Well I was doing fairly well on trying to only spend HALF of my usual $250 Food/Toiletries Budget in February.
The 1st week of Feb. I did great until I took the BIL to the grocery store and went inside.lol I only spent about $83 that week total.
The 2nd week of Feb. I did GREAT! I didn't spend a penny of the budgeted $!!
The 3rd week the funeral happened so I broke down and bought some hot foods and baked goods at the grocery store to serve while Hub's family was here. I consider this week unusual circumstances but I still spent about $60 on food.
For the 4th week I am trying to stay out of the grocery store again to salvage my $125 goal. At the moment I am at $115.27 spent on food in February. So I have just over $9 left in the budget.
Saturday we are eating out for #2 son's Birthday so I only have 6 days to meal plan.
MEAL PLAN Feb. 20th-Feb. 26th
Sunday--BAKED ZITI & SALAD *This used up stockpiled cheese, pasta, sauce and sour cream I had gotten on dairy dept. clearance a few weeks ago. I also added some ground beef(stockpiled in the freezer)to the sauce. I make a double batch so we'll be eating this another meal too.
Monday--LEFTOVERS *We finished up some Chili, some had more of last night's meal, and some leftover Chinese take-out from the weekend
Tuesday--CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS *I'll be using up the leftover Baked Chicken Hubs bought at WeisMarkets that we served on Wednesday to the relatives before the funeral. I'll add some more stockpiled chicken to make this dish and make the Dumplings from scratch. We'll have enough for another meal or for leftovers.
Wednesday--BOSTON BAKED BEANS AND CORNBREAD *One of my crockpot meals that makes more than 1 meal's worth.
Thursday--LEFTOVERS
Friday--FISH, FRIED ZUCCHINI, FRENCH FRIES *Using up some potatoes, stockpiled frozen fish and digging into a large bag of breaded zuke rounds.
Saturday--Birthday meal out for #2 son
Lots of filling, hearty comfort foods due to the weather here and the apres funeral comforting needs of my family. ;-)
The only item that I need to buy for these meals is some carrots for the Chicken and Dumplings. I'll probably buy some salad greens as I like to have them on hand and some lunch meat for sandwiches.
That will take care of my $9 that is left.
As for not spending on non-food items, all the toiletries have been free from Rite-Aid, as I've been using my +Up Rewards and free gift cards there.
I am not one to shop for non food/toiletries much so I don't have a problem staying out of those kinds of stores. Except, with the funeral we had to buy #1 son some dress slacks and #2 son some slacks and a dress shirt, since they didn't have anything appropriate to wear to the service. We did do some shoe borrowing so nothing was spent on footwear, but we did spend $60 on the clothes. If I had had more time to find the stuff, I would have hit the thrift store and saved money of these things. Oh well.....sometimes you have to spend in an emergency.
So are you doing a No Spend or Low Spend February?
How is it working out for you?
Has it been easy or difficult to stay the course?
Leave a comment and let us know!
Sluggy
