Over the last 4 weeks, I challenged myself to only spend $40 a week for groceries. It was a challenge, but I am happy to report that I was quite successful. (My weekly total averaged a little less than $43 a week.)
I learned several things:
Shopping at Aldi is a great way to save money. I never used to go to Aldi because the one near us was dirty and always very busy. I recently found one close to work that is clean and much less busy. Even though the challenge is over, I will still be going there.
Our budget didn’t support the cat food we were buying. We adopted our cats from a foster home when they were little; they were fed Purina One there, so we just kept buying that. Now, however, we are slowly transitioning our cats to a less expensive brand.
We have a lot of food stocked up. When I started the challenge, our deep freezer and little freezer over the refrigerator were both completely full. Now, the deep freezer is about 2/3 full as is the little freezer. We still have a great deal of meat stocked up, which will make it easier to try to keep our grocery bill low.
I would have a very difficult, almost impossible, time regularly spending $40 a week without using coupons. Even with coupons, I don’t see how I could sustain that amount if the freezer were not full of meat.
This challenge was a great activity for me. I was routinely spending $350 a month for groceries. Now I see that it can be done for less, much less. For the next four weeks, I will try not to spend more than an average of $60 a week. Maybe that will be a sustainable level we can manage month in and month out.
In regards to the cat food, remember you get what you pay for. Less expensive cat food tends to have more filler than healthy content. I shop on a budget but I won't skimp on buying them cheap food so I make sure to use coupons. Don't forget to write to the cat food companies because some will send you coupons or even samples.