Budget and Food

Jaron and I started budgeting together in September. One thing we realized is how much we ate out. I know keep track (have a blank calendar and write in) of every meal we eat. We have cut our eating out in half! The other thing we do is grocery shop for a month. What that means is we have a calendar of foods we like to eat and we keep it stocked! We don't have to eat certain foods on certain days, but we know it is there! When I was growing up we had a food calendar and we pretty much ate everything the day it was on the calendar... My dad hated it and my mom loved having a plan! My mom also shopped for 2-3 months at a time! I'm not that organized yet! Plus, we don't have that many recipes!

Our budget looks a whole lot better when we eat at home! We try to eat dinner at home 4 nights a week. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but we love Buffalo Wild Wings and Tuesday is cheap wing night! So then we have Friday night and either Saturday or Sunday night to go out. Sometimes it's 5 nights at home, but it is usually 4! 

If you are like us we always have a staple of Hispanic food! If we don't know what to cook we normally make something Hispanic! We love Hispanic, Italian, and American food. We haven't eaten a lot of Asain food lately, but that is going to change. 

For feeding 2 people we budget $200 for just groceries. That includes lunches! That is less than $2 a meal per person so $4 per couple! That is AWESOME! When we make things that are double recipes we have a Seal-a-Meal and freeze the other to pull out later! I wish I could have figured this all out years ago!

Maybe one day I will be as good as my mom and shop in bulk and get our meals down to a dollar a piece, but not yet!