Project: Food Budget – Week 12
My how time flies when you’re pinching pennies. In a good way!
Side Note: I am changing web hosts tomorrow, and my feed is changing. Please change your RSS subscription to this feed so we don’t lose each other!
Before we get to this week’s report, I thought I’d share a little data of how we’ve faired after 3 months of conscious budgeting. Since this is kind of a small graph, I broke it down a little more in a chart below.
To not skew the numbers, instead of counting fruit and vegetables at the individual level (e.g, number of bananas per purchase), I just counted each fruit and veggie acquisition as “1.” Otherwise, the data was very skewed to fruit – we bought 54 bananas in 3 months!
As I was grouping items into categories, I really just made things up on the go. Here is the breakdown. I’m happy to see that fruits and veggies make up more than half of our purchases. Most amusing to me is the high percentage in the “cereal” bucket, as, if I didn’t cook for him 2Chili would live on cereal and Trader Joe’s 12 Grain Crackers.
| Category | Quantity | Percentage |
| Beans & Legumes | 7 | 2.59% |
| Breads, Rolls & Tortillas | 3 | 1.11% |
| Broths, Sauces, and Toppings | 15 | 5.56% |
| Candy and Desserts | 14 | 5.19% |
| Canned Goods | 9 | 3.33% |
| Cereal | 18 | 6.67% |
| Chips & Crackers | 6 | 2.22% |
| Coffee | 3 | 1.11% |
| Spices & Condiments | 8 | 2.96% |
| Dairy | 34 | 12.59% |
| Eggs | 6 | 2.22% |
| Flour | 6 | 2.22% |
| Fruit | 57 | 21.11% |
| Juice | 7 | 2.59% |
| Honey, Sugar, and Sweeteners | 3 | 1.11% |
| Meat, Chicken, or Fish | 6 | 2.22% |
| Non-Meat Proteins | 4 | 1.48% |
| Nuts & Nut Butters | 8 | 2.96% |
| Oats, Quinoa, and Other Grains | 7 | 2.59% |
| Pasta & Rice | 5 | 1.85% |
| Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes | 14 | 5.19% |
| Vegetables | 73 | 27.04% |
Finally, here is a store-by-store breakdown:
I would say if I looked back in time a few months a much, much larger percentage of this breakdown would have gone to Amazon Fresh. It is just so much more convenient to shop online and have your groceries delivered to the doorstep.
This project has been great for helping us reign in expenses and really determine if something is worth it or not. If I have wiggle room in the budget, I may splurge a bit (Hello Halibut!), but I have been pretty true to buying only what we need. I haven’t sacrificed quality for cost, and we certainly haven’t gone hungry! I think not really eating meat has helped in the budgeting – meat products are expensive (as they should be).
Here are this week’s results:
Goal: $75
Actual: $81.67
Those darn highbrow chocolate chip cookies pushed me over the line. They were right at the check stand without a price tag (of course), and I caved! Oops! I could have made a lot of cookies from $3.99.
| Trader Joe’s | Qty. | Extended Price ($) |
| TJ’s Frosted Shredded Wheat | 2 | $5.98 |
| Organic Red Bell Peppers | 2 | $2.99 |
| White Whole Wheat Flour | 1 | $2.99 |
| Strawberries, 1 lb | 1 | $2.49 |
| Greek Yogurt | 2 | $5.58 |
| All Purpose Flour | 1 | $2.99 |
| Super Firm Tofu | 1 | $1.99 |
| Highbrow Chocolate Chip Cookies | 1 | $3.99 |
| Organic Fat Free Milk | 1 | $5.69 |
| Bananas | 6 | $1.14 |
| Black Beans | 2 | $1.78 |
| Herbed Goat Cheese Log | 1 | $2.49 |
| Mild California Cheddar | 1 | $3.28 |
| Garlic | 1 | $1.29 |
| $44.67 |
CSA Box – $37
I cannot wait to dive into the Rio Star Grapefruit. Texas Grapefruit are just so juicy and sweet – not bitter!
Menu for the Week:
- Monday: Oaxaca Tacos
- Tuesday: Teriyaki Pineapple Chickpeas (you should make this!)
- Wednesday: Waffles
- Thursday: Leftover lentil loaf and fingerling potatoes (frozen leftovers to the rescue!)
- Friday: Beer Base Pizza
- Saturday: Cashew Cheese Ziti
- Sunday: Leftovers
Budget Buddies
- Emily Levenson
- Maria Marz
- Veggie Converter
- Dairy-Free Cooking
- Motor City Girl In the Steel City
- Veggie Burgher
- The Happy Cactus
- The Vegetarian Salmon
- Newly Vegan
- Always Sick and Tired
- Veggie on the Cheap
- MeloMeals: Vegan For $3.33 A Day
- A Guy, A Girl, And a Dinner Plate
- The Amateur Low Carb Flexitarian
- The Veggie Life
- Caroline Cain Holistic Health
