In the previous video we showed an example of how to build your food supply on budget.
With a $300 monthly budget for our family of 5 we made purchases for the month of October 2022 but didn’t purchase everything on the grocery list. A few days later you purchased the rest and a few staples that went on sale.
It is a good idea you plan on spending below your grocery budget to have some money saved aside to purchase staples you forgot to add to the grocery list or to stock up when a staple goes on sales during the month.
To try to spend below your grocery budget, you can go through your pantry and add to your grocery list food staples you have low stock of or out of stock.
You think of holidays or celebrations you might have to cook for during the month and add any food staples you may need to add to your grocery list to be able to make dishes for these occasions.
Purchasing just what you need allows you to save the rest of your grocery budget. If you run out of something during the month, you will be able to purchase it. If a staple is on sale, you will be able to purchase extra and slowly build your food supply while on budget.
To have better control over your grocery budget, it is a good idea to take cash out for your grocery budget. When you spend below your grocery budget during a month, you can set it aside to spend on sales. It is easier to know how much you saved in groceries when you set the grocery budget aside out of your checking account.
How to set a grocery budget?
Your grocery budget should be higher than your actual grocery expenses. Your diet and the type of cooking you do, and how much you can afford to allocate toward groceries will affect the amount you will set for your monthly grocery budget.
You can create 2 weeks of meal plan and list the different staples needed for these meals. Then you multiply them by 2 for the month.
You estimate the unit price for each staple.
You add the cleaning supplies you might need during the month and estimate their unit prices.
You multiply the unit price of each staple by the quantity you estimated for the month.
You total all together and you have an estimated grocery budget.
If that is more than you want to allocate as your monthly grocery budget, you adjust it by removing some staples or exchanging them with other staples less expensive to come up with a grocery budget you can afford to spend.
You can set a monthly grocery budget for the month and use that amount every month. That makes your groceries a fixed cost in your budget even though your actual grocery expenses will still vary month to month. You take cash out and months you spend less than your grocery budget, you save the rest.
Our October grocery budget was $300 including $150 for food staples and cleaning supplies, $60 for fruit, and $90 for meat.
How do you grocery shop for a family of 5 on a budget?
Grocery expenses are a variable expense. You can set a fixed budget for groceries every month. You take cash out for your groceries.
When you purchase staples that go on sale when they are on sale and stock up, you save money you can use to spend on staples that do not go on sale. Little by little you will have months’ worth of food staples on hand for your cooking and cleaning.
Fruit goes on sale often in the area where we live. We save fruit budget until some fruit we eat is on sale and we stock up fill up the fridge crispers.
Meat goes on sale as well.
If you are low in meat in your freezer, you could purchase meat you might need for a few weeks only. You keep an eye on grocery ads. When a meat you cook with goes on sale, you can stock up for the rest of the month.
When we are low in meat, we can purchase chicken quarters or pork meat for our cooking and save some of the meat budget in case meat goes on sale.
If you must pay full price for everything you use in your house, you will need to increase your budget. If you do not have the means to increase your grocery budget, you might pay full price for your staples you do not find on sale and save your grocery money to stock up when the staples you can find on sale go on sale.
How to build your food supply on a budget?
You can start stocking up in summer for winter. Little by little you can build your food supply to have more on hand than just for winter use.
Meat goes on sale throughout the year. Usually, eggs go on sale in spring. Chicken goes on sale in summer. Pork goes on sale in fall. You can find any of these meats on sale anytime of the year. You just must check the weekly grocery ads.
You could also grow some vegetables on your property to supplement your groceries to save some money.
You don’t need multiple brands of one food staple. You can simplify your dressing and condiments to have in your pantry.
When you purchase raw basic food staples, you can make multiple dishes using few staples. For instance, tomato puree can be used to make pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and sauces for rice. You can just stock up on cans of tomato purée and make these sauces yourself when you want them.
With all-purpose flour and sourdough culture you can make sourdough bread and sourdough pizza. You can make eggroll wrapper for eggroll; you can make biscuits if you have butter. Therefore, you can just stock up on all-purpose unbleached flour.
With milk in the fridge if you eat milk product, kefir culture, olive oil, or apple cider vinegar with the mother, or any vinegar, you can make your own salad dressing. You can use vinegar in your cleaning as well. The milk kefir can be drunk as a probiotic drink when you strain the milk off the cultures and feed them milk you purchased.
By cooking from scratch, you can reduce the number of food staples to have in your pantry making your shopping easier.
How to draft a grocery list?
You can list the different dishes you make often. Then list the different ingredients you need to have on hand to make them. That will be your master grocery list.
From that list every month, you can list staples you are low in and allocate your grocery budget to each category. You can set an amount lower than your budget to spend so that if you forget to purchase a staple or if during the month, you ran out of a staple, you will have some budget left to use to purchase the food staple. Or if a food staple in your pantry goes on sale, you will have some changes left to stock up on it.
Conclusion: How do you grocery shop for a family of 5 on a budget October 2022?
Using our October 2022 grocery shopping as an example, we explained how to build your food supply on budget and grocery shop for a family of 5 on a budget.
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