$75 a Week Grocery Challenge Update

It's the end of the month for us, being it's Pay Day.

My plan for September was to only spend $75 per week, or $150 a paycheck on groceries.

How did I do?



I did okay.

Not great.  I did go over, but not drastically!  When all was said and done, I still had the $200 savings to put away in our "rainy day mug".  However, some of it was gas fund money versus grocery.

Lessons Learned:
1) Cut back on the junk: the junk food is always on sale, and for really great deals.  But, it's JUNK.  We don't need 48 canisters of $0.18 Pringles.  1 is fine.  And life doesn't end if we have no chips in the house.
2) Use the money saving from not buying junk to stock up on the good stuff:  we had a GREAT sale on chicken-I did stock up, and it sent me over the budget.  Worth it yes, but I could have stayed within if I had avoided the cookies, Pringles, Pop Tarts and Toaster Strudels.
3) Couponing is worth the work: who else gets a natural high when you reciept says you saved 48%?  :)

Payday Friday

Joe and I work for the same company; therefore, we get paid on the same day - every other Friday.

Our new (and improved!) checklist for each payday, the new items are in bold.  Hopefully they will help us learn to live leaner:

1. Put all bonus monies into savings immediately.
2. Put half of my paycheck into savings immediately.
3. Pay off Visa
4. Pay all bills due in the next 2 weeks
5. Run budget numbers
6. Determine cash budget - we run on a cash budget for Grocery, Eating Out, Personal (toiletries), Gift, Gas, Clothing, and Entertainment

Today, $173 went into savings.  We haven't done half my paycheck yet because we have flights to purchase for our December vacation.  So........that item might start next pay period!

The $75 a Week Grocery Challenge

Mary from Owlhaven.net is running something she calls, the $75 a Week Grocery Challenge.

She encourages you to basically take your current grocery budget and slenderize it.  Be extra thrifty this month.  Don't buy things you don't truly need.  Don't impulse buy.  That sorta thing.

This is perfect timing for me with this new set goal of cutting our budget.  I like a challenge to fire me up!  Mary says she includes shampoo and the like in this $75/week; however, my goal is "grocery store items" only-which sometimes includes toiletries and baby items, but most often does not.

We usually measure our budget by pay period, so $150/pay period, or $300 for the entire month of September.  Our normal budget is $410, so a baby step, but a good start!  And since we get paid today, I will start it today and run it through September 25th (and hopefully in October, I will cut it down more).

When I post about our grocery haul, I will note the total spent so we can easily determine how well I do!