Grocery Costs and Food Waste

I let the grocery budget go last month. Not really on purpose, although I was interested to see if sticking to a budget had changed any grocery shopping habits. It had not. In fact, I spent more than we had been last time I let the budget go a few months before that. I have noticed that costs have gone up on a few of our regular items, so I'm sure that was a factor. Also a factor: the boys have both been eating a lot due to growth spurts.   But whatever contributed to the extra costs, I was a little disappointed to see that I hadn't changed any shopping habits.


For June, I spent $677.04. That's $277.04 over my desired grocery budget. I do usually go over the budget to a certain extent each month and that's probably reasonable to expect. The USDA estimates that the standard "frugal" budget for a family of four in 2011 was between $523.70 and $603.10. What I spent for June was still under the "low cost" budget for a family of four. What I WANT to spend is standard for the frugal/low cost plan for a family of two. Want to know more? Check out: Official USDA Food Plans: US Average, 2011.

I'm changing the way I track my food budget, as I discovered that separating food and household basics was taking too long per receipt and making me procrastinate on entering all of the information. So, I'm just sticking to a single amount per month and not worry about what portion goes to food and what portion goes to household basics. The tracking for the first part of this month went a lot faster and looks more straightforward on my tracking page.

So far so good. We have 2 1/2 weeks left in the month and I have just over $300 left in the grocery budget. We're going to have to go shopping soon as we're getting darn close to eating fridge scraps, but there's nothing wrong with using what we have on hand. We throw out too much food. According to the US Dept of Agriculture, the average US family throws out 14% of their food purchases and as a country, we throw out between 25-50%, depending on what studies you read. You can read about it here: Scientific American: Waste Land.

Is this a problem for your family? Does it bother you to throw out the food that you've spent your hard earned money on? Join me in learning ways to reduce household food waste by starting here: EPA.gov: Household Food Waste.