For those of us who want to continue (or resume after a hiatus) our budget challenge of 2010.
I left it at $355/month last year, so in January, I am going to try to knock it down by $5/month. That would result in a grocery savings of almost $500 by the end of the year.
This will go hand in hand with the menu planning challenge. I've almost completely fallen off the wagon and my groceries are averaging over $600 per month. With the addition of my brother moving in it's only going to get harder to keep on budget. I'm shooting for $500 a month.
It is really up to you how you want to craft it. For me, it includes groceries, but that means all the groceries I buy for my pets as well. But it doesn't include hay for the livestock, pellets for the parrots, etc. I really ought to set up a separate budget for that, because I don't even know how much I spend on THAT every month!!
Since DS is now at school, I have to feed 3 adults, 1 dog, and two cats. I include food, pet food, and HBA. I was doing well at $300 per month once DS left but I want to get it down to $200. I will start in January at $275 and see how that goes.
I'm definitely in on this one. I spend way too much money on groceries. I need to take stock on what I have and definitely need to plan better. I'm going to start out at $350 for the month, not including pet food and see how I do.
i am shooting for 560 a month - for everything - grocery store wise- food-cleaning - paper beauty- pet food etc
thats what i have in my budget but i havent been keeping track and didnt change it in the spring when oldest ds moved home after grad college so i am sure i have been spending more .
I would love to do this... i really need to be more accountable with the money
that leaves the budget...
I am going to go with $500 a month for a family of four humans and 2 dogs and 2 cats and on hamster..this needs to include groceries, toiletries, dog and cat food and hamster food and shavings....
With just me at home, I am going to keep it to $100 a month. This will be strictly for groceries. I have personal care items and dog food in a separate budget item.
Count me in! I really need to make and stick to a budget in 2011... $500/month for 3 humans, 1 cat and 3 pups. Hoping to get down to $400/month by the end of 2011.
Count me in for $100 a month. That's just for groceries and stockpile. I was under my budget the first quarter of 2010, but went over budget consistently the rest of the year. I hope I can keep it averaging $100... but prices seem to be going up.
You make a good point about prices going up. I've been reading that we can expect food prices to go up quite a bit this year. If that happens, I imagine we'll all be re-evaluating our budgets.
When I first started it in 2010, my personal challenge was to reduce my grocery spending by $15/month. I determined, over a couple of months, what I typically spent, then started working on it. So the challenge is basically just to try, each month, to spend a little less than you did the month before. Because a lot of people stockpile, some don't count that in their budget, for the purpose of the challenge.
Okay I'll go ahead and bite. I budget 400 a month for groceries now so I'll try to pull it down to 350 and hopefully as the year progresses I'll pull it down even more.
I'm in. I'm actually increasing my grocery budget to $600/mth. for 3 adults and assorted guests. Seems we've become quite hospitable these days. DH is in agreement with me on increasing the budget. We already take $200 extra from our boarder's rent money for groceries each month anyway. She likes to eat! And we are often cooking Korean food...which is more expensive.
Hmmm...Ok...I am shooting for $300 for the month of january! I'm just going to feel it out and see how comfortable or uncomfortable that is for us! I think I can do with much less..but this is a starting point for us...since I really don't pay attention to what I spend on groceries!
This is going to really work well with the menu planning challenge I'm doing too! I've not been really good about sticking to the grocery budget in many months so this will be more of a challenge to stick to the budget then anything else. Once I get that under control I'll knock a few dollars off each time until we are back to a reasonable amount of money spent each month!
I am in for this. I have no idea what to start off as for a budget. It's just me and the dbf, but he eats alot and says I don't buy enough snacky food haha. So I may base my budget on what we spend in the first month and see how she goes.
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