Grocery Challenge - Week #5

Ok, I think I screwed up my totals for my weeks. My total for groceries should have been $250.00 for the month...and I think I was only tallying $200. It should have been $50 per week and I included the last week in December, since most of it was January!

Breakfasts & Lunches are the same as each week.

Dinners:
Corn Chowder & Grilled Cheese
Steaks & potatoes (our major splurge this week)
Goulash
Spagetti
Chicken Quesadillas
Tacos
Biscuits & Gravy
Hamburgers & Fries
Bagel Dogs & Fries

So, I will now tally up my grand total for the month. I'm 99% I went way over my budget, especially after getting the steaks...plus, I stocked up on meat when it went on sale. Sausage went on sale for .99 per pound, so I bought a bunch and pork chops went on sale for 1.67 per pound, which almost never happens here. So I probably blew my budget...but it's less meat I will have to buy next month!

So here is where I stand:

Week #1 ~ $44.14
Week #2 ~ $52.03
Week #3 ~ $27.88
Week #4 ~ $42.57
Week #5 ~ $49.32

Ok, so it would appear that I stayed on budget. With a total of $215.94. However, those don't include our miscellaneous trips to the grocery store or our meat stock up!
So here is the misc stuff:
1/8 ~ 11.92 (jewel)
1/9 ~ 6.84 (jewel)
1/15 ~ 12.96 (Sullivan's - sausage stock up)
1/16 ~ 4.45 (Aldi's)
1/17 ~ 5.54 (jewel)
1/18 ~ 7.58 (jewel)
1/26 ~ 32.86 (jewel - steak dinner & stock up on pork chops)

Misc. Total = $82.15

Grocery total for month of January = $298.09 (overage of $48.09)

Ok, so not horrible with all things considered. This is the first month we have done a severe reduction in our grocery costs. Before we didn't even have a budget, and what i spent for January, I would have spent for 2 weeks of groceries before. So, now, this gives us something to shoot for, for February!

So, again for February, I plan to budget $50 per week. So I have a total of $200 for the month. I am also adding a household category to our budget this month. So for things like TP, hair stuff, dog food, cat food, kitty litter, etc., we will have a seperate household budget for that. I am going to put that at $40.00. Then I am also going to set aside another $50.00 for meat stock up. This way, if meat goes massively on sale, like it did this month...then I don't have to feel bad about going over budget to buy it. I will use my meat budget for it! I am also adding an entertainment section. We have not officially had this in the budget, up til now. I am hoping this will keep our eating out expenses down to a minimum! So officially, we will have some money to spend that we shouldn't feel bad about spending!

So, my categories for this month are:

Groceries: $200.00
Household: $40.00
Meat (sale): $50.00
Entertainment: $100.00

Total for misc spending this month is $390.00.