How do you track groceries if you purchase groceries and household items in the same store?
We're struggling with our grocery expenses and need to do something about them stat.
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We don't separate them out. We consider it all groceries. We also have a miscellaneous category for things like trips to Sam's.
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We don't separate them either. They aren't weekly purchases so a blip in the monthly budget isn't something i'll worry about.
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We don't separate buy I buy most household stuff online on amazon. I do occasionally get things in store though.
we try not to go over 100$ weekly at the grocery store no matter what we buy
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I buy household items at Target and groceries else where so I am able to separate that way.
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We don't separate them, but we'll make a note in our budget spreadsheet if we bought a household item that cost more than usual - for example, we bought a huuuuge pack of toilet paper yesterday.
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We use cash and have two separate envelopes for household and groceries. I stock up on what we need for household at the beginning of the month and keep a quick tally of how much I am spending (just an estimate) and pull that cash out of the envelope to put with grocery cash.
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We have a groceries category and an incidentals category. I usually decide which category the purchase better falls into and put it there. I'll only split it up if the non-grocery purchase was a significant purchase.
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We don't. It's all one category for us and we try to keep it all under a monthly number.
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We just recently separated household goods from groceries. I just look at the receipt and take the amount out if we bought something like toilet paper on a grocery run. I enter our spending manually into YNAB.
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we don't have a budget that is similar to one many people have, but I do obsessively track spending. I aim for X amount per week on groceries. I don't have a set budget for household items, I buy as needed and just kind of deduct that from my weekly allowance (say we have X for bills - I pay the bills, spend my budgeted X on groceries, deduct X for toilet paper or wipes, etc). I tend to buy in bulk or with a sale - for instance, babyganics bogo free events at bru - so I don't have to buy often. it's easier to keep track of that way!
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I find that we typically buy our groceries and household goods in separate stores. We usually buy groceries at grocery stores, and household goods at either Costco or Target, so it's easier to keep them separate.
Also, I find that I usually buy them during separate trips.
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You can split up a transaction from one store in Mint, but we found it to be a pain so now we do one line item in our budget for all household (food, cleaning supplies, etc).
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@gingerbebe: Ditto! All one line item.
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@mediagirl: I use YNAB and we split out Groceries, Household (i.e. toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc) and Personal Care (hair cuts, shampoo, etc) separately. When we go to Target or somewhere I try and put things on the belt in groups so when I look at the bill later I can see how much to break out for Groceries vs any of the other categories.
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@mrswin: that's a good idea - to put things in groupings on the bill. I think I just need to get back to the old fashioned paper and pen way of tracking everything. I can't bring myself to spend $60 on an online app for budgeting.
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@mediagirl: I will avoid getting on my YNAB soapbox because I am a die hard fan and love to tell everyone about it
but I promise you that we easily recouped our $60 in the first month of using the program, I would encourage you to try the 34 day trial if it interest you at all.I found that when we didn't split out our household and personal care our budget could get off track in a hurry, especially at Target or Walmart where they have everything!
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We don't. Just goes to Target, Costco, groceries, etc
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@mediagirl: I'm going to ditto the Month trial of YNAB. It seriously changed my budgeting.
We also do as @mrswin: does, and group certain items together at check out so I know which grouping to section out of groceries.
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@mrswin: @.twist.: I do the same. And another vote for "YNAB changed our lives"
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I started splitting it out for a few months then got lazy. We buy our household stuff in bulk so it can easily overtake that month's grocery budget!
I bought YNAB on sale for $14.99.
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@locavore_mama: I've only ever seen it on sale for students?!
Although, @mediagirl: , I do have a coupon for $6.00 off!!!
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@.twist.: @Mrs High Heels posted a deal a while back via Steam! I just checked my email a few days ago to double check how much I paid because a friend was asking.
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@.twist.: @mrswin: does it work if you put most of your purchases that you are trying to track (like gas and groceries) on a credit card?
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@.twist.: I have also seen deals for it on Steam at different points, I actually only paid 1/2 price because of a Labour Day sale I think they were having at the time.
@mediagirl: It totally does. While I prefer not to use our CC's unless necessary I know there are many people that use it this way. If you do try it out make sure to watch the Getting Started videos (http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/video/getting-started-with-three-simple-steps) (http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/video/step-by-step-set-up), and the Credit Cards video (http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/video/handling-credit-cards-in-ynab), they really help to get an understanding of the software and the philosophy.
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@mediagirl: Oh yea. That's the beauty of it.
You have "on-budget accounts" which affect your budget. Which would include credit cards or checking accounts. When you track a payment you pick the account.
Date/Account:VISA/Store:Target/Category:Groceries.
I don't want to confuse you. It's much easier to understand if you are viewing it. I am also TERRIBLE at teaching these things to people. Someone else @locavore_mama: @jhd: @mrswin: please halp!
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@.twist.: We were writing at the same time
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@mrswin: @.twist.: thanks! I set up the free trial. It's just long enough to get us through this next statement period.
@mrswin: yeah, I try to use cash for most things, too. It was too hard with both of us shopping to do cash for groceries, we found that's why we went cc for groceries. That's also where we're getting in trouble. Hopefully this helps...
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@mediagirl: Great! If you have any questions along the way, I will do my best to answer them if I can. I agree the start up video is definitely worth the watch if you've got a few mins.
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@.twist.: I suck at explaining YNAB. hahaha
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@mediagirl: There is a Getting Started live class at 7:30EST tonight http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/training-and-education. Sign up for it because even if you can't make that time they will send you a link to watch the recording afterwards and it covers all of the key points
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@cmomma17: That's what I do too. When I get back from the store I take the receipt and tally up what was groceries and what was household goods and then I enter it manually into the budget spreadsheet. It's pretty easy.
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We usually just attribute it to groceries and if there is a big amount in there, I might split it out into some of the other categories we track (e.g. diapers goes in kids, cleaning stuff goes in household), but it is rare I do that on a mixed bill.
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I don't understand how a budget app is going to address the problem...what is the problem exactly? That you are overspending in your grocery and you don't know why...like you think it's because you did your monthly shop of paper goods and cleaning supplies and that's why it is higher than normal?
What if you did two check outs? One for the paper/cleaning and the other for pure food?
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@looch: you may have missed my question. I asked:
"How do you track groceries if you purchase groceries and household items in the same store? We're struggling with our grocery expenses and need to do something about them stat."
We went off topic a little as I started asking some questions about a free trial of an online budgeting service a few people suggested. So far the suggestions I have seen that might work for me are to group groceries at the store and then note them on a spreadsheet or budget app when I get home so I can see where our money is going.
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@mediagirl: I read your original question, but I interpreted it as (and I apologize if it's incorrect, which it probably is)...is that you do your grocery shopping together with things like household products and would like a way to break them out, potentially systematically. So if you do a trip and it comes to say, $300, it might not actually be busting the grocery portion because you did a month's worth of laundry detergent, paper products, etc. Or maybe it was at Costco and you also bought a vacuum cleaner.
That's why I suggested two check outs. That would solve the problem, more or less, and you wouldn't have to spend anything for budgeting tool,
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@looch: two checkouts would work, as well. Unfortunately it comes down to our credit card statement just saying "Walmart" or "Sam's Club." If we go to another grocery store, I KNOW we bought just groceries. I think noting things after the purchase will help with knowing where our $$ is going.
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@mediagirl: Yeah, I hate to say it, but I keep a notebook where I write stuff down. My memory doesn't work so well on these things any longer, so rather than guess what I spent at Walmart, I make a few notes. And I save all reciepts.
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@mediagirl: We use YNAB. YNAB has a feature where you can split categories. So when we go to Costco or Target, we split out the categories... sometimes we split it 5 ways (kids stuff, household, personal, food, etc.)
Here's an example of what that looks like:
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@Mrs. High Heels: awesome. Thank you!!
but I promise you that we easily recouped our $60 in the first month of using the program, I would encourage you to try the 34 day trial if it interest you at all.
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61 comments