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!

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.