Considering I decided to cut down my grocery bills during the middle of March, I did pretty well overall for the month of March. My goal for the average weekly spending on groceries was $50 and I spent $50.40. An extra .40 is not much, so I am very pleased but .40/week is still $20.80/year and I have better places for that money so I am going to continue this plan and see if I can't even get under $50 average for the year. Because so far I am already over this goal I will have to cut down below $50/week to make my yearly goal. So far my average for this year is $53.71 and to get the average down to $50/week I will need to average $48.76/week from now on.
I do not expect to cut my spending down to $48.76 next week or even next month but I do plan on trying my hardest to reach this goal and you never know, maybe I will. Slow and steady works much better than extreme frugality and then splurging.
The ladies over on the WIR grocery board have been so nice and other blogs have been a great time saver as well as money saver. I do believe that with their help, by the end of the year I will be able to report on average spending of less than $50/week.
Also, my fiance and I will be preparing our garden both this weekend and next. We will be planting lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, basil, red onions and jalapenos. We already have two blackberry bushes that we started last year. Though we consider the garden expenses part of our food budget we expect to save some money by gardening.
Is anyone else changing their lifestyle to save money? What about reaching out to others to save money? To get our budget down to what I want we will have to do both. Strange enough, I think both the lifestyle change and reaching out to others will be good for us, not just monetarily but socially and emotionally as well.
Not an answer to the questions you asked, but...
ReplyDeleteBlackberry bushes!! What have you done!
Now maybe they won't grow where you are the way they do in the PNS, but they are insidious and will take over your entire yard. You must carefully prune them multiple times a year. And when you do, I don't care how hot it is, wear jeans, a long sleeved top (flannel or thicker), and gloves. They are evil, evil bushes. (So evil that cities and counties in WA won't even endanger staff by having them deal with blackberries on public land. Goats are employed instead.)
LOL, but last year I got about $3 worth of blackberries. I like having free fruit and I want more than $3 worth.
ReplyDeleteMy friends and I used to go out in the summer and pick blackberries, and we would get all cut up but oh, they were so worth it.
Blackberries are deliecious; I won't disagree, but as plants they are evil.
ReplyDeleteThe only place I don't try to remove them from in my yard is the holly tree. It can fend for itself.
However, I can just walk down to the end of the road and pick as many as I need for homemade pie.
Stay on WIR and you can definitely cut that grocery bill. I have drastically cut mine since reading the grocery challenge and haven't tried very hard (as far as menu planning). Keep at it.
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