It’s now been a little over two months since we finally created an action plan to lower our food spending.
At the end of December, I published the post Our Plan To Finally Cut Our Food Spending. Below is a snippet from that post:
When I first started blogging back in 2011, we were spending over $1,000 on food each month JUST for the two of us.
Food spending is something that we have always had a problem with. Whether it be spending too much money at restaurants or spending too much money on processed junk food, it’s been a problem.
We are no longer spending over $1,000 a month on food, but it is an area that we still need to work on.
Some have asked why we want to spend less money on food.
I’m not sure what to say except for why wouldn’t we?
While we both love food, we know that we spend too much money on it and it could be saved for better things. It’s not like we are eating well just because we are spending so much money on food.
Usually our expensive food months are the months when we eat the unhealthiest.
We are wanting to lower our monthly food spending for many reasons. We want to save money, eat healthier meals, eat together at home, and be able to make delicious meals at home.
This is why I am publishing a monthly food budget check in. I want to stay motivated with our food spending goal, and having this check in once a month is a great motivational reminder.
Below is our February food spending check in.
How much money did we spent on food in February?
February was a good month for our food budget, but we could have done better. We moved into our new home in February and things were a little chaotic. The long distance move didn’t completely kill our food budget, but it did make things a little harder.
One reason for this is because we had to pack all of our things into the moving trailer (including plates, pans, etc.) so we didn’t have much to eat on after the moving trailer was picked up. Another reason is because we got lazy when it came to cooking because we were tired from all of the packing. The last reason for our higher food spending is because we had a lot of get-togethers at restaurants with friends to say goodbye to them. The get-togethers though could be classified as “Entertainment” as well, so it is a little hard to say whether I actually believe we failed with our goal or not.
Due to all of those reasons, our food spending was a little higher, but we still did well. One reason for why we still did well was because we tried to eat everything out of our fridge and pantry that we could because we didn’t want to transport anything that we didn’t have to. We also knew that some things would spoil on a long distance trip so there would be no point in bringing those items, so we tried to eat as much of that while we still lived in Missouri as well.
Below is an estimate of what we spent on food and household supplies (including toilet paper, dog food, etc.) during the month of February.
$202 at grocery stores
$447 at restaurants
That brings us to a total food spending of $649, or an average of around $23.18 per day for the both of us combined.
As I stated in my original food budget post, our goal for our food budget was to spend less than $500 each month. This means we failed our food budget goal for February.
While we did much worse than the previous month, I am not upset at all. I am happy that I was able to able to enjoy February with my friends and loved ones before we moved. Yes, I could have said goodbye to everyone for much cheaper, but I had a great time and I don’t regret it.
Even though we failed, we are still working hard to eat more healthy meals. Whenever we did go out, the majority of the time we did order healthier meals than what we would normally order.
What’s working when it comes to our food situation?
I think what hurt us was that I completely failed at meal planning in February. I hardly meal planned last month, and that is obvious.
I plan on getting back into meal planning though. I took a short break from using $5 Meal plans since I knew we would be moving, but I plan on changing that this month and getting back into meal planning. Even Wes misses the meals, and usually he doesn’t notice where I get my recipes from.
Another thing that is working is posting this food budget check in each month. Having this in front of me makes me want to make March a great month! Even if you do not have a blog, I highly recommend writing your goal down and putting it somewhere that can be easily seen. This way you can have a reminder of what you are working towards.
The last thing that is working is that food in our new town is a little lower than where we lived in Missouri. This won’t save us a ton of money, but I’m assuming that we will probably be able to save around $40 to $50 a month on food because of the difference.
What’s not working?
Everything seems to be going well, even with the expensive food month that we had last month. That was explainable, and I don’t think we will have repeats of that any time soon.
What is your average food budget each month? Are you trying to spend less? What works for you and what doesn’t?
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