Post Your Spending Breakdown!

[Zikoris]

Just curious because this is something I've been having trouble with ....

When you are looking at your budget, how do you guys manage/categorize food and other purchases, that don't occur at a grocery store?  For instance....

I go to Target to get supplies for the house like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc.  But now they have groceries so I'll also pick up food. 

Or maybe you don't and you just assume that all Target = food or all Target = home supplies?

I'm having a tough time understanding my true spending on food without scrutinizing every single receipt.

I count cleaning and household supplies as groceries, so buying those together is no issue.

The three things I sometimes buy at grocery stores are personal care stuff, movie tickets, and batteries. Since those are pretty infrequent, I just split the transaction in Mint.

If you want to scrutinize your grocery spending, I would recommend keeping all your grocery receipts for a month. A bunch of us did that last month in "Throw Down the Gauntlet" (I think some people are still doing it), and I think everyone found the results pretty interesting.

[Samsam]

This is from the Mint trends pie chart from the last three months:

Bills & Utilities          36     This includes my mortgage,hoa, internet, water, electricity, and gas
Food & Dining          22     groceries and restaurants
Misc Expenses         20     so....this usually isn't here but this is for the wedding in Aug.
Home                       8       
Shopping                 6       
Taxes                      4
Auto & Transport     3
Gifts & Donations    1
 

[zurich78]

Just curious because this is something I've been having trouble with ....

When you are looking at your budget, how do you guys manage/categorize food and other purchases, that don't occur at a grocery store?  For instance....

I go to Target to get supplies for the house like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc.  But now they have groceries so I'll also pick up food. 

Or maybe you don't and you just assume that all Target = food or all Target = home supplies?

I'm having a tough time understanding my true spending on food without scrutinizing every single receipt.

I count cleaning and household supplies as groceries, so buying those together is no issue.

The three things I sometimes buy at grocery stores are personal care stuff, movie tickets, and batteries. Since those are pretty infrequent, I just split the transaction in Mint.

If you want to scrutinize your grocery spending, I would recommend keeping all your grocery receipts for a month. A bunch of us did that last month in "Throw Down the Gauntlet" (I think some people are still doing it), and I think everyone found the results pretty interesting.

Hmmm.  Maybe I should do it this way too.  Count personal care stuff (toothpaste, shampoo) and household supplies (paper towels, toilet paper) in with my grocery budget.  I'd drive myself a lot less crazy this way.

Because the way I have it budgeted is I take my monthly grocery/food budget, divide it by 4 and aim to spend no more than that when I do my weekly grocery store run for that week.  But inevitably, I have some other thing I need to buy like more dish soap and toilet paper and those non-grocery essential items almost always end up putting me a little over my allocation which drives me nuts!  Haha.

[Bakari]

Just curious because this is something I've been having trouble with ....

When you are looking at your budget, how do you guys manage/categorize food and other purchases, that don't occur at a grocery store?  For instance....

I go to Target to get supplies for the house like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc.  But now they have groceries so I'll also pick up food. 

Or maybe you don't and you just assume that all Target = food or all Target = home supplies?

I'm having a tough time understanding my true spending on food without scrutinizing every single receipt.

I just lump paper goods and cleaning supplies under "groceries".  I use cloth towels for all but the grossest cleaning, and only wash stuff when it is actually dirty (not just based on time since last washing), so that stuff doesn't add up to much.  I might buy one roll of paper towels a year, my last laundry detergent purchase lasted several years.

[mom2_3Hs]

For a family of 5 (the tweens eat circles around the rest of us!)

Home (includes utilities)  15%
Food and dining 14%
Kid activities (mostly camp fees for this summer)  10%
Tithe and giving 10%
Auto and transport 9%
Utilities  8%
Travel 7% (to my brother in CA for xmas/NYE + spring break)
Shopping (gifts, household supplies, clothing for kids who grow like weeds) 5%

[mattchuck2]

Hey! First Post! For the past year, Mint tells me that this is where my money goes:

27% Home
18% Auto and Transport (will go down significantly this year now that my Scion xB is paid off)
17% Food and Dining (the Alcohol & Bars subcategory is probably too high)
10% Bills and Utilities
9% Taxes (Property taxes/School taxes)
5% "Shopping" (which includes Target, but also my Ski and Golf habits)
3% Travel
6% "Other"

[Squirrel away]

I lump in shampoo, soap, cleaning products in the budget for groceries too.