I didn’t get a post up last week with birthday celebrations and Thanksgiving taking up extra time.  I sent Jake to the store with a list of items to pick up and he came home with a few “extras” and I was told that they were for my birthday so they shouldn’t count in the normal weekly budget.  He did get everything on the list and the few extra items were delicious (shrimp, corn on the cob, etc….) .  I am back to a more regular routine this week.  Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.

Walmart Groceries:

• $21.40 at Walmart for 2 packs Yeast, 1 gallon of milk, 1 bag Purple Grapes, 1 bag Apples, 2 bottles Ocean Spray Juice, 2 bags Bread, and 1 bag Chicken.

Ingles Groceries:

• $7.74 at Ingles for 2 containers Strawberries, 1 box Wholly Guacamole, 1 container Mushrooms (Everything I bought this week at Ingles was on sale, marked down, or on clearance except the strawberries because they were for a new Mom’s dinner I was delivering this week.)

 BiLo Groceries:

• $3.27 at BiLo for 1 gallon of milk. (Somehow my family managed to drink a whole gallon in a day this week so I had to go back and get some more!)

Walgreens Groceries:

• $0.18 at Walgreens for 2 boxes of Brown Sugar after coupons.

This week I spent $32.59 on groceries.  Even though I was only a little under on my budgeted amount for the week I was able to stock up on some items and to recover a little bit from last weeks birthday and Thanksgiving celebrations.  This week I had the privilege of taking meals to two new Moms and meet their little ones, what a blessing children are in our lives!  I hope that next week is better week and we can come under budget!

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.