How To Know If You Are Spending Too Much On Food

Food.  The stuff that kills our budget month after month, that literally ends up in the toilet.  Gross, I know.  We all want to stay on budget or heck, even come in under budget, but I swear food sabotages that every freaking month!  I struggled with this for years!! So how do you know if you are spending too much on food?

As luck would have it, there is a simple little formula to figure that out!  This does not have to be overly complicated, you just have to look at your income, how much you spend on food, do a simple math equation, and boom!  You’ve got it figured out!

Step 1:  Calculate how much you spend on food per month.

This may be a little tough to actually admit, especially if you live like I used to.  You know, you go get groceries all the time, but have “nothing to eat,” so you end up at the drive-thru more than you would like to admit.

All those frequent stops at the gas station with coffee and donut purchases add up without you even realizing it.  Your husband forgets to pack a lunch every single day and eats out instead. You are too tired to cook by the time Friday comes and don’t even get me started on the rest of the weekend so you eat out all weekend.

The end of the month comes and you wonder where all of your money went.  

Guess what?  You ate it!  This is how you end up spending too much on food.

• Sit down and look at your transactions for the past month.
• Add up all the food expenses.  Every single one.
• Do this for the past three months to give yourself a good average of what you are spending on food every month.

Once you have this average calculated, write it down.  

Step 2:  Look at your monthly income.

This part should be easier for you.  Over the past three months, look at your average income.

Write that down.  See how simple that was?

Step 3:  Do some simple math.

Take your number from Step 1 (your total amount spent on food every month) divided by your number from Step 2 (your total income for every month).

This will give you the percentage of your income you are spending on food.  This is the number you need to know.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans tend to spend 6% of their budget on food.  This means if you bring in $4,000 every month, you will probably spend $240 on groceries. This does not include eating out.  Typically, people spend an additional 6% (or $240 in our example) eating out at restaurants every month.

Where did you land with the percentage of your income spent on food in a month?

• 12-14%?
• 7-9%?
• 6%?

The national average for money spent on groceries is 6% of your income.  This is the average. If you are not even close to this, you have some major work to do.  

If you are at 6%, you could decide to be happy with that, but remember, that was the average.  Let’s be better than average! Strive to cut it down even more!

How to rehab your grocery budget & stop spending too much on food:

Let’s be real for a minute.  Groceries suck. The whole process is a challenge.  It is a serious production to:

• work on your grocery budget,
• look for ways to save money,
• work on a meal plan,
• get the groceries,
• make them last for the month,
• do all the cooking, it’s freaking exhausting.  It should be its own full-time job.

I looked at this problem for years before I figured out a simple solution to it.

Ready?  

Meal Planning

I was so terrified of meal planning because it seemed like so much work, but as it turns out, if you are not afraid of simple and semi-boring meals when you first start, you can master it pretty quickly.

Related Posts:

What’s For Dinner?  How to Easily Plan a Month of Meals

Meal Planning for Beginners:  6 Reasons to Start Meal Planning Today

Monthly Meal Plan on a Budget:  Less Than $100 For Dinners for a Family of 4

The Life Saving 12-Week Rotating Meal Plan

Meal planning turned out to be a super easy endeavor that I avoided for YEARS!  Instead of avoiding this, I challenge you to begin with my super simple Monthly Meal Plan for less than $100 for dinners for a family of 4.

GET INSTANT ACCESS TO THE MEAL PLAN AND SHOPPING LIST WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!  STOP LETTING EXCUSES HOLD YOU BACK!

Grocery Shopping Once a Month

Once I was able to get a grip on meal planning, I then started to focus on decreasing the amount of time I was spending in the grocery store.

Think about it.  Every time you walk into a store, you are faced with choices to purchase things.  The less time you spend in a store, the fewer temptations you have to impulse buy.

With meal planning, and utilizing my favorite freezer, I was able to start grocery shopping once a month.  It was amazing!!

I seriously only go to the grocery store 12 times a year!  Imagine a life where you only go to the store once a month.  It is so freeing!

The whole month you know you have all the food you need.  You aren’t constantly running to the store to pick up odds and ends just to end up ordering out because you are too tired from being at the store.

Related Posts:

How Grocery Shopping Once a Month Saves You Time and Money

How to Grocery Shop Once a Month

Once you start doing this, your life will be forever changed.  I have people asking me how to accomplish this all the time.

Grocery shopping once a month has helped me consistently keep our grocery budget at $250/month for a family of four.  It’s been freaking amazing.

USE OUR FREE GROCERY LIST SHEET TO SHOP ONCE A MONTH!  GET IT WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!

Is there anything else you can do to save money on groceries?

I hate couponing.  Full disclosure. It is just not something I want to spend time on.  Instead what I started doing was focusing on a money saving app that required minimal effort.

I highly recommend iBotta.  This app helps you save money on things you would already be buying (including generics!).

• Download the app
• Add offers of things you know are on your list
• Save your receipt from shopping
• Take a picture of your receipt to redeem cash offers.  It’s that simple!

If you sign up right now, you will get $10 in bonus cash!  It is totally free to sign up!  Grab your $10 cash and get started with iBotta.

Saving money on groceries is not rocket science.  It just requires a little bit of planning. First, you need to figure out where you are to know how much improvement you need to work on.  After assessing my own income and food spending, my family is hanging right around 3%!   I am still working to lower it even further.

No matter where you are today, strive to be at 6% or better.  Work to meal plan, shop less frequently and implement iBotta. I have no doubts you will be able to significantly reduce your food spending.

If you want more specific details for how I do things, check out exactly how I keep my grocery budget at $250/month for our family of four.

Get started today and start slashing your food budget!

DON’T FORGET TO USE THE FREE MONTHLY MEAL PLAN CALENDAR TO GET STARTED MEAL PLANNING TODAY!  GET IT NOW WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!

PIN FOR LATER!