Planning on what to cook as well as what to spend on it is key. We have always been excellent with money, no debt of any kind except mortgage and we paid that off in just a few years. I used to budget religiously, but I succumbed to the belief that this is so second nature to us it really was no longer necessary. Then, a few months ago we emptied savings and took out a huge loan (HELOC) for a business property, and all of the sudden I am thinking "oh well, we can draw a little more off of it to buy this..." This went on for a couple of months, and then a few weeks ago I sat down and added up what we spent on groceries (we rarely eat out), and it was almost $1000 (includes paper products, ranging supplies, etc). When I used a budget, I never went over $400-500/ month for our family of 5. I immediately started YNAB again, and I haven't even spent $100 in groceries in 2 weeks, and we are eating better than ever.
Sorry for the long response, but if you set a budget and plan meals to stick to that budget, you will feel much better about spending at the grocery store. Especially if you're budgeting the eating out, too, because they'll balance out.
