Made it through a week’s meal plan and actually stuck to it! Freezer got restocked a bit this week as some more room was made but it will be gone by next week as it’s things like bread that go bad quickly in the heat so I’m not fussed.
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updated spreadsheet screenshot
Work budget covered my last trip’s drinks and there was so much food i didn’t have room for dessert :)) Dined out once while out on an unexpected errand. Planning to dine out maybe 3x on this coming week’s trip + snacks to take home.
I haven’t thrown out any old food yet, but maybe if I don’t use them up this month I should :))
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I’ve been doing well on food spending and think I could use a bit of accountability here (to keep that going) so I’m joining in- although I’m sure I won’t end up sticking to the once a week check-in rule, haha. Last week I did very well at $45 and this week I spent $103. My spend was really low last week because I ended the week with a lot of food, but this week I ended with no food, so it makes sense.
Even my local produce store is increasing prices, though. It make me feel a little bit worried.
And I just realized this is only for one month, haha. It’s very me to join something as it’s almost over. I thought it was for all year!
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We haven’t thrown out any more vegetables since last week. One more clementine went bad and the child was rejecting half a box of strawberries, but I cut them up, rescued a few that he found acceptable, and cooked the rest with a little maple syrup to have with my pancakes.
Since we’re going on vacation in a couple weeks, hopefully we can limit ourselves to buying only what we’re definitely going to eat. Especially since we seem to be low on food budget for the month.
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Goal 1 plan worked for a second week, and I have the ingredients already for this coming week.
Goal 2: grocery spend to date: $245.67 (I think; there’s one mystery Walmart trip at about $60, but I am pretty sure that was the material for oil changes)
Eating out/takeout to date: $105.33 (and likely to go even higher as he’s doing a game night at school once a week). Hmmm.
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Well, categorizing and reporting went to hell, but my meal planning has been working out well! So that’s good, and hopefully this method is sustainable for us. I’ve been integrating “thaw X” onto our weekly schedule white board and that’s been super helpful.
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I still haven’t sorted out the roasted tomatoes & bell peppers from the last flashfood box, and thus have held back from buying another one today (it has eggplants and limes and garlic and onions and tomato). I have bought more discount meat because I’m still having scarcity feelings.
Meal planning is still a challenge, but I think I’m doing a reasonable job of moving the freezer things along
Summary
red containers (2 cups)
- corn chowder x2
- cheesy soup
x2x1 - coconut lentils (I thought there was 1, but there were 2, now there is 1)
coco mung beans- onion soup
- butter chicken
- unknown perhaps beef stew?
1 cup
- butter chicken
x 8x6 - beef curry x2 (I thought there were 2, but there were 3)
- beef stew?
- cheesy white beans
- cheesy soup?
cooked onions x2- half & half
- beef jus
- cilantro lime sauce
yogurt starter backupcoconut milk- stock x3
Added 1 cups to the freezer
- pinto beans x 2
- bbq pork x 3
- tomato ginger chutney x 2
We have spent 536 on food in January, 390 on groceries. Which isn’t that bad considering the first week of January we were traveling and thus more restaurants than usual. But also not awesome given that we have a bunch of food in the freezer to eat down.
ETA: half of the tomatoes from the last flashfood box have been made into a roasted salsa thing. I will give it a day for flavours to blend and then decide if the rest of the tomatoes should be likewise, or make some kind of bolognese sauce.
I am trying to make some candied grapefruit peels.
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I have been trying to hold firmly to only spending 200/month but I have admitted defeat 
. For one thing I had to give up my daily yogurt for breakfast that I love and at this age I am eating what I want. I did much sacrificing when I was raising my kids. So my new budget is 300/month. I shop at the cheapest place locally which is Winco.
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I have been okay on meal planning, but this next week I have things nearly every night plus traveling down to San Jose on friday and Saturday and I have forgotten what foods we we eat.
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Ha ha Let’s join and make it a thing!
We have been working on our overall budget in January, so I am just getting ready to dive into the food budget more intentionally.
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I too am up for Snacku23. Snakcuyear? SnackuAnno? Whatever one might want to call it. One month is not long enough for me to get things more sorted I think…
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Used up our last frozen beef roast (shredded beef for tacos, yuuuum), some of the garden root veg (rutabaga and parsnip), and frozen veg and broth (corn chowder).
The freezer is still very full.
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Week 2 and 3 Check-In
- No buying work snacks
- Eat breakfast and pack/eat lunch
Not as good on the breakfast part, but the spirit of making sure I’m fed at work is being met - Track food costs by category
| Category | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beverages | 15.67 | 25.38 | 44.35 | 85.4 |
| Carbs | 9.78 | 9.03 | 17.48 | 36.29 |
| Dairy/Eggs | 10.48 | 18.77 | 15.97 | 45.22 |
| Fake meat/entrees | 2.99 | 1.19 | 15.16 | 19.34 |
| Household | 8.99 | 13.68 | 37.45 | 60.12 |
| Junk | 29.63 | 11.98 | 10.47 | 52.08 |
| Prepared/entrees | 4.79 | 21.74 | 26.53 | |
| Produce | 32.72 | 35.12 | 67.84 | |
| Sauces | 20.74 | 2.49 | 6.62 | 29.85 |
| Total | 103.07 | 115.24 | 204.36 | 422.67 |
I had a $15 of $150 coupon, so there was some stocking up on household things just to make sure I got to $150 that was totally unnecessary, but will get used. Future Rhubarb will be happy that past Rhubarb bought and lugged two jugs of cat litter up the stairs. There are a few things that will get used for next week’s dinners but were on sale this week. Still on track to be under budget of $600 at the end of the month.
We spend so much on beverages, it’s ridiculous. 3 cartons of soda, a carton of bubble water, three energy drinks, a bag of nice coffee, and two boxes of scratch and dent tea. I would put up more of a fuss, but it all gets drunk by N who is at home. If they were going in to an office we would have less soda costs, but more gas costs. So I guess it works out. 
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Ok I’m doing my final check in as I will be leaving on Tuesday.
Cherry pie is currently baking in the oven. I’m thankful for summertime me that put the effort in to make the filling and freeze it.
Took out a package of chicken quarters for supper tomorrow. Added in 2 whole chickens that we got on sale.
I’m pleased with my eat down focus, however, I have learned that since I was so focussed on eating down the freezer that some of my fresh stuff has been ignored. I have a 2 lb bag of spinach that is probably starting to go bad that I haven’t even opened, and a pineapple I cut up and haven’t eaten yet. I would have prioritized this more if I wasn’t so focussed on trying to eat down freezer stuff.
I do have more items to use up and need to make a better plan for them, so some of the fresh stuff doesn’t go to waste like my bag of spinach. But considering it’s only one thing I will have to toss out it’s not bad. I can freeze the pineapple if it comes down to it and eat it when I get home.
I know SO will also be using some of the freezer items while I am gone. He is planning on making pulled pork from the chunk of pork shoulder we have left, and maybe some burgers too.
I know we have spent about $300 on groceries for the 2 of us for the month, and some of that was towards stock up items (like the chickens which were about $14 each as an example). I will probably spend another $40 tomorrow before I leave to get some last minute items for SO since he won’t be driving while I’m gone - milk, eggs, potatoes are on the list, but who knows what impulse items will appear.
I think that by the beginning of March I should be able to do my defrost project. Mind you, if it gets cold enough outside I could more stuff to the garage and be able to do it over 2 days. We will see.
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Carnival food/drink expenses - none, there was nothing going on this week. Next week will be different story!
Batch cooking - only managed this once.
Did not throw out any food this week!
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So, I thought I could do this since I’ve enjoyed the bingo challenge. However, I am a nervous wreck from trying to record my expenses and trying to eat better at home and trying to get an inventory of food I have and get rid of old stuff and… My eating disorder is starting to rear up again and I am antsy about every food decision. So, I’m out. It was a good learning experience. I can’t try to lower expenses, eat better, and cook at home all at the same time. One at a time it is.
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Another successful week on all counts!
I’m suspicious now lol
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I’m a few days late again on my update. Since I’ve been so far under budget this month I did a bit of a stock up on some items at Target, like buying 20 cans of fruit. Total for the month so far is $514 and we will definitely end up under the $700 budget for the month. We’ve spent $169 so far in eating out, so unless we go crazy next weekend I think we will also come in under the $300 budget for that, and under $1000 total for food. Category totals:
| Category | SUM of Cost |
|---|---|
| Carbs | $70.62 |
| Dairy | $72.14 |
| Drink | $12.17 |
| Fruit | $112.46 |
| Pantry | $53.29 |
| Prepared Food | $19.66 |
| Protein | $120.12 |
| Vegetable | $53.72 |
| Grand Total | $514.18 |
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I haven’t looked at the receipt yet but I’ll do that tonight. We are at $1109 for the month and miiiight be done with shopping until February? Not sure. My goal is to read the receipt every week and get back in touch with what things cost nowadays since I am not the usual shopper, rather than to stick to a certain amount.
@Economista is making me think that’s a lot for groceries for 4 eaters! Is it? I definitely notice the boys eating more than they used to, though. If I cook a batch of taco bowls with a pound or more of chicken, a can of black beans, and half a pound of corn, that used to make dinner plus like 4 lunches. Now it makes dinner and 1 lunch! They hardly ever snack (except for hot cocoa) so they are hungry at dinner time!
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I think you are entering into the era of teenage boy eaters. We also have much higher cost months too. This is just a low cost month. There has been a decent amount of meat in the freezer this month and we’ve been cutting down on some of the “easy” things and swinging the pendulum back toward more work/meal prep/scratch cooking instead of paying more for time saving solutions. While you are in the tiny baby times you should totally have higher food costs!
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