A month has passed by and I am ready to sum up the challenge for this month. I have set a couple of goals for myself and as I was executing them I realized that there is so much I need to learn to be successful.
Challenge #1 Limit grocery trips to 2/month
During the first two weeks I have made 4 trips. I have realized that I need a grocery list if I want to cut back on the trips. Right after the 4th trip I promised myself that no matter what I will not go to the store for 2 weeks. To achieve this goes here is some changes I have made:
Change #1 Do not go shopping without a grocery list
I used sticky notes to write my grocery list down. At the very top I wrote down when was I going to go to the grocery store and for how many days was I going to shop for (14 days). In one column I wrote things we were out of and in another column I wrote things we were running out of. When the time came to go to the grocery store I took my sticky notes with me and I checked my cupboards for things we were running out of. If I noticed that I am not going to have enough of that item for 14 days then I added it to the shopping list.
To eliminate the risk of forgetting something I filled the columns every day as I was using my products for instance if I took the last glass of OJ or used up the last stick of butter I marked it down immediately and when I noticed that I have less than half a box of sugar left I would mark it down as an item that is running out.
It worked! Grocery list helped me to get all of the things I needed in one day and my two week shopping haul was actually sufficient for the entire two week period meaning we did not have to go anywhere again until March 13th! Naturally there were some things we ran out of a couple days prior to the 13th as I am still working out the quantities I need for two weeks (more OJ, less eggs) but overall I am very happy with the improvements I made and of course I will be improving my techniques further as I go.
Challenge #2 Each trip should cost no more than $150 and it should last at least 2 weeks.
In my previous post February ’16 Grocery Budget Part 1 I shared I told you I spent $241.99 so that left me with $58.01 till the end of the month. You can see from $120 Aldi, Walmart and Kroger Grocery Haul that I spent a lot more than $58.01. The good news is that I spent less than $150 which is my 2 week budget/2ppl. Over all I spent $364.86 on food in 4 weeks which is $64.86 (22%) over budget. ;(
On the bright side I went from spending $242.99/2 weeks to $122.87/2 weeks. Here are the changes I have made to cut the spending.
- I planned my meals. I used the ads and whatever I already had in the fridge.
- I have made a grocery list.
- I figured out (and still am) what exactly do I need for two weeks.
I am still working everything out. I am new to meal planning and grocery lists. I used to shop whenever I ran out of anything and when I went to the store for that one thing I needed I would come out with 15 other little things and a grocery bill of $30. This week I ran out of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as milk and juice but I did not run back to the store, I waited until the scheduled grocery trip and I used whatever else I had in house. I went over my bills and adjusted my grocery list so that when I do go to the store I will get enough of everything. In place of fresh produce I served frozen and we drank lemon water and tea.
Setting the budget in place alone and a little planning helped me to cut the budget by over $350. I did not reach my goal of $150/month/person but if 30 minutes of my work helped me to save 50% then I can not wait to see the results I can get with regular meal planning and creating grocery lists every time I shop.
I went 22% over the budget and I am hoping to fix that this month. I am going to go to the grocery store either today or tomorrow. I have already created a plan for that trip so I think my chances of not overspending are much better now. I will be sharing with you my haul along with my receipts soon so stay tuned!
within my means 