So, I just went through my bank statements for the past month to break down how much money I spent on food. I don’t keep track of what I buy and I should have a better idea of where my money goes. Also, I use my debit card for everything so, I don’t actually see the cash leave me hand.
I went though my grocery store purchases and added them up since the 16th of May. I thought it was going to be worse, but I do see where I can make some improvements. I never make a list to go shopping. Which means I often go to the store 2 days in a row when I forget something I need. Also, I never just get 1 thing at the store. So, even when I stop at the store for the 2nd day in a row I buy more than just the 1 or 2 things I forgot.
Do you budget your food? If so, how?
I also currently own a lot of food. I buy things ahead of time so I will have food on hand. That is good, but I often don’t eat it because I don’t feel like it. While I don’t want to force myself to eat things I don’t want, I also don’t want to waste food because I’m in a mood. I am going to challenge myself not to buy any food until Sunday.
I have a lot of stuff to live off of until then (for example):
– cereals, waffles
– almond milk
– raisins, almond slices
– 1 apple, 1 orange, watermelon, cherries, frozen veggies, salad stuff
– yogurts (about 6)
– bread, ww tortillas
– pb, jelly, veggie burgers, beans
Another reason for doing this is when I recently decided to be animal free for the next 21 days I realized I have a lot of food that contains animal products. I don’t have steaks or anything like that – not my style. But, I do have yogurt, frozen meals, ww buns, vita muffins – all of which have dairy or eggs. I don’t want these things to go bad and be wasted so I am going to use them before I try to live animal free for 3 weeks. I feel like that is the best, most responsible decision. So, for right now the goal is healthy eating, being aware of my hunger/eating and not spending money till Sunday. (I might have to make a trip to the store on Friday or Saturday for meat for the BF, but that doesn’t count.)
Yeah, it is not easy to cut out animal products. I didn’t realize how many of the things I already have contain dairy or eggs! Since I have salad dressings, yogurts and bread that are going to go bad if I ditch them for 3 weeks I’m waiting on the challenge until I finish these things. I don’t want to waste them – that’s not the point of the challenge, right?
I’m normally bad about using up everything before it goes bad, but I am trying to work on it starting now.
Oh yeah, I don’t think soy yogurt is as good as regular yogurt. Boo to that.
Wow, those are quite the challenges, My mom pays for all our food and we don’t really budge but we’re pretty good about using up most of what we buy. Or at least I am. I don’t like wasting food so I base a lot of my meals around what’s sitting in the fridge that needs to be used up.
Good luck with your challenges! Especially the animal free one. I don’t think I could do it. Meat maybe, but dairy? I’m much too attached. Well you know, I could probably just go for, say, soy yogurt. Hm.. now you’ve got me thinking. I might have to challenge myself to that someday. Maybe not 3 weeks, but maybe like a week to start out haha