As we set sail on our frugal journey, we created a monthly spending budget of $400.00. The real challenge here, is removing 116.00 for gas, and toddler expenses!
- Gas
- Groceries (this includes diapers and toddler formula)
| Expense | Amount |
| Gas | 60.00 |
| Diapers 1 box | 30.00 |
| Toddler formula x 2 | 26.00 |
| Total | 116.00 |
The actual remainder for food is $284.00!
This may seem like a challenge, however this 4 week budget is do-able. Both my husband and I agree that this is a good amount of money to purchase groceries.
Prior to grocery shopping:
- We need to do inventory of our pantry, fridge, and freezer. This list will give us an overall idea of what ingredients we have.
- Make a list of staples we are specifically running low on like, rice, flour, sugar, coffee, milk, and eggs, etc
Creating an inventory of what we have first prior to grocery shopping will prevent purchasing duplicates of what we already have.
- Review weekly local grocery advertisements
- Meal plan based on current kitchen inventory
- Meal Prepping: Research online recipe websites like allrecipes.com and budgetbytes.com for simple meals to make while incorporating what we have on our inventory
With this budget, we will have approximately $66.00 a week, or 9.46 a day for nourishment.
To keep within budget, I am thinking of putting my slow cooker to work for our meals and hopefully have left overs for the next 1 or 2 days.
For deserts and bread, I am taking a more personal artisan approach in baking cakes, cookies and sliced bread. I usually have most basic baking ingredients on hand.
While we are on this budget, we have agreed to prepare and eat home cooked meals, and absolutely stay away from take-out food…this also means my beloved prego cravings: Thai egg rolls =:(
