More Grocery Budget Reduction

root crops from my garden

Just a small review of the marvelous shrinking grocery budget. You can read more about the beginning of this Here and Here. So what happened in February? I only spent $144.17 for the month. And I still have half the giant package of pork chops I bought on sale along with a bag of chicken breasts ;-). Most of what's been happening is that the weather has been warmer than usual and the garden is really beginning to take off. While the harvest is nothing like what it will be during the warmest months, it's been enough to keep me in two large salads a day, along with greens for cooking, a bit of broccoli and some root crops like turnips and carrots. You can see lots more about my garden at the Edible Garden Blog.

And we're almost two weeks into March and I've only spent $47.92 so far. What did I buy? Two pounds of sharp Tillamook cheese (on sale for the same price as the cheap store brand), some marinated olives, (which I put on my salads instead of dressing), coffee, tea, (both on sale), a couple of onions, a bag of organic corn chips, a couple of sweet potatoes, and a few grapefruit. If I'm careful the cheese and olives will last for two weeks of salads, the tea and coffee a month or more. The other things, who knows, just depends on when I have a whim to eat them.

I've still got some chicken and rabbit in the freezer and most of my five pound bag of pinto beans. Which reminds me, I should cook some up this week on my days off. I also have a few more apples left from the huge boxful I bought last month from Bountiful Baskets. Of course February only had 29 days in it and March has 31, and I've eaten up some more of my stored food. So wondering how low will March's total be? Probably depends on the weather and the garden.