Our Food Budget

After reading other blogs and seeing the comments left on this post, I realize that my husband and I have a very different food budget than most others in the personal finance world.  That spurred me to come clean...here's where our food money has gone in 2010:

1.  Kroger's - We spend about $125 a month for perishables like whole milk, Country Crock margarine spread, real butter, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, other fruit that is in season and cheap, Digiorno pizzas, hot dogs, Manager Special steaks, frozen Tilapia, and necessary parts of a menu that we don't buy in bulk.

2.  Sam's Club - We spend about $30 a month on steaks, boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork chops, frozen green beans, frozen corn on the cob, Honey Nut Cheerios, Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread, and potato chips.  I usually make a Sam's Club run once every 2 -3 months.

3.  Angel Food Ministries - Whenever we like the monthly menu for their Signature Box, we buy 1 or 2 boxes at $30 each.  Each box gives us enough food for at least 10 meals and sides for a few more.

4.  Walmart - We spend about $50 a month on cleaning supplies, hygiene products, hamburger meat, sandwich meat, and miscellaneous food items that are cheaper there than at Kroger with my coupons.

5.  Restaurants and Fast Food - We eat out at least 1-2 times a week and it adds up to about $200 a month.  It would be more if I wasn't such a fan of value menus and soups.

Altogether we spend about $400 on food every month, which is actually down from the $600 a month we were spending last year.  We've started eating at home much more which allows us to buy in bulk and throw less away. 

I do use coupons, but not to the extent of true couponers.  I simply spend 20 minutes at work every week cutting out ones that may come in handy and putting them into my wallet.  Before checking out, I pull my cart over in a vacant aisle and spend 2 minutes grabbing out the coupons that match cart items.  I do not even look at the coupons until I'm done shopping since I don't want the coupons to entice me to buy something that wasn't on my list or buy a different brand.

Our dinners usually consist of a grilled protein seasoned by hubby and two sides.  Most frequently, these sides are mashed potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, carrots, or rice.  We also make salads, Pizza Hut Sandwiches (the most delicious and fattening toasted sandwich ever), soft tacos, chili, pasta, taco salad, hamburgers, and hot dogs every month or two as well.  We try a new recipe every once in a while and add it to the normal rotation if it was good.

As you can see, our diet isn't the healthiest ever, but it looks way better than last year.  Please just take this as the food confession it is and a quick summary of our personal food budget.

Does your food budget include more organic and free range choices?  Or does it look similar to ours?

BFS has a Guest Post about Minimizing at Funny about Money

Funny about Money was kind enough to let me guest post today with Can Minimizing Go Too Far?.  Take a look when you can, thanks!

Personal Income is Still Low but Consumer Spending is Rising Again

According to this article, personal income fell in 42 states in 2009. Yet, according to this article, consumer spending is back on the rise and looks to be sustainable.  We have record unemployment but the consumer market is getting better…huh.

This tells me that some people have not taken their new situation into account or the lucky ones aren’t preparing for the worst.

My husband and I are the “lucky ones” since our income didn’t fall. Neither one of us got raises, but we also didn’t get cuts. We have a solid emergency fund and several savings accounts in case the worst happens, but so far, we’re okay. But we haven’t increased our spending in the last 2 years either.

So, we are obviously not contributing to the stats of either article.

Since we know friends that have had pay cuts or gone through job losses, it’s easy for me to understand that personal incomes as a whole have fallen. I just don’t understand how consumer spending is rising…

Do you know anyone who’s started spending more than they were over the last 2 years?

Oh well, at least the economy will be puttering along pretty well by the end of 2010. Maybe some jobs will open up and personal income levels will rise as well.

Let's Get Controversial - Paying for College for Kids

I’ve decided to use this week to get through some of the controversial issues I see on other blogs. I’m simply going to post my opinions and see what you think.

Today's topic:  Fronting College Costs

My hubby and I don’t have kids, but we remember college.  I had some help from my parents and my husband was covered 100%.

I can’t think of anything concrete to base an opinion on.  I had a higher GPA than my husband, but I don’t know if money had anything to do with that.  My parents are retired and my husband’s are not, but I’m not sure if his college expenses are what held them back.  In short, I’m not sure what is best for your situation, but here’s my opinion.

I’d save for retirement before I’d save for my kid’s college expenses.  My kid can get scholarships, grants, a job, or loans.  There is none of that for retired people.  I rather not have to depend on others to provide for me in my old age, so I believe in retirement first.

What if you are good for retirement?  Well, that’s trickier.  I remember how mature and how selfish I was as a teenager.  Yes, I could handle money, but I was sooo manipulative.  I don’t believe my grades would have been worse if my parents had covered me, but I might have gotten into more trouble.  What are your kids like?  Do you think they will see your help as the miracle it is and earn their keep?  Or do you think they will party the nights away since it’s not their money?

If I was a parent and knew I could help, I’d make them this deal.  I have X amount to contribute.  If I see them working their butts off to get all the scholarships and grants as possible, I’ll help them cover the rest if I can.  If they continue to work their butts off, I’ll continue trying to help.  If at any point they decide to take advantage (like fail a class or two or become alcoholics), I’ll pull the plug.

The best idea I’ve heard of was from a lady that left a comment on a blog I read last year.  Her parents agreed to pay for the housing expenses of all 3 of their kids, but the kids had to cover everything else.  This motivated her and her siblings to get as much “free” money as possible and work summers to cover the rest.  That seemed really helpful and fair.

What do you think?  To pay or not to pay, that is the question.  Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.  :-)

Let's Get Controversial - Credit Cards

I’ve decided to use this week to get through some of the controversial issues I see on other blogs.  I’m simply going to post my opinions and see what you think.

Today’s topic:  Credit Cards *cue scary music*

Let’s just rip off the Band-Aid, I love using credit cards for as much as possible, getting my rewards, and paying them off a few days after I receive my emailed statements.  It makes my super-anal budgeting system so much easier.  I like getting cash back rewards.  Oh, and I hate debit cards, but that’s my own fault.  I’m old school…I actually keep up with every single checking account debit and credit in a check book.  Writing down hundreds of tiny charges does not sound like fun to me.

I got my first card when I was 18.  I’ve never been in credit card debt.  I’ve never received a fee or any interest charges.  If you are addicted to spending or cannot control yourself with a credit card, PLEASE DON’T USE THEM.  Otherwise, why the heck not?!

We have a Discover More card, a Discover Open Road card, and a World Points MasterCard.  We use the Discover More card for everything possible except car expenses, the Discover Open Road card for car stuff like gas, and the MasterCard for anybody that doesn’t accept Discover.  These are the rewards we received in 2009:

Discover More = $263.26 cash back for $21,570 spent (1.22%)
Discover Open Road = $59.18 cash back for $1895 spent (3.12%)
Mastercard = $105.95 cash back for $10,595 spent (1%)
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So in all, I earned $428.39 with purchases of $34,060 for a return of 1.26%.

Rewards will not make us rich, but I was going to make all of these purchases anyway.  For example, $8500 of our MasterCard total was for graduate school expenses…I love the fact we got anything back from that!  Yes, there are higher paying rewards cards - check out this Free Money Finance post and comments or the countless other posts online – but I like Discover.  No hard and fast reason, but I’m pretty loyal until a company ticks me off or I can really clean up by moving on.

I also love being able to purchase discount gift cards using Discover cash back.  Do you know how many of our friends and family are Starbucks addicts?  Tons!  Do you know how many of them have birthdays?  All of them!  I love being able to get a $50 Starbucks gift card for $45…I turn around and use it to buy two $25 gift cards and that’s two adults that will be super happy not to receive socks.  No, I’ve never actually gifted socks before, but you get the point.

Ok, what do you think?  Do you use credit cards?  Why or why not?

Let's Get Controversial - Joint Accounts in Marriage

I’ve decided to use this week to get through some of the controversial issues I see on other blogs. I’m simply going to post my opinions and see what you think.

Today’s topic:  Joint Finances in Marriage

My husband and I have joint finances…joint bank accounts, checking accounts, and both our names are on the mortgage.  My husband insisted this was the only way to go a couple of years before we actually got married.  Honestly, I didn’t care.  I wanted to be able to see all of our money.  I wanted to talk about our money.  I wanted to set joint goals.  BUT, I couldn’t care less about joint accounts.  Obviously, he cared, I didn’t, so we did it.

Looking back, it is SOOO much easier this way.  So, yes honey, you were right.  :-)

We both knew that I’m more detail-oriented (aka anal) when it comes to money.  Almost immediately after getting married, we just settled into the flow we have now.  I manage our budget, bank accounts, checking accounts, my 401k, and our only Roth IRA (for now).  I hate dealing with stocks, so he manages our Scottrade account and will be managing our second Roth IRA as well.  We talk about all these things all the time since we love talking money and goals…it’s our thing… :-)

As a side note, I doubt I will blog much about stocks…sorry people, the research involved bores me.  If you really push me, I will get my husband to do a guest blog post.

So, we didn’t have a come-to-Jesus meeting or anything…our financial responsibilities were pretty easy to figure out.

Here are my questions for the non-joint account married people:
How do you handle your retirement goals?  Is it still going to be mutual money when you both retire?  Do you currently split the bills and plan to in your old age as well?  What happens if one person just doesn’t save, does the other one have to save for both retirements? 

Thanks in advance for any answers.  I’m sincerely curious and not judging at all.

For those of you who have joint finances, how is that working out?

For those of you who don’t have to deal with this right now, what are your future plans in this area?

Let's Get Controversial - Hiring Help

I’ve decided to use this week to get through some of the controversial issues I see on other blogs. I’m simply going to post my opinions and see what you think.

Today’s Topic:  Outsourcing / Hiring Help

The comments to this post at Get Rich Slowly were the proverbial “straw” that motivated me to start this blog.

If you haven’t read the post or don’t have time, it boils down this; a 26 year old that sold a company for a million dollars felt a little lost in her “early retirement”.  She wasn’t as happy as she thought she’d be until she discovered outsourcing.  She hired a personal assistant, a housekeeper, a personal chef, and two foreign virtual assistants so she could do fun stuff and start a new business.

As you can guess, people went nuts for a variety of reasons.  I honed in on all the commenters that had a freaking cow about having a housekeeper or a personal chef.  As someone who happily has a housekeeper, a lawn service, and a CPA, I was offended.  Then I was curious.

Why not hire a housekeeper? 

I got a response that blew my mind; by not doing my own housework, I’m not taking responsibility for my home.  What?!

Take it from me; it would be more irresponsible to depend on my husband or me to keep the house up to standards (well, maybe low standards…).  Sorry, house, I love you, but I hate cleaning.  Sorry, yard, you’re cool and all, but I’m never going to weed you.

As the name of my blog states, I have no problem budgeting in the fun stuff.  This includes budgeting in for the not fun stuff.  I choose to spend as much time possible on the things that I love...family time, hanging out with friends, and blogging.  :-)

Okay, now that I’ve vented, what say you?  Why do you outsource?  Why don’t you?