The Grocery Budget

I've said many times, my grocery budget does me in every month. I pretty much have our utility usage and other budget items under control, but that little line item called "food" kills me every time. I coupon, shop the sales and loss leaders, cook from scratch, everything I can think of, yet every month, my little tally at the bottom of my Kroger receipts are $250, $300 and more, and I don't shop exclusively at Krogers!

My goal has been to stick to a budget of about $250 a month (including cat food and litter), or about $60 a week. Not that I've been successful, but that's the goal. :-) Now I've been reading www.moneysavingmom.com for a long time, and Crystal feeds her family of 2 adults and 3 young children on usually $40 a week. Erin at www.5dollardinners.com feeds her family of 2 adults and 2 young children using only dinners that cost $5 or less --that's $5 for the entire dinner, not per plate! And Jane at http://jane4girls800dollarannualbudget.blogspot.com/ feeds herself and her 3 teen daughters on $800 A YEAR!

So I was trying to look to see what would be a reasonable goal for us, 1 adult and 2 growing, hungry-all-the-time teens. Most budget programs are income-percentage-based, and at my income, I have seen anything from $200 to $230 a month as a reasonable amount. Some other programs recommend $2-3 dollars per person per day. That would be $180-$270 a month.

So all in all, I'm thinking my $250 goal is a reasonable start. I do my major shopping twice a month, so this being halfway through June, it gives me $125 to work with. DD suggested that I get her and her brother involved in the grocery budgeting so they understand better why they can't get all the snack and junk food items they want, and I may do that this summer. I just have to get this part of my budget under control. Here we go...... ;-)