The Secret to a Healthy Grocery Budget: Keeping Your Receipts

I’ve been told that I have the memory of an elephant.  Several years ago, a co-worker came up to me and said, “Hey Tiff, do you remember that guy who took that thing into that room in that building? I need his file. Do you know where it is?”

Somehow, my brain knew exactly what she was talking about.

One decade, two pregnancies and a couple of elementary-aged kids later, it’s a good day if I remember to close the lid to the washing machine before walking away – and I have a sneaky feeling I’m not alone!

Keeping a good record of your spending (rather than relying on your memory) is just one reason why it’s so important to keep your receipts from grocery shopping.  Yes, I’m talking about those little pesky pieces of paper that seem to clutter your purse, or make messy piles on the counter. Believe it or not, you need to keep them!  But before we get into that, let’s back up for just a moment.

Why are we talking about grocery receipts in the first place?!

One of the top questions I’m asked is how to live a real food lifestyle on a tight budget? Since this is a personal mission of mine, I’ve written an entire series on creating a grocery budget.  And one of my first recommendations is to set a food budget and start keeping your grocery receipts.

Do you have a grocery budget? Do you need help creating one?
Whether you do or don’t, I encourage you to go through this series and download the 5 pages worth of free printables that are sent to you when you subscribe to the Crumbs weekly newsletter.  They’re designed to walk you through the first couple steps, so they’re perfect for beginners and seasoned budgeters alike!

What’s the point of keeping these bits of paper? Glad you asked. Here are just a few reasons …

6 Reasons Why Keeping Your Grocery Receipts Are the Secret to a Healthy Grocery Budget:

1.  We’re called to be good stewards of our finances. 

Regardless of our financial situation, we should all be doing the best we can with our provisions.  That means knowing what you spend, how you spend it and being accountable for it.

2.  You won’t remember what you bought, where you bought it and how much you paid… every time.

Keeping the receipts is the only 100% way to know how much you’re paying for your food.  Our memories won’t always be like an elephant’s, and when you’re trying to seek out the best deal on food, you need to know what you’ve paid in the past and where you can get that price again – or in some cases, where you won’t get a good deal.

3.  Money stops “disappearing” and spending becomes purposeful.

Often times money mysteriously “disappears” at the grocery store, but keeping the receipts holds you accountable for every dollar you spend. In turn, each transaction becomes a purposeful decision.  You’ll be absolutely sure where your money went and why.

4.  In order to work within a budget, you need to know where you stand.

Setting a monthly allowance for groceries is essentially setting a goal.  How will you know if you’re on track to meet your goal if you’re not keeping track?  Consider the person who sets a weight-loss goal.  Don’t they weigh themselves regularly to know whether or not they’re headed in the right direction? Consider your grocery receipts as your weekly “weigh-in” to help keep you on track with staying on budget.

5.  Knowing where you stand is empowering.

When you are fully aware that you only have $20 left in your budget BEFORE you even set foot in the store, the line between “want” versus “need” becomes much clearer, so you’ll make better decisions while shopping and be less likely to overspend.

6.  Knowing where you stand is a powerful motivator to keep going.

It’s not always easy to eat leftovers for the third night in a row, or to devise a dinner plan based solely on a partially empty pantry, but it becomes a bit easier when you know there’s a purpose:  To help you toward meeting your grocery budget goal.

So, now that we understand why keeping our receipts is the secret to a healthy grocery budget, it’s important to learn how to maximize this opportunity to better track our spending!

3 Ways Track Your Spending

1.  Use an online spending tracker or app.

I had quite a bit of fun looking for apps to track spending, but ultimately the one that best suits you will depend on your computer or phone and your personal preferences.  Try searching for “budget app iPhone/Android/Windows” (using just one of the three of course) and you’ll find plenty of options.  Be sure to read the pros and cons to ensure it will do what you want it to, and don’t spend a lot of money on it – if any at all!

2.  Use a spreadsheet.

For those who like to track on their computers, you can’t get any more free or basic than a spreadsheet.  Keep it really simple at first with just four or five columns, one for each week of the month, and enter the amount of money you spent for each trip underneath.  You can add more columns for more data later once you’ve got a good grip on your total monthly spending.

3.  Use a pen and paper.

This is my personal preferred method.  For as long as I’ve had a grocery budget, I’ve written down what I spent and where I spent it in my planner, on the day I went shopping.  Since I always carry my planner with me, it was easy to write it in, and easy to refer to later when planning another shopping trip.

It doesn’t matter which of these methods you choose, but remember they will only work if you actually use them. This means you will have to take a few minutes to enter your totals into your phone or computer or write them down.  Yes, it’s something else “to do,” but it’s the only way to properly get your grocery budget under control!

What do you do with the receipts once you’re done tracking your spending?

First, I recommend adding up your receipts at the end of each week so that you know where you stand for the next week, or even the rest of the month.  Once you’ve done this, keep all the receipts for the month in one envelope and keep the envelope in an easy access location.

At the end of the month, use the receipts to continue the grocery budget process.  When you’re done, paperclip the entire month together and move it into a second envelope.  This envelope doesn’t need to be front and center like the first, but it’s helpful to have receipts from previous months available for reference as you’re going through the budgeting process.

Receipts from previous months can get recycled after about six months, or whatever you decide works best for you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this … Do you currently keep your grocery receipts?  What are your favorite ways to track your spending in order to keep your food budget in check?

Note from Kelly: Don’t miss all of the other great budgeting posts that Tiffany has shared here. Simply click here and keep scrolling through to see her many helpful posts on how to save money on your food budget.