$50 Grocery Month
While our finances are improving slowly, we’re still struggling. Last month we were only over by $1,000 versus the $3,000 we were over in December and January. So, I’ve decided to take some pretty serious and drastic cuts to help us get back on the right side of $0 a little faster. A friend of mine just worked up a $40 weekly budget for her family and I decided to take that a few steps further — $50 for the entire month’s of groceries.
I went through our entire pantry and freezer stores and inventoried all of our food. I sat down with the list and worked out at least 27 dinners and plans for lunch and breakfast. Spending just $50 on a month’s worth of food is only possible because we have a well stocked kitchen and will only need a few items to fill out our menu. We’ll be lacking our usual fresh produce, but have enough frozen and canned goods to make up for it.
Shopping List:
- 2 gallons milk
- yogurt
- half n half
- 2 lb cheese
- 2 lb ground meat
- sugar
- lettuce
- cucumber
- potatoes
- carrots
- apples
- bananas
Breakfast: Biggest cost saver is that there will be no cold cereal this month.
- oatmeal
- pancakes
- waffles
- eggs
- no cold cereal
Meals: Nothing fancy and all meat portions will be small (as they should be).
- chicken, rice, broccoli (2x)
- chicken, corn, green beans, pasta (2x)
- falafel, pita, carrots (1x)
- pork fried rice (2x)
- pork chops, baked potatoes, broccoli (1x)
- chicken fried rice (2x)
- spaghetti, salad (2x)
- steak, baked potatoes, broccoli (1x)
- chicken noodle soup, salad (1x)
- ham and cheese omelets, biscuits (1x)
- chicken, peas, ramen noodles (2x)
- chicken parmeasan, salad (2x)
- chicken burritos (1x)
- tacos (1x)
- bean soup, salad (1x)
- potato soup, salad (1x)
- ham, cheese, broccoli quiche (1x)
- english muffin pizzas (2x)
- leftovers/sandwiches/fend for yourself (~2x)
Lunches: Most meals provide leftovers for lunch.
- leftovers
- sandwiches
- soup
- ravioli
- carrots
- apples
- bananas
- muffins
Desserts: This is the rare treat, not a daily menu item.
- Cake (we need to use leftover icing up)
- peach crisp from canned or frozen peaches
Other items of consideration: we’re feeding a family of three, we make our own bread for each meals, and all of our meat portions are smaller than the typical American serving (ie. serving sizes are appropriately sized). If we make this work, I can make a costco trip next month and re-stock essentials that we’ll be working through this month.