Monthly Meal Plans: Our Favorite Budgeting Tip

When it comes to budgeting, there are endless templates you can use to track your spending. All have their pros and cons and can be as simple or as complicated as you like. One thing you will find on every budget template, is a food section.  Those who budget typically say to themselves that they could cut their spending in this area if they would dine out less or reduce their spending at the grocery store. Here’s how we successfully cut our food budget and were left with significant savings.

Shortly after we were married, we were still taking baby steps in learning how to join our finances and budgets. We felt like we had a good idea of what each other spent on food and groceries but never really sat down and tracked exactly what each contributed. In December 2011, we guessed that we had spent around $300-$350 for our total food bill. Reminder: at this point in our lives, it was just the two of us.

Imagine our horror when we discovered we had actually spent $800 that month on food. We were initially convinced that we had made a mathematical error but alas, found none. We expected an outlier but other than spending money on a side dish for Christmas, there really was no good reason for why we had spent so much. So we searched for our downfall…

Pitfalls of food budgeting:

1. We spend entirely too much time and energy at the grocery store. A typical person finds themselves at the grocery store for a total of 5 hours over the course of nearly 7 times a month! That’s absurd.

2. Grocery stores are set up to maximize time spent in the store.

This one is well known and it’s obvious why milk, eggs and fruit/veggies are in opposite corners of a grocery store. They want you to spend as much time there as possible.

3. We underestimate the cost of household essentials.

“I only need a few things” quickly becomes a $100 charge when you include toilet paper and paper towels.

4. Discount hunting can be counterproductive. 

Target is amazing at this, and between the 5% for Target Red Card users, the Cartwheel app, and coupons\clearance items, we rarely pay full price for an item – so impulse buys become the norm.

So what’s the solution?

We found a way to save ourselves over 50% of our grocery bill and 40% in time spent at the grocery store each month.

The steps we followed are simple:

1. Find 12-14 recipes you like. Search online and make a collection of easy or inexpensive staples you might have frequently as well as a few meals that might be new to you. Copy them into a Word doc on your computer or a notepad on your phone. 

2. For each recipe, write out the ingredients needed in a shopping list organized by grocery store section. Most importantly, you want to double your ingredients, with the exception of produce that won’t keep at least a month. Those that will not, put an asterisk beside to remind yourself about later. You will go back to the store 2 weeks later to buy that produce again. Your list should look like this below.

3. Add fillers into your list: healthy snacks and household essentials needed during the month.

4. When you’re ready, go to the grocery store and buy your groceries. If you set up your list by section, you should be able to breeze through the store. 

5. Take each meal and add them to your calendar twice. For instance, in a 4 week month, you would eat each meal every other week. You should be left with 24-28 scheduled meals. Make sure to include the link to any recipes you may need for that nights meal. We planned our meals on the basis of produce freshness and special events like holidays, birthdays, etc.

6. Write all of your healthy snacks in a visible place in the kitchen so that you know what is there and what you have left. We use a chalkboard. 

Using this method, we rarely spend over $400 for a family of five. This includes getting take-out or dining out 3-5 times a month.

Would you be willing to try this if it could save you close to 50% on your grocery bill?