8 Grocery Shopping on a Budget

Using the amount you allotted in The Budget Exercise, go shopping for one month. You will not be able to buy a month’s worth of some items, such as milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread (unless you have a freezer), meat (again, freezer), eggs, or cheese. Figure out how much you need to set aside weekly for those items, and purchase the rest for a month. Remember that you can take part of your hygiene budget (or possibly all of it) for items that are often purchased during a grocery shopping trip: soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, dish soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, pet supplies. Also remember that you will need to pack school lunches for Morgan, possibly snacks for Avery, and that depending on the work schedule you decided on for the adults, you might need to account for some “fast food” (or fast to prepare food) for some evenings.

Want to turn grocery shopping on your budget into a challenge? Look up the Canada Food Guide or any of a number of provincial food guides for healthy eating (for example, Manitoba: and build your grocery shopping lists (weekly and monthly) by adhering to the recommended daily servings while also incorporating your own budget.