Handling Your Bills: The Grocery Budget - Part 1

Some days I sinfully take pride in how I am able to manage our grocery budget.

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Other days I remember that every good thing I have is from the Lord.
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Every day is an opportunity to be thankful for the countless ways God has blessed me.

I'm one of those weird people who enjoys the challenge of living on a small grocery budget. I also love research, and it turns out Pinterest has unending ideas of how to live frugally. While a lot of what I have found is helpful, I try to keep things simple so that my brain doesn't hurt.

Today, I will explain the budgeting aspect of how I track our grocery spending each month. In the next post, I will list several strategies I use to help keep our grocery budget small. I'm focusing in on groceries because it is one of the areas we have the most control over. Plus, everybody eats, so this has to apply to you somehow :)

The Monthly Budget Dilemma

I originally started off having a set amount of grocery money for each month. The problem I ran into was that my spending was not balanced. By the end of the month I was struggling to stay in budget. I knew there had to be a better option.

The Weekly Budget Dilemma

After some research, I found several articles promoting having a weekly grocery budget. I tried this method for a couple months before concluding there were two frustrating problems. 

The first was that the week we visited Costco, I consistently overspent the weekly amount by a lot. If I didn't, I would often end up having to visit Costco twice that month. While I love Costco for a myriad of reasons, it isn't the nicest on one's wallet, so I try to go only once a month.

The second issue I ran into was when I would want to stock up on an amazing deal. While stocking up on sale items can save money in the long term, it was a big pain point in the moment.

Both of these problems often led me to borrow funds from the next week. While this seemed like an easy fix, most of the time I would overspend our monthly budget. If I didn't borrow, we would have a surplus of one item to live off of for the week. If you haven't tried it, chicken without much produce or staples for a week is incredibly bland.

Enter the solution I came up with that is a happy medium between these two methods. I'm going to list all four steps and then will include an example of what this looks like.

The Grocery Budget Solution

1. Decide on your monthly grocery budget.
2. Set aside a quarter of this amount. You will use this for your favorite warehouse club (aka Costco). If you aren't a member of a warehouse club, you can use this to stock up on great deals and bulk items throughout the month.
3. Take the remaining balance and divide it by how many weeks are in the month, rounded up. Since most months are more than 28 days, I start the number of weeks at five. This is your weekly spending goal. 
4. Now, here's the catch. If you overspend this amount, because there's an amazing deal you just have to take advantage of, that's fine. At the end of each week, reset your weekly amount by doing step three. Rinse and repeat, until the completion of the month.

While I always end up with less money for the week at the end of the month, I still have money. This set up allows me to have a weekly spending amount to aim for. It also gives me leeway. I can have an unusually large week of spending, without the stress of being over budget.

A quick note about the money set aside for Costco. Normally, I do end up spending more than the amount I've set aside. When this happens I simply deduct the extra amount from my grocery balance.

For example, in the sample budget above, my spending goal for the second week was $65. Although I hit that, I also went to Costco that week and spent $130, exceeding the $100 Costco fund. The extra $30 had to come from somewhere, so I pulled it from the general grocery budget. This is how I ended up spending $95 that week.

The key here is that I am budgeting for one big spending spree at Costco ahead of time. If I spend less than I've budgeted for, I take the extra funds and add them into the general grocery budget. I'm pretty sure this has only ever happened once :)

Informing the Grocery Budget with Scripture

When I read about the excellent wife in Proverbs 31, she strikes me as a woman who is savvy and industrious. Look at this description of her:

"She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant;
brings her food from afar.
She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
portions for her maidens...
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness."
Proverbs 31:13-15, 27

This gal works hard and selflessly serves her family. While I don't seek to buy wool and flax, the principle of caring for my family's physical needs still applies today. Managing our grocery budget is one of the ways I care for my family's physical needs. It is also a practical way to help us attain our big picture goals.

Summary

I purposefully didn't say what my grocery budget is because there are so many factors that affect how much money you have to work with. If you would find it helpful to know what it is, or have further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me using the contact form.

I recently read the following quote in Melissa Kruger's book, Envy of Eve, and found it incredibly comforting and convicting. I'm sharing it here in the hopes that it will be an encouragement to you as well.

"Determining God's love for us (or lack of love) based on our neighbor's life divides us from those around us. It also presupposes that fairness is the best way God can bless His children. Instead, God knows that each of His children are individually formed and made. He created each of us in a particular way and brings to our lives just what we need in order to be conformed into His image. One person may be equipped well to live with riches and not fall into temptation. Another person may be better off with less income because the Lord knows riches will be a snare for her soul." 

Chapter 2, The Root of Coveting: Unbelief

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