Keeping a Grocery Budget on Excel

One thing I was NOT when I got married to my husband was organized. The one thing that annoys me the most and helps me the most is his organization skills. This extends to budgeting the monthly grocery budget and list. He has a system and I think it is great. It has truly helped our family out a bunch. Getting started takes a bit of work but it is worth the effort. You need a place to keep receipts and an excel-type program on your computer. Here is what we do.

In order to get started, the first month you need to…

1. Keep every single receipt we get from every purchase. I found an old school crayon-supply holder of my daughters and set it in the kitchen. Then every time the family buys something, as far as groceries go, we stick the receipt in the box.
2. Go through the box at the end of the month. My husband calculates the total we spent on groceries for that month and writes it on the top of an excel sheet.

Then my husband went even further and this step is what has really helped with organization and saving money.

3. Make a list of commonly bought items. For instance with five girls we drink a bunch of milk and applejuice. Those are always on our list. This list is now my shopping list. I can print this blank sheet out and use it to remind me what to buy at the store. We have also posted a copy in our cupboard to keep track of what we normally have stored, but that is for another post.
4. My husband also has calculated, from the previous months receipts, how much milk we are using, for instance. Or, how many diapers we used and how much we spent. This led me to switch to cloth diapers. I have also cut down on the amount of orange juice we are buying because no one is drinking it and we are not buying frozen, we are buying it in the container. No sense wasting something we do not drink. So, I changed the required number of OJ to buy on the shopping list. That way if dear old hubby goes to the store for me, he will not buy as much.
5. The next step really takes extra work but again, if you are on a really tight budget, it is worth it. We shopped at two different stores and bought the same, or basically the same brand milk. Then we compared the prices. There is also occasionally in our newspaper an article about milk prices. We therefore know which store to buy our milk in. Every cent counts in a house with five girls. Especially with as much milk as we drink! Well, baby Sarah drinks Mama’s milk but her time is coming!

Now, this may seem really like penny pinching and too much work but after the initial set up on excel, it is smooth sailing from then on. Now we simply keep the receipts and do a monthly tally. We then know if our money saving efforts have worked for the month. If there is a drastic change in the total for the month, my husband looks through the list and sees what happened.

Lists save Money!!

Okay, so my mother was a big list maker. I remember thinking, "Oh God, to be sooo old that you need to make so many lists. I will never do that!!" Well, I am hitting the big 39 this next month but in my book that is not old. I do however, want to save money and that requires good old list making skills.
The most obvious job as a money saving diva that requires a carefully planned list is...yes, shopping. Now, that may sound simple. No I have not reinvented the wheel but looking back on the early years with good old Momma, she always had a list prepared ahead of time and she never bought things not on the list.
First the list needs to be where everyone can see it. We have a list in our kitchen where it is accessible to everyone and when something is running low, like cereal, we write it on the list. This also gives the kids a chance to write down a school supply or other items they might need for school down for me and prevents any late night trips to the store for something they need at school the next day.
Second, the night before I go shopping, not the day of or 20 minutes before but the night before, I sit down with the community shopping list, go through the cupboard and refrigerator, look at my meal ideas for the week and finally I go through the weekly specials that are being run at the different markets. If there is a super deal on ground beef, for example, I make a plan to shop at that particular store and put a recipe on my weekly menu plan that includes the ground beef or make sure we have room enough in the freezer to freeze it. I have a weekly menu set up and that way the things I buy do not just sit in the refrigerator waiting for me to have a creative idea or molding while I try to get one. I get out my nice collection of recipes that the family will eat and plan my meals. No since in buying things and cooking them if they are just not going to eat them. I look at my recipes, look at the available bargains, plan my meals and then put the necessities on the list.
I also try to keep my list in season. That means I am not going to make a strawberry shortcake for desert during a time when strawberries are not in season and cost a fortune. So, my menus are also seasonal. I will post more about my menu ideas another day.
On shopping day, which for me is every Saturday morning, I dress and prepare like a woman heading off to do war. I make sure that I have a complete breakfast because when you shop hungry, you buy things not on the list. I choose one of my five daughters to go with me on the adventure and begin my preshopping briefing with that child. This usually is just a happy reminder that we are not buying anything but what is on the list. They are NOT to ask for anything that is not on the list or they will be banned from shopping for the next month. My husband knows he has childcare duties during my trip and keeps the other monkeys busy during that time. This is super imporant when it comes to saving money. Do not take children, unless you have to, when you are shopping. If you must, then you better give them the pre-war briefing about not buying anything that is not on the list. I find if I can ditch all the kids my shopping experience goes even better. Remember the retailers out there stick all kinds of colorful things that are expensive and totally not necessary on the eye level of your child. I find I also concentrate better and find better deals on the items on my list when I am not distracted by my children. However, I need to also spend quality time with my children so I usually take one with me. My oldest daughter is on shopping prohibition at the moment though because she tends to be very vocal and want things not on the list. It is better not to take her at all.
So, lesson number one. The list is the key. The list is gold. Pre-prepare the list and have a plan with what you want to make with the things you buy on the list. Lists do not make you old, they can five you freedom, save you money and make shopping easy and efficient.
I use lists in other areas of my life as well. But that is a story for another day.
Happy shopping!!

What in the world to do?

Well, we have five girls and a very tight budget. I have got to figure out how to live and hopefully make life enjoyable and rich for my family while playing the money game.
I figure there are probably plenty of other domestic engineers out there that might give me ideas and/or benefit from my ideas and what I am learning along the way.
My daughters are from two different age perspectives. My oldest is a teenager (God help me). My next one is a young child now. Her twins sisters are considered toddlers and then the baby is well, a baby. This means I have to incorporate makeup and diapers into the budget. One wants to look good and the others need to have dry bottoms.
The fact that they are all girls presents another problem. Girls can be very expensive. What will I do when they all want to be in ballet lessions at the same time? We will have to find a way. So, here begins the journal of my girls on a budget journey. Wish us luck!!