Weekly Budget Update :: Week ONE

D and I sat down and thought long and hard about how much money we realistically wanted to spend each month on food.  Both of us are notorious "eh - I'll just grab food at work" people.

(FYI - I'm not knocking that lifestyle, for many years that served me very well!) 

For us (and the hope to live without a roommate + add more traveling to our year) that type of life just isn't realistic anymore.

So, step one.  The HARDEST STEP.  How much money am I going to set aside for this each month.

That question is not easy to answer when you have no data to start with.

Let's reenact January 4th, 2014.
This is how that conversation went to myself, in my head, while watching re-runs of X-Files:
Q:  "How much do you spend each week in groceries?" A: "I dunno"Q: "What would you make for lunch besides leftovers each week?"A: "I dunno"Q: "What is normal/average/typical for people to spend?"A: "I dunno"

The initial decision was $60.00/per person for M-F Dinners + $15.00/week for my lunches.  I figured D could take leftovers for lunch (he typically does), and that would be a good starting point.

Then, we started thinking about it more and more and figured if we only cooked 3 meals during the week (M/W/F), then we could make something fun as leftovers (opportunity to be creative!) and at the same time be creative.  The hope was to go to the store ONCE, on Sunday for all food that we would need M-F.  Then, Saturday would be a wild card (D and I are HUGE experimenters, and you'll never grow your recipe collection... unless you continue to try new things!).  Sunday would be "Hash Day".  We love hash, and throw just about any leftovers you can imagine into it, so easy-peasy.

Lastly, D decided that he wanted to take lunches to work as well!  Which is great, because 2 people paying into ONE lunch budget = better lunches!

And suddenly, it was done.  A real BUDGET that we could both fit into our lives.

SO, here it goes folks.  The OFFICIAL "Wayne Manor" Budget:

$40.00/Per Person for M-F Meals

$15.00/Per Person for M-F Lunches

Total: $110.00

Ready for Week One?  You know you are!

We spent: $108.59

This included 2 shopping trips, because we changed one dinner 1/2 way through the week.

This ALSO included BREAKFAST!  Woohoo!

I will not bore you with a gory details of the shopping list, but I will let you know what we ate for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is almost always eggs and ham.  :)

Day One: 

• 1/2 Sandwich + Salad for lunch
• Chicken Casserole (click HERE for recipe!) for dinner

Day Two:

• Salad (Me) + Yogurt / HUGE Sandwich + Yogurt (D) for lunch
• Weekend leftovers with eggs + potatoes

Day Three:

• Salad (Me) + Yogurt / HUGE Sandwich (D) for lunch
• Chicken Casserole (D) / Leftover-pa-looza (Me) 
• Side Note: D worked a late shift, and we didn't eat dinner together

Day Four

• 1/2 Sandwich + Salad for lunch
• Kung Pao Chicken (click HERE for recipe!) + Mixed Veggies for dinner

Day Five

• Kung Pao Chicken + Mixed Veggies for lunch
• Meat Loaf + Salad for dinner

I am really proud of this system.  While in some ways, I can see this as "cheating" since we had a lot of "base ingredients" (like corn starch) already... and I know that these will factor into further budgets.  I feel like this week was a true WIN.  Also, we still have food.  Food that we are eating this weekend (leftovers of meals, veggies, and sandwich fix-ins).

One thing we did learn is Yogurt is a great snack, but isn't always the BEST snack because of it's need to be refrigerated.  So, next week we are going to see if we can add some home-made trail mix ingredients into the budget and hope for the best.  

Updates. Soon. Soon. Sooooooon.