Frugal Village Forums banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

2010 Grocery Budget Reduction Challenge

16K views 221 replies 36 participants last post by  Sara Noel 
#1 ·
I have been spending a lot on groceries every month. Partly, it is because I include all items that I purchase, including cleaning supplies and such, in my grocery budget; partly, it is because I buy a lot of organic produce; partly, it is because I am not as careful as I could be about buying things on sale, comparing prices, etc.

So my challenge to myself is to work on that third part and to reduce my grocery spending by $15 every month. If I can reduce it every month, that will be close to 1/3 by the end of the year, which should take care of that third part of why my grocery budget is so high! :D

In 2008, I spent well over $500 in groceries every month. When I started this challenge in 2009, I started at a budget of $600/month, and reduced it by $15/month. By the end of the year, I was coming in below my monthly budgets by a wide margin. Even in December, which was my most expensive month, due to Christmas, I came in $3.00 under my budget of $400 for the month.

The challenge continues in 2010. I have reduced my monthly grocery allowance by another $15 this month, so it is at $385/month right now, and I hope to get it down even further!

Anyone else game to try to carve a little fat off of those meat and potatoes?
 
See less See more
#3 ·
I'm in. In 2009 I joined this challenge and reduced my budget from $500 a month to $400. This year, instead of reducing the monthly totoal, I would like to reduce my yearly total.
2009: $4,800
2010 goal: $4,000
 
  • Like
Reactions: madhen
#4 ·
I'm in.

I updated my blog with my grocery goal and with my first shop of the New Year, but I will track my progress here, as well. I'm doing $20 a week, per person, which is $100 a week, but I'm going to need to do an average at the end of the month, as I stock up during sales, so it may not be $20 per person per week each week. The first week will probably be more, but the rest of the weeks should be less.
 
  • Like
Reactions: madhen
#5 ·
I'm in. I've gotten in for the last maybe 3 months however never met goal by quite a bit. I was shooting for 6 months stockpile by the end of 2009 and due to great sales and coupons took advantage of all I could use. Unrealistically I thought I could do both which would have probably worked but I was myself working on a deadline. Things are going to tighten up here this month drastically so stockpile in place I'm doing this again.

I'm shooting for $25 to $30 a week but with a little leeway for replacement for some stuff to stretch out a little longer. So monthly goal will be no more than $150. This will include everything grocery, HBA, dog etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: madhen
#6 ·
Count me in! I bombed last year, but I'm still up to the challenge. My goal is to get my grocery budget down to an average of $50.00 per week before the end of 2010!
 
  • Like
Reactions: madhen
#7 ·
I'm in for $20/per person; so $80/week. this does not include pet needs. I really need to make them get a p/t job.

so far so good, I used a $50 gift card from xmas to grocery shop today, and I'm still under for the week. woohooo
 
  • Like
Reactions: madhen
#8 ·
I'm in! I fell off the wagon with tracking monthly spending, I just know that we were spending way too much on groceries... just buying whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. My monthly goal is $300 for two adults and a two-year old. I will work to accomplish it by taking out $300 cash at the beginning of the month and making it last for the entire month, no credit cards... if the money runs out, we go on rice and beans! :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: madhen
#11 ·
I'm in on this as well. My grocery budget was about $80 Per month for DBF and I the last two years, but this year I want to reduce it to $5 per person per week. So that's $40 a month, $520 for this year. Should be interesting...
 
  • Like
Reactions: madhen
#12 ·
I'm in! My grocery expenses last year worked out to ~$360CAD/mth. for two adults. We eat healthy...with some organic. But we also were doing a lot of last minute junk food runs too. The dessert and processed foods section of our expenses was over $200 last year. I think we can lower that.

Plus I haven't been buying bulk, mega-cooking, and freezing extra meals. Think I'll start doing that. It will make it much easier on DH for lunches for work.

I'm still analyzing my grocery receipts from last year to see exactly where we spent and where I can cut back. Will post when I come up with some solutions to the situation...
 
#15 ·
I'm in.

I'm trying to figure out how to set up my "grocery" budget. In the past groceries have included food, paper, cleaning, pets, school and clothes. I have spent $200-250 a week on all. DH wants it all down to $100 a week. I'm not sure that is possible given what all "grocery" includes.
 
#17 ·
For my first trip of the year - I did OK. I took a $100 bill and got back $19 and some change. I did have some unplanneds like 2 backpacks (woohoo on sale) for swimming lessons that start Sat and pink eye drops. I still need to go to Sam's for water softener pellets and cat litter.
 
#19 ·
I'm going to try and keep my grocery bill to $3600CAD for the entire year. This will be a challenge. It's a drop of $60/mth. That works out to $300/mth. We'll see though. This month I might spend a bit more because the local stores usually have blowout sales the end of the month. I'll be stocking up for the rest of the year.
 
#21 ·
Spent $4.99 today
 
#23 ·
FW2: Yeah, food is way more expensive here. We're considered an isolated region...and one food company owns most of the grocery stores here. We basically have Safeway and Loblaws chains.

$300CAD = $290US approximately...so I'll be aiming for that for each month for two aduts...should be doable. That's appoximately $70/wk.

This is going to be a challenge. I finished going over the grocery receipts last night and it doesn't look promising. We've become connoisseurs of much better and high quality food. DH does not like to give up food. He likes his high fat, high sugar treats. The only way around that is to take time to make/bake them myself. When I do that I usually eat them too...which is mega-bad for me.

I'm still going to aim for $300/mth...a $60/mth drop in grocery costs. Will see how I do...
 
#24 ·
Ok, end of my first week in. Still at $4.99. So out of my $25 budget for week one I still have $20.01. Tomorrow starts a new week.
 
#26 ·
Hi all...I finally finished my grocery receipt analysis and came up with 28 ideas to slash my grocery bill. Hopefully this will work!

I'm at $90 already...only allowed to spend $60 between now and the 15th. I'm actually trying to make it to the 15th without spending anything...let's see how I do...we'll probably need milk for DH before then...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top