October Grocery Challenge has come to an end. Warning: long post!
Last week, I had $55.35 remaining in my $200 grocery budget. Today I overshot that by $11.55. I made some observations I'll write about here. The upshot is that if I didn't have the money to spend on the extra groceries that put me over, I'd have to put some items back on the shelf. It would be so easy for me to do that today. Here's what I would put back:
Flour 2.38
Sugar 2.38
Yeast 3.60
Buttermilk 1.67
Quinoa (bulk) 3.52
Total: $13.55
I recognized a couple of things that I would have done differently today. First, I went out of the house without having coffee. I was in a fog. That was my first mistake. My second mistake was the impulse to make bread for the hubs this week. I could have put that off another week. No matter. I have the extra cash to cover my overage but what if I didn't? Did I need the quinoa? Nope. But now I have it and I'm going to use it.
This challenge, for me, has been to prove a couple of points.
It is totally possible to live within a budget. Most times, I don't really want to be on a budget but I also don't want to work the rest of my life to spend money needlessly. I am capable of stretching a dollar and I actually enjoy the challenge of it. I tend to think in terms of how much a bag of groceries cost ... on the average of $25. If I'm living on a budget and we decide to eat out, we can easily spend up to a week's worth of grocery budget in one sitting. We typically eat out at less expensive places like Thai or Mexican. My next challenge is going to be looking at just that, the dining out budget. I'll say one more thing about this. Eating is simply fueling up for us. We try to not make it a main event at our house.
It does not cost more to eat well. I'd love to dispel the idea that eating fresh costs more than prepared, packaged foods. It would be difficult for me to do this in real life because you won't find much packaged food in my shopping basket. I do buy hummus, guacamole, and salsa pre-packaged. People are going to believe what they believe but I'm here to tell you that .68 cents for a large granny smith apple is not too much to pay versus a $1 for a king sized candy bar. Say no to potato chips. Try some popcorn instead.
I don't have to drink fresh ground coffee to be happy. It's nice but not necessary. However, one of the ways I collect coffee cards is through my side hustle, photography. I ask people to pay me in coffee. Love that!
Budgeting can be fun. I've enjoyed getting creative with the food I already have in my pantry and fridge. My daughter-in-law has enjoyed this challenge and we've both learned things about each other the last two months. She and my son take glass containers to the store where they shop to buy items in bulk. I'm fascinated by that. I've enjoyed using up the canned goods I did have in my pantry, to free up room for dried goods like beans and rice.
Zero waste is not just a passing fad. We have a large garbage can and we can go a whole month without putting it out to the curb for pick up. My husband has finally bought the idea that we should not put it out until it is full. It saves the sanitation people from having to stop to pick up a barely 1/4 full can. What if everyone did that?
On a side note, last year I bought a pile of cloth napkins (you can get them all day long at thrift stores) to use in place of paper towels. Nothing makes me think more of my mother than when I'm using too many paper towels wastefully. We didn't have much growing up (lived paycheck to paycheck) and paper towels were a luxury item. Some things never leave my mind and this is one of them. So the cloth napkins have been a great way to cut way down on paper towel purchases. I would have never thought of using cloth napkins had it not been for my d-I-l. I also have a friend who has a bachelor's degree in environmental science. She says that if we all just make one change, we can make a difference in our environment. I asked her one time what would be the easiest change I could do, and without a moment's thought, she said, "quit using paper towels". I have a good start on that but not quite all the way there yet.
Why all this talk about budgets?
I am on a fast track to retiring in 2019. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that it scares the crap out of me to think about how much is enough to retire. One of the biggest taboos in our culture is to discuss money. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and also just listening to people, in general, about money. I feel just slightly less anxious after doing this budget. I know I can feed us on a pretty low budget, that's for certain.
The last thing I want to do is leave you with a couple quotes a wise man once said to me that I have kept and tried to live by.
The best way to give yourself a raise is to spend less money.
It's not how much money you make, it's how much
money you keep of the money you make that matters.
Thanks for dropping in. love, susan
