Saturday, August 09, 2008

I've been trying hard lately to slash our monthly grocery budget. Inspired by The Grocery Cart Challenge http://grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com/, I thought I'd start out with $200/month. That sounds like a reasonable place to start considering we were spending WAY more than that on groceries...even when it was just the two of us! So far, I'm doing well. Through use of LOTS of coupons, shopping sales and making a meal plan, I'm doing OK. I went a bit over already because our fridge/freezer went out and I had to replace some staples like mayo and cheese and other misc stuff that we will usually keep on hand.
So far, we've spent $135.29 on groceries/household stuff this month. Not wonderful but not too awful compared to what we were previously spending. We have 15 days until J's next payday so considering the fridge/freezer disaster, we're not doing too bad. I am really kind of enjoying seeing how much stuff I can get for free or very cheap. Last week at Food Lion, I got 20 pkg of Gerber baby food for FREE using coupons! That's 40 servings for baby food for nothing!
We're doing ok financially, but without my paycheck, things can get awfully tight around here. Plus, the more money I save, it's almost like that's my paycheck. And trust me, saving this much money per month takes some real WORK sometimes! Going to more than one store to shop the best deals is time-consuming and exhausting but worth it.
Check back around the 25th for an updated total for the month. I expect next month to be right around $200 for the month if all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

2 comments:

Jen said...

Wow---$200 for a month!? I wonder if there is ANY way I could do that? I spend about $400 at LEAST per month right now. How do you keep track of food vs. house stuff (like toilet paper and dish soap, etc.) I buy all my stuff together. It would be really interesting to at least try to keep track and just see how much we are spending on food alone. I'm anxious to see how yours comes out!!

Amy said...

Right now, I just keep all my reciepts and only add up the amounts for food purchases. The house stuff goes into a separate category in our monthly budget. I'll let ya know how it turns out.