You Need A Budget – NourishingWhole

Grocery Haul-Sept 24, 2018

September is almost over! Which means I am WAY behind on getting my kids Halloween costumes made… Our family theme this year is going to be incredible, just wait!

Monday, I went grocery shopping, and literally less than 5 minutes in the store I lost my list. I could. not. find. it! So I had to guess what was on it, because I couldn’t remember, I made it Saturday or Sunday and the only thing on the menu I could remember was green chili enchiladas for Taco Tuesday! Hopefully, I am not running to the store a bunch more times this week.

So here it is, ONE STORE! HEB, I got some lettuce, shredded cheese (Y’all I KNOW block cheese is cheaper, but I do not have time to shred cheese or wash more dishes, plus 2 pounds shredded for $5 is a great price.) Chicken broth, and a misplaced can that snuck in masquerading, beef broth, HEB brand Shell Mac and Cheese (I have no idea what we will do if we ever leave Texas, this Mac and Cheese is the BEST EVER, well beside homemade.) More cream of rice, sour cream, diced green chilis, hotdog buns, grapes, tortillas, and two loaves of bread (2 for $2 sale! One went straight into the freezer.) Total spent: $26.16, which leave a grocery roll over of about $20. WHOOP!

Groceries-Week Sept 17th

This week is busy! I keep telling myself to sit down and write, but I haven’t had time! Hopefully Baby Hercules will nap long enough for me to finish.

I wasn’t planning on shopping this week, but we *think* Mr Z is reacting to oats. Lets just say it’s not pretty. So since all most all of the breakfast foods we have are oat based and a lot of his snacks are, I had to get some non-oat stuff. I went to HEB and Kroger. I went to Kroger only because Ibotta had some deals that HEB didn’t. So don’t judge me on the no produce this week. We have some from last week still.

HEB:

I spent $31.22. We got HEB brand rice krispies (Mr. Z was begging to make rice krispie treats and I caved.), yogurt cups and go gurts, cream of rice, cream of wheat instant packs, 2 things of hummus, carrots, Annie’s crispy snacks (which I thought we more like granola bars, but after Mr. Z eating one they are totally just rice krispie treats…) Clif Kids Zbars and some quinoa.

Kroger:

I spent $22.47. We got some more Zbars (Ibotta purchase, plus the baby likes them and I feel better about these than other soft granola bars), peanut butter crackers x 3, cheese and breadstick dippers x 2, and 5 kid RXbars.

Like I said, almost all of this is for Mr. Z and the next 30 days while we see if oats are what is causing the issues. I needed things that are self stable, and not going to be crushed to bits in his school bag or my purse. This week we spent $53.69, which leaves us about $53 for the rest of the month, which is totally doable.

I also wanted to share the amazing steal I stumbled upon at Kroger yesterday! My store was under stocked in the All laundry detergent weekend sale, so they extended the sale. I got 5 bottles of All for $5.40!! They are the small bottles, 33 loads, but that’s about 5 months of detergent. Whoop!

Groceries-Week of Sept 10

Grocery shopping this week, with what happened Monday, was not in budget or really planned. Plans often go out to the wayside when unpredictable things like that happen.

The whole family headed to HEB late on Monday, so it took longer and we got a handful of impulse buys. I was not in the mood to fight for the budget.

At HEB we spent $67.98 (oops! That’s the whole budget for this week!)

We got, some frozen pizzas (there was no way I was cooking dinner after my morning), lettuce, chicken breasts, oatmeal, lunch meat, granola bars, salad dressing, strawberries ($0.87 a pound! We are going to slice and freeze mosts of them.) Oatmeal digestive cookies (Baby Hercules likes these ones, I got the wrong ones last time.) Hummus, and some cheddar bunnies.

Tuesday, I made it out to Aldi, and after loading up, realized I forget the peppers and had to drag the kids back in. I spent a total of $31.94 at Aldi.

At Aldi I stocked up on some things that we need for lunches and pizza night; pasta sauce, pepperoni, trail mix, yogurt, mini cucumbers, yellow potatoes, pretzels, grapes, and bell peppers.

This week’s total on groceries was $99.42. Yikes! If I am careful, I think we can manage skipping the grocery store next week! That will help the budget, and maybe, just maybe give us a small rollover.

I also had a helper today with pictures… Good thing he is cute!

Budgeting-Groceries

Have y’all seen the grocery haul videos on YouTube? They are when some budget blogger goes over everything they purchased at the store that week and how much they spent. Usually, the person is single and able to get everything for some crazy low amount. OR they have some crazy large family and bought a ton of processed food for cheap.

Well, I am not single, we are a family of 4. We also, live on a graduate student stipend. Our grocery budget is small and not really flexible. We budget about $70 a week. Some weeks, depending on the sales, we go over stocking up on meat or something non perishable. Some months, there is more month than money.

I don’t think we eat extravagantly. But I wanted to share what a real family actually buys and eats. So I added a menu for the month. You can see it here. I usually meal plan for the week, so I will add to it every week. I have also added links to recipes for some things.

This week’s grocery shopping trip I went to Aldi and HEB, two of my FAVORITE grocery stores.

At Aldi I spent $28.49 and here is what I got:

Mango salsa, pretzels, raw honey, butter (2 lbs), organic whole milk yogurt (I love this yogurt), 2 limes, low sodium bacon, garlic bulbs, brown mushrooms, cilantro, broccoli crowns, romaine hearts, and carrots.

At HEB I spent $51.99 and got:

Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, vegetable broth (2), unbleached all-purpose flour (2), canola oil mayo, roasted red pepper hummus (2, they were out of the big tub we usually get), one grapefruit (per Mr. Z’s request), extra virgin olive oil, oatmeal digestive cookies (these are for Baby Hercules), ranch dressing, apple cider vinegar, Mexican blend shredded cheese (2 lbs bag), granola bars, instant oatmeal packets (one apple cinnamon and two maple and brown sugar).

In total, we spent $80.48. Yes, we are over, but I had to get a few items that are more expensive, olive oil and honey, that we don’t normally need. Without those two items we would have spent $66.03. Sometimes we spend more, sometimes we spend less. I also was able to buy a couple of duplicate items for things that we use regularly, like an extra bag of flour, extra oatmeal, and broth. Let’s see how next week goes! Budget goal is is spend less that $68.

Budget: Price Comparing

Have you ever gone price shopping? I hadn’t until today.

On Friday, Mr. Wonderful got paid (wahoo!) and our fridge was E.M.P.T.Y. I had to go to Wal-Mart for something specific. (Digression: I really hate shopping at Wal-Mart. But I live in a fairly rural community and sometimes without ordering online, my only choice is to shop at Wal-Mart. I try to not support this chain, and try very hard to shop elsewhere.) I figured, since I was at this one store, I would do some basic grocery shopping, so I wouldn’t have to take Mr. Z in and out of the car more than was needed.

I went to get just a few basics, and thought I had done a decent job on cost. After Mr. Wonderful got home, I told him that I did some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. He looked at me, and shocked says, “What! We can’t be that poor. Please tell me Winco is cheaper?”

Well, I didn’t know. So today, while I was in the next town, and since I needed to pick up some more groceries, thought, why not see where was really the cheapest place to shop.

Grocery Item	Wal-Mart	Winco
Lunch Meat	(Great Value 9oz) $2.98 ($0.3/oz)	(Foster Farms 8oz) $1.98 ($0.24/oz)–taxed +0.12
Aidell’s Apple Chicken Sausages	$5.44	$4.98–taxed +0.30
Bars original hot dogs	$0.98	$0.98–taxed +0.06
Chicken Tenders	(Foster Farms) $5.52/# ($0.35/oz)	(Just Bare) $5.38/14oz (0.38/oz)–taxed +0.32
Ground Beef 93/7	SALE $4.78/#	$4.98/#–taxed +0.30/#
#5 Red Potatoes	$2.47	$1.98
Spinach	$2.88 (16oz) (0.18/oz)	$1.98 (10oz) (0.198/oz)
Green Leaf Lettuce	$1.88	$1.78
Bananas	$0.52/#	$0.48/#
Green Grapes	$1.48/#	$1.38/#
Carrots 2# bag	$1.32	$0.98
Hot dog buns	(Great Value) $1.28	(Winco) $0.98–taxed +0.06
Sub-Total (assuming 1# of /# items)	$31.53	$27.29
Tax (Only applicable to Winco)	—	$1.70
Total	$31.53	$28.99
Difference		$2.54 less

Is it worth it for me to go to the next town over to grocery shop to save about 2 and a half dollars?

That’s a personal question. I know people who, would tell you that gas alone makes it not worth it. But for me, who would like to not shop at Wal-Mart, and because I already go to the next town for other things, it is practical for me to shop and save that $2.54.

*Idaho Food Tax* I live in Washington state, there is no tax on food (junk food and soda is, I think). The next town is in Idaho, where they have a 6% tax on food, which does not apply to produce (banana, carrots, oranges, raw vegetables, frozen vegetables are taxed.) This is something that I have always wondered if it made a difference in our budget. If you are an Idaho resident, there is a grocery tax credit. For more information on Idaho’s grocery credit look HERE.

Budgeting, 3 months later.

Well, it has been 3 months since we decided we really need to start budgeting, and really controlling our money. 3 months of budget meetings, saving receipts, checking the bank statements and writing down everything.

In the last 3 months we have learned:
-we really have no money
-food is ridiculously expensive
-medical expenses kill your savings
-we are poor
-having “fun” money, will save your sanity
-budgeting to splurge, makes the splurge more fun
-living at the poverty line is no fun

Budgeting is really hard. Especially when, you take your paycheck and put it to every bill and then there isn’t even enough for groceries.

Our end of the month budget meeting for October and the beginning of November, really had us questioning, is this working? November is month 4 we should be seeing improvements, or at least that’s what all the gurus say. This month we had to dip into the student loans we took out in August. The loans we were really hoping we wouldn’t touch and could say we don’t want more. The loans that we had to use to buy groceries this week.

This has got us thinking, what else can we do to cut expenses? Go down to one phone? Have me go and get a night shift job? Should we apply for some government assistance? What can we sell?

This Sunday was our Church’s Fast Sunday. We decided to fast together as a couple about what to do.

This is what we know we need to do:

Get our savings back up as fast as possible to at least $1500.
Payoff and close that last credit card.

We could just completely drain our savings and pay of the credit card. Be done and able to stop having one more payment due off of our first paycheck every month.

But what if anything happens? What if we have a major car repair? What if someone has to go to the hospital? What if?

Praying for an extra $500 to just appear, is impractical.

Does budgeting get easier with more money?

Day Two: Whole30 and Staying in Budget

I am trying to decide if I want to post daily like last time. Anyway, I wanted to post about how it is going so far, you know cause day two is so hard.

I haven’t officially said to Mr. Wonderful, “hey, I decided to do another round of Whole30.” Mainly, because he would just say either, “not again” or “stay within the budget”. But I am not keeping it a secret, I mean, my notes and cookbooks are left out in open, so I am sure he knows.

Also, I wasn’t planning on grocery shopping today, but since I started Whole30 a week early I kind of needed to. So I made a grocery list, I double checked what we had and what we needed. I checked our grocery budget. $68 until next payday, in two weeks…

So Mr. Wonderful and I sat down and chatted about robbing Peter the pay Paul, or how we can “roll with the punches”. We moved some money out of restaurants, especially since, Whole30 means little to no eating out.

I went grocery shopping, hoping to spend less than $50. I spent $62.15. There were a couple of things I did not get, mainly because Winco doesn’t carry it and I had already over spent on my goal. I did purchase more meat than we would be eating this week, so that will help next week.

I am mad or disappointed I over spent, nah.

Food Log:

Breakfast: I planned a fun big breakfast, but I was the only one up, so just eggs, cucumbers and an orange.

Lunch: Leftovers! I do have in my plan to have a salad for lunch, but honestly, leftovers will probably be more appealing.

Dinner: This was really easy, and it sounds a lot fancier than the prep makes it, balsamic glazed chicken and roasted potatoes, I added a medium salad with paleo ranch, cucumbers, carrots and olives.

Snack: I was still hungry after dinner so Mr. Z and I shared some grapes and toasted Almonds.

Budget: Software

Our first month of budgeting is done, and man it was bad.

Overbudget

In one word… yup, we had already spent our entire budgeted total and have gone over by the middle of the month.

We took this month as more of a how much do we really spend, so that we can figure this budgeting thing out. Check out this post about what we, or at least I learned while budgeting in August.

It was very eye opening.

We started the month using Everydollar. About halfway through we do not like the EveryDollar budgeting tool from Dave Ramsey. Our income is so inconsistent, and we feel like he teaches more towards a salary based income.

So we went looking, and tried a couple different budgeting tools out there and we have come to love the newest version of YNAB. Now, we have used YNAB before, the original version, what an upgrade!

First off it is so much more visually appealing, and it also, isn’t an excel file, it is its own freaking program now.

I really like the statistical reports you can print from YNAB. They have a bunch of free webinars about their software. I have only taken one so far and you can also sign up for their emails and they send out a bunch of short email lessons.

Their philosophy in very much in line with Dave’s, but we feel like it is a little more reasonable and forgiving. Like their overall goal is to get you out the the paycheck to paycheck cycle. Which is where we are. We know we need to get out of debt, but when you aren’t sure if you can have enough for groceries and rent, you have a bigger problem.

Check them out. I will say this, you have to buy YNAB to use the budget past the 32 day free trail (If someone knows why 32 days, let me know!) It is $60. One time though! and you have software rights for life! Dave’s software, you can get it linked to your bank for $99 a year…

And YNAB is not linked to your bank, which for those of us worried about the internet stealing your life, this is nice.

Budget: August, a Review

Well, August has come to a close, we stuck to budgeting.

We did not stick to our agreed upon budget.

Life happens, and I was shocked when come the middle of the month, and our budget was no longer fitting.

Dave Ramsey’s budget tools were not working for us and so we switched to YNAB, click here for a short review of why we like YNAB better.

I wanted to give a summary of what we learned in our first month of budgeting.

Gazelle Intensity is not for us.
1. while we REALLY want to get out of debt, we are not ready to give up the few extras we have.
Saying “NO!” is really really really hard.
1. Saying it to your two year old at the grocery store, “No, I am sorry you can’t have crackers, we can’t afford them this week.” Made me want to cry, and I felt like the meanest mother in the ENTIRE world.
Pray before a Budget Meeting
1. Dave closes his radio show saying something like, “You can’t reach financial peace without walking daily with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.”
2. Praying together, just made our budget meeting go smoothly, we will be doing this always before our bi-weekly budget meeting.
Have a budget meeting at every pack check
1. We started just me figuring it out and Mr. Wonderful looking it over and approving it. It worked, but having a meeting, where WE BOTH sat down to hash out what went where made it easier to say NO!, later.
2. Mr. Wonderful gets paid every other week, so we hold bi-week sit down budget meetings. Any other income, if under $1,000 we just have a quick verbal confirmation on where it goes.
Share!
1. I want to tell everyone, we are being weird and trying this budgeting thing. Hey, this crazy thing is happening while we do it, I like my husband more!
Increase Intimacy
1. And no I am not talking sex
2. I am talking about mental intimacy.
  1. I am an analytical thinker and so is Mr. Wonderful, so talking numbers and trying to find extra money has brought us closer. I like it.
Make Mistakes and have fun.
1. We did not give each other any spending money in August, MISTAKE. It just made it miserable. This month we have decided fun money needs to be included.

After this first month, and looking at where all the money went we have decided some budget line items that need to be tightened. Number one on our list to get reduced is how much we spend on food.

We spent almost $600 just on food. Not just groceries. On groceries we spent over $400, on eating out including dates we spent over $150. This does not need to be this outrageous. Our goal for September spent half of this!

It wont be easy, and telling Mr. Z that our grocery shopping lunch dates of Mac ‘N Cheese from the co-op deli are over is going to result in some serious tears. Hopefully, he will understand.