Utter failure

What's an utter failure?  Me and grocery budgeting.  I've read a fair amount on the tips and tricks of cutting your grocery budget: couponing, sales, buying in bulk, buying seasonally, not buying processed, homecooking, etc.  And it seems no matter how much I try to implement those things, my grocery budget always gets the better of me.  And believe me, I think the budget we've set is more than reasonable for two adults and one infant/toddler.  So where am I going wrong?

Maybe I'm trying to do too much with my budget.  Is it too much to ask to be able to eat healthy food (not low-fat, low-car, but healthy, nutrient-rich, nourish your body food) on a budget?  Some yes.  Some say that if you want to eat good, nourishing food, then you need to be willing to pay for it, that good, nourishing food should actually be a priority in your budget.  I totally see their point.  But we don't necessarily have the resources to be spending all kinds of money on just food.  There are other things this money needs to do: give back to the Lord in the measure He's blessed us, pay down our debt (with the goal of being debt-free), provide for the maintenance of our cars, doctor check-ups, clothing... not to mention that we hope to someday buy this house and afford to inhabit all of it.  So, we have to assign a portion to just food and stay within it.

Others say yes!  Yes, you can!  And I've read their tips and tricks, and not on everything do we agree on the definition of "healthy".  But then again, there are LOTS of opinions on what's healthy and not all of them jive.  Go figure.  We need to find some middle ground and go with it.

I can't fix all of the problems with our grocery budget at once.  This is where I get overwhelmed, break down, and the problem spirals.  So, for the time being, I'm just going to focus on getting organized with the groceries.  What does this mean?  Step 1: Meal planning.

It seems to be a general consensus that if you want to save money, you need to be organized, and the first step is knowing what you're going to be making.  Makes total sense.  If you know what you're going to be serving throughout the week/month, then you'll only need to buy things to fit that and nothing extra (or not too many extras as you're learning).  So, we begin at square one: meal planning.

I've done weekly meal plans, and for the most part they've worked out for me.  But as the trend has become to do a big shopping day once a month (usually when the grocery budget falls into my hands), and then only smaller supplementary trips as needed (for things like milk, eggs, perishables), it makes more sense to start a monthly menu plan.  In-tim-i-dating.  Yes.  We emphasize almost every syllable here.

I'm not great at menu plans.  My problem is coming up with enough ideas.  I often sit and scour cookbooks, websites, and rack my brain for something that sounds interesting and non-repetitive.  I've tried to find good and easy info on menu planning, and the most you might get is a single blog post on what a specific person does or with very vague tips.  I need a step-by-step process here, people.  It has taken me some time to sift through this info and find some things I think might just work for me.

I'm just starting.  In fact, I'm sitting here with pen, paper, outline, and grocery list trying to get started.  I'll update to let you know how it's going.  But if I were to have a resolution for this year, it's to get the grocery budget under control and take some of the stress out of what I'm going to be feeding my family this year.  One step at a time.