Another month has passed so it’s time to check in with October’s grocery budget to see how we did with our goal of only spending $2 per person per meal. There’s only 2 months left to go until the end of this 6 month grocery budget challenge. September was really good but let’s see how October turned out. It’s time to crunch some numbers!
The Goal
I often hear the goal of spending $2 per person per meal among the FIRE (Financial Independence / Early Retirement) community. It seems like this is may even be possible if you prefer healthy and organic foods. July was our first month tracking it. We weren’t too far off but July was definitely NOT a normal month for us. August was closer to normal so it’s a better gauge as to where we‘re starting. September ended up being awesome! I had to triple check those numbers before believing it. Now we’re checking in with October.
October’s Grocery Budget
Just like September, this was a normal month without any bulk food purchases. We buy a portion of a cow 2-3 times a year and shop at Costco every 2-3 months. Skipping those big purchases helped bring down our budget. I expect a Costco run in November and probably a beef purchase in December. My husband also worked a lot of evenings so I made cheaper meals for myself and the kids on those nights.
The Calculation
October had 31 days in it so we’re looking at 372 meals for our family of four. Our goal of $2 per person per meal equals $744 for just the food in our grocery budget (also not including restaurants). $2 x 4 people = $8/meal. 3 meals a day for 31 days equals $744.
October’s grocery expenses – $737
October’s cost per person per meal – $1.98!!
September’s grocery expenses – $772
September cost per person per meal – $2.14
August grocery expenses – $922
August cost per person per meal – $2.48
July’s total grocery expense – $967
July’s cost per person per meal – $2.60
Average for July, August and September – $2.41 per person per meal
Average for all 4 months –$2.30 per person per meal
We spent $35 less in Oct than in September! That wasn’t as big of a drop as we saw between August and September but it’s still going in the right direction. We’re hit our $2 per person per meal goal! Comparing July and October, we saved $230 this month!
For the math nerds out there, did you catch the part above about my husband working quite a few evenings at his side job? That means I would have to a deduct $2 for every meal he doesn’t eat at home or take leftovers to work. Technically, that would also apply to lunches since he doesn’t always take his lunch to work. Sometimes he takes clients out to eat on the company’s dime. I really don’t have time to track each and every time his meals don’t come directly from the food we buy at the grocery store. As much as I like crunching numbers, that takes things a little too far. So what’s a good compromise? While we did hit our goal, I think we should take it lower to account for those missed meals.
From July to October shaved off $230 from our monthly grocery budget!
At that rate, we’ll save $2760 per year!
How We Saved Over $200 on Groceries
Meal Plan – I’ve been meal planning for 5 years and it is such a HUGE way to save money, and even time, but many people just don’t do it. This is the first step to buying only what you need while shopping. Don’t try to figure out what to make once you’re already in the store! I love using Plan to Eat to plan our meals and generate my shopping list. It only takes me about 10-15 minutes to plan a week’s worth of meals and have my shopping list ready to go.
Meal Plan Around Sales – Check the sales before making your meal plan. Stock up on items that are on a good sale.
Buy in Season Produce – We are used to being able to buy pretty much any fresh produce we want regardless of the time of year or where we live. Quality and prices will be best when you eat “in season”.
Fresh Food First –Eat fresh produce before heading to the freezer or pantry, even if it’s something you’re not in the mood to eat.
Buy Less – As you gain experience meal planning, you’ll be able to better gauge how much fresh produce to buy each week which will naturally cut down on waste. Freeze any food you can before it goes bad.
Make Due When You Run Out of Something – We used to live in a rural area so when we forgot an ingredient we couldn’t just run to the store. I’ve been trying to get back into that mindset even though we now have a grocery store just down the street. I noticed that I made quite a few extra trips to the store. It’s so easy to grab an extra thing or two when you’re there. These extra things add up quickly especially when they’re not really needed. I often grabbed a package of sushi for lunch instead of just eating what we already had at home. That’s $8 for my lunch which is way off from our $2 goal!
Shop Your Pantry and Freezer – Use these items first when making your meal plan.
Leftovers – Leftovers are great for lunches and quick dinners. Plan ahead and put leftovers on the menu. This will save you from buying extra food and planning extra meals when you’ll already have leftovers from an earlier meal.
Digital Coupons – Much of what we buy doesn’t have coupons, but I have been seeing more coupons for natural foods and produce lately. However, don’t just buy something that has a coupon or is on sale unless you’re actually going to use it.
Identify Cheap Meals – We used to have a few cheap meals that I used throughout the month. We stopped eating them when we left California because saving money was no long the necessity it was when we lived near Los Angeles. However now that we have some big financial goals we’re trying to hit, it’s time to bring back a few of those meals and find some new ones.
We’re now done with 4 months of this 6 month grocery budget challenge. I’m really loving how our numbers are dropping every month. Even though we hit our goal of only spending $2 per person per meal, we’re going to go lower to appease the semi-math nerd in me. I’m excited to see where we end up at the end of the year!
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