$20 Grocery Budget Challenge: Week 1

So, for those of you who don't know, my husband and I decided to cut our grocery budget down to $20 a week for the first two weeks of October. We are struggling financially right now, and we also needed some extra funds to help pay for our out-of-town trip this weekend. Our grocery budget is the only place that we can cut. Everything else is a set bill each month.

When I cut the grocery budget, I do the "stockpile challenge." My goal this past week was to plan meals around what we already had in the pantry and freezer. I only bought a couple items that I needed for meals this week: onions, sweet potatoes, and shredded cheese (that was on sale).

I figured cutting the grocery budget to $20 a week wouldn't get us very much at the grocery store, but that's okay, because we have a nice stockpile to eat from. It was such a great week at Publix, though! I was able to buy so much food for way under $20! It was so easy, I'm considering pushing the $20/week challenge through the entire month of October. That would give us an extra $120 this month!!! (Our normal budget is $50/week).

I learned something this week, though. I learned how to pick and choose what to buy. There were some GREAT sale items, that within our normal $50/week budget I would have jumped all over. Since I knew I was limited to $20, however, I had to say to myself, "Is that something we really need?" I'm a huge proponent of buying anything that you can get for free so that you can donate it. I did get a couple of freebies this week, actually. But if something was not free, no matter how great of a deal it was, I was forced to truly contemplate whether or not we should buy it. The results??? I walked away with bags of groceries for under $20. I only bought the items that were extremely cheap or free, and the few items I needed for the meals this week.

This stockpile challenge and budget cut really made me re-evaluate our grocery spending. Times are pretty rough for us right now, and it would really help us out financially if we spent less on groceries. After seeing how easy it is to limit our grocery budget, I'm seriously considering lowering the amount we budget for this area each week. If nothing else, this challenge is helping me re-think our grocery budget, how much we need, what I'm truly willing to pay for something, and how freeing it would be to limit ourselves a little more. We'll see what happens. I'll have to let you know what we decide at the end of this month.

Now on to Super Savings Saturday...