Project: Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: June Month 8 / Week 3

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $62.29

My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 monthly budget for all food including groceries, dining out, entertaining, vitamins/supplements, and gardening.

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

June – Month Eight, Week Three

This week, I’ve spent $62.29, with a monthly total of $273.48. That leaves $126.52 for the rest of June.

Dining Out: $0 – We went out on Saturday night to celebrate Father’s Day with my parents, but that was applied to my “gifts” budget. sneaky! hehee
Entertaining: $7.48
Gardening: $0
Groceries: $54.81

Spending Details

I really wanted to spend a lot less this week, in order to compensate for the planned Trader Joe’s $50 splurge by the end of the month, but I did stick to my allotted $60-ish for the week. DH informed me that he needed more fruit for his lunch, so I was happy to oblige.

I might have to rethink my MyLinkables Trader Joe’s $50 purchase – it might not be worth it to save just $5, especially since it’s going to be sent to Paypal. I think I’d rather just get my 5% cash back on the credit card and spend less. :)

Meat CSA $16.80: pork tenderloin (Luckily, products from the Meat CSA are paid in full, so technically no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as we consume it.)

Eggs $6 for two dozen. I found a new place to purchase fresh eggs. Smaller eggs, but they are from a small backyard farm.

Market Basket $7.48: Potatoes and ranch dressing – eeek, not something I’d buy normally, but it’s for family party, and I needed an easy roasted potato salad.

Winchester Farmers Market $18.35: First time at this market, it was like a small festival. I loved it! Walked around once, then walked around a few more times to pick and choose a little something from various farms.

• Warner farm $2.50 for snap peas ($4/lb, same as Wilson Farm) – seems like a nice small farm, they had both organic and non-organic IPM strawberries also. I like that they grow with a lot of care and consideration. I will buy from them again if I visit this market.
• Hanson farm: $2 radishes with greens. I had a nice conversation with the woman there about radish greens and what I like to do with them. I can tell it’s a small farm that cares. According to their CSA page, 2/3 of their crops are (non-officially) organic and the rest are grown using IPM (integrated pest management). If I return to the market, I’ll be sure to keep supporting them.
• Lanni Orchards: strawberries $6 – they seem to be a larger farm/orchard. The gentleman at the booth didn’t really know a lot except that they did spray the berries with a low-grade pesticide. He didn’t know about the lettuce. I wasn’t thrilled about purchasing sprayed strawberries, but they were a $1 cheaper than Warner Farms. Looking back, I should have spent the extra buck perhaps.
• EL Silva farms $7.85 – huge lettuce $2.50 (lettuce was not sprayed, but they do spray, so he suggested to ask every week for details), bunch of beets w/ greens $3.00 and 2 small zucchini $2.35 – they also had green house tomatoes, but I want to wait for the real thing.

BJ’s Wholesale $12.27: I was surprised to find so many organic offerings. We started a 60 day trial and picked up organic blueberries (.50 coupon), organic grapes, plus a pineapple. DH needs more fruit for his lunch!

Market Basket $1.39: Back to the store one last time for some half & half for DH

Week of Meals

• Thursday: Pasta topped with tomato asparagus, celery, carrot sauce and salad
• Friday: Bulgar topped with salsa and fried eggs with vegetable salad
• Saturday: Dinner out with parents to celebrate Father’s Day. Applied to “gifts” budget
• Sunday: Family BBQ for lunch, light dinner
• Monday: Crockpot pork tenderloin with carrots, potatoes and onions, along with a large veggie salad
• Tuesday: Pasta with lentil tomato jalapeño (frozen) carrot zucchini sauce
• Wednesday: Fried egg with (leftover) potato,  brown rice and large salad

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week:

• Emily Levenson
• Dairy-Free Cooking
• Test Kitchen Tuesday
• Cook Write Heal
• Warm As Pie
• xox, b
• Project Food Budget 2.0
• Two Eggs Over Easy
• Eat Whole Be Vital
• yogabeautylife
• naMAMAste
• Veggie Meal Maker
• Eryn Says