My 2026 Grocery Budget Musings, part 2

Here’s my My 2026 Grocery Budget Musings, part 2. Thank you for putting up with me.

Did you read part 1? Bless your heart. While I wrote that, I was verbally processing – with my fingers – as I typed. Thank you for reading. And as it turns out, my processing continued into this post also. Wowza. Are you ready for more?

My 2026 Grocery Budget Musings, part 2

THE FIRST DRAFT

The summary of we discovered in Part 1 is that I struggle to spend what my brain tells me is “unnecessary money,” therefore, I had to talk myself into increasing our grocery budget for 2026.

Yep, I’m frugal. Matt is too. Yay. That has served us well and brought us to this point. So here’s what’s great about this…We can now be more generous with others and also:

We can be generous to ourselves.

What if I were to “give” myself some extra budget money so that I can breathe a little bit easier as I feed a large household every day? This truly will be a gift.

We can afford it because we are frugal in other areas. We only buy what’s needed. So with that…

What if I could realize that ordering pizza sometimes actually is a NEED?

That’s a hard one for me – because even on the hard days, I can figure out a way to feed us without spending more than necessary. But what about my energy? My time? The needs of our children that take so much of both? I’m going to move forward with a new mindset. Or at least I’m beginning that journey.

Why all this jabber? What’s your new grocery budget, Laura?

I landed on: $1,600/month.

For 14 people; 7 adults, 7 kids.

There you go. The past two years, I’ve budgeted $1,400 and have spent an average of $1,250/month.

Kudos to me, but also…so what?

I guess I’ve taken pride in being able to feed so many people with such a small amount of money. I really, really like saving money. But I also really, really need to alleviate some of the mental load I carry. So I almost decided not to have a grocery budget at all.

Depending on how this year goes, I might do just that – scrap the whole idea of keeping track and just BUY WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE NEED IT, THE END.

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Take a breath, dear readers. Now you are about to read…

THE UPDATE

I wrote the above DRAFT on January 5 while I was able to have two solid, uninterrupted hours at Panera thinking, pondering, and writing.

I finished the final sentence, tucked away my computer, went to the potty – because…coffee – then planned to run next door to Costco before heading home to jump back into the evening grind with our family.

It was in the Panera bathroom stall (you did not need to know that part) that the words I’d just written spoke very clearly to me:

“…scrap the whole idea of keeping track and just BUY WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE NEED IT, THE END.”

Those words, and the very idea of doing exactly what I’d just written made me feel…

Beautiful Freedom

Imagine not thinking about money: spending, calculating, keeping track, posting about it – well. It suddenly sounded wonderful and I wondered why I’d needed to write almost two thousand words just to come up with it. (<– Because writing is therapeutic for me and God tells me things through my typing fingers, that’s why.)

With new resolve and a heart full of peace, I went next door to Costco. I threw everything I’d just thought about regarding grocery budget numbers out the window, and I simply put everything into our cart that would bless our family and allow me to take care of our large household of dear ones. And while I did, I didn’t overthink any of it. In fact, I felt great about it. I even grabbed a $100 pack of Valentino’s Pizza gift cards for $74.99 to keep on hand for a night I needed a break, and it felt very, very good.

Oh look at that. I got everything I would have normally bought anyway.

How much did I spend on these groceries? I don’t know. I don’t care. I threw away my receipt after leaving Costco because I had decided in the Panera bathroom to stop having a grocery budget.

Huh. How about that?

The day after

On January 6, the day after my writing, revelation, and non-overthinking shopping trip – this still felt great.

The reality is, I will likely still spend between $1,200-$1,600 on groceries for our household every month. I’m still frugal and I’m never going to stop looking for sales, meat markdowns, and great prices on groceries. To me, that’s just wise spending practices and I’ve learned how to be good at this.

But not keeping track of it all takes a little chunk of burden out of my head. Plus “giving myself permission” to order pizza or whatever else we might need on an extra hard day is a generous gift I can give to myself. What a weird form of self care. But I believe that’s what it is!

Ok, one tiny regret

Keeping track of every penny I spend on food, taking pictures of my shopping trips, calculating, documenting, and sharing it with you has been a blog feature here for quite some time. I think it’s been a good one, and if I have any “regret” it’s that for now, I’m leaving that behind.

But the need for a mental load shift for me is vital, and maybe, just maybe alleviating my monthly grocery spending feature will open up time for me to write about something else as God allows.

Also? While I don’t plan to keep specific track of everything I spend on food, I’ll probably throw all kinds of grocery store pictures into our weekly Food and Fun posts. And goodness if I find a great deal, how can I not share about that?!

Moving on…

Who we are feeding

In case you’re wondering where all the food goes, here’s what our home life looks like right now:

• At the very least, I’m feeding nine people three meals a day plus snacks: Matt, myself, Brayden (12), Kiya (10), Keith (7), Anna (6), Acacia (5), Josie (4), and Auggie (3).
• Five other adults live at our house: Elias, Malachi, plus three adults that rent rooms from us. All the adults are welcome to eat anything they would like that I buy and make, and most of them appreciate and take advantage of this. Food is included in their rent cost, as I found it easier to feed our wonderful housemates instead of expecting everyone to fend for themselves and try to cook in our kitchen in the midst of me trying to cook for our family. This has been a great arrangement! At the same time, all the adults are welcome to cook or eat out or do whatever they want to. They are adults, after all.
• We host a houseful of guests (25-40 people) every Sunday Lunch and it is the biggest pleasure of my week to do this. We usually provide the main dish and some sides/desserts. Guests often bring sides/desserts. It’s the most wonderful thing to be a part of this!

Matt and I would love to host more guests in our home during the week, specifically for people in our neighborhood. As of right now though, we’ve not been able to add much more to our evenings because of all the ABA therapy happening in our home.

A huge thank you

Thank you, thank you, for supporting us and caring about our family. It was a blessing for me to write through all of my thoughts as I worked out a new budget – or non-budget – grocery plan for our family.

As time goes on, I’ll keep you posted about what it’s like to not focus on a grocery budget. I think I’m going to enjoy the mental freedom this brings as I do exactly what I’ve done for years but without the extra burden of keeping track of receipts!

How do you work out the grocery budget needs for your family?