Budgeting Extravaganza
Starting today, I am embarking on a 4-week food budgeting exercise. For anyone who loves food, loves to cook, and/or reads or writes about food all day long, resisting that amazing $10 triple creme cheese or $6 box of farm fresh berries is nearly impossible. These days, however, it’s become necessary. My goal is 4 weeks, $50/week, 3 meals a day for 2 people. This is not the most ambitious goal out there, but I think it’s realistic. I am not trying to set myself up for failure, rather, to reorient my thought process when I hit the grocery store or farmer’s market. Ask myself not just “do I want it?” but “do I need it?”. Force myself to be more creative to create delicious food, because if there’s one area I’m not willing to compromise on, it’s taste. Here are my ground rules:
- My budget of $50 per week will feed 2 people 3 meals a day. That is an average of $1.20/serving.
- My goal is to make the most diverse, delicious things I can on my budget, not just ketchup sandwiches and ramen noodles.
- I will not count the most common “pantry” items toward my costs (salt, pepper, sugar), although I will try to estimate price if they are not as common.
- Beverages are not included in the budget, although I am on a month-long booze hiatus anyway, and make coffee at home in the morning to save money (and the environment).
Some of the givens:
- Plan every meal for the week ahead of time.
- Limit meat consumption.
- Buy bulk items as much as possible.
- Keep snacks around at work so I don’t buy $4 pastries from City Bakery
- Always have bread, lunch meat, and cheese around for lunch sandwiches if leftovers aren’t an option.
- Keep a dry erase board on the fridge so I know what I have at all times. Use it.
- Bake a large batch of bagels / scones / muffins and freeze for breakfasts.
- Try to make things from scratch and buy responsibly as much as possible (i.e. organic milk, cage free eggs). Don’t compromise ethics.
Something else to note: When I buy things in bulk and freeze the rest (like chicken, etc.) I am counting the per piece price, not the capital needed to purchase the entire amount. I understand for some people who have severely limited budgets, this is not always possible, but for my purposes I will assume some capital is involved in order to get the best per-piece deal.
By Rachel Crawford on June 22, 2009 | 3
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3 Responses to “Budgeting Extravaganza”
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Diane
June 22nd, 2009 @ 2:03 PM
Good luck! Sounds like an interesting experiment! Does this also mean no meals out?
Rachel Crawford
June 23rd, 2009 @ 5:02 AM
Well, if I did eat a meal out I’d have to take it from the $50! So other than a slice of pizza in an emergency, I think that pretty much rules it out.
Rebecca
June 23rd, 2009 @ 2:16 PM
Can’t wait to see how it goes! I’ve tried to do a $50/week grocery budget for me and my husband and it’s a real challenge (especially since my husband is a big carnivore).