Grocery Challenge

I give in. I can no longer continue to spend my families "someday" vacation money on our weekly groceries. The madness has to stop. It's time I stop acting like I have the money I don't. It's time to get back into "delayed gratification" mode. It's time to get frugal. It's time to get grocery savvy. It's time to slash the budget. It's time to get rid of the junk in the trunk baby! It might even be time for me to begin to cook.

I've been reading all these different blogs and articles about how to feed a family of 5 for under, or close to, a budget of $100 a week. (That's what you get to do when you are home with a sick child AGAIN) The piece I struggle with is it's all crap! Processed, packaged, nutritionally drained CRAP. So, my challenge has a twist. Feed a family of 5, healthy foods with high nutritional content for $125 or less a week.

The healthy requirement will definately present a challenge. I very rarely find coupons for healthy, organic, nutritionally beneficial foods. Let alone just whole and/or raw foods.

I searched the web off and on (have 2 kids with me today) for hours trying to find coupons or savings today for coffee in bulk, produce, organic, natural or simply whole foods. I came up virtually empty handed. I guess it's also time I become a savvy online searcher or find another resource.

It looks like the next step may be to go price some local farmer markets and stands to see how the prices compare to the grocery stores.

To keep myself on track and to share my discoveries AND my disasters, I'll be posting, at minimum, weekly. It should be relatively painless to post weekly as we shop weekly. My challenge is to master this weekly grocery budget within 30 days.

I may even bless you with some pictures of Matt's thrifty creations. In return, I would love to hear your savings secrets, tips for keeping a low budget, or insights on how to find healthy cheap food. Happy shopping!