You donut-eating budget-buster!
It was Friday, March 27, and I was riding home from an interview. I felt bummed and left the offices feeling oh-so-average. I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. Traveling by bike, it was hard to miss the “DD” sign ahead; our earthly savior and lord of sugar, Dunkin Donuts. I pulled over, and ran in to buy a donut. I couldn’t resist, and bought two.
The cash register read, “$2.10.” My head rang with confusion and disagreement. My body craved a treat for a tough month and day. Despite the qualms and questions, I stood at the counter, handed over my card, and promptly smashed those two donuts down my gullet. Gosh they were good!
As I pedaled away, I knew what those donuts would mean. They would be an exclamation point on another month above $200. They would be a sugary-sweet failure and reminder that I’m not quite there yet. They would be the stench of another month over budget.
The food budget challenge rules
Over the last couple months, I’ve been working to reduce my food and drink expenditures. Friends and readers have asked tons of great questions about the rules to this challenge. They regularly ask, “What do you count, Sam?”
The answer is simple: everything. Anything with a nutritional value is thrown into the bucket. That’s meant that birthday parties, get-togethers, and random snacks count, too. Nothing gets removed from this budget – for any reason.
The $200 food budget challenge was meant to be fun, but also restrictive. I didn’t want to create other budgets for “entertainment” or “eating out.” That seemed to defeat the purpose for me; especially, because much entertainment includes eating and drinking.
Reviewing my efforts thus far
I would love to be writing today with beaming pride. I would love to say, “I did it!” I would love to say I’m the perfect food budgeter and frugal guy. Sadly, I have a lot of work to do.
I started the food budget challenge at the turn of the year. Being frugal led me to sell my car, buy a bike, and save money, but there was still this ridiculous part: food. I was shocked at my inability to save in this category.
When I lumped in food and drink, my monthly budgets were around $400-600. That level of spending was preventing me from being able to save anything. It was an embarrassing realization. I was eating out too much, buying too many prepackaged foods, and opting for organic – when natural would do. I needed to revamp everything.
In the first month, January, I spent $362.69. While down heavily from earlier months, I realized quickly that I had to find other ways to reduce my spending. Then, much to the dismay of my friends, I decided to start up the budget challenge for February. It would mean another month of restrictive splurging and lots of meals at home. I tried to opt for other items that were gluten free, but not at a premium, which helped in February. It was a relative success, and I only spent $211.94. But I still hadn’t reached $200.
$200 food budget challenge: March Madness edition
Here’s a breakdown of my spending from March:
Day 1: $106.03 (Groceries)
Day 2: $0
Day 3: $2.77 (Groceries)
Day 4: $0
Day 5: $0
Day 6: $13.75 (Groceries)
Day 7: $0
Day 8: $6 (Brewery)
Day 9: $0
Day 10: $9.27 (Groceries)
Day 11: $0
Day 12: $4.87 (Sandwich); $5.56 (Birthday party candies); $30.29 (Birthday dinner)
Day 13: $0
Day 14: $10.38 (Groceries)
Day 15: $11.01 (Mexican food)
Day 16: $0
Day 17: $1.25 (Redvines – must have sugar!!!)
Day 18: $7.47 (Groceries)
Day 19: $17.59 (Groceries)
Day 20: $0
Day 21: $0
Day 22: $9.66 (Groceries)
Day 23: $1.52 (Groceries)
Day 24: $0
Day 25: $0
Day 26: $0
Day 27: $2.10 (D’oh! Donuts!)
Day 28: $20.75 (Groceries)
Day 29: $0
Day 30: $0
Day 31: $0
Even from day 1, you can see I was doomed to fail. I spent over $100 in a single day, as my foodstuffs had grown dangerously low in February. I needed to stock up – big time. Unfortunately, that meant spending half the budget.
After the 31 days of March, I spent $260.27.
When I first started the $200 food budget challenge, I expected a linear decline in spending. Wrongly, I assumed that I would be able to gradually drop the costs month-over-month – that it would always drop. While $260 is less than January and well below previous spending, it spiked up from February. And needless to say, moved me further away from the goal.
Lessons learned this month
1. Psychological needs will creep into budgetary needs
A danger zone this month was sugary food. Because I biked to work, school, and the grocery stores, I was constantly burning calories. Despite my experience preparing for odd hunger times, the rush for sugar still hit me. I attribute this problem to a couple unmet psychological needs this month. I wasn’t sleeping enough, which led to tired days, where I was more susceptible to crappy food.
One of the best fixes to this problem is making sure you’re balancing out some of life’s demands. The best solution would be sleep. As a graduate student that can be hard to come by, but in April I want to work on this aspect.
2. Challenges become fun, but also competitive
I call this a “challenge” intentionally. Budgets can be boring and monotonous, and the reward isn’t short-term. Budgets help people accomplish long-term goals. Challenges, on the other hand, encourage people to work towards something in the shorter-term. For me, I needed this push to reduce my food budget.
Now, three months down, I’ve realized that the competition isn’t just internal. When I bring up the idea with others, I constantly hear comparisons. Some people assume it’ll be easy to accomplish, while others doubt themselves. Let me assure you, if you aren’t regularly around $200, it’s difficult.
Then there are the negative comments from others, unfortunately. Challenges sometimes bring out the one-uppers. These are the people that aren’t providing constructive criticism and suggestions, they’re just making it clear that they can do better than you. Generally, I find this feedback to be debasing and detract from the main goal: a fun challenge that we can strive for, together.
3. Food budgets should be averaged month-over-month
When I present my results, you only see one month of activity. In reality, food budgets are averaged over your lifetime. As such, people can buy huge foodstuffs from Costco and other warehouse-style retailers for deep discounts. This bulk buying can save money over the long-term, while ostensibly increasing a single month’s budget.
Because of the power of bulk buying and saving, next month I intend to account for my food budget in servings, when possible. For example, I purchased a 10-pound bag of rice, and I’ll account by 1-cup scoops next month. Although, with more perishable foods, I’ll account for those by receipts, as I’ve done.
As I enter my fourth month of the frugal food budget challenge, I’d love it if you’d join me! Even if you fail, as I have, it’s a great test to see how much you’re spending. To those who are struggling to wean down their budgets, try it out! To those who’ve succeeded, what have you done? Cheers to April and good luck!
Have u tried the Amazon subscribe and save it, has helped me out with bulk buying plus u can 15% off if u buy 5 items and can use their coupons for more savings. This might bring down the cost of things like gluten free bread and snack foods
Melissa,
That’s a great question! And yes, I have used Subscribe & Save. In preparation for April and to knock this budget out of the park, I used it to buy things like pasta and coffee in bulk. 🙂 Hopefully it makes the difference!
Sam
Here’s an idea for you. Take $20 each week and use it to buy nothing but staples that are on sale that week. Stock up on those sale items that you know you’ll use — 10 cans of tomatoes, 10 lbs of brown rice, 10 boxes of cereal, or maybe 25 rolls of paper towels — if your storage space allows. Don’t ever let yourself get too low on the basics — it’s like shopping on an empty stomach — you’ll overbuy and/or blow your budget.
I still think you’re doing a fabulous job. You had some “big” expenses this month, which totaled more than a quarter of your food budget. It makes sense to average over time — you’ll get a truer picture. My guess is, your expenses are trending downward, which is your goal, right?
Awesome ideas, Bette! I think you’re right that keeping some basic food storage ready is the right thing to do. Starting in April, I’ll try to follow your advice and see how I do. 🙂
This month was a pop up from the trend down. Unfortunately, some necessary social expenses seemed to keep me from $200. I’m starting up the challenge again in a good month: April. There shouldn’t be too many social extravaganzas. Haha.
But you’re right, generally speaking, I’ve said a lot of money. I still have that $200 number in my sights! Wish me luck.
Sam
I agree that food budgets should be balanced over a month. When I focus only on weekly, I sometimes pass on offers for buying a larger amounts of things I use regularly at a discounted rate.
I also create my challenge based on the number of Sundays in a month since that is when I do my shopping for the week. My budget is $60 per week, but it includes all spending except for gasoline, utilities, etc. Even a birthday card or two can throw me off. And, I am a normal woman who likes to have a new top once in awhile and uses lotions and stuff.
My total for March was $267. My seduction was a pair of boots for only $22. My old ones wouldn’t make it through another season and these were discounted a lot because spring was coming. So, I still feel buying them was a wise decision. I also noticed that I ate fast food a couple times – the really cheap stuff and don’t want to make that a trend. If I gave up sugar for my health, my budget would be better too.
I am sharing this, not for competition, but because I am grateful there is someone on a similar path to share with.
I happen to think you are doing great!!!
Linda,
Thanks for sharing your perspective on the food budget challenge. I love the idea of a weekly challenge, too. That might actually make the spending even smaller, as the duration of the “challenge” is only a week-long test at a time.
Great job on your budget this past mont! $267 is fantastic. Would love to know more about how you did eventually!
And as to your latter point, I really appreciate your contribution. The external competition that doesn’t seem to work as well sound like this, “That’s it!? I can spend $100 in one month — no problem!” That sort of feedback isn’t often followed up with concrete steps, and tends to just be a source of negativity. You’ve shared your experience and steps to meet goals. What could be better?! 🙂
Thanks,
Sam
I decided to stop buying greeting cards altogether. They cost about $4 each! That adds up! They end up in trash or recycle bin anyway! I print a letter and stick it in an envelope now, which is MUCH cheaper and accomplishes the same goal – you let someone know that you thought about them. If I am giving it in person than I give cash gift instead of buying crap because who needs crap anyway! Most crap I receive ends up getting returned or in garage sale.
I’d be more worried about the health implications of that DD than the financial implications 🙂 I think including social events into your $200 budget is what makes it tough. Otherwise you can definitely do your groceries in under $200
Stefanie,
Haha! I think you’re right!
Yeah, the social events that included food and drink really put me into a different category of spending. I hesitate to move it to a separate budget because I could use all the savings possible, even if that means drinking water at a bar. 🙂
Thanks for the comment,
Sam
Hey Sam, personally I don’t EAT birthday candles so realistically they shouldn’t be in your food expenditures giving you $5.56 back in your food budget! 😉 Wow, see where you started with expenses and look how far you’ve come! Great job! This food budget challenge for me is to stop and question each purchase and not buy mindlessly. I want this to be something I stick with over the long term. Thanks for sharing your struggles.
Susan,
Thanks for your support! It’s much needed, as I dive into another month of it. As for the birthday party, those are “candies,” not “candles!” Hahah. 🙂
Love that the challenge has encouraged you to be more mindful and present with your spending. That’s such an important part of saving money.
Sam
I think you’ve already made significant progress in that although you still bought donuts, you thought about what it meant first. That’s huge! It means that your food challenge is right there all the time and probably prevented you from spending a lot more money. So keep it up!
I agree with a previous poster who mentioned that your health needs to be a priority as well. If you are doing a lot of physical exercise you need to properly feed your body to keep it up! Can this be done in your budget, absolutely! But it does make it harder. My husband and I keep a $300 a month grocery budget. It could be less but we go to the gym daily (and sometimes 2x a day) and we need to keep our bodies well fed. Most of that $300 is spent on fruits and veggies to do just that.
Courtney,
You’re awesome! Thanks for the tips and tricks — especially from athletic people like yourselves. Definitely going to focus on fruits and veggies this month, too.
And I really appreciate you noticing that. The effort to reduce my food and drink budget has already been a great success. Hoping to continue it for quite some time! Need to hit $200! 🙂
Sam
Perhaps look into a local farmer’s market for purchasing produce in bulk. Most farmers can advise you on which fruits and veggies will keep the longest and how you can properly store them. I’m a pregnant mom of two, one on the way and I have both a tight monetary budget and a tight time budget. I don’t like to waste time shopping, but love to stock up on healthy foods. If you can spare an hour twice a month to preserve produce, you may only need to purchase it twice monthly, saving time and money. Eating locally is great for your wallet, economy, waistline and immune system too!
I agree with other readers that you’re doing a fabulous job!
You’re doing great! Keep up the good work!
Thanks Donna!
I think having a good understanding of how the sales work too and what rotates when could really help you bring this down. I frequent two grocery stores regularly and have a pretty good handle on how the rotations go – one of them runs a sale about every six weeks on meat and I know that I can stock up then (as much as my freezer allows) and then for the other 5 weeks in between, I’m basically “shopping” from my freezer so if I look at week by week, in that week, I might spend $60 on meat, but it lasts me for the next 5 weeks with only a supplement here or there, so it is a big lay out, but it works out.
I really like the idea of dedicating $20/week to staples and I would probably save it up for the first three weeks and THEN go shopping and pick up staples, flour, sugar, rice, beans, canned tomatoes, pasta and then go from there with saving and replenishing as needed.
It seems like you’re really doing a good job and I know it’s hard as a single person to buy lots of items in bulk, but that’s the way to save.
Great tips on the meat! I have been doing this, too. Shopping in the late evening means, the pricier cuts have been out on clearance and I can get the most bang for my buck. I invested in freezer paper and name brand freezer bags, store the meat in carefully labeled portion sizes with dates on. I can store 6-8 individual servings of meat comfortably in a gallon sized Ziploc bag, pulling out only what’s needed at a time, leaving the rest for later. We have grass fed beef purchased for $3/lb, rib eye steaks, mutton, wild caught salmon, free range chicken breasts (raised and butchered locally) – all purchased at rock bottom prices and stored properly in my freezer. It’s shrimp season in my neck of the woods. I plan to stock up on that soon, too! 🙂
I think you are doing a great job! My husband and I are are trying to stay under a $600 monthly food budget ($500 for groceries and $100 for dining out). I realize this amount is still relatively high, but it is MUCH better than we were doing before we started tracking spending. We have been doing this comfortably for the last 3 months, but it involves a lot of planning and eating at home eat out a lot more because it is so convenient, especially when you are tired. I am also realizing how expensive snack foods are like granola, snack bars, roasted nuts, dark chocolate bars, etc so I am trying to just live without them. I actually made granola at home and trying to tweak my recipe because that is something I enjoy eating, and store-bought versions have too much sugar anyway.
For April, I am going to see if we can eat a lot more of the dry food (beans, pastas) we have at home before buying more.
I also think that it is important to average out your budgets over time. Some months are going to be higher than others because of the bulk purchases we make at Costco, or if we treat a guest for dinner at a restaurant, etc, but the average over 6 months is what I want to keep under $600 and eventually lower once I get better at being frugal.
Good luck to you! Thanks for your blog!
I have no advice. But I am coming out of lurkdom because I am so appreciative of your blog. SO MANY budget blogs are practically choking on their smugness. I keep testing them out then deleting them from my feed, but I’ve stuck with you. Thank you so much for being so honest. Thank you for never, ever forgetting that privilege is often a huge factor in success. Thank you for being successful 90 percent of the time and continuing to figure out the remaining 10 percent. I think most of us are like that, you know?
Cindy,
Wow! I’m deeply honored by your comment. This really touched me.
My privilege is undeniable, and it’s important piece to acknowledge, as people figure how best to help each other. I really appreciate your support in doing so!
Thanks for making my week,
Sam
Hi Sam, Couple of thoughts from a housewife here… Do you have a co-op nearby to buy things in bulk? May be less expensive to bring in your own packaging; also, you get only what you need. You have other friends who are trying to economize? Go to your Costco together and split your purchases. That way you get higher quality with more variety and less spoilage. Consider vegan lifestyle, meat and animal products definitely cost more than going strictly veg. Do you like to cook? If not, look into using crackpots — makes quantity while you are away, downside is it will be soup, stew, casserole types of dishes. If you do like to cook, may be figure out some portable high energy items you can make and eat on the run. I think you’re doing great btw. I would have moved the entertainment items out of food, alternatively you can be the trend setter in your circle and make social events less food centered, or make them into at home potlucks, ; )
I second the comments that I think you are doing very well and add that you might be a tad hard on yourself! Perhaps your period of measurement is too restrictive. What matters is how much you spend over a longer period of time and not how much or little one particular month is. Consider setting a quarterly goal or even annual food spending goal and track your progress toward that. It gives you the flexibility to spend more during sales or seasonal produce bonuses and not feel like you failed. Your saving and budgeting is for the long haul and the minor fluctuations month to month are meaningless as long as your trend is in the right direction.
I’m also doing a food budget, or challenge!! It really is a challenge, but so worth it. I’m trying to feed three people on 60.00 a week. With a husband and a teenage son who love meat, it’s hard!! I’ve been doing for two months. Stayed on or a little over, but so proud of the new choices I’m making. Now I don’t just throw in that junk food, not in the budget. Keep up the good work.
I just found your blog through a blogroll on retirebeforedad and thought I would drop my suggestion for this problem in the comments. For years I’ve tracked all my spending on notepads for my family of four. I could use excel but I prefer the notepads. Up until this year, I had individual budgets for the 5 categories of spending: Food, Gas and Automotive, Family, House and Stuff and then a separate budget for Fixed Costs. We’d over spend on groceries but come in under budget on G&A, House and Stuff for a net result of actually being under budget in total for the month. My wife and I would be scrimping at the end of the month on groceries, feeling that little bit of stress from knowing we were over budget and still had one more week to get through, and my New Years resolution was to cut out stress.
We now have 2 budgets, Fixed Costs and Variable Costs. Fixed is the average cost of monthly bills (I live in Alaska, winters are not cheap!) and we try to stay below the average. To that end I got a woodstove installed last summer and we will handily come in under budget on Fixed Costs this year. Variable Costs is those five categories mentioned earlier. Instead of fretting about one category, almost always food, we just watch the total variable cost amount. I added up fixed costs, added in my mandatory savings amounts (Roth, two college savings accounts for the kids) and then subtracted that total from a conservative monthly income total (I get tons of OT at work, plus paid leave and holiday pay but I don’t count any of it in budgeting income).
We still have to mind what we spend but we can look at the coming month and roughly estimate odd charges that might be coming and shift our plan accordingly. It was a small change but it made budgeting less stressful. If we splurged on a few meals we adjusted other parts of the budget. So long as we pay everything on time, meet our savings goals and come in under our monthly budget we don’t stress. Small victory for stress reduction by basically an accounting change!
Stopping by for the first time on the recommendation of Joshua Becker at Becoming Minimalist. Love the idea of the $200 food challenge. I live alone and eat out waaaay too much. Great comments and suggestions too. I’ll be back (said in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice).
Well, here’s hoping you’re up for the challenge! Would love to have you join in. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Means a lot, Sam.
I put my Groceries budget at $80 dollars (single woman). In March I even had a few bucks to spare. In search of making my dollar stretch the furthest, I’ve found I get the most value at Aldi. Also, I weigh slash measure out all portions (even helped me drop 15 lbs) and also know what I can freeze as to not waste anything. Knowing how to cook (no matter how lackluster my skills may be) really helps save on my dining out budget (set at $20).
My partner and I just started living off of what we have in our pantry/fridge/freezer and not buying groceries aside from fresh produce; which I can purchase at huge discounts as I live in a big city with a lot of small fruit/veggie stores. We are vegetarian and eat a LOT of fresh produce so I have a budget of $100 for the month of April. Considering that I can purchase a basket of bananas and other fruits for $1 and discounted organic produce, we’re pretty sure we won’t overspend. So far, I’ve had fun coming up with meal ideas. 🙂
Really enjoy your blog. I think you’re doing great. With regard to hitting DD, some of the neuroscience research on inhibition and impulse control is interesting. My understanding is that we start the day with a finite amount of cognitive resources to to give to higher level cognitive processes such as attention, planning, impulse control and we use these during the day which makes end of the day when we are fatigued a particularly vulnerable time. This is one of the reasons people break diets in the evening. Anyway, perhaps this concept could be helpful for you. Maybe planning to have mobile snacks packed and ready in your panniers for those “weaker” times. Although I don’t think a donut is that big a deal. You could also just enjoy the deliciousness and call it good. I did want to offer support to the previous comment about considering a vegan diet. Lentils and beans are sooo much cheaper than meat and dairy. And they are yummy. And then you have the potential health effects which further reduces your health care costs theoretically in the long term (health benefits of a plant based diet is well supported by research). Anyways–this blog and the comments inspire me. My husband and I have lots of work to do on not wasting the food we do buy.
Hi Sam, Did you see this article at MSN:
Biggest Shopping Mistakes at the Supermarket http://a.msn.com/00/en-us/BBivk71
Don’t know if you’re doing any of these, but if not, might want to consider… Cheers!