I’m looking for ways to cut back and I really think we could trim our grocery spend. But I don’t have any sense of what a household grocery budget should be for two adults and a part-time kid in central London. I know we could plan ahead better so we can compare prices but without a good snapshot of what we spend I can’t wrap my head around what kind of figure we should set for a grocery budget.

E and I both go in phases of tracking our spending and haven’t been great lately. When I know things are going over budget, like on our recent holiday in the States, I can sometimes be guilty of burying my head in the sand rather than writing down all the purchases and dinners out.

Anyway I think we need an audit period so we know how we can adjust. I like starting things like this on a first of a month, but I will settle for the 15th. I’ll be tracking everything we spend on groceries. That will not include things like household cleaning products and won’t count eating out. Just groceries.

To kick things off, here is where things stand:

16th August – £1.80 on stirfry stuff for dinner, £.98 on cereal
15th August – nothing!

Does anyone have a good rule of thumb for grocery budgeting? Care to share how much you spend?