How I Used Cash to Reel In My Grocery Budget

Dave Ramsey says cash is king, and I think he's right

At the end of June, when I was balancing my budget before the start of a new month, I had a startling realization: I never stay in budget when it comes to our groceries.

I’ll be honest, I care about the food my family eats so much that it’s easy for me to compromise any and every high-quality food purchase. But what’s the point of having a grocery budget if you’re never going to adhere to it?

I knew I could do better, so I decided to take a tip from Dave Ramsey and go all cash in July.

I kept meticulous notes about how much I withdrew each week from the bank and how much I spent any time I walked into a grocery store, farmer’s market, or picked up fresh milk from our co-op. I was nervous at the start of the month that I was making my life unnecessarily more difficult, that I might experience embarrassing moments like having to put something back that was already on the conveyor belt because I didn’t have enough cash, or even having to feed my family less-than-ideal foods if I really stuck to the budget.

I’m happy to report that I had a fantastic experience, so I wanted to share some of the highlights in case there’s anyone else out there who could use a little kick in the butt when it comes to their grocery store budget.

I got the idea to make quesadillas when I realized I had a ton of leftover chicken in the fridge (with no other sides) and a big block of cheese. These were a hit!

What Happened When I Went Cash Only For a Month

So, what’s it like to only use cash at the grocery store? The following are a few reflections, observations, and surprising moments I experienced in June:

1. Walking around the grocery store with your phone’s calculator open is super annoying

   I really hated having to do this every time, but there’s no other way to keep track of how much money is in your cart, so you have to suck it up 🤷🏽‍♀️ (I guess you could order your groceries for pickup, but I truly despise the idea of other people shopping for my food . . . oh, and that’s not cash).

   After each trip, I’d pull out a little index card that I kept in my wallet where I would write down how much I had spent and how much I had left for the month (I know, kinda old school but I really like writing things down over using digital products). This really helped me think ahead so that I didn’t jeopardize a future week’s budget for this week’s impulse buys.

2. There will be many satisfying—and stressful—moments

   Like the time I went to Whole Foods with exactly $86. I walked around with my calculator, seriously considering every single item and even weighing all the produce on the scale (I never do this) so that I had an idea of how much it would cost.

   I left things behind and then went back for them when I realized I had money to spare. Needless to say, I made many rounds through all the aisles that day (thankfully, I was sans kids). This was my most satisfying trip though because my total came out to $85.53!!

3. You will buy even less packaged foods than you buy now

   At the same trip to Whole Foods mentioned above, I noticed that my cart didn’t have a single packaged item in it (a rare occurrence). And that’s what happens when you’ve got serious limits like cash! I needed a lot of produce that day, so I knew sacrifices in other places would have to be made.

   Like when I decided against a curry powder in the spice aisle because it was $7. Instead, I quickly looked up a recipe on my phone and realized I had all the spices I needed to make my own curry powder at home—I call that a win. The $7 savings meant I could go back for the very expensive bag of organic grapes that I knew my family would love.

4. I didn’t have to stop buying the high-quality food I normally buy

   At dinner one night, I bragged to my husband about how good I was doing staying in budget—I know, a ridiculous thing to brag about 🤣 but I also had an important realization: I hadn’t made many compromises in terms of the quality of our food.

   Sure, there were a few times where I grabbed regular grapes or potatoes over organic ones, but for the most part, our food was still top-notch. I even went to the Farmer’s Market twice and bought beautiful cuts of chicken and pork. I genuinely believed I would have to make many more sacrifices than I did. I think the reason for this is that rather than lowering the quality of the fresh food I was buying, I purchased less ancillary foods that we don’t really need; things like Siete chips, beef sticks, and applesauce.

    

5. Using cash impacted the amount of food waste in my fridge

   I already put forth great effort in reducing food waste as much as possible in my home. I freeze leftovers that are bound to get ignored, throw half-eaten fruit into smoothies, and turn the ends of my homemade bread into breadcrumbs for fried chicken.

   Using cash increased my focus on food waste even more. There was no way I was going to allow any of our fresh produce to go bad before I could use it. I never went grocery shopping without first taking a good inventory of what we already had and how I could creatively incorporate those foods into our next meals. Sometimes, meals were kinda random—like the night I made quesadillas with a side of sautéed squash, zucchini, and grape tomatoes because they were nearing the end of their life—and other times, I challenged myself to think of an alternative meal idea rather than run to the store.

   Something that really helped me was creating a meal plan every Sunday night for the week ahead and every Thursday night for the weekend ahead. I don’t normally plan this meticulously (especially for the weekend), but my goal of staying in budget and using up every piece of food in my kitchen was an excellent motivator.

One night, we had leftover veggies but no leftover protein. Instead of throwing away the veggies, I added them to my breakfast and it was SO DELICIOUS.

What Happened in The End?

Maybe you’re wondering if I earned my badge of budget queen . . .

Drum roll please . . .

Womp, womp, I still went over budget . . .

BUT only by $2.39!!!! Soooo, I still get that badge, right?!

If you know me personally, then it’s probably no surprise that I plan to go all cash once again in August just so that I can try again to “win” 🤣

Closing Thoughts

Overall, I loved using cash so much. The real, tangible boundaries it provided helped me save money and become more conscious of food waste and overbuying.

Are you already a cash-at-the-grocery-store kinda person? Or maybe I convinced you to give it a try? Let me know in the comments below! I will certainly not stop now that we’re in August! Cash is king, baby!