project: food budget, weeks 1 and 2

by Stacy

Project: Food Budget piggy bank

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m participating in Project: Food Budget. This is the second round of the project. Emily invited me to participate last time, but trying to figure out a method of tracking my non-traditional approach to grocery shopping made my head explode.

This time, she convinced me. To make it work for me, I’m only posting every other week (or else it will be all CSA and P:FB all the time) on Thursday. Yes, I’m a day late — and a dollar short? We’ll see…

These last few weeks are a weird place to start. I’ve been to several potluck events, we ate out more than usual because of a short vacation, and I’ve been buying additional produce lately for my detox.

Here’s what I’ve figured out for our “normal” groceries despite the fact that I can’t find any useful receipts:

  • Our CSA share just changed prices this week to $28 for a large box. Our share is bi-weekly, so that’s $14/week.
  • I spend about $10 each week at the farmer’s market for fruit, give or take.
  • We supplement with about 2 quick grocery runs per week that average $20-30 each.
  • I stock up on organic bulk items through Azure Standard every few months: grains, beans, condiments, etc.

Other thoughts:

  • I’m a vegetarian and my husband rarely eats meat at home.
  • My husband only eats breakfast at home the majority of the week because of his work schedule. He eats lunch and dinner at work which is provided.
  • I work at home and eat all three meals here.

My goal for this week is to collect all our grocery receipts and have an accurate tally. That will give me a starting point to maintain or reduce our spending.

Could I have done this a few weeks ago? Yes.
Did I do it? No.

So that will be my first task for Project: Food Budget. I have to go at my own pace here, people!

What are your food budget challenges? What are you interested in learning from this challenge?

Check out the other blogs participating in the challenge:

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

LiztheChef October 14, 2011 at 1:54 pm

I’m amazed that you only spend $10 at the Farmers Market – I suppose your CSA box covers a lot of what I pick up. I’m dragging my feet on the CSA box because I hate the thought of wasting food and when I shop on my own I have little waste. Admirable!
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Stacy October 15, 2011 at 12:03 am

Some weeks it’s $8, some weeks it’s $12…. but I buy a few days’ supply of fruit and that’s it. We get a large CSA box, so I don’t supplement too much to avoid waste. The CSA cooking is a shift, for sure!

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Emily October 14, 2011 at 5:18 pm

Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you spend.

Looking forward to seeing how your nontraditional shopping works. :)
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Stacy October 15, 2011 at 12:04 am

We’ll find out, won’t we? I wrote it up and then I feel like I spend more than that, but I’m not sure. Tracking….. GO!

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redpenmamapgh October 20, 2011 at 9:37 am

My biggest challege is getting rid of pre-packaged goodies. The amount we spend at Costco so I can pack lunches is a little on the insane side. Granted, we only shop there about once a month, but still.

Looking forward to participating in this “with” you. 😉
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Stacy October 24, 2011 at 11:25 pm

We don’t buy a lot of packaged things anymore, but it really does help that my husband doesn’t eat at home that often!

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