Grocery Game: I Declare VICTORY!

When we last spoke on this subject, I was bound and determined to keep my household and grocery budget to $400 for every month in 2018. In January, belt tightening was heightened so I skimmed it down to $350. I missed the mark, but decided s at least $24.50 was stockpiled so could count against February, giving me a starting goal of $375.50 for February. We made it! We spent a grand total of  $352.90. I'm amazed. We did not eat supper out at all. We picked up one Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza. with a coupon. We did have the regular show choir weekends, DH had a couple lunches with friends, his mom, and stopped for food when he went to the cabin and I met the volleyball girls one night. I did purchase about $17 of desk snacks so should count them, but won't. That's a business expense and saves me from hitting the vending machine on truly aggravating days. I packed lunch every day except once when I stopped for a Subway salad-even the day when I was at a training, eating my leftovers from the volleyball girls dinner. 

We did not do without proper meals, except when we chose to just throw a frozen pizza in or eat Olympic night snacking food. I need to remember that February is a short month, so I shouldn't expect we can achieve being $22 below budget each month, but good to know we can reign in stupid spending. We ate a fair number of plant based meal such as soups, curry, and pasta dishes. I think DH might be craving more meat based meals, so I need to think through March so I don't end up with a revolt. It was a ridiculously snowy month, particularly on weekends, so going out for dinner was not an appealing event, but with hopefully the spring thaw, we will want to be out and about again. I'll need to be careful not to substitute meals out for home cooked meals too often. 

My strategies for March are to get optimal value for our money. This means cooking more, double batching when possible,buying household goods when they are on sale-prorating to future months if I do any stock piling, and making sure I have at least one meat and potato hearty meal a week. I want to make sure there is always a steady supply of healthy snacks like fruit, hummus and pretzels or veggies, and popcorn, but again a few indulgences like ice cream to keep the family members happy. Do you have budget targets of your H&G? What are your tips for meeting your goal? Do you prorate stock pile items to spread out over time, or keep to what was purchased in each month? It is a nerdy and interesting topic for me. .