Real Life Grocery Budgeting June and July 2020 - Live & Love Life on a Budget

The Truth about Budgeting for Groceries

Let’s talk grocery budgets. And I mean the truth, the cold hard truth about budgeting for food. Can’t you hear the famous line from A Few Good Men blaring in your mind, “You can’t handle the truth!” Don’t worry, you can handle this truth because most of us experience both the ups and downs when it comes to controlling our finances. Sometimes, we see people on Instagram and they seem to have everything figured out. Well, I’m shouting loud and proud that I definitely am not perfect at this but I’m determined to get better. So, let’s dive right into the truth: budgeting can be easy and hard all at the same time.

Grocery Budget: How did June and July Turn out?

Specifically, let’s talk about my food budgets for June and July this year. I chose these months because they are demonstrative of a very relatable truth: “life doesn’t always go the way you plan.” Namely, I went over my June grocery budget but I was able to stick to my plan for July. Life is that way sometimes; “you win some, you loose some.” However, I can tell you that the longer you budget, the more “wins” you will have with money and budgeting.

A Few Things to Consider about my $750 Food Budget

My Food Budget is $750 a month to feed my family of 8. Does this seem like “Jaw dropping” information to you? Go ahead and return your bottom jaw back to its usual resting spot. Before I discuss June and July, there are a couple things to consider about our $750 grocery budget.

Why is our Grocery Budget so Low?

We are trying to pay off our mountain of student debt, $288,000 ($270,00 was our student loans from Optometry school, check out our story).
Our oldest Kiddo is 13 and our youngest is almost 2. Not all of our kids are big eaters and so that helps keep the food budget low.
My “Grocery” budget is actually called my “food” budget. I only buy food with this budget.
Meal-planning is key! The first step to planning your menu on a budget is to “shop” in your very own kitchen before you shop at the store. Check out my meal-planning strategies.
Making things from scratch, saves me money and so I don’t buy a ton of pre-made or prepackaged foods.
We use “Everydollar” and it helps us so much!

June Food Budget

What went Wrong?

With heavy heart, I must report that I went over my food budget in June. Oh, the humanity! Just kidding, I know it’s not the end of world. And I will tell you why! Due to the fact, that we use specific categories in our budget system, it’s easy to see where we are overspending. In addition to this, we use the amazing budgeting tool, “Everydollar” and it really simplifies planning and tracking our finances.

Lack of Communication and veering from the Plan

We were on track to be under-budget in June. What happened? Unexpectedly, a friend of ours had a family emergency and asked us to watch their 5 kiddos for a couple of days. That meant we had a few extra mouths to feed. Thus, I had my main man, Josh, stop by Sams Club on the way home from work. We initially agreed to spend $40. However, I looked at our budget and saw that we would still be under budget. So, we started talking about all the food storage things that we were low on. Unfortunately, we didn’t agree on a final spending amount. As a result, that $40-$60 purchase turned into $80. It’s so easy to overspend at Sams Club. We spent $26 over our budget.

Was this an Epic Failure?

Now, was this an epic fail… no. I really did need to stock up on a few essentials but not all items were a priority. Yes, we “needed” some things but if I can’t get everything, I prioritize and only purchase the most important things and wait for next month’s budget to do the rest. Josh and I needed to communicate better. We didn’t agree on an an exact limit. He could do the math himself but I hadn’t updated our budget app and so he didn’t have clear budget to look at on “EveryDollar”. Life throws us curve balls and things don’t always work out. How do we adapt to life’s Crazy?

How did we Adjust our Budget?

Now, what did we do to make this work in our overall monthly budget? We looked “right and left” at our other budget items to see if we had extra in any of the other categories. We took $27 from our auto gas fund because we were under budget by $50.

June Taught us an Important Lesson

The moral of my budgeting blunder story (that’s a bit dramatic but I really like alliterations) is that budgeting can be hard and sometimes things don’t go to plan. Still, we were able to make it work because Josh and I talk about our money and work together. Also, those extra trips to the store can bite you in the bootie!

July Food Budget Success!

We did it! I’ was slightly under budget for food, Wahoo! We went camping and had friends come visit this month and still, I managed to keep my food budget in check! Again, I may sound like a broken record, but using the budget app, “Everydollar” has really helped us stay on track. In case you are wondering, I don’t get paid to plug this product, I just really like it. I know there are a lot of other helpful apps out there, this is the one that’s worked for us.

My Opinion on the “Food Budget”

Here is my opinion on groceries. Every home is going to have a different budget because every home is different. The true victory is sticking to your plan, not having the lowest budget possible. So, look at your income and find a number that makes sense for your family or situation. After we pay off our massive amount of loans… I hope to increase our food budget because food is on my priority list: food is love!!

The true victory is sticking to your plan, not having the lowest budget possible.

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