How Much Should You Save On The Groceries?

Photo by mundoo

The groceries is one area of the budget that is most variable and that we have most control over. It is also the third biggest expense after house payments and car payments.

But how much should you cut from the grocery budget?

I am certain that you can eat well on a strict budget, often a family will eat better because junk food and pre-packaged food laden with additives is more expensive than food made from scratch at home.

But once you’ve covered the basics of cooking from scratch and eliminating takeaway, how far should you push the dollar before it affects your health and wellbeing?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, both because I’m writing an eBook all about the subject, and because things are really tight at the moment and I’m constantly looking at how much we spend on food.

There are a lot of things we now go without. Lamb cutlets are a very, very rare treat, as is salmon steak, or just steak. I don’t eat a lot of fruit anymore as it’s much more expensive than vegetables and the quality tends to be disappointing these days. No more thick cut sirloin steak.  Sun dried tomatoes, bottled pesto, washed rind cheese (in fact any kind of cheese), prosciutto, olives, Sarah lee apple pie with double thick cream – all things of the past. Bacardi and mango nectar are out of the question. We don’t eat out anymore.

On the other hand, there’s a line we don’t cross. We could eat pasta or two minute noodles every night and save huge amounts on the groceries, but it’s not very healthy. Fresh vegetables and lean meat still feature as a major part of our diet.  I still buy a few conveniences like bottled bolognaise sauce or puff pastry and occasionally splurge on a few deli sun dried tomatoes just to keep things interesting.

Despite the groceries being the third highest expense in the budget, as westerners, statistically we still spend less on food than my European counterparts. And the food that we do spend our money on is less healthy and of less quality than on average European people eat.

So where do you draw the line at how much you are willing to ‘save’ on the groceries?