-fourth of the cost in reserve each week so that you can buy them without wrecking your budget.

You can now allocate your food budget. Determine how many dinners, lunches, and breakfasts you need to provide each week. Most people spend about the same amount for dinner as they do for breakfast and lunch combined. Therefore, if your budget is $200 a week, you would allocate $100 for dinners, and $50 each week for lunches and breakfasts. If you prepare 3 meals daily every day of the week, you would then divide these numbers by 7. This means you can spend $14.28 per dinner, $7.04 per breakfast, and $7.04 per lunch. Now that you know the average amount you should spend on each meal, create a menu for the week to keep within these amounts.

Shop as infrequently as possible. Extra trips can quickly add up, since few people will actually leave a store with just the one or two items they intended to buy. Shopping for a week or so at a time will also let you take advantage of bulk savings. For instance, a ten pound package of ground beef will be less expensive per pound than a one or two pound package.

Maintaining a food budget and grocery budget takes planning and a little effort. But since it is one category that is subject to your control, it is not difficult to lower your costs. Watching your savings account grow is one possible reward that can make it very worthwhile.

In this day and age, everyone should have a Food Budget. Having a Grocery Budget will make you more financial stable. With the correct mind and software at hand, it is simple to do. You’ll be surprised at the amount of money you will be saving..