Our fiscal months run from the 15th to the 14th because Mr. Dreamer gets paid on the 15th and it makes it easier for me if I know exactly what the income is throughout the month. (We also moved in on June 16th, so that's convenient. That first month actually ran from June 7th (our wedding) to July 14th, because I'm in charge and I wanted it to.) We are still working out the details of the budget because we've only been in Chicago for a little over a month.
Our current monthly food budget is $200. I usually just write this down as "groceries" to make my life easier, but it actually includes all food--groceries and eating out. So far this month we have spent $140.50. That means that we are 70.25% of the way through our grocery budget and 32.26% of the way through our month. Yeah. Not quite on track.
In our defense, there have been a couple of unusual expenditures. We were out of town for a wedding, and about $25 of the amount spent is due to that (travel food, etc.). Also, I have made three stock-up purchases this month: a ten-pound bag of rice, a bag of potatoes, and nine (!) pounds of ground turkey that was on sale for very cheap.
So here's the challenge: No more food buying! That doesn't literally mean no more, because we are going to need produce before August 14th. We may also need dairy (Mr. Dreamer loves milk....) and I am giving myself an exception for yeast so that I can make rolls. So this challenge has two parts:
1. Don't buy anything except the above three categories.
2. Come in under $200 total for the month.
This should be a perfectly achievable goal, particularly if I get my produce from Aldi, not Jewel. (Jewel is much closer, so it sometimes wins by convenience, but I finally dragged myself to Aldi last week and was shocked at the difference in price.) I'll check back in and let you know how things are going.
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