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Do you want to save more money on groceries and spend less money eating out? In this post, I’m sharing how to create a frugal grocery budget for 2 people.
If you feel like you spend way too much money on food, you are not alone. One of the struggles I hear about most is from people who want to spend less on groceries.
And I’ve been there, too! At the beginning of this year, I committed myself to a $75 per week grocery budget for the 2 of us.
This challenge has helped me spend less on groceries, eat at home more, and have more money left over after grocery hauls.
(I’ve been sharing my grocery shopping trips on Instagram to keep myself accountable!)
If you want to spend less on groceries, and want help creating a grocery budget for 2 (or whatever your family size), I’ve got some great action tips for you!
How to Create a Frugal Grocery Budget for 2
I want to start by saying our $75 grocery budget for 2 won’t work for everyone. There are many people who spend a lot less than this for 2 people, and many who will need or prefer to spend a little more.
The point is to find a grocery budget that works for you and that helps you spend less money on groceries.
I’ll give you some great tips to create your frugal grocery budget, and then show you what our meal plan and grocery hauls look like.
Creating a Grocery Budget:
First, you will want to create your grocery budget that works for you.
To do this, create a simple budget starting with your bring home monthly pay and start deducting your expenses. Start with your fixed expenses like bills, mortgage or rent, and any other bills you have to pay that are the same amount each month.
Then, start budgeting the expenses that can vary based on how much money you have left after fixed expenses. These will be things like your grocery budget, your budget for eating out, entertainment, and other things that you normally spend money on.
Groceries are one of the few categories in your budget that you can reduce. Look at your previous month’s bank statement and see how much you spent on groceries. Aim to spend just a little less this month.
Try to spend just $20 or $50 less than you did last month to start out. You can keep reducing this over time until you find a great grocery budget for 2 that you are comfortable and pleased with.
Weekly or Monthly Grocery Budget?
You may be wondering if you should set up a weekly or monthly grocery budget.
This is totally up to you. I personally prefer a weekly grocery budget, since I shop just once a week and find it’s much easier to keep up with than tracking each shopping trip for the month.
It might make sense for you to make a monthly grocery budget, then divide it into weeks to see how much you should spend each week.
You can grab this free grocery budget tracker to keep track of your grocery trips.
Budget for Groceries & Eating Out Budget
If you like to eat out, you need to budget for it. When you think ahead and allow part of your budget for eating out, you will be able to enjoy a meal out without feeling like you are wrecking your budget.
This can be a monthly allowance or a weekly allowance. It might be helpful to have a planned night to eat out each week, or every other week.
Your eating out budget can be a separate budget category than your groceries to keep up with this easier.
How to Spend Less on Groceries:
I have tons of tips on how to spend less on groceries, but there are just a few major ones I want to highlight here.
1. Make a meal plan.
The number one thing you need to do to spend less on groceries is to make a meal plan for the week.
I highly suggest having a list of your favorite meals to help you think of dinners to make.
Look in your freezer, fridge, and pantry to see what foods you already have to make meals with. Add those meals to your meal plan first, then add in meals from your favorite meals list.
2. Use the food you have first.
Always try to make meals with the food you have on hand first, so you don’t have to buy as much at the grocery store.
Use up any leftovers in a different way for another meal.
3. Shop sales and markdowns.
Check the sale ad and shop markdowns, but only buy food you know you will eat. Otherwise, it will be money and food wasted, even if it was a good deal.
When you see a great sale on something you eat a lot of, stock up and buy as much as you can with your grocery budget for future weeks.
4. Make a grocery list with prices.
This is something new I have been doing and it really helps me stick to my weekly grocery budget when I’m in the store.
I’m not great at math in my head, so this really helps me!
When I make my grocery list, I write a price next to each item. This price is either the sales price (from the sales ad) or the most I want to spend on that item.
Once I have my whole list made, I add everything up and make sure I’m under budget with some wiggle room for taxes. If I’m over, I look and see if there is anything I can do without and cross that item off.
And if I’m under budget, I can buy more of a great sale item or leave some room for any markdowns I might find at the store.
When I get to the store, I can easily decide which item to buy and how much I can afford.
5. Stick to simple meals.
Make simple meals with few ingredients to keep your grocery list smaller, and therefore cheaper.
You can grab this free printable of quick, easy, and cheap meals for inspiration!
Our Grocery Budget for 2:
I made a goal to spend less than $75 a week on groceries this year for the 2 of us.
Most weeks I come in under budget, but I have gone over a few times. This is a work in progress, and it won’t always be perfect.
When I go over budget, I give myself some grace and aim to try again and do better next week. It would be easy to give up after one fail and go back to your old spending ways. But progress is progress, and new habits take time – like lowering your grocery budget!
>>Want to learn my best grocery saving tips? Get my free printable, 10 Ways to Save $100 on Your Grocery Budget to start saving money on groceries today.
$75 Grocery Budget for 2:
Our grocery budget really depends on what we already have on hand and what sales are out.
I try to alternate buying ground beef one week, and chicken the next week. We usually spend about $10 a week on meat.
We also eat almost all of our meals at home, and my husband packs his lunch for work. I work from home, so I eat lunch at home. We spend about $10-$15 a week on lunch food – bread, lunch meat, cheese slices, chips, and fruit.
I try to buy only markdown produce (the 99 cent bags from Kroger) or produce that is $1 or less a pound. We spend about $2-$5 on produce each week.
The rest of our budget goes to the staples like milk, eggs, baking supplies, bacon, food for our dinners that week, and any great sale items I want to stock up on.
Quick Tip: I love the magnetic notepads from Dollar Tree to use to make my grocery list throughout the week as we run out of things. Writing it down right away helps me to remember things and prevents extra trips to the store that could result in me spending more and going over budget.
I also use our grocery budget money to buy household supplies, like laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. You can decide if you want to include this in your grocery budget or have a separate budget category. Since I buy these items at the grocery store, I include them.
Here’s what a normal meal plan for the week looks like for us:
Saturday:
Steak, baked potato, salad, bread
I found a marked down NY strip steak for about $5 last week, so I had that in the freezer. We had a lot of potatoes we needed to eat. I also found marked down salad mix and had some marked down Cheesecake Factory style bread in the freezer.
We split the steak between the two of us, and enjoyed a fancy steak dinner at home for less than $8 total. It was so good!
Sunday:
Fried Chicken with Biscuits and Gravy, Salad
I had been wanting to try this meal, and I figured a lazy Sunday was the perfect time to try it!
We had chicken in the freezer, so I just grabbed some refrigerated biscuits, and we had marked down salad mix.
Monday:
Chicken Alfredo Bake, peas
This is a new recipe that I have been loving! And it’s so easy!
Grill diced chicken, boil penne pasta, and then mix both with a jar of alredo sauce. Pour into a greased casserole pan and top with shredded Italian style cheese and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.
Tuesday:
Burgers and fries
We have some ground beef and hamburger buns in the freezer. I just use a small stovetop griddler to make burgers for the 2 of us.
Andmy new air fryeris so nice for yummy fries!
Wednesday:
Spaghetti, garlic bread
I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce last week, so we have that in the freezer. This is such an easy weeknight meal!
Thursday:
Tacos, chips and salsa
Tacos are so easy and nice for a quick weeknight meal! You can make this even quicker by making a double batch of taco meat, and freezing half for another meal. Then, just heat up the meat and dinner is ready.
Friday:
Italian grilled chicken, fried potatoes, green beans
This is such a yummy and easy chicken meal. I marinate chicken tenders in Italian dressing and grill them in a skillet until done.
We will use up more of the potatoes and some green beans from the freezer.
And that’s our super easy meal plan for the week! We don’t eat very fancy meals, but we do eat good and we save a lot of money by eating at home.
You can follow me on Instagram here to see my grocery hauls and the deals I find.
And that’s how to make your grocery budget for 2, so you can spend less on groceries, eat at home more and save lots of money. Remember to start small and keep trying even if you go over budget one week. Progress is progress!
Want someone to make a meal plan for you?
If you don’t have time to make a meal plan, or just wish someone else would come up with great meals and a ready to go meal plan for you, you are in luck!
My friend, Tiffany, from Eat at Home, has the best meal planning service!
And it’s affordable – pay just a little to get meal plans made for you, saving you time, and saving you money by allowing you to easily eat at home.
You get access to 4 meal plans each week in both a large and small family size, all the recipes, the ready to go meal plan, and a color coded shopping list. She makes it so easy to eat at home and save money.
You can check out her amazing meal plans here!
