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I'm not sure I get it - Were you throwing food away that you'd bought at the store?

Seems an awfully complicated solution for just saying "We have plenty of food in the fridge - Let's take lunch to work/eat at home."

Incidentally, I have that "All Out Of" pad and LOVE IT. It was life-changing for me to just be able to check off things as I ran out or thought of something that I needed. I give them as gifts all the time.

What if you get hungry though before the month is out?

I use time as a factor. If it saves me time to eat lunch out, then it's worth the extra money. But I have two jobs and go to school, so time is a large factor.

My boyfriend and I also have the "All Out of Pad" and it works great. I'm appalled that you would go out for groceries/food 40 times a month! That equates to more than 1 trip a day some days and that's just plumb crazy! We go to the grocery once a week for the big weekly shopping trip and then I stop 1-2 times a week for specialty items or for things like milk if we run out early and I can't imagine going more than once a day.

That seems like an amazingly complicated, and counter-intuitive system. Wouldn't spending less per trip be a more straightforward option? Under this system you could spend twice as much and still have numbers left over...

However, if it's just an excuse to use the number stamps, then fair enough - they look like fun!

I feel your pain Danielle... my bf and I go to the grocery store waaaay too often. This is definitely a neat reminder that I'm going to do as well.

Another way to keep the grocery bills low:

Walk to the store and use a hand-basket rather than a cart - You quickly learn to buy only what you need.

If more trips don't equal more dollars - what is the harm in more trips?

I usually cook for one or two, and would rather go to the grocery store every day and just pick up small amounts of fresh ingredients for my meals as opposed to buying larger quantities in fewer trips.

This is probably one of those things that would make more sense if you could explain it to someone in person, but doesn't quite translate over the interwebs.

I want to know where I can get the "All Out Of" pad!

if you go to the grocery store too often does that mean you're not eating the food you buy, or forgetting to buy the food you need?

please update this post so we can determine whether you're a crackpot or just wrote a confusing post.

The post doesn't clarify how often the author and her husband went to the store for groceries versus going out to eat. Reading the post as if they grocery shopped 40 times per month does seem incredibly extravagent; however, if they shopped 10-15 times a month and ate at restaurants during work lunch 5 days a week, then that makes more sense. You have to look at it in different terms.

As someone who does not have a car and who lives in the city, I end up at the market a couple times per week. I can only afford what I can carry home, but sometimes that includes fancy cheeses, bottles of wine, organic produce and other items that make one basket of food = $40. Disgusting, I know, but this girl's gotta have her booze and cheese!

In a smaller context, I can totally relate to this post.

seejanework.com has the "All Out Of" pad.

I agree with the walking/handbasket suggestion. I will do a TJ's run with my car once a month and walk to Safeway twice a week. I have curbed your spending, given me exercise (albeit begrudgingly when it's cold and foggy) and forces me to keep track of what I am regularly using and what I really don't need (i.e. a box of cookies takes up far more space than a quart of milk, so I will opt out of the cookies to fix in the milk, an extra bell pepper and wedge of cheese).

I love visual cues - esp. in the early days of starting a new habit. And a system is often the support needed to reinforce a new habit long enough to make it permanant. Likely, eventually, you will do just as the others say and be able to just stop yourself. But congratulations in the meantime for doing whatever it takes, and whatever works in getting the new habit to work for you.

You can get the "All Out Of" pad at KnockKnock.com

I LOVE this idea.

My BF and I are trying so hard to not go out too much and to remember to eat what we have at home. But so often it’s easier to stop on the way home either at the diner/taco shop/pizza place or at the grocery store to grab the pre-cut lettuce and a can of soup.

Giving yourself a limit to how many times you can spend out can really help you review what you have available on-hand and then USE IT!

And yes it is possible to go to the grocery store more than once a day if the people involved have drastically different schedules, or don't know that the other person picked up the milk already.

My husband and I spend, per month (and at a regular grocery store, not whole foods) $600. It's ridiculous. I only walk to and from the grocery store, so having to carry it apparently is not enough to limit my spending.

I seem to spend $20 every time I go and I go a lot. While I don't understand it, I may try this system and see if it works. Maybe it will make more sense afterwards.

@partyshark: that's exactly it -- we didn't go the grocery store 40 times, but that's the combined number of all trips out, including lunch at work, weekend breakfasts out (my particular weakness!!) and dinners.

@TallulahBelle and others: it's funny how counterintuitively little tricks like this can work. For whatever reason, no matter what we're shopping for -- a week's worth of groceries, or particular ingredients for one special recipe -- the per trip cost is always roughly the same. It just doesn't work as well for us to spend more or less per trip. But it does work for us to make less trips, et voila!

Incidentally, my husband and I debated a lot about whether or not to post this; it seemed a little personal, and we weren't sure people would get it. We greatly appreciate the respectful comments, and I'm glad it's been helpful to at least a few of you!

i think that we have lost the value of coupon clipping. looking at the paper coupons on a individual basis (dollar here dollar there) may see like a waste of time, but saving $10 each trip adds up to a few hundred dollars you are saving each year.

i'm starting a coupon box at our new place. we really need to budget our money and every little bit helps.

one day when you have sometime, it might be helpful to price compare from store to store. while you might be spending some gas, making one or two big trips a month is worth the savings in the end.

this couple is probably just undisciplined and this visual reminder keeps them in line. It is easier to eat lunch out than to pack it, so this allows them some leeway but not enough for them to get back to their sometimes twice a day habit!

How about just planning your menu for the week, or at least half the week, and that way you'd only make 1-2 trips to the store?

Speaking of which, can anyone suggest a recipe site that would offer that? I like the one that epicurious has (http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/everydaycooking), but sometimes it's a bit too fancy-pants for me...

i have tried to budget our food lately, it's insane how much we spend! i'd like to know what the average is for a couple per month...ours is probably over $800 including everything (coffees, lunches out, breakfasts, groceries)...

I use a blackboard to jot down what I need. As my husband and I are both at home all day we waste very little food.

@Dani:What computer program are you using to track your finances, and where you are spending? That looks like a nifty screenshot on your mac.

Does anyone have recommendations for a good free/inexpensive personal finance program for mac. Specifically something that categorizes spending and provides charts/graphs?

This is a new one, but I don't think it would work for us.

I think the best, most practical method is to plan your weekly meals. I was never a fan of the idea, it sounded too fussy and difficult. But I started on Weight Watchers to finally shed the baby weight (baby is *ahem* turning 3 next week) and so we really needed to have A Plan. 10 minutes for the list is all it takes, and our whole family is eating healthier and cheaper.

And as we make our way through the phase of experimentation with new 15-minute weeknight meals, the "hits" are much tastier than what we were eating before. (Still some "misses", but in a few months I think we'll have a good solid rotation of tasty, healthy, fast weeknight dinners.)

Oh, also, for us, the man of the house is less likely to impluse buy than I am, so he's in charge of the actual shopping. Major saves there!

Weight Watchers has some great recipes, actually.

I love it. I think the point is that if you want to reign in spending (or anything, really: drinking, overeating, procrastinating) you have to figure out a system that is going to work for you.

And, I completely get it. What happens in our pantry is that we eat the easy / pre-prepared / more expensive stuff and don't make ourselves cook wholesome meals. If we limit trips to the store (our schedules do that for us ...) we end up forcing ourselves to use cans and dry beans and the cheaper provisions that take a little more work.

We're looking at a belt tightening tunnel on the horizon (buying home = mortgage that is more than our rent). I'm trying to figure out a straightforward way to get a handle on our budget and to really budget for trips and gifts.

I can't really get my head around going full tilt Quicken, but I need to do something. Is that some kind of software I see, or just a generic pie chart to make you look organized?

We have the same problem and have tried many solutions. What we discovered is that my husband and I have different money personalities - I'm frugal and he's a spender. So the real issue becomes how to negotiate that divide. Ideally each person moderates using a method that works for them.

What works best for me is to write down everything I spend on a daily basis, either in a notebook for the purse or using Quicken.

Hope this isn't too marriage counsely.

for those asking about personal finance programs - try mint.com - we use it and love it. it's very easy and makes lots of great-looking charts, and lets you compare to other people in your city or all over the place.

This post is confusing.

My sweetie and I try to go grocery shopping once per week. I also shop with a list (divided into 4 quadrants- veg/fruit, dairy, shelves, meat/deli). I've found that we over spend when there isn't enough food in the house; too tempting to eat out. Or when we're too frugal, so we out. Or when we buy too much that's not on the list.

It's probably a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I designed my own shopping list about 10 years ago, and saved on my computer. I print out a copy, and use it to go through my refrigerator and pantry---then check off the things I need, and things I'll need soon, in case they are on sale.

I've tweaked it though the years, but it works very well. It doesn't have anything on it that I don't buy, but it has everything on it that I might buy in a year---cranberries, or watermelon, wrapping paper, ribbon.

My category arrangements are odd---I have one called "things in jars and bottles" and another one called "beverages" which mostly comes in bottles, but that's how my mind works.

(I second the value of Quicken. It is inexpensive to buy yet worth a fortune to anyone trying to keep track of money and bills.)

Food is so expensive! Its just me and I spend more on food that purchasing theatre tickets, DVDs, and my metro card COMBINED!

Any single people have advice on how to keep the cost down other than eating the same thing two days in a row...I hate that and get ill at the thought.

Eating healthy has been a great help for me and my boyfriend when trying to cut back spending money at the grocery store. Lots of vegetables and fruit! Poultry, meat, and seafood for dinners/lunches instead of boxed/canned/frozen and microwaveable food. The hard part is staying away from restaurants and as mentioned before brunches!!! That is something we really need to work on, but it seems that we have mastered the grocery store!

P.S. another great way to save money is by buying the store-brand products. I shop at Whole Foods and their 365 brand is considerably cheaper than most "well-known" product names.

tauremini, in response to your question about a weekly menu planner: I found a great resource on the Food Network site.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/lf_hl_diabetic_planner/0,3151,FOOD_29017,00.html

Even though it is targeted towards diabetics, the menus are quite good and very healthy, and you could probably adapt them pretty easily to your own diet. I often modify them according to what I have on hand.

Another great menu planner is the Month of Meals series by the American Diabetes Association. My favorite is "Meals in Minutes", which incorporates convenience/fast food into the menus. Again, you could probably use these books as a guideline for your own menus.

It is easy for me to make a lot of trips to the grocery store when it's only two blocks away! And I see as each trip as a chance to impulsively buy some fast, easy, high markup item I don't need, so reducing the number of trips really does reduce the temptations.

On the other hand I have a short list of 'packaged foods' I allow myself to buy because if I have granola bars or string cheese on hand I'm more likely to actually pack a lunch. And that saves more money, ultimately.

littlemt: just in answer to your question about a finance thing for use on macs... i dont know if you are, but i'm a bank of america member and if you use online banking (just log on!) there's a tab at the top that i recently discovered that says "my portfolio" (after that click budgeting and reports) and in it, you can click on every checkcard purchase and categorize what that was for (from groceries, restaurants, and entertainment, to automotive expenses, insurance, rent and loans) and then see a pie chart (complete with a percentage breakdown) of your spending. it takes a little while to go back and categorize the past 3 months (or as far back as you want to see) of spending but once you do, it's really cool to see where all your hard earned money is going. of course this only works if you primarily pay with your check card (which i do! i never have cash on me!). but it's really a great tool to see where you're overspending.

as far as grocery shopping and eating out... i'm almost scared to count how many times a month my boyfriend and i do. eek!

@littlemt: we use Quicken Online. We tried Mint.com and Wesabee.com, but Quicken was the simplest and cleanest-looking, and the only one that could access all of our accounts, including student loans and investments. The only thing is that it's $3 per month, while the others are free, I believe. Good luck!

Did you have the giant number stamps custom made or is there a place to order? I am also looking for giant alphabets like that. Thanks!

I'm vegan so I'd have to make my own version of an All Out Of pad.

I don't think you can get anything at KnockKnock.com

@littlemt: Go to "wesabe.com" and wallow in all the non-chastising help that's offered.

We do a monthly menu plan. I try to shop once a week and I send hubby to get the milk during his trip home. We rarely eat out.

I try to plan out the week's dinners before going to the store. I'll usually pick a couple of new recipes to try, add a couple of old favorite recipes and then make the other dinner's super easy/quick. I have actually made a little index of my favorite recipes in a notebook, listing the name of the recipe and where I can find it in my cookbooks or magazines. I usually just quickly browse through this to pick out what I want to make.

I get a lot of recipes from my Everyday Food subscription. Also, they have a monthly section called "the Grocery Bag" where they list what to buy from the store for the week, and then have recipes for five meals, some of which have overlapping ingredients, making it more reasonable. This may save a bunch of time you would have spent planning, but that's assuming that you want to eat what's offered for each meal.

The Urban Outfitters here in Richmond, VA has a large selection of the KnockKnock pads and I've been buying them there for the last 6 months. Before that I just ordered them from http://www.knockknock.biz/commerce/Pads/All-Out-Of.html . They're $7.50 each.

This meal planning site has been wonderful for me. The grocery lists that come with the week's menu are so helpful. Also the menus are customizable. Definitely worth the $5 or so a month. http://thescramble.com/index.php