This past year, I set a grocery goal of $7800, or $150 a week. This goal was a bit higher than 2017 of $7000. My kids are growing, I'm getting busier, (we all are), and I wanted to "put my money where my mouth is" - so to speak - on buying local.
Well, we were doing "OK" this year, though I noticed by running average was around $151-152 for much of the year. About 3 weeks before the end of the year, I did some math. We had 3 more veggie boxes to be delivered (for $125). The math told me that besides that, we had $232 left for 3 weeks.
So I decided to give it a shot. The best way for me to do that is to meal plan - so I created a google doc, and started filling it in. I found a decent price on a very small ham for Christmas. I found a sale on organic potatoes. I planned some beans & rice curry dishes and lentil soups. We (my big boy and I) ate some oatmeal. I made homemade bread. My spouse bought me some gluten free bread from a local bakery for a Christmas gift, which TOTALLY doesn't count against the budget.
Apparently I haven't lost my meal planning mojo, because I found myself with $50 left the morning of December 31. So I did what any self-respecting meal planner would do, and I spent that on meat and treats - because I'm not rolling it over to next year.
In the end, I came in at $7789.01. Almost $11 left for the year.
Below is a graph of my grocery budget since 2001, minus a few years when I was pregnant with #2 or had a baby/ toddler, and apparently didn't give a shit.
That spike in 2014 was when I was working super hard to lose that second baby weight. I was successful! A lot more protein that year. 2011-2013 are completely missing.
All in all, we aren't doing too badly. Most of the increase in the last year has been due to produce - I get two boxes delivered each week, for a total of $65 a week. That's more than a third of the budget.
