Monthly Grocery Budget.

[N F C]

Our son survived on steamed hotdogs and 'package' macaroni and cheese for 4 years.

And lived to tell about it, lol. They manage to survive some how but those kind of diets would do me in!

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed. I cringe when I see the stuff my hubby and GS will choose to eat when we're having a "clean out the left overs" night... of which there have been a lot of them since pup has entered the family. Supper tonight: GS: ham sandwich. Hubby: opened up a can of soup. Me: baked potato with peas, cheese, and a dollop of sour cream... following a very late lunch of chili.

 

[donrae]

Okay, new month!

I'm going to try something different. I'm not going to menu plan for the next week, maybe two. My challenge is to not buy any meat for the next two weeks, but to eat out of the freezer. I want to clean out the freezer in the house, there's a lot of older stuff and maybe some mystery meat in there that needs to be used. So, it will just be a day by day thing. I do know tonight will be Cheap Chicken from Albertsons, we have not had that for a while and are missing it. And toward the end of the week, Fri or Sat, we'll have seafood enchiladas. Other than that, it will be freezer's choice

. Veggies for dinner will be mostly salad, everyone loved salads and they're not getting burnt out at all. I'll throw in some cooked carrots and maybe stir-fry to change things up.

So, the money I save on not buying meat will be stashed away for buying a half a beef sometime this spring. I'm estimating meat is about half our budget, so thinking the two weeks will give me $250 toward that. Doing that for a few months should give me enough to buy a half a beef, and I'll also have the freezer space for it--win/win.

 

[donrae]

I'm at 325 for the month so far. Sheesh, I'm not sure where it all goes! I was at Wal-Mart today and was sore pressed to keep to my "no meat" pledge.....they had whole chickens on sale for $0.88/lb. I did buy a pack of hot dogs at Costco, I guess they're considered meat

but I do love their dinner franks. I bought some fish I don't normally buy, but I've been craving fish so, so much. And beef! I'm glad to see prices easing up some on beef, maybe we'll be able to afford something beside burger here before long.

I had to stay at a motel 250 miles from home last year for 3 months for medical treatment. My mom was with me as my caregiver. She's great about buying extra meat and bagging it for the freezer. labeling it, not so much

. So I've got two bags of mystery meat thawing in the sink right now. One looks probably freezer burnt so it may go to the animals no matter what it is. No idea what the other bag is, I can't even hazard a guess from the frozen lump on the bag. But, I'm clearing out the freezer in the house, so that's a good thing!

 

[donrae]

So one bag of mystery meat was ground beef. It's becoming chili as I type.

the other bag was a stumper. I kept looking at it thinking "that looks like venison". Well, we didn't buy any venison in Portland, that's for sure. And we've not got a deer for a few years. There may still be a stray pack or two at the bottom of the chest freezer, but not in the house. Honey finally reminded me we'd helped a friend butcher his deer this year and they gave us a little roast

. Okay, now I remember!

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Lol well atleast you figured out lol.

 

[DuckLady]

Gosh I hate not having a decent grocery store here. I just spent a fortune on a head of lettuce, some potatoes and a couple loaves of bread. Oh and never mind the pint of Ben and Jerry's that threw itself into my basket begging me to adopt it....

Last month I spent $380 on groceries. Most of it was a trip to Costco where I stocked up a bit on meat, so we still have that and fresh veggies. We are dismally low on fresh stuff, so hopefully will get stocked up soon. Frozen and canned fruits and veggies are ok, but nothing like fresh.

So the No Spend challenge I joined went well last month. I had 23 days of no spending at all. (Bills don't count). 6 days of planned and budgeted spending and 3 days of unplanned spending.

We have a lot going on this month so I didn't join February's challenge. But I am going to try to keep the grocery budget down again Eating from the pantry/freezer sure is eye opening. A lot of "What the heck was I thinking when I bought THAT????"

 

[Jesusfreak101]

So far this month on grocerys i am under budget i have a hundred left i can spend but however i went cloths shopping for the kids was suppose spend only 200 but i spent 278

oh well could resist cute outfits that were on clearance the an additional 20% off.

 

[lazy gardener]

I generally won't buy anything (clothing) unless it's marked way down. Bought boots at TSC for $15 yesterday for GS. I do well at Kohls with my two favorite people (Clarance and Sally ie. Clearance and Sale) Add 30% discount with coupon, and it makes the clothing cheaper than good will. Good will in my area is not a bargain, usually, as a lot of their stuff is worn out, stained or pilled.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

I general go to old navy we havea card there i wait till the have 50-75% off on the entire store then get the discount for using the card and coupond from points on the card but we went shopping in sna marcus with my aunt so yeah that meant cartore, oshgosh, abd baby gap. I only bought from two of the stores because
Well gap had nothing i cared for. I wiuld have been fine just buying cloths for lucy if her brother was a normal size infant (famil threw baby shower got alot of clothing) he only a month and a half and when he was bornhe weighed 8 pounds and a few ounces and now six weeks later after he dropped down to seven pounds he weighs 12 pounds. He doesnt fit in any
New born clothing he barely fits in 0-3 and 3 month clothing so i bought nine month i am praying and hoping those last a little longer then a few weeks.