My main goal for tracking (and blogging about) my grocery spending was to make myself start eating the food in the house, not just add more to the stash.
And so I set a dollar amount, that I thought was reasonable.
But then I ran out of things. Like brown sugar. And cocoa. And spices. And salt. And so I spent more than I had budgeted for.
It's not all bad, though. Even though I've gone over my arbitrary dollar amount (by a lot), I've been really good about actually eating from my stash.
So it's not a complete loss.
Of course, I want to keep this going, and I still want to track my spending (accountability, it's a good thing), but I don't want to post here week after week about how much further in the hole I'm getting. And really, the dollar amount is somewhat arbitrary...
On to the numbers:
Spending Jan. 21-27:
Non-stash:
Yeast: $3.79
Cocoa: $5.29
Coconut: $0.99 (For a recipe. Not a need, but hey - it was 99 cents!)
Brown Sugar: $2.17
Lemons: $3.00
Milk: $4.23
Sour Cream: $1.97
Cocoa: $6.99 (Mom knew I was out, saw a good price when she was out, and so, not knowing I had bought some, picked some up. It's all good - you can't have too much cocoa!)
Stash:
Beef: $240
Balance to date: -$46.21 for non-stash, -$262.04 for stash.
Now for the revisions:
I've looked again at how much I spend on "stash" foods, like locally-raised meat and eggs, fair-trade coffee and garden seeds, and realized the total is close to $1500 a year. So, I'm increasing my stash budget from $10 to $30/week. And on the same vein, to account for items like flour and sugar and spices, as well as milk and bread, I'm doubling my non-stash budget to $10/week.
And yes, I'm doing so retroactively. My challenge, my rules ;)
New balances: -$26.21 for non-stash, -$182.04 for stash. Still in the red, so I do need to work on that, but not as bad as before!
And really, $40 a week for a diet that includes non-CAFO meat? Not bad, not bad at all. Now, let's see if I can do better here on out...
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