Midway Through My November Grocery Challenge

I decided a few months back  to focus on my annual spending and as I head into 2019, I'll have a clearer starting point. Ideally that will be a target of $5,000 for all food consumed at home and packed for lunches, household cleaning and paper consumables, and personal supplies. DD2 usually eats school lunch so that is not included. The yearly target will be to help my mindset. I'll better take advantage of loss leaders and stocking up, but also give myself some flexibility to tighten the reins periodically if we have a particularly tight cash flow need. Because I'm late doing this type of planning for 2018, I my target was to come in at $400 or less per month. I pushed myself in October and ended with a $12 carry over to November. With both November and December being extra food months, that $12 will come in handy. While I do incorporate Christmas baking and food I make as gifts, and special splurges like the hot beef for Christmas day and delicious ham for Christmas eve, into my Christmas budget, there still are leaks with bringing things for potlucks, extra kids around during the school days off.

We are into the second half of November and my total spend so far is ($342 leaving me with $58) DH had a rogue shop as he was in the mood for hamburgers and French Fries on Thursday, and spent $31, but I now have a couple bags of fries plus a shelf full of canned soup. I was a guilty party as well, bringing home frozen pizza on Wednesday after a funeral as I had a headache and it was getting late. With extra spending for Thanksgiving this weekend, I'm not confident this is doable as at least $40 needs to go towards stuff for my Thanksgiving contributions, but I'm hoping what I am bringing will match the store specials. I need baking soda and eggs, plus should have at least one box of cereal for quick breakfasts for my daughter. of course-more bread, but I am going to try to be super creative and will post my plan tomorrow. We don't need any household or personal care items, so the balance is all for food.  I don't want to tap into that $12 carry forward from October, as I wanted that to be well positioned well for December. I spent $42 on toilet paper , so I could prorate towards December and January, crediting myself $20 back  I'll just see though where I end up, knowing in 2019 I'm going for a yearly spending target. Strategies for the rest of the month are the following. 

• I made soup twice-really big batches, and have 8 cups of both frozen in the freezer. Two meals are ready.
• I'll plan animal proteins in smaller portions into recipes. Conventional wisdom for me used to be 1 pound of hamburger per recipe. Instead, I cooked up and stretched out the three pound chub into five meals. I have two portions cooked and ready in the freezer.
• Buy the lowest cost vegetables and incorporate them with higher cost vegetables. Zucchini is getting steep now, but carrots are cheap. I was leaner on my zucchini in my last curry and increased the amount of carrots. I'll make another batch of low cost curry.
• Separating lunch portions on the front end of the meal and popping into the freezer. Besides the time savings, I love having an instant lunch practically for nothing compared to a frozen microwave ready meal. 
• While I wasn't completely successful, trying to only use convenience foods truly when we are short to time or for DD2, a treat. I think of using boxed potatoes and ready made cordon bleu on the night of her concert, and taquitos when our schedules just didn't mesh, but  I roasted a whole chicken and peeled 29 cents a pound potatoes on another night. 
• Evaluating if clothes need to be washed or another wear is fine. Actually measuring laundry detergent, dish soap, and washing liquid instead of mindlessly pouring or squirting. 
• Using up products to the very end before replacing or opening the new package. Deodorant is an example of this. DD2 has multiple deodorants with some in each. Why she has so many, is she kept opening new ones. Guess who is going to use up the old before I buy more?

These align with my post last week Things to Save that I Take for Granted when it comes to food and household items. I guess I am trying to prove to myself that I have bad habits and I can reap a lot of rewards by changing them. Today will be a leftover day, and I may not leave the house. I've had the start of a cold and would like to feel well for the holiday week ahead. I had my Mom's of Teens Night out last night, and my opened bottle of wine still has a couple glasses, which I will have tonight while watching a movie with DH. Yes I corked it as open bottles at a music academy is probably not a great thing to leave behind. This month truly is a grocery challenge.