I completed my 1-month grocery challenge for the month of March! I’ve been gathering some thoughts on what I learned from it all… what really was challenging, what was not, and what habits I can carry on for the future. I’m a slow thought-gatherer, it seems, so apologies that this recap is coming well into April!
For my final week, I spent $58 on groceries. The least I’ve spent all month! I purchased hardly any meat and we ate mostly vegetarian (plus survived on some frozen leftovers) that week. We cranked out a few very tasty, meatless, and cheap meals:
(note: we spent our leftover budget on 2 bottles of wine.)
-On Sunday, I made a big pot of kale and lentil soup (recipe from Bon Appetit), which we ate with a loaf of ciabatta. This lasted through Wednesday actually. The total cost was about $10 (including the bread)!
Kale and lentil soup, a cheap wonder meal
-Wednesday, my husband made rice and pinto beans, which we ate with onions and cilantro. We already had all these ingredients in the kitchen so the cost didn’t come out of our budget this week. It was another big batch and lasted through Friday.
These were satisfying meals, but admittedly, we did miss meat. No comparison to, say, eating a steak! But it was empowering to know that we could shave a lot off our grocery bill by eating vegetarian even just one or two days a week.
So what did I learn from this 31 day challenge?
Was it really a challenge? Yes! I found that I really had to think and do serious planning in order to keep the bill $75. I didn’t always succeed. But when I did, it was because I thought hard about exactly what I needed that week and had to will myself to only buy what was absolutely necessary.
Did I have enough? Yes, we ate very well, and even entertained some guests, on this budget! I never really felt like I had to give up anything, so therefore I feel that $75 is a good target amount to spend.
Can I keep it up? Not sure. I think a big reason I was able to mostly stick to budget in March was that I had a lot of good pantry staples on hand (dried pasta, rice, beans, canned/frozen stuff). I’ve used up a lot of these staples over the past month, so I need to restock. So I’ll probably need to spend more on the next few grocery deliveries. I think it’s inevitable that the grocery budget will fluctuate depending on the circumstances. Some weeks I can probably spend as little as $50, while some I’ll have to spend more than $100… but ultimately, I think it will even out so that I won’t need to spend more than $100 a week.
What’s the most important takeaway? This month, thanks to my hyper-vigilant spending, I had zero food waste! Because I wasn’t over buying, the stuff in my fridge didn’t have time to go bad before I used it up. I’m really proud of this, because I think food waste is basically just throwing away money, and I’ve been very, very guilty of it in the past. So while my refrigerator often looks a bit empty, I think that’s actually a great thing–it means I’m buying and using just the right amount.
Finally, just a testament to the fact that being on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t eat something decadent: one weekend brunch I made that week was peanut butter stuffed brioche french toast. I got a loaf at a bakery and asked them to slice it, but they sliced it much too thin for french toast. Solution: I spread peanut butter on one slice, sandwiched another slice on top, and then cooked up the double-slice as one piece of french toast. Mmm!
Peanut butter stuffed french toast.
girl and fork 