Managing The Budget: The Food Bill

2010 was our year to really start addressing expenses. We constantly looked over the monthly bills to see where we might be able to cut back, what could be trimmed, what was unnecessary, and what kind of sacrifices were we willing to make. It was, overall, a good year and mostly due to this work.
Things are turning around, the kids are both in school now, so I can work more hours and people seem a little less afraid to spend money, new clients are appearing again, but even if we doubled our income, I would not want to change how we are currently managing the budget.
Addressing the food budget is as good a place to start as any. It is a necessary expense, but there are some very effective ways to save. I won't lie to you, the process is a lot of work, but I think it's worth it. And in the end we will turn the savings into actual real money in the bank.
First you need an accurate picture of what is currently happening.

STEP 1: FIND OUT WHAT YOU REALLY SPEND

We have a whole week to get ready to do this step for the month of February and I am going to do it too and log it all here.
During this step you should clip coupons and watch sales, but the real work in the first month is logging food expenses.
I should note here that I include paper and cleaning products, detergents and personal care items in this budget IF they come from the grocery or dollar store.
(Soaps, shampoos, colognes, etc. that come from salons or boutiques are not counted. They belong in a luxury budget that we will talk about later.)
Log EVERY food expense for the month! Every lunch out at work, every Starbucks, every time you get chinese take out, every soda or candy bar purchased at a convenience store, any money put into school lunch accounts, every time you go out to dinner, and every trip to the grocery.
Keep ALL receipts.
Write it all down. (This is what we will be doing for the month of February)
At the end of the month, add it ALL up.
THIS is what you/your family spends on food in one month ... THE REAL FIGURE.

STEP 2: ASSESS

The reason to keep all the receipts is so you can assess what percentages of the money are spent where.
Now you can start to talk about making initial cuts and you have actual data in front of you.
There is no way to accurately, effectively start to address the food budget without completing these first two steps. This is not the really hard work though ... read on.

STEP 3: TAKE INVENTORY

This can happen during step one and should happen weekly from now on. Eventually you will start to stockpile essentials that you get really good deals on and there will be a decent inventory of food in your house at all times. This is where you start at the beginning of each week before you make a menu. Taking inventory helps you plan the menu and create your shopping list.
Basically you will shop for what you need (that's not in your current inventory) to create the meals for that week.
What you add to your reserves each week is a sub-list and depends on available funds, sales and coupons. Basically you only stockpile really good deals.

STEP 4: MAKE A MENU

Your menu needs to include every meal that will be prepared that week.
Planning this at the first of the week and knowing what will be for dinner every night not only saves money, it reduces stress.
The only meals we don't cook at home are school lunches because, quite frankly, I can't make a lunch for less then the school charges for one. Our boys take a lunchbox to school on Friday.
They look forward to it, and it's something we can take away if they don't behave that doesn't effect us.
Frank and I eat lunch from home every day. Often times leftovers from the night before.

Plan your cooking day.
You need to cook a good percentage of your food for the week on a day when you have time. Pasta sauces, soups/stews, pans of lasagna or enchiladas, casseroles, can all be made ahead and frozen or refrigerated so that on work days you can simply come home and stick it in the oven.
Any dinner that takes more then a few minutes to prepare should be done on cooking day.

STEP 5: GOING TO THE STORE

This step and the preparations involved will be the subject of the next entry.
By doing all of the steps listed so far you will be saving a lot of money, maximizing your savings at the grocery store and finding that real money to save involves a whole series of sub-steps.
Stay tuned!