Coming clean on grocery spending
First off, I love goals. Love them. I tend to set really unrealistic goals that I couldn’t possibly ever reach, but I still love them. However, when I mentioned my Spend Less Money on Groceries-Goal, I wasn’t quite fair. I didn’t want to admit how much I’m normally spending each month on groceries…
No. I don’t want to.
Alright, ok fine. I’ll admit what my average monthly grocery spend normally is. It’s around $400. Yes, $400. And that doesn‘t include eating out. (Although I usually only eat out 2-3 times per month.) I “justify” this by the fact that I don’t spend money on drinks, like most of my peers, because I just don’t really drink that much. Anyways.
grocery receipt
(source)
We’re 9 days into this month, and I’ve spent $132. It probably doesn’t SEEM like I’m doing better, but part of the reason it’s high, is because I had to buy Coffee, Truvia, & Vitamins when I was at the store over the weekend. (These are things I tend to buy in bulk, so I only buy them every couple of months.)
Anyways, the goal is to spend less than $250 this month. That means I have a little over $100 less.
Now that I don’t have to buy almond milk, I think that will help. I know it’s not that expensive, but it’s usually my excuse to go to the grocery store, and every trip to the grocery store means I buy more things I probably don’t need…
Do you have a grocery budget? Or do you just buy what you need when you need it?
My other goal that I’ve been running toward (ha, pun. I’m so clever.) is the Monument 10k. I ran 6 miles last week, so I know I can at least run the distance. Last night I was aiming for 7, but in the middle of mile 5, my ipod took a fall (ok, fine. I dropped it. Twice.) and it FLEW off the treadmill. (Um, yes, this happened twice. In a row. In the span of about 5 minutes.)
And that was it. Bye bye ipod, thank you for the magical gift of music that you gave me for so long.
(source)
Time to buy a new one!
What kind of ipod/MP3 player do you guys have? I had a classic, but now I’m leaning towards a nano, so it’s smaller and less likely to be thrown off the treadmill. Recommendations?
<3 Liz
$400 a month? For one person? Crazy girl! Sounds like someone else I know.. me. 😉
Right now I have an Ipod Nano and I love it! It’s pretty, pink, and just plain amazing. 🙂
I spend so much on groceries too…it’s so unacceptable!! but i love to experiment, and let’s face it eating healthy is expensive. if i wanted to buy buy one get one free bags of doritos then it would be a lot cheaper!
That stinks about your ipod! That actually happens to me all the time. But it hasn’t broke yet thankfully!
My ipod is dead, but I had one of the big old ones. I’m debating getting a new one, but now that my phone can play music, it feels like a waste!
haha I know! But I’m scared to use my phone as my music player, or it might meet the same fate as my ipod 😉
I would love to always make my own almond milk. But my mind wanders: am I eat too much healthy fat if I already eat handfuls of almonds during the day? Is it really going to be cheaper to use whole almonds and water in comparison to the $3 half gallons from the store? Would it really equal out to less than the Rice Milk we buy at Costco?
My mind needs to breathe more often!!
I feel like we spend a lot on groceries. We’re at our max since we got married 2 years ago, and although we have been buying more veggies and such, I can’t imagine how we could bring the monthly costs down. Do we stop eating something? Or start buying the same foods in cheaper stores? If only I knew!
Have a wonderful week girl!!
haha I hear you! I eat a lot of nut butter, so I wonder if I need to drink almond milk… but I’m more comfortable drinking almond milk than soy milk (and me and cows milk are not friends) I only use about 1/4 cup of almonds for 4 cups of water, so it’s not as creamy/dense as most store bought milk 🙂
I used to spend an exorbitant amount on groceries. I cut corners where I can by buying in bulk and getting a lot of my produce at Costco… the cleaner I eat the cheaper it is too, so that’s another driving factor! 🙂
Ahh I should get a costco membership! Then again, since I’m a house of one, I’d probably never be able to eat those giant boxes of food.
Unless it’s wheat thins. I could totally eat a jumbo box of those 😉
I’ve been paying more attention lately on what I spend on groceries-and packing W’s lunches has saved a lot on our going out to eat! From juicing so much i’m noticing my bill going up a little so I may start to alternate between juicing and smoothies to save:)
My mom and I like to buy a lot of food! But we don’t spend that much because we will buy discounted items, purchase items in bulk, and buy at grocery stores that sell quality food for cheap prices!
I have an MP3 but I don’t really use it that much
I don’t have a true grocery budget, but I try to keep it as cheap as possible. I am definitely a sale shopper, so if it’s not on sale, I don’t buy it.
Is the grocery bill just for you, or are you cooking for several?
It’s just for me!!! (Well, I like to cook for people, so it’s not always just me I’m feeding, but still.) Isn’t that ridiculous?! This hobby has spun out of control!