Month: August 2013

Aug Week 2 Healthy Food Budget: $74.51

Good week. I have to admit that food spending was a little lower due to a mini vacation visiting friends, which was considered as a vacation expense not food.

August Wk Two Food Spending $74.51 / Total $236.83 / Balance $163.17

Dining Out: $33.13 / Total $74.54
Groceries: $41.38 / Total $162.29

I still have a whopping $163 left in the budget this month, but I’m really going to try like heck NOT to spend it all. Next week, I’ll try the “cash in the envelope” trick again.

Where I Spent My Grocery Dollars This Week

Market Basket (Sun) $5 for ice cream and butterscotch topping (cheaper than going out for sundaes!)

Market Basket (Tues) $22.78 for 2-1/4 lbs grapes, watermelon, 1/2 lb broccoli, 1-3/4 lb bananas, organic raw cheddar cheese, salsa, and Bragg’s apple cider vinegar

Open Meadow Farm $8.52 for 1+ lb ground beefalo (stockpiled meat from the farm is paid in full, so technically no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as we consume it.)

Market Basket (Thurs) $5.08 for bananas, ham, french onion dip, potato chips (vacation snacks)

About My Healthy Budget

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. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

Aug Week One Healthy Food Budget: $162.32 (10 days)

This first “week” consists of the first 10 days of August (Th-S).

By the 3rd, I had spent about $80 just on groceries! Yikes! I needed to rein myself in so I tried something new for the rest of the week. I set a spending limit and put the cash in an envelope, promising myself that I’d stick to that amount. It worked! I can’t say that I’ll do it every week, but I’m going to try to keep it up for the rest of the month.

I also am coming to grips with the fact that because I am eating more meat (sigh) I might need to buy more from the grocery store. It pains me because I’ve always believed that it was better to eat less amounts of higher quality more expensive farm-raised meat, than more amounts of cheaper grocery meat.

I’m holding onto hope that eventually I’ll be back to that way of life, but in the meantime, my personal health comes first. Good quality grocery meat (no antibiotics, no hormones) with the sad assumption that it’s probably still factory-farmed.

Aug Wk 1 Food Spending $162.32 / Balance $237.68

Dining Out: $41.41
Groceries: $120.91

Thanks to Kait at Yoga Beauty Life for the heads up on Target groceries and mobile coupons. I saved a lot, including extra savings on 7th Generation dishwashing liquid, $1 off on Target generic item, $1 off frozen item, $1 off vegetable, and $1 off fruit.

Where I Spent My Grocery Dollars This Week

Lots of farm produce this week! And I was happy that I ate my baked egg/veggie/rice casserole for dinner with no noticeable symptoms from the egg.

Whole Foods Market (Fri) $56.96 for organic peanut butter, 1.5lb cherries, 1.5 lb bananas, 1 lb ground dark turkey, 4-1/2 lbs boneless chicken breast, 1 lb Alaskan coho salmon, 2 Equal Exchange dark chocolate, 2lb WF calrose white rice, 1/4 lb olives from bar (used $10 coupon off $50 purchase)

Local Farm (Fri) $15.93 for blueberries, nectarines, lettuce, sungold tomatoes, garlic, zucchini, radishes, green beans

Target (Sat) 9.56 for peanuts, avocado, grapes, and a splurge of Edwards frozen keylime pie

Local Farm (Mon) $3.07 for zucchini, tomato, green beans

Market Basket (Mon) $8.08 for natural pork chops, broccoli, bananas

Seven Acres Farm (Tues) $3.75 dozen jumbo eggs

Local Farm (Thurs) $5.29 for lettuce, green pepper, peach, and yay early mac apples!

Local Farm (Fri) $10.28 for kale, 2 lb carrots, local half & half creamer, onion (not local), tomato, zucchini, and parsley

Market Basket (Sat) $7.99 for Applegate Farms deli chicken breast, 3/4 lb cherries, and 2 lb bananas

About My Healthy Budget

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. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.