How to shop smarter with a grocery budget

Woman in a grocery comparing prices of different olive oil bottles

Bigger families may spend more on groceries, but they can also buy in bulk to lower per-person costs

(Image credit: alvaro gonzalez / Getty Images)

Grocery shopping is an unavoidable line in your budget. But that does not mean you have to allocate as much of your budget to your weekly food shop as you currently are, especially if you are hoping to trim back to tackle other financial priorities, whether it be paying down high-interest debt or bumping up your retirement account contributions.

A stricter budget at the grocery store does not have to mean a menu of bland meals, either. Rather, like with any area of spending, it is about putting a bit more thought into your expenditures and getting strategic and savvy, as opposed to pushing your cart down the aisles on autopilot.

Understand your current spending habits

If you want to make a change, it first helps to gain an understanding of what your existing habits look like. “You need to know how much you’re spending to begin with before you even start reining it in,” said Beth Moncel of the blog Budget Bytes to The New York Times.

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While paying closer attention to the total cost of one week’s worth of groceries can be a start, you’ll get a more complete and accurate picture if you analyze a wider window. “Start by opening up your bank account,” and “go through your spending history and add up how much you spent on groceries each month for the last several months,” said Ramsey Solutions, a personal finance blog. You can then “use the monthly average as your baseline grocery budget amount.”

Give yourself a reasonable spending target

Once you know how much you currently spend, get realistic about how much you could actually get by with spending. “Knowing what factors influence your grocery budget can help you make more informed decisions,” said NerdWallet. For instance, it is key to take into consideration the size of your household, as “larger families tend to spend more on groceries each month” — though they also “can take advantage of buying in bulk to lower per-person costs.” Your location also makes a big difference in what size of budget will make sense, given that “prices and product selection can vary widely by ZIP code.”

Let your pantry guide your meal planning

Using what you already have can go a long way toward saving at the store — not to mention cutting down on food waste. Maybe on a quick sweep it does not seem like you have anything to eat, but most likely, you have at least some ingredients that could play a part in other meals; if you take your pantry items into account, you can lower the total amount you have to shell out on your next grocery store trip.

Consider carving out a time to keep a running list of items you have on hand, then meal plan around those. There are even some “online recipe blogs or sites that offer recipe ideas based off a few ingredients you input,” said Ramsey Solutions, which makes the brainstorming process that much easier.

Becca Stanek has worked as an editor and writer in the personal finance space since 2017. She previously served as a deputy editor and later a managing editor overseeing investing and savings content at LendingTree and as an editor at the financial startup SmartAsset, where she focused on retirement- and financial-adviser-related content. Before that, Becca was a staff writer at The Week, primarily contributing to Speed Reads.