In early June, when I wrote my last post, I was reeling myself back from spending way too much on my food budget.
Since then, I’m feeling more in control. In fact, August was an extremely low spending month, mainly because we were on vacation, and vacation food is categorized separately.
Here we go:
Month of June, 2014: $348.47
Dining Out/Convenience Foods: $99.63 (28.6% of total food spending – a little high, but really it’s not bad)
Groceries: $234.38 (Meat: $30.40)
Gardening: $14.46
Note: our vacation food total was $74.10 for one weekend’s splurges.
Month of July, 2014: $498.92
Dining Out/Convenience Foods: $110.24 (22.1% of total food spending – Great!)
Groceries: $388.68 (Meat: $83.83)
Note: our vacation food total was $84.04 for two weekends’ splurges, including the 4th of July.
Yes, a high month for spending, but I made up for it in August. Plus, I spent $31 on a large bag of Pomona’s Pectin powder, which will probably last me about 25 years!
Month of Aug, 2014: $257.34
Dining Out/Convenience Foods: $49.71 (19.32% of total food spending)
Groceries: $213.22 (Meat: $47.96)
Note: our vacation food total was $321.92, which accounts for one weeklong getaway, plus two weekends, including Labor Day weekend. Confession time: $61.44 was spent at a bakery while we were camping in northern Maine, and no I’m not embarrassed. I was in doughnut heaven with Boston Cream and Persian honey buns.
So, August was a super month. But admittedly, most of it was due to vacation, and also there was an employee walk-out and customer boycott of a beloved local grocery chain, which put a damper on my love for grocery shopping… I tried to stick to my farm store and farmers markets, and eat from my pantry & freezer if possible. To help offset the lack of fresh produce, the farm store added Jessica’s Bakery bread and New England eggs along with dairy. I’ve never seen it so busy…there were checkout lines out the door! But it all ended well, and employees and customers are back at the stores now.
Summary
So, even if I stick to a low $400/month for the next two months, my yearly total will be about $5350, much higher than the $4500-5000 I was shooting for. I’ll average $450 per month, which I suppose isn’t too bad, but I wish I did better.
All I can do is my best, and next year, we’ll see what happens.
About My Healthy Budget
My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 $450 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.