Project: Food Budget–Week 26–The Halfway Point

We’re six months into this project already! I can’t believe it!

Emily (who has a fancy new blog design today!) has asked us to list out our learnings over the past six months, so here are a few observations:

• My food buying habits have changed in time. When we started this project, I already bought fairly healthy foods, but, I have trended more and more to the bulk of the grocery order being fresh produce
• I can’t force said produce on 2Chili, and when we go shopping together, my cart is filled with items I wouldn’t normally buy, but it is better to have him participate than not, no matter the budget
• The argument that it is “too expensive” to eat healthy just doesn’t fly. Produce (even organic!) is typically cheaper than most packaged foods – the true cost is in the time to prepare them. I have been able to easily maintain a $325-$350/month budget for two people. Perhaps that is a bit more than the average couple – I just don’t know.
• This week’s damage: $78.32
• Total for the month: $227.47
• Goal for the month: $350

I’m sure you can guess who put what in the cart this week! 

Truthfully, this was an odd month. We spent three weeks in Seattle preparing to move out of our house, and in that time, we ate a lot of strange meals to use up the freezer and pantry contents as much as possible.

Menu for the Week

I have been taking the ultimate lazy way out lately and just chopping up various veggies (and even mango!) and putting them in a stirfry. When I say “stirfry,” it’s just a general sautéing of veggies, with some sort of sauce – avocado sauce, hummus-based sauce, or your standard teriyaki sauce. You can turn the same veggies into a different dinner easily by changing the sauce!

Budget Buddies

Want to get in on the budget action? Go here!