The Bartlett Family Blog
  • About Us
  • Blog

Food budget update...

4/8/2010

0 Comments

 
This is for all you nay sayers out there... (ahem, mom).  On April 1st, I set a goal of saving $100 a week this month on groceries.  Because, as I said, our grocery/food bill was OUTRAGEOUS last month and I seriously was not expecting that.  So, in order to achieve this savings goal, some big changes had to be made, and I must say, so far I am quite pleased with the results.  Let me just go ahead and tell you how much money we spent on groceries last month... but prepare yourselves, it's bad... we spent $1000 to feed a family of TWO (plus little munchkin in my belly, but that so does not count).  Anyway, that is $250 a week on groceries.  Ummm WHAT??  So, my goal was to get our spending down to $150/week, so around $600 total for the month.  So far, we are 9 days into the month, and I am quite pleased with myself.  The first week I spent UNDER $100.  And don't worry, Mark and I were very well fed for the entire week.  I just went grocery shopping today for week 2 items, and I spent $120 (but $10 of that was heartburn medicine, so we'll call it $110 for week 2).  And technically, since it's the 9th, we lasted over a week the first time around!  So if my calculations are correct, and these groceries last us an entire week, as of April 16 (over half way through the month), I will have spent only $210 on groceries!!  That's less than we spent IN ONE WEEK last month.  

These are the changes I've been making that really have been saving us money, in case you are interested. :)
(1) Planning.  I plan out all our meals for the entire week (Mark's work lunches included).  I know exactly what meats and produce I need, and buy accordingly.  I can also then buy in bulk and not waste anything.  
(2) Continuing the point from above, I have been trying not to waste ANYTHING we buy.  Which means that we (a) use those green bags for our produce (they really do work) and (b) eat the more perishable items sooner after buying them and (c) freeze things that might not last for an entire week, just in case.
(3) Fewer shopping trips.  Because I know what I need for an entire week, I can go to the store only once a week.  Last month we went to "top up" on groceries every couple days (we might run out of milk, or ham, or something essential) and as a result we would end up buying all kinds of things we didn't need just because we were already there (like muffins, chips, treats, etc).
(4) Drink more water!!  I drink a lot of water, but Mark is a juice fiend.  And he drinks a lot of milk as well, which is great for strong bones, but also very expensive.  He could probably go through like $15 of juice per week if he had his way.  But now grocery nazi (me) is rationing his juice supply, so he has to drink more H2O, which means more money saved!  
(5) Cutting out so-called luxury items.  This one is the hardest, but probably saves the most money.  We would wander through the aisles and grab some random items we just felt like having, but didn't really need (for example: we currently have FOUR cartons of ice cream in our fridge.  Why?  I'm not really sure.)  We also have cut out the excess cookies and crackers, which means we eat more healthy snacks!  A win-win.
(6) Leaving Mark AT HOME while I shop.  He is a serious budget buster. :)
(7) Moving away from the brand name products.  You can get pretty equivalent loaves of bread for either $2 or $5.  We were getting the $5 because it's Mark's favorite, but the $2 one tastes pretty similar.  This is true for a lot of the things we buy.
(8) Stop buying produce in bulk.  It's cheaper per unit (you know what I mean), but we almost never ever eat it all, which means we waste a lot more and really don't even take advantage of the cheaper bulk prices.
(9) Taking advantage of free food!  While I'm at work, I am free to eat any of the food that is there.  The food they have is not always my favorite, so in the past I was packing snacks for myself from home.  But now I just get a little more creative, and just eat what's there, which saves some money.

Now there are a few things that we have agreed that we don't really NEED, but they make us happy, so we will buy them anyway.  Plus, I'm still pregnant, and there are still certain favorite foods of mine that I always want, and am not really willing to give those up!  Frozen fruit is really expensive here, but I drink a LOT of smoothies, and they are healthy so I will continue to do so.  Mark LOVES these little strawberry popsicle things, and they aren't that expensive, so we get them.  But come on, by making all the above changes, I could potentially save us $500-$600 a month.  Totally worth it.  So for all you nay sayers laughing at my savings goal... HA!

Oooh and another definite perk of this savings plan?  I am becoming a MUCH better and more creative cook, and I'm really liking it.  Some days it's hard to get motivated to cook (and clean up) after I get home from work, so on those nights I make an easier dinner, and usually I can get enough leftovers to give to Mark for his lunch the next day!  Another win-win!  So only a few weeks to go, and I will let you know the total savings!!
 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Check out
    Melissa Bartlett Photography

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2018
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009

    Categories

    All
    10 Months
    11 Months
    12 Months
    14 Months
    15 Months
    16 Months
    17 Months
    18 Months
    1st Trimester
    2nd Trimester
    2 Under 2
    2 Year Old
    3 Months
    3rd Trimester
    3 Year Old
    4 Months
    5 Months
    6 Months
    7 Months
    8 Months
    9 Months
    Allergies
    Babies
    Baby Riley
    Baby Sign
    Birthday
    Birth Story
    Breastfeeding
    Chemistry
    Cole
    Discipline
    Exercise
    Family
    First Birthday
    First Trimester
    Health
    Holidays
    Homeschool
    Iphoneography
    Jackson
    Job
    Landscaping
    Mark
    Milestones
    Monthdays
    Moving
    Newborn
    New House
    New Toy Tuesday
    November School
    Nursery
    October School
    One Year
    Our House
    P365
    Photobooth
    Photo Booth
    Photo Challenges
    Photography
    Photograpy
    Potty Training
    Pregnancy
    Pregnancy #2
    Preschool
    Project 365
    Riley
    Riley's First Birthday
    Scrapbooks
    Siblings
    Sleep
    Sleeping
    Soccer
    Solids
    Speech Therapy
    Swimming
    Tantrums
    Tot School
    Vacation
    Vacations
    Videos
    Vlogs
    Wedding

Proudly powered by Weebly