April budget update and what I’m learning

So, we are a week away from wrapping up April and I am happy to say that so far this month I’ve managed to stay within my alloted grocery budget of $150/wk (I put aside $625 for the month to give myself a little cushion). I know I still have a week left but I don’t think it will be a problem given the fact that we ate out a lot this past week due to it being spring break (and that obviously meaning that I’m taking a break from cooking!) so much of the meat that i bought last week didn’t get used and I’m holding onto it for next week (because it was in the freezer, of course).

The other thing is that with the $150 i’m not just buying food, that includes wine, diapers, formula and the other paper products and toiletries that our house needs so I’m thinking that that is actually pretty good and I am quite pleased that I’m getting on a better track with this.  The other thing that I’m pleased with is the fact that we are buying only organic produce (when its available) and all our meat and dairy is also grass fed and from sustainably managed local farms. This exercise is really showing me that I should have been buying better food all along and that our budget was really no excuse. We’re spending the same if not less on groceries than we were several months ago when I first started this experiment. Without a doubt menu planning has been the key to keeping things on track. Because I go into my shopping with very specific recipes for the week I am not buying things that we won’t eat that week, which means I spend less and so much less food goes to waste. Not to mention that we aren’t eating junk that’s just lying around the house. I have actually lost weight over the last 6 weeks (not a lot but enough to get me below my pre-children weight). I really think that not buying as many processed foods and not having as many snacks lying around also helps. Plus when I only have $150 for the whole week I tend to skip the impulse things that get me at the grocery store (which is basically anything in the bakery department).

Of course one of the more challenging parts is that the fact that I don’t just shop in 1 place for everything, I now go to 3 or many times even 4 different places to find all of the ingredients for our weekly meals and all of the other things that help our house run smoothly. Luckily most of the places I go to are not far from my house and I enjoy finding new places to get my food and meeting new people.

One of the things that people have been asking me about since I started this journey is what foods would they could start out with if they are new to eating better food. I found a great list on thedailygreen.com that talks about what items to try to buy organically if you can because the conventionally grown items come in the most contact with pesticides and other bad for you things. Some of the things they list are:

1. Meat

2. Milk

Basically if you are eating the animal or a direct by product of that animal you eat what it eats. If it is getting antibiotics, hormones or anything else you are eating those too so meat and milk seem to be 2 of them more obvious items.

3. Coffee -now I would not have thought of coffee but according to this list because pesticides and chemicals aren’t as regulated in other countries you can’t be sure what is in the coffee you are most likely drinking

4. Celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, bell peppers, spinach- there are more but basically the gist is that its best to stay away from items that don’t have a tough skin that you can peel easily

5. Potatos- we eat so many that I was shocked to read that they can be laced with with up to 37 different pesticides

They also have a great list of 15 items that you can skip on buying organically if you want to maximize your dollar.

So if you have the opportunity check out a site like localharvest, punch in your zip code and say Hi to some local growers in your area. You’ll be doing something good for you and for your community.

March oh March where did the money go?

I am just now getting to sit down and take a quick look at our March budget. It only took getting 6 days into April! All I know from just a very cursory look is that we spent WAY too much money or we budgeted WAY too little money. I’m opting to think that we have just done a poor job in the past budgeting.

To our defense I will say that our $625 budget includes ALL of our home/food items including diapers, formula, paper products, alcohol and oh yeah some FOOD (organic food, at that)!  So needless to say that was not enough by like $100 bucks, uggg!

Since I do not want to become a crazy coupon lady (who i totally respect btw, it is nuts how money she saves) I have decided to up our grocery budget a bit. I am now going to try and just set aside $150/wk which is still tight I know! but we are by far not the Rockafellers and I know if I just had a few extra dollars each week my budget wouldn’t have been busted. On the bright side of all this debbie downer money talk is that in the month of March we exclusively ate locally raised organic meat and almost all of our veggies were organic as was much of our other food that we bought. So that being said I’m actually not that disappointed that I only spent about $100 extra bucks this month since our family ate meat that had all been grown within 20 miles of our house!!!

For so many years I thought that eating sustainably and organically was just WAY too expensive and that we just couldn’t afford to do that. It has taken ALOT more planning, ALOT more trips to different places to buy my food (from farms, amish grocery stores, traditional grocers) but it has been so worth it.

Over the last month I’ve met some cool people who feel passionately about growing healthy, good food and I’m loving that! I feel like I am building a personal connection with my food and not just trudging into the grocery store and having this completely impersonal experience with food. It has also made me appreciate my meals so much more. I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed our steaks last weekend, especially when I thought about Melanie and her husband at Red Haven Farm and how she gave me 3 delicious NY strip steaks since she was out of flank and her other 4 steers at the butcher hanging right now.  Because of the lack of flank steak we changed up our plans and my hubby and I had a late night dinner for 2 with a delicious Malbec and roasted organic potatoes. Had we just gone to the grocery store they probably would have had what I had gone in for and missed out on a lovely evening 😉

I think as the warmer weather comes in things will also get a bit easier on the budget because over the next 5-6 weeks all of my favorite farmers markets will be opening!!! YAY! I LOVE Farmers Markets (i need a bumper sticker for that). Overall I think most of the produce there is cheaper which I like and in addition to my love of farmers markets our garden is going in this month! My plants are getting HUGE and my son and I spent last Saturday replanting all of them into bigger pots so we are all ready to see them move out to there rightful home in the earth!

***Also-on a side note, I didn’t do a menu plan this week because we have not all been home 1 night this week 😦 so we are all scrounging on leftovers and breakfasts for dinner.***

Cash only food shopping = stress?

This is my first month ever really trying to stay on our grocery budget of $625 so I am using only cash this month to try and stick to that. What this means is that going food shopping has been a bit more stressful than usual these past 2 weeks! I’ve been carrying my trusty calculator around the food store and adding things up as I go and then praying that I didn’t make a mistake with my calculations as the checker rings me out.

The last 2 weeks I’ve been a little under my alloted amount, due to my coupon clipping ;), which has been great but I’ve definitely put a few things back and didn’t even pick up a few things because I knew I didn’t have enough money. One of the few benefits that I’m discovering through this process though, is that I really think twice before I pick something up. Where as before a few extra things might jump in my cart that looked SO good in the grocery store but then ended up in the trash half eaten at home, now I’m only buying things that I know we’ll eat and that we’ll eat before it rots or goes to die in our fridge.  And speaking of the fridge that is another benefit i’m seeing with this shopping weekly, paying cash thing, our fridge has managed to stay alot neater and cleaner. Normally things go into our fridge and sometimes (ok, many times) they die in there. I’ll be looking for something a month later and lo and behold in the very back or deep in the recesses of the veggie drawer there it is looking pretty sad and stinky! So now I’m buying things that we’ll actually eat before going bad which is a good thing and I can actually find stuff in the fridge because it’s not as crowded.

Also, because I’m buying more fresh food our freezer is 1/2 empty which leaves me more room for freezing some homemade meals, like my chili that I made yesterday!