This had been such a headache! I’m still not accustomed to the lower take home pay, and we still aren’t sure how much extra income the husband will bring in from his part-time job, or for how long. I’m frustrated. So I’m putting numbers out there into the world.
Before we can truly plan our budget, we need to reduce our expenses. I’m going to continue to study our spending and income for the new few weeks and see what else we can do. In the mean time here is the number one category that needs to be addressed!
Thanks to Quicken I have an entire breakdown of our expenses and the categories in which we need to improve. Top of the list? Food. Holy shit the food expenses. Prepare to be shocked, I sure was!
That would be $1,170.69 in food costs in the last 30 days and that doesn’t even include anything we may have paid cash for. The breakdown of eating out vs groceries is disgusting. I’m ashamed to be quite honest. We need to get this category under control. If we could manage our food costs properly, we’d be able to snowball our debt a whole lot faster. I have no right to complain about finances when obviously we’ve been so careless with our food spending!
Perhaps this isn’t too shocking for some people, but $1100 is a significant amount of our income. We’re a small family. Two adults and a toddler. Just putting that out there, because I don’t think $1100 is reasonable for us. Ideally I would like to cut this down to $500 per month.
Just think of how quickly I could pay off credit cards if that extra $600 went towards those?! But I’m not sure how low we can get it. I suck at grocery shopping. Couponing takes a lot of time, and honestly most of the coupons apply to junk food and foods we do not eat. We both work out of the home and while I have managed to lower my lunch costs, the husband has a harder time with it, since he’s often out driving around for his job, and stops to grab a bite.
It’s amazing how quickly food costs add up. Who else struggles with the cost of food? I need to start cooking more at home. I’m usually so exhausted by the time I get home in the evenings, that the last thing I feel like doing is cooking and cleaning. But for $600?? I will suck it up!! This weekend we are going grocery shopping and it’s going to be a NO SPEND week. Fingers crossed I can do this.
Michelle said,
February 7, 2013 @ 8:22 am
I’m definitely struggling with the cost of food! I need to eat in more and cook from scratch.
Angella said,
February 7, 2013 @ 9:01 am
Same here! I wish I didn’t hate cooking so much.
Nicole said,
February 7, 2013 @ 10:57 pm
Check out food on the table website. It matches up recipes with the weekly sales ad. And I find I use more Internet coupons more than inserts.
Angella said,
February 8, 2013 @ 5:59 pm
Ah yes, I always forget about that site!
Budget and the Beach said,
February 8, 2013 @ 1:39 am
I also struggle with my grocery budget. It’s good you’re taking a good look at your finances and getting a grip on things. It seems that food is a trouble area for a lot of people.
Nicole P said,
February 9, 2013 @ 9:23 am
I absolutely struggle with food costs. I enjoy cooking, but I don’t do it enough. We also struggle with food waste. We splurged on a food saver machine a few months ago and I think it has paid for itself. Instead of throwing rotten leftovers away I find myself able to use them for other meals or for lunches.
Angella said,
February 10, 2013 @ 1:06 am
I’m good about bringing leftovers to work for lunch, but B isn’t. He never touches leftovers!
Kris said,
February 12, 2013 @ 7:45 pm
I am in the exact same boat. No matter what it seems like our food costs hit the same amount as yours and it really is upsetting. We spend a lot of money on wine too, as my husband is in the wine industry and has to buy 2 wines a week (between $20-50 each) for a tasting group that he is required to go to. It seems that we always hit $1200 between wine, restaurants and groceries. I read other people’s blogs and somehow they eat for $200 a month and I just can’t. I try, but I can’t.
Angella said,
February 12, 2013 @ 9:30 pm
It was eye opening to see the number right in front of me. I was like what?! Where did all that go!? I wish we could live off $200 a month! I’m hoping to hit $500, but considering my weekly trip just cost me $140 today after coupons, I’m doubting that’s possible!
falling in love with food (again) & energy balls! (power balls?) | simple seattle living said,
February 25, 2013 @ 5:59 pm
[...] this subject was brought up again by blogger friend Angella (in which she confesses the same problem I have), I had to really sit down and figure out why. [...]
How to reduce monthly expenses to pay off debt? | said,
February 26, 2013 @ 7:18 am
[...] part 1 of my 2013 budget analysis, I shocked myself by calculating our food costs. It’s an [...]