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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

January- $100 a month for Groceries Challenge

January Challenge: $100 this month for groceries!

Week 1

We are a family of 5, kids are 14,12 and 8 and both my husband and I work full time. We are trying to pay down our debt, live intentionally and keep some kind of order in our chaos. This month my challenge to myself is to spend $100 or less or groceries. I normally spend $400 a month on groceries. So this month I will be trying to eat out of our freezer and pantries and keep purchases to a minimum. 
The first trip of the year was to Kroger and ended up costing $23.07. 
A few other things about our family- we don't have food allergies- so no restrictions there and no special diets. I'm a Registered Dietitian so we try to eat healthy, but I'm not on any restrictive sort of diet. My kids take their lunches to school each day, as do my husband and I. I cook 99% of the meals, and we are committed to not eat out in January.

So here's what I got:
-6 cucumbers ( in the produce bin for 99 cents) Will cut up to snack on, put in the kids lunches etc. Couldn't pass up such a great deal.
- Huge bag of sugar snap peas on sale for $3.99 from $7.99. Again, to snack on, kids lunches and I might stir fry them with the peppers and ingredients I have at home
- 3 lbs of apples for $2.99
- 2 bell peppers @ 89 cents each
- 1 gallon of milk for the kids because they love milk
- bunch of bananas
- 2 containers of turkey for the kids lunches. One of my children can't have peanut butter and jelly at their school because another child has allergies, so I send turkey with him. The other kids get pb&js
- loaf of bread
- package of sliced cheese for sandwiches and crackers and cheese

Total of $23.07 for week 1

I know I can make bread for cheaper. And I do sometimes. But I bought this loaf for .89 cents and feel that the saving of time is worth the 50 or so cents I save versus making it. To all you that make your own bread all the time- kudos- you are my hero.

So that's where we are. My kids and I are off work/school until January the 6th, so I'll cook and prep a lot of meals and snacks in the next few days.

4 comments:

  1. I am inspired! My husband and I are also working to pay down some debt after finally meeting our huge goal of 3 months' worth of expenses in our emergency fund. We regularly spend $400+ on groceries for just the two of us. If you can feed your family of 5 on $100 this month, I'm sure we can do it too!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I'm cheering you on. I for sure couldn't do it every month for $100, bur we need to do a freezer clean out so this will serve two purposes- save money and clean out our freezer.

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  2. I get jealous that people do low spend January because it is birthday month for us here so it is never a low spend month. I am just happy to make birthday fun happy within the normal $160 grocery budget and $40 eating out budget. I have a bread machine so I sort of cheat but my family is used to their homemade bread and rolls. They love the treat of store bought bread so they would be excited to be at your house.

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    1. And I'm the other way around- I love the treat of homemade rolls and bread!

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