Grocery Budget Update

On Monday I blogged about what it was like living on a tight grocery budget. On Tuesday I told you how I was managing my meals with what I had bought, along with a recipe for Homemade Soft White Rolls. On Wednesday told you all how NOT to go shopping.

Today is Friday; a week since I last took out money for the shopping and I figure it’s about time I gave you a grocery budget update.

The easiest way to show you how I got on is to put it into a table format. When I started out budgeting like this a couple of years ago I would put my spending into a notebook everyday and then transcribe it to a spreadsheet to try to monitor what I was up to. Now there’s no need because it’s become second nature.  If you’re at the start of a budgeting journey, or if you’re trying to figure out where you’re going wrong then get a pen and paper and track what you spend everyday.

Like I mentioned on Wednesday I had to get milk (it cost me €1.49 for 2L own brand in the local supermarket). I also picked up a multi-bag of healthy snacks for the boys.

Wednesday’s dinner was a chicken and broccoli bake with potatoes. Thursday’s dinner was sausages with root vegetable mash and homemade baked beans. We have eaten extremely well, although some of my store cupboard items are now running low, I should be able to stock up on these over the weekend.

I went to bed last night with the bones of €8 (€7.97 see above) in my purse.

Today we had to get some prescriptions. Each item dispensed on the medical card costs €1.50 and today we needed 4, costing €6.

We dropped into the supermarket and I picked up 2 bunches of rhubarb and a head of broccoli on a combination special for €2.

My remaining balance from last night was gone.

I withdrew the grocery budget for this week and the cycle started again.

If you’re interested, I spoke on the Call Cooney Show on Dublin’s Q102 yesterday evening about what it was like living on a budget and why I blog about it.  You will need to fast forward to approximately the 27th minute to hear what I have to say. To play/download the MP3 to your device just click here.

So there you go.

THIS is what Wholesome Ireland is all about. Eating well on a budget. Parenting, organising, nourishing our family the best we can with what we have.