October Week 5 Month-end Healthy Food Budget: week: $40.29 month: $330.01 year: $4757.11
Hurray, my spending was way under budget for October. Awesome!
Since money has been extra tight lately, I really worked hard to spend as little as possible, but still eat healthily.
I am proud of myself, but humbled. It’s difficult to maintain the delicate balance of saving money, while maintaining a high level of quality.
I’ve found myself cutting corners, like choosing meat from Whole Foods instead of the local farm. Yes, Whole Foods sells meat that is on the edge of factory farming, but it’s still miles above the conventional meat offered at other grocery stores, and they have some good sales every week.
October Week 5 $40.29Month Total: $330.01 Year Total: $4757.11
Dining Out: $0 / Month $74.34 / Year $1211.54
Gardening: $0 / Month $0 / Year $22.17
Groceries: $40.29 / Month $255.67 / $3523.40
Awesome deal on more Bob’s Red Mill products; I had the last of my coupons to use and saved a lot. Received an order from Amazon Subscribe & Save for 1lb of peppercorns.
Where I Spent My Grocery Dollars This Week
Market Basket $20.71 for 2+lbs bananas, 2 bags 60% chocolate chips (sale $2.50 ea), Grandma’s molasses, Bob’s Red Mill barley (75c coup), (2) BRM spelt berries (1 free w/ BOGO coupon), BRM kamut berries (free w/ BOGO coupon), BRM baking soda (75c coup)
Farm $4.46 for apples and lettuce
Amazon $11.87 for 1lb whole peppercorns
Market Basket $3.25 for organic apples and pineapple
Month End – Grocery Store Breakdown $255.67
Total farm purchases were $72.58, not quite as much as Whole Foods, but considering that I buy my meat from WF now, it’s not bad. I don’t buy much produce from WF, but that will be increased as the days get colder.
Market Basket 86.41 (34%)
Whole Foods 84.81 (33%)
Farm 47.48 (19%)
Amazon.com 11.87 (5%)
Tewksbury Farmers Market 10.00 (4%)
Seven Acres Farm 7.50 (3%)
Mann Orchards 4.08 (2%)
Open Meadow Farm 3.52 (1%)
Nov – Oct Year End $4757.11
I’m thrilled that my total food expense for the year was well under the projected high total of $5000. I even ended up lower than the $4800 that I was hoping for!
My entertaining purchases for year were $204.86 and vitamins/supplements were $98.30, bringing total to $5060.27. If I kept tracking those categories as “food”, I would be a smidge over $5K. Not bad.
Looking forward to 2014, I’m keeping the food budget the same at $4800-$5000, and I’m excited to start a fresh new year! Can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I started budgeting!
Year End – Grocery Store Breakdown $3,523.40
Total farm purchases this year: $937.52 (26%) – yay, more than Whole Foods, and over a quarter of my total purchases. I suppose it would be better if farms represented half of my purchases, but something to shoot for next year, when hopefully money won’t be so tight.
Whole Foods 924.70 (26%)
Market Basket 774.74 (22%)
Trader Joe’s 575.36 (16%)
Open Meadow Farm 260.89 (7%)
Wilson Farm 215.49 (6%)
Farm 199.09 (6%)
Ocean State Job Lot 93.26 (3%)
Seven Acres Farm 91.75 (3%)
Amazon.com 90.92 (3%)
Tropical Traditions 58.92 (2%)
Mann Orchards 43.80 (1%)
Hannaford 43.20 (1%)
Winchester Winter Farmers Market 30.65 (1%)
Brookline Farmers Market 21.70 (1%)
Penzeys Spices 19.53 (1%)
Newburyport Farmers Market 16.80 (1%)
Four Star Farms 15.00 (1%)
Wilmington Farmers Market 14.25 (1%)
iHerb.com 13.27 (1%)
Salem NH Farmers Market 12.50 (1%)
Tewksbury Farmers Market 10.00 (1%)
Target 9.56 (1%)
Jones Farm 5.60 (1%)
Vitacost 4.94 (1%)
Aubut’s Liquors 3.00 (1%)
WALMART 0.99 (1%)
Misc credits/deductions -26.51
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.