Fiscal fitness -- May's theme

So originally, this month's theme was going to center on why you open your wallet. However, I think we've got another focus:

• "Will Upscale Supermarkets Have Egg on Their Faces?" (MediaPost, Mar 13, 08)
• "Sticker Shock in the Organic Aisles" (NYT, Apr 18, 08)
• "Emptying the Breadbasket" (WaPo, Apr 29, 08)
• "As Food Prices Rise, Shoppers Stock Up" (WSJ, May 1, 08)
• "Crimping, Scrimping, Saving" (WaPo, May 1, 08)
• "Growing Grocery Receipts" (WaPo, May 1, 08)
• "Grocery Pain Looks Short-Lived as Food Prices Moderate Long-Term" (Marketwatch, May 1, 08)
• "All of Inflation's Little Parts" (NYT, My 3, 08)

So ... we're talking food this month.

In May, let's look at what we're spending on food. Do you have a grocery budget? What is it? Do you have a dining out/entertainment budget? What is it? What are your biggest costs?

Look at the tradeoffs in your spending -- like, do you drink the two-liter generic soda because you'd rather buy snacky cakes with the difference? Do you stock up at Costco because you weren't really using that spare room anyway? Are you okay with spending your money on restaurants in lieu of cooking? Can you fork over another $8 for your third glass of wine at happy hour without thinking, I could've spent $25 on something else?

So here are the two activities for the month:

ONE: Answer the questions: What are you spending on food weekly? What is your budget? If you're running over ... why? Where is your food money going? Where would you rather it went? What would you change about how you're spending on food, if you could?

TWO: Set a food budget and stick to it. If you don't, document what circumstances pushed you over or kept you under the limit. Then figure out whether those circumstances are temporary, permanent, and/or something you need to address.

Let's take it to the comments. Remember: we don't get judge-y about how other people choose to spend their money. And we can ask for help/input and share our tips for getting the most out of our food money.

Comments

[Jessica]

Mmm ... I like this one. Our food budget is monthly, with separate figures for groceries and dining out (which includes any meal or food eaten out from Starbucks to fancy dinner). I think that we spend way, way more eating out when my husband is home, but I think I have been kidding myself about how much I actually spend when he's gone. This will be fun!

[M.L.]

This is a great topic, not only at a personal level, but also because of the tie-ins to of-the-moment environmental and economic issues. For instance, the question of whether speculation into food (as if it were a stock-like commodity) or the use of corn as a biofuel are major factors driving food prices up currently (the Post has had some interesting articles on these issues lately).

For our two-person household, I know our food expenses are higher than they should be (~ $80-90 weekly just for groceries), and I know that the high ticket items are fresh produce, deli meats, and fruit juices. I feel like we need to pare that down, but haven't exactly figured out how yet, so I'm sure I'll learn a lot from everyone this month.

[Lisa S.]

M.L. -- where do you live? I ask because your food expenses are in line with ours, and I know that living in the Bay Area = spendy sometimes. (Also, the high-ticket items for us are def. the organic stuff. And the booze. 'Tis a bit split-personality, no?)

And hasn't the Post series been awesome?

[SP]

I've actually reacted to the increased prices by ticking up the grocery allotment in the monthly budgets, and spending less on other things. A couple reasons. First and foremost, food matters more than most of the other things in the budget: it fuels us, it keeps us healthy and energetic, and it can be one of the great sensual pleasures of life. I've read that on average, we spend a smaller percentage of our income on food than any previous generation or people ever have, and I'm not entirely comfortable with the tradeoffs that have generated that result.

Second reason: we get as much as we can from the farmers' market, including meat and pasta and cheese, and cutting back on spending would mean withdrawing my support for the local farmers and ranchers who are making a living by producing food in ways that make me feel pretty good about buying it. I want to support them; I want them to make it. I want it to be possible to make a living as a small family farmer in Oregon. I want there to be an incentive to raise happy animals in an environmentally healthy and sustainable way, and kill them in as painless and un-traumatic a way as possible. I am a big ol' commie pinko tree-hugger (and I know this, and this is not me being judgey about other people choosing differently, because I realize I am a little fanatic about this) and I hate CAFOs on so many levels, and I can't go back.

So, we are eating a little more simply and eating more vegetarian meals and fewer processed foods. I may take another shot at growing vegetables, even thought it turns out I kind of hate gardening. But mostly, we are making a choice to spend more, and to pay for that by spending less on other things.

[M.L.]

Heh, Lisa, I live about a half hour north of Pittsburgh. The grocery store nearest to us fancies itself high end (it's not Whole Foods, though), and I also think they drive prices up to balance out their gas incentives (for every $50 spent, we get $0.10 off per gallon at their store-owned gas stations). I guess we're paying for the convenience (a five minute drive or even a bike ride/walk away), the "fuelperks," and our unwillingness to cut back on fresh and often organic fruits/veggies. I think bills went down significantly last summer when I would buy more from farmers markets that I could visit on lunch hours in Pittsburgh proper. Yeah, we're evil commuters - still trying to figure out what to do about that one.

[Pinwiz]

Fascinating topic.

In general, most of my grocery shopping takes place at Costco based on the staples: various meats portioned out and frozen, frozen vegetables, pasta and rice in bulk, etc. Other items are purchased depending on need from various locations if I have a hankering for something particular. It's hard to rationalize buying a sack of potatoes or asparagus in bulk when I know that as a single person I'll never go through all of it before it spoils.

It makes designing a food budget a bit trickier, so I try to take most of the non-staple items out of my weekly Mad Money just as I do with my alcohol. That's the big sticking point, the money I spend on my social life. The key is to be reining that in.

[Kyle]

Timely! I recently stumbled across this one-hour coupon/circular/menu-planning strategy over at Cheap Healthy Good that I decided to try out starting last week. And I'm on a fast-food spending diet. So apparently food costs are weighing heavily on my mind right now!

I don't really budget for food right now, especially groceries, but I'm trying to take a look at how much I do spend on food. And at how much of that food I actually eat. I waste a lot of food -- cooking too much and never getting around to eating the leftovers. I suspect I could cut my grocery bill in half if I ate all the food I bought.

Also, I don't really think of booze as groceries! I think this has a lot to do with growing up/currently living in Massachusetts, where most grocery stores do not sell alcohol (not even beer and wine). But buying beer/wine/liquor usually requires a separate store (my local Trader Joe's sells beer and wine, but none of my other grocery stores do), which makes it seem less like food and more like fun.

[Kyle]

Ah, Kyle, when will you learn to use Preview. And /a.

[lizb]

This is so timely! I realized just this past week that no matter how frequently I go to the grocery store (once a week, once every 2 or 3 weeks) I always spend between $100 and $150. What that says to me is to try instead to only go once a month to the huge grocery store, and either stop at the produce stand or Haymarket with $20 cash in hand once a week, or start ordering the $30 every other week organic produce deliveries (they don't actually deliver to my town, but I'm hoping to persuade a friend to take the delivery for me).

I never set menus, but I eat vaguely the same things all the time in rotation (and love leftovers for lunch), so I don't often waste food. If I have produce that looks like it's about to turn, I eat it that day. I buy meat (poultry mostly) in bulk and divide it out into 2 or 4 portions per freezer bag - defrosting meat in 20 minutes seems to be an inherited skill in my family.

So, my budget is going to be $220 for groceries for the month of May ($150 at the store, $70 in produce). I clip coupons, take advantage of sales (and keep a full pantry and freezer) and feed only myself and 2 cats, so that should be reasonable. My weekly budget for coffee/lunch/take out is $20, so with another $80, I'll be at $300 total.

Looking at an actual number, I am confused. I simultaneously feel like it's high and low. I'll have to see how I feel after the month.

[molly]

I am very interested in other people's grocery shopping habits. Not sure why. My sister feeds a family of 4 on $60 a week and I am in awe of her shopping abilities, especially since one child has Celiac so they all are gluten free.

At Costco, we buy paper products, detergent, and sometimes meat ($150 every six weeks). We spend around $100 a week on groceries at Trader Joe's, Safeway, and Shoppers. Shoppers is out in Rockville but they have fantastic prices on meat. I used to shop at their store all the time when we lived in Alexandria. My love of this grocery store blew the minds of my co-workers since I don't really match the store's demographics. My co-workers pegged me as a Whole Foods shopper, which I am rarely. I only go to Whole Foods once every six weeks to get my son Dr. Praeger's spinach pancakes, which are one of his favorite foods. We typically buy all produce fresh each day and meat we stock up on and freeze. We rarely have left overs since we are the last people in the US to not own a microwave. I try to aim as close to $1.00 a pound for meat as possible, which is rare these days to find steaks that low. We have steaks or beef ribs at least once a week (the spouse is from Argentina so beef is a staple in his life..we don't do rice or pasta very often). We never buy store brand soda (I don't drink it anyway).

I am with Kyle booze and food are different. Since having a child, our booze bills have dropped dramatically! We used to blow around $300 a week on drinks (bars). Our last purchase was a bottle of Silver Oak (Napa) for our anniversary. Normally, we buy around 10 bottles of wine a year to add to our collection. We also buy beer when having people over. The liquor cabinet is still full from our last duty free visit so we are good for a year or two.

[molly]

Kyle, thanks for the link!

[Rebecca]

This is interesting...I typically spend around $50 per week at the supermarket. Figuring out what we are going to eat is the big saver -- leftovers for days when we have evening activities and bigger prep for other nights.

I'm not 100% sure what we spend on food out. I always think we don't eat out that much (or don't spend much when we are out), but I could be wrong. I'm guessing around $30-50 per week on food out, but that still isn't too bad for two people!

[Kip]

We spend about $200 a week at Whole Foods for a family of four -- pretty high considering that we're vegetarian. That does cover all 21 meals though, since food allergies and wiggly children mean we almost never eat out. The big ticket items are frozen flatbread pizzas ($10 each), Rao's marinara sauce ($10/jar), frozen organic berries (somewhere between $5-$7/bag), fancy cheese and fresh organic produce. I also buy our cleaning products and shampoo, etc. there.

Our CSA starts up this week, so we're about to see a drop in the regular grocery bill. We pay $360, which works out to about $15/week for the season. I have spent nearly that much on eggplant alone in a single week in the offseason!

[amanda]

So, I just culled from Quicken for the last five months and I knew that our food spending had gotten sort of out of control. When work ramps up and stress goes up so does our dining out budget and we get sloppy with groceries. We really don't use coupons but we shop at moderately priced stores. Our primary food shopping is Fred Meyer and Trader Joe's. During the week I get groceries for snacks at work at Whole Foods and I frequently get my lunches there as well.

In our budget which I created long ago, we have allocated $600/month on groceries and $150 for dining. This is just for us two. We recently signed up for organic produce delivery and will be switching to a CSA this month. The produce is $30 every other week but that has actually been a pretty good thing. It feels sort of expensive but we make fewer runs to the grocery store and just try to make our meals around the produce -- otherwise it will go bad and be a bigger waste of money. There has been wonderful stuff in those boxes so we'll see how the CSA changes things.

Anyway, in the current tally, we have spent, on average about $250/week on food items. Um. Wow. So, that includes lunches out, dining out, groceries and misc. cash food purchases. Roughly $300 more per month than I thought.

So far, sticking to a food budget hasn't worked. I can stick to dining out budget but my better half seems to have a hard time doing this. We've tried two different methods the last six months and the first failed because I refused to be the budget nag and the second because we've both been too distracted to think about it too much. We must get better.

Summer somehow seems to make everything better, anyway, so I'm looking forward to creating a new budget and seeing if we can stick with it for May.