Following a Grocery Budget

EVERY good couponer has a budget.  Every budget is different.  There's no "magic number" that you must follow or rule of thumb that works for every family.  My family only consists of my husband and me.  I usually try to spend no more than $50/week.  This includes pretty much everything: food, toiletries, dog food and drug store deals.  If I spend less than $50 one week, than the next week I will add that extra "unused" money to the next week's budget.  I'm currently trying to build my stock pile so that eventually it can be less than that.  I do have a separate $50/monthly "stock up budget" that I use as a cushion for things that I have an abundance of but will buy in bulk when sales are good.  I did this because I found that even though the stock up items cost next to nothing it was eating up my weekly food budget.  If you buy paper towels for $2 a package - that's a good price.  If you buy 15 of them to stock up on it adds up to $30, leaving only $20 for actual food and other necessary items on your list. 

This is how I do my weekly grocery budget:

1.  ALWAYS use cash - I do the envelope system (Dave Ramsey Style).  But I take out $50 every Sunday instead of monthly or on pay day.  Sunday is when my budget starts every wk and ends on the following Saturday.  I like Sundays bc this is when a lot of the drug store and non-grocery store ads start over and its important to get things ASAP before they are out.  It also helps when you can physically see how much $ you have left to spend for the week.

2.  I save all my receipts in my monthly grocery budget envelope.  This is also good since you have all your receipts for future mail in rebates you may not know about when you purchase an item. I separate the weeks by paper clipping my receipts and attaching a post it note with the appropriate info.  Week #, $ spent thus far, and $ left to date.  (SEE PIC ABOVE)

3.  I have a 4x6 index card with my overall monthly budget at the top and the weekly totals

4.  I keep my budget envelopes (both grocery and stock up) in my coupon binder.  I never have to guess how much $ I have left over or what I have already bought.