Simplifying Our Grocery Budget and Meal Planning

When we got married, we had a $300 grocery budget that we couldn’t even meet. Thankfully, we’ve learned how to eat on less and less since then. When we moved to Greenville, I set our grocery budget at $160 a month; this was an arbitrary number I got from Money Saving Mom who fed her family of five on that budget every month for a long time. I began couponing in earnest since I could use my parents’ unused newspaper coupon insert and print coupons from the Internet, two things I couldn’t do in Columbia. In August and September, I saved a bunch of money on groceries, and I was getting better and better at couponing. We were meeting our budget, too.

Sometime in September, I ran into a few problems. Since we didn’t have the Internet at our house, I needed to print coupons and find deals at my parents’ house. Watching a mobile baby, who happens to be fascinated by the computer power button, while trying to find the latest grocery deals isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world. If we got the Internet, I could have saved some on groceries by planning my shopping trips during naptime, but our savings probably wouldn’t have even offset the cost of the Internet.

And then I noticed something else. Halfway through each week, we were consistently completely out of fruits and vegetables. There aren’t usually coupons for fruit, vegetables, milk, and meat, and those things should make up the backbone of our budget. Sure, we were meeting our budget, but we aren’t really willing to sacrifice our health to save a few dollars. I needed to reassess the situation.

I decided to figure out exactly what we needed each week and come up with a grocery budget that fit those needs. Grabbing a bundle of bananas and a few apples wasn’t cutting it. I like for us to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables every day, so I wrote down exactly what we needed to buy each week. For example, we both generally eat a banana a day (Nathan eats part of mine); we need 14 bananas each week. We both need another serving of fruit every day, so I wrote down 14 pieces other fruit (apples, oranges, grapefruits, etc.). We like to eat a salad everyday, so we need 7 heads of romaine lettuce (we actually just get 6 because of the bag size) and 3 cucumbers. Then, the other days get a different vegetable or two. We fill in those days with potatoes for two days (4 potatoes total); two days of broccoli (one package); whatever other fresh vegetables happen to be available at a good price; and if we run out for the week, we need canned green beans or black eyed peas.

We also determined what we needed to spend on beverages every month. We decided that we could make do with a gallon of milk twice a month, but I also drink 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk every week (a luxury, I know). Gus drinks orange juice in the morning and needs about two gallons a month for that as well. We also drink a lot of Kool-Aid – probably about 10 packs a month.

Another big thing we did that may seem silly to other people who don’t struggle with ice cream addiction – we restricted ourselves to two cartons of ice cream a month priced at no more than $3 each. Gus gets a carton, and I get a carton. We usually get Breyer’s on sale at Publix or Bi-Lo for $2.50. While I was pregnant, I had a lot of ice cream every day (the protein was my excuse), and it just sort of carried over for a few months. I really craved it every day, but after the first few days without it, I found that I could actually survive without my daily bowl of ice cream.

With this plan, I was able to determine a realistic number for our budget. Other food items, like cheese, bread, meat, and random ingredients for special recipes are more variable from week to week and month to month. But once we came up with a base number based on fruits and vegetables and beverages, we added a bit to the weekly budget to account for those other items. I used produce prices from Aldi to come up with the number since prices at other grocery stores really don’t compare (and we do not notice any difference in quality), and the only item we needed every week from Publix was chocolate milk (though some of the variable items come from Publix).

I am happy to report that we are eating much better and staying within our budget every month. I change the budget monthly to account for what we have “in stock,” but it ranges from $160 to $180. When we get the Internet again and I have some time to do couponing, I now know the essential items that I can get cheaper than at Aldi using coupons/sales (cheese, pasta, pasta sauce, salad dressing).

This plan a basic framework of meals based on our fruits and vegetables, and we can spruce them up in different ways as we like. We use different cheeses and salad dressings on our salads every day. I’ll make mashed potatoes or potato wedges instead of baked potatoes sometimes. We don’t eat as much meat now either since we are filling ourselves with other healthy, cheaper food instead. We cook chicken or pork on the stove or in the oven, with breadcrumbs or without, and marinated in different salad dressings or seasoned with different spices. These little things may not lead to the most diverse menu for the month, but during this time of our lives, it works well for us.