Become a Grocery Budget Guru with These Tips That Keep Our Costs Under $250 Per Month
Grocery prices got you looking like you're cutting onions? Check out how this family of two has kept grocery costs under $250 per month for years.
Originally published 3/21/22.
Every few months I see a thread on Facebook where someone asks, “how much do you spend on groceries” and the answers from the other group members always astound me. Whether I’m in a group for frugal people or one of DINKs (double income, no kids), people spend way more than I’d expect on groceries.
Even this damn couple from Chicago spends 90% more than we do on food. Are they eating diamonds?
A family of two can eat well and spend $250 per month on groceries. And it would honestly be under $200 if I were the one buying all the food. I’ll show you why.
No booze
I’m no teetotaler, but I admit I don’t like to drink all that much. I never drank until I was old enough, and even then, I never bought booze when I went grocery shopping unless I was throwing a party. Alcohol is for socializing, not for drowning your sorrows after work.
Wine has become some bougie symbol of normalcy when really its constant consumption is often a sign of alcoholism. Drinking every day is not okay.
Aside from the booze culture we live in being harmful, buying alcohol on a regular basis isn’t good for your wallet. Unlike a bag of chips or cookies, alcohol is expensive, and in many municipalities, you pay a higher “sin tax” for purchasing it.
If you think your grocery budget is out of hand, and you’re purchasing alcohol on most shopping trips, cut that back to half the amount you normally buy and then keep reducing it until you’re only buying booze for parties. I guarantee you will save a lot of money.
Generic for the win
Almost all of the groceries I buy are generic or whatever the cheapest option is on the shelf. I don’t have any brand loyalty (except for hot sauces), and I don’t have special taste buds that can tell the difference between Trappey’s black-eyed peas and the Great Value brand from Wal-Mart.
We would spend less money in groceries if Mr. Green purchased more generic snack food. He has a bit of a posh taste when it comes to food, and since he buys it with his own money, I don’t complain.
Eat your damn leftovers
I can’t stress enough how much food Americans waste. We’re dumping 40% of our food in the trash. This includes restaurant food. I can’t remember the last time I threw out food that hadn’t gone bad. And I can barely remember throwing out bad food. A couple of years ago, I sliced some mold off a block of cheese, and more recently I had to start freezing my bread because half the loaf would mold within four days of purchase.
It’s not that hard to eat all your leftovers. If you have some personal aversion to it, you’re going to have to try harder. Write out what you’re going to eat every day and stick to it.
If you get bored of the same meal, freeze half of it when you cook. Everything freezes well. If you’re the kind of person who thinks food shouldn’t be eaten after a certain number of days (I know a food waster who says four days is the max), then you’re going to have to fucking change. That is wasteful, privileged thinking, and it’s killing the planet.
Ever since I started eating less sugar (blame prediabetes, not a keto fad), I’ve had to try baking with different sugar substitutes. Sometimes they turn out gross. I had a batch of cookies that was made with generic Splenda, and it was so bad that I had to spread peanut butter on them just to choke them down. But I ate them anyway. It’s a win for the planet and your wallet.
Plan every meal
Before I go shopping, I look at the weekly ad for my favorite store along with their digital coupons. I figure out what is on sale that I recognize in my favorite recipes. Sometimes, there’s not much to go on, and I stick with pasta or Mexican or Cajun food for the month. Those are always cheap and require just a few ingredients.
I also plan how many meals to make in the month. Typically, I like having two cooked meals per week and sandwiches, soup, or salad the rest of the time. One recipe generally feeds us for a week, which is normally 8-10 servings. So, I’ll buy lettuce and bread and sandwich fixings and then groceries for two recipes. That will actually last us two weeks since I typically don’t eat that many sandwiches.
Also, when planning meals, I use up the fresh produce first. When I have gumbo, burritos, stir fry, and pasta on the menu, I’ll make gumbo and stir fry first because those are the only two meals that involve fresh produce. My pasta and burrito recipes might involve some fresh garlic or onions, but they both last a long time. Everything else is canned or frozen or packaged dry and has a long shelf life.
Cook from scratch
One thing I didn’t realize when I started living on my own and cooking for myself was how much money you truly save cooking from scratch. In the past, we’ve bought packaged frozen meals, even though we’re trying to reduce our plastic consumption, but those meals never tend to have more than four servings.
One pricey meal we used to buy a lot of was a P.F. Chang’s dinner. They’re very good, but they’re $8. I’m sure I spend less than that for red beans and rice ingredients, and that lasts for 10-14 meals. P.F. Chang’s frozen dinners serve four.
Because produce is so inexpensive along with pasta, rice, and beans and other boring “staples,” the more you cook from scratch, the more you will save on groceries. The big expenses with cooking from scratch are meat and cheese, and most recipes can be altered to use half the amount of meat and cheese called for, and they still taste great.
If you aren’t a big fan of cooking, don’t try to get inspiration from fancy websites or influencers. Anything that’s super interesting will also be super expensive. You want to start with the basics, or you’ll be frustrated too easily and will give up.
Start with casserole recipes (pasta or rice), burritos or tacos, pasta, Cajun food, and a few simple snacks like cookies, basic yellow cupcakes, or pigs in a blanket.
Eat less
At the risk of sounding like a fat-shamer, I often wonder if these couples and families I see online spending $800-1000 per month on groceries should just be consuming less food. Mr. Green has been intermittent fasting for two years, and he’s lost 90 lbs. doing it.
Because he eats less, our grocery expenses are lower. Neither one of us eats breakfast anymore, though I imagine skipping buying breakfast groceries is impossible if you have kids. Mr. Green also eats a tiny lunch like crackers and cheese or half a bagel. He eats a normal dinner (but not normal in American restaurant terms) and has a few snacks.
I don’t know if calorie counting is effective, but check online for your government’s recommendations on portions for someone of your age or with your health concerns. I remember learning long ago that our meat portions should be the size of a deck of cards, and that is certainly not what we’re all eating.
Restaurants feed you more than you need so they can charge you more. Most of the time, I get two or three meals out of something I ordered in a restaurant. If COVID has you ordering from restaurants more, see how many meals you can really make out of what you usually order.
Join your store’s rewards program for coupons
Our favorite store has a coupon program where it tracks our spending and sends us coupons for things we normally buy. This even includes the generic food we buy! I like this because I treat it as an addendum to their weekly ad to determine what meals I should cook.
Be honest with yourself, and don’t buy something if the discount isn’t good enough, or you weren’t interested in buying it already. That’s a good way to get you to overspend. Grocery chains don’t send us coupons out of charity.