Here is a look at our scheduled meals and any links to recipes we use regularly or on a whim. This grocery list includes everything you’d need to recreate our week of meals and snacks. Now that you generally know how we cut costs, there are two main questions: what do we eat, and is it enough food to keep everyone full and happy? I made sure to track one week of grocery shopping, and exactly what we ate each day to see if I could confirm those questions. Overall, creating good habits that keep us organized has been a game-changer for our family grocery budget. We have a few staple family meals and backup options on hand (like Kraft Dinner) in case the day doesn’t go as planned, but otherwise, it’s been a successful way to control our spending. ![]() ![]() Each Sunday, we take a look at our calendar to finalize the schedule, and from there, we discuss meal options. The key to ensuring we stay on budget with our groceries is to plan. We do this for health benefits and longevity of freshness, but as an added benefit, the lower cost. But, it’s always been a goal of ours to buy most of our produce frozen. Since our daughter has started to eat more solids, her favorite foods are fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead, we find more affordable protein options such as legumes, beans, and plant-based proteins. In our house, we don’t avoid meat altogether, but we do our best to buy a minimal amount at the grocery store because of the more expensive cost. But, at one point, our monthly food budget was even under $300 each month! Here are a few of my favorite tactics we used to keep grocery costs low. I’m sure you’re thinking that a $100/week (or $400 a month) budget is impossible for two people, let alone three. If there’s anything I’ve learned doing a no-spend challenge or decreasing spending in general, it’s that you never want to cut out your favorite non-essential purchases completely. It would also leave us with an emergency cash flow of $100 each month to do one or two take-out nights as well (if we want). I felt like that was a manageable number if we took the time to prepare. We are already well under the suggested average for our family size, but I wanted to challenge myself to a sweet spot of $100 budgeted towards groceries each week. ![]() According to, the average monthly household spending on groceries should be $251 per person. On average, we were spending around $500 each month on groceries for our family of three. So, after looking at our spending habits in the first few months of 2020, I knew that the first and most comfortable place to save money was on groceries. Seeing co-workers, friends, and family members lose their jobs has become so common, it’s hard not to assume you’ll be next.Īnd although you can’t predict these changes, you can find other ways to take preventative measures into your own hands.įor us, it’s been learning to cut back in case the loss of one - or both - of our incomes become our reality, too. COVID-19 has been a wake-up call of this in my family. All of these changes have one thing in common, though: The unknown.Īs much as we can plan for our financial goals, we have little control over when we lose our income. Change and money go hand in hand - income, market fluctuations, spending habits, and more. One of the most crucial things you can learn to do with your money is to learn to adapt to change.
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