YNAB You Need A Budget

[WairereRose]

I used to, but the micro-splitting was just too much work and I kept getting behind on my entry work.

[MALMomma]

This is working out SO well for me. I have adjusted some of my category budgets to better reflect the spending I did for the month (after all, this is a learning month, figuring out where the dollars need to be assigned.)

Newest totals, as of yesterday:

Deli: $11.32 / $20.00 (decreased from $60/mo)
Dairy/OJ: $62.02 / $100.00
Produce: $51.92 / $100.00
Meat: $31.33 / $45.00 (increased from $40/mo)
Dog Food: $0.00 / $35.00 (decreased from $40/mo)
Investing: $97.84 / $100.00 (increased from $60/mo)

TOTALS: $267.07 / $400.00
REMAINING: $132.93

I need to go to BJ's today for milk, bananas and dog food, but should still be under budget over all. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am with this budgeting the budget!! Might not work for everyone, but it sure as heck is working well for me!

[Nutmegan]

My grocery budget is food only -- the worst place to buy cleaning supplies, h&B, and anything other than food is the grocery store (unless it's something like a Super Walmart).

H&B and cleaning/laundry products are budgeted in the Miscellaneous Category

Eating out comes from the Entertainment budget.

I've not tried the Grocery Game, but I use EMealz and LOVE IT! You only buy food that's on sale (and hopefully match it with coupons) and get 7 very simple and delicious recipes to go with it. I give it high A's!

[MALMomma]

the worst place to buy cleaning supplies, h&B, and anything other than food is the grocery store (unless it's something like a Super Walmart).

I'll have to respectfully disagree. 99% of the time, the BEST deals are at the food store. For health & beauty, then your national drug store is the best place. You just have to know how to play the game and once you do, you save money hand over fist. In my personal opinion (which is based on actual price comparisons done), Wal-Mart is one of the worst places to shop. Grocery stores with sales & coupons consistently beat that blue box store's "low" prices constantly throughout the country.

Anyhoo, that's not what this thread is about, so I'll turn my thread back to its original purpose - inquiring whether anyone else budgets their grocery's budget.

[CoderMom]

My plan of dividing the grocery money by week and keeping the rest in a hidden grocery buffer is working pretty well but we had a hiccup.

My husband has RA and we haven't hit the right med combo yet so he goes between very hungry (when on higher prenesone) to almost no appetite at other times. Also his desire for certain kinds of foods changes frequently and old favs are now gross. I know it is the med's fault but it can be a budget buster. Do any of u have a similiar issue and how do u handle it?

[dvandie]

I am new to YNAB forum, but finding this board is close to my heart. I have read through several posts, and I would like to share some resources that I found. I used Meals-4-Moms (website) for nearly 3 years. They have several different dinner menus to chose from (for a subscription cost of $5 per month). You can choose from the Busy Mom menu or the Frugal Mom Menu, among others. I subscribed to the Frugal Mom. For my $5 a month, I received a dinner menu and recipes for 5 dinners each week and a detailed grocery list with all the necessary ingredients. I am like some of you and like to cook, but don't have the time to plan out menus, find recipes, and develop a grocery list. This service did it for me. The amazing thing was the dinner menu cost at the grocery store were never above $80 per week for a family of 6.
I recently stopped using Meals-4-Moms, not because I was dissatisfied, but because my kids are leaving the nest and I don't need to cook for so many. I am now using another similar service called E-Mealz (website) and it also has many different menus to choose from, including menus for families and for just 2 people. The subscription price is also $5 per month and with this service I get 7 nights of dinners per week with recipes and a grocery list. I have only used this service for 2 weeks so I can't give accurate cost of groceries yet.
Well worth the money. I just add the $5 to my monthly grocery budget.

[Old Blue]

I am now using another similar service called E-Mealz (website) and it also has many different menus to choose from, including menus for families and for just 2 people. The subscription price is also $5 per month and with this service I get 7 nights of dinners per week with recipes and a grocery list. I have only used this service for 2 weeks so I can't give accurate cost of groceries yet.
Well worth the money. I just add the $5 to my monthly grocery budget.

I'll have to give it a look - Aloha & Mahalos

[WairereRose]

Looks interesting, but I just checked the sample menu and like other recipe ideas from the States, I have no idea what some of the ingredients even are.

Crescent rolls? Sounds like bread - but you need 1 can of them. Surely you don't buy bread in a can?

[malisab]

Looks interesting, but I just checked the sample menu and like other recipe ideas from the States, I have no idea what some of the ingredients even are.

Crescent rolls? Sounds like bread - but you need 1 can of them. Surely you don't buy bread in a can?

Refridgerated bread dough that's flat triangle shaped and sold rolled up and in a can (of sorts...more like a tube with metal ends) . They're sold in a sheet, two right triangles making a rectangle. To make them, you separate the triangles and roll them up individually to make pseudo-croissants.
ETA: http://www.pillsbury.com/products/rolls ... scents.htm

[medicechic]

I have my food budget split into groceries/restaurants/work food. I'm trying to menu plan and shop weekly.

Groceries are self explanatory. I've been including cleaning supplies/paper goods, but shampoo if bought separately goes in toiletries. I haven't been splitting up transactions in YNAB, so it's easier to leave it together.

Restaurants is any time we go out to eat, whether it is my SO and I together for B/L/D or just me running and getting fast food while I'm out and about during the day. I include stopping at the store and buying a pop or whatever in this category because it's not necessary.

Work food is anything (including those pops) that I buy on days when I'm at work. I do this because if I planned better I could be bringing this stuff from home! Because of the nature of my job, occasionally you're so desperate to eat, it's just easier to grab something on the go and scarf it down, so this won't ever be 0.

I also started a price list of sorts in an Open Office spreadsheet. I haven't figured out yet how to categorize (Meat, dairy, produce etc.) purchases and keep them and their prices in the right spot. I did figure out how to get it to list everything alphabetically. First column is items. Each column after that has a store at the top, then date, then prices. I've already realized one day I bought vidalia onions for 1.85/lb and another for 0.99/lb (almost half the price!). I had read about price books in a lot of places, but thought it would be too much work. Now I wish I knew how much per pound the whole chickens I've bought were since it doesn't say on my receipt (just shows total price) and these were purchases in the last month! I also haven't included any coupons that I used either. Most of them are listed at the end when they scanned them, and I don't remember what goes where. I'm hoping this will help with the menu planning on weeks when I don't have a lot to spend.

-E

[WairereRose]

Looks interesting, but I just checked the sample menu and like other recipe ideas from the States, I have no idea what some of the ingredients even are.

Crescent rolls? Sounds like bread - but you need 1 can of them. Surely you don't buy bread in a can?

Refridgerated bread dough that's flat triangle shaped and sold rolled up and in a can (of sorts...more like a tube with metal ends) . They're sold in a sheet, two right triangles making a rectangle. To make them, you separate the triangles and roll them up individually to make pseudo-croissants.
ETA: http://www.pillsbury.com/products/rolls ... scents.htm

Thank you SO much for the picture. Bread in a can... Now *surely* I've seen everything.

[jjsouth]

Looks interesting, but I just checked the sample menu and like other recipe ideas from the States, I have no idea what some of the ingredients even are.

Crescent rolls? Sounds like bread - but you need 1 can of them. Surely you don't buy bread in a can?

Haha! Last year I came across canned butter and canned cheese. Imported from New Zealand. Totally freaky to us here in the US. But they are wonderful and I really enjoy having butter in my pantry when I don't have fresh.

Joyce

[WairereRose]

That's totally freaky to me here in NZ too. I've never seen either in a can here. Our butter comes wrapped in paper, or some of the 'posher' brands in a foil/paper combo, and cheese in plastic or the specialty ones in foil/paper combo again.

Maybe it's to preserve it when it's not refrigerated, or something special for export, as we generally keep it in either fridge or freezer (freezer for store, fridge for use)

[jjsouth]

Ha. Too funny.

Here's the link telling about the butter.

http://www.internet-grocer.net/butter.htm

At least it says it's from NZ....

Joyce

[ginger]

Rose, how about this new product: a sandwich in a can called Candwich.

http://markonefoods.com/product.html

The news report I saw about it said it will keep for a year unopened.