I didn’t get any pictures of this past week’s shopping trips, because there were two, and both were pretty rushed. It was a birthday week here, and I had to plan accordingly to pick up fresh food for the weekend festivities, hence the second trip.
I didn’t do so hot this week, sticking to the budget, but considering that I could have gone WAY overboard with the birthday, it ended up not as terrible as I had anticipated.
My first shopping trip for the week was over budget at $89.42, and then the second trip to the store was for $31.48, bringing the week’s total to $120.90. So I was over my budget this week by $38.90… I can pretty much guarantee that the overage was a direct result of the birthday. I’d purchased a few sodas, some K-cups, some flavored syrups for milk, a five quart bucket of ice cream, and actually now that I think about it, that overage could be completely explained by the cake. I spent quite a bit on peanut butter M&M’s and Kit-Kat bars.
I’ve decided I’m going to be okay with going over budget. There are still three days left in January, and I’m pretty sure they are going to be pantry days. We’ll eat what we already have on hand for part of the week. The thing is, I’ve been figuring on a budget of $82 per week, which I extrapolated out of the average food stamp benefit for a family. That benefit is issued monthly- it doesn’t fluctuate if a month has four weeks or five weeks. So if I look at the initial figure I started the month with, that would have been the national average of $384 dollars per month. Figuring weekly, using my $82 per week figure, I definitely went over. But, if I add up all my grocery expenses, my grand total actually comes out to $374.83.
Technically, I was actually almost $10 under budget!
Eating and feeding my family on a strict and limited budget for January was definitely a challenge, but not in the way you would think. The hardest part of the challenge, for me, was simply the planning part. To take the time and really think over all the meals we would need for the week, and then plan out a menu really took effort on my part. Planning within the budget wasn’t so terribly tricky, but there were moments where I had to change my menu on the fly because I wasn’t seeing what I wanted at the grocery store. The week we planned a roasted chicken immediately comes to mind. When I was actually at the store, the only whole chickens available were really small. They were about $7 a piece, but I had planned on using the chicken for three meals. I was going to have to purchase two chickens if I wanted the planned-overs. I opted, instead, to change my roasted chicken to roasted chicken parts. Buying the chicken already broken down for me, and then adding one extra package of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts cost me just $8- a significant savings over buying two whole chickens. And we did eat three dinners out of that chicken meal- plus a few lunches for Andy and I.
Overall, I think our little experiment at being budget conscious for the entire month was extremely successful, and- even better than that- we ate really, really well. We ate such a variety of meals, and were quite well-fed while on a strict budget. Most of the evening meals I prepared made plenty, so a lot of the leftovers became lunches, and that was quite welcome.
And so we look to February. Andy continues to be laid off, so I will continue with the extreme grocery budgeting. I’m not sure how much of it I will be blogging though… trying to photograph and chronicle the weekly grocery shop added an element that I didn’t care for. I really only wanted to handle groceries once- I wanted to take them out of the bag and put them away, not maneuver them for a photo and THEN put them away. What I am going to try and do though is stick with the menu planning through the month. That really was a huge asset. Though I hated the actual process of doing it, actually knowing what I was cooking every day was very nice and saved me the trouble of last minute scrambling. (As it will be today… dinner is in less than two hours, and I have no clue what I’m making…)
So we’ll see what the weeks ahead will bring. I was so focused on the grocery challenge this month that I kind of skimped on recipes, so watch for a few of those in the days ahead. It’s also a busy month for us, as we officially begin competition season for dance, and that brings a whole other set of issues and craziness when it comes to keeping the family fed on wholesome, real food. Maybe I should challenge us to stay away from the fast food this month? Time will tell.