Ahhh! Getting tight 😉 Last Saturday I reported we were at about $25 left in our budget IF we were going to be successful at keeping an average weekly spend of $35 a week (4 wks in January = $140 total) for grocery AND household expenses.  I know thats a low amount for a family of 4 – add in 2 cats not to mention 2 fish (the kids are 4 & 6 yrs old). I felt I was doing pretty good this week, until. today. Before I talk about today lets start with Monday.

Monday January 17th…

I purchased 4 half off Sunday papers, for the coupons of course! I’m SO glad we have a couple places at least that will sell Sunday papers half off on Mondays.  $3 total

Giant Eagle: spent about $8.50 on some cold cut meat/cheese from the deli and a bag of chips. I know that sounds high, but we don’t do this very often.

Wednesday January 19th…

Beuhlers: spent $7.40 on the above contents pictured. That includes  7.19 pounds of bananas (.29 cents a #)! I will freeze many of these for my super yummy-healthy smoothie I luv!

Today*gulp*…

(January 22- yes I know I have one more week to go!)

My grocery shopping from Giant Eagle & Walmart is pictured below minus the 2 dozen eggs ($1 each), 1 box of the Fish Sticks, the orange juice, and you can’t see it very well but a 2nd package of 6 roll toilet paper hiding.

Giant Eagle: spent aprx. $36.75 (but saved over $25 with sales & coupons) and Walmart: spent about $10.70. The 14# bag of cat food was about $11 but will last for months. Have to feed the kittys 🙂 . Fish are way more cheaper to feed let me say.

The splurges: The B1G1 44 ct. Van de Kamp’s fish sticks (husband wanted), 2 boxes of Pringle Stix with coupons for the kids,  International Delight Coffee Creamer  (for me) $1.50 on sale.

Stockpile: 3 jars of Smart Balance creamy peanut butter $1.49 each after sale & doubled coupons; 2 boxes of Snuggle dryer sheets 50 cents each after doubled coupons; an extra pack of soft taco shells.

We’ve been blowing through the bread and I don’t know when I’ll make it back to the Hostess Outlet store so I grabbed a loaf and a pack of hot dog buns at Walmart.

The damage.

Really? Do I even want to add this up?

Balance left in the month:  $25.00

Aprx. Spent this week:   $3.00 + $8.50 + $7.40 + $36.75  + $10.70 =  $66.35 – $25.00 = means…

I’m $41.35 over budget.

But I’m just fine with that. I’m sure I can do better. And trying to keep toilet paper and cat food among other household needs in that $35/ avg weekly budget is hard core. Right now anyways. The more I can stockpile (a few extras  by buying when I can get the lowest price) the better off we will be.

Okay, so I’ve been asked about what we are eating. Well, I plan on sharing some of that. I’ve been taking pictures of some of that too. Stay tuned and I will hopefully have some pictures and super simple “recipes” for you this week 😉  You might want to subscribe here for my email newsletter so you don’t miss those posts.

Click here to see the $35 budget- week 1 update.
Click here to see the $35 budget- week 2 update.

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Tracy Zdelar

Owner/Editor at Hall of Fame Moms

Tracy writes about homeschooling and just about anything related to family life in Ohio here on the blog. Strong honest views will surface from time to time on topics related to truth, faith and freedom. **Check out my notebooks and Bible Memory Coloring Notebook workbooks for Adults & Teens by clicking my name.

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