If you are wondering where your money is going, you may want to check two places: your grocery bill and your trash can. Chances are that if you are an American family with two adults and two children, you are spending just over $600 a month on groceries. For every small child above those two, add about $22 a week. For every teenager, add approximately $45 a week. If that isn’t bad enough, according to the Texas Cooperative Extension Agency, about 25% of the food you are buying is going into the garbage can. The good news is that there are many ways you can lower your average grocery bill and reduce your waste.
As Americans, many of our big expenditures are set. Most of us have established monthly payments on our cars, our houses, and in many cases, our utility bills. The grocery bill is one of the few big bills we have that is flexible. It goes up and down, often just depending on our mood. If we are in the mood for steak, we usually have a higher bill than if we are satisfied with hotdogs. With a little work and planning, we can reduce the grocery bill, make it a more stable item in our budget, reduce our waste, and improve the quality of the food we are eating.
Step 1: Identify Your Spending Habits
For the first month, buy like you typically buy groceries. Just keep the receipts. At the end of the month total up the receipts to see how much you spent. ( Make sure you include all those little stops to convenience stores for milk, bread, and diapers.)
Step 2: Keep A Shopping Journal
Now, you are ready to begin a shopping journal. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You can do it on the computer or in a spiral bound notebook; it really doesn’t matter. The first thing you want to include in your journal is the name of the first month you began, the amount of money you spent, and the basic items you bought. For example, if you bought toilet paper and paper towels and you think you will do that about every month, write it down. If you bought 4 cases of soft drinks and think that is typical for your household, write that down. Also, make note of what gets thrown away. Did a package of hamburger go bad in the back of the fridge. Did the beans rot ? Was half of the tuna casserole thrown away?
Step 3: Get Prepared to Shop for the Month
Monthly grocery shopping makes sense for several reasons.
It takes less time.
It takes less gas. (You will be going to more stores, but only one time a month and you won’t have to spend money running to the convenience store or grocery store for added ingredients.)
It allows you to buy in volume.
You no longer have to worry about what is for dinner or am I going to have enough money to feed my family until the end of the month
It decreases waste. You know what you have and when you will use it.