So exciting!  The first week of Project: Food Budget 2.0 has arrived.  The project is a year-long commitment, so I  imagine that I’ll spend the first few weeks collecting information about our family’s  eating habits and spending  habits.  I am realizing already that this challenge is going to push me out of my comfort zone.  One’s food choices are very personal, and  financial matters are usually private.  Well, I’m sharing my food choices and our money choices right here on the internet.

I’m feeding two adults and two children.  In several months, I will also been adding fresh foods for our baby.  We currently  have $600 in the monthly budget for food.  That includes eating out.  My goal is to decrease that amount to $400 per month by the end of the 52 week project.  In the past, we had eating out under our “fun” budget, but we always broke that category, so we’ve made a change to the way in which we account for eating in restaurants.

Here is this week’s dinner menu:

Monday – fish with a broccoli dish with lemon, walnuts, and parmesan  cheese  (Everyday FOOD, October 2011)

Tuesday – Sloppy Joes with sweet potato fries

Wednesday – {church meal}
Cost: $8.00

Thursday – spaghetti with “Super Veggie” sauce

Friday – BBQ chicken pizza with fruit

Saturday – chicken & squash dish  (Everyday  FOOD, October 2011)

Sunday – {church potluck}  We’re bringing a creamy pasta salad with ham and peas.

I went grocery shopping on Monday.   I had a list of ingredients for the dinners and odds & ends for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  My purchases came to $130.  I was aiming for $100, so I was kind of bummed by the total.  Where did the extra spending happen?  I have a good excuse!  About $8.00 was spent on  materials for J’s school project.  We had to make a triple batch of orange play dough for his preschool class.  For the play dough, we purchased a bag of  flour, a package of food coloring, and cream of tartar.  I don’t even know what cream of tartar is!  Since we moved, we have to buy lots  of ingredients that would normally be already in our pantry.  Eventually, we will build up our “must haves” again.

The Wednesday night dinner at church is a big help.  I never have to plan a Wednesday meal.  How nice. The meal includes a hot dinner for $3.00/adult.  Pizza is available for $1.00/slice.  This week we spent $8.00.  Sunday’s potluck is also a help on the budget since we are only responsible for the salad.   Plus, it’s a wonderful chance to make friends in our new community.

TOTAL: $138 (Groceries + Wednesday)

Week One down!

Let’s see how our friends are doing:

The participating blogs (so far):

• Emily
  Levenson
• Dairy-Free
  Cooking
• Test Kitchen Tuesday
• Red Pen Mama
• Acquired Tastes
• Fit Flexitarian
• Warm As Pie
• Katy Rank Lev
• My Inner Healthy
• Little Blue Hen
• xox,
  b
• What da
  Health?
• Project Food Budget
  2.0
• Ignition
  Nutrition
• A Nice Heart and a
  White Suit