Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Grocery Budget


I don't know what the average families grocery budget is but mine is out of control! We sat down a couple of days ago to revisit the budget and put goals together that we wanted to save for this year(I'll be posting them on my sidebar to try and keep track). I've always had a budget for groceries, but never stuck to it. Well, last month our groceries were over $700 and we still spent over $300 eating out. In our defense we were moving so that's why the eating out is so high but the $700 is too high. I'm going to aim for $550 this month. It may mean more meatless meals. We are completely out of beef so that will have to wait because we buy a portion of a cow. We do have some frozen chickens from a friends farm and a turkey breast or two. We do spend $70 a month on milk(We buy raw milk and it's $7 a gallon) and I'm also going to buy $5 a week of groceries for the food pantry(so $20 for the month) Oh, and I placed an order for our food co-op(We buy alot of our grains, beans, rice, etc in bulk) which was around $60... So, really I have $420 after those things. I'm really going to try and get creative with beans and legumes. What has helped so far is I wrote out a menu plan sheet for the month. Usually, I menu plan for the week but I really like the month calendar. I put this on my refrigerator... I haven't filled it in completely yet, but what I like is when I get an idea for a meal, I can just pop it into the calendar. I've also placed a column for breakfast items we usually have and left the weekends open for some fun breakfast treats(like homemade bagels or cinnamon buns) Our staple breakfasts consist of oatmeal, homemade muffins, eggs, homemade granola, toast, grits and Kasha(that's buckwheat-I grew up eating this and I love it I buy it in bulk!) I also printed our a sheet for Quick Meals and have listed meals that are quick to make with items we always have on hand. That way if we are tempted to eat out because we feel like we have nothing to eat, I can go to this list for ideas. I'll post some of those meals as well and I'll post my menu's for the week to give some ideas of frugal, healthy recipes as well as to help keep me accountable.

Tonight for dinner we are having:

Whole wheat spagetti tossed with olive oil and garlic topped with chickpeas, tomatoes, feta cheese and garlic simmered in white wine

Spinach salad with red onions and walnuts and homemade balamic vinagrette.


(Oh, our dining out budget this month...$40.00!!! Certainly is a lot less than the $300 we spent last month but I love a good challenge!)


Here's to a Frugal February!!

No comments:

Post a Comment