YNAB You Need A Budget

[posturally]

Thanks for your response. One question, though--- You said:

There are two relevant budget questions for someone who is particular about buying organic foods. First, how much of a price premium will you pay for insisting on organic? Second, is this something that is a priority for you and can fit in your budget? The second question is really the key question, but it can't be answered until after you know the answer to the first question.

You then talked about the 1st question - about the price premium and what it's worth to me, but you didn't elaborate on the 2nd question. What is the 2nd question?

Thanks.

[chrish]

Second, is this something that is a priority for you and can fit in your budget?

With your fixed amount of $s to allocate for a month, will you allocate enough for organic food or do you need it for something more important? For example, if you have $20 and you need food and a hair cut, you could get store brand rice and a nice haircut OR organic food and get a friend who always wanted to try cutting hair to give you a trim.

[Patzer]

Second, is this something that is a priority for you and can fit in your budget?

With your fixed amount of $s to allocate for a month, will you allocate enough for organic food or do you need it for something more important? For example, if you have $20 and you need food and a hair cut, you could get store brand rice and a nice haircut OR organic food and get a friend who always wanted to try cutting hair to give you a trim.

Thanks, Chris. That's a better and more concise explanation than the one I lost to hyperspace.

Patzer

[skippy]

My budget is $180 per week for two adults and two teenage daughters, including pet food and health & beauty aids. I often go over to the $200 range.

I have used TheGroceryGame in the past, but my lists stores would have required me to shop on Sunday through Tuesday. My schedule limits shopping during the week, and although I have done it twice for extended periods of time, I am not willing to shop every Sunday. That said, I monitor the GG forum regularly and use that for cost savings in all areas. I also use TheCouponMom for a guideline in making my weekly list. Use of coupons, the weekly ads, and going to a couple of different stores has also helped alot.

I am always looking for ways to cut this down. My local newspaper has limited coupons and no store doubles here so I have been unable to get as low as many others have done.

Interesting, here is what the USDA says is the weekly/monthly average cost per person in 2009 based upon age. I fall in the low cost to under the moderate range. While I will continue to try to reduce my spending in this category, using these numbers just helped me stop chastising myself for my budget. This link might provide some interesting information.

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2009/CostofFoodJan09.pdf

[chrish]

Thanks, Chris. That's a better and more concise explanation than the one I lost to hyperspace.

That question is the real fundamental question to budgeting! I've been learning recently that it is hard enough for me to come up with my own priorities, but getting my wife to express her priorities and then coming up with our joint priorities is quite tough. I've had to come up with plenty of these types of questions, though the real tough ones are the ones with emotion attached to them! Flying to see family vs paying off debt isn't really a fun one to choose a priority on.

[posturally]

To everyone who posted a reply,
Thanks so much. This thread is very helpful already. I am off to set up YNAB!

Thanks again,
Anne

[sophieharvey]

Hi everybody,

I'm french-canadian (Quebec), and I must admit that I'm really confused here. If I read all the posts, it seems that most of the peoples spend an average of 150$ per month per person, while here in canada, I budget 1200$ for 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) and I almost overspend it each month. I know that my husband and I have a big problem in planning our menu, which I think would help us a lot, but the gap with you guys is so huge. Is it because the food in USA is cheaper than here in Canada? Please tell me yes.

Is there any Canadian in this forum to give me some feeds back?

Thanks in advance,

Sophie

P.s. I hope my english is not too bad. I'm french.

[DaveCrom01]

Hello Sophie.

My nearest town is North Bay, Ontario - to give you a point of comparison.

The three of us (2 adults, and a 17 year old), budget approximately $425 per month for groceries. That includes all food, but not cleaning supplies like laundry soap, dish soap, etc.

By the end of 2009, we ended up within a few dollars of that figure (I carry overspends over to the next month and keep them in the grocery category in YNAB). So we did actually manage that over a full 12 months.

Cheers,
Dave

p.s (Just in case you've already seen my thread on growing your own vegetables, I do grow a lot of vegetables, and hunt a lot of venison, fish etc in season. However, I keep a separate cost record for all that stuff - the number above is still good to work from as a true comparison)

[crane]

Phew, I thought it was just me. I don't see how anyone could eat on so little! I'm outside the Ottawa area. I'm trying to keep the food/toiletries (includes cleaning supplies, laundry stuff, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, paper towel, etc.) to $450/month, but it's been up to $550, and that two people, with no dietary restrictions. I tend to buy my meat on sale, or at Costco, to get better prices. Fresh fruits/veggies, store-bought bread, etc., but we avoid the overly prepared stuff (e.g., I'm not paying $10 for pre-cooked roast that I can heat in the microwave ).

[DaveCrom01]

Hi there.

I think one of the problems with Rule 4 (which is now solved in YNAB 3, yay!) was the issue of carrying overspends over but keeping them in the same category.

One way we kept costs down, was to bulk buy when things were on sale. So, we would track prices using e-mail flyers, and when we saw a great deal on, say, dish soap - or coffee - we would go and buy 6 months supply. Now obviously, it meant that we would blow the budget that month. But what we had done of course was "lock in" that price for that period of time - almost like the store has a permanent sale for that item. Over the next 6 months, the over-spend is regressed back to the norm.

So, our spend of approximately $150 CAD per person per month on groceries still means we aren't surviving on Lima beans and pasta - we actually found we eat better, more healthily, and with more variety than many none-budgeting people. We also only shop once per week now.

Menu planning is the key - as well as having a bit of basic knowledge of how to combine and pre-prepare in bulk some key ingredients to form bases to multiple dishes. Somewhere on this thread I explained how professional Chefs I've worked with manage to do it. Try to think of the family meal planner as a Chef would think of a weekly menu. We all do it at Christmas, with turkey going into sandwiches then finally into a soup - but that same principal can be applied to so many things week in and week out.

It sounds time consuming, but in actuality it saves time, and money.

Cheers,
Dave

[WairereRose]

I'm in New Zealand and also couldn't understand how the costs could be so low. But somehow I'm managing about the same now. I think it's focus that makes the difference.

[floridachameleon]

We are a family of four people, three cats and 1 (soon to be 2 again at the end of the month) dogs. We allot $800 in the budget each month to grocery store purchases. For me, that includes dog food, cleaning supplies, etc. We do not typically spend it all, and occasssionall if it builds up I will skip a week of funding that envelope. Other times we'll just use the extra to go out to dinner. Though we already spend probably $300/mo. on restaurants. We could probably cut the grocery bill a lot lower if I would just give up and admit that I have no interest or intention of cooking dinner.

[MyMoneyMyWay]

My wife and I became empty nesters on 1/3/2010 and let me tell you that since that time everything has gotten cheaper. I didn't think one teenager could have such an impact on eating out, power use, gas for the car, car insurance, etc. What a savings! It's like getting a bonus at the beginning of the month.

We average just over $1000 a month for groceries, supplies and eating out since starting YNAB in 2008. We have eat'n out once since our son left. The temptation to eat out has lessoned dramatically and when we did eat out it cost us $6.83 as opposed to $24.00. We have since reduced our budget for this in half.

We don't see any reason not to be able to stay on budget. I'll keep you posted.

[YYC27]

Hi everybody,

I'm french-canadian (Quebec), and I must admit that I'm really confused here. If I read all the posts, it seems that most of the peoples spend an average of 150$ per month per person, while here in canada, I budget 1200$ for 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) and I almost overspend it each month. I know that my husband and I have a big problem in planning our menu, which I think would help us a lot, but the gap with you guys is so huge. Is it because the food in USA is cheaper than here in Canada? Please tell me yes.

Is there any Canadian in this forum to give me some feeds back?

Thanks in advance,

Sophie

P.s. I hope my english is not too bad. I'm french.

I'm in Alberta, and my budget amount for myself is $200/month, but I've found myself well under that for the last couple months. I only include food in that amount, though. Toiletries, cleaning supplies, pet food, etc., are budgeted separately.

I use The Grocery Game to find good times to stock up on stuff when it's on sale & when there's a coupon (we don't get nearly as many coupons as our neighbours to the south, but there are still some to be found). I also try and avoid buying processed food as much as possible.

[PatM]

My wife and I spend about 500.00 per month on food. This includes non edible items. Since getting YNAB a week or so ago I have taken out non edibles from the grocery category. We used to spend well over $200.00 per month eating out but in our new budget we have earmarked $200.00 per month. Hopefully we can meet that budget goal.

So far I am pumped with this new budgeting program.

Pat