Monday, April 16, 2012

$60 Challenge

I like to think that I always get the biggest bang for our buck. I honestly hate spending money. But, even more I hate wasting money. Last year I began cutting coupons - extreme couponing? No! But, I coupon enough to know that I was over paying for groceries seriously. I think overall it's hard shopping and cooking for just two people. I swear no matter what we do we always have left overs and we always throw food away at the end of the week.

B and I are trying to cut back expenses, mostly because we have a mile long list of things we would like to do to our house and I would much rather invest in our home than our bellies {unless it's my belly and only if it is housing a baby, which ain't happening right now, so it's time to cut back}.

So after seeing how much we spend monthly on food, including groceries, eating out, lunches out, etc I quickly realized we have a major spending problem. Even though I love to cook sometimes it's just easier with a busy schedule to grab something out. We need to get in a routine and stick to it which seems to be difficult for B and I sometimes.



Starting this week, I have imposed a monthly budget of only $240 for us on food (not including our weekly date night) - which averages out to $60 a week. I started this week by shopping our pantry, fridge and freezer first. Then I planned out our weekly menu which included breakfast, lunch and dinner all week. I didn't have any good coupons to match up to sales, so this first week I had the challenge of staying within our goal without coupons. Yikes!

I took my reusable bags and my quarter and headed to Aldi's. When B and I moved to Indiana we were lucky enough to move 5 minutes away from a very clean very nice Aldi's. After Aldi's my second trip was to Kroger, which is only a light up the street from Aldi's on my way home. Between the two stores I spent $63.97. For the first week on our new budget, I think I did good.

Our dinner menu this week includes the following:

Monday: Sausage gravy & biscuits with scrambled eggs (we do breakfast for dinner at least once a month)
Tuesday: Baked chicken with green beans and seasoned brown rice
Wednesday: Grilled pork chops with grilled sweet corn and greens
Thursday: Chicken enchiladas
Friday: Left Over Buffet
Saturday: Date Night {Out to eat}
Sunday: Jambalaya with sausage and chicken

Do you use coupons and/or meal plan weekly? Do you stick to a grocery budget or do you wing it each week with whatever you want to eat? Do you have an Aldi's near you? If so, do you shop there? I would love to hear how you get a hold on the grocery store bills!

2 comments:

  1. This is my favorite post yet! I have tried couponing, but it just hasn't clicked yet! I understand the idea behind it, but just can't seem to put it in action.

    I do plan out our menu, and with me and the boys being home all day, it does include Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, and Dinner. I usually try to do one big shopping trip that lasts us a month. I used to spend an unimaginable amount! But the last few months I was able to get it down to an average of 450... so 112 a week.... I need to work on this! GEEZ!!
    I wish we had an Aldi's! I usually try to go to Food Lion because they tend to have some really good sales.... maybe it's time to suck up the drive and go to the commissary!
    Will you be doing more of these kinds of posts?

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    Replies
    1. It took me a while to get the hang of coupons and honestly I know there are a million people out there that use them better than me. But, I use them how they work for us.

      Even though I just included our dinner menu we also have a breakfast, lunch and snack menu as well since I pack our lunches for work.

      I will do more post of this kind - if your interested I can even post about how I organize my coupons, find coupons, etc. I normally do our weekly shopping every Sunday. I haven't decided if I will post on Sunday about my shopping results and if I'm staying in budget or just wait to post it on Monday. I am thinking about joining a Menu Plan Monday link up on another blog I follow.

      I will work a coupon post in soon :)

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