<$Thursday, February 7, 2008$>
The food problem: still a problem
| Okay, I've tried to make peace with how much we spend on groceries by rationalizing about how we're foodies and we don't get out that much anyway, but the hard cold fact is that we still spend way more on groceries than two people should. For the last several months we've been going over our already substantial grocery budget, to the point that we spend more on food, alcohol, toiletries, supplements, pet supplies, et al each month than we spend on rent. Sure, our rent's cheap, but still: something is very, very wrong there. As of this writing, though, we're beginning to make some progress. Part of the problem is that I got lazy about hunting down bargains and clipping coupons, and that part's easily fixable. Last night I went to the store armed with a wallet full of coupons matched to advertised store specials, and while I didn't necessarily come out spending less than I normally do on the first grocery trip of the pay period, I did come out with substantially more food to show for it. That should help with the second part of our problem--making our food last longer. We've been in the bad, bad habit of stopping by the store any time we run out of something, instead of seeing what else we can eat instead until the next payday. I've been carping at Husband about how this practice really needs to stop, and he's trying his best to cooperate and eat what's on hand instead of immediately replacing something he's run out of. He's also trying to be more cost conscious when he makes his list, as am I. I think (hope) this is a pretty good recipe for finally getting our grocery budget under control. If we can learn to eat within our budget, then we'll have no trouble living beneath our means and building up our wealth. Labels: marriage, money management, personal, spending |
You may already do this, but I'm convinced that the answer to this particular problem is relentless meal planning. I try to sit down on Sundays and make a list of meals for the upcoming week, and then translate the list into a grocery list. The list of meals goes up on the fridge, so when husband or I get home from work, we don't have to think about what to cook or how to allocate our food out--we just implement the menu plan. I basically cook four servings of a meal--two for us for dinner, then two for leftovers for lunch the next day (those servings go straight from the pan into the tupperware for easy grab and go the next morning). This plan is also good for cheap food like beans and lentils, because you can plan in advance what to do with these foods and, for example, presoak beans for two meals instead of one.
We still end up with some wasted food that we don't get around to eating (which kills me!) and lots of dry goods hanging out in the pantry, but overall, it's worked for us. When I don't get around to doing the meal planning, we eat so haphazardly--it's expensive, and honestly, doesn't taste as good.
I'll be curious to see what other strategies you develop over time!
Thanks for the info, gretchen! We sorta kinda food plan, in that we both tend to have a handful of dishes that we eat regularly, and we shop around that core menu. A big part of my problem, though, is that Husband doesn't like to plan ahead, he's really particular about what he eats, and he has a big appetite. Add to that the fact that we practically live in a dorm as far as kitchen facilities go, and... well, hopefully once we move and have a real kitchen, we'll figure out how to cook healthier AND more cheaply.