We are down to our staples budget for this month--bread, milk, fresh veggies & fruit, and that's limited--which comes to $7 in checking and about $49 cash. It's been rather difficult over the past few months to figure how much to save for the last 2 weeks of the month for just basic staples (with the bulk of the month's grocery/household purchases already done).
We were running out of money especially that last week, and I had to keep track of what we need each month for a few months in order to save enough back to see us through on those basics. Sure we sometimes had charged a loaf of bread, milk, etc., but all that would have to come out of the next month's budget, and that just put us short for that next month.
It has worked out pretty well the past few months, and if someone really wants something, like a bag of chips (on sale), then that person has to figure if she want those chips bad enough to forgo a fruit or two. No snacks figured in at this point. That's why I'm trying to do more scratch cooking, including some baking breads and sweets. It takes some trial and error to adjust recipes to be more healthy for diabetic and high cholesterol.
I try to make sure we have enough for salad makings (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, maybe carrots, and broccoli--always have broccoli because we all eat that raw), some fruits, esp. bananas, strawberries (only when they're in season and on sale, but sometimes a splurge if they're over $2/container), skim milk, eggs, and bread (but I'm trying to do more bread/rolls baking so if we do run out we can do without buying another loaf, if needed).
The budget still needs some fine tuning, but it's been working pretty good. I keep track each month on a spreadsheet and adjust what we buy each month with regular items highlighted.
