On July 13th, I set a one year goal to challenge myself to spend no more for my family of 5 buying predominately organic food than the government states is the “thrifty” level of spending for our family, which is $156.30 a week.
This first report covers our spending from July 13th to July 28th.
My initial thought?
We eat a lot!! I couldn’t believe how much food I bought. Check it out in this little YouTube video we made:
However, keep in mind that we are getting two CSAs a week, and I am busy stocking the freezer with meals from some of the CSA ingredients so we can eat local, organic food even during the winter. So, that means I sometimes have to buy more than I normally would to make those meals. I am sure it will pay off in the winter when we have a few pantry challenges.
One notable expense this report is that I had to pay $110 for my yearly Costco membership. I included that as a grocery expense, which is why my total for groceries is a bit higher than I would have liked.
Right now I am close to on target with a two week average of $162.06 per week.
I’ll be back two weeks from today with another update.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Why not divide the Costco membership into its weekly costs (about $2.12/week)? It would give you a better (both lower and more accurate) average weekly spending.
I thought about it, but I just decided to take the large expenses as they come. I will also have a large CSA expense next spring and probably a meat expense this fall or winter. I’ll just add them in as they come; it should average out over a year.
So if I’m reading this right, if you took out the $110 for the Costco renewal, you’d have paid about $50 less a week than the USDA plan? Or did you budget out the membership fees over the entire year?
Yes, you read it right. Without the Costco membership, I would have been at $50 less a week. However, I have decided not to break down the membership by week. We routinely have large purchases in our grocery budget such as 1/2 side of beef and our CSA purchases in addition to the Costco membership, so I will just take them as they come. It will even out over the course of a year.
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