grocery challenge wrap-up for November

At the beginning of November, I challenged myself to see if I could keep our grocery budget to $100 a week or $400 for the month for our family of six.  I  didn’t quite make it, but I am happy with the end result.

My final total for the month was $478.06.   My mom gave me $100 for food when she and my dad were visiting so that helped and if we count that for my grocery budget, I came under, but I’m not going to count it and say I was under for the month.

One of the reasons I thought I could keep to an average of $100 a week was because I have several pounds of kamut and spelt on hand for grinding to make bread and pancakes.  Plus I had lots of english muffins and bagels in the freezer bought from my favorite discount bread store. I also had recently bought a case of Jackson’s favorite chicken hot dogs. So I wasn’t starting with an empty house.

I had intended to post all my receipts and menus here on my blog but after Jackson’s appointment with the specialist and all the time and energy involved in his skin care, I just quit taking the time to blog and then my parents came for a visit and then well, I was so behind on posting menus that I didn’t even try to catch up because I couldn’t remember what we had eaten on particular days. Then the flu came for a visit on Thanksgiving.

some bonuses for the month

We didn’t eat all our meals at home, but with having company a few times maybe it all evened out=) We had lunch and bookclub after church one Sunday. Caleb ate a friend’s house at least once. Five of us had spaghetti for lunch one day at another friend’s house and pizza for dinner at another friend’s house. So thanks everybody for feeding my clan=)

My mom brought me 3 pounds each of mozzarella cheese and white cheddar plus a tub of port wine cheese for Todd from the Middlefield Cheese House. If you’re ever near there, you have to go. They make their own swiss and sell lots of other cheese too. They have the mildest, creamiest Farmer’s cheese that you’ll ever eat.

A friend gave us part of her 42 pound homegrown turkey when she found out that I was having trouble finding Jackson-friendly turkey on the cheap (all I could find was $6-$7 a pound).  I ground up most of it and made some sausage. I’m estimating I have about 5 pounds of sausage patties for little J to enjoy.

Kroger had my favorite chickens on sale for 99 cents a pound last week– Purdue’s meaty roasters. So if I hadn’t  bought all those chickens, I could’ve stayed a lot closer to the $400 for the month.  If I had ended the month with an empty freezer and gone over, I wouldn’t be as happy with my end result of $478 for the month.

One of the things we did was go to an apple orchard and pick apples off the ground. We got 3 grocery bags full for only $9.   I made lots and lots of applesauce and even though the kids have eaten most of it, I do still have a big container left in the freezer.

what is your December grocery challenge?

My December challenge is still going to be $100 a week.  What that means for me is $400 if I end the month with not very many supplies and closer to $450-$500 if I’ve stocked up on several items like I did last month.