My June Grocery Challenge

This is my budget challenge for June - spend $200 or less for groceries. This includes all food and health and beauty items. I'm also including all fast food and eating out in general except for two "cheats" being, I'm planning to take the kids out for brunch on the first day of their summer vacation and, I'll most likely be taking the family out to dinner for my older daughter's birthday. Those two excursions alone could pretty much eat up the whole budget (trust me, my family eats ALOT!) so I'm excluding those.

So why am I doing this? Several reasons...

A while back I told a person that she was most likely diabetic or pre-diabetic. Her random blood sugar was in the 200's. That's higher than normal. Anyway, suddenly I get this rant about how that's not her fault because she's poor and can't afford to eat "good food" and has to do her grocery shopping at Aldi. Seriously?!! I almost said, "Lady, that's where I do my grocery shopping," then I wanted to add, "and learn how to coupon!" ... but I thought better of it and kept my mouth shut.

Really though, is it possible to eat well and not spend a ridiculous amount of money. My brain says yes so I want to prove it.

So $200 for a family of four - me, hubs, and two teenagers that will be home for summer vacation, plus the dog and three cats. Ten years ago when I did the monthly budget challenge journal over at my coupon forum, my budget was $100. Kids were 3 and 7 then and we had two cats but I did it. I bought all our groceries and HBAs for $100 a month, month after month. A lot has changed with couponing in the last 10 years. Triple and double coupons are gone and so is most of the overage. I think the reality shows ruined it for all the real couponers. $200 really will be a stretch.

For me though, $200 might be realistic. I'm not starting with nothing. I actually have a pretty decent stockpile so I've got a good base of foodstuffs to work with. Another reason I'm doing this is so I can meal plan better and work with what I've got. I stocked up on quite a bit of meat this weekend as it was all on sale for Memorial Day Weekend. It's all been vacuum packed and put in the freezer. It's frozen. If I'm going to use it, I have to thaw it out. I can't tell you how many times I've hit the drive thru for a carry out order when I had food at home because I hadn't planned ahead enough to thaw out what I needed to cook.

I want to coupon better. It's true. Bad food is cheap. It is SO easy to stock up on almost free junk. I've been guilty of this numerous times. This month I'm holding myself to really try and buy good things.

I want to be accountable. Hello world... this is what I'm buying this month.

The rules I've set for myself are as follows... $200. Includes all food, pet food, and health and beauty items. I can use gift cards, coupons, or store credits like Extra Care Bucks against that $200 as these are things I've already earned and am not paying for out of pocket. Starts June 1st.

Anyone else want to play along with their own budget?