Life cannot be separated from daily needs, such as groceries. Having enough money to buy groceries is very important. But, you shouldn’t spend all your money only on groceries.
4 Easy Ways to Create a Grocery Budget
1. Find out how much you’ve been spending for groceries
Why do you need to know how much you’ve been spending for groceries before creating a grocery budget? Because groceries are priority expenses. By knowing your current grocery spending, you can have a clear picture of your grocery shopping habit.
You can record expenses manually. However, with manual recording, there may be expenses that you forget to record. It's different if you buy groceries through the Jago application. Every transaction is automatically recorded by Jago and you can view the transaction history at any time.
2. Start making a budget for groceries
Now you know how much you’ve been spending on groceries. Next, to start creating a grocery budget, you can ask yourself: is it way too much?
For example, do you really need to spend 50% of your salary on groceries? Is it possible to reduce 10% and save the money instead?
3. Ensure the budget is realistic
Of course, the budget must be realistic. You shouldn’t cut your grocery budget in such a way that you can't buy fruits and vegetables, when both are important for health.
So, what should you do if you want to reduce your grocery budget? You can make a list of what you need for the next week. You can choose to cook at home instead of eating out. You can buy groceries on a full stomach to avoid the temptation of impulsive buying.
For non-perishable goods that you often consume or use, you can buy in bulk. Buying in bulk will usually be cheaper than buying in small quantities.
From the weekly list, you can set the budget appropriately. If you prefer a monthly budget, you just need to multiply by 4.
For budgeting, you can take advantage of the Pocket feature in the Jago application. Create a Spending Pocket for your groceries and personalize as needed. After that, you can move money from the Main Pocket to the Grocery Pocket when budgeting. It's that easy and practical.
4. Don't forget to evaluate
At the end of the month, spare some time to evaluate your budget and spending. Did you manage to stick to the budget or have some budget left? Amazing if so.
However, if you went over budget, you need to find out why and decide what to do next. Do you need to add a little budget or were there times when you found it difficult to resist temptation so you ended up spending more than you should?
In the next few months, you will find the right budget range for your grocery shopping. You will also get used to the new shopping habits.
After that, you don't need to evaluate every month and don't have to worry about overspending. Finally, you will become a jagoan at budgeting. Your finances will also become more organized.
Don't forget to use the Jago application to help you budget more easily and practically. The Jago application can be downloaded here for those who don't have it yet.
