June 2012 – Healthy Food Budget

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: End of June Month 8 / Week 4

Project Food Budget Weekly (10-day) total: $116.67

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 Four – End of Month

This week, I’ve spent $116.67, for a June month-end total of $392.71.

Wow, I didn’t think I was going to make it this month, with the “extra” items like fish oil & entertaining costs!

This week, there wasn’t much money left, so I carefully planned meals, stuck to specific shopping list(s), and made sure I only got what was really needed, and it worked!

These “extra” items totaled $70 for June, and it initially made me re-consider my budget parameters for next year, especially supplements, which could easily be moved to a separate budget.

But then I realized isn’t that what budgeting is all about. Setting up a budget parameter and doing your best to stick with it? Yeah, I can pretend that supplements aren’t really “food” but I proved to myself that it can be done with a little bit of effort and creative adjustments. Ha! Now ask me again when I need to buy fish oil next time. I’ll probably be whining again!

Week Four 10-Day Totals: $116.67

Dining Out: $19.00 – (2) ice cream splurges
Entertaining: $17.76 – 2 parties
Gardening: $0
Groceries: $79.91

June Totals: $392.71

Dining Out: $63.10
Entertaining: $25.24 – 3 parties for the month
Gardening: $8.77
Groceries: $259.09
Vitamins & Supplements: $36.51

June Store Breakdown (Groceries & Entertaining)

Whole Foods $64.11 (23%)
Meat CSA $61.88 (22%)
Market Basket $50.34 (18%)
Wilson Farm $30.90 (11%)
Trader Joes $22.88 (8%)
Winchester Farmers Market $18.35 (6%)
iHerb.com $17.60 (6%)
BJ’s Wholesale $12.27 (4%)

Spending Details

Thankfully there wasn’t much need for store-bought vegetables this week, because my garden has produced some greens and I still had produce leftover from prior week. I did need lots of fruit though!

Whole Foods Market $39.38: Bargain shopper! Even though I don’t include health/beauty products in my food budget, I got a great deal on two Kiss My Face items. I had two manufacturers $3 coupons as well as two WF $2.50 coupons.

Since my two “Kiss My Face” items totaled only $9, the coupon credit of $3 was deducted from my food purchases! Yay.

So, I purchased: salsa, red wine vinegar, peanut butter (non-organic), organic ranch dressing, organic ketchup (DH), local feta cheese, (2) Muir Glen tomatoes ($1 off 2 coupon), (non-organic NJ) blueberries, sm bag of organic cherries, (4) organic peaches, (3) mangoes, (3) organic bananas, and 1 lb SAF instant yeast which I haven’t decided if I’m keeping since it’s “made in Mexico” and adds ascorbic acid, which I just found out is a GMO ingredient.

Market Basket $32.29 (3 small trips): ingredients for two family “party” dishes, plus salsa, bananas, organic peaches, cheddar cheese and a carton of Pomi chopped tomatoes

Gardening Store $0: I originally purchased an 8oz bottle of BT Thuricide, a safe organic solution for worms in my cabbage and brussels sprouts plants, but I decided to return the bottle. I’d like just continue to manually pick off the little buggers myself.

Meat CSA $26.04 – (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 I cook/eat it.) I was planning on defrosting a less expensive skirt steak from my February delivery, but when I noticed the beefalo brisket was getting a touch of freezer burn, I took that out instead. I think some of the vacuum seals are loosening. I gotta start using up some of this meat, even if it’s just to cook and re-freeze.

Week of Meals (10 days)

Thursday: Homemade pizza with Parmesan & (frozen) mozzarella with my own garden salad (lettuce & peas)
Friday: Mexican Lasagna with corn tortillas, beet greens & leftover veg chili
Saturday: Family Graduation party – big lunch!
Sunday: Fried eggs with salsa crostini with veggie salad (including my garden peas)
Monday: Slow braised beefalo brisket with potatoes & beets, plus a small garden veg salad
Tuesday: Tomato jalapeño sauce with leftover beefalo brisket topped over pasta
Wednesday: Hodgepodge of leftovers with pasta and leftover tomato sauce plus leftover beefalo brisket and potatoes & beets
Thursday: Leftover pasta and sautéed zucchini & peas topped with a touch of cheddar cheese & fried eggs & small garden fresh lettuce salad
Friday: Salsa bread pizza with (frozen) smoked mozzarella
Saturday: Family birthday party – another big lunch

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

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:

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

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $62.29

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?

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:

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: June Month 8 / Week 2

Project: Food Budget Weekly total: $62.88

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 Two

This week, I’ve spent $62.88, with a monthly total of $211.19. That leaves $188.81 for the rest of June’s budget, about $60 per week.

Dining Out: $21.54
Entertaining: $0
Gardening: $8.77
Groceries: $32.57

We lucked out this week, in that we both of our two “dining out” dinners paid courtesy of others. NICE!

On the negative side, I felt like we were backtracking into bad habits. Eating high fat, high sodium, low nutritious junk meals at chain restaurants. Ugh. I put a stop to it, and for the rest of the week, we ate healthy.

I’m hoping that I’ll do okay for the rest of the month, we have three weekends of parties coming up, starting with Father’s Day, so we’ll see how that goes.

I have the Trader Joe’s “Get $5 Back if You Spend $50” from MyLinkables.com looming over my head. Hmm, yeah, it’s free $, but if I have to force myself to spend $50, is the $5 worth it? I have until the 27th to decide if I have enough money in the budget. Looking at my current TJ’s shopping list, I’m at about $40-$47, and I could easily add some organic chicken legs for the dogs, which doesn’t count for my groceries.

Spending Details

Wilson Farms (large local farm) spent $7.39 for $32.39 worth of produce, plants & seeds: Whoo hoo, BARGAIN shopper! Groupon offered $15 for $30 – I had a $10 referral credit on my Groupon acct, so it only cost me $5 for the groupon plus $2.39 for the extra purchase amount.

I bought 6pk basil plants, 6pk red lettuce plants, pk of seeds, along with local radishes, local snap peas, (2) local lettuces, asparagus, tomatoes, and organic nectarines. PLUS, they were having a “Grand Re-Opening” special day, giving away a bag of goodies, like shelling peas, homemade donuts & blueberry bread, jelly, root beer, granola, and apple juice sample. It was a great morning!

Whole Foods $24.73: organic raspberries (Driscoll’s .50 coupon!), 5lb bag o’ organic carrots, organic celery, (2) organic canned tomatoes, organic salsa (.50 coupon), block of parmesan cheese (NOT the good stuff, but I liked it actually better than Reggiano), and organic jelly ($1 coupon).

Market Basket $9.22: (3) oranges, (5) bananas, and a large watermelon. Geez, watermelons are expensive ($6). I liked Trader Joe’s price last week! But the one watermelon was very large, and it lasted for many snacks!

Week of Meals

Meal planning is still helping a lot. I sometimes forget what was planned for dinner that day, and it’s so easy to take a peek at my meal plan for the details. Not having easy access is what made it more difficult to stick to my plan before.

Thursday: Leftover burger in tomato spice sauce over pasta
Friday: dining out – we only had to pay for tip
Saturday: dining out – yes again! only paid for tip
Sunday: Homemade pizza topped with fresh tomatoes, salsa, feta & parmesan cheese, and a large veggie salad
Monday: Stir fry asparagus, carrots, celery with leftover (dining out) steak over barley
Tuesday: Homemade pizza shell topped with salsa, parmesan & radish greens, with a veggie salad
Wednesday: Fried eggs topped over red lentils, (frozen) corn, & fresh shelled peas

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget! There’s still plenty to learn and experience!

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:

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: June Month 8 / Week 1

Project: Food Budget Weekly total: $148.31

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.

June – Month Eight, Week One

This week, I’ve spent $148.31. (It’s always a big first week of the month, but wow, this was a doozie!) That leaves $251.69 for the rest of June.

I’ve decided to stick with my original monthly $400 budget to give myself some leeway. If I can remain under $400 for June, I’ll be happy.

Dining Out: $20.00
Entertaining: $0
Gardening: $0
Groceries: $91.80
Vitamins/Supplements: $36.51

Store % Spending

This week, I received an email from Whole Foods for an online survey, and one of the questions asked the percentage of shopping I do at Whole Foods. I initially assumed it was around 75%, but it got me thinking. How much DO I spend at Whole Foods Market?

I dug into my reports in MS Money and discovered that from Jan – May 2012, I spent 45% of my grocery dollars at Whole Foods, along with 23% at Market Basket, 10% for my meat CSA, & 9% at Trader Joe’s. Hmm, interesting.

Still curious, I dug deeper, and during the same time-frame last year (Jan-May, 2011), I spent a whopping 84%of my grocery dollars at Whole Foods and 11% at Market Basket. Wow! What a difference a little frugality makes, huh?

I am now more conscious of my spending; I’m planning my shopping lists, looking for sales/coupons, tracking prices, and carefully deciding which store(s) will give me the best choices that week!

Spending Details

Phew, I always spend a lot the first week of the month, but this week was really over the top! I bought fish oil supplements, some grains, and lots of fresh produce! Plus, I’m trying to use up some of the CSA meat in the freezer. Big big first week! If this keeps up, I will be over my budget in week 3!

iHerb.com (affiliate link) $54.11 – they were offering 14% VIP discount! I ordered Nordic Naturals DHA (180ct) fish oil capsules, (2) 5lb bags of Bob’s Red Mill WW flour, Bob’s corn flour, Bob’s 7 Grain cereal, Bob’s pealed barley, Bob’s bulgar (& fish oil for dogs’ which is on a separate budget)

Wilson Farm (large local farm) $32.28: their-own radishes (w/ greens), their-own sugar snap peas, (2) their-own lettuces, their-own extra large eggs, HUGE bundle of NJ beets w/ greens, (2) pints CT strawberries, 3+ bag o’ GA vidalia onions, organic SC nectarines/peaches, and a few plums.

Trader Joe’s $22.88: seedless watermelon, (5) bananas, 5lb bag o’ organic potatoes, (2) peanuts (found out later he didn’t charge for one), almonds, organic raisins, red wine vinegar, feta cheese, organic half/half (DH), and I had a refund for the dry/bitter grapefruit from a couple of weeks ago.

Meat CSA $19.04: pork baby back ribs and 1 lb ground beef(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.)

Week of Meals

Thursday: baked scallops (local) with brown rice, roasted onions, and a special salad from my garden!
Friday: Fried egg topped over frozen corn, with huge fresh salad with green leaf lettuce, radish greens, snap peas, celery & carrots
Saturday: Take Out
Sunday: Baby back ribs with roasted potatoes & onions and a big veggie salad (lettuce, radishes, snap peas, carrots)
Monday: Brown rice & beans veg soup with tomatoes, beet greens, jalapeño pepper
Tuesday: Leftover soup with leftover rice & beans & an added fried egg and a small lettuce radish salad
Wednesday: Beef oat flax burger with brown rice, steamed beets & small lettuce radish salad

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

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: