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Our First Food Budget Check In – January’s Results

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 87 Comments

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How To Lower Your Food BudgetAt the end of December, I published the post Our Plan To Finally Cut Our Food Spending. Below is a quote from that post:

When I first started blogging back in 2011, we were spending over $1,000 on food each month JUST for the two of us.

That sentence is something I will always be ashamed of.

Our food spending has always been out of control, but it is a habit we have been trying to change for several years. While we are not spending over $1,000 a month on food anymore, we are still not proud of the large amount of money we are wasting each month.

Food spending is an area we are trying to improve on because it can be a huge budget buster.

While I love food WAY more than the average person, I know I can eat healthier, have delicious meals, and save money if I just take control of the situation we are in by eating at home more often.

Below is our January food spending check in.

 

How much money did we spent on food in January?

January was a very good month for us. We did go out to eat a little too many times, but that was mainly because we took a 15 hour drive to Colorado to find a rental, and we ate at different stops along the way.

Below is exactly what we spent on food and household supplies (including toilet paper, dog food, etc.) during the month of January:

  • $286 at grocery stores
  • $169 at restaurants

That brings us to a total food spending of $455, or an average of around $14.68 per day for the both of us combined.

This is amazing!

As I stated a little over one month ago, our goal for our food budget was to spend less than $500 each month. This means our very first month was a success!

We’ve noticed other benefits as well since we took control of this situation. We’ve both noticed that we’ve been feeling more healthy, that we have lost a little weight, and that we are actually saving time by eating at home and not constantly going to a restaurant (the drive and wait for food can add up quickly). We also have noticed that we are eating tastier meals each day!

I don’t think February will be better than this though. Since we are moving in February, we plan on going out with friends a decent amount before we leave and going to some of our favorite restaurants. I am fine with that though!

 

What’s working when it comes to our food situation?

Obviously, things are working for us. We came in under budget for the first time in forever.

One action that is working for us is that we are meal planning like crazy. I am subscribed to $5 Meal plans and it has seriously been a lifesaver. We loved every single meal last month from this meal planning subscription service and always look forward to whatever our dinner is each night. I highly recommend this subscription service!

Also, keeping track of the exact amount of money we are spending on food also helped. Since I knew I had to report back to myself and all of you with how we were doing, I had more motivation to do better. 🙂

 

What’s not working?

Even though January was one of our best months when it comes to food spending, we still have some improvements to make.

For one, we can definitely still cut back on eating out. We spent $169 at restaurants in January, and only one of those meals was something I thoroughly enjoyed. The rest, I mainly just ate because I thought it would be convenient at the time (when in reality it hardly ever was).

Also, meal prepping ahead of time didn’t really work out too well for us in January. Usually meal prepping works well for us, but last month it did not. A lot of our prepped meals spoiled before we could eat it, however, I believe that was just because January was a hectic month for us.

What is your average food budget each month? Are you trying to spend less? What works for you and what doesn’t?

 

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Margot C says

    Excellent goals. We hardly ever (I don’t want to say never, but it is rare) eat out. I don’t feel deprived at all, I love cooking though.

    Reply

  2. G says

    I like cooking but first time I had a budget I was eating out almost always now I plan eating out and at house I tend to meal planning, buy seasonal and local searching also on web for tips and suggestion, however I think you did a very good job keep it!!!

    Reply

  3. Kasia says

    Well done on sticking to your food budget!
    Our monthly food budget is around $500-550 and that doesn’t include eating out. Grocery shopping can easily get expensive in Australia. We stick to meals that we enjoy and just rotate them around. The most important thing for us is to always have fruit and veg in the fridge.

    Reply

  4. Michelle says

    My monthly food spending is around $250…but I really love to cook. That has been challenging a little challenging this past month because I’ve been traveling. Normally I don’t go out to eat that much unless it’s an amazing meal. Good job Michelle! I think you two rocked it.

    Reply

  5. Gina Horkey says

    I love reading about things like this:-) We’ve got an overall goal for discretionary spending (groceries, dining out, entertainment, toiletries, gas, etc) and it’s been great having a total on a white board of what we have left to spend for the month. It’s really challenged us to not dine out very often (and to make it worth it when we do), as well as stretch what we have in our pantry. You might want to try freezer meals when you get settled in your new place? I.e. freeze some stuff you prep on Sundays and then pull it out when you need it. Basically the same thing, but it won’t spoil? Great work:-)

    Reply

  6. Amy says

    Nice work! You obviously chose the right number for you, and I think you’re right to allow for extra dining out next month.I aim to spend $400 or less on food for two adults and a five year old (not household stuff, like paper towels or pet care, just food). I went over a little bit last month, but a few months ago, I was spending closer to $600.

    And I totally agree with you that knowing you’re going to be publicly reporting back helps!!

    Reply

  7. Petrish @ Debt Free Martini says

    I can imagine when you are always in the house working that eating out is also a time to disconnect and just enjoy yourself. I still love eating out and I don’t think it will ever change, just for right now I am making sacrifices to become debt free. Good luck with your budget cuts, I know you both can do it.

    Reply

  8. C@thesingledollar says

    Great job — getting so low with groceries especially is impressive. I write about this every week, and have been meal-planning much more intensively; I give myself $300 in cash a month to cover groceries and incidentals, and even though amounts vary by week, I’d say I’m at about $200-250 a month at the grocery store/farmer’s market. That pretty much works for me. I could go lower if I had to, but I’d rather not because I feel like this is a reasonable number (less than 10% of monthly net income) that still allows for a little bit of indulgence.

    Reply

  9. Sarah says

    Great job!! $455 is amazing!!! Our food budget is also a little crazy, mainly because I’m always unprepared. When I am prepared, we spend about $100 a week total. We only go out to eat once a week since we have kiddos and it’s not really worth it (we got to a BBQ place for $10 total to feed all of us!). Our main “splurge” lately has been Starbucks. Our girls have been sick and haven’t been sleeping and sometimes I NEED that to get through my day haha!

    Reply

  10. Robin says

    We have a budget of 500 for the three of us but I’m working on getting down to 350 on a regular basis. It also helps to do an eat through your cabinets challenge.

    Reply

  11. Holly@ClubThrifty says

    We try not to eat out at all, but we usually splurge once a month or so. Taking the kids out to eat is expensive! What helps us is some basic meal planning and being aware of the ingredients we already have. It’s easy to buy stuff you don’t need or can’t use when you don’t know what is already in the fridge.

    Reply

  13. Fervent Finance says

    Not eating out is tough in NYC, as it seems like everyone is always meeting out for dinner and drinks, or weekend brunch which is of course pricey. But I’ve gotten better at politely declining and making meals on Sunday or Monday which will last me a few days, so that I’m not tempted at take-out when I’m coming home from work. Slow cookers are also a man’s best friend due to volume and ease. Good work in January!

    Reply

  14. Chonce says

    Awesome job this month Michelle! Our monthly budget for my family of 3 is $300/month but that doesn’t include dining out so it’s probably around $350 total for food. Meal planning definitely helps as well as finding food on sale during weekly promotions at different grocery stores.

    Reply

  15. Kristin says

    I don’t know if I could give up eating out completely! There are so many fun and new restaurants to try out in my city! But I have been working really hard to lower my dining out expense too. Good job!

    Reply

  18. Harmony says

    We are in a unique situation because my brother-in-law lives down the street and often cooks dinner for us. He is leaving next month and will be out of the country for one year. I will be on maternity leave this Spring. And, we just had a new grocery store open up near our house.

    I want to take advantage of these big changes by completely redesigning our lifestyle when it comes to food. My plan is to start tracking the best prices on different foods, now that we have more shopping options. I want to start meal-planning and making freezer meals. Also, we will hopefully be able to supplement our groceries with homegrown vegatables this summer.

    Reply

  19. Deasy Noel says

    good job for meeting your budget last month! My boyfriend and I used to eat out a lot because neither of us could cook. But now, I’m trying to learn how and we’re cutting the food cost tremendously by actually going to the grocery store! I’m intrigued by the $5 meal plan that you mentioned though, and will definitely have to look into it!!

    Reply

  20. Cindy says

    Congratulations on making your goal! We’re been working on eating healthier and cutting back on food waste. So far, pretty good. We aren’t bad about eating out (usually only once or twice a month). We’re definitely big meat eaters, so that gets expensive. Since we don’t meal plan, we end up going to the grocery a lot throughout the week. But whenever I try meal planning, I find we end up wasting a lot more food, especially veggies, because they go bad before we get around to using them.

    Reply

      • Cindy says

        Well, it isn’t the veggies fault. I should probably have worded that as: Whenever I try to meal plan, no one wants to stick to the plan, and produce gets wasted. We’re spoiled (and somewhat childish) in that we tend to eat according to “moods”. Broccoli is fine, if both of us are in the right mood. Otherwise it’s going to die a slow death in the crisper drawer.

        Luckily, there’s a grocery store on the way home, so we aren’t wasting gas. And we tend to buy our meat in bulk, so that helps.

        Reply

  23. Elroy says

    Last month we spent over $800 on groceries. But, a lot of that was a diaper sale and my wife stocking up for a couple months. We target $500 on groceries and $400 for “Family fun,” which covers us eating out and the babysitter. Or entertainment, it’s hard to gauge […]

    Nice work on lowering your budget.

    Reply

  25. Jessica says

    Great job on your January food budget! We spent about $470 last month for both of us, but this did include some bulk purchases that will last for several months. I’ve had the most success with saving by using what I have on hand. I still suck at meal planning though.

    Reply

  26. Emily @ Simple Cheap Mom says

    The rest, I mainly just ate because I thought it would be convenient at the time (when in reality it hardly ever was). – this is us.

    last month we didn’t eat out at all and we really needed to do that to break our habit of opting for takeout when we don’t really care. Grocery spending went up, so we’re trying to cut back the budget this month to get back on track by eating through our pantry. We budget about $300 a month for the three of us, but any restaurants come out of entertainment and the in-laws feed us twice a week.

    Reply

  27. Gen Y Finance Guy says

    This is certainly a place in our budget we can improve in. Only recently did I realize how much I was spending in this category. As I prepared to write my first financial report for January, I decided to take a look at how much on average we were spending on food and eating out.

    To my surprise, we spent a total of $20,000 on food and $14,000 of that was on eating out. I wanted to barf when I realized how much we had spent here. Almost $1,200/month. That is ridiculous. It just two of us.

    We did good in January as we only spend about $600 on eating out and $500 on groceries. Don’t know if we will get under $500 like you have. But I think under $1,000 would be great as a first milestone to maintain through 2015.

    We love food and we also love to cook. So the goal is to try to have more dinners in and dinner parties at our house vs. going out.

    Cheers!

    Reply

  31. Pamela Gurganus says

    Congrats on succeeding your first month! This is an area my husband and I struggle in. We spend way too much money on food every month.

    Reply

  32. Deborah Caudill says

    My son is living with me while I recuperate from breaking my leg in seven places due to falling because my right knee needs to be replaced and it just gives way. After having plates and screws put in during surgery, I went home. Then, I fell again and broke my right hip and had to have a hip replacement. So, my son has been doing the grocery shopping and cooking. We are on a strict budget because I am now on disability. We were eating a lot of cheap Raman noodles but they are full of sodium. I find that fresh fruits and vegetables and eating healthy cost lots more than eating processed food. We are working on getting on a stricter budget, but its not easy.

    Reply

  33. nicole dziedzic says

    I barely eat out, I mostly prepare food at home, making freezer meals helps too, I have cut back on food spending quite a bit.

    Reply

  34. Lesa says

    This is a great idea! I’ve never really written down all I’ve spent for groceries. I wonder if I kept track how much I actually spend. Might have to check out the $5 meal planning! Sounds pretty good and I love new ideas.

    Reply

  40. scheng says

    I think you have to widen out your knowledge about edibles. Perhaps you can think of cooking sweet potato leaves if you plant sweet potatoes. In this case, you make use of both tubers and leaves.

    Reply

  42. Brenda says

    To cut your food bill by half is huge. Way to go!

    My circumstance is different than yours. We have a huge garden and put up a lot of produce. I do not do meal planning as I do not have the time. I do try to do a menu each week as that makes things simpler for us. I just keep my pantry and freezer well stocked. I mostly shop sales but I do like to buy most of my meat from Zaycon and when you do that you have to plan for the year. This week I will be picking up enough bacon and sausage to last us a year (longer if I can keep adult son out of my freezer :)) I average less than $200 a month. I do not count my animal feed as I have dogs, a cat, goats, chickens and rabbits, but then they are less than $85 a month.

    I just started reading this blog a few weeks ago. I have been thinking about starting a blog and you provide so much info. I am a tax preparer so I am very busy this time of year. As soon as it slows down I am going to get serious about starting one. Plus instead of working for someone else I am going to start preparing taxes at home next year. My wonderful hubby is planning a very nice office for me. 🙂

    I’ve set some pretty high goals but I believe that I can achieve them. You have been an inspiration to me. I will keep you updated with how I am doing.

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      Aww thanks so much for your kind words Brenda. If you need any help starting a blog, I have a TON of tutorials here on Making Sense of Cents. The blogging world is great and I highly recommend joining it 🙂

      Reply

  44. Lydia @ Thrifty Frugal Mom says

    You did awesome! And I love how you mention that when you eat out, it actually ends up not saving time etc. It’s so true, but somehow I always want to convince myself otherwise. It just seems easier!

    Reply

  45. Holly says

    My hubby and I agreed to do a spending freeze for January and February. We agreed to eat out only for New Years and valentines day… I found I really appreciated those meals so much more!

    Reply

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