So, last month I embarked on a grocery challenge of sorts. I made a meal plan for the whole month of December. My idea was to go shopping at the beginning of the month for everything and then at intervals during the next 31 days, only venture out for perishables such as milk and cheese.
Fate had other ideas…
For starters, I got sick the weekend before Christmas. You know what happens when you are sick? You don’t want to cook. Couple that fact with my husband working long hours and then him getting sick, well, you can guess what happened. And no, my cat did not do the cooking. That would be an incorrect guess. He didn’t even offer, if you must know 
So yes, pizza was ordered. A lovely ginormous pizza with lots of bell peppers. It was delicious.
And then of course, there were ingredients for Christmas dinner that we had forgotten on our initial shopping trip at the beginning of the month. Luckily, most of the ingredients we had. Just the ones that we thought we had, we had to run back out for. Ugh…
So my well-thought out plan sort of went up in flames at the end. I think a 30 day meal plan is still a great idea, but I’m going to shelve it right now and stick to my weekly meal plan. However, I am keeping an eye on the “loss leaders” at the grocery store and saving some money by purchasing those items if they are something we need.
All in all, getting sick does not bode well for one’s budget. I am pinning my hopes on February being better, since this month has been a big cluster you-know-what since I am still battling this flu bug. Hey, and February is a short month! I can totally stay on top of my grocery budget when there’s only 28 days to keep track of, right?
Right???
We’ve tried doing a month long meal plan in the past, but life always seems to throw something at us that throws us completely off. We’ve moved to trying a two week meal plan as we shop every 10-11 days. It has seemed to work for the most part. Good luck in February!
Yeah, I think maybe in hindsight a month-long meal plan was a bit ambitious! A 2-week plan sounds doable though…maybe I’ll try that for February!
You sure can keep track. We all have our pitfalls when we get sick so its good that are getting back on track.
Thanks, I hope next month will be better
We went slightly off track too. It mostly happened because we got a new juicer and starting having to buy a bunch of produce to juice. It’s expensive but delicious. The extra cash just came out of our miscellaneous category!
Ooooh, I want a juicer!!! Hmmmmmm, Valentine’s Day is coming up. I’ll have to look into that
I would love to have a juicer!
Have you tried the grocery game at Canadian Budget Binder? It will lower your spending almost guaranteed. I tell everyone about it.
No, I’ve never tried it! I will definitely look into that. Thanks for the tip, Kim!
I tried to do a monthly meal plan. Once. I tried to do once a month shopping with only produce and milk in between. Once. It was a huge failure.
However, I did learn what my family’s habits are and how I need to plan which has actually wound up saving me a good amount of money over the years. So maybe it wasn’t a huge failure.
It was definitely hard to keep up with a monthly meal plan, not sure how people do it!
That’s just life I’m afraid. And that flu seems to have majorly kicked a lot of people’s asses, so I don’t blame you. That pizza sounds delicious. Just try it again when you’re ready.
Yeah, I tried. What’re ya going to do, right?
And that pizza was worth every dollar!
I got sick too and ended up eating jam and nuts b/c that’s all I had so I wish I’d had a monthly meal plan, but since I buy groceries every week I had run out.
Sorry you got sick too! Ugh, this season seems the worst
[...] Budget Snafu and a Grocery Challenge Update by The Random Path [...]
Hope that you’re starting to feel a little better. Everybody seems to be sick with this flu epidemic, no fun. I can’t even adequately plan a week’s worth of meals, a month would be amazing.
I’m feeling better, thanks! Yeah, the month-long meal plan didn’t pan out the way I would have liked. I tried, so I guess that has to count for something right?