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EmailStart by tracking all food spending for one month. This includes groceries, takeout, dining out, drinks, and food from convenience stores, coffee shops, or vending machines.
Tracking everything helps you see where your money is going. Next, review your spending at the end of the month. Did anything surprise you? Look for small changes you could try, like packing lunch instead of ordering out.
After that, choose a monthly food amount that works for now. Start with your monthly income. Subtract fixed expenses like rent, utilities, and transportation. Add in any food assistance benefits that you receive. Then based on your review, select a monthly food amount that feels realistic.
Here's an example. After tracking his spending, Julian learns that he has $500 from his paycheck to spend on food each month. He also receives $260 a month for himself and his son Liam through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Together, their monthly food budget is $760.
Julian shops once a week, so he divides $760 by four. That gives him $190 for each weekly shopping trip.
Julian uses two tools to help him stay on track. He uses the MSU Extension My Food Assistance Benefits Worksheet to track benefits. Through SNAP, he gets $260 each month on his Michigan Bridges card for fresh and shelf-stable foods. Liam also gets free breakfast and lunch at school during the school year, which helps their food dollars stretch further.
Julian also uses a budgeting calendar to keep track of paydays, when SNAP benefits arrive, his usual shopping days, how much he can spend, credit card due dates, and any special events that might affect food spending.
His goal is to make his food dollars last the whole month.
As Julian knows, creating a food budget takes time and practice, but it can help you stretch your dollars and feel more in control. The key to making it manageable is to start small, keep track, and adjust as needed so that your food budget works for you.
