Getting Nerdy with Groceries: Tips to Trim Your Budget

[@erikahagan8767]

I write my holiday meal plans in September (Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years), and spend a happy day with a spreadsheet listing ingredients and quantities, sorted by date needed and if they are pantry, freezer, or fridge items. Then, every week starting in September, I buy one or two things for the holidays based on the spreadsheet - prioritize what's needed first, and what can be stored a long time. That way, when the holiday rolls around, I'm only buying fresh ingredients like veggies and it doesn't make my grocery budget explode. The week before Thanksgiving is usually *less* money for groceries than a typical week for me, because I've done so much ahead and so I don't need to buy for Thurs/Fri meals. Anyway, there's my helpful grocery budgeting tip!

[@YNABofficial]

That's next level! And I'm so glad it includes a spreadsheet!! ~Ernie

[@RandomFandomDragon]

That is such an awesome idea!

[@lisabailey0429]

That really is a wonderful idea

[@LeahBandB]

What a fantastic idea!

[@bugwaterguy]

I have a separate category for "bulk food". We buy our meat from a 4-H youth every year at the county fair. It can be difficult to plan for that - because essentially you are buying all your meat groceries for the year on one day. We really like it because it supports young people, the meat is raised humanely, and all the money goes back to our local economy.

[@CitizenPlane]

My trick for saving money is to make 4 times the amount of food for dinner each night. The extra is packed in single servings into microwaveable dishes, and put in the freezer. I eat these homemade frozen meals for breakfast and lunch, and use them to give myself a night off from cooking one or two nights per week. Now I just need to find more durable dishes, since the plastic ones I bought break down too fast.

[@michellebissonnette7801]

Wow, I have made double batches but never thought of making quadruple batches and then just freezing it. Brilliant! When I freeze meals, I use glass containers. It's easy to just let it thaw a bit and then pop in the microwave. Don't need to worry about damaging plastic containers.

[@SGast]

I like to do no-spend challenges - groceries edition. I don't buy groceries for a set timeframe and use what I already have. It helps me to really cut down on food waste. My favorite time to do this is the week before we go on vacation as anything left in the fridge would likely spoil and the money saved can be used for a fun day during the vacation. The other time I usually do it is after the holidays. We always have a lot of leftovers, and the mini-reset helps me get back to normal. The money I save goes right back into the Christmas fund. There is nothing better than being ahead of your Christmas savings in January.

[@bookworm1956]

My mum always called the week before any vacation "the week of the empty fridge", and generally arranged things in such a way that the last evening before we left, we'd be invited to dinner at a friend's house. She had several friends who would do this, and the arrangement was reciprocal. It would also sometimes come into play on returning from a trip, if someone arrived when the shops were closed (Sunday in Europe). They'd be invited and would leave with a loaf of bread and a carton of milk, some cheese and a handful of fruit and veg as well. Enough to have breakfast before needing to go shopping.

[@lilgreenhen]

If you have even a small area to do it- grow your own lettuce! It's SO easy. I do it on our apartment patio.

[@Jes-Hib]

For the longest time, I didn’t realize that when people talked about their grocery budget that they weren’t including “consumables” like paper towels. I could never figure out how people only spent $400 a month at the grocery store.

[@nosirrahm]

I do include it in mine, but I’m thinking about breaking it out because sometimes a few of them can hit in one month and it hurts (I shop at Costco for most consumables). What do you mean I spent $156 of my $200 in week 1? 🫣😫

[@cariluv2]

Same here! I just started separating it out into a "home goods" category 2 months ago.

[@michellebissonnette7801]

Same!!!!

[@rachelcrossen8136]

Because consumables cost more at the grocery store then other places.

[@ZacharyStrebeck]

My category is "Groceries and Toiletries" (soon to be renamed to sundries). Can't be bothered to separate them. I'm not as nerdy as some!

[@jordanhoman0212]

7:13 groceries don't have tax, so add and enter those first! The leftover amount will be more accurate to what you spent in the other category. Or at self checkout, you can scan all of one category, enter the total into a calculator or onto a note, then repeat for each category. You don't need to add everything together then, just subtract a couple numbers to get the right amounts.

[@homeatlast4ever]

I live in a state where groceries are taxed at 2%, while other items are at 7%. The one thing I hate about split transactions is I can't do the math in the line

[@kimcuster9884]

We have it split out: STOCKPILE (for foods that we don't need but want to stock up on) Then we have STAYING CLEAN AND ORGANIZED (for TP, detergent, etc for things we can't eat but need for basic living) then LIQUID COURAGE (for all things boozy) ; GROCERIES for things we eat during this month; and then a COSTCO/SAM'S for our bulk stores. It does seem daunting at first, but once you get used it, it is super handy to know how much we are spending on specific things. Some months a couple of those categories don't get used, but it is super handy.

[@nosirrahm]

I was in Costco yesterday. I went to the self checkout since they don’t want to do multiple with an employee - I broke out my purchases - pet food, car, and groceries. I then stopped at the food court and bought a slice of pizza. Prior to that I got gas and then had them credit the difference of a previous purchase that went on sale right after I bought it. I can’t tell ya how delighted I was with all my receipts I had to enter in my car. 😂 I’m still new to YNAB so it gives me practice, I literally needed that budget mgmt fix like an addict. 😬

[@nosirrahm]

Also, I’m Not a month ahead and things like gas, groceries, blow money, dog food is on a bi-weekly (weekly targets) funding schedule. When I get a month ahead, I will use the extra paycheck months to fund those extra weeks as needed.

[@lynnmallory2096]

My tip is: I always clean my refrigerator on the same day every week. This may sound like a house cleaning tip instead of groceries, but it's an important step in the meal planning, shopping list system. We have weekly curbside trash pickup, so I do it the day before that (though I have to throw away very little food). I can easily inventory everything in the fridge. Then I can meal plan around anything that doesn't get used up immediately and do my shopping on the next day or two. The time works out so I can avoid weekends when the store is busy or the shelves in my food co-op are bare. Because I always do the cleaning at the end of my meal planning week, it's very quick to clean the refrigerator and to put the new perchases away. Nothing ever gets lost in the back of the fridge and wasted. On the subject of 'eating from the pantry', one year we had so many leftovers (3 tamales, a pint of posole, way too many cookies) , I refused to buy anything but absolute necessities until it was gone. We ate for an ENTIRE WEEK while only buying milk and bananas! Meals had some unusual combinations, like mixed fruit with cookie crumbles, but it was all good.

[@valerieproctor517]

Yes! Our Wednesday night standing meal is "clean out the fridge!"

[@DanaTwoPonies]

Part of the reason I stumbled over budgets in the past was because I didn't like sorting out the categories from the receipt. I have changed the grocery and supplies category to Living. Now almost everything I buy on my weekly trips to the grocery store go under the category of living. I'm not running a business so I don't need to track that many categories. I also don't feel the need to see how much I'm spending on each of those things. If I need it, I need it. I will track individual subscriptions because I feel that's a behavioral issue that I need to stay on top of. Things like food, paper towels, dish towels, all go into my Living category.

[@joanhall3718]

I couldn’t get a handle on my groceries until I started a category group titled Food. In it is Groceries and Dining Out. I included all food eaten on vacations. Now I can really see how my spending on food fluctuates. It’s made a big difference in allowing me to be intentional with my spending.

[@rebekahyoungers831]

I like this idea! It's weird how easy it is to view money differently based on the category it's coming out of - this would really put dining out into perspective.

[@amayaboman433]

I'm a college student at a Big10 University and I do a 'Food Reserve,' where I place all my money for food for the month. I still have individual categories for Groceries, Dining Out, Ordering Out, Coffee, and Social Meals (Meals w/ Friends). That way I can track where my money is going, but I can still have wiggle room if one week I'm getting dinners out with friends, and the next week I'm busy studying and I want to stock up and meal prep!

[@conureron3792]

That’s a good idea - max flexibility.

[@quirkyblackenby]

That’s genius actually

[@micheleplayer813]

I finally broke “sundries” out of my grocery budget after listening to this podcast, and I was really surprised how helpful that was! And I love the idea of groceries auxiliary, yes, it’s nerdy, but if your budget is tight, it’s a really helpful suggestion. I’m starting right now with that category. Great podcast guys.

[@vladimir.zlokazov]

I've been budgeting with YNAB for half a year but couldn't get myself to separate groceries from consumables :) gotta become more nerdy like you guys. Groceries is actually the most popular category in terms of the amount of transactions with us. We have a supermarket on the ground floor of our condo and sometimes we visit several times a day. It's like an extended fridge really. With rising prices in Russia I had to raise the groceries category up 35% since March. Gotta thank Putin for getting us into this stupid murderous war and alienating half of the world :(

[@tanyaw2283]

Ernie! I'm dying over here... "you gotta eat"... that is literally my category name for my groceries! 😂💀😂💀😂

[@sofondadavis5028]

Mine is... I can eat. From the Antwone Fisher movie.

[@NettieFIRE]

For bulk buy special deals I use my ‘Pantry Silo’ category which is alway filled (in advance) for the beginning of the month with $120 float. It is near on impossible to smooth out the spends on food type categories so, this Pantry Silo that can be used to fund *extra* into other sub-categories like ‘groceries’ (when prices are on special), ‘household’ (when bulk/expensive items are running low), rare ‘restaurant’ events (that are a higher price that expected), or for ‘hosting’ (spur of the moment family gatherings). I gamify it by trying to not distribute this money for spending. If I do need to take advantage of special prices - I gleefully spend from it while is purpose remains sacrosanct; like magic my groceries category get a boost just when it needs it and (no soon than that). So much comfort right there!

[@bookworm_angie]

I go every 2 weeks: The first grocery of month is Walmart and the 2nd is split between Kroger & Aldi. I also buy other products for things like cleaning, laundry, dish soap, vitamins etc. from online stores that sell more green products without as much chemicals in them plus they last longer as well. Some products I buy I will only buy at certain stores where some products I buy the product where it is cheaper or in-stock.

[@ReeceBowman1867]

When shopping, I always leave the consumables (Toilet paper etc) to last to go through the check out. That way when I split the transaction its only the last five or so lines of the receipt and leeds to easy adding up etc

[@dawnkoplitz1825]

The thing that used to throw my grocery budget was hosting any kind of party. Now I’ve created a Parties and Holidays category. This isn’t for Christmas, it’s for the rest of the holidays ( 4th of July picnic, a few ppl over for dinner, birthday parties, etc). I also tend to buy meat in bulk and have a separate category for that being as it’s usually a few hundred dollars at a time.

[@wiseman4160]

Those are defently true expenses on my banking I nickname account irregular spending for holidays ect

[@elizabeth1234..]

I put the items on the belt separated by whether it is sundries or food or what not and I take note of the amount when I hit the end of each amount. The receipt doesn’t show the amount because it is auto sorted and it’s always in a weird order And when I meal prep if I can bulk it up and make double or triple And the ingredients are on sale I will so I can freeze them for later. It’s good if the budget is low or I don’t want to cook

[@benc3726]

Here's a wild suggestion for the YNAB team: Integrate with major grocery stores in some way to pull in receipts so that I don't have to hang onto or find my receipts to figure out the splits. The coolest but hardest to do accurately enough to be helpful would be if it could recognize items and automatically do the split. But just being able to see the receipts in YNAB would be extremely helpful.

[@SGast]

Groceries are one of the last categories I cut. I try to not be excessive with it but I budget enough so I can get everything I want and a few extras. I love cooking and baking and good quality ingredients can be really expensive. So my budget is probably a lot higher than it needs to be. Especially because I prefer buying organic or even regeneratively farmed whenever possible because I believe in less harmful farming practices. I still spent less on food than many of my friends just by avoiding waste, buying things like spices in bulk, buying directly from farmers whenever possible and making a lot of things from scratch. There is almost always some possibility to save on food, however, if you can afford it, it can be your choice. I could cut my budget by half without too much effort just by making different choices but I choose to make food a priority.

[@periteu]

At the moment i have: - Groceries: all consumables purchased so that I am hydrated, fed and cleaned; and that my things are cleaned and functioning. (Example: Food, Cosmetics, household toiletries, toilet paper, batteries) - Treats: all consumables purchased to feel food pleasure. (Beer, chips, snacks) - Expensives: all consumables purchased infrequently and they are somewhat expensive (Example: sunscreen, niacinamide, face moisturizer, face cleaner) the "expensives" category I created because this are things that they greatly unbalance the budget for groceries when they happend. I don't like the name tho. I'm open for ideas.

[@lynnmallory2096]

Not sure of everything in your Expensive category, but maybe 'health and beauty' would work. I would be sure though, to keep a separate category for 'medical ' to cover things like doctors visits and prescriptions.

[@genetjones5150]

I have a "personal care" category for moisturizer, haircuts, etc.

[@vickireissig9240]

I actually split my categories out a little more. I have groceries, paper/cleaning, health and beauty (shampoo, make up, vitamins, etc), and recently I added a category I call hospitality. That covers things like holiday/birthday/special occasion grocery items that were too often busting my grocery budget. And I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who does multiple transactions so I don't have to do splits! 😆

[@blcantrell]

I don't know why I haven't thought of this! I also shop the same day and on long months I end up over budget. I am going to keep an eye on that and budget for an extra week when I see there are 5 shopping trips in one month.

[@LuizAlbertoCrispinianoGarcia]

Thank you guys! This is my most important group for me, because I spend more on groceries than my rent… that’s why after decades budgeting and even going on weekly budgeting, I am now with more than 20 categories so I could see where I was spending and why… it’s a pain so I always invest time at home splitting in categories… and what made me see is, oh well, it’s our family priorities… I also debated if it’s groceries or something else for a long time and what I settled for simplicity years ago, if it’s from Walmart or targets it’s groceries! 🤣🙃 Few exceptions, like toys, or phones and TVs, though… We almost don’t have a dining out or fun out money… so we spend it somewhere else. Good video guys!

[@catherinebeckemeyer3992]

Getting started with YNAB and y’all are so helpful! Thank you for being knowledgeable and relatable!

[@craigholmes9396]

I have been using YNAB since the beginning. Groceries are one of the hardest categories. Here’s how I tackle them. I allocated money for groceries and after about 6 months of careful consideration, I had enough data to determine an average per month. Using that figure, I added a bit more for a bumper. Once I know that much, I take it and divide that by 30 (for an average). I use that to give me an amount per day number and then multiple by 7 for a weekly amount. I have 2 categories, a “Grocery - Monthly” and a “Grocery - Weekly”. I put all the money for a month’s groceries in the monthly category. My grocery week starts on Saturday. So a weeks worth runs from Saturday-Friday. If the first of the month starts before a Saturday, I will move every day prior to Saturday to the weekly category. When Saturday arrives, I move the weekly amount from the monthly to the weekly category. By doing it this way, I keep the actual amount I intend to spend for any given week at a manageable amount and I can see how much I actually have. Of course, you can do a similar technique if you shop biweekly. The key is to break the month’s grocery amount down into a finite amount where you can gauge how you are doing. This allows me to stay within budget as I shop. I put all groceries and sundries in this category. Since it is based upon average spending over time, it works well. Dining Out gets its own category. This allows me to keep spending on eating out reigned in. If we don’t have it, we don’t eat out. We cook at home instead. I only eat out once or twice a month, and this keeps expenses down.

[@OwnYourPowerTV]

Thank you for the entertaining podcast fellas! You have turned me into a budget nerd lol I’m fairly new to it all, but enjoying the videos and testing things out.

[@carolea7158]

Single, no kids. Pringles & Trader Joe's beef jerky go very, very fast too.

[@bwfidler]

Ernie! Consumables… I’m glad that category name worked for you! I’ve wrestled with that category name forever until I finally found that one (I borrowed it from someone else, so I can’t take credit).

[@olderthanmethuselah]

I used two categories, "Groceries" (Kroger, etc.) and "Consumables" (Costco, Target, etc.), but we ended up combining them into one HUGE category "Groceries" for simplicity. This huge category varied a lot, which is why I wanted it split; but it was too complicated for my wife to split things into food and sundries when checking out or doing splits with receipts later. Simplicity is key. Instead, we use a "Bulk" category, and when we purchase consumables at Costco in bulk or a lot of meat to put in the freezer at cheap prices, we add it to Bulk and then make a point of using it over. These are really the only things that cause our Groceries category to explode.

[@Tesla-Cannon]

You can also pay with two different cards usually. Like if you spent $50 on groceries and $20 on a household, you can say can I put $50 on this card and the rest on another card and I think YNAB will categorize it as two transactions.

[@olderthanmethuselah]

I used two categories, "Groceries" (Kroger, etc.) and "Consumables" (Costco, Target, etc.), but we ended up combining them into one HUGE category "Groceries" for simplicity. This huge category varied a lot, which is why I wanted it split; but it was too complicated for my wife to split things into food and sundries when checking out or doing splits with receipts later. Simplicity is key. Instead, we use a "Bulk" category, and when we purchase consumables at Costco in bulk or a lot of meat to put in the freezer at cheap prices, we add it to Bulk and then make a point of using it over. These are really the only things that cause our Groceries category to explode. Also, if we host people for a nice dinner, we usually make a shopping trip for that and categorize it Hospitality, which we keep some funds in.

[@KeithBarrowsToday]

There is a huge difference between a Top Ramen (college) diet and a health specific, targeted diet (in your 50s and later). Dining out is separated from Groceries for us. Groceries will contain paper rolls and toilet paper and maybe 1 or 2 other sundries. The middle aisles though (soaps, cleaning supplies, light bulbs, etc) are never on the same order and go in their own category. 95% of our food is found around the outside edges of the typical grocery store. Healthy (expensive), sometimes organic (expensive), low carb (expensive), fresh (expensive) groceries. Average monthly for 2 of us is $1k just for groceries. I have no idea how to get to anything lower than this without grossly affecting our health now.

[@genetjones5150]

Same issue for this health-conscious family of 5. It's easier to buy those healthy foods in bulk with a larger household, though. Maybe you could co-op with other households for some farm-direct or other bulk orders (like Azure Standard).

[@briankpaine]

Adding a new expense line now... "Household Consumable Sundries"

[@YNABofficial]

🤣🤣🤣 ~Ernie

[@Tiredmum]

Not sure in America but in some shops in the UK you can also ask for a subtotal (that will show up on the bill) if you want to split the bills but only have one transaction.

[@RandomFandomDragon]

I prefer doing the bulk of the shopping online; I go through the grocery store's service, so I don't see an additional cost. For fresh meat and produce I do prefer to go in store, but then I have a very specific list and I'm not wandering the aisles adding random stuff to the cart. Plus (at least with Kroger), when you shop online you can add stuff directly from the coupon area, so extra savings!

[@jamesdavis-claydon8520]

I have found for me that shopping local whenever possible is a huge time and money saver in the end, you pay more up front, but you waste less food, which was a huge problem for me. On an unrelated subject I had a huge win last month. I was able to get into a consumer debt consolidation program which consolidates all your debt, and then forgives a portion of it and you have to pay back the rest on a schedule.. This combined with a huge influx of cash from selling a car and sharing with my mom puts me at 'debt free' on paper.. In other words, i still have to pay off the consolidated amount, but its considerably less.. So I essentially went from 20K in January to 0 in November.

[@apikateure]

I call the sundries category "household" but things like shampoo go into "Health/Beauty/Self Care" :)

[@rebekahyoungers831]

I like the idea of the weekly target, but my issue is that the money from the last week doesn't carry over in full to the next month. I shop weekly, but like to keep out a little bit of money for a mid-week shop. But if my grocery day falls on the last day of the month and I don't spend my full weekly target, it doesn't carry over. I can manually think about adding this amount the next month, but then it adds an extra little chunk to the bar graph and it's not pretty. 🤣 Also, shoutout to Ben for mentioning meatless meals as a way to save money! We are a vegetarian (mostly vegan) family and this is a big way we keep our grocery spending low.

[@rachelparent2720]

i call my random category "Unfortunate Essentials" because it's all that stuff you have to buy, toothpaste, garbage bags, I'll even pop things like mascara in there because it comes up every few months and for me qualifies as a need.

[@aureliaglenn2220]

Seems right, because these items are often (and have been for years) more costly than the food!

[@MindyTunnell]

The one down side to letting others do shopping for you is you get expired or "expires this week" items. It's incredible the crap they hand off to you cause they can. What I've started doing is putting my stuff on the list at Walmart, and then I have all the isle numbers right there in the app. I start at the front of the store and shop my way to the back, so I can grab anything on the way up to the check out that I might have missed or overlooked on the list. Or, for us short folks, hope that there's someone taller around on the second go around to grab stuff off the top shelf. 🤣

[@libellulareading8859]

When y’all were talking about your kids getting bigger and bigger sized bowls for snacks, it reminded me of when I was a kid and my brother took a huge mixing bowl from the cabinet and filled it to the brim with cereal and milk😂 This was at a time when my family was really struggling financially and we (the kids) didn’t know about it. My dad was (rightfully) upset and told my brother to make sure to eat all of it so as to not waste it 😂 Well, he ended up not being able to eat it all and the uneaten portion had to get thrown away!! Lesson learned hahah

[@YNABofficial]

I'm sure I did the same thing as a kid lol ~Ernie

[@stevengallaher7955]

I feel like I am going in a completely different direction than many, but I now have a lot of categories (including groceries) with 3-month targets instead of monthly or weekly. I do this (or even annual targets) for any category which fluctuates a fair amount from month to month. I started this when the new goals features rolled out and it has worked well. (Edit - I guess this is a kind of rolling with the punches.)

[@A2thaLO]

For us, it helps that we live across the street from Aldi.

[@margaretcraig6538]

I call toilet paper etc. "non-grocery essentials". Works for me!

[@Mama5bearcubs]

Just watching the beginning of the video, talking about Grocery categories, then what to name the rest. So here is what I do. We get paid every other week. I love being super detailed in my ynab. Maybe because the rest of my life isn't..haha.. Per pay I have a set amount set aside for groceries, I divide that by 2 and have a food week 1 category and food week 2 category.. so, every week I get that category freshly filled. We also do not have a fast food budget since we are paying off debt so if we do eat out and get fast food that comes from our grocery budget.. I do have a category for fast food to transfer money from the food wk 1/2 categories. That way I can be on the up and up about where that money went. Lastly the "sundries" category. Food is food, not for paper towels. I have 2 categories, home goods and health and hygiene. Ex: paper towels, dish soap, etc.. goes to home goods, while toilet paper, shampoo, feminine products go to health and hygiene. I don't have any problems transferring money between the two, I just like it more detailed.

[@Peter-kt2gb]

Yes the two transactions! I've done that many times at Wlamart. 😂

[@elissalarsen9145]

Get a cute, but not huge container for goldfish so you have to decant them into the jar and hide the big box 🤣

[@wkbellows]

I think Household Supplies (which are different from Household Items) works well for toilet paper, shampoo, etc. Personally, though, I combine them with groceries: Groceries & Household Supplies.

[@breezybre2670]

Hi Ernie....wow so cool. We have also adopted one of our kiddos. :)

[@YNABofficial]

❤️ ~Ernie

[@melindajolley9866]

My husband and I always separate our items at the stores we shop

[@KernelKrunch663]

What is the formula for auxillary groceries for 5 weeks months when you budget monthly?

[@YNABofficial]

I assign more in those months (which means other categories get a little less). You could also proactively plan for it. Treat that 5th week like a True Expense and set a little aside every month for them. ~Ernie

[@robbien.3964]

I never found a price book app that I liked for either iPhone or Android. I think Ben has convinced me to move my price book back into a spreadsheet.

[@ACoveredDishLIfe]

I use a simple app called Price Reminder. You have to start from scratch but that also means it's customizable to your preferences. Far from perfect but works for me.

[@robbien.3964]

@@ACoveredDishLIfe Thanks. I'll give that a try. The spreadsheet ended up being difficult to view on my phone in the store.

[@alisonearle5781]

Si funny! I love you guys. I relate to lots of the things you say. X

[@Tiredmum]

Worse when you home ed too. My son is always here and always eating (he's 10)

[@sykoskier18]

Target app is the worst I end up getting multiple charges on my card for one order, so it messes everything up anyways.

[@genetjones5150]

Same with Amazon. I make one transaction for an order, and then I have to go into my imported transactions, select the ones that match up, and reject them. Then my husband forgets to enter a transaction for his order and I get totally lost. :D

[@lisabailey0429]

Any chance you can share that spreadsheet? @ben

[@sherryfrey1693]

Please explain WHY you separate out groceries from consumables in your budget. TIA

[@YNABofficial]

To me, groceries and consumables are very different. One is feeding my family and the other is more about maintaining a household. And since they're so different in my world, I want to be able to have some control over how much I'm spending in each area so I give them separate categories. But a lot of folks combine them because that makes the most sense to them! ~Ernie

[@arambladen3087]

I have a question... Why the "Credit Card Payments" category is not included in the "spending" and "income vs expenses" reports? 🤔

[@YNABofficial]

We don't want to double count! The individual credit card spending transactions have already been included (and can be found in their respective categories in those reports). ~Ernie

[@arambladen3087]

@@YNABofficial Hi Ernie, Thank you for replying!! Is there a way I can see how much I'm sending to my credit cards throughout the year without having me to calculate it myself? 🤔

[@YNABofficial]

@@arambladen3087 Yes, with the Spending and Income v Expense reports you can filter by account! ~Ernie

[@arambladen3087]

@@YNABofficial Ok, thank you, Ernie!! 😊

[@lzhu87]

Well, in California, sale taxes only apply to non-food stuff. So, the auto-distribution doesn't work...

[@krystalbullers7188]

This is what I use to break out my "consumables" vs. food. All the consumables have a T next to them since they are taxed so I just have one split line for them + the tax. Once I've put them in, whatever is left is groceries.

[@jenniferquezada2687]

Where's the link to your blog?

[@YNABofficial]

Here's the blog www.youneedabudget.com/blog/ and here's the blog post Ben mentioned www.youneedabudget.com/our-298-grocery-budget-for-a-family-of-5/ ~Ernie

[@libbysworld7649]

I honestly want to have a group of friends I can chat about budgeting with like this. lol I don't have that.

[@qtravelers473]

I’ve probably done 5 different transactions in the self-checkout 😅

[@Carmen-wx2vw]

I didn't allow my kids to eat the berries we picked until we paid for them.

[@hindunanziri4525]

Either have potatoes 🥔 and plantains or a 1 day 🤔 of rice 🍚 or corn meal. That is for a week. Make food combinations for another week but not have them 😕 all at any time.

[@phylissbrassey8431]

Where you use sundries I use Home Maintenance.

[@JimmayVV]

emergency meal tip: Chicken Pie

[@JetBrews]

There HAS to be a better way than separating household and groceries and doing two separate transactions. There HAS to be...

[@JetBrews]

I FIGURED IT OUT: You don't separate; just put everything into ONE Grocery/Household Category and increase your budget to accommodate that.

[@YNABofficial]

@@JetBrews A lot of YNABers do exactly this and love it! ~Ernie

[@Natazavrik]

May is the freaking worst!!

[@YNABofficial]

So glad I'm not alone on this! ~Ernie

[@greenlantern1986]

Inflation is so crazy right now this video feels like it's from a different time and it's only 5 weeks old from when they recorded it!

[@JohnDemetre]

Apologies in advance (as this has nothing to do with the content of the video - which is great!), but I must point out a word usage pet peeve of mine that leapt out. The word is "versus" - pronounced like: ver-siss or ver-sez. "Verse" is a completely different word meaning a part of a song, poem, or Bible chapter. Sorry - these things just drive me crazy!

[@billgyrotech]

Kind of worthless advice.