Grocery Challenge

My maternity leave income will be ending soon. My hubby took one month of parental leave when our little one was born, which meant I had eleven months leave and I went off a bit early. It was all well and good back at the time, but as the clock ticks away it’s becoming a little scarier. At this point we’ve all agreed we don’t want me going back to my old job, which means we have to get creative. I have the potential of income from a job offered to me by hubby’s mum, but it’s sporadic and she can’t promise me all the hours I need right now.

So on that note, we’re trying to get creative fast.

While we still have the income we’ve been used to over the last while we are starting ourselves on a grocery challenge. We have $450 per month in our budget for groceries. Over the next month we are going to try to use the food in our house and only buy the bare necessities, including fruits and veggies. Then, at the end of the month we’ll take all the money in our budget that usually would have been spent and we’ll set it aside so that when mat leave income ends we have some money to tide us over and don’t see a crazy dip in income. I want to spend $200 or less over the next four weeks, which would "give us" $250. Hmm....

We are perhaps a bit stranger than some as we have a habit of buying in bulk at case-lot sales. Our coat closet holds a few cases of food, and there is a case of peaches and a case of diced tomatoes sitting by our door (there wasn’t room in the closet). We also have a deep freeze which has a fair bit of food in it.

This last weekend hubby and I emptied the deep freeze and the fridge-freezer and then took an inventory of what we had before reloading them both up with a little more order. It looks like we need a few staples in the pantry (like barley), and we may be buying another bag of beans (since they are cheaper than chicken), but the challenge is on: as small of a grocery bill as possible buying only fruits, veggies and bare necessities.

I’m really excited at the challenge, and I suspect that the extra room I end up with in the coat closet will be a great bonus.

How much do you spend on groceries?

Has anyone else tried anything like this before?

Does anyone have any good cheap recipes?