Although we may have succeeded at only spending twenty dollars this week on groceries, it has more to do with our travel plans later this week than actually being good about being on a budget.  

I'd like to say we learned lots of things by being really strict with our spending habits these last two months.

But we epically failed.

We absolutely dominated the first 3 weeks.  But then it was a quick deterioration after that.  Our jobs (=Cale's job) all of a sudden got out of control stressful which in turn made life stressful, the weather heated up, and things that needed to have money spent on came up (oven doors, car insurance, a broken phone, etc.).  

I really want to go back and re-do this and have more will power so we can save a good chunk of money.  We were reading a news story about budgeting that described us perfectly.  It said something to the effect that just because you keep track of where every penny is going does not under any circumstance mean you're actually sticking to a budget.

Where Cale and I really get caught up is in the fact that we're paying all of our bills, paying [lots] extra on each our mortgage and student loans, not charging anything on our credit cards, and saving money.  Therefore we let ourselves believe we're doing a great job.  When we actually sit down and look at our finances hurts to see how much we could have saved if we cut out out to eat stops and Starbucks (I take full responsibility for that).  I think we'll aim to try this again in September and hopefully do a much better job. 

P.S. I realize that July and August are in-between this but we have week long vacations planned in both months and some birthdays... and since we like to celebrate it would be an inaccurate depiction of really cutting out all unnecessary purchases.

On a more positive note, we found that we were able to stick to a under fifty dollar a week grocery budget with very few exceptions.  I will try to be diligent in at least this aspect of the budget (with my insane Starbucks addiction it's the least I can do to help our budget).  I'll try to keep posting progress and lists of what we bought with menus.  

You don't care?  No surprise there, but it really helps me with menu ideas to look back and see how many different things I created with chicken breasts.

Now I have to go to bed.. I'm working 10 days in a row so I can get off for a family wedding.... just have to make it to Thursday.  Wish me luck!

And this is how week 5 played out:

Starbucks: Don't want to think about it

Out to eat: Think about this even less

Groceries:$242.97
How many more weeks of this craziness left?  Shoot.  

Well, I'm not going to update the out to eat and Starbucks budget tonight because that would take a lot of calculations on my part do to a disastrous end to May.  Let's just say that after this week is over we need a MAJOR regroup.  Even with a rather sorry finish to month 1, we could still definitely see a difference in our checking account balance at the end of the month so we know that what little we are doing is working.
Since I think we maybe ate at home once last week.  For all meals.  Ouch!

Regardless, this should give everyone hope.  Even if you only fix one small part of your budget (in our case it's turning out to be grocery shopping on a budget) you'll notice a huge difference over time.

And I'd say that this week is going to be a drastic improvement but it's our 3rd anniversary [!] this week and we're taking the time [and money] to celebrate.  Not that I'm counting or anything, but in 5 days we'll be out of the city and into the mountains.  Thank you Jesus!  Seriously.  This will be a much needed break from our day to day life and a great time to relax, unwind, and sleep.

I'm trying to find creative ways to get Cale to stop thinking about his job while we're away.  If you have any genius ideas, send them this way.  Okay. Thanks.

One more slightly depressing note on the budget front is this is the first week that we went over the $50 food budget.  Darn.  I'd be much more disappointed if it hadn't been for the fact that I got a lot of delicious food for when my family came.  This is more than worth it.  And I still only went over budget by 2 bucks so it hardly counts at all.

Good thing we never ate at home last week because almost all the meals for this week are recycled from what we didn't make last week.

Week 5 Menu

Saturday: pasta, spinach salad, grilled chicken, and strawberry shortcake
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Homemade pizza
Tuesday: Rice and beans
Wednesday: Pasta and marinara sauce
Thursday: Anniversary dinner!!!
Friday: Eat all available leftovers before leaving for the weekend

And because it took me longer than usual to get this post up, one of the receipts got thrown away.. but who knew that you can't buy poppy seeds for less than $5 and that prosciutto costs $7 for a very small [but oh so delicious] package.  

::The more you know::

The official balance was $52.84.  Not bad considering...

Next week will be so much fun because I get to buy snacks and junk food for our mini vacation.  I'll have to plan carefully.  We might be on a beans only diet for the entire rest of the week. 

And this is how week 4 played out...
Starbucks- $12.25 (about to make this more.. whoops!)
Out to Eat- $106.97 (whoops again... we got some pizza- not home made variety)
Groceries- $188.13 (for the whole month of May. This is great!)


This week will be very interesting to see if I actually make food and bought enough food to get us through the week.  

This is why, I thought a gallon of ice cream, brownies, whipped cream, and potato salad were all vital to existence this week.  Seriously.

P.P.S.  Have you ever heard of Blue Bell ice cream?  They advertise for it like crazy people out here.  So, since it was half price for the holiday I had to get some naturally.  And I got low-fat!  Completely by accident.  We eat healthy but I have a weird aversion to advertised 'health food/diet food'.  Darn.  Not that I should eat any anyways but if I'm going to be miserable.. the least I could do was get the good stuff!

P.S.  I just called my husband (he's still in bed but his phone is our alarm) and told him if he got up I'd treat him to Starbucks this morning.  Mainly because I was a jerkazoid last night.  Mainly because I searched the house for an hour and couldn't find my spare key as he played guitar, drank some beer, and laughed at me.  

I totally deserved this.  He totally didn't deserve the jerk move.

Also, when I left for work on grocery shopping morning my husband had a half gallon of milk left.  When I got home he had zero milk left.  Did I buy him milk?  Nope.  Darn. Repeat grocery stop.

Anyways, here's my tentative week 4 menu:

Saturday: Tacos/nachos
Sunday: White Chicken enchiladas
Monday: Memorial Day- Mom is making us din-din!
Tuesday: Beans and rice (never needed to make this last week)
Wednesday- Grill out & potato salad
Thursday- Breakfast scramble
Friday- Homemade pizza pie

And this is how the money goes... POP!

Can o' beans- $0.89
2 cans of green chilis- $1.78
Jar of salsa- $2.50
Brownie mix- $1.79
Soda- $0.99
Corn tortillas- $1.99
Corn chips- $2.50
Butter- $3.29
Almond milk- $2.69
Ground beef- $3.14
Whipping cream- $1.99
Potato salad- $2.37
Chicken- $5.35
Ice cream- $3.99
Apples- $3.09
Tomatoes- $1.59
Cucumber- $0.49
2 green peppers- $0.67
2 red peppers- $0.67
Green leaf lettuce- $0.99
2 lbs of strawberries- $2.50

Grand total of....... $46.33 (I'll add $2 for the milk I forgot).... $48.33

You can find week 1, 2, & 3 here, here and here.

And this is how week 3 played out...

Starbucks- $7.23
Out to Eat- $86.97
Groceries- $139.80

We kind-of-sort-of didn't do as well this past week as we were planning on doing.  I convinced Cale to take me to Starbucks one day, and then we went to Taste of Mexico a different day (with my sister= okay), and then I met some friends at a restaurant yesterday (also=okay).  But we're trying to buckle down once again because we know we can if we just focus. 

Grocery shopping, although it was difficult, was much easier than I originally planned.  When I planned out the weekly menu + grocery items I was an estimated $10 over budget.  Apparently I'm a horrible over-estimater because I made it $7 below budget (score!).  I'd give you the itemized list of items but they forgot to give me my receipt at one of the grocery stores.. ridiculous I know.  I thought for sure I'd find it one of my bags but no luck.

Darn. They're supposed to know that I'm obsessive compulsive about keeping track. 

Anyways, grocery total was $43.30.  

Still making it below the magical $50!   Only 5 (or is it 6) more weeks of this craziness.  And then I should really continue.   Because it's saving us boatloads.  Actually only a couple of bucks every week.  But this adds up people.  And it's going directly into our retirement account.. or new car account.. or get rid of these darn student loans account... or maybe my Starbucks account.  Maybe.

What we found worked out excellently last week was making a poo-ton of baked potatoes.  They were small because we used the 5 lb bag style of potatoes.  But then whenever Cale or I got hungry or didn't know what to eat, it was super easy just to grab a potato and top it with whatever we found in the fridge for a quick, delicious snack.  Now we're out of potatoes but we'll be using this again.  And seriously, crock pot potatoes?  Life doesn't get any easier people.

I see 2 big challenges in my near budgeting future... We're leaving on a weekend trip sometime in June and while we're planning on having dinner out, I'd still like to do snacks, treats, and lunches, in our $50/week budget.  Snacks and treats tend to cost more than real food so I might try sneaking some of this in  every week leading up to the getaway.  

Also, we're having a couple friends over for a BBQ/grill-out in late June.  I would rather that they NOT be able to tell we're trying to eat cheaply and again I would love to fit this a $50 per/week.  But having an extra 4 people over with nice good/ not rice and beans food and with something more than water to drink will be an extra challenge.  Again, I planning on watching for sales and gradually accumulate the food so it's not all being bought the week of.

Week 3 Menu-

Saturday- Homemade pizza
Sunday- Megan out to eat, Cale- hunter/gatherer
Monday- Barbacoa beef burritos (does barbacoa automatically mean beef.. or could it be pork?)
Tuesday- Chicken stir-fry
Wednesday- Foccacia (or however you spell that bread, don't pretend you don't know what I mean) sandwich w/ roast beef
Thursday- Ultimate salad
Friday- Rice and beans (baby!)

You can find week 1 and 2 here and here!

After week 2 the stats are:

Starbucks- $0
Out to eat- $31.50 (from ordering pizza for the mechanics + families.  Totally okay with this.. still came out way ahead of taking it into the shop)
Groceries- $94.50

I'm really hoping my husband takes me out for a warm cup of coffee.  Our house is holding steady at 63 degrees and I'm fra-eeeeezzzzing.  
This week was much harder to try to plan for.  Next week will probably just get harder... and it will continue until July 1st.  This will sill be a great exercise for us and our savings accounts are already getting a little happier so our plan is working splendidly. I'm not quite sure why it was so much harder but nothing really spectacular was on sale and I was trying to plan groceries in the midst of my no cooking mood.  And we needed to buy milk and breakfast food.  These two things really affect our budget when we're trying to keep in under $50.  And for the reasons below: 

[A] Since the week before was the first week of the budget I really didn't have any leftover food to  carry over onto this week.

[B] Because I crashed and burned at the end of this week I know we need to have more food in the fridge for snacks and meals and everything.  I don't know if I did any better this week but we shall see.

Week 2 Menu

Saturday- Chicken and potatoes

Sunday- Mom and Dad's for Mother's Day (Dad is making dinner.. no cooking for me!)

Monday- Baked potatoes

Tuesday- Chicken salad on bagels

Wednesday- Spaghetti

Thursday- Rice and beans and ultimate salad

Friday- Hoping for leftovers from the rest of the week :)

How the $50 was spread this week:

Snack Mix (this is so delicious!)- $1.98
Chicken Broth- $2.00
Tomato Sauce- $1.89
2 Boxes of Cereal- $3.98
1 Box of pasta- $1.00
Soymilk- $1.95 (Discounted for being close to expiration.. no shame.)
1 Gallon regular milk- $2.79
2.2 lbs banans- $1.21
Guacamole seasoning packet- $0;50
Heavy whipping cream- $1.99
Cheese- $1.76
1 Lb of brats- $2.90
Celery- $0.88
Cilantro- $0.50
Cucumber- $0.50
1.77 lbs of apples- $1.75
1 green pepper- $0.50
1 head of green leaf lettuce- $0;99
3 avocados- $2.97
2 limes- $0.40
1.61 lbs grapes- $3.22 
2 mangos- $1.00
1 red onion- $0;59
2 lbs of strawberries- $2.50 
2 pack of SOFT toothbruses- $4.49 (I don't think this should count because it's technically not groceries but whatever)

TOTAL- $46.30

Whew... I had to re-write my list at least 3 times to make sure I was going to be under the magic $50.  This takes me a long time of looking at grocery adds, looking at the weather, and analyzing my taste buds to try to plan for any future cravings.

Okay, I was joking about the future cravings but I totally look at the weather.  Because I already know that if it's 80 or 90 degrees outside I'm not going to want to be roasting chicken in the oven for an hour.  It's just not going to happen.  Especially since we've pledget not to turn our air on until at least June.  On those days it's either cold food or grilled food.  End of story.  

After Week 1 the stats are:

Out to eat= $0
Starbucks= $0 (unfortunately I couldn't talk Cale into this morning, I realize I'm a terrible person)
Groceries= $48.20
I'm fully aware this will be my easiest week to keep the grocery bill in check.  I have food in the freezer and since we've been planning this for a little while now, I've been secretly buying a little more food than average the last 2 weeks.  I realize this kind of artificially skews the numbers but I was willing to do that for a little budget moral these next two months.  This upcoming week is pretty typical other than Cinco de Mayo and family coming down on Sunday.  And I realize that Cinco de May is kind of an American celebration (is this true??) but we will use any excuse to eat guacamole and tacos.  Cinco de Mayo must be celebrated with guacamole and tacos and since we love Mexican food we're having fajitas on Sunday for dinner too.  I will not lie.  Cale and I could eat a mixture of beans, rice, meat, and spice every single day of the week.  

Anyways, the menu is below:

Tonight: Salad (we call it 'The Ultimate Salad' because everything and its mama gets put on it)

Tomorrow: Shrimp tacos or burritos or fajitas & guacamole 

Sunday: Repeat substituting chicken for shrimp and adding some beans and rice on the side

Monday: Baked potatoes and chile

Tuesday: Salad with leftover fajita fillings on top

Wednesday: Homemade pizza

Thursday: Quiche

Friday: Beans and Rice

I know, I know, you want to come to our place to eat.  

Ha!  It may not be exciting but it still tastes good and is cheap!  Yes!  And lunches are always made out of leftovers from the days before.  Therefore, usually on Sunday and Monday I'll make a family sized meal because it guarantees leftovers for the rest of the week. As soon as we're done eating for the night, we package all leftovers either in freezer containers or lunch sized portions.  Then when we wake up all we have to do is throw a salad in a container, grab a piece of fruit, and whatever container we want from the top and we're out the door.  This system has worked great for us the past [almost] 3 years.  Below is a real time picture of our fridge.... Usually there are more containers on the top but since we only have 1 day of work left this week, we're almost to the end of our leftovers.  Perfect.  We're kind of anal about not wasting food and planning meals perfectly to only have enough containers for the number of lunches remaining.  Especially since we're on such a tight grocery budge.. everything we throw away is wasted money.  That makes it sound like we're way more anal than we actually are.  In reality, we throw away some fruit and vegetables at the end of some weeks but we really try not to.

Enough of my blurbing... this is how the money was spent this week:

3 lb bag of onions- $1.69
Cucumber- $0.49
Pineapple- $0.97
2 lb of apples- $2.06
Pint of grape tomatoes- $1.25
3 green peppers- $1.47
3 avocados- $2.64
3 limes- $0.50
2 Mangos- $1.76
3  orange bell peppers- $2.97
1 lb Roma tomatoes- $0.93
Head of Romaine Lettuce (I think I actually got green leaf.. whatever)- $0.88
3 bags of snacks- $2.97 (on sale from $2.49 each!)
Chocolate syrup- $1.79
Corn chips- $1.99
5- 2 Liters of Coke (I know this is terrible)- $5.00
1-1 Liter of Coke (I know even worse.. but it's movie night tonight)- $0.99
Tortillas- $1.29
2 bags of shredded cheese- $3.99
1 dozen eggs- $1.63
1/2 gallon almond milk- $2.69
5 lbs chicken- $4.93
Carton of fresh salsa from the deli- $2.50

TOTAL= $48.20

This was really exciting because I was aiming to be under $50 bucks.  And I could have easily eliminated the snacks and soda to save about 10 extra bucks.  I definitely didn't go as cheap as possible but we're not trying to torture ourselves with potato only diet for 2 months and we love having people over and we're not serving them only hard boiled eggs and beans.  Not only would that make a mess of their digestive system... they'd probably never come over again.

P.S.  The only way to get the soda for that cheap was to buy it in bulk.  Excuse yes... but I still made it under budget!