Twenty One Days to a New Grocery Habit

About three weeks ago, through a series of clicks, I found a blog about a family and their Grocery Cart Challenge. You can read how it all started here. A mother of four chronicles how she feeds her family on $50 a week. HA! Well, they obviously don't live in Hawaii, I thought. I read how she makes her own laundry soap for $1.42. I had no desire or time to do that. But her grocery cart challenge did make me ask questions:

Do we spend too much on groceries? Yes. Three weeks ago, we didn't have a food budget. If we needed something (with a very sketchy definition of need) we bought it. We have two full sized refrigerators, plus a pantry. And all three areas were well stocked three weeks ago.

Could we spend less? Yes.

Why spend less money on groceries? Hmm. Well, not because we needed money for other things or more stuff. It's not because we were in debt, strapped, or lacking investments. The bottom line was that we were spending money on groceries indiscriminately. Our purchases were justified because they were supposedly good deals. Yet food spoiled and was thrown out. We previously blamed that on the climate, and not because we were buying too much out of perceived need. We definitely could be better stewards of how we spent money on groceries.

That night I talked to Hubby. I told him about the Grocery Cart Challenge blog. I explained I had no desire to see what was the least we could get away with and boast a drop in the bucket grocery budget. Still, I wanted to define a reasonable weekly budget for our family and try to stick to it. So, we came up with a figure nearly forty percent less than what we were spending. I am not going to publish it, but if you really want to know the figure, email me and I will tell you. The budget includes money for cleaning supplies, but not diapers. Our previous average monthly spending included, must have, non-edibles from Costco. Under the new budget, we avoid those at all costs.

For the last three weeks I limited myself to shopping for groceries once a week. We stopped making repeated trips to Costco just for fun. That forced me to plan what we were going to eat, and really examine our food needs. I asked Hubby for a list every week of what he wanted. I paid attention to what Son1 requested. I was not committed to eating cheap. I was committed to eating well, but being wise with our spending. I added things up as I shopped. I really thought about how much I was spending in meat, vegetables, and fruit. What could we realistically eat in a week? What would go untouched? The first week I was over $5.99. The second week I was under $6.59, and the third week I was over by $1.96. So in three weeks I was over by a total of $1.36! We haven't thrown out any food in three weeks. Granted, it has been cooler, in the low 70s than in previous weeks. But I think it's because we haven't had an excessive amount of food.

On Thursday I was telling ABC about our new grocery habits. She asked what I had learned from budgeting for groceries. Well, I skipped the obvious stuff about throwing away food, perceived needs, and more savings. I didn't share I learned about that stuff, though I did. I learned that when we have a food budget, we eat better. We don't spend money on extra appetizers, prepared foods, and extra snacks. Given a choice between buying tuna or albacore, I bought the albacore even though it was twice as expensive. I learned that I am committed to eating well, not cheap, and within our budget. Last night I bought fillet mignon for $22 something. I worked that into my budget. I got four times the amount of steak for what I would have spent at a steakhouse for just one fillet. Besides, it was a request from Hubby this week. I purchased what we needed, and did not shop like we could possibly be hit by a hurricane in the next few days, and needed to stock up. Still, at the end of each week, we never ran out of food. Supposedly it takes three weeks to form a new habit. We are on our way!