Food Envelope System

[mommy2010]

Has anyone made the envelope system for food, as in an envelope for dairy, meat, produce, beauty products, etc....I was thinking of allocating a certain amount for each one, I do a list of what I need but to better understand what I spend and what I may need to alter I thought this would be a good idea. If you have done this how much do you give each catogory and how does it work for you?

[dcompton]

Once in a while I will do it on a spreadsheet from my receipts, just to get a feel for it and because numbers can fascinate me. But it's way too much work for me to persist in for more than a month or two. But it's always rather interesting to see how it breaks down after the fact.

I have never attempted to assign amount beforehand - because I try to shop sales and they don't work out "evenly." I assume the categories average out over time.

[sunshine]

Someone else who thinks like me! I do this. . . I feed 3 of us on a regular basis. . . and a few extras quite often. My food budget is $60/week.

$10 meat
$15 produce
$10 baking supplies
$7 beverages (soda, drink mixes, juice)
$13 dairy (milk, eggs, butter, sour cream, cheese, etc.)
$10 for stocking up on any deals

If there aren't $10 worth of deals for the week, it gets carried over until such time as there is a great deal to use it on. . . plus that week's budgeted amount can go for the deals as well. . . say chicken is a great deal this week. . I can use $5 of my week's budget for the chicken, + what I have in my stock up fund. . .

After a while, I've gotten quite a stock pile and don't generally have to spend my entire budgeted amount for each category, each week. . . so I can spend extra when the deals roll around.

[chevy_chick95]

hmm.. never thought of doing it that way. I just allocate $80/month. Go through the cupboards and write a list of the bare minimum we need, attach prices to those things, add them together and if I'm under $80 I go through the ads and put things we want on the grocery list until the total adds up to the $80.

I'll have to try it this way.. sounds interesting.