January Challenge: Final Thoughts

Well January seems like the distant past, but I thought I'd recap how our challenge turned out. We ended the month spending about $180, twenty bucks less than our goal. We had the added benefit of holiday leftovers and frozen vegetables which saved us $'s. Here's a few things we learned.

Tiff made roasted salmon, long-grain brown rice and steamed vegetables. Yum!

1. To save money on healthy food, you have to plan ahead. Buying pre-made healthy meals at Earth Fare, Fresh Market, or even Publix is a good way to burn through a grocery budget real fast. To eat organic and local, you have to prepare many months in advance and learn to preserve those items.

2. Freeze everything you know you won't eat the next day. We've learned, if it goes into the fridge and we don't eat it the next day, it will probably go bad because I can't stand to eat the same meal three days in a row. So freeze it and have a nice easy lunch weeks later.

3. Many of us are addicted to our own food cravings. I used to go to Publix almost every day to get that food item I was craving. Being on a very tight budget made me realize how hard it is to deny myself and eat a meal made with things we already had. Having that special item is a great way to treat myself, not a good way to live.

Perhaps the most surprising thing I realized this past month is that with our tight grocery budget, we actually noticed a sharp decrease in spending across the board. We spent less in gas. We spent less shopping. We didn't have any of those "off" budget items. There's a good lesson here that has something to do with being content with what we have and not having to drive all over town spending money on things we don't need.

So this month, we're not doing the $200 grocery thing. But it's very much on our radar to assess what we have on hand and we've learned inexpensive and tasty recipes. Did you try it as well? We'd love to hear anything you might have learned as well.