Grocery budget — how to budget groceries.

Make your meals both healthy and affordable. Learn how to make a grocery budget that actually works.

Are you tired of eating nothing but ramen at the end of the month? A grocery budget can help you cook healthy, nutritious meals without breaking the bank. Here are some good tips on how to budget for groceries.

Groceries seem to have a way of costing more than you’d think they should. Fortunately, your grocery budget can be realistic and manageable if you plan it out right. Learning how to create a grocery budget may feel daunting, but you can follow these steps to keep it simple:

Step 1. Create a grocery budget spreadsheet.

Creating a grocery budget spreadsheet will be one of the simplest ways to keep track of your spending and help you save. With a spreadsheet, you can easily look at your current spending and identify areas where you tend to splurge or waste food. Once you have your budget, you can adjust it after something like a particularly costly trip.

Step 2. Start by tracking your current grocery budget.

It’s important to know your current spending habits before making a successful grocery budget. Go through your statements and receipts for the past couple of months to see how much you spent on groceries. If you don’t have saved receipts, try keeping them for a month or two before drafting a budget.

Step 3. Compare monthly grocery budget totals.

Once you know how much you’ve spent, compare that number to how much you’d like to spend. If you’re spending more than you’d like, it’s time to reconsider your eating habits. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. You’d be surprised how much money is lost on things like rotten produce. Careful planning will help you save more than you think.

Step 4. Plan your grocery budget purchases.

Break your weekly budget further down into different categories, like vegetables, meat, spices, and so on. Prioritize healthy basic foods over snacks and junk food, though you can still treat yourself on occasion. When planning your purchases, it’s helpful to look at prices online to see how much things will realistically cost.

Consider this when deciding how to budget groceries.

What do you need to keep in mind when choosing how much you’d like to spend on groceries? Here are a few things you’ll want to plan or think about:

• Divide up your budget into chunks according to how regularly you need to shop (for example, creating a weekly budget).

• Set aside money each shopping trip to save up to buy bulk or sale items that store well.

• Your budget will change depending on the size of your family.

• Special dietary needs might increase your necessary budget.

• Remember that hosting guests or big family events will increase your grocery spending.

Tips for how to grocery budget and shop effectively.

Use these tips as you learn how to budget for groceries. They can help keep your spending a little leaner while you still enjoy a variety of meals.

• A weekly meal plan can help you introduce variety to your diet.

• Buy non-perishable foods in bulk.

• Favor store brands over better-known brands.

• For produce, it’s usually cheaper to buy in-season fruits and vegetables.

• If you’re not using foods before they go bad, learn how to preserve them in the freezer.

• Try buying your groceries with an online pick-up order instead of in the store. You might be surprised by how much you save by avoiding impulse purchases.

• Scale back dining out — restaurants are the bane of grocery budgets. You can also create a separate dining-out budget to help.

• You can also work your grocery budget spreadsheet into your household budget template so it’s all in one place.

Bring a grocery budget PDF into the store.

Since you drafted your budget on a spreadsheet, it’s a good idea to convert the spreadsheet to a PDF. You can open PDFs on any smartphone and review your budget in the store. Adobe Acrobat lets you easily convert PDFs, share them with other family members, and view them on any device. Acrobat Reader makes sharing easy with your family members to view and annotate from any device.

Find out other ways to work with PDFs online, then explore everything else you can do with Acrobat.