How much do you spend on groceries?

If you look at the main page of my blog you'll see my grocery totals for the previous 8 months:

• May 2009 $240
• June 2009 $275
• July 2009 $285
• August 2009 $275
• September 2009 $350!! Yikes!
• October 2009 $276
• November 2009 $242
• December 2009 Ummmm who knows?!?

If you spend less than that, this post isn't really for you. If you spend more than that listen up!

It doesn't matter how much I spend. What does matter is how your grocery spending fits into your families budget. I NEEDED to spend less than what I was spending so I could continue to be a homemaker. I NEED to be a homemaker. I feel called to be a homemaker, but I like to eat as well. I NEEDED to figure how out to lower our grocery budget to realize this dream.

If you are comparing my food budget to yours you are probably comparing apples to oranges, not a fair comparison at all. When I said I used to spend $600-$800 per month on food (13 years ago) I wasn't including all of the money I spent on Chinese takeout, pizza delivery and going out to eat. I still don't include going out to eat in our grocery money. Since we go out to eat only if we have money in the entertainment envelope then we don't consider it part of our food budget.

Some people have picky families, food allergies, live in a high cost of living area, there could be so many variables! I tell you what I spend so I can give hope to people. If you work on lowering your grocery spending it CAN and WILL go lower. Or maybe it'll go higher, but you won't go out as often. Or maybe it'll go higher because you are now eating food that is much healthier.

It is enlightening when you find out that people can spend a small amount of money and feed their family nutritionally balanced meals. For years I tried to get my spending as low as one lady, only to find out they had beef that was given to them, they raised chickens and had a huge vegetable garden. Well DUH!!! Instead of spending so much energy trying to be like her, I needed apply bits and pieces of her wisdom to our situation. Today I still want to work on lowering my grocery spending. I know I can go a little lower. Probably not much, but even if I can shave $5 off per week that's $260 in a year that I can use for a vacation.

Compare where you are today with where you were last year at this time. You can then decide if you are satisfied with where you are at or make changes. Stop comparing apples to oranges and getting overwhelmed. You can make one change a month and improve your life dramatically!