We’re lucky that we don’t have a need. For us, we often choose between eating at a restaurant and preparing something at home. Anything we prepare at home is going to be less expensive than anything we get at a restaurant, so I look at everything we buy at the grocery store as a way of saving money. In the days before we had plenty of money, I would shop carefully, but I didn’t go in with a budget per se.
Yeah, I doubt “having an explicit budget for things” is very common at all these days at except at fairly low incomes, and yet we don’t see a lot of rich people becoming poor or middle class ones falling into poverty because of spending habits. An attitude of “keep the purchases on stuff you don’t need occasional and reasonable,” or even just “save up for the big things” is sufficient for many folks to stay in the black.
Beyond a certain income level, even paying attention to the prices of small stuff tends not to matter. If I buy the milk that costs 50% more than the cheapest milk, it won’t even get noticed in the end-of-month roll-up.
What does matter are the unexpected costs: car repairs, health care, appliances failing, and the like. Folks tend to underestimate the unexpected and don’t (or can’t) save enough to smooth out those bumps, and those are the ones that end up changing your status of living when they hit hard.
Yeah, this.
I never budgeted, but I have long employed a strategy similar to those others have described here (towards groceries and many other things), a vastly oversimplified version of which is as follows:
- Only buy really cheap food.
- Exceptions to #1: Only buy something that costs $X after asking self, “Is this really worth $X?” and “Do I have $X available to spend?”
It’s the opposite, at least according to Gallup, although the differences aren’t great. High incomes and low incomes are more likely to budget than people in the middle.
Percentage of Americans with a household budget = 32%
$75,000 or more = 39%
$30,000 - $70,000 = 30%
Under $30,000 = 32%
I have a budget, but groceries are such a small part of my expenses (I eat a very small and regimented amount of food) that I don’t budget for them separately.
Don’t budget, well off, but not very rich - spend within my means.
Yes that means passing up on the $16 for a sliver of brie (and I don’t let my husband go shopping, because he’ll come home with expensive cheese) most of the time, but sometimes treating ourselves.
I’m pretty frugal when it comes to grocery shopping - I buy things that are on sale, I stock up, I don’t buy expensive when the cheaper brand is fine - I don’t have a lot of brand loyalty. I shop at Costco for a lot of things.
Yes indeed.
I’ve never had a grocery budget, but:
- I know how to save for stuff like buying a house
- I’ve never paid any interest on my credit card.
I have a wipe board in my kitchen, and add things to it as I need to replenish them. When the list of immediate needs reaches my carrying capacity (about 15 pounds), I go and buy what I need. I rarely try new things, and never shop on impulse.
I know the expected price of everything, and my monthly grocery bill runs around $80 a month, and I don’t worry much about price flucuations.
I generally agree but somewhat depends on definitions. There was a thread here on ‘what constitutes rich’ and as is typical for the web there ended up being ‘one up’ posts with people saying $10mil in net worth wasn’t actually rich. If OTOH you define ‘rich’ in more political terms (like ‘our tax increase will only hit the rich, individuals $150/couples $250k income and up’) there are IME more than a few people in that range who undo themselves by overspending, though a lot of time by income reductions also. Of course some people (sports and entertainment stars get the most attention) with $10’s or $100’s mil or more become poor by uncontrolled spending, though again also tends to go along with income decline.
But I agree in general there’s not a lot of people with eight figure net worth becoming poor again because they can’t control their spending, especially not supermarket spending. People far below that can ignore what they spend at the supermarket from a strictly rational POV, though often the habit of focusing on all costs is something they don’t want to abandon. And it’s also possible to focus on small things and lose sight of the the big picture (people with grocery budgets buying houses they can’t really afford, etc).
I do all the cooking and have a pretty good memory for meat prices and track some fruit and veggie prices. Having a budget seems like a ridiculous waste when buying in bulk is a cheaper strategy. Build the menu around what’s cheap and healthy. By having a strict budget you force yourself not to take advantage of bulk deals that might cost you more at the time but would save you money on the long term. I can get new york steaks for 3.99 a lb cut and wrapped for free as long as I buy the whole cut. Cash&Carry has 2.85 a lb brisket if you buy the 15 lb bag.
Going out with a fixed amount and buying enough for X number of days precludes the luxury of budgeting.
On the other hand I could’na thole to have to add taxes in addition to the stated price. Seems barbaric.
We do sort of a blend of Telemark’s needs lists, combined with opportunistic sales shopping and/or bulk purchases when feasible.
For example, a Target near us had remodeled their grocery section and put a LOT of stuff on half-off clearance because they no longer carried those particular items. So we loaded up on relatively non-perishable stuff that we use with enough regularity to not let them go bad, like olive oil, various vinegars, canned goods, some types of nuts, chocolate chips, etc…
Or periodically we’ll make a Sam’s Club run and get stuff like butter, shampoo, contact lens solution, etc… that we use frequently enough to warrant buying in bulk rather than at the grocery.
At the regular grocery store, we’ll check out the clearance sections and sales, etc…
So overall, no strict budget, but we do put significant effort into saving money on what we do buy.
My wife and I are DINK’s. I suppose upper middle class, house paid off, one car payment (my car and the truck are paid for).
We really don’t budget anything. Never have. We just know not to buy things that we don’t need. Simple.
This.
I’m 45, and took a calculator to the grocery store for so long that I still have moments when I can’t quite believe I can go shopping any time I want/buy whatever I want. I definitely appreciate my current situation.
I usually don’t pay any attention to how much I spend on groceries, except when my finances are in turmoil, in which case I go on an extremely strict budget (like € 100/month), which is one of the easiest ways for me to cut significantly in my expenses (I guess that my usual grocery budget is probably rather in the € 400-500/month range…not sure because as I say I normally don’t pay attention).
It seems to me that most people I know, coworkers, etc… have very few concept of budgeting for groceries, they don’t seem to think it’s possible to cut into this category of expenses (even those who regularly mention consuming costly items), with the exception of people chronically struggling with money (I mean people with low income, not irresponsible people) who most certainly budget for groceries, and could often tell you, with a margin of error of a couple euros, how much they can afford to spend on groceries this week (or to spend on anything else, for that matter). Even with an acceptable social safety net as we have, someone who is poor (or even simply with a rather low income) isn’t going to have something to eat at the end of the month if he doesn’t follow closely every single expense.
Not budgeting for groceries is IMO common, but it’s a middle-class luxury.
I don’t think it’s uncommon. I make a list and go shopping the same day every week. I always have a fairly decent estimate of my costs each week and except for an outlier week here and there for a specific reason, my bill usually always falls within a certain range. So, I don’t budget it to the penny, but when I am figuring bills and expenses for the week, I have a very good idea how much money I will be spending on food that week.
How do you know what your means are unless you have a budget? I am talking about sitting down and figuring out, “we take in $X per month, after taxes. The mortgage is $Y, the car payment is $Z, so we have so much for everything else. Ten percent for church, clothes, ten percent for investments, split up the rest for liquor, my cigars, groceries, etc.” That’s the way my folks did it, that’s how they taught me, I assume everyone does it that way.
Regards,
Shodan
For one thing we aren’t tithing 10% of our income, which frees up a lot 
Probably most people have done that kind of calculation, but it’s given us a rough idea of what to spend on groceries. The OP asked about strict limits, which is completely different.
We are funding our retirement accounts nicely and our bank account balance still typically goes up each month, so I don’t really see the need to have a food budget. I don’t grocery shop extravagantly, and we don’t eat out often, and that seems to be good enough.
It certainly would be nice to have a budget, but with two working parents and two busy kids in the household, ain’t nobody got time for that. It would be interesting to know how much money we spend on food each month, but realistically I don’t see it happening.
I’m you (except for the unemployment bit hopefully).
We don’t have a budget, but we make a comprehensive shopping list and stick to it closely. No impulse purchases of brie, no cheating and buying prepared meals even though we have time to cook, etc.
I have a “goal” of per person spending on food, which helps me stay away from the more expensive purchases.