Pantry Challenge Week #3 & 4

Week three and four of the pantry challenge were pretty routine. My grocery bills for those two weeks were $43.88 and $32.08 respectively, and my total food cost for the month of January (plus the week after Christmas) was $145.45. Now, for us, that was a savings of $254.55 to $354.55; an inspiring savings.

The savings was put toward my hubby's birthday gift. He has now reached the level of Honored Citizen, and I felt it was time he move into the 21st century. His work has allowed him to use a "company" laptop, but their way of respecting a PE teacher who travels to three schools and works with 900 kids was to allow him to use a VERY old Macbook. The laptop demonstrated its age by randomly shutting down about every hour, making it very difficult for hubby to do serious work. My inspiring grocery savings, plus various other savings from the month, allowed me to purchase a refurbished Macbook Pro for hubs, and he is thrilled.

As I sit down to plan the week's meals this morning, it appears we still have plenty of pantry items to continue a modified challenge for at least one more week. The modifications will be to purchase some soda pop and a few essentials we tried to do without, Bisquick for example. Additionally, Sunday is the Super Bowl and we are having a small gathering of friends for the game. I want to keep a close eye on those purchases, so they will be made separate from the general shopping and made on Friday of this week.

Making such a grand purchase for hubby's birthday was so fun, but having dear son request recipes and ideas for saving on his own grocery budget has been just as rewarding. We made a date to go purchase a crockpot and stockpot (probably second hand) so that he can begin to make economical meals, in quantity, which saves money and time for him.

While reducing the monthly grocery money allotment was not a main goal, I am motivated to do just that. A reduction of $100 a month seems very doable, and if it can be reduced by $200 every other month, I might just be able to make that Kitchenaid Stand Mixer purchase sometime before summer.