My post Cash System for Groceries Week 1 has been included at the 196th Festival of Frugality over at Green Panda Treehouse. Please pop on over and check out the Festival, it is chock full of great frugal articles today!
Week 2: Monday September 14th to Sunday September 20th
Every Monday we start out the week with $160 for groceries.
This is the update for week 2 of using the cash system for groceries. Click here to read about Week 1.
By Thursday the 17th, we had completely burned through our grocery budget. Mr. A did a lot of stocking up on sale items; he says we shouldn't have to buy any meat for the next week's worth of groceries. Here's a screenshot of the breakdown within Quicken:
It's no wonder we ran out of money early.
I think the “Drinks” and “Snack Items” categories could be eliminated altogether. For the record, the “drinks” that go into the “Drinks” category are bottled water, soda, juice and other non-nutritive value items. We are a teetotaling household and do not drink any type of alcoholic beverages whatsoever.
On the 18th, Mr. A and I talked about what course we would take in this case of running out of money. We came to three options:
- That's too bad, we're out of money.
- Borrow money from next week's grocery budget.
- Count out change to buy extra items.
Mr. A said he didn't like #1 or #3. He didn't like #1 because there were some things on sale that he really wanted to get, namely grapes and onions. He didn't like #3 because he said then we'd be spending more than the budgeted amount. So we decided to try #2. I personally don't like the rob Peter to pay Paul method, and would have gone with #1, but I understand that having a budget is a learning process, and isn't meant to be carved in stone.
On the 19th, we spent another $19.70.
This leaves $140.30 for the week of September 21 to September 27th.
Yours Truly,
This is such a pertinent topic for me. My husband and I just revised our overall budget and decided we could reduce our grocery bill. Just yesterday, he went shopping at the 99 cent store to see if they had some quality food items. He scored! He purchased name brand items, like bread and canned goods, onions and potatoes, and spent less than $35.00. He also found out that they get their deliveries on Monday’s. He plans to make this a Tuesday shopping experience. If you have any of these discount stores in your area that sell groceries, it might be a place you’ll want to check out for stretching your grocery-dollar.
good luck-
Little House
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Hi Little House, I will mention this to my husband as he is in the “big city” regularly enough that it might pay off to check the 99 cent stores. Sounds like he got some great deals! Thanks for the recommendation!
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We have tried a cash budget for groceries but I am so bad with cash! I have to use my debit card. And I am so bad about just buying whatever I want. I feel like, if I have the money, I should spend it on food. *blush*
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Mrs. Money, I find it so interesting how each person responds differently to cash, debit/credit. When I was single and in my twenties, it was my habit to put all my money in the bank but to keep cash for my groceries. I got into the habit that any money I had on hand could be spent for groceries. I have found that habit has tended to stay with me, and I tend to think of cash for spending, although it’s easier for me to not spend money since Mr. A does most of the grocery shopping. If the debit card works best for you, then you should stick with it!
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I used to borrow from next period’s grocery’s budget when I went over, and I did it plenty of times! 😛 I think because your partner bought meat enough to last you for a while, you would find your next week’s grocery budget to be less than $160. After a year of trying to meet the budget, and successfully failing it many times over, I just decided to up it from $250 to $300 (in NZ$ that is) fortnightly. How often do you go over your grocery budget? I’m curious how people manage to do it consistently.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Hi Tasha, wow, I can’t seem to answer your question succinctly, I guess I need to write a post about it. Basically our grocery budget has been a big source of frustration for me, as for years I handled the groceries and in the past couple of years my husband took over, but he’s never adhered to a budget. So this is really the second week we’ve been adhering to this new budget, and we went over. Stay tuned for a more detailed post on grocery budgets. Thank you for visiting and commenting, and don’t forget to enter my contest this week!
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