With a family of four kids three of them in 8th grade or higher, I decided I needed to take a long look at how we were spending our money on food. We’ve gotten into the habit of stocking snack foods that aren’t very healthy and relying on them throughout the day, so part of the challenge is to eat better, too. As a family, we accepted a challenge to budget $200 month, which was in part motivated by the 100 days of Real Food website challenge. That’s a little less than $30 a day, $5 per person. With special occasions and other activities, some aspects of our food bill were getting way out of control.
We started with a refrigerator and freezer full of some meats and vegetables which wind up as our staples, so the first few weeks, the spending is a little lower. As we go on, and deplete those stores, it will take better planning, but we’ve accepted the challenge and are excited to see what we can do with it.
So here’s our spending this first week. In fairness, we didn’t really start the challenge until the following week, but I thought it interesting to look at what our purchases had been.
AUG 4-10
8/4 – Costco
A trip to Costco is usually for stocking up on frequently used items. Ice Cream this time was a recognized treat.
Ice Cream 10.59
Chicken breasts 21.99
Butter 10.99
Hamburger patties 20.99
Lemon juice 5.79
Canola Oil 7.79
TOTAL $78.14
8/7 – Fred Meyer
Well, this looks like it was mostly snacks. Except for the grapes, not so good.
Goldfish 5.00
Cupcakes 1.00
Grapes 3.62
Strawberry Bars 2.50
TOTAL $12.12
8/8 – Haggen
About half of this was for a special dessert my daughter likes to make that involves cream cheese, lemon, and blueberries. The rest again looks like some snack items, and a not so healthy dinner.
Blueberries 3.49
Lemons 1.00
Raspberry 3.00
Cream Cheese 3.38
Dark Caramel Bar 3.29
Whipped Cream 2.99
Ben & Jerry 3.99
Frozen Pizza 6.99
Raspberry Tea .99
Cereal 2.00
Graham Crackers 3.99
TOTAL $35.11
GRAND TOTAL: $125.37
Well, three trips to the store, and not too much produce, this isn’t looking as good as I’d hoped. We’ll do better next week.