This is a very personal question and no one else can answer it for you. I know it is possible to feed a family good healthy foods for $50 per person per month. But it doesn’t have to be that low. If you can afford more and want to spend more, that’s okay. You don’t need to feel guilty about that. You can still use my shopping method if you are committed to organics or have special restrictions such as gluten free, but you should set your minimum budget to $60-$70 per person per month to cover the added expenses.
If you are in financial crisis and it feels like your world is crumbling down around you, then start your budget at this basic level. If you aren’t in a financial crisis but would like to start whittling at your budget to be able to save more or pay off debt faster, then take what you normally spend on groceries and subtract 20%.
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Example: Let’s pretend that you normally spend $600 a month on groceries for your family of 4.
Multiply $600 by .20 and reduce your budget by that amount.
Your new budget will be $600-$120 or $480.
Take $200 of those dollars to buy food that you will consume this month and use the other $280 to buy foods to put in your pantry. These should be healthy, whole foods, that you stock up on when you find a great price for them. Items in my pantry include: brown rice (dry beans and other whole grains), canned fruit in juice, spaghetti sauce, canned green beans, whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, spices, condiments, frozen meats, frozen vegetables, frozen cheese, and whole grain pastas. These are ingredients that you can combine in different ways to make an endless variety of meals.
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The next month reduce your budget by another 20%. Again use $200 for food to consume right away and the rest to build your pantry. Continue reducing yoru budget each month until it’s at the level you want it to be. At this point, you will be eating half from your pantry and buying about half of your food fresh and using the rest of the money to restock your pantry.
Remember: You are restocking your pantry when you find foods at their lowest price.
More important than how much you should spend is that you have committed to a certain amount. Take that amount out in CASH each month. Keep this cash in a separate envelope labeled “food” and only spend it on food.
I like to do the bulk of my grocery shopping the first week of the month, saving back $50-$75 for replenishing our fresh foods and taking part in good deals later in the month. I’m a busy mama, so I like to keep my grocery shopping to a minimum. After that first week, I’ll slip into a store to buy just a few of the best bargains when I’m on my way home from another errend–and that is never more than once a week.
Be sure to check in tomorrow for the next step on saving money. I’ll show you how you to know that your $200 will cover all your food needs!
Do you include items like trash bags, washing powders shampoo, soap, toothpaste, hand dishwashing liquid not dishwasher, in that amount as well?
thanks
Joy
I’m very intrigued by this. we eat very clean, and I try to do as much organics as I can. There is myself, my husband, and our 15 year old daughter. We spend about $145-150 per week at the grocery store. This includes cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, etc. Is it really possible for me to get it down to $210 ($70) per month and still eat clean and organic?
I have the hardest time with budgeting. I need someone to write my meal plan, and give me a grocery list. I bust through my budget every time. I don’t know what a good deal is. I walk into a store with the best of intentions then go blank.
Hi WashingtonPharmGirl,
” I don`t know what a good deal is.”
Start a price book!
This may sound like a little xtra work, but pays of quickly:
Use an old organizer or whatever you like. Then write down the prices for the products and where you bought it (or use a separate column for every store). Allways brake them down to the same unit, i.e. 100ml, 1pound…
Go the Excel road if you like to have everything reorganized in nice alphabetic order.
If you don`t need more of it (condiments) and nobody complains, the cheapest is ok. A good idea to mark the unwanted products, too, so you don`t buy them any more to go to waste.
I’m also interested in whether this budget includes non-food items. I like the idea of decreasing the budget gradually!
Karen, The $50 per person per month is only Food. Our family doesn’t spend a lot on non-food groceries. For the most part we don’t buy paper products (except for facial tissues) and very little cleaning supplies. But we do have a household misc. fund for these items if they come up.
we are blessed to get WIC as well as the opportunity to shop at a Food Bank Ministry since we are in a Foster Parent Association!
Feeding 9 people has been a challenge, but this is one area we are able to conserve spending! great post!!!
I saw you on tv last night and I thought you brought up some great points in regards to saving money and even losing weight. I actually just wrote an article about both money and body fat and how there is an underlying connection between the two. You want more of one, but less of the other…yet the opposite ends up being true. It is amazing how much money we spend on food that we don’t need, which only contributes to more body fat. Eat less…save more money…lose more weight ahha. Anyways, thank you for posting good tips!
thank you for your great post! how are you doing with your pregnancy?
Greatings from the netherlands.
Eveline, Thanks for your sweet comment. The pregnancy is going well. I have about 10 weeks left and am starting to need naps again, lol. But I have no complaints–this has been the best pregnancy ever!
Wish I Can help you but I just live to far over the Ocean?
Take your naps when possible and I just cannot wait to see a new picture of your new baby? I am so happy for you. Today I fiks 2 jeans from my youngest soon from a old jeans from the eldest one. And make fun off gift paper from flower paper we put a lot of stamp on it to make it very nice. just free gift paper 🙂
A price book is invaluable for learning the best prices. A little over a year ago, we moved from the States to New Zealand, and of course I had to start all over figuring out prices. I made a price book, and used it for the firs 2-3 months; by then I had prices in my head and knew what to look for.
The biggest way we save on food is by growing our own. I know it’s not possible for a lot of people, but we are able to rent 4-5 acres with our house, and have our own milk cow. That, alone, saves us $200 a month (we have 6 children, and milk products are quite expensive here). I make butter, cheese, yogurt, and we drink milk with every meal, which reduces the amount of other food we need. We also have chickens, and raise goats and lambs on excess milk for meat, and have a deal with our landlord to raise pigs for him in exchange for one of them. Plus, our garden is starting to produce. All that brings our grocery bill way down.
Hello! I just found your website. My family of three (me, my husband, and 16month old) are desperately needed to reduce our grocery budget. I am curious – I saw you mention frozen cheese in the above post. Could you tell me, do you freeze your cheese? We do eat a lot of cheese and I am sure that this is a huge portion of our grocery bill.
Thanks!
Haley
Haley, I used to freeze the cheese all the time and had good reslults with frozen shredded cheese. Now we eat it so fast, there isn’t time to freeze it, lol. It’s amazing how much little growing bodies can eat!
I am so excited about finding you and your blog! I have another question – we buy a lot of organic and natural foods – especially snacks for the baby – organic crackers, milk, yogurt, granola bars… We would love to buy organic meat and cheese but can’t seem to fit it in our budget. Also, I work full time and it seems impossible to be able to make a lot of foods at home – like bread, pita pockets, or yogurt. So, my question is – do you think it is still feasible to buy mostly organic products on a $50 budget per person? Thanks so much!
Haley, You will need to up your budget to include organic foods. But you can shop in alternate ways to make them even more expensive. Costco has frozen organic vegetables around $1 a lb and has organic peanut butter too at reasonable prices. I get my meat direct from the farmer. It’s not certified organic, though grass fed and raised with natural principles. It’s around $3 a lb this way for all cuts. I get my natural raw milk the same way. It’s sold for pets and is only $3 a gallon. You’ll have to ask around at church and other places you trust people and see what you can find.
You might be overestimating how much time it takes to bake bread and make yogurt in a slow cooker. Both are mostly hands off and easy to do on the weekends or in the overnight hours. I often put my pita dough, tortilla dough, or pizza crust in the bread machine on the dough cycle first thing in the morning. I can set the time delay to be ready right at dinner time and it’s as easy to prepare as a mix. Stay tuned later in the month and I’ll show you my time saving secrets. I’m a mom of soon to be 6 and homeschool and run 3 businesses from home–so I’m all about being efficient with the time!
If you are just getting started with Meal planning I like a pencil and a calendar- but if you want something virtual mealsmatter.org has free meal planning software that can repeat meals, generate grocery lists, and even an online cookbook to store your recipes in for the meals and list. Something to check out.
I purchased your e-book and have been checking out your site. One of the things I was wondering if you bought were “facial tissues”… I was really surprised to read in these comments that you do purchase them. I really curious to know why. That was the easiest thing for us to give up… we just bought a lot of bandannas and handkerchiefs to use instead. I am still trying to figure out the “cloth toilet paper”. Your explanation on the recent newsletter helped. You don’t have any pictures, do you?
I especially love that so many of your money saving tips are very environmentally friendly!
Thanks for all that you share!
Misty, I guess it just goes to show I’m not perfect, lol. We went paperless on tissues for about 2 weeks and I quick ran back and bought some. All of us have allergies and chronic sinus issues and I just couldn’t keep enough cloth around for our needs. My husband always carries a hanky, but I can fill one up with one blow and then what do I do? I know TMI, but I’m still willing to go to cloth in this instance if I can figure out how to work it.
Thanks! I definitely need to experiment with making our own bread – I do not have a bread maker though. I am sure that would make it more time efficient. I was wondering – do you have a basic grocery list that you use that I could use as a starting point. We don’t buy a ton of prepared/processed foods but I am trying to revamp our finances and our grocery purchases/bill all at once and it seems overwhelming! Thanks!