• Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

    Thankful for all of my readers checking in with me and those who asked why I didn’t give my Groceries $40 for 4 update last week. Since I was out of town visiting family during the girls Spring and Easter Break my husband was given the $40 cash for our groceries.  He was good about not spending more than the $40 that I gave him, however, the receipts and pictures didn’t happen.  He is the better cook in our family but it just isn’t as exciting cooking for one.   I came back this week late on Tuesday evening (otherwise known as very early Wednesday morning) and hit the ground running with appointments, work, and getting the kids back in school.  I did not have an opportunity to go through the fridge, pantry or shop the sales so I just bought the obvious items that were missing this week.  Hopefully by this weekend I will have a grasp of what we need and have a few moment to look at the ads for next week.  I will get back into the routine schedule soon!   Below are my grocery shopping adventures for the week:

    Groceries from Bi-Lo:

    • $8.97 at Bi-Lo for 3 gallons of Milk ($2.99 each)

    I am excited to see how next week goes with our Groceries $40 for 4 budget since I have been gone for two weeks.  This week I only had time to do was restock the milk so I was able to save extra grocery cash.  Thankful for a husband who honors $40 grocery budget!  It makes me smile knowing he carried around that cash the entire time I was gone and had to make decisions on how to spend it as well.

    It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

    Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.

  • Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

    It was my fifth full week of doing my new cash budget system – Groceries $40 for 4. This week I was super busy so for the most part we ate from what we had in the fridge, freezer and the pantry.  I think it is important to have these weeks where we utilize our food stockpile.  Although, it is nice to stock up during the weeks it is equally rewarding having the opportunity to be more creative with the food we have on hand.  I even made and delivered a meal for someone in our church this week with the food on hand without making a run to the grocery store for extra ingredients.   It felt great saving some of the grocery shopping cash this week too especially since I had a couple higher weeks in the past. Below are my grocery shopping adventures for the week!

    Bi-Lo Groceries

    Grcoeries from Bi-Lo:

    • $7.02 at Bi-Lo for 1 gallon of Skim Milk, 1 gallon of 2% Milk, and 1 loaf of bread.

    In our fifth week of the challenge – Groceries $40 for 4 we spent $7.02 so it was a pretty good week regarding saving extra grocery cash.  We did better this week because I didn’t have the extra time to go grocery shopping and we ate from our pantry.  Although I wasn’t able to stock up on a few extra items this week it was wonderful being able to eat some of the items we already had in our fridge and pantry!  Last week we stocked up on milk and I froze it, however, I didn’t pull it out in time for it to thaw enough to drink otherwise we wouldn’t have even purchased the milk this week.  Oh well….you win some and lose some!  I was thrilled to see Bi-Lo still had their milk under $3 so everything went well.   I am still trying to work out all the details of how to make the budget most effective for our family and I think we need some weeks have been easier than others.  We’ll see how I do next week and yes it’s another busy week!

    It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

    Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.

  • Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

    It was my fourth full week of doing my new cash budget system – Groceries $40 for 4. This week I was able to get quite a few items with my $40 budget thanks to clearance items and coupons! Although it has been a learning process the last few weeks this one went pretty well. It is always a learning and growing progress for our family. We are continuing to utilize the food we already have in our pantry and freezer. Below are my grocery shopping adventures for the week!

    RiteAid Groceries

    Grcoeries from RiteAid:

    • $2.16 at RiteAid for Cake Mix (25 cents), Hamburger Dinner (25 cents), Onion Spices, Ground Cinnamon, 2 Tomato Juices (25 cents each), Individual peanut packs, Combos, and two free Easter Candies.  Plus I used an UP Reward towards the purchase.
    FREE Mushrooms at Walgreens!

    Groceries from Walgreens:

    • $0.00 (FREE) at Walgreens for 4 cans of Geisha Mushrooms (used the Walgreens Coupon Insert and Register Reward to pay for the mushrooms! Can’t beat free!
    Groceries from Bi-Lo

    Groceries from Bi-Lo:

    • $36.52 at Bi-Lo for 4 gallons of milk (froze 2 gallons), 1 pack of Cheese Crackers,  2 Slow Cooker Packs, 2 Applesauce Packs, 1 Loaf of Bread, 1 box of Uncle Bens Rice (on closeout), 4 bags of Individually Wrapped Chocolate Covered Raisins (on clearance for 75 cents each), 1 bag of Chickpeas, 2 packs of Pasta, 2 packs of Cheese Sauce Mix, 1 jar Raspberry BBQ Sauce (on closeout), 4 bags shredded cheese, 2 bags sliced cheese, 1 package of fresh Chicken (99 cents / pound).  I used several store and manufacturer’s coupons plus I had a coupon from Bi-Lo for $5 off the entire purchase which helped bring the amount down below $40.

    It was our fourth week of the challenge – Groceries $40 for 4 and we spent $38.68 thankfully we did better this week .  I was able to stock up on some great dairy items this week – Milk (even froze 2 gallons), Cheese (which freezes well too), Chicken (enough for 2 to 3 meals for our family) and snacks for after school!  I am still trying to work out all the details of how to make the budget most effective for our family and I think some weeks have been easier than others.  I used some coupons, bought clearance items, and utilized weekly ad discounts to help save us a little extra on our grocery budget.  I hope to do better next week!  We’ll see how I do!

    It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

    Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.