inev doesn't know how to grocery shop.

[theinevitable]

hm.

so at the end of last month, I looked at my finances and thought I had done pretty well. Saved some money, even though my girlfriend's birthday and our anniversary both happened over the course of the month. However, I thought the number under "food" on my spreadsheet was WAY too high. So I made up a little budget for myself, where I withdraw a certain amount of money on the day I deposit my paycheck, and that is my grocery money until my next paycheck. I started this last thursday, when I deposited my first 2 paychecks for October.
I thought this was brilliant until I started spending that money on other things (it feels stupid to pay for 1 beer with a card when you have a 5 dollar bill in your pocket, etc). At the end of week 1 (yesterday), I had 3/8 of my weekly budget left! score!
...and then today I got my paycheck, withdrew my "budget," and spent the entire dang wad on one trip to the grocery store. I thought I was shopping thriftily, but I am one of those customers I judge, who doesn't add up how much they have so far in their heads and then acts all surprised when they see the total.

I just thought that by avoiding meat, buying things that are on sale, etc. I was saving a lot more than I actually was.

I think I liked it better last week, when I never actually made a trip to the grocery store. I knew that I had x$ a day for food, and since I work at a grocery store, I'd buy what I needed for that night's meal when I was leaving work. I have lots of staple stuff at home, so I'd say something like "OK, I have pasta at home, and spices, and parmesan. I'm going to buy some sauce and sausage when I get off." But people (parents, my thrifty friend who I told I do this) said this is a bad idea, because I do not have any sort of overall plan and just buy whatever I'm craving.

I think I am happy with my food budget... but how do you guys budget for "fun" stuff? My plan so far, of "as little as possible," is not working. I think I need a concrete number so that I can say "alright, I want to get pizza tonight, but I only have 5$ left in the fun jar. I'll wait until next week."

Yeah, I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this. It doesn't help that, somehow, I definitely have cheap enough tastes that I can probably just buy what I want and be fine. But I feel like I should be saving money? I'm worried about the winter, when my gas bills will quintuple.

[Nabubrush]

I just wait until the numbers are all fucked up and then I shout at my wife.

[Choop]

the trick is to plan your menus, not just your expenses. that way you can buy a steak or two if there's a good price and use what's left from steak night in a chili or taco situation a couple nights later.

[pmcd9]

What I try to accomplish, but rarely succeed with is to buy all of my groceries up front so there will still be food around when the money runs out.  I wind up eating out too much and spending more than I would like, but I do try to shop when the money comes in for times when the money is gone.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Oh cool, Dan wants life tips again. Well we got you all dressed up and now you want to go and buy some food? Heres how this works on my end: Sunday morning after I've had my breakfast I  plan what Im going to eat until next sunday's breakfast. You have your daily budget, right? So thats the maximum youre looking to spend. You've worked at/been to a grocery store so you know what food costs. So now your job is to fill in the meals for that week at the lowest possible cost. I'm a nerd so I use a project budget sheet from work that calculates the grocery list and spits out the gross profit (the amount I came in under my budgeted food cost). Then when youre at the grocery store you know exactly what you want to buy and most youre willing to pay for it. When I come home, I punch in what I actually paid and know how much money I have left over. That money gets put back into my operating budget.

The thing moms do where they buy a metric ton of food, cause it was on sale or something, that thinking kills your cash flow and confuses me to no end. You look at a freezer filled to the door with frozen food and that might as well be frozen unusable money. That thinking results in one actually investing in frozen food as if it was some commodity that will rise in price and provide a greater return if you hold on to it longer.

I TAKE MONEY TOO SERIOUSLY. DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT.


But the result is efficient trips to the grocery store and more money saved for blow and hookers and rising gas prices.

[Nabubrush]

I may have mentioned this, but canned goods do not last forever.

Definitely plan your week (or whatever) of meals ahead of time. Buy things that you actually have to cook. You might not want to make it the giant strategy game that A-c does, but whatever.

Also, A-c? Your sig is screwed up.

[wombat]

Question: Do you get an employee discount on groceries?

[Arachno-capitalist]

Also, A-c? Your sig is screwed up.

Well excuse me Mr.Perfection, I'll get right on that. I bet you even tell people when their fly is down, all hoighty-toighty and such as waving your hips so to show off your sealed and closed fly, because you remembered to pull up your fly, but that idiot can't even keep his clothes together. Pfft. I see right through you and your bullshit nabubush. I see right through your flaming contemptible ziggurat of bullshit.

[jay-ell]

The thing moms do where they buy a metric ton of food, cause it was on sale or something, that thinking kills your cash flow and confuses me to no end. You look at a freezer filled to the door with frozen food and that might as well be frozen unusable money. That thinking results in one actually investing in frozen food as if it was some commodity that will rise in price and provide a greater return if you hold on to it longer.

I buy very large packages of meat (to freeze) and nonperishables (rice, canned goods) at BJ's at the beginning of each month because it's considerably cheaper (about 25 - 30%) and because, as Paul says, that's when the money's there, so I know that if we run out of cash at least we won't starve.

But I plan the whole month's meals on the first, when I pay the bills. Pedro gets paid monthly, so it makes sense to pay the bills and set the grocery budget as soon as the check comes in. I buy the meat and any pasta, rice, etc. I need for the month in one huge grocery run, which I get to make without the kids in tow, and then we just restock perishables like milk, fresh veggies, fruits, and yogurt on an as-needed basis throughout the month. It's partly about money and partly about time -- I don't mind spending 2 hours at a warehouse club if it means I don't have to go to the grocery store again for another thirty days. (Pedro usually does the in-between milk-and-bread runs.)

I just wait until the numbers are all fucked up and then I shout at my wife.

Honestly, Inev, just do whatever you want for now, and marry your girlfriend. From everything you've told us about her, I'm absolutely certain that she will have A Handle on the System and you won't have to worry about it any more.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Yeah my cash flow argument hasn't been successful in convincing any moms. Other single people who like the idea of having more money more often have been won over to the just-in-time food inventory scheme, but so far no moms. If you can really get away with only grocery shopping that one time a month, and not one big purchase every month and then add subsequent weekly trips for whatever, then the time savings are probably worth it to a mom. 

[wombat]

The Tech Staff and I have never planned a week of meals in our lives. Sometimes we plan a day or two ahead. Sometimes we try to plan more than that, but we almost always screw it up, so we usually don't bother. Lots of times, like today, we have no idea what we're going to eat before dinnertime arrives.

I am not recommending this, necessarily, but just to say, you can do this and still be a productive adult member of society. And there is something to be said for not having a plan and buying what you are craving, which is that if you buy what you know you want when you want it, you know for sure you will not waste the money, it will get eaten. Whereas when we plan too far in advance we often end up throwing stuff away.

So, if it's working for you, who cares what your parents and your thrifty friend think? When I mention that we don't plan in advance and sometimes I go to the store several days in a row, people often practically pass out exclaiming about how much time that must waste. But for us, it doesn't feel like it takes nearly as much time as figuring it out in advance and doing one massive shopping trip.  And you work in a grocery store so you don't even have to make a special trip.

[AugustWest]

The Tech Staff and I have never planned a week of meals in our lives. Sometimes we plan a day or two ahead. Sometimes we try to plan more than that, but we almost always screw it up, so we usually don't bother. Lots of times, like today, we have no idea what we're going to eat before dinnertime arrives.

I am not recommending this, necessarily, but just to say, you can do this and still be a productive adult member of society. And there is something to be said for not having a plan and buying what you are craving, which is that if you buy what you know you want when you want it, you know for sure you will not waste the money, it will get eaten. Whereas when we plan too far in advance we often end up throwing stuff away.

So, if it's working for you, who cares what your parents and your thrifty friend think? When I mention that we don't plan in advance and sometimes I go to the store several days in a row, people often practically pass out exclaiming about how much time that must waste. But for us, it doesn't feel like it takes nearly as much time as figuring it out in advance and doing one massive shopping trip.  And you work in a grocery store so you don't even have to make a special trip.

I'm so glad you said this so I didn't have to.

The Tech Staff and I have never planned a week of meals in our lives. Sometimes we plan a day or two ahead. Sometimes we try to plan more than that, but we almost always screw it up, so we usually don't bother. Lots of times, like today, we have no idea what we're going to eat before dinnertime arrives.

I'm quoting this part again because it's so true of us too.

But A-C, your post made me think.  You have an interesting mindset.  Two question for you:  A) Is money the only valid scorecard? and B) Why keep score at all?

[jay-ell]

Yeah my cash flow argument hasn't been successful in convincing any moms. Other single people who like the idea of having more money more often have been won over to the just-in-time food inventory scheme, but so far no moms. If you can really get away with only grocery shopping that one time a month, and not one big purchase every month and then add subsequent weekly trips for whatever, then the time savings are probably worth it to a mom. 

But if you only get paid once a month, how does shopping more often mean having more money? It doesn't matter if I spend $400 at once or $100 per week, no more money is coming in until the end of the month. Having it sitting in the bank is no better than having food sitting in my freezer - in fact, it's worse, because if it's in the bank I am likely to spend it on things that aren't food.

[Nabubrush]

Well excuse me Mr.Perfection, I'll get right on that. I bet you even tell people when their fly is down, all hoighty-toighty and such as waving your hips so to show off your sealed and closed fly, because you remembered to pull up your fly, but that idiot can't even keep his clothes together. Pfft. I see right through you and your bullshit nabubush. I see right through your flaming contemptible ziggurat of bullshit.

Okey-dokey.

[wombat]

ACap is surely going to say that 100 dollars in the bank is earning interest while 100 dollars of food is just getting freezer-burnt.

For my part, I hope I am never again so poor that I have to spend as much time thinking about money as ACap does but, hey, whatever floats your boat. There is no right way to shop for groceries.