$200 Grocery Budget for June

Ever since I realized we spent $1,000 on groceries and food in one month I knew we had to make a change.

In June, hubby and I agreed to attempt to stick to a $200 grocery for the month of June.

We're almost half way through the month and we've spent $95.

We aren't starving. We aren't only eating top ramen.

It's definitely not a sustainable budget for us but it is a good "reset" amount. Because I'm pretty obsessive compulsive we have a large stock pile of things like peanut butter and frozen meats. I'd buy things when we didn't need them...because we might need them at some point.

This is good in a sense because there was always food in our house. But bad because hubby and I were often cleaning out the freezer saying "I didn't know we had that" and throwing it away because it was no good anymore. SO much waste!

In June we are focusing on eating from our stock and only buying things we truly need. Lots of frozen chicken has been used in the last two weeks as well as ground turkey recipes.

Some of my budget has had to go toward main ingredients that weren't already in my cupboard. Who knew real Maple Syrup was so expensive? Not to mention Sesame Oil.

But I'm shopping around and am even going to try the Cash and Carry where folks have told me they have really inexpensive cuts of meat.

Our Costco budget is separate and $50 for the month. Considering I would go in and often spend more than $150 each time with multiple trips each month, this was a big budget change for me. My last trip I spent $23. It was TOUGH!

But I am determined to become a better steward of the blessings God has given us.