One Hundred Dollars a Month

So. I’ve got this friend. Her name is Mrs. Hillbilly. Maybe you’ve heard of her. 😉 She is a busy mom with a full time job and she wants to get control of her spending. She asked for my help. And I agreed to help her… for the next 90 days.

She has 2 areas she really wants to work on.

1. Grocery budget
2.  I have no idea where it went money

Hey, we’ve all got to learn how to budget sometime… right?

She is a business professional who works with the public so she doesn’t want her face on the blog {totally understandable}. So, over the next 12 weeks I am going to help her try to reduce her spending. Her husband, Mr. HB is optimistic but doubtful that I can help her. She is, after all 50 years old. And old habits die-hard.

Lets prove him wrong. 

Yada yada yada, blah blah blah, I sat down with Mrs. HB a few days ago in her kitchen and asked her a few questions to see just how much work I was getting myself into.

Mavis: How many times a week do you pop into the store for food?

Mrs. HB: 5. I feel like I’m ALWAYS stopping for just one thing.

Mavis: How much do you spend on an average shopping trip?

Mrs. HB: Costco $300, Grocery Stores $150? I’m not really sure.

Mavis: How much do you think you spend a month on groceries a month if you had to guess?

Mrs. HB: $1,200. Maybe more. Probably more.

Mavis: How much would you like to be spending on groceries each month?

Mrs. HB: $800

Mavis: How much do you think you spend on convenience food? {lunches out, Starbucks etc}

Mrs. HB: I have no idea…. guesstimate $150?

Mavis: Do you think you could cut back on convenience  food? If so, by how much?

Mrs. HB: Yes….by $75

Mavis: Do you do any sort of meal planning?

Mrs. HB: No, not really. I have tried a few times but failed.

Mavis:  What has been your biggest hurdle in the past when it comes to making meals for your family ?

Mrs. HB: Deciding on what to make for dinner when I get home from work and making sure everyone is in agreement and likes it as well as. Then, having everything that I  need to make the meal and of course the time to cook it BEFORE WE HAVE TO HEAD OUT THE DOOR FOR KID ACTIVITIES. UGH!

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After I fell off my chair… I got back up and we started to hatch a basic plan for the first week. The bottom line was, I didn’t want to overwhelm her with too much information. So I tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Here’s what I came up with:

1. Make some sort of meal plan for the next 7 days {this included her family eating out twice a week}
2. Make a list of what groceries Mrs. HB needed for the next 7 days
3. Prepare a few meals in advance for the following 7 days
4. Sign up for 1 rewards/rebate program
5. Go grocery shopping with Mrs. HB and observe, observe, observe

First things first. I asked her if she had any coupons. She did. A $1.00 off coupon for coffee and a $1.00 off coupon for Biore’ strips. At this point I asked her if her “grocery money” included toiletries and meds. She said yes.

I helped her sign up for iBotta. And then, since it was friday, I walked her through registering her Fred Meyer card online so she could take advantage of the Fred Meyer ecoupons and their friday freebie program {last week the freebie was a bag of organic tortilla chips}. It took awhile but we did it. 😉

Then she made her grocery list. I was concerned because it didn’t have a lot of items on there…. well, not for someone who spends $1,200+ a month on groceries and toiletries. But she was sure she had enough on her list to make it until the following week. {I should mention here that her goal for the next 90 days is to just go to the grocery store once a week in hopes it will curb some of her nonsense spending.}

Our Fred Meyer Trip

We walked out of the store around for $40 and she had a big smile on her face and said she had never walked out of a grocery store only spending $40 before for two bags of groceries. Twice while we were in there she mentioned wanting to get a cup of coffee at the Tully’s’ stand in the store. Both times I asked her if spending $5 on one cup of coffee was on her list. 😉 Both times she said NO and soldiered on.

Our next stop was Costco. And, on the way there she mentioned stopping Starbucks. I distracted her until we got to Costco. As we were pulling into the parking lot she told me that Costco has a coffee machine set up in the food court and a cup of joe costs just $1.00 and well wasn’t that better than spending $5 at Starbucks?

“Ya, but if you can wait for a cup until after we go to Costco, I’ll get you a cup of coffee…. it will be my treat.”  The woman was all smiles.

At Costco… she stuck to her list with the exception of one thing. A Costco rotisserie chicken. I was shocked. When we got there I asked her how she normally shops at Costco and she said what I would imagine is how a lot of people shop there…. get a cart and walk up and down every single aisle and be tempted by everything they see.

Luckily she stuck to her list and walked out only spending around $53. Which was a HUGE improvement from her usual $300 Costco shopping trips. True, I could have pointed out cheaper ways to buy what she did, but for this first trip, I just really wanted to see what she was going to purchase. In the following weeks I’ll help her cut the costs.

Remember that coffee she kept wanting to spend money on? Ya, so, I took her to my bank and we got coffee, cocoa and candy for FREE. 😉 It was hilarious.

When we got back to her house we made a few things for the upcoming week:

Freezer Meal – Lasagna

Crock Pot Meal – Pulled Pork Tacos {I’ll post the recipe soon}

Work Grab and Go Salad – Quinoa Salad

Breakfast Grab and Go – Superpower Muffins

Everyday Item – Homemade Granola

It was fun and I really had a good time getting together with Mrs. HB to try and help her curb your spending this past week. I told her to keep track of everything she buys over the 7 days and when we meet up again we will prep a few more meals and go grocery shopping. My thinking is that if we can reduce her spending each month by about 12-15%, at the end of 3 months, she should hit her goal of whittling her grocery budget down to $800 a month.  I think with her, if we try to do too much all at once, she’s more likely to fail. So in this case, slow and steady wins the race.

~Mavis

P.S. I would LOVE to hear from anyone who spends over $600 a month on groceries and toiletries. What are you buying… and do you have some tips for Mrs. HB so she can work on her grocery budget? She’d love all the advice she can get.