One Month Challenge

I spent a little money on food again. I spent $2 on a milk shake bringing my food total for the month a little over my $5 goal. I should be able to go the rest of the month without spending anymore money unless I need to buy some more ice cream. I’m still eating only soft foods and ice cream is providing a lot of my calories right now so if I feel like I still need soft food when I finish my ice cream I will buy more. My food total for the month should still be under $10 at the end of the month. More than my goal but a pretty low number nevertheless.

A slight setback on the grocery challenge this week but successful completion is still possible. I slipped up and bought some McDonald’s costing me $3.52 of my $5 budget for the month. I can still make it though. I have another mystery shop next week. I’m going to buy some nongrocery items and use them to offset the cost of milk I’ll have to buy later in the month. I also have a coupon and a gift card that will allow me to get a couple more free meals. I haven’t eaten much the last couple days due to my oral surgery. I’m getting bored with the soft food but my mouth is still too tender for regular food and I don’t want to take a chance of messing up one of my stitches or releasing a blood clot.

So far the grocery challenge is going well. Of course, this is only the fourth day. I have hit one snag though. The grocery store where I performed the mystery shop only had skim milk in one gallon sizes. I can’t drink a whole gallon of milk before it goes bad so I didn’t purchase any. My new challenge amount will be $5 to allow me to buy a couple half gallons of skim milk over the course of the month.

Just finished my last final yesterday. Should have more time to keep this blog updated now. I’ll be attending the Dave Ramsey event here in Kansas City tomorrow and will have a post about it next week.

After having someone post a link to one of my posts on Frugal Village, I browsed the forums there. I noticed they had a grocery challenge which had a similar concept to the food budget portion of my one month challenge. Since I’ve once again started eating too much and spending too much on food since the challenge ended I’ve decided to start a new one month challenge for May. My one month challenge for May will be to have my total food expenditures total less than $1.

Groceries have been accumulating in my pantry the last couple of months so this will be a good way to use them up. I also have two mystery shops in May that will give me a total of $10 in free groceries that will allow me to supplement my pantry and provide some fresh items.

You might be wondering how I plan on meeting this challenge when I couldn’t meet the $30 goal of the previous challenge. There are several factors that will be working in my favor this time. The biggest is that I know work in a pizza restaurant and will be able to get free food when working there. Also I am getting my wisdom teeth pulled out in May and will probably not feel like eating much for a few days. I may have an opportunity to do some restaraunt mystery shops as well. My plan is to have a weekly posting detailing my results for each week. Check in on Friday for my first report.