Is it just me......Always overbudget

Visiting a 3rd world country took the word "need" out of my vocabulary. I rarely say it anymore.

Hmmm... I now shop at Whole Foods instead of Stop N Shop (Yes, I'm that AHole) and I found that I spend the same amount, if not a little less on groceries than I did at Stop N Shop. For me, I need to plan my meals for the week-- so I only buy what I know I can eat. In addition, I'm not buying things I did with my old dietary habits (soda, chips, ice cream, junk food-- see Wheat Thins, Goldfish).

If you buy anything that resembles junk food -- look how much it costs and how quickly it adds up. It's brutal. Orange juice? Apple Juice? Stuff is so expensive. I gave it all up and just drink water (with the exception of tea a few times a week).

While Whole Foods is not cheap (even though I don't buy the organic stuff), I find that their produce and meats taste much better. If you eat healthy and focus in the necessities, your grocery bills will see a drastic change.

Tip: Go to the store with a list and do not go hungry!

I agree about Whole Foods for the most part. Good stuff.

Does anyone have any advice for cutting grocery budgets in Canada? As I said, I'm in grad school (so no car and I'm limited to two grocery stores and a farmer's market within walking distance) and have basically cut out meat from my diet other than 1 whole roast chicken I roast on Sundays which I use for the school week.

I live in a diverse area, the ethnic grocery stores are fabulous & reasonable for produce. I can go in to the little Spanish store and spend less than 30$ for all our produce for the week. And my kids eat a lot of fruit! I eat tons of veggies.

For my dairy I shop at a store called Aldi's. It only stocks their own brands. But it's so cheap. I can get a gallon of milk for 1.99 vs 5.00 at my favorite grocery store. My Greek yogurt is .70 cents vs 1.25.

These two stores are hidden gems. Many folks in my neighborhood have no idea where they're at or have never heard of them. I suggest doing a search for the small stores in your area. It might be worth calling in a favor from a friend to drive you or a bus ride.

This is all basic budgeting 101, so I dunno if it's redundant, but since it really helped our family was to first figure out where the money was going as exactly as we could (yeah, basic, I know ) I saved every. single. receipt for 6 months and spent about 5-10 minutes a day by the computer entering it in to an excel spreadsheet.

While doing this, I went through our bank statements for the year before to see how much we were paying for the big, reaccuring expenses. Gas, Electricity, mortgage/rent, etc and figured out a monthly average. (added the yearly cost together and divided by 12. simples.) We were always "surprised" or unprepared by the electricity bill in January for example, or the school fees took a big chunk in September.
For things that are not "bills", I still use this principle. I put aside the monthly average amount for the kids' clothes or school uniforms or car repairs.
When I got a few numbers in from our receipts and by going over the online statements on our bank, sorting them by store, I looked at things like car repairs, petrol costs, food, gifts, etc and did the same calculation for those.

When I'd figured out the monthly averages I sat down to make a budget.

I take the monthly average and round it up. Then I budget to put away that amount to a special joint account every month. So even if we don't get an electricity bill one month, because they are quarterly, I put away the money for it. If the income vs outcome didn't add up, we looked where we could cut stuff out. Cable, shopping round for cheaper internet etc.
It's a nice feeling to be able to know that the money is there for almost all expenses.
Having money put away for clothes made it possible to take advantage of sales in a whole different way, or go to outlets and stock up.

On top of this we have an "emergency fund". I looked a year back on our unexpected costs, thought about what could possible break and what it would take to replace them, made an average and put that into our emergency fund. It might not cover it all, but it was a relief to at least be able to have half the money when the fridge broke.

Also, savings goes first.

Food and clothes are budgeted amounts. So are "fun stuff". I have a set, quite small, amount budgeted for gifts for kids' birthday parties and try to find things on sale that we keep in a basket. (things like colouring books, popular novels, teddies (just found brand new Brown Thomas teddies for €0.5 at a thrift shop for example 0.o) )
If I manage to spend less than the budgeted amount for food and clothes, it goes into a jar or in the savings account. If we haven't needed it for 6 months or a year or so, it goes to a holiday fund or we do something fun with the family.

I try to never say to my kids that we can't afford something, even if it's true, it's just not in the budget but we can look it over.

My husband calls me the budget fascist, lol, but he's not complaining about the consequences from it

Just went back and read through alllll the posts. I see work shoes. Ok. My best pair of shoes were around $80. They are Danskos. Those are what a lot of nurses wear. You don't get much better than that for being on your feet all day and they have lasted me 5 years and are still hanging in there.

I can't believe the shoe argument went on so long. The point is not the shoes. The point is deciding one's priorities. If you want or need to spend a lot of money on shoes, that's not an issue. That just means something else must take a lower priority. We all get to choose what's most important to us. There isn't one right way to set up your budget. Some people prefer to cut out whole categories of spending, while others do better cutting a little away in each category. As long as the math works and you can live with it, that's fine.

I can't believe the shoe argument went on so long. The point is not the shoes. The point is deciding one's priorities. If you want or need to spend a lot of money on shoes, that's not an issue. That just means something else must take a lower priority. We all get to choose what's most important to us. There isn't one right way to set up your budget. Some people prefer to cut out whole categories of spending, while others do better cutting a little away in each category. As long as the math works and you can live with it, that's fine.

There was no point to this thread except to start a fight and get the community into an uproar, which in deed happened. The OP taunted, laughed and then bumped to start fighting the next day. We played along, we are the ones that were played.

But, after saying that, I hope that there are lots of people, that after reading some of the comments and ideas in this thread, have made the decision to make better financial decisions.

Yer shos are way too ecspensive