Chronicles: The Budget

Since our family moved from two of us bringing in an income to one, we have had to be more conscientious of our spending habits. Of course, one aspect of this is our grocery budget. With two growing boys and a husband with a robust and healthy appetite, I have had no choice but to shore up my budget skills and work to ensure there's always enough to eat and that we stay within certain parameters for meals.

One way to do this is to come up with a number. First, I take the amount of bills we have on an average month and calculate that total. Second, I calculate all repeated income. I don't include any extras or non-recurring income that we may not be able to count on. Next, I take the extra money after bills and divide it by four. That's the amount over bills that we have to spend each week. I then separate that into categories by importance. Groceries, gas, donations to ministries, savings, and entertainment last. Since there are many ways to entertain ourselves with no money at all, this is the best way to set up the priorities. Of course, gas is one of those things that's set in stone, as we really can't decide how much we'll pay for gas. We may be able to save a few cents per gallon, but the price is the price for the most part. 

That being said, I get an approximation for each of these categories. So, with the grocery budget I begin to work specifically. It's really not that difficult to stay within budget if you use the sales papers and coupons each week. *I don't watch "Extreme Couponing", it gives me a headache to think about it that way. I just want to make sure we stay in budget and have what we need and some of what we want.  

So, I take the total...let's say it's $80. Then I divide it by 7. This is because I generally go to the grocery store every 6 - 7 days. I don't go in between because I have a tendency to overspend that way. Once I get that number: $11.43, it would seem that's the amount of money we need to use for our daily meals for each day of the week. But, we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We typically eat at home, or make something from home to take with us where we go. This means I have more work to do. So, I divide the $11.43 number by three, representing B, L, & D. That gives me about $3.81 per meal each day. Can four (5) of us get a meal for that cost? Is that possible? Yes! Because my next step is to multiply that number by 7. Why am I doing that? Because if we eat B, L, & D every day...then $3.81 needs to be multiplied by 7 for each day of the week. That brings me to about $26.67. That means that when I go to the store I am on a mission to buy up to that specific amount, or less, of food for each of those meals.

It really works! I either am right on budget, or under it every time. In my next post I'll show you how I stay within the budget at the grocery store.