Grocery Shopping on a Budget

For the first time EVER in our relationship, the man and I have went to the grocery store with a smaller budget in mind, and left buying all we needed for EVEN less!!!

Source

Rewind: Last week we were hit with a punch that we might not have the money for our wedding which is on June 10th. Instead of having a three year old tantrum, I decided to take a different approach and I am quite proud of myself. It was time to put ourselves on a very strict budget. We probably should have done it a little sooner, but we live, we learn.

Fast forward: The budget I allowed for us was $50.00. I told the man we were allowed to buy what staples we were out of, a few protein choices for the week, and if we saw any good sale purchases that stayed within our weekly allotment, it was game.

Rewind: The man and I have a serious shopping problem when we are together. It's like our happiness with each other causes us to buy really absurd purchases. Not that we buy things that are inappropriate for our lives, but when we have a day off together, we validate purchases that we probably should have held off on until later. It's the "if you want it, get it" approach. Note to self: It doesn't always work.

Fast forward: During our visit to the store we purchased the following:

• Lettuce
• 2 red onions
• 2 granny smith apples
• mushrooms
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 1/2 lbs of chicken 
• 1 lb of lean ground beef
• 1 lb of turkey sausage
• cholula
• 1 frozen pizza (try to have on hand when the man doesn't want to cook for himself)
• 3 cans of soup
• 2 bottles of soda (trying to get him to stop, it's like taking a binky away from a baby!)

Drum roll please.... $39.00!!!!


Rewind: From the moment the man and I started to live together, our grocery bills have always been over $70.00. We definitely have a problem with impulse buys, so while most of the items on our list were necessary, some really weren't needed. For example, our pantry is like a mini mart. So when my family comes over, I enjoy giving them things that I'm not going to use. That being the case, I probably shouldn't have bought it, if I'm not going to use it!

I'm pretty sure the reason our current shopping adventure didn't cost us that much was because we still have a lot of other things on hand in our house. We were able to eliminate buying things we didn't need and kept in mind that our budget is something we have to stick to. I'm actually looking forward to next week's shopping trip because this almost feels like a game, and guess who's going to win?

This girl!!!