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The second step in preparing for my “No Eating Out” Budget Challenge (which I am beginning November 1) has been to look back at the previous three months and see what I have spent on food. I also need to set a goal for November.
I am REALLY ashamed of myself now that I have looked at the numbers.
My only defense is that a good portion of it was after rehearsals and shows in August and September. That isn’t normal spending for me. You can see by the big drop in October that once my show was closed my spending decreased greatly.
However I still spent roughly $300 on food in October which is ridiculous for a person who only occasionally cooks for others. 75% of my meals I am only cooking for myself.
So for the month of November I am setting myself a $100 food budget. I should be able to do the bulk of my cooking from what I already have in my kitchen and I pick up 40 pounds of chicken from Zaycon on November 12th, which has already been paid for. I will only need to pay for fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs etc over the month. The one unknown factor is whatever I take for Thanksgiving Dinner with the family.
Here are the things I am going to do to be ready:
1. Loading the car up with snacks. The hardest thing for me to do is going to be not grabbing food on the go. I am going to throw some cereal bars and bottled water in the car to help with this.
2. Letting my friends know what I am doing. Many of my friends don’t actually read my website (for those who do- I LOVE YOU!). So I want to be sure they still invite me to hang out with them (including going out for meals) and know that I am just going to grab some water and enjoy the conversation. Or that we can plan dinner parties and I will be happy to help cook!
3. MENU PLANNING. In order to stay on budget and not eat peanut butter and jelly for the next month I am going to do even more menu planning and spend some time cooking big batches of things that can be frozen/reheated. I have created a Pinterest Board and as I find recipes I like I will be adding them. There are already a few I know I will be using pinned.
So I have about 24 more hours to get everything ready? For those of you joining me- are you ready?
Have no clue what I’m talking about? Check it all out here!
[…] I have always found that when it comes to making financial decisions I do best when I go big. Cutting up the credit card was better than putting it away somewhere and the same principal applies here. So for November I will not be eating out except for business purposes and I have given myself a $100 budget for groceries. […]