200 a Month Challenge

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I will be starting this again this year. (hopefully, I can keep caught up on it this year) I will be doing 200 a month since I don’t have to but beef. If you are following along set an amount that works for you I know meat is expensive so you may want to factor that into your budget. I will also add in all the daycare food in this total also. I will not add canning supplies since these are more of an investment Nor will I add in animal supplies except for stuff for the cat. Andy gets all the rest of the animal feeds and isn’t factored into my budget and income.

It will be all my groceries and paper products. I plan to cut way way back on paper products and to do a whole lot more cooking from scratch. I will have to do a lot of preplanning. I got a small greenhouse for my birthday and I am wanting to set it up in the living room to grow my salad stuff (as soon as I get my Christmas tree down so I have room for it).  The only things I want to have to but is fresh produce ( that I can’t grow) and sale items. All other things I want to make or do without.

I am going to try and just do a once a month shopping or at least every two weeks. So it will depend on when I go shopping as to how often I update.

So this week I spent

At Walmart, I bought Kitty litter, orange juice, some flowers that were on clearance sale for a project I want to do, I also bought 2 cases of pint jars and 3 cases of quart jars, The quart jars were marked down to 5.89, I didn’t need any at the moment but know I will soon and can’t pass up that price. (jars will not be added in). So I spent 7.67 at W.M.

At city market, I found pasta on sale for 49 cents a bag so I bought 18 bags of small shells that I feed the kids,3 loaves of bread ( hoping to start making all my bread soon) lettuce, spinach, mushrooms that were on sale, and some ginger root (want to try and make my own ginger beer. I spent 57.35 at  City Market.

So 7.67 + 57.35= 65.02    200.00 – 66.02= 133.98 left for the month.

So what kind of budget have you set for this year?

 

5 Replies to “200 a Month Challenge”

  1. NRP

    I really like this challenge.
    I am doing a full on retirement in 100 days, YEAH!!!!
    I am already collecting SS, so that will be my income for a very long time. Have a PERA that I collect each month, but that is not touched for any reasoning.
    Have done a budget about 20 times to see if it’s doable, should be no problem.
    I do have a few items stored up in the Deep Pantry that will get used some than replaced as they come back on sale. Basically if it’s not on sale don’t buy it, period.

    So to the point. I have right around $200 a month allotted for Food Stuff, including all Paper goods, AND Dog Food for a 120# Black Lab. HAHAHAHA

    A couple of things I would offer to help.
    1. NEVER go to a store hungry.
    2. Buy in Bulk
    3. If not in Bulk always and I do mean always buy on-sale.
    4 Garden, raise as much of your food as you can.
    5. Learn how to “Put Up Food” meaning Canning, dehydrating, so-on, if someone offers you something from their Garden, make darn sure to NEVER let it go to waste. AND always offer something in return.
    6. Visit the local Farmers Markets, also get to know the local Store’s Managers, there are a lot of times they need to move food if it’s “coming Due” they will often sell it very cheap or even give it away.

    1. watkinsranches@yahoo.com Post author

      NRP,
      The count down is on hahaha, You are so right if it isn’t on sale don’t buy it, buy in bulk and grow as much as you can yourself. And you can do it on 200 a month easy lol

      Have a great day,
      Connie

  2. Chaniqua

    My goal this year is to try and do a max of $250 a month thru September. That includes diapers, wipes, household stuff and food.

    The exemptions being October-December. I get a lot of my best deals during those months. I will probably try to do about $350 a month then. Even then at $70/month per person that is low.

    1. watkinsranches@yahoo.com Post author

      Chaniqua,
      That is great especially since you have diapers in there ( those things are so stinking expensive even the cheap ones). I always try to buy a years worth when the good deals come along even if it puts me a little over, figure I can make it up later.
      Have a great day
      Connie