Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: May Month 7 / Week 3

Project: Food Budget Weekly total: $103.97

My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal, home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 $350 monthly budget for all food including groceries, dining out, entertaining, vitamins/supplements, and gardening.

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

May – Month Seven, Week Three

This week, I’ve spent $103.97, with a monthly total of $200.42. That leaves $149.58 for the rest of May.

Hmm, I went a little overboard this week. I fully expected to stick closer to my estimated $60, but with Mother’s Day entertaining and a husband craving Chinese take-out, I spent over $100.

I think I’ll be okay for the rest of the month though.

Dining Out: $17.00
Entertaining: $20.33
Gardening: $0
Groceries: $66.64

Spending Details

Market Basket (5/10) $23.10: mushrooms, cara cara oranges, (2) limes, crown broccoli, red grapefruit, bananas, flour, molasses, baking powder, (4) Hunt’s whole tomatoes, brown mustard

Whole Foods (5/11) $21.66: 5lb bag o’ organic carrots, organic strawberries, 4 lb bag o’ oranges, vidalia onions, organic celery, asparagus

Other $13.00: (3) bottles of cheap wine and back to the store for a few bananas.

Meat CSA $11.88: Fresh pork ham steak (Luckily, products from the Meat CSA are technically paid in full, so no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as we consume it.)

Lessons Learned This Week

  • I couldn’t resist purchasing a package of organic strawberries (from Calif) this week. Yes, it was an impulsive buy, and it was not local, but I don’t think it was a poor choice, it was a special treat.
  • Also, I had a further breakthrough on keeping true to what I really need. The Niman Ranch bacon was on sale, and I added it to my initial grocery list, but I later removed it. I have a freezer full of meat, so it’s silly to buy any more at the store, until most of the stuff I have is used. *** I resisted a sale item…yay!

Week of Meals

  • Thursday: Egg brown rice bake w/ cheese, beet greens & broccoli
  • Friday: Braised fresh pork ham steak with lentils and cream of carrot soup
  • Saturday: Take-out Chinese
  • Sunday: Mother’s Day celebration
  • Monday: Whole wheat oatmeal caraway pancakes with maple syrup
  • Tuesday: Pasta with tomato pepper sauce (I still have whole chilies in the freezer from last summer!)
  • Wednesday: Bread Pizzas w/ feta

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2 thoughts on “Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: May Month 7 / Week 3”

  1. $13 for three bottles of wine – that is practically the cost of three lattes – you scored!

    And you are good shape for the rest of the month, congrats!

    I am always torn by the decision to buy local or not. On one hand, I like to support local farms as much as possible. On the other hand, if there is fruit and veg in the store that is not local, I don’t like the thought of it going to waste because no one buys it. It really is a dilemma!

    1. I’m not 100% purist about always buying local, but I try. Sometimes you just have to give into your cravings! LOL. You are lucky to be a lot closer to California than us over on the east coast, at least your carbon footprint is a little smaller, right?

      And I’m a really cheap date when I buy wine, LOL as it’s really only used for cooking. LOL. I do have to do some more research though, I heard a little blurb somewhere about how bad cheap wine is….I think as far as pesticides are. I wish I could remember where and what I read, but I’ll eventually figure it out.

      Thanks for commenting, Angela!

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