Whelp. Here we go. I’m making some changes to our my 2026 grocery budget. Brace yourself for some major rambling in this post!
My Grocery Budget
First, why do I say “my” grocery budget instead of “our” grocery budget? Because Matt is awesome. I am the grocery shopper and cook at our house. While I do talk over this budget line item with Matt as we work on finances together, he’s happy to let me do whatever I need to do to feed our household. When I told him, “I think I need to increase our grocery budget this year,” he simply said, “ok, sounds good” – because he trusts me to do what is best for our needs in this area.
Second, let me say: I’m so thankful that we can do this. Not everyone has wiggle room to make budget changes. I don’t take this for granted. We have learned to live a pretty frugal lifestyle, and this has led to financial breathing space for us at this point in our lives. We are very grateful that God has led us to a place that we can focus on our kids’ needs instead of worrying every day about how we are going to put food on the table.
But speaking of being frugal…
Saving money and spending as little as possible is such a big part of who Matt and I are that I’ve done some unnecessary wrestling in my own head as I’ve considered a 2026 grocery budget increase. It’s pretty silly, actually.
As a tiny aside, I’ve always declared myself to be frugal – but still FUN. As in, we don’t go out for ice cream very often, but I most certainly do make ice cream at home or buy a quart of it at the store for a fraction of the price. We scope out all the fun, free activities and events around Lincoln, and we take our kids on tons of super cool outings. We pack picnics, draw snowman faces on our drink cups, make cool crafts, and cut our tortillas into snowflakes.
But goodness, I struggle to spend “unnecessary” money. Like, last month when we took the kids to Freddy’s because we had a bunch of free kid meal coupons, I was happy to pay for our adult kids to eat but told Matt, “I’ll just wait and eat at home.” Good grief, Mom. Just order yourself a cheeseburger already. (We only spent a bit over $30 for 12 of us to eat out. Why was that so hard for me?)
Anyway, I guess I’m frugal to a bit of a fault. Or there’s this: I can be generous to others, but not always to myself. So. I’ve been thinking about that, trying to release any weird fears to Jesus, and here’s where I’ve landed. Ok, fine. Here’s where I’m trying to land:
I can splurge sometimes.
There, I said it.
As I launch into my Year of Recovery, I’ve decided that a very simple way to offer myself some breathing space is to order pizza sometimes. Or buy a few more ready-made foods that can feed our busy household quickly and easily. To do this so that I don’t have to overthink any of it, I need to increase our food budget.
Why is that hard for me? I certainly do other hard things all day long. So how about I choose to spend a little extra money sometimes to make the hard days easier?
Hmm, what a concept.
What about nutrition?
Sob…yeah. Ain’t that the question.
Have I really gone from a grain grinding, yogurt making, organic gardening, free range chicken mama to…someone who buys and feeds her kids cereal and chips?
Funny you should ask.
I actually wish that was all that I had to think about – nourishment in our food choices. But in fact, what I have to wrestle with now beyond just allowing myself to spend extra money on “food I could make myself for much cheaper and way healthier” is much bigger. MUCH, MUCH BIGGER. As in – I have several kids that actually will not eat many certain foods. Parenting these kids with the idea of “they’ll eat it when they get hungry enough” is not a thing for our special needs kids. They will not, in fact, eat it when they get hungry enough. They will, instead, starve. :(
This is a hard and challenging reality for us. Our tiniest girl eats so little and fights us so hard about food that we are almost to a point of “let her eat whatever she will eat so she doesn’t lose any more weight.” It’s scary, but that baby needs calories.
So, I wish my biggest food preoccupation was about organic food, whole grains, and vegetables. But now I’m quite literally trying to keep my kids alive.
A little side note of praise
Autism and trauma has created some shocking food needs for our kids, and here’s what I’m realizing:
God has equipped me for this. I’m such a foodie!!! I only thought that my love of food provided me with the opportunity to teach people how to eat nourishing, delicious meals and snacks in a simple way. Instead, I get to be a learner. And as it turns out, my love for food and my giftedness in being able to feed a multitude is serving me very well right now.
If I hated grocery shopping and cooking, this hard job would be so much harder. So, here we are, and this is what we do now. God keeps growing me, and food gets to be my wheelhouse in a brand new way.
So, we give the girl her Pirate’s Booty.
(She calls it privates booty, which is both hilarious and embarrassing.)
Sometimes all she’ll eat is a Slim Jim, a bag of Pirate’s Booty, and an Applesauce. But at least she ate. And yay for applesauce.
Goodness, I’m going all over the place in this post. I guess I’m writing my way through my thought process as I considered our Grocery Budget Increase.
Stay tuned for the conclusion to this rambling, the actual number I’m landing on, what I’m planning to buy with my “extra” budget money.
