March Groceries Tweaks
I’ve raised the weekly budget for groceries in March to $85, and March is one of those evil months with 5 Saturdays, so overall, the month’s budget is $425. Which is high, and the extra will most likely end up coming out of the potential snowflaking money, but we’ll get by. If only the 5 Saturday month could have waited until April when the utility bills are bound to be lower… but, oh well.
This week I spent $38.26 at Aldi, $30.86 at Walmart, and $16.09 at Kroger for a total of $85.21. So very close to budget! I went overbudget because I bought myself a $0.59 “flavored beverage” at Aldi (pomegranate, it was tasty). I hadn’t eaten lunch when I shopped and I needed to tide myself over before I spent a whole lot more than that on impulse items. Oops. Still, that was only 0.7% (not 7%, 7/10ths of 1%) of my overall spending on impulsive items so I did not do too badly. It irks me though that if I hadn’t spent it I would have actually come in under budget.
I find as I am shopping with the specific meal plan in mind, I am buying a higher proportion of things at Walmart or Kroger than before and a lower proportion at Aldi. This is basically because Aldi has a very limited selection, and as I buy specific fresh items or leaner meats, I have to find them elsewhere. I bought turkey breast at Walmart this week, as well as chicken at Kroger. In fact, a third of my Walmart spending this week was for the turkey breast, which will last several weeks but still was more expensive per pound than my usualy meat purchases.
We’re adjusting. We’ve got more adjusting to do!
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March 2nd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’ve been shopping at Walmart’s grocery section more and more also. I try to get everything I can there in one hit as opposed to driving over town wasting time and gas. I really like the discounts on chicken - your Walmart probably marks down the chicken that must be sold that day too. I find that really helps to stretch the grocery budget. I’ve tried to go completely meatless as in vegetarian but it’s so hard to come up with interesting dishes that everyone likes plus the time factor because we are all at work or school all day. I have set my grocery budget at $500 for March - it will be a miracle if I don’t go over that amount as everything has become so expensive and there are 6 adults to feed here.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 pm
I’m sure having the meal plan definitely helps keep the costs down. I’ve never been able to stick to one but I keep the weekly grocery cost down by only buying items that are needed each night. I guess this is the benefit of having the grocery store across the street. Your budget seems very reasonable.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I won’t buy meat anymore at WalMart. I had a bad experience a few years ago and decided to buy meat and fish elsewhere. Everything else, I purchase at WalMart.
I buy no processed or prepackaged food and few canned goods…mostly fresh or ingredients to make meals and baked goods from scratch.
Good luck with you grocery budget!
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:18 am
I read a couple of blogs yesterday where one had a weekly grocery budget of $35 for her family and the other less than that ($25-30?).
I have found that as I eat healthier though, the costs of food goes up, so I have a harder time justifying some of the cheaper staples (pasta and rice) as a way of making my food dollars go farther.
I have found that in the Midwest buying fruits and vegetables when they are in season is the better choice financially. Being from the south, they were always pretty much in season and cheap (except for things like blueberries which come from up north), so this is still a learning process for me.
I have also found as a single (woman and mother) that too often things would go bad because of being asked on dates where food was involved and being busy during the week and not having time to cook something that is now defrosted.
What are some of the other tricks you use to keep from throwing food out? Crockpot cooking and freezing?
Diane