Saturday, December 10, 2011

$50 a week and busting my budget

My husband gets paid once a month so I have to stick to a budget or there will be no money at the end of the month to buy groceries.  Each payday I go what I call big time shopping.  I buy a ton of bulk dried foods and a weeks worth of fresh food.  I then stash away $50 for each week so I can buy fresh items that cannot be stored for long.  Things like milk, eggs, and meat.  This allows me to have fresh food all month long and take advantage of weekly sales and seasonal food.  I do not plan any of our meals, instead I cook meals around what I find seasonal, local, organic and on sale.  This keeps my food budget down and keeps our meals interesting.  Check back each week so see what were eating and be sure to check Surviving And Thriving On Pennies on Facebook to see pictures of our dinner meals or just to get inspired!



WINCO

$2.14 Sweet Hickory BBQ Sauce (hubs doesn't like any of the natural kinds so its this that I buy)
$3.62 Oven Browned Turkey Deli Meat All Natural (on sale $3.99 per lb)
$2.17 Store Brand May (I cannot stand the all natural kind so I buy store brand)
$2.65 White Jasmine Rice
$5.98 Kraft Cheese ( cheapest one...not a fan but budget friendly)
TOTAL MINUS 5 cent bag credit =$16.70

NEW SEASONS

$4.99 Organic Milk (switched to organic...thought about it freaked myself out again. Its back to organic)
$1.50 Organic Romain Lettuce (sale)
$3.63 10% ground beef all natural 1.
$3.42 10% ground beef all natural 1lb
TOTAL minus bag credit=13.49

WHOLE FOODS

$1.97 Organic Cannelloni bulk beans 1lb
$1.99 dozen vegetarian fed free range eggs
$1.49 Sunshine Dairy Half n Half
$2.01 Organic Red Lentils 1lb
$2.99 Organic Gala Apples 3lbs
$3.99 Organic Fuji Apples 3lbs (rang up wrong, sign said $2.99. Of course I was in a hurry and didn't want to complain so I sucked up the $1 over charge. UURRRKKK!!!!)
$1.59 Fair Trade Banana's
$3.29 Tomatoes
$3.29 Tomatoes
$3.84 Italian Sausage Deli All Natural
$1.49 Tomato Paste (tried to avoid canned so picked this. Then realized that duh..its in a aluminum tube. CRAP)
$4.99 Dark Roast 3 Bean Blend Coffee
TOTAL=$32.93


TRADER JOE'S

$2.49 Holiday Tortilla Chip
$1.69 Salsa
$11.69 Organic Noodles(cheapest organic ones I can find. These sell out often so I snagged a ton)
TOTAL=19.77

GRAND TOTAL=$82.89

So as you can see I went over budget by lets just say A LOT. I blame a few things.
First of all big ticket items like coffee, cheese and lunch meat put a dent into my budget. Uggg
Trader Joe's has the cheapest organic noodles and always sell out of this particular kind.  I snagged as many as I could possibly pay for today.  It will save me money later but as of now its busting my budget. 
Last but not least some people have been complaining about not having anything to eat (aka snacks).  So I had to toss in a few bags of not so bad snacks. 
That being said I think I did pretty good.  Bought in bulk when I could, bought organic when I could and didn't buy anything not on my list. 
Last but not least I should get a gold metal for how fast I shopped.  There was bad traffic, tons of people Christmas shopping, and it was in the evening on a Saturday.  Yep I need a metal.

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