97: How Much Should You Spend on Groceries? (And How to Cut $800 a Month)

If you’ve ever Googled “How much should I spend on groceries?” and felt more confused than before… this episode is for you.

There are a million answers out there, $100 per person, $200 per person, “it depends where you live”... but what you really want to know is:

👉 Am I spending too much?
👉 And if I am… how do I fix it without feeding my family rice and beans every night?

In today’s episode, I’m breaking down:

• The average grocery spending in the U.S. (and Canada)
• The real number you should aim for per person
• The 3 biggest reasons families overspend
• How to figure out if you’re overspending
• Simple shifts that can cut hundreds (even $800+) per month

Most families don’t realize how much money is quietly leaking out of their grocery budget. And the truth? Groceries are often the fastest and easiest place to free up cash, especially if you're trying to pay off debt or create margin in your budget.

I’ll walk you through how to:
 ✔ Track your real spending
 ✔ Set a realistic per-person goal
 ✔ Meal plan without overwhelm
✔ Stop wasting 30% of your food
✔ Reduce impulse grocery trips

And if you want the full step-by-step system, you can join my free class where I teach my signature SHOP Method from start to finish.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

Because saving money on groceries doesn’t have to mean deprivation. It just means intention.

Let’s get into it.

xoxo,
Rachel

Where to find me:
Instagram: @heyrachelcoons

Join me for my free training to learn the 5-step RESET Framework: Register HERE

Transcript

The Grocery Cost Problem

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you've ever Googled how much should I spend on groceries, you've probably seen a million different answers. Some people say$100 per person every month. Some people say$200. Some say it depends on where you live and what kind of food you eat. And all of that is true, but it's completely unhelpful because what you really want to know is, am I spending too much? And if I am, how do I fix it without making my family eat rice and beans every night? So today we're gonna talk about how much you should actually be spending on groceries, how to figure out if you're overspending, and most importantly, how to cut your grocery bill without feeling deprived or making your life harder. Because here's the truth most families are overspending$800 every single month on groceries and they don't even realize it. So let's fix that. Welcome to the Money Mom Podcast, the show where we empower moms to take control of their finances, break free from money stress, and build a life of freedom, confidence, and abundance for their families. I'm your host, Rachel Koons, mom, money mentor, and your personal cheerleader on this journey. Whether you're here to save money, pay off debt, or dream bigger for your family's future, you're in the right place. Here, we believe that being a mom is already a full-time job. But your role in shaping your family's financial success is just as important. And the best part, you don't need to sacrifice everything to start winning with money. Let's get started. This is the Money Mom Podcast. Hello and welcome back to the Money Mom Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Koons. Let's start this episode with the numbers. According to the USDA, the average family of four in America spends about$1,400 per month on groceries. Now, there's also a huge range in that. We're looking right now between$1,200 and$1,600 a month. And it's not really that helpful when we look at the average, but that's the numbers. Now, I know I have a lot of Canadian listeners as well. And if you are in Canada, I want you to double that number. So family of four in Canada is probably spending around$2,500 to$3,000 a month on groceries. Now, the thing is, you might live in an expensive area where your groceries cost more, or you might have dietary restrictions, or you might only want to eat organic, or you might have teenagers who are eating you out of house and home, or you might have toddlers who aren't eating anything except for chicken nuggets. The point is that what I'm gonna talk about today still matters to you. Okay. The numbers that we're gonna throw out will work for you. A family of four, if you're spending over a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars a month on groceries, you are overspending. You are definitely overspending. And then if you're spending more than$2,000 a month for any family size, you are certainly overspending and could save so much money. I'm actually like so excited if you are one of those people because you could save so much money every year on groceries alone. Most people really have no idea. They have no idea how much they're spending and they just swipe the credit card and hope it works out. And that's part of the problem. So if you're listening to this episode, hopefully you're gonna take some action afterwards and you're actually going to go look at the amount you're spending on groceries and become aware of it. But before we get into all of that, let me tell you the three biggest reasons people overspend on groceries. And I kind of just said it, but reason number one is that you're not tracking, you're not actually paying attention to how much money is leaving your account based off of how much you're spending on groceries. You may think that you're only spending$800 a month, but when you actually go look at it, that number is closer to$1,200. And how do I know that? Because I've worked with so many families who tell me that. After they come into the Money Mom Club, they get started, they work through the shop method, and they start tracking their spending and they're like, holy cow, I thought I was only spending a thousand and I was actually spending sixteen hundred dollars every single month. Everything that you are buying on food counts towards your grocery budget. And if you're not tracking it, you have no idea how much you're actually spending. So we have to become aware of that. Reason number two is that you don't have a plan. You don't have a spending plan, you don't have a tracking plan, you don't have a meal plan, and you certainly don't have a plan when you actually walk into a grocery store. And all of those parts are really important if we want to get intentional with our grocery spending. We have to know how much we're currently spending and we have to have a number to aim for. And if you're walking into a grocery store and you're just buying whatever looks good on the shelf, you have no set meal plan that you're buying for. You get home and you realize you have ingredients for maybe 12 different meals, but not enough ingredients to make all of the meals. So you end up ordering takeout and the food you bought goes bad. And then you also wonder why you're spending so much. It's because you had no plan. Or maybe you do meal plan on Sunday, but by Wednesday, that plan completely falls off the rails and you're tired and you don't have all the ingredients you need and you don't feel like cooking. And so then you end up ordering a pizza. And now you've paid for the groceries that you plan for and the takeout that you didn't plan for. That's reason number two. Number three is a huge problem because you think that what you're buying is convenience, but you're actually wasting time and wasting money. So what I'm talking about is pre-packaged snacks, pre-cut vegetables, pre-marinated meats or pre-created dinners, those grab and go meal kits, all of those things cost two to three times more than if you just did it yourself. And you think that what you're saving is time, but in reality, if you just spent five minutes planning, organizing, you would save so much money and not spend a lot of time. And I'm not saying that you should never buy convenience, but if you're buying for convenience, your grocery bill is gonna be high and there's a way that we can give you the convenience that you need. And here's the thing about all those three things is that most people are doing them all at the same time. They're not tracking their spending, they're not having a plan, and they're buying convenience. And then they're shocked when they're spending$1,200 a month on groceries. So here's how to actually figure out what you should be spending. For the next 30 days, I want you to track every single dollar that goes towards food and groceries. And most people want to ask: do I include household items in my grocery budget? Right now, don't. Keep them separate so that we can actually move the needle on the groceries. So anytime you purchase food at Target or Costco or you're doing a grocery order or whatever, that all is included in your grocery spending. And I know that tracking can feel tedious, but it's gonna give you a real clear picture on what it looks like and how much you're spending. And you could even go back and look at past orders or past credit card balances to find out how much you have been doing it on average for the past three months. And then I want you to figure out what your needs are for your family. What things are non-negotiables in your life? These are things like I have to buy organic produce, or my son is gluten-free. And so I have to buy gluten-free this and this and this. So there are non-negotiables that are required for you. And then there's things that maybe you've been doing that aren't necessary non-negotiables. Like, I don't know if I actually have to shop at Whole Foods. I could probably get by from shopping at Winco or Sprouts to get the things I need. So separate the non-negotiabs for you of like, this is my game plan. This is what I have to have to be happy. And these are things that maybe aren't absolutely necessary. And then you're going to set a realistic goal based off of your needs. Now, when I teach families the shop method, which is my signature method that I teach inside grocery budget boot camp, that method, what we teach is that on average, you should be spending, if you don't have any dietary needs, if you can eat normal food, when I say normal food, I'm saying non-organic food, and you can go to whatever grocery store, you're not really stuck on a grocery store. You could be spending$150 per person each month. That's very doable, very simple. I have a family of six. We don't have any needs. We spend about$700 to$800 a month on groceries, and we live in a high cost of living area in Northern California. So it's very doable. And we've had thousands of families do the same thing. Now, if you are someone who has dietary needs, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan, organic, certain stores, things like that, you want a little bit more wiggle room. Maybe you're just someone who's like, yeah,$150 I could do, but it would be like a lot of extra effort. Great. Maybe you bump that up to$200 per person every month, or$250 per person every month. You can get whatever you need by$250 per person every month. It's very, very doable. Now remember, if you're in Canada, you're gonna double that number. So Canadians, you're looking around$350 to$400 per person every month on groceries. That is a realistic goal for you and for what your family is. The point is, your goal should be based off of what your life looks like. Factor in your life. Factor in the phase that you're in. If you are in a phase of life where you need more convenience, that's okay. If you are in a phase of life where you are feeding four teenagers and they're eating a ton of food, that's okay. You can factor those in and you can set a clear number based off of what you need. All right, so now that you know what you're spending and where you want to be, what you're aiming for, here's how to actually cut your grocery bill. And I teach my whole shop method in my free training. If you just go to heyrachelkoons.com forward slash class, you can learn the shop method start to finish. But for right now, I'm gonna give you three things I want you to do that will help you get started saving money. The first step is, and you're probably gonna roll your eyes at me because I know everybody hates it, but plan a meal or two for the week. When I say meal planning, I don't mean you have to plan seven elaborate dinners. What I mean is think of three to four meals that your family, you know your family loves to eat, you don't mind cooking, and you could have those ingredients on hand any night of the week and plan to cook for those meals, get the ingredients that you need for those meals, and then have a leftover night. Have a night where people are on their own and eat chicken nuggets or whatever they want. But three to four meals a week, plan those meals out. Number two is focus on working through your pantry, your fridge, your freezer first before you go buy new food. The average American family wastes 30% of the food that they buy. So we really have to focus on working through your perishable items. Don't let the strawberries mold in the fridge. Don't let the broccoli go to waste. Use that food up before you go buy new food at the store. So that's number two. Number three is we want to cut down on how often we are actually going to the grocery store. Because every time you go to the grocery store, you are going to swipe your credit card and you're gonna spend money. So if we could space out or eliminate those one to two item grocery trips to the store, we're gonna decrease how much we spend. Think about it. You run out of eggs, you run out of butter, you run out of milk, and you head to the grocery store to get those one or two items. And while you're there, something's on sale. So you throw it in your cart. You forgot you need a bag of chicken and you throw that in your grocery cart, or you need to get snacks for the soccer game on Saturday, you throw that in your cart. And before you know it, that one to two item trip has now turned into a$50 or$100 grocery trip without you even really knowing that. So trying to not go to the grocery store, be flexible. If you need an item, think to yourself, do I actually need this item? Or am I just letting the grocery store be really convenient and I'm going to the grocery store without actually needing to? So focus on using up what you have on hand and then try to not go to the grocery store as often. Okay, so hopefully that gave you somewhere to aim for on how much you should be spending and how to get started with that. And like I said, I have that free class that you can register for if you want to. I'll put the link in the show notes for that. But really, saving money on groceries is the fastest and easiest way to have extra money at the end of the month. This is the one budget that I tell families to hyper focus on when they want to pay off debt, when they want to have extra money. Cause chances are you are overspending so much money every month. So hopefully this episode gave you some tools to get started. Okay, that's it all I have for today. I'll see you in the next episode.