Iām going to have to conclude that the Budgetober Challenge for me is a failure. What Iām out of at the end of 3 weeks is a list that will take at least $60 at a guess to replace entirely. Some of it isnāt deferable, like coffee. The items which arenāt deferable, my estimated cost is $27 out of $25, so I"m busted, for the 3rd week of 4ā¦ 
cheese of any type. I usually stock cheddar at minimum. The block I get lasts 2 weeks and costs $10. Itās the cheapest I can find it. On the list now: cheddar and mozzarella.If I defer the mozzarella, estimated cost $10
milk. 1/2 gallon of what I normally buy $3.29, even if I bought a quart of something elseā¦ I am out of canned milk and low on dry milk, which can be deferred for a week or so. Estimated spend required $0.
marmalade, jelly, peanut butter. I have 1 unopened jar of jelly in the pantry. No backstock peanut butter at all. No peanuts to make more. Even if I buy no jelly/marmalade, Iād need peanut buitter $4.
breads. Baking is our normal fall-winter. The challenge got us off our lazy butās and baking. Thatās good. I do have flour, water, yeast, salt. Tortillas are another thing altogether. I used tortillas as a cheaper, alternative breadstuff. I do have a tortilla press, but Iād misplaced it. We found it, so now I can work on making tortillas as well as bread. I used up the 3 boxes of cornbread mix I had in the pantry. I have a jar of (much older) Bobās cornbread mix that I should use up. If itās rancid (very possible) then it should be pitched. I can get by with what weāve got $0 needed.
coffee. We have enough to last through tomorrow. Then weāre out completely. When we were really in a bad way 1.5 years ago, I tried every cheap alternate coffee bean I found: house brand, Italian dark roast from the big box store, co-op, etc. None of them worked. $8 needed for 1 bag of beans. If we decided we were going to roast our own coffee again, itās not cheaper by the time you pay for shipping. The roasters hereabouts last time we priced it out cost nearly the same as the supermarket preroasted, and you still have to do the workā¦ so why? Required spend $9.
produce. I have enough potatoes from the farm now for one meal. I have enough onions now for 3 dishes. I do have enough celery now, both in the fridge from the farm and in the garden. But doing without potatoes and onions really isnāt an option. 5# of potatoes from Aldi is $4ā¦ If I had scheduled the pickup for my fall bulk produce order? I might feel like I could defer this, but I donāt. Usually by this time I have 50# of potatoes Iāve processed in the pantry and onions and carrots. I donāt have any of that this year, yet, or maybe at all? Estimated cost $4.
Rock bottom cost for Sundayās shopā¦ $10 (cheese) + $4 (peanut butter) + $9 (coffee) + potatoes $4 = $27.
I was short $2 the first week, but have run over every week since. This coming week was my only chance to keep the 4 weeks < = $100 for the monthā¦ and thereās just no way, unless I want to get into a huge fight with DH. Heās been much more tolerant than I expected him to be. Except for buying himself $20 worth of fancy ice cream, and other treats about 2x, heās stuck to it as well. I didnāt expect that. I thought weād fight. Nope.
Failure:
$ amount was just too low. $30 I could probably have done. I could ācheatā and buy only potatoes by the each or a tiny jar of peanut butter. I could. Even if I did, the past 2 weeks of overspending would run me over budgetā¦
Successes:
(Menu Planning) The necessary menu planning didnāt make the cooking boring. I did find myself putting off making things ahead for the freezer a bit, but thatās it. I put aside a few batches of stuff to use as prefab when the few prefab items we have were used up. I made up plain pintos, Mexican bulgar, and rice pilaf. Now I just have to remember to use them!
(Expenditures) This showed me that I really can push what I spend down a lot more than I would have thought. It also showed that thereās a level of spending that just has to happen and if I spend very low one week, it isnāt necessarily sustainable.
If I want to spend this low, weād have to change what we use/how much quite a bit. And I know that although I might be willing to do this, I wonāt get DH to drink coffee he doesnāt like for a month, to save $2/lb.
(Pantry/Food Use) The challenge made me really pay attention to what food I have, so I could make use of it. This aspect of the challenge was a total success!
