Dotzour Family.com

Hi!  Welcome to my third installment in my series on money management.  (See post one and post two:housing here!)  In an effort to spend a bit less and save a bit more, I’m taking a look at my family’s expenses.  I started big, and I’m working my way down.  However, our second biggest expense – Food – is such a big topic, I think I have the pieces of several posts floating around in my head.

First off, the details.  According to the analysis of Mint.com, our family around 20% of our money on food.   I’ve done some looking around, and it looks like the average American family spends 5-10% of their income on food…roughly half of that spent on groceries and half spent dining out. So we spend at least twice the average.  That’s a lot!

Granted, our Food category is pretty inclusive.  At the grocery store, we also purchase things like laundry detergent, diapers, light bulbs, Kleenex and toiletries, so those items are all lumped in with our grocery store purchases.  Even so, we spend an average of $160 each week on groceries.  Is this crazy?  How much does your family spend?

Here’s the rest of the picture.  As a family, we spend an average of $6/day eating out.  We spend about $4/week at coffee shops (this also includes ice cream at JavaCat!).  Over the last year, we paid $2,400 on food outside of the home.  Geesh!  It felt like we were being judicious in our choices about eating out, but that seems like a lot of money!

As we look for ways to curb spending, our Food category seems like  a critical one to examine since it comprises such a big chunk of our overall expenses.  We love our food, and for us, the food we eat has a lot to do with our values and the way we want to nourish our family and our world.

I got a master’s degree in Natural Resource Policy and Behavior.  As an undergraduate at Carleton, I took classes in sustainable agriculture.  In my work at Gathering Waters, I did some work with the Federal Farm Bill.  Throughout these experiences, I’ve read and thought and talked extensively about conventional and more sustainable farming practices.

I’ve looked at the history and the current status of the US’s farm policy, and I’m acutely aware of how farm subsidies, school lunch programs, food-stamp programs, and even the food pyramid have in many cases lost the concept of feeding people real, fresh food that’s good for our bodies and our communities.  I’ve seen how difficult it is for people to change behaviors.  Perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned in my studies that since we live in a capitalist society, if we want things to change, we need to vote with our money.  I feel passionately about that.  No matter who I elect into office or what education programs I help create, the thing that matters the most is, collectively, the companies we support with our daily dollars.

I want to see a shift away from conglomerate farms.  I want farmers to earn a living wage.  I want farmers to use good, healthy farming practices.  I want lots of products offered in grocery stores that don’t contain trans-fat or high-fructose corn syrup or long lists of words I can’t pronounce.  I want to enjoy food that was raised or grown right nearby so I’m not encouraging so much long-distance transport of food and so I can support local farms.  I want my kids to know and expect their food to be real, healthy, and tasty.  To achieve those goals, I believe that I need to be a conscientious consumer.

Now I want to step back for a moment and give a disclaimer.  What I’m hoping to do in this post is to share some of my family’s values, which are then shaping the decisions we are making about how to spend our money.  We’ve come to these values over the course of many years, and they are personal and evolving.  I think everyone has the right to express their own values – be they political, religious, or of a foodie nature.  I just hope that no one read any judgmental tone in any of this, as none is intended.

So back to being a conscientious consumer…  Unfortunately, in general, I’ve found that purchasing food and products that promote the values I hold dear means I’m paying a premium.  But I’m willing to do it!  Since the time I was a young girl in the 1980s and learned about dolphin-safe tuna, I’ve felt that it’s worthwhile to spend a few extra cents to purchase products that are doing good.

Ten years ago, Bryan and I bought all conventionally-produced groceries.  We now spend maybe half of our grocery budget on what I’ll call non-traditional food items…things are either organic or local or higher quality.  In my next post, I’m going to take a look at some of those items (milk, eggs, diapers, coffee) and look at our budget implications of spending our money this way.

My hope is that if we have to change some of our spending patterns, we can find strategic areas to cut so we can continue to live by our values while saving some money in the near-term.Let me know what you think about all this!  How much does your family spend on groceries every week?  Are there more expensive things you buy that think are really worth while?  What grocery items are most important to you?

I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

As Bryan and I have been looking at our expenses, I’ve been starting big and working my way down.  If you have the interest and patience, I think I’ll proceed with this money management topic (see my first post here) by sharing some thoughts about each of our major expense categories.  So jump in, and hang on!!

(I’m pulling my stats from Mint.com, which I’ve been using to analyze our spending over the last year.)

The first expense, the biggest one (27% of our annual expenses), is housing.

  Continue reading “Budget item one: housing”

I’d just like to send a big thanks to everyone who responded to my first post on money management.  It feels great to have a community of friends and family chiming in, and it’s neat to see all the different ways that families make their finances work.  Thanks for sharing all your ideas and suggestions and support!

I think that writing out some of my thoughts about budgeting and money management should be fun.  In fact, my next post is already in the works.

Tonight, I’m working on the budget for Andrew’s preschool (I’m just getting started as the treasurer…it seems like all my free time these days I’m thinking about money!).  In that context, I was just thinking about how budgets are great because they really help define the priorities for an organization.  Like Jessica’s comment (or actually Mitch’s comment on my last post), budgets aren’t about limiting so much as they are about purposefully allocating.

Well, in my case, maybe they’re mostly about limiting, but I’m going to try to think of it positively!  Thanks for joining me as I meander forward, through this topic.