Grocery Challenge: Stick To Your Budget & Get Out of Debt
4 Feb
Regular readers will know I’ve been following Mizé Journey in her Supermarket budget challenge. Mizé is a Portuguese mum of 1. She’s a student and worker – working her way to financial independence ( she’s just paid out her credit card debt- Congratulations!).
Mizé has set a budget of 200 E per month to spend on groceries for herself and her daughter. At 50 E per week it works out to be around $75 AUD per week and with a family of 4, I’m going to double the allowance and set our budget at $150 per week and $600 per month. I am hoping with a little diligence and planning I can bring it down to $500 per month, but $600 is our initial goal.
I thought it would also be interesting to see how a frugal US blogger would go with such a challenge and have decided to ask Alyssa at Kingdom First Mom if she would also be interested in throwing open her pantry doors and divulging her supermarket budget.
I’m off to the supermarket today for the first round of February groceries. Details to follow!
Related posts:
It’s doing it again, Syncronisity. My Son and I were just wondering how to make $200.00 each, go the furthest each month.
Get the most bang, for the buck, without eating TopRaman all the time.
Will follow, closely.
Peace.
Hi Don,
That’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination! All I can suggest is probably the opposite of what you want to do and that’s go get a lot of groceries when you first have the money. Make a detailed plan of what you will eat and buy exactly what you need.
Spaghetti bolognaise and Fried Rice are cheap and can get you both through several meals.
We don’t have coupons and stuff like that down here in Oz so I read a couple of bloggers who seem to do it seriously and really well with much interest – check these out:
http://kingdomfirstmom.com/
http://thecouponsista.blogspot.com/
Take Care
P.S. Had to look up TopRaman but it was as suspected. We call them 2 min Noodles; if you add some egg and eschallots(Spring Onion) and capscicum(Red Pepper) you might get a couple of extra meals out of them
Let’s see…at current exchange rates, 200 Euros would be about $275 US dollars a month. Could you feed two people for that in Dallas? I’m not sure. I certainly don’t think I could do it. You can save quite a bit however by simply buying fresh vegetables and produce at a local farmer’s market, instead of always buying the usual name brands at your grocery store. Fresh produce tastes better, is good for you and definitely saves you money. Cutting back on chips and salty snacks can save money as well. These prepared foods are some of the most expensive items per pound in the store.
Hi John,
Thanks for your comment. I certainly agree about the snack foods. I have an almost 4 year old son and there is a huge amount of money to be wasted buying individually packaged things that are really convenient but not at all good value in terms of quantity vs expense. This will be one of my biggest challenges if I’m going to stick to the budget.
.-= Robyn@ Credit Card Debt´s last blog ..Grocery Challenge: Stick To Your Budget & Get Out of Debt =-.
I´d like to explain to you that on top of my 200.00 E supermarket budget, currently, I also buy some take away meals specially for my daughter´s dinners while I´m working at night. Though, my supermarket budget includes food and all items I buy for my cat, detergents, toiletries, etc. Really everything I buy on the supermarket with the exception of home items (such as lamps, batteries, etc) Not long ago, there were months when I managed to spend 250.00/275.00 E for the whole month without buying take away (for 3 persons) so I know it´s possible to reach my 200 goal (at least in Portugal it is). In a near future, I´ll write another post explaining exactly what I do. Once again, Thanks for your feedback. Regards, Mizé.
.-= Mizé´s last blog ..My January Finances =-.