<prompt> Human: I love my wife and she is perfect for me and wonderful mother to our kids. We decided that she would stay home to raise the kids and we have been blessed to have this be an option. I make enough money to support us however there is one area where my wife continues to in my opinion overspend and that is groceries. We are a family of 5 with our oldest child being 7 years old. We have set up a budget however every month we seem to be well over on food. Each time I bring it up it turns into an argument. Currently we average around 1100 a month in food expense where I feel we should be able to get by on about 12 that. We are not in debt and the added cost of food is absorbed into my monthly income, however its slowing down our savings and pushing of things we could use the money for like home improvements or trips. Am I being unreasonable with my expectations? How should I approach this to not start an argument? OrIf this is the worst thing to deal with in a happy marriage just leave it be.  <response>: tbh, for a family of five, 1000 a month or so is about the line for we didnt really bargain shop or plan, but werent extravagant for food in many parts of the country. I think youre being ambitious to aim for 550, but shooting for 800 or 900 might be reasonable. Trading the one stress spending too much for another blowing through a budget and feeling guilty isnt going to help, so start small. Try to stay under a thousand next month, and go from there. The biggest change will be planning meals and grocery lists, buying in bulk at big-box stores instead of one-off small quantities at the corner store 