Week 1 of the $25 Game

Sorry - can't get it turned right!!!

Back from my first $25 grocery trip.
Total: $25.89

Biggest expenses:
2.89 - Milk: $2.89
2. 78 - Hot dogs: $2.78 (thought they were on sale for $1.67 but it didn't ring up that way.  Should have been paying better attention!)
3. 98 - 4 lbs of apples, they were 99 cents a pound.  10 apples
3.50 - yogurt was 50cents each, so I got 7.
2.99 - 4 lb bag of sugar.

Reflections:
There were other things I wanted to get, but didn't because of my limit.  Tuna was 2/$1 and I should have gotten some.  I wanted to get a dozen eggs but didn't have money left.
I probably spent too much on bread.  2 loaves at .98 each and buns and bagels at 1.19 means I spent 1/5th of my budget on bread.

And it was stressful.  I had both boys with me, and Adam threw a fit when I wouldn't buy him a package of muffins in the snack aisle.  We bought muffin mix instead, but even that (1.29) hurt.  I would have rather bought the eggs.

The stress made me crabby, and I snapped at my boys and husband.  I can't imagine how hard it would be to be a loving mom and/or wife if I were constantly dealing with the stress of money issues.  As a teacher, I would sometimes criticize parents because they weren't doing as good a job at parenting as I thought they should.  But the longer I am a mom, the more I realize that everyone has battles that limit their ability to be the best parent they possibly can.  Whether it's money, health problems, an addition, relationship stress...it doesn't matter.  It definitely affects your ability to parent!

I am starting out with a fairly full freezer, fridge and pantry.  Without that, I do NOT know how we would survive on this budget.  Maybe the 4/$10 frozen pizzas they had?  I could have gotten 10 pizzas with my budget - would that feed a family of 4 for a week?  probably not.

And formula, and diapers?  I'm still nursing, mostly, but we do use some formula.  If I had to buy a can of formula, my budget would have been shot.

We also have free turkey.  I prefer to have more variety in meats, but when your budget is this tight, you don't always have a lot of choices.


Last year, when I did the $25/week for 4 weeks, there were only 3 of us, and 2 of us had our lunches outside the house most of the time (me at school, Adam at daycare) so it all feels a little more daunting this time. I did not coupon, or really plan anything this week, but I may have to from now on!