How Low Can You Go?????
With the holidays approaching and the need to find extra funds to purchase gifts I’m going to ratchet down my grocery budget for November. I’m aiming to keep my spending at $250 for the entire month and divert the extra funds towards holiday gift shopping. The key to making this work is to not increase other areas of spending – especially the eating out/takeout categories. We won’t be hosting Thanksgiving either so that will be a cost savings as well. We will be away on vacation for a week over Thanksgiving so I do anticipate extra miscellaneous spending. I’m hoping to accommodate some of the extra vacation spending by selling off some items on eBay and Craigslist. I already have a few items posted and will be gathering more to list this weekend.
We just got a BJ’s Club Membership and my first shopping trip of the month is going to be at BJ’s. My plan is to go on Monday of next week. What I didn’t realize before is that BJ’s offers club coupons every month that can be stacked with manufacturers coupons. I have a price list of my regular purchases that I will bring and I did take some notes when we were there on some prices I felt were better than the supermarkets I frequent.
Prior to my shopping trip I want to inventory my pantry and freezer. Then I’m going to make a list of meals that I can prepare for the month using what I have and noting what I need to purchase. I did a good job stocking up this month, and while I want to minimize my spending I also don’t want to deplete my whole stockpile and have to re-stock in December at the height of holiday spending.
What does your November grocery budget look like? The next couple months are tough between holiday entertaining and gift purchasing. Do you have any plans or ideas on how to accomplish both goals without busting the bank? I'd love you to share them here!
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