I’m so excited about today’s post! It covers the theme of this whole blog AND is
the concept that makes living with a smaller grocery budget possible. I only recommend drastically reducing a grocery budget in an emergency, like we did when Darren suddenly lost his job. Otherwise it’s so much better to do it gradually. Like weight loss, when you reduce the grocery budget gradually, you are more likely to be successful and actually keep the spending down.
- The first month, keep your spending the same. Spend 80% on food to eat now and 20% to stock up your pantry with the rock bottom sales you find.
- The next month reduce your budget by 20%. Spend 80% of the new budget on food to eat now and 20% to stock your pantry.
- Continue the process reducing your budget by 20% each month and following the 80/20 rule until you have reduced the budget to as low as you need it to go. From here on the 80% of your spending will be to re-stock the pantry with awesome deals. You will eat primarily out of the pantry and use 20% of your budget for fresh stuff like produce and dairy products. Keep in mind the 80/20 percentages are flexible approximations.
Here’s a real life example with numbers. Joselle has 3 children and they currently spend $1200 a month on groceries. They have trouble coming up with money when something extra like a birthday party or school fundraiser pops up. If she could reduce her budget to $500 a month it would change their WORLD but even a little reduction would help. Her first goal is to beef up their emergency fund.
Month 1 she budgets $1200. She spends $960 on food to eat now and $240 on food for the pantry, stocking up on the items she notices to be particularly good deals.
Month 2 she budgets $960, spending $768 on food to eat now and $192 on really good deals for the pantry. She saves the extra $240 to beef up their emergency fund.
Month 3 she budgets $768. She spends $615 on food to eat now and $153 on really good deals for the pantry. She saves the extra $432 to beef up their emergency fund.
Month 4 she budgets $615. She spends $500 on food to eat now and $115 on really good deals for the pantry. She saves the extra $585 to beef up their emergency fund.
Month 5 she budgets $500 (Goal!) She spends $100 on food to eat now and $400 on really good deals for the pantry. She saves the extra $700 to beef up her emergency fund. She plans her meals based on the food she has in her pantry and restocks when she finds the right deal.
In 5 months Joselle has built up a nice pantry for her family, plus added $1,957 to their emergency fund. She now has an extra $700 a month that she can plan into her budget where it’s needed most.
What do you think? Would this method work for you?
Oh man!! So this is how you’re supposed to do it!! It makes sense when I read it….. I spend about $1,000 / month on our groceries. We are a family of five (me, my husband and 3 growing boys!) but I feel like there has to be a better way. I hate spending money at the grocery store, but it’s food – we need it. I would LOVE to do this!! Thanks for the info & help.
Yay, Katie. Keep trying. I’m giving more details all this month and it should start to make even more sense.
Your plan seems like a good idea but I’m not sure I really have a good grasp on stocking up. I need to make better choices with “deals.” I have a good amount of pantry storage space but I’m never quite sure if I put it to the best use. Do you recommend more dry goods in stocking a pantry (esp. for end of month meals) or canned or a mix?
Hi Stacy, I recommend stocking up on the foods YOU use. I do a few canned goods like crushed tomatoes, green beans, beets, corn, and marinara sauce with some canned soups for emergencies. But mostly do frozen and dry foods (like wheat berries, pasta, and brown rice.) Tailor it to what you know you will cook with. I’ll have more details tomorrow :).
What about just growing our pantry? We are a family of 7 with kids 10-18 and four are boys! Our budget is $700-800 a month and probably closer to the $800. I don’t think we can take it much lower and 20% to stock my pantry seems high. We would end up eating it instead of stock piling. An suggestions on how to get some things to stay in the pantry?
Alicia, we’re in a similar boat. Our pantry is down from years at a $400 budget. When we get the pantry useable (it’s under construction) I plan to stock up again. I do it by taking a season of life to serve the lowest cost food I can to squeeze extra out of the budget. Homemade black bean burgers, frittata, baked potato bar, whole grain pancakes and eggs, mackerel patties, tuna salad and lots of soup. Then I take whatever I can squeeze to build a pantry.
Katherine Lashlee Moreno
This is great. I can’t believe the reduction in this example!
Our prices are all so different. Our food prices are drastically higher especially for things like milk, but the overall concept is the same.
I spend $25-$30 a week just on milk, before adding in any fresh fruits or vegetables, and breads (we eat a lot of breads). So my weekly groceries, before I even add in our dinners (which I can often do out of the pantry, other than the fresh veg) is often $100-$150. (this includes cleaning products, and some household/hygiene items, but is mostly food). That’s even buying our meat separately from that budget. My food comes from so many different sources trying to cut costs, that I don’t even know what the “real” monthly cost is! but I know it’s a lot!
Debbie, Yes, it’s hard to suggest a budget for families living in different areas of the country or Canada. Prices can vary a lot regionally. Knowing what you spend is the first step in evaluating if it’s right for your family. With your new baby almost here be kind to yourself. If you’ve been surviving this long you can wait to make big changes until you are settled into your new routine and have your energy back.
For our little pantry (and our family of 4, two parents & boys 10 and 13) I try to keep meat in the freezer especially for the leaner weeks. When I can find a good sale on, say, chicken, I buy as many as I can afford and bring them home. I then cook everything in a day or two, and serve some that night for dinner and package some pre-cooked in the freezer. Same thing goes for hamburger, and I just repackage other meats to freeze in the portions we use. We like sausage, bacon never lasts us long enough to freeze, and I cut up pork loin or roasts to whatever size we like them.
I use some canned foods also, and some boxed items, which always keep well. My 13-year-old is a big fan of pizza, so I’m working towards making pizza crusts and freezing them; it seems like it will work, I just haven’t had the time to pre-make them yet. 🙂 Also when I bake, I like to freeze some of what I made. Muffins, cookie dough or cookies, loaves of bread, the list goes on.
Thank you for a good topic! I do need to look over our weekly budget and see how much is going to “new” versus “stocking up”.
Emily
Emily, YES! You’re doing such a great job.
I thought I’d add my 2 cents…I reduced my grocery budget once before (working on getting back to how it use to be). If you have weekly sale ads use them to find the best sale deals, keep track of regular prices so you know when the case lot sales (if you have them) happen, you’ll know if they really are good prices. The other way that i lowered our grocery bill & built up our pantry at the same time was just buy 1 more staple item then you normally do. For instance: we buy a dual “pkg” of ketchup on a regular basis, sometimes we’d go through both before the next pay check, sometimes we don’t. But i’d pick more up regardless if i needed such things or not. So i always had at least 3 on hand, well, in case of the ketchup it’d be 2 dbl containers. In case of mayo & mustard, it’ll be 3. When it comes to meat, I try to do something similar. But prices continue getting higher, so that takes some trickery. I try to buy various meats at the cheaper prices (so sometimes we have lots of chicken & pork), but if you can reduce the amt of meat you serve or change how you might fix it (stews, roasts, shredded, etc). I noticed this changed how much meat we went thru. You can reduce your grocery budget & increase your pantry quickly & easily without noticing initially. We are a family of 6 living on 1 paycheck raising livestock too. I got our livestock budget down to the penny (but put it at a $1 for an “safety” net), dropped our budget down from around $800+ to around $500. It was great. Course i didn’t think to put the “extra” away for a savings LOL But I have to redo this, so with the 80/20 idea…..it’ll be a win win win situation 🙂