Project: Food Budget Weekly total: $79.82
My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400… $350… $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.
May – Month Seven, Week Five – END OF MONTH
This week, I’ve spent $79.82, ending the month of May with a grand total of $402.58.
Okay, I tried for $350 again this month, and failed…but at the same time, I feel accomplished because we had approx $75 in entertaining & gardening expenses, so, I really shouldn’t complain that I was a little over my (original) budget because our actual (consumed) food spending was terrific!
Dining Out: $46.66
Entertaining: $0
Gardening: $0
Groceries: $33.16
Yes, our dining-out budget was on the crazy-train-track this week, but I suppose I have an excuse; we received some extra $$ so we splurged a little. I don’t like making excuses, and I really don’t like sliding back into old habits of dining out when I feel too lazy to cook. It’s especially difficult when the weather is so beautiful, and we get caught up in doing other fun things. Planning is key!
Monthly Totals: $402.58
Dining Out: $108.06
Entertaining: $20.33
Gardening: $55.62
Groceries: $218.57
Spending Details
Market Basket $17.42: bananas, bag o’ 8 navel oranges, organic half & half (for DH), (5) Chobani yogurts and (2) Applegate Farms chicken deli meat (on sale, plus I used 2 coupons for $1 off, only $5 for BOTH)
Ocean State Job Lots $9.99: Good sale on (@3.99 ea) Bob’s WW Pastry Flour and (4 @1.50 ea) Rapunzel organic chocolate bars.
Market Basket $5.75: bananas and bag o’ 8 navel oranges – Yeah, the California Navels are definitely out of season. Dry dry dry! bummer!
Amazon.com $0 – free! Subscribe & Save for Wild Planet tuna 6pk $13.21 was applied to my credit card rewards “credit” so my order was free.
Week of Meals
- Thursday: (Leftover frozen) fresh ham steak w/ salsa, kidney beans in corn tortillas w/ side of roasted beets
- Friday: Chinese Food – greasy pu-pu platter!
- Saturday: Dinner over Parents’ house
- Sunday: Fried eggs topped over bulgar and stir fry veggies
- Monday: Homemade pizza with fresh mozzarella
- Tuesday: Leftover frozen meat sauce with pasta & kidney beans
- Wednesday: Leftover meat sauce transformed into soup with added veg stock, frozen corn, frozen peas, roasted carrots & celery, topped over barley
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:
Debbie, that’s really awesome – only $2 over AND you counted your gardening supplies in?! We had way too much eating out this month because of travel, and I know where you are coming from. Once you start eating out too much, it is very hard to get it back in check, especially as the weather gets nicer. There is a strong draw to do other things besides cook…
I am so excited about your garden! I didn’t plant a garden this year for the first time in several years, and so I am living vicariously through you! Nothing better than home grown veggies – it is just so rewarding.
You had a great budgeting month, so congrats!
Thank you Angela! I’m really thrilled about my garden. I bought way too many plants, but surprisingly, I think I’ll eventually find a place for most of them. I’ll have some photos posted soon.
Oh and I don’t know if you saw, but last week, I posted a screen shot of my simple meal plan using Notes on the iPad, so you could see how it looks. http://www.thatsjustme.com/2012/05/project-food-budget-my-healthy-budget-may-month-7-week-4/
It’s another fabulous day in New England, I hope it’s nice out west as well!
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for commenting on my Project: Food Budget posts and encouraging me! I really like your blog and it was fun to read about your experience in May. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to meeting up with you on twitter too. I’m @OrgCreatively! 🙂 Have a great week!
Hey Eryn, I’m way behind on reading everyone’s posts for this week, I hope you had a good week! ha, I’ll find out when I take a look myself!
Anyway, you have a great week too! It’s almost time for another post!