A five-step process on how to create a monthly grocery budget for your family. This effective process once can help you save a lot of money.

Tired of overthinking every time at the end of the month as to where all your cash is going?  Do you often seem to get the feeling that you are spending more than you are making? You have cleaned your fridge and found that half the stuff that you had bought expired or staled?

If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, then you are in the right place. This post will help you plan your monthly budget and practice mindful spending. I was someone who was tired of throwing away lots and lots of rotten vegetables and expired groceries in the garbage without using them. I was losing complete track of my income and that is when I decided to spend some time figuring out what our monthly family budget looked like.

To get my life and expenses in order, I decided to first target my family’s grocery needs. I did my homework and found out exactly how much were we spending as a family of three, what our monthly food budget looked like and how much should we be exactly spending. Honestly, what I found out after that completely took me by surprise. Once I was able to learn and effectively plan and use the amazing tools available online to create a real and working family monthly grocery budget, I have been able to save $$ on groceries since then.

Below are exactly the few steps that I took in the exact order to create myself a ‘real’ monthly family grocery budget which has helped me save $$ on our groceries and helped me get my life more organized.

Step 1 – Analyze how much you have spent on groceries as a family in the past month

The first step to creating a mindful grocery budget is analyzing how much money you have spent the last month buying groceries from stores or online or anywhere else. You can find this information by looking at your past credit card statements or your in-store receipts. This step is a little time consuming, but it will help you understand your finances better. When I did this first step, I was shocked as to how much more I was actually spending on groceries every month versus what I thought I was spending.

Step 2 – Set aside a $$ amount for your monthly groceries

Time spent analyzing your previous spends can come in very handy to figure out as to how much money you should set aside as your monthly grocery budget. I also found this online grocery calculator very handy in creating a monthly grocery budget. In this online calculator, once you enter your family member details, it calculates and gives you an average of how much as a family you should be spending on groceries. Well, in my case this calculator gave me an estimate of $125 every week, which is right about how much we spend on groceries as a family of three. But in your case, this data might differ. Use this tool just as a reference but create your monthly grocery budget from what you have learned in your previous step of analyzing your past month grocery spend.

Step 3 – Divide your monthly grocery budget four ways and set a target each week

After you have a set amount for your monthly budget, it’s now time to figure out what your weekly spending should be. The easiest way to do this is by dividing the entire budget by 4 and setting the same target amount for each week. But in reality, you should spend some time figuring out if there is an event happening that week and then allocate your funds. For example, you might be hosting a dinner party for your friends that weekend or you have your kid’s birthday coming up. Plan your monthly budget by keeping in mind upcoming events in your family. Also, another thing that can help in planning your meals for the entire week on a weekend and creating a grocery list. This will help you keep a good track of all your grocery needs and also have a stress-free week when it comes to meal planning.

Step 4 – Analyze your spend at the end of the month

This is the most important step. At the end of the month, sit down with your monthly bank or credit card statements or your saved receipts and a calculator to analyze how much did you spend that month on your groceries. Doing this exercise will help you figure out if the monthly budget that you have set aside on groceries is actually working or not. Also, this habit will help you get a better grip on what your actual monthly grocery requirements are versus what you would spend mindlessly for your family.

Step 5 – Reward yourself

So you have studied your past spends, created a monthly grocery budget, and were able to stick to it. It’s now time to celebrate your win! This is the last step and most important one. It is important to treat yourself if you have succeeded in making your monthly grocery budget work for your family. When I did all these above four steps, in the end, I realized I had actually saved $187 from the monthly grocery budget that I had set aside for my family. It was a great feeling of success. I decided to spend this money all on ourselves and we took a small trip to Toronto to the Ripley Aquarium!!

Planning out your budget and sticking to it will help you develop a good money spending attitude and better think of all the extra cash that you will be able to save by budgeting and the places where you can spend them!

If you use any additional grocery budget tools that have worked great for you please feel free to leave me an email at totallymomsense@gmail.com on leaving it in comments below. I am always looking to learn more on these topics 🙂

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