Drumroll...

It’s the third of December.  Can you believe that?  This year flew by!  At the beginning of the year, I embarked on a $100/month challenge for grocery spending throughout 2014.  Early in the year, we decided to join a CSA, which spent about half of that budget, and we also brought our daughter home in June, giving us another mouth to feed…and that girl can eat!  In case anyone is wondering how we fared, here’s the summary:

I spent $1065 on food from from the grocery store from January to December.  That puts me at $135 under my budget.

Our CSA cost us $580 for about 18 weeks of produce (we split the CSA with my sister’s family, otherwise that cost would have been double for double the produce). 

So the total per month ended up at $137.08, and you know what?  I will take that! 

To be completely transparent, I will mention the cost of my husband’s hunting expenses and the produce I bought for canning, which was about $800 total.  My husband brought home two deer, and will hopefully get an elk and salmon before the season is done.  I also got to go on a salmon fishing trip, which was a gift from my dad.  That trip provided us most of the salmon we will need for 2015.  So we have a stocked pantry of produce and enough meat and fish for the upcoming year included in that number.  I hesitate to add this to my 2014 total because about 90% of that food will be consumed in next year, but hey, we spent it so I should at least explain, and you can add it in where you see fit.  

Here’s what I learned after this challenge:

Our most expensive item turned out to be our organic non-dairy milk.  Since our daughter came home, (aaaaaand since I discovered hazelnut milk in my morning coffee ;)) that has taken about 30% of our spending. 

Our pantry is still stocked!!  We could probably do zero shopping for several months and be totally fine on food.  I just love fresh produce way too much to do that. 

I probably won’t do this budget again, and I don't think I will do once-a-month shopping every month either.  There are two reasons for this.  First, we want to eat as close to 100% organic and local as we can.  That means spending more on higher quality foods, which will raise the total cost.  I do mostly organic/local foods now, but not all of them, so I’d like to make that change.  Second, I actually really enjoy going to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s and picking out my fresh produce every week or two.  It gives me inspiration and I don’t have to worry about the food going bad by the end of the month.  So while we are not members of a CSA, grocery shopping will probably occur a couple times a month, and that’s okay with me.  

Lastly, I have been reading some really amazing books lately about cooking, and I have learned that scratch cooking with simple ingredients packs so much more flavor and nutritional value if the ingredients are of higher quality.  So there may be a few things that we opt to spend more on, like olive oil, vinegars, spices, eggs, flours and sugars, coffee and tea, and fresh herbs to name a few.  So if paying higher prices means enjoying our food more, then that’s what we will do.

Now we are off to the beach for a birthday celebration with family for the rest of the week, where we will be blissfully unplugged until we return (hence, the early post today).  I hope you have a great week, and thank you for going on this food/budgeting journey with me!