Unlock the key to better budgeting by addressing toiletries separately. Optimize your financial tracking with these insightful tips.
Not everyone tracks their toiletries separately from their grocery budget.
However, I want to explain why we do this and how it can help you gain better insight into your overall monthly and yearly budget figures.
For some of you, going toiletries shopping is a fun day out because this part of your budget covers cleaning supplies, health and beauty, and personal hygiene.
Who doesn’t like shopping for themselves, especially when there are new products to try and deals and coupons to take advantage of?
Back many grocery game challenge posts ago, you may have noticed we added toiletries to our grocery budget, which we later found was a big mistake for us.
The reason was that we wanted to track how much our family spent on food alone, and adding toilet paper, shampoo, and other toiletries skewed the number we wanted to see.
Creating a grocery budget for the year was our main goal, so eliminating toiletries costs, which were added as a new budget category under health and beauty, became our new norm.
Related: How much should my grocery budget be?
In essence, we still shop for toiletries at the same time as grocery shopping, but they have their own place on our monthly budget.
Now that I’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about what toiletries are and how you can create a toiletries list and budget for these expenses either together with your food budget or separate, as we’ve done.
Step 1- Creating a Toiletries List
It’s important to create a toiletries list for home, as it will guide you on what to buy when you run out or are getting low on products.
List what you need to buy for your house.
- Laundry Soap
- Shampoo
- Toothpaste
- Toilet Paper
- Paper Towel
- Windex
- Make-up
- Cologne
Two Types Of Toiletries
- Necessary toiletries
- Toiletries I want
What this means is that you can get away with only buying the basics when it comes to toiletries, such as no-name brands and everyday products to keep you clean and healthy.
Anything above that is likely a want unless it is health-related. You either budget for it or save up for it in your savings account.
For example, you would love to change your hair colour to black because you have been a redhead for a long time.
Can you survive with your ginger hair, or can you wait until you save enough money to buy your hair colour outside of your toiletries budget?
Only you can answer these questions, as they are personal and affect each person differently, and for various reasons.
Keep in mind that your toiletries checklist can include whatever you want, as it’s based on how you plan to track and budget your money.
Another thing to consider is that a personal toiletries list may differ for everyone in the household, from babies, toddlers, kids, teens, adults, and older people.
Each person has different needs, and your budget either has to accommodate them all or they need to be paid for another way.
For example, if your teen wants you to buy a specific deodorant and shampoo, have them pitch in the money to pay for it, or go buy it themselves with money they’ve earned.
This is where your toiletries list will come in handy and why sitting down as a family to discuss personal needs will benefit you.
Communication such as this can be important to the overall success of your toiletries budget or to its inclusion in your grocery budget.
Toiletry Product Considerations
- Cleaning supplies
- Bathroom supplies
- Personal Hygiene
- Health and Beauty
When creating your toiletries list, go from room to room where you would typically store toiletries, such as the kitchen, bathroom, or storage area, to see what you use on a daily basis.
Besides chatting to those in the family, setting rules on how much of certain toiletries should be used will also save your family money.
I know some people who can use half a roll of toilet paper in one sitting (no pun intended) or overload on toothpaste, conditioner, and shampoo for no reason.
Being smart with the products you buy always comes down to the user and how well they manage what they have on hand.
Our stockpile from 2010 is still being picked through, but only toiletries.
Mind you, we are now starting to buy toilet paper, laundry soap, and other products we found to be free or super cheap with coupons.
We were the equivalent of American coupon-intense shoppers who would use 30 coupons to get 30 free tubes of toothpaste if the coupon and the store allowed it.
Yes, you probably hated being in the grocery line behind us.
It was a monster time for coupons, and we jumped on the bandwagon, saving us thousands upon thousands of dollars.
I know couponing is still big, but nowhere near as lucrative in Ontario as it once was, but any money saved is better than nothing at all.
Step 2- Budgeting for Toiletries
We tracked our Health and Beauty budget for a year by using frugal shopping tactics, sales, and promotions, and then turned that year-end expense into an estimated monthly budget amount.
For example:
If you tracked your toiletries and, at the end of December, you spent the grand total of $1200 for the year, that means your estimated monthly budget will be $120.
If you are using a budget and keeping your receipts, as I suggest in my budgeting series, you can easily track back 3-6 months to see how much you spent on toiletries to get an estimate.
You will need to make sure that what you have on your toiletries list from above is included on what you purchased over that time period to get the best estimated cost.
Tracking for 3-6 months moving forward works as well, but be prepared to adjust your monthly budget figures accordingly when you have a number that works for you.
If you grocery shop for food and toiletries at the same time, it’s hard to come up with a realistic number, unfortunately.
What I would suggest is to track your toiletries expenses as above for a few months and then go from there.
You’ll have to consider what you are purchasing when tracking for a short period, because you may only buy toilet paper once every 3 months or toothpaste twice a year.
These expenses need to be included in the number you use to estimate your monthly toiletries budget, either with your food budget or on its own.
Again, it would be ideal to track for a full year and then build your budget around those end-of-year numbers as we’ve done. You’ll be glad you did!
Step 3- Saving Money On Toiletries
Now that you have a toiletries checklist and perhaps an estimate of how much you each spend each month, it’s time to consider ways to save money.
How can you save money on toiletries?
Easy!
Have a look at your toiletries checklist and consider what you can eliminate, reduce or even make yourself at home for less.
Over the years, we started making our own window cleaner and cleaning solution with vinegar and water, which saved us a bundle on buying Windex.
We also started using more cloths to clean rather than just paper towels, which saves us a bundle.
If you have a baby in the house, making homemade wipes instead of buying them will also save you money.
You might even fancy making your own deodorant or other health and beauty products for less. There’s always a YouTube video for everything.
Other valuable ways to save money when buying toiletries;
- Using Coupons, coupon apps, and Rewards Points
- Shopping the flyers
- Price Matching
- Watching for in-store sales, including reduced racks
Discussion: How do you track your toiletries expenses?
December 2018 Grocery Game Challenge
Join the 2018 Grocery Game Challenge (GGC), but before you do, you must read The Grocery Game Challenge Rules and print the 2018 Schedule, which includes new prizes!
Last Shop from November- How to create a Christmas Reserve Fund for Groceries
2018 Grocery Shop Results
Yearly grocery budget for two + 1 Toddler 2018: $3600 or $300/month (The above total does not include the stockpile budget of $300/year or $25/month.
Points Overview (add any other sections you need to show us your savings or that you would like to track on your own)
- Total Grocery Budget for this Month: $300.00
- Total Grocery Budget with any carry-overs $290.26
- Total Gift Cards used to date: $0
- Total Rewards Points redeemed this week: $0
- Total Rewards Points used to date: $0
- PC Optimum Points to Spend: 3,700,000
- Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) to date $0
Coupon Apps (add any other apps you use to save money)
- Zweet -$0
- Checkout51– $1.50
Our Grocery Shop This Week
Food Basics
- Bananas $1.20
- Italian Sausages $6.99
- Sour cream $1.99
- Old cheddar $3.88
- Fennel $1.99
- Mixed salad greens $2.99
- 2 dozen eggs $1.88 ($3.76)
- 2 whipping cream $1.88 ($3.76)
- 2 10% cream $1.88 ($3.76)
Total out-of-pocket $30.32
Grocery Budget Expenses
Note: All totals below already include tax.
- Total to spend this month: $300.00-$9.74 overage Nov $290.26
- Stockpile budget 2018: $25.00/month
- Stockpile budget used this month: $0
- Christmas Reserve Fund: $35/month $420 Saved
- Total coupons used this week: $0
- Total coupons used to date: $1
- Total in-store discounts this week: $
- Total in-store discounts to date: $344.25
- Total spent this week: $30.32
- Total spent so far this month: $30.32
- Total over/under spend this shop: $under
- Total left to spend for the month: $259.94
- Total Spent To Date 2018: (does not include stockpile budget) Jan $323.04+Feb $169.42+March $228.70 + April $337.84+ May $275.79 + June $271.88 +July $257.76 +August $342.74 + September $255.69+ October $306.10+ November $309.74 + December $
Weekly Overview
In short, we’ve ALL been sick with stomach flu in our house since Thursday, so our grocery shopping was limited and quick because there is no meal plan, and eating anything is a struggle right now.
We’ve been limiting our food to soup and sandwiches.
MR.CBB