Thursday, November 3, 2011

My October Grocery Challenge: Week 5...THE FINALE!

In what will go down as a personal glorious achievement in frugality, for week 5 of my October grocery challenge I made it to Aldi, and man did I make it count. Without further adieu because I am so amped about this I’ll lay out the numbers. For the final week we spent $99.62, for an October month grocery expense total of $266.86, over $70 under budget! A 5 weekend month, we trimmed back on the budget and still came under, the nerd in me is exploding with excitement.

Which of course leads me to the next course of action. There have been some serious discussions in our household as a result of our October success. We are clearly over budgeting for grocery expenses, but should we take the step to cut the budget down to $300, I (the conservative) say no, my wife (the realist) says yes. So for November we decided “on paper” to have a budget of $300 and let the $70+ excess from October roll on forward, a win-win in my book.

The best lessons I learned from this month was proof that being flexible in buying fruit that is in season and under $1 a pound really works. This stigma and lie that I believed for so long, that eating healthy is way too expensive, is just plain ignorant. Strip away the stigmas and the truth  is that being intentional with my money is what matters. Yes I want to eat healthy, no I will not pay a premium to do it. Sure I could expand the grocery budget and run off to expensive Aldi’s I mean Trader Joe’s (ALDI OWNS TRADER JOE’S… LITERALLY…SERIOUSLY - LOOK IT UP!!) but in controlling costs, being flexible, and not buying into marketing myths, I stretch my dollars that much further. I have found that the key components are: buying what is in season, meal planning, avoiding impulse purchases, and utilizing what’s in the cupboard.

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