Budgeting and getting control of your finances is essential. One of the biggest budget busters in households is the weekly trip to the grocery store. As the one that would usually be the cause of the budget bust on the grocery trips. My wife would tell you taking me to the grocery was liking having to take one of the kids. Something was going to get added to the cart during the trip. This was during a time of our life that we did not pay as close attention to our budget and we did not think about how much we were going to spend at the grocery.
Going to the grocery, you need a plan. I know it is a trip to the grocery store, we are not building a shuttle to take us to space! I didn't say it had to be complicated, but it still needs to be planned. Once you start going to the grocery with a "plan", it becomes a routine.
One of the first things you need to do is set a monthly budget for grocery spending. You can budget out separately grocery, household goods(cleaning supplies, laundry, etc.) or you can include everything under one line item. This money goes into an envelope, and you go to the grocery using cash. Budgeting everything on one line item makes budgeting easier, but you need to make sure you plan all the other household goods. If you find this is an issue in your household, add in the extra line items on your budget and have an additional envelope for household goods expenses and put this amount of cash in this envelope. Spending cash at the grocery store will help you stick to your budget. Using a debit card or writing a check is an easy way to bust your budget by overspending at the grocery.
Next, make a list. Write out what you are going to need for the week or next two weeks. One way to make it easier to make your grocery list is creating a menu for the week, so you know what you need. This helps us at our house in two ways, going to the grocery and actually making dinner during the week. Life gets busy, and it is nice to look at a menu hanging on the fridge to see whats for dinner tonight.
Now is also an excellent time to hunt the coupons if you are a couponer, not sure if couponer is a real word or not, but for today it is. My wife even has me downloading apps on my phone looking for deals.
Next is start paying attention to the deals, certain big box stores are not always the best place to go for everything. We still go to multiple locations to get our groceries.
Now that you have a game plan in place here is one of the best tips I can give, even if you have a list and multiple three-ring binders of coupons and an app filled with digital deals, is never, ever, under any circumstance go to the grocery store hungry! This is hard to avoid sometimes I know, we have had this happen to us on more than one occasion, even after we were list and calculator users in the grocery store. I remember my wife skipped a trip to the grocery not too long ago because we were trying to combine multiple things and going to the supermarket was are last on our list, we skipped the grocery trip to the next day after she got off work because she was too hungry to go to the grocery.
Budgeting matter's and it takes determination to stick to your budget, like everything else that is worth doing that is hard, the pay off in return is well worth the effort. Once you are on the other side looking back, it may not have been as hard as you were telling yourself it was going to be before you started down this road, the hardest part is getting started.
If you need help getting started, contact us today, and let's begin your journey together with financial coaching.
One of the first things you need to do is set a monthly budget for grocery spending. You can budget out separately grocery, household goods(cleaning supplies, laundry, etc.) or you can include everything under one line item. This money goes into an envelope, and you go to the grocery using cash. Budgeting everything on one line item makes budgeting easier, but you need to make sure you plan all the other household goods. If you find this is an issue in your household, add in the extra line items on your budget and have an additional envelope for household goods expenses and put this amount of cash in this envelope. Spending cash at the grocery store will help you stick to your budget. Using a debit card or writing a check is an easy way to bust your budget by overspending at the grocery.
Next, make a list. Write out what you are going to need for the week or next two weeks. One way to make it easier to make your grocery list is creating a menu for the week, so you know what you need. This helps us at our house in two ways, going to the grocery and actually making dinner during the week. Life gets busy, and it is nice to look at a menu hanging on the fridge to see whats for dinner tonight.
Now is also an excellent time to hunt the coupons if you are a couponer, not sure if couponer is a real word or not, but for today it is. My wife even has me downloading apps on my phone looking for deals.
Next is start paying attention to the deals, certain big box stores are not always the best place to go for everything. We still go to multiple locations to get our groceries.
Now that you have a game plan in place here is one of the best tips I can give, even if you have a list and multiple three-ring binders of coupons and an app filled with digital deals, is never, ever, under any circumstance go to the grocery store hungry! This is hard to avoid sometimes I know, we have had this happen to us on more than one occasion, even after we were list and calculator users in the grocery store. I remember my wife skipped a trip to the grocery not too long ago because we were trying to combine multiple things and going to the supermarket was are last on our list, we skipped the grocery trip to the next day after she got off work because she was too hungry to go to the grocery.
Budgeting matter's and it takes determination to stick to your budget, like everything else that is worth doing that is hard, the pay off in return is well worth the effort. Once you are on the other side looking back, it may not have been as hard as you were telling yourself it was going to be before you started down this road, the hardest part is getting started.
If you need help getting started, contact us today, and let's begin your journey together with financial coaching.