groceries
Photo by teejayhanton

I generally think that we’re pretty frugal, but sometimes I wonder. So I thought I would share how much we spend on food and groceries, and some of the rationale behind the choices that are appropriate for us. ‘We’ are currently a household of two adults and a cat.

I keep a detailed cash flow budget in excel – basically we track every cent we earn and spend. This year, I did something a little different: I track our groceries in a separate sheet, linking the totals into our overall expenditure. What does this mean? It means that not only can I see at a glance how much we’ve spent on groceries for the month, I can click over a sheet and tell you exactly how much we’ve spent on milk v meat v toothpaste etc for each month and for the year. This also reveals how often we buy things like toothpaste.

Before I give a weekly total I want to tell you exactly what our ‘grocery’ amount includes and how I calculate it.

It includes all food: meat, vegetables, dairy, dry goods, tea coffee etc., all toiletries such as toothpaste, toilet paper, moisturiser, shampoo etc., all cleaning and laundry items including brushes and essential oils etc. It includes cat food and cat litter. It includes little gourmet things we might buy like jam at the markets or herbal tea from the health food store. It includes all alcohol that we buy in bottles to consume at home or at friend’s. It includes any extra trips to the store or servo for bread or milk or chocolate.

Apart from the spinach and a bit of lettuce that we grew this year, we buy all of our food. I have made bread and yogurt a couple of times, and have visions of making them regularly, but the reality is that we buy everything.

As we purchase meat in bulk and our vegetables every two weeks at the market, our actual weekly spending can fluctuate quite a bit, so I take the total and average it out over the year. Our weekly grocery spending comes to an average weekly amount of $85.

But let’s not stop there. We also buy takeaway about once every ten days. Seeing that this is food that we consume regularly, there’s no point ignoring it – it puts our weekly average up to $115.

(Eating out at restaurants is something we do once in a blue moon and it goes under “entertainment” along with the fortnightly coffee that I have with my MIL).

Sometimes I feel like this amount seems a lot for two people. Obviously, the first thing to go is the takeaway. There really is no good reason to buy takeaway except that I get lazy (which is not a good reason). All the menu planning in the world doesn’t seem to save me from the “I can’t be bothered” nights. KFC is $25 worth of garbage that makes me feel sick afterwards, so why don’t we kick the habit?

No really, why don’t we kick the habit?

When I look at my spreadsheet, I can see immediately where else I can save money (even without gardening and home baking), but I’m not necessarily willing to make these changes unless I really, really have to.

For example, I buy organic, un-homogenised milk, which is over twice the price of home brand. For some things I buy the more expensive brand name items because home brand quality just doesn’t cut the mustard (ugh! Woolworths mustard!) or because home brand often has more ingredients or unhealthy ones we don’t want to eat. For example, I like to buy pure, no additives coconut cream, also twice the price of other brands. Brown rice is more expensive than white. Wholemeal flour is more expensive than plain. Pure cold-pressed olive oil is more expensive than heart stopping vegetable oil.

One of the things that we did learn straight away when breaking up and tracking our groceries, was just how much we spend on bread. I didn’t think I even ate that much bread. We now buy reduced to clear bread at the end of the day, and that has cut our bread bill in half.

So what do we do to save money on the groceries? Well as I mentioned above, we buy meat in bulk from the wholesaler and freeze it in portions. I menu plan vegetarian meals in between meat meals and also plan meat stretcher meals like stir fry. We buy our vegetables from a grocer/market, much of it is local and it is a lot cheaper and better quality than the supermarket. We steer clear as much as possible from packaged foods, making almost all meals from scratch. There are a few conveniences that I feel are well worth the outlay, like curry paste and mayonnaise, but generally we stick to the basic vegies, meat and carbs. I make cakes, biscuits and deserts, but occasionally we buy ice cream. We eat leftovers and try not to waste anything. One day we’ll be more self-sufficient, but not yet.

For cleaning, we hardly spend anything ($80 per year) as I make my own cleaner and laundry powder, however this is balanced out by the fact that I buy all natural toiletries. Having said that, I found that my deodorant, for example,  although twice as expensive as DH’s, lasted 5 times longer than his, so I’m actually spending less by spending more (yearly total of $9 (yes, I use it everyday) compared to DH’s $25). 

So, how do I fair? How much do you spend on groceries? And what ways do you save money on those groceries?

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