It’s taken me weeks to work up the courage to write this post. But I finally decided the day had come… and I’m going to press publish on this, even if it means that some people don’t understand or are disappointed with me.
You see, for years, our family has been known by the fact that we have a really, really low grocery budget. In fact, this site started as an outgrowth of people’s interest in how we’ve kept our grocery budget so, so low.
The Lean Law School Years
I will never forget our lean law school years when we didn’t have more than $17 to $30 per week to spend on groceries, when we had to just drum up the best meals we could with what was on a great sale and what I could get for pennies with coupons, when we had many meatless meals because we couldn’t afford to purchase more than a pound or two of meat each week, when we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every single day for lunch for weeks and weeks on end.
It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t easy. But it was worth it.
Those short-term sacrifices eventually paid off into many long-term benefits. One of which was putting us in a position where we had the wiggle room to raise our grocery budget.
After my husband finished law school and our income had significantly increased, we toyed a lot with raising our grocery budget. And we did raise it a little — first to $40 per week and then, a little while later, up to $50 per week.
I Just Couldn’t Bring Myself to Spend More Than $50
I just couldn’t bring myself to spend more than $50 per week for groceries, though. {Note: The $50/week number was a little ambiguous because we do get free samples, review products, and high-value coupons from companies on a fairly regular basis because I’m a blogger. It was also a bit skewed because we buy some of our groceries with Amazon credit from Swagbucks. But for the past few years, we only spent $50 cash at the grocery store each week.}
After we moved to TN and we made the transition to Jesse being home full-time, I began noticing that $50 per week just didn’t seem to be cutting it. Not only has our family significantly changed our eating habits, but Jesse is no longer eating out each day for lunch. Plus, he is doing intense workouts three time per week and our kids are growing and have sports activities multiple times each week. Needless to say, we just seem to be going through a lot more food.
As Jesse has become a lot more interested in health and fitness, he’s also been doing a lot more of the cooking and he’s been loving trying out new and healthful recipes. He started wanting to spend more at the grocery store to purchase ingredients for different recipes he wanted to try.
Why I Was So Stubborn
In all honesty, I really didn’t want to raise our grocery budget any more. Why? Well, mostly because I felt like I owed it to you all for us to keep our grocery budget really, really low. I felt like I was being a fraud if I have a site called “MoneySavingMom.com” but didn’t also have some insanely low grocery budget.
So I kept saying “No, let’s just try to make $50 work.” I tried to get more creative. I tried to really look for bulk deals and local sales. I tried to think of new ways to stretch that money further.
It wasn’t working, but I kept being stubborn about it for a few more weeks. I didn’t want to let you all down. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. And, to be perfectly honest, I know there was a part of me that prided myself in the low, low grocery budget we’ve kept for so long.
But I finally realized how silly I was being. In the name of not letting my readers down, I was making life difficult for my husband and kids.
Family Comes First — Or Do They?
I’ve always said that my family comes first. That all blogging decisions will be made first and foremost on what is best for my family. That I won’t let the blog trump my family.
Clearly, I was forgetting this mantra. And I finally woke up and realized I just needed to let go of my arrogance and stubbornness, admit that it was time for a change, and be free from guilt over it.
While this was happening with me, Jesse had been researching different meal plans online and he came across a site called MealFit that offers meal planning specifically for people who want to eat healthfully and live a fit lifestyle. I was really reluctant to pay for this service. It seemed extravagant, costly, and nothing that was in line with my usually frugal ways.
Handing Over the Grocery Budget
At the same time, though, I could tell that Jesse really, really loved the idea. So I did something very uncharacteristic: I handed the grocery budget over to my husband and told him he could decide on what amount seemed best.
We paid for a short-term subscription to MealFit and shopped almost entirely according to their weekly grocery lists. I thought that eating according to the MealFit menu plan was going to massively increase our grocery budget, but I knew that we’d recently trimmed our budget in some other areas by at least $90, so I was willing to try it out and just see what would happen if we shopped and cooked according to the MealFit plan.
It was really hard for me for the first few weeks, but I could tell that Jesse was loving it and I enjoyed almost every single one of the MealFit recipes. They are packed with flavor and nutrition and there have only been a few duds or ones that we didn’t love.
Yes, We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget
After about 4 weeks of experimenting, we realized that, yes, shopping and cooking according to the MealFit menu plan did increase our budget — but not to a crazy high number like I was expecting. We’re averaging around $130 per week now for groceries for the five of us, including the cost of the MealFit subscription.
This is more than double what we were budgeting before, but it’s nowhere near the $250 or so that I’d initially pictured it might be. More importantly, my family is eating healthfully and my husband is much happier. He’s made many, many hard sacrifices over the years to allow us to stay out of debt and save aggressively and I’m so happy that he can now reap some of the fruit of that sacrifice.
So there you have it: the completely honest truth on why we raised our grocery budget. I have a feeling some readers will be disappointed and upset with me. And that’s the hardest part about me writing and putting this kind of post out there. I don’t want to disappoint people, but I also want to be authentic.
No matter what you think of me after reading this post, I hope you know how much I appreciate you being on this journey with me. My heart hurts for you if you’re in a season where you don’t have any wiggle room in your budget. Please don’t give up! I truly believe that someday soon, those short-term sacrifices will pay off in big ways.
Win a FREE 3-month subscription to MealFit!
The folks at MealFit contacted us recently and asked if we’d be interested in doing a giveaway of their menu-planning services on my blog. I was hesitant because it’s rather expensive, but I thought that some of you who are at a place where you have more wiggle room in your budget and are really focusing on health and fitness might find it to be a worthwhile option.
MealFit is monthly meal-planning service that includes menus built upon paleo, primal, and southern-style cooking. The basic principle of these recipes is that when you limit your high glycemic carbohydrates and use low-glycemic carbohydrates and fat as your energy sources, you will perform, look, and feel better.
The MealFit service is designed for busy people who want to eat healthfully and stay fit, but don’t have the time, desire, and/or energy to plan out menus for the week. This service gives you five dinner meals/recipes per week, plus breakfast and snack ideas. Lunches are also included because you are using your leftovers from the previous night's dinner, therefore saving money.
Each week, you’ll receive the recipes plus a complete grocery list with quantities for everything you will need for the upcoming week's recipes, saving you time making a menu plan and grocery list. We also love that there are usually at least a few recipes each week that can be made in the Crock-Pot — allowing dinner to be started and prepped early in the day!
To enter to win a free subscription to MealFit, just click on the graphic below and type in your name and email address. Five winners will receive a free 3-month Silver Package to MealFit. Winners will be chosen and posted early next week. This giveaway ends Saturday, October 4, 2014.
P.S. By the way, I received no compensation for writing this article or this review. We have paid for the MealFit menu-planning service out of pocket and plan to continue doing so. I just wanted you to know that this was not my typical product review where I received a product in exchange for an honest review.
photo credit; photo credit; photo credit
My husband is out of town for half of the week so I’m doing a simple menu based off of stuff in our pantry and refrigerator. We have quite a few random fruits and veggies in our refrigerator that I will be using up. I took this opportunity to buy a few fun snack items and stock up on cheese.
Dillons
2 Barbara’s Cereal – $2.50 each, used $1.25/1 and $1.50/1 printable - $1.12 each after coupons
1 Yoplait Go-Gurt – $2.79 (My son has been begging me to buy this for weeks now. He was beyond thrilled with this surprise!)
1 Kroger Frozen Orange Juice – $1.59
1 dozen Dillons Eggs – $0.99
Bananas – $1.06
1 Kroger Bath Tissue (12 double rolls) – Marked down to $3.99
1 Green Leaf Lettuce – $0.99
2 Sierra Mist – $1, used $1/2 printable - $0.50 each after coupon
1 gallon Milk – $2.50, used $0.25 Ibotta rebate - $2.25
1 pkg Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs – $3.46
Total with tax ($1.86): $22.48 (And I will get $0.25 back from Ibotta.)
Homeland
We recently moved to a new town and there is a Homeland store nearby. I finally got a chance this week to shop there and was excited about the good deals I got. I will definitely be shopping there more often now. 
2 Horizon Mac & Cheese – $1.25 each, used $1/2 coupon from Summer Mambo Sprouts Savings Booklet (doubled) – $0.25 each after coupon
1 Stayfree Pads – $2.50, used $1/1 printable (doubled) – $0.50 after coupon
1 Pagoda Egg Rolls – $2.50, used $1/1 printable (doubled) – $0.50 after coupon
Buy 10, Get $10 off instantly:
1 Mayo – $2.99, used $0.75/1 printable - $0.49 after coupon and instant savings
9 Kraft Shredded Cheese – $1.49 each after instant savings (I will freeze most of this!)
Total with tax ($1.63): $17.93
Total for both stores: $40.41
Menu Plan for this Week
Breakfasts
Cereal, Fruit Smoothies & Eggs x 2, Toast & Juice, Oatmeal
Lunches
Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Mac & Cheese/Veggies, Tossed Salad, Egg Rolls and Fruit, Leftovers
Dinners
Italian Chicken, Toasted Hamburger Buns (from the freezer), Tossed Salad, Steamed Carrots
Spaghetti, Green Beans, Tossed Salad
Tacos, Rice, Sliced Oranges/Apples
Pancakes, Eggs, Homemade Applesauce
Hamburger Vegetable Soup, Crackers/Cheese, Peaches (from my canning)
Venison Roast, 30 Minute Rolls, Steamed Broccoli
Dinner with friends
