@SouthernBreeze We kept going over our budget the last couple of years so with things the way they are, I’ve really been focusing on prices and what we’re buying. Right now my average for Jan. thru July is $450.00, just for food. It helps me to have a clearer picture of what we’re spending where and on what to keep things separate. Some months it might be over $700.00 and like last month less than 300.00. If I can keep it to between $500/600.00 or less I’ll be happy. Keep in mind that we don’t buy be.ef since we raise beef and the cost of feeding/processing isn‘t coming out of my food budget so that makes a difference. We do buy lots of extras for the grandkids that come through the week and we regularly feed 8 people at least once a week. We definitely try to be diligent watching for things we use a lot of to go on sale and stock up as we can. DH really likes to keep lots of chips and ice cream on hand but he’s learned how to it without always spending a small fortune.
Exactly what I meant on what you actually spend on food. That’s where I couldn’t figure why we were spending so much on “food” because it wasn’t all food. I just deduct those “other” items on the receipt from the actual food. I have to say I’ve gotten a tad lax the past few months about keeping track of my household/HBA products. I will say that keeping track of expenses does make me pay more attention to real needs vs wants. By the way, I think you do an amazing job!I know that $1,000/month sounds like a lot for a grocery budget, but it's not all groceries. Like I mentioned, our wine/beer bill each month comes out of that. If we need anything from Tractor Supply, that comes out of it, too. All my household and hygiene products come out of that. We have to buy all of our meat whether it's beef, chicken, or pork. Plus, I replace all of the food and storage items that I use over a month's time out of the pantry. All of that comes out to around the $1,000/month. If I budgeted each place separately, what I actually spend on food isn't so bad.
We've had to increase my budget 3 times, already, and Cary has picked up the cost of all Sam's orders. We can't afford to do it again, so what we have to spend is it.
I guess I need to change the name from grocery budget to household budget. It would make more sense.
Exactly what I meant on what you actually spend on food. That’s where I couldn’t figure why we were spending so much on “food” because it wasn’t all food. I just deduct those “other” items on the receipt from the actual food. I have to say I’ve gotten a tad lax the past few months about keeping track of my household/HBA products. I will say that keeping track of expenses does make me pay more attention to real needs vs wants. By the way, I think you do an amazing job!
My household budget is around $300 a month, that's for everything I buy, which includes the dog food, sometimes its a little more or less. DH pays for the animal feed and buys a few things at the grocery for himself and then sometimes he kicks in a little extra for my grocery budget. The electric bill is what influences what I spend. Its 315 for July, it was a little less than that for June.In the past, I did budget for each place I shopped. Over time, doing it that way, I got a good idea of what I was spending and where. So, I lumped it all together, and Cary pulls out the total amount for me each month from the bank. Some months we have money left over, and that goes into our big emergency fund. That emergency fund will be what we use out of to get this oak tree removed. We consider the tree not falling on our house an emergency.
My household budget is our largest monthly bill. Nothing else comes close to it. House/property is paid off, new SUV is paid off, and our monthly utilities are way less than most other peoples. Our latest electric bill was only $130.00. That should be the highest it goes for this year. We don't take vacations, don't have boats, or ATV's for toys like others do, too. The only animal food we have to buy is dog food and his treats.