And we’re off…
Divide $1,200 by 52 weeks and your looking at a budget of $23.07 a week.
Which works out to be $5.76 per person a week.
or
.82 cents a day per person.
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Every Saturday I will put our family’s allotted $23.07 in my wallet (since I buy 99% of the groceries). Any money left over at the end of the week will go towards the Seeds & Restaurant Fund… My goal is take as many pictures along the way as I can.
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There is only 1 foreseen & unpredictable variable in this whole great frugal adventure of mine…
The Handsome Husband…
He has been known… on occasion… to wander into Fred Meyer’s Grocery Store … and come home with an 8 piece fried chicken meal… or to take Monkey Boy to Costco and eat those disgusting polish hot dogs…or worse yet… Mc Donalds.
The only thing I can think of to do is…
Keep him well fed…
I need to have plenty of Man Snacks in the house for him to much on.
If you have any other idea’s on how to stifle his irrational spending…
Please let me know.
I think the hardest part (for me) of my self imposed challenge will be trying to figure out how to get fresh fruit, vegetables you know… “real food” into my $100 a month budget.
Junk food, soda, milk, toiletries… piece of cake.
But REAL FOOD… that’s a tricky one.
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I’m curious to see if we’ll be living off beans & rice…
Gain 10,005 lbs from all the FREE processed food…
Or…
Actually learn to eat healthier on such a tiny budget.
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Here are the Ground Rules:
#1 Our out of pocket budget is $1,200 for the ENTIRE YEAR!
And YES… that includes take out or restaurant food…
which is a scary thought.
#2 If I can earn FREE money via Swagbucks, Collecting Cans, Finding Loose Change in Parking Lots, Yodeling on a Street Corner… whatever… if I happen across FREE MONEY … I can use it to buy food. The whole idea is to show people how to budget and plan ahead so they don’t need to shell out bookoo bucks month after month on food & toiletries… and to maybe show you how to find a little “free money” along the way.
#3 Food purchased or consumed on vacation does not count… Why? Because we have a vacation fund… and when we go on vacation we travel on a budget (just like at home) and all vacation expenses come from that “fund”.
#4 Starting off the year with zero food on the shelves or in the freezer didn’t make sense to me… I strongly believe everyone should have some sort of “food storage” and I’m convinced… that by the end of 2011… we will have just as much food on the shelves and in the freezer… if not more.
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That’s it.
Any concerns or comments?
Care to cast your vote?
Do you think we will make it an entire year on $1,200 out of pocket?
Could YOUR family make it an entire year on only $1,200?
Let the fun begin…
*One last thing… I want to make it clear that I’m not doing this out of necessity… but rather as a huge challenge for my family. I hate wasting money… and I see people throwing money away on food (and a lot of other things) every single day… and for some reason… it bothers me.
The way I see it…
Why waste the money you worked so hard to earn?
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